tools for experience design d.school

Tools for Experience Design d.school

1

The d.school POV


2

What’s the exTools POV?(from the syllabus)

• design and prototype technologies, processes, and products to support the creative work of designers

• uncover user needs through advanced ethnographic methods and develop deep empathy with users throughout the whole design process

• create innovative solutions with compelling stories and appropriately relevant technologies.

• develop and reflect on experiential prototypes and gain experience with video prototyping

• work intimately with an experience design team from a wide variety of potential sites including IDEO, Google, SFMOMA, eBAy, Apple, Design that Matters, etc.

• gain deeper expertise in the design process driven by empathic understanding, interdisciplinary teams, and tackling complex problems


3

What’s the exTools POV?

• Learn through working on real problems

• Deepen understanding of empathy in design

• Learn and develop new forms of prototyping, emphasizing experience


4

ExTools Vision 1.0Each team will conduct observation and needfinding

with designers at a real-world site. Based on observed needs, they will identify opportunities for a novel technology that radically advances the possibilities for all kinds of designers to employ empathy in the design process. They will develop multiple prototypes of this tool and of the experience it creates, get extensive real-world feedback on those prototypes, and demonstrate the practical feasibility and acceptance of their tool by designers at their site, leading to eventual adoption by them and by the d.school Human Values Lab.


5

Vision 1.0

Each team will also walk on

water, bring world peace,

and leap tall buildings with

a single bound.


6

Questions about the Vision• How does the project deal with empathy?

• What is the role of technology?

• How does it affect the larger design world?

• How practical does it have to be currently?

• What kinds of prototyping can be done?

• How far does the concept need to be developed?

• What is our responsibility to the site?


7

How does the project deal with empathy?

• We want the theme of empathy to be a backdrop for your thinking, and the processes you apply.

• Not every site or creative opportunity deals with this specific dimension of design.

• It is fine for projects to end up dealing with other parts/aspects of the design process, if that reflects the needs you discovered.

• You will show us how the theme of empathy was relevant to your project/process in the final presentation.


8

What is the role of technology?

• One of our interests in this course was that it would produce valuable new tools (which generally means technologies)

• In some cases, your proposed innovation for design, may be in practices, without a technological focus.

• This is fine as long as you can create and test meaningful prototypes (i.e., it isn’t just a viewpoint and bunch of discussion)


9

How does it affect the larger design world?

• We believe that you can come up with ideas that will really change the way things are done.

• Your site may have specific relatively incremental needs that they would like you to satisfy.

• In general, swing for the fence. Your primary responsibility is to maximize your learning within the larger goals of the course. You can be respectful of their desires and also try to think more expansively. p.s. We’ll be sharing these slides with

the site contacts


10

How practical does it have to be currently?

• Many innovative designs aren’t ready for commercial feasibility. Costs are high, infrastructure isn’t sufficiently available, etc.

• This course (unlike the one on radical affordability) doesn’t emphasize the practicality issues. We aren’t asking for business plans. On the other hand we want real potential designs, not pie in the sky.

• In your presentation, indicate the future trends and projections that will make your design feasible in a foreseeable future.


11

What kinds of prototyping can be done?

• Some kinds of tools have very concrete prototypes in the style of interaction design. Others (especially if the innovations are in practice) are less tangible.

• We have had the workshop on experience prototypes and will have a day on video prototypes. These can be applied to projects for which they are appropriate.

• A successful prototype needs to embody some key aspect of the product, and to make it visible for users who can give meaningful feedback on it.

• You need to get feedback on the prototypes from people with relevant understanding and experience, but it need not be your site, if that doesn’t work out well. Be creative in finding alternatives.


12

How far does the concept need to be developed?

• If time and resources were unlimited, we’d like to see every project go through to the point where it would convince a backer to provide the resources to take it out into the world.

• Given the time constraints of the course, many parts of this development will have to be sketched rather than completed.

• Your presentation should convey a convincing story of the full design and production cycle of your concept, where some parts are more fleshed out in what you have done.


13

What is our responsibility to our site?• Sites have been generous with their time and effort to help

you learn. At the same time, they are “partner” sites, not clients in the conventional sense. We have not promised them specific deliverables.

• Some teams aren't getting adequate access to designers in their sites to get visibility into the designers' processes, so you will need to expand your "empathy building" to other designers.

• Be empathetic about how they view you and what your activities mean to them.

• In the end you need to satisfy yourselves and the teaching team that you have dealt with real needs in a design process, not necessarily filled some specific request of the site.

• Offer to make a presentation to them of what you came up with, in addition to inviting them to the final presentation.


14

Design Process

OBSERVE

VISUALIZE

PROTOTYPEEVALUATE

UNDERSTAND IMPLEMENT

Youare

here


15

Timeline for the Rest of the Quarter• 5/1[This week]: Visualize – Develop point of

view

• 5/8: Prototype – Develop trial prototype, test with team, designer friends

• 5/15: Cycle – Develop “first” prototype, test with primary users, re-visualize

• 5/22: Cycle – Develop “final” prototype, test with users

• 5/29: Analyze results, design your story and presentation

• 6/5: PresentationsYour mileage may vary, as long as you reach the finish line on the 5th

tools for experience design d.school

Documents

design process

design learnand

design feasible

syllabus design

experience design team

larger design world

specific dimension of

experience prototypes