+Acumen HCD Workshop 1

Discover

Workshop Guide
THE Design process

discover

ideate

prototype

+Acumen HCD Workshop 2

Table of contents
An important note about Week 2 Discover research During your Week 2 Workshop, you will be conducting human-centered design research in the community. As your team completes Activities 0105 below, you will begin to understand how long Activity 06 "Conduct your Research" might take. Your group should build agreements around how to complete your research before moving on to the Week 3 Ideate stage. We highly recommend that you take more than 2 hours to get out in the community and conduct your research.

Weekly Leader's Guide

Before the Workshop Agenda & Materials

Activities & Discussions

01 02 03 04 05 06 Questions, Comments & Takeaways Choose Your Design Challenge Team Knowledge & Assumptions Plan Your Research Build a Question Guide Conduct Your Research

homework
07 Prepare for Week 3

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Weekly Leader's Guide

Before the Week 2 workshop

CONFIRM that you have a meeting space. PLAN (if possible) to hold the workshop on a weekend and during the daytime. You'll be starting your Discover research during the Week 2 workshop and completing it during the week. As such, it may be easier to schedule a full day of research on the day of your workshop. Alternatively, it might make more sense for your team to conduct a few interviews or observations here and there throughout the week. It is important that your team build agreements around how much research you plan to complete and who will execute each research task before you dive into the Week 3 Ideate phase. As the Weekly Leader you should drive this conversation and make sure people are aware of and comfortable with their assignments before you conclude the Week 2 Workshop. PRINT this Week 2 Workshop Guide. To save paper, it is not required to print the readings. COORDINaTE with your team to bring supplies for the Week 2 workshop activities. A notebook, pens, felt markers, Post-it Notes (or their equivalent), a camera (cellphone cameras are fine) and the printed Week 2 Workshop Guide should be sufficient. LEAD the workshop. This Guide will walk you through facilitating the activities, discussions and assignments for Week 2. You will also want to keep time so that your group makes it through Activities 0105 with plenty of time to get started on your Discover research.

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Weekly Leader's Guide

Agenda 01 Questions, Comments & Takeaways 10 minutes 02 Choose your design challenge 15 minutes 03 Team Knowledge & Assumptions 10 minutes 04 Plan your research 15 minutes 05 Build a question guide 15 minutes Break 5 minutes 06 Conduct your research To be determined by your team 07 Homework: Prepare for Week 3 5 minutes

Materials needed A notebook (or blank paper), pens, felt markers, Post-it Notes (or their equivalent), printed Week 2 Workshop guide, and a camera (cellphone cameras are great)
Weekly Leader's note If your team does not come back together after you've begun conducting your research as part of Activity 06, please make sure the group takes a few minutes to discuss Activity 07 "Homework: Prepare for Week 3" before departing.

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Activity
01
10 minutes

Questions, comments & Takeaways

Congratulations! You've completed Week 1 which introduced you to the human-centered design process. You've also read more in depth about the first phase of the design process in the Week 2 Discover Readings. This Activity 01 is a way for you to reflect on what you've learned, or help clarify questions you might have. Take a few minutes to reflect on the questions below. Then discuss what you are most excited about or interested in with your group.
- Did you see something inspiring another team did on the Google+ Community from Week 1? Would you like to share it with the group? - What were your big takeaways about the Week 2 Discover Readings? Do you have questions? - What discover research methods are you excited to try? Why?

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Activity
02
15 minutes

Choose your Design Challenge

Page 1 of 4

The best way to learn human-centered design is by doing it. So let's get started! After your team has read the instructions listed below, together you will choose ONE design challenge to tackle over the next three weeks of this course (Weeks 2,3 & 4).
an important note about the structure of this course We understand that many teams taking this course have their own design challenges to which they would like to apply the human-centered design process. However, we've structured the next three weeks of this course around the three design challenges below because it is important for your team to have an opportunity to practice the process together and learn from other groups who are working on the same challenges around the world. We encourage each design team to push themselves to discover new solutions to one of the challenges below that are appropriate for your context, and then share these solutions with the broader community taking the course via the Google+ course page. During Week 5 of this course, your design team will have the opportunity to take what you've learned during Weeks 14 and scope a new design challenge aligned with your personal interests and passions.

Follow these instructions in order to choose your design challenge

Individually read through and rate each design challenge
The following pages describe three different design challenges. Read through each challenge and then rate it based upon the criteria listed below the challenge description. Add up the score you've given to each challenge and write that score in the box provided. The design challenge that you've given the highest score may help you align quickly around the challenge you would like to pursue. However, this score does not have to determine how you select your challenge. The score you give each challenge is merely a jumping off point for your team to discuss and decide.

As a group review the scores given to each challenge

Compare the scores that the members of your team have given to each challenge. Which challenge resonates most with people? Where did you agree and where did you not agree? Be sure to ask each other questions about why you rated each challenge a particular way and discover what previous experience people have with the challenge subject. Remember, it's often most effective to learn the human-centered design process via a design challenge that you don't know very much about. This allows you to use your beginner's mind, as opposed to relying too much on your previous conceptions or knowledge about a topic.

Select one design challenge

Collaboration and teamwork are critical to the human-centered design process. For some teams, this decision will be easy. For others, it might be incredibly difficult. Use this exercise as a chance to begin to understand the personalities and work styles in your group. How will you hear each other out? What is the best way to express your opinions? Is it easy to see what each person naturally excels at? How will you nurture your own talents and highlight those of your peers throughout this course? Most importantly, how will you reach consensus?

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Activity
02
15 minutes

Choose your Design Challenge

Page 2 of 4

Challenge

How might we encourage low-income families to save a little more each week?
Access to savings helps to protect against economic volatility caused by events like sickness, job instability, and natural disaster. The act of saving can take on many forms, such as cash savings, investments in assets like a home or a cow, or even building social capital within the community. Personal saving can also take on many structures, both informal and formal. Some examples might include: a savings account with a bank, a mobile money account attached to a cellphone, or an informal savings group organized by mothers in the community. As part of this design challenge, you'll work with your team to design new ways to help low-income families save a little more money each week.

Rate the design challenge, then add up your score

Least Most

Instinctively, how excited are you about this design challenge? What potential for impact in your community does this design challenge have? How feasible is it to tackle this challenge over the next 3 weeks of the course?

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

Total =

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Activity
02
15 minutes

Choose your Design Challenge

Page 3 of 4

Read the below

How might we provide healthier food options for people in need of them?
In many neighborhoods, there is little infrastructure for the distribution and preservation of food. Food is often spoiled or lost during distribution. In other places, healthy food options are simply unavailable or community members lack the knowledge to make healthy food choices. Another constraint is access to capital, both for small businesses providing healthy food and potential customers. As part of this design challenge, you and your team will design solutions for providing healthier food options, which might include providing people with better choices about the food they eat, the skills to cook healthier food, or the knowledge to make healthier food choices.

Rate the design challenge, then add up your score

Least Most

Instinctively, how excited are you about this design challenge? What potential for impact in your community does this design challenge have? How feasible is it to tackle this challenge over the next 3 weeks of the course?

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

Total =

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Activity
02
15 minutes

Choose your Design Challenge

Page 4 of 4

Read the below

How might we enable more young people to become social entrepreneurs?

While more and more youth are interested in social entrepreneurship as a means for tackling some of the worlds toughest challenges, many aspiring social entrepreneurs fail to move beyond the initial idea phase because the infrastructure to support them is lacking. Some young social entrepreneurs are unable to overcome the status quo or family and friends expectations. Others are unable to gain access to networks or mentors that could provide the knowledge and experience to confront major decisions, or help them build resilience in the face of setbacks. As part of this design challenge, youll work with your team to design new systems or strengthen existing programs that cultivate and support social entrepreneurship as a viable career path.

Rate the design challenge, then add up your score

Least Most

Instinctively, how excited are you about this design challenge? What potential for impact in your community does this design challenge have? How feasible is it to tackle this challenge over the next 3 weeks of the course?

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

Total =

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Activity
03
team knowledge & assumptions
10 minutes

Now that you've selected a design challenge, it's time to figure out what you already know (or believe you know) about the challenge. Share what you know and what you would like to know more about
Take five minutes to answer the questions below yourself and then five minutes to discuss your answers with your team. If it's helpful, use Post-it notes to organize your thoughts and look for patterns or overlaps in your team's knowledge base. What are the aspects of the challenge that you already know a lot about? What are your assumptions?

Examples - Many low-income families don't have bank accounts. - I know for a fact that it's impossibe to purchase fresh fruit in my neighborhood.

Where are the aspects of the design challenge where you need to learn more? What don't you know?

Examples - Do people who need healthier food options want to eat healthier? - I don't know the informal savings habits that are already occurring in the community.

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Activity
04
15 minutes

Plan Your Research

Page 1 of 2 The Discover phase requires you to get out there and learn from people in your community. To make the most of your time in the field, youll want to plan who you speak with, where you visit, and the types of Discover research that your team will conduct. A full review of these methods can be found on p. 710 of the Week 2 Discover readings. Review the Discover Research Methods
1 People
Who will you be designing for? Consider both the core audience and the extended community. Imagine a map of all the people who might have something to do with your design challenge. Think of characteristics that would make them interesting to meet. Also consider speaking with users who represent extreme (as opposed to mainstream) viewpoints.

2 Experts
Who are the inspiring researchers or organizations in the space of your design challenge? Successful members of the target population can also be great experts. A telephone or Skype call with experts who aren't local often works very well.

1 4

2 3

3 Immerse Yourself in Context

With a curious mindset, inspiration and new perspectives can be found in many places and without much preparation. Sharpen your skills and get started observing the world around you. Plan your observations by choosing places where you can have experiences that are relevant to your challenge.

4 Analagous Settings
What are the activities, emotions, and behaviors that make up the experience of your challenge? Now select similar scenarios that you would like to observe in places and situations that are different than your design challenge.

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Activity
04
Plan Your Research
Page 2 of 2 Plan who to talk to and where you'll go
Now it's your turn. Work with your design team to write down potential people to speak with and places to visit as part of your Discover research this week. Remember to choose some research targets that will be feasible to accomplish during the second half of this week's workshop.

1 4

2 3
2 Experts to Speak With

1 Community Members to Visit

3 In-Context Immersion Locations

4 Analogous Research Locations

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Activity
05
15 minutes

build a question guide

Now it's time to create a question guide to prepare for your interviews. Make sure to refer back to p.1113 of the Week 2 Readings as you conduct this activity. It's best to create your question guide in teams of 2 or 3 people. You'll likely need more space than this worksheet, so feel free to use your notebook to write down additional questions. Make sure to collect basic demographic information first, then start to build questions following the structure below. Start specific
What are some specific questions you can ask to open the conversation and help people feel comfortable?

Then go broad
What are some questions that can help you start to understand this persons hopes, fears and ambitions?

Examples - What did you and your family eat yesterday? - Describe your last family meal? Who was there? Where did it take place? - Do you have any specific mealtime rituals in your family?

Examples - Draw your dream grocery aisle. What would be on the shelves, in the coolers? - Describe your favorite meal, what do you love about it? - Imagine you can only eat one meal everyday. What would it be and why?

research TIP
To cover the most important topics, try to ask questions that will allow you to learn details related to each of these key categories: Personal details: who are you meeting and what are their demographics (profession, age, location, etc)? Motivations: what do people care about the most? What motivates them? Frustrations: what frustrates him/her? What needs do they have that aren't being met? Interactions: what is interesting about the way he/she interacts with his/her environment?

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Activity
06
There is no set time for this activity. Spend as much time as you can this week.
Page 1 of 5 Now it's time to start your research. Conducting thorough research is extremely important because your activities this week will fuel the next two phases of the human-centered design process.

conduct your Research

Getting the Most out of Research

Agree on the length of your research
Before you start your Discover research, spend a few minutes to build agreements around how much time you will spend researching and who will complete each task before moving on to the Week 3 Ideate stage. We highly recommend that you take more than 2 hours to complete all of your research this week. But we also understand that you have busy lives outside of this course. So try to strike a good balance.

Select roles
As part of your field research, you'll designate one person to lead the conversation. This person should not be the note taker. Select someone else to take notes during the interview. If there is a third member of your interview team, they can focus on observing your interview subject and the surrounding environment. It's often best to build trust with your interview subject before asking to take their photo. Each member of the team should practice different roles.

Divide into research teams

If your group is 2 or 3 people, you should conduct research as a full team. If your group is 4 - 6 people, divide into 2 research teams.

Do quick debriefs
Don't forget to take a few minutes after each interview or field visit to debrief with your teammates and start capturing what you learned. You can do this debrief virtually anywhere (on the sidewalk, in a car, or while riding on the bus). If your research team doesn't plan to return to the workshop venue after you've completed today's research, take a few minutes to review the Activity 07 Prepare for Week 3 Homework materials with your team on p.19.

Select locations to visit

Choose where to go and who you can talk to over the next couple of hours and then throughout the week. You should also think about scheduling expert interviews via Skype, phone calls, or via in-person meetings.

Research reminder The team should try to cover as many of the Discover Research Methods as possible. For a full review of these methods see p. 710 in the Week 2 Discover Readings.

1 4

2 3

1 People 2 Experts 3 Immerse yourself in Context 4 Analogous Settings

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Activity
06
There is no set time for this activity. Spend as much time as you can this week.
Page 2 of 5 Interview community members
Remember to reference the question guide you created. Depending on who you are talking to, you will want to tailor your questions to address this person specifically. Remember to try and interview extreme users as well.

conduct your Research

You can take notes below if you like or use your own notebook:

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Activity
06
There is no set time for this activity. Spend as much time as you can this week.
Page 3 of 5 Interview Experts
Remember to reference the question guide you created. Depending on who you are talking to, you will want to tailor your questions to address this person specifically. Remember, for experts, it's also okay to communicate via telephone or Skype if they aren't readily available in person. You can take notes below if you like or use your own notebook:

conduct your Research

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Activity
06
There is no set time for this activity. Spend as much time as you can this week.
Page 4 of 5 Immerse yourself in context
Visit places, organizations and institutions that you can gather inspiration from. Plan your observations by choosing places where you can have experiences that are relevant to your challenge. Take notes and photos. Capture interesting quotes by talking to people that spend time in these spaces. What do they love? What is frustrating? Draw sketches, plans and layouts. You can take notes below if you like or use your own notebook:

conduct your Research

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Activity
06
There is no set time for this activity. Spend as much time as you can this week.
Page 5 of 5 Conduct analogous research
Visit places and situations that are different than your design challenge. These places should approach an angle of your problem in a unique way. What could you learn from an amusment park about engaging experiences that you could apply to the fruit aisle at a grocery store or waiting in line at a bank to open a new savings account? You can take notes below if you like or use your own notebook:

conduct your Research

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homework
07
5 minutes

preparing for week 3

CHOOSE
the Weekly Leader for next week.

coordinate
with your team to bring supplies for the Week 3 workshop. Post-it Notes or scrap paper and tape, felt pens or Sharpies, blank sheets of paper (notebook size or larger) should be sufficient. Don't forget to bring your notes from this week's Discover research to class next week.

CONFIRM
location & time for Week 3 workshop.

FINISH
conducting your Week 2 Discover research. Make sure you and your team have established a plan for gathering all the information you would like to collect before moving on to Week 3.

Share
your progress, pictures and comments on the Google+ Community under your respective Design Challenge discussion categories. By sharing your learnings and insights on this platform, people all over the world can better understand how each design challenge varies depending on context. You can also get inspiration from each other's projects.

READ
Week 3 Readings in advance of the Week 3 workshop.