Design Studio

Christopher McCann

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 What is Design Thinking ?

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Wednesday 16 July 14
 4 Elements to Design Thinking
Empathy through research – ‘who’

Framing the problem- ‘what’

Generative Ideation – ‘how’

Prototyping & validation – ‘test’

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 The alternative …
We have this problem, lets jump in and
brainstorm a solution.

We have a new technology, what can we

possibly use it for?

Our competitors just launched X; how

quickly can we also do X?
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 Collaboration Design
Most successful designs are created collaboratively

Most designs are a mixture of from multiple ideas.

Solutions are generated, analyzed and iterated upon or

eliminated.

Not just facilitators. Designers/Developers must be

present and participate.
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 What is Design Studio ?

A way to generate many ideas and solutions to

a problem quickly through sketching,
iteration, and critique.

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 Generative
Ideation

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 DIVERGE CONVERGE

Create Make
Choices Choices

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 The Balanced Team

UX Dev

PM

Best results are achieved when all roles are represented

‘The Balanced Team’
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 Sketch. Pitch. Critique.

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 Origins - The Charrette - ‘Crit’
Industrial Design, Architecture, Art Education

Students are given an assignment (problem/goals)

Students generate multiple ideas in a very short time.

Work is critiqued by instructor and their classmates.

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 Advantages
Creates a shared understanding & ownership

Speed - Many ideas generated in a short time

Builds upon other good ideas

Brings entire team together - allows participants to

understand other roles perspectives
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 Done before the session
Summarize Research

Persona Development

User Story (may need to be reduced in

scope)

User Scenarios

Design Guidelines
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Wednesday 16 July 14
 Sketch. Pitch. Critique.

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 Iteration One
1. Create your 6- up

2. Sketch multiple solutions.

3. Concentrate on generating ideas in rough form.

4. After sketching, ideas are presented for Critique

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 Sketching
Square, triangle, circle, line

just enough to communicate idea

Does this solve the problem outlined ?

More from presentation / critique then sketches

themselves.
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 5
minutes to sketch
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 3
minutes to Pitch
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 2
minutes to critique
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2-3 ways design solves problems
 Critique Rules
Focus how a design does / does not solve design problem
or scenario.

Don’t get hung up on details. Avoid language ‘I like’ or ‘I

don’t like’.

Be Nice.

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 ‘Whenever we propose a solution to a
problem, we ought to try as hard as we
can to overthrow our solution, rather
than defend it .

Few of us, unfortunately, practice this

precept; ...’

- Karl Popper

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 Iteration Two
1. Form groups 2-3 based on design themes

2. Team encouraged to ‘borrow’ ideas from

other designs – stealing is allowed - improve

3. Team spends time refining these ideas.

(7-10)

4. After sketching, team presents ideas for

Critique
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 The Final Review

Discuss and summarize all themes, designs

and components that have emerged.

Discuss any open questions remaining.

Collect all sketches and note open questions.

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 Afterwards
Convert sketches to low-fi digital format.

Review if these meet design goals with team.

Create Prototype (s) if that is needed to verify

design.

‘Wash, rinse and repeat if needed’

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 Warning
Design Studio will NOT
generate the final
solution

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 Further reading on my blog:
www.letterpress.se/?p=1571

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 Many thanks to discussions regarding Design Studio with Will Evans - @sematicwill.

References:
Videos:

Todd Zaki Warfel https://vimeo.com/37861987

Presentations:

Design Studio for Context-Aware Products, Thomas Wendt

Design Studio: A Method for Concepting, Critique & Iteration - Adam Connor, MadPow

Speed Design Studio - Jabe Bloom, TLC Labs

Articles by Will Evans:

Introduction to Design Studio Methodology

Design of Design Studio

Design Studio and Agile UX Process and Pitfalls

Wednesday 16 July 14