yetanothersupernova

[yetanothersupernova]

Empathy

Design thinking is a reiterative and non-linear process (Stevens, 2023) that allows designers to problem-solve in creative ways. It typically consists of 5 stages; ‘empathise’, ‘define’, ‘ideate’, ‘prototype’, and ‘test’, with each phase targeting a specific area of the problem (Interactive Design Foundation, n.d.). This semester, we utilised the design thinking process to deconstruct and find a solution to a solitary wicked problem. Wicked problems are described as complex social issues, typically without a straightforward solution (Ritchey, 2011). We were given a short list of problems to choose from as a group, and we decided on exploring Hendra Virus.

The first several weeks of semester were primarily targeted towards introducing the class to collaborative learning. 

In Week 1, we participated in a silent exercise that assisted our understanding of the design process. Each student was required to illustrate the individual steps of making toast without the use of words or numbers. Once completed, the class split into two groups to reorder each image in silence. It was a simple task, but effective in introducing us to group contribution and separating design into individual stages. 

The second week consisted of randomised group allocation, which was solely based on our degrees, major/s, and skill sets. After the class was separated into groups, I was introduced to my own group members:

Lillian Mackaway

Robert Hall

Katherine Dowd

Astrid Goodley

After our group was assembled, we filled out a contract for collaboration to document each other’s contact details, as well as have an official document to ensure all members were productive and collaborative throughout the semester. Additionally, we set up Microsoft Teams to successfully communicate outside of class. Unfortunately, Katherine left the course in Week 3, and was ultimately replaced by Sean Pobie in Week 4.

During Week 3, the empathise phase of the design process began. We decided on the Hendra Virus WICKED problem, and made quick work of reframing its context to better understand the issue and who it impacts. Most of our initial efforts during class in Week 2 was put into researching hendra virus (HeV) to gain an understanding of where to progress.

Getting used to the group was particularly a challenge. With development in the early stages, most of us had limited input. Each of us had different learning styles, but we determined that open communication was the best way forward to ensure we’re all consistent with our understanding. 

REFERENCES:

Ritchey, T. (2011). Wicked Problems - Social Messes: Decision Support Modelling with Morphological Analysis. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Siang, T. (2009). What is Design Thinking? The Interaction Design Foundation; The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking

Stevens, E. (2023, April 19). The Key Principles and Steps of the Design Thinking Process. Career Foundry. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/design-thinking-process/#:~:text=The%20Design%20Thinking%20process%20can%20be%20divided%20into%20five%20key,Ideate%2C%20Prototype%2C%20and%20Test.

[yetanothersupernova]

Define

The second stage of the design process focusses on defining the problem, and developing human-centred thinking (Brown, 2008). Additionally, the define phase expands on the issue and broadens the parameters of the impact. Hendra Virus is a deadly zoonotic disease that is transmitted from flying foxes to horses, and horses to humans. Our wicked problem presents the issue of low vaccination rates in the Hunter region and presenting a solution to change that outcome.

The next stage of our process was strongly based in defining the issue and our target audience for the prototype. 

The weekly task in our fourth class was to create an empathy map. Empathy maps can be used to gain a deeper insight into the perspective of an individual (Accenture, 2020), and breaking down the problem into sections allowed us to explore a variety of impacts. 

During Week 5, we were introduced to customer journey maps. By creating an identity that relates to the issue (in this case, “Horse Owner Steve”), we were able to understand the problem from a personal perspective. 

During this task, we used the journey map to explore potential solutions:

Medicated horse feed

Inspired by the use of lasalocid sodium in chicken feed to prevent coccidiosis (a fatal intestinal disease in chickens)

Mandatory vaccinations for events

Requiring horse owners to vaccinate their horses before entering them in races or shows.

Both ideas were later debunked with further research. Medicated feed, while an option, would require the use of medication that hasn’t been invented yet. Additionally, informing people of its availability would prove difficult to achieve. Later, we doubted the plausibility of a vaccine mandate. The existing vaccination for hendra virus is primarily to be used in emergency situations instead of widespread use, and requiring owners to give their horses an untrustworthy medication was deemed an improbable solution. After class, Lillian reached out to a horse owner with a survey to grasp their perspective on hendra virus. 

The lecture for week 6 was canceled to allow time to talk with key stakeholders regarding our wicked problem. Both Lillian and Robert spoke with Dr. Joanne Taylor and Dr. Kirrilly Thompson about hendra virus, and took notes to document the process. These notes and research were later utilised for our week 7 presentation to reframe our ideas. 

During presentations in class, I took notes on actions we could take to successfully fit the brief. These notes later aided our layout for our presentation. At this stage in the project development, our group was progressing and working well with each other.

REFERENCES:

Bland, D. (2020, December 21). What is an empathy map? Accenture. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/software-engineering-blog/what-is-an-empathy-map#:~:text=An%20empathy%20map%20is%20a,such%20as%20a%20customer%20segment.

Brown, T. (2008, June). Design Thinking. Harvard Business Review; Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2008/06/design-thinking

[yetanothersupernova]

Ideate

With the finalisation of our empathise and refinement stages, we quickly moved on to generating ideas for a solution. The ideation phase of design thinking is categorised by its creative process and encouragement for outside-the-box thinking (Razzouk & Shute, 2012). For My Little Pony, this stage meant refining our presentation and moving on to finding a practical solution to our wicked problem.

Week 7 began with our first presentation of the semester. During the previous week, we divided the tasks equally between our group members:

Robert did the empathy map

Lillian did the persona

Astrid added the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

We discussed the Goal of Clean Water and Sanitation to target our primary goal of focussing our prototype on enforcing preventative measures. Since hendra virus is contracted from contaminated food and water sources, we felt that was an important Goal to include.

Sean did the stakeholders section

The task I was given was to create a journey map for our new horse owner persona, Anna, and her interaction with our website prototype. 

After our presentation, we received constructive feedback from our tutor and the class. Since the journey map was primarily focussed on a fixed prototype, it was suggested that we didn’t need a finalised idea at that stage in the process. Other feedback included the need for expansion on the UN Goals, which we made a note to expand on for our next presentation. 

With our first presentation completed, we all felt comfortable moving forward into the ideation stage. In week 8, we participated in creating a lo-fi (or low-fidelity) prototype using the LEGO serious play technique. LEGO Serious Play enhances participation efforts within a team (SeriousPlayTraining, n.d.) and creates a low-risk environment for ideation. When creating our prototype, we collectively shared the idea of imagery that reflected our end goal - to enforce preventative measures against hendra virus instead of a vaccination. Many horse owners prefer not to get their horses vaccinated against it because of unknown side effects, so by utilising the implementation of preventative measures, it creates a negotiable half-way point. 

To reinforce our standpoint, we created a horse paddock with a known preventative measure in place. The trees, pictured above, are placed a distance from the paddock and troughs. Since most contamination results from flying fox excrement falling into food and water sources, we felt it was important to reiterate that important measure. 

In summary, we had several ideas to explore:

Website or app for education about hendra virus

Case tracker

Self administered vaccination

To support our group’s growing involvement in the course, we created an updated contract for collaboration to ensure every member of the group was interacting with the ideation stage as much as possible. We hadn’t updated the form since Katherine left (and Sean joined), so we felt that an update was in order. 

REFERENCES:

Razzouk, R., Shute, V. (2012). What is design thinking and why is it important? Review of Educational Research, 82(3). https://doi-org.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/10.3102/0034654312457429

SeriousPlay. (n.d.). The LEGO Serious Play Method. The Association of Master Trainers. https://seriousplay.training/lego-serious-play/#:~:text=The%20LEGO%C2%AE%20SERIOUS%20PLAY%C2%AE%20method%20(LSP)%20is%20a,concept%20of%20%E2%80%9Chand%20knowledge.%E2%80%9D

[yetanothersupernova]

Prototype

The fourth stage of design thinking creates an atmosphere for creative experimentation (Stevens, 2023). It concludes the ideation stage and primarily focusses on refining one solitary solution to the issue. During this phase, the central focus of our group was to determine a final prototype idea. 

With the finalisation of our ideation stage, we worked on refining the list to focus on one singular prototype idea.

During week 9, the group participated in the roses, buds and thorns exercise. This task helped us to break down the positives, negatives and potentials of each of our ideas:

The target audience would be horse owners, breeders, event holders etc.

A website or app would allow veterinarians  to log or track HeV cases

A self administered vaccine would reduce the cost of having a vet travel out to administer it. Additionally, it would also limit the impact of vets contracting hendra virus themselves.

After the task was completed, Lillian began email correspondence with Dr. Taylor and Dr. Thompson to gain their perspective on our draft solutions. 

Based on the feedback the stakeholders discussed, we concentrated our idea into an educational platform and case tracker - accessed by website, newsletter or app. Our tutorial task in Week 10 addressed our refined idea with another journey map. With an updated persona’s perspective on our prototype idea, it helped us to refine the important aspects of our solution and determine what would and wouldn’t work. 

Our week 11 tutorial was utilised to discuss our presentation and assign tasks to each member of the group. We discussed Sean’s lack of input in our ideation and prototyping stage, and inevitably decided to divide the tasks between the four of us to ensure that everything was completed on time:

Robert was in charge of the 1 minute video that advertises our prototype

Lillian supported with research

Astrid expanded on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2015)

I was given the task of creating our finalised prototype. I used Figma, a UX design website that allowed me to create an interactive website and phone application. We aimed to have our individual tasks almost completed by the next week so we would have time to put our slides together for the presentation. 

REFERENCES:

Stevens, E. (2023, April 19). The Key Principles and Steps of the Design Thinking Process. Career Foundry. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ux-design/design-thinking-process/#:~:text=The%20Design%20Thinking%20process%20can%20be%20divided%20into%20five%20key,Ideate%2C%20Prototype%2C%20and%20Test.

United Nations. (2015). The 17 sustainable development goals. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals

[yetanothersupernova]

Test

The final stage of the design process is determined by testing the prototype and refining it (Brown, 2018). By finalising our prototype idea, we were able to progress into the testing stage to determine how the solution would interact with our wicked problem. 

The next couple of weeks consisted of refining our prototype into a finalised idea, working on our individual tasks, and putting together our presentation slides. 

Unfortunately, due to conflicts with Sean’s lack of input, our group decided to part ways with him. During presentations in week 12, I documented feedback given to the other groups presenting to ensure that our group was progressing well and staying on task.

To finalise our prototype, I spent as much time as possible refining our application, website and newsletter. I communicated regularly with the group to gain their insight and opinions on my sketches and design choices.

Between classes in weeks 12 and 13, Lillian and I worked on the slide deck over several evenings to ensure that our wicked problem prototype was well communicated. We worked hard to make sure we fit all aspects of the brief, as well as the feedback we received from our first presentation in week 7.

By the time our presentation rolled around in week 13, everyone had completed their part of the assignment and put it into the slides. We summarised our presentation slides into a script to make presenting an easier process. 

Once we finalised our presentation, we received minimal feedback:

Include evidence of our email correspondence with the stakeholders (Dr. Thompson and Dr. Taylor)

Expand the mockup slides to include more information

Refine why our app is catered towards health rather than specifically HeV

Once we received that feedback, Lillian and I went back to include those missing aspects to our presentation slides and alleviate the lack of context.

OUR FINALISED PROTOTYPE

REFERENCES:

Brown, T. (2018). Design Thinking Defined. IDEO DesignThinking. https://designthinking.ideo.com/#designers-mindset