Design Thinking in the Classroom by David Lee

Author:David Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612438245
Publisher: Ulysses Press
Published: 2018-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

Ideate Principles

Establishing shared beliefs and guiding principles for creative work will foster a learning environment that is conducive to effective idea generation. Part of the reason why I lacked success in my first attempts to incorporate DT into projects was not establishing these beliefs and principles for my students and the classroom. I learned that these beliefs and principles are essential for students to successfully apply DT practices and strategies in each phase. One resource that helped me greatly in developing an innovative culture was a video segment done by ABC Nightline look into how designers create better products for end users.

Nightline challenged IDEO with the most difficult challenge they could think of: redesigning the standard shopping cart in only five days. The video segment showed David Kelley and his team of designers visiting shopping centers, and interviewing customers and employees to empathize with the end users. They used what they learned to produce a shopping cart that was way ahead of its time.

The futuristic shopping cart was not a large basket on wheels, but instead contained removable hand baskets that allowed shoppers to leave their cart anywhere to go find different items. This would minimize the traffic created by shoppers going through the store with their large carts. Other features of the cart was the child two-seater with an adjustable tray that functioned as a play surface, wheels that turned 90 degrees to help shoppers maneuver in difficult situations, and most inventive, the high-tech scanner that allowed customers to check out without waiting in long lines. With all these innovations, the shopping cart still cost the same as the standard carts at the time. Most surprising is the fact that this shopping cart challenge was done in 1999. So how did IDEO produce such a cutting-edge product in just five days?

On day two of their design challenge, the IDEO team undertook a brainstorming session in a room that had different mantras posted on its walls. These innovation mantras or principles were the driving force of the brainstorming session, guiding the conversations, behaviors, attitudes, and decision-making throughout. During what IDEO describes as the “deep dive,” where designers totally immersed themselves into the design challenge, they generated creative solutions within the framework of the following principles:

1. One conversation at a time

2. Stay focused

3. Encourage wild ideas

4. Defer judgment

5. Build on the ideas of others

In my experience, it is grueling for students (as well as teachers) to collaborate and brainstorm ideas without each person following or believing in the innovation principles above. Skeptical groups are unable to produce a large quantity of ideas and have trouble progressing in productive ideation work. These principles provide students a framework where they can collaborate and ideate effectively to advance closer to an innovative solution. In the next section, we will take a deep dive into the process of ideation, and also focus on specific projects that best illustrate each of these valuable principles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.