Designing Thought part 2: Feet in the sand

Designing Thought part 2: Feet in the sand

For the 3rd week we tackled issues relating to CPUT, that being applications, financial transactions and res. We were to brainstorm and produce a research poster that showed our design thinking process covered in the week from defining a problem to arriving at a solution. As design students we are all strong in our ability to produce visual ideas in order to communicate our thinking process, and part of the brief was to learn how to maximise a multidisciplinary approach where the distribution of skills could be contributed evenly from all members. We also had to learn how to work together as practitioners with different design backgrounds, leveraging our strengths in order to achieve a collective goal set by the brief. We all chose methods from Robert Curedales’ book, Design thinking - Process and methods manual. My group which comprised of 5 members, was tasked with addressing issues that occur within residence and analysed whether our methods could guide us to arriving at possible solutions to a wicked problem, which design thinking approaches are proficient at exploring. We worked through the double diamond design thinking strategy that enabled us to work through iterative cycles of divergent and convergent brainstorming processes. The brief indicated a 60% graphic 40% ration of information to be displayed. We agreed that our poster was not to have too many graphic elements as this would clutter and hinder our efforts to communicate our design thinking processes. With this in mind I had did rough sketches of any visual representations that could be used later in our poster design. The aim of the research poster is to convey a visual story, that is self explanatory, so that the viewer need not ask what the research is about.

Group member Logan Daniels facilitated the Why Who Where When What How method that we used to identify all stakeholders and how they fit into our problem. Through this method we decided on a problem statement: that is the university administration seeking a proactive solution to identify and mitigate (FID) students who misuse and abuse the overburdened residence accommodation system. Elaine Du Plessis facilitated the Benefits map that we used to visually determine the benefits, feasibility and viability of our solution concepts. This was presented as a quadrant on our poster, with each solution displayed within the quadrant as a visual indication of which one was most beneficial and easiest to implement. Louw Coetzee facilitated the Scenario method that allowed us to simulate and role play potential real-world situations and the contexts in which the stakeholders and problem occur. Myself Ziyaad Hendricks facilitated the Reframing Matrix that enabled us to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of our possible solutions from 4 perspectives that being unreliability, ease of rollout, potential and stakeholder approval. The findings of this method was presented as a pie chart. Zizipho Ntethe facilitated the Process flow method and we chose this method for it’s efficacy in explaining in visual form the journey of our stakeholders interaction with the problem on a timeline. This Process Flow infographic displays the various points and interactions an impostor, or fraudulent resident, would go through over a period of time, starting from registration to being flagged by the system. We agreed that our blackboard residency wellness subject solution was most effective, reliable, viable and easiest to implement and in reality can be a real solution to an ongoing problem at CPUT. These divergent and convergent design methods allowed us to think broadly and focus on parts of the problem that most of our stakeholders could identify with and provide potential solutions that could be most effective and efficient in being implemented. We all agreed that our proposed solution would be named Resident Legal. If you know you know. We put our poster plan together in paper form first as a prototype to determine the grouping of information. As an experienced visual communication designer in the group, I was tasked with designing a 2D digital rendition of our research poster and I incorporated those rough scamps in the form of icons into the poster design.

Friday morning arrived and I completed the last minute changes on the poster over a group google meet catch up, had a cup of coffee and left for class. I arrived in time and we presented our poster successfully. In my opinion the 3rd week’s brief was a challenging exercise as it called on all of us to be present in class and not only contribute to but to lead, manage and work through all the methods that went into us producing our solution concept and arranging our work in a visually compelling story that was self explanatory. Three important things to note from the presentation: 1. Always enquire how long the presentation should be as time is of the essence and this would determine what points to discuss and for how long; 2: Make sure all group members are present so that if any one of us could not make it, there will always be someone who can take over, and you are only as strong as your weakest member; 3. Make black and white A4 copies of your poster to hand out to all who are attending the presentation, in order to be prepared in the case of there being load shedding, you are ready to present. All members of my group contributed and we thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company taking full advantage of the time together learning from each other and the experience as a whole. Overall the Design Management subject was equally exciting and challenging and I’m glad I can be apart of an amazing class, faculty and qualification that brings out the best of me as I continue on this academic journey that keeps getting better year after year. Thank you.