The Final Countdown- Tying Design Thinking Into One Final Project

Click here for the link to my Power Point

This is the final culmination of all that i have learned about design thinking and the design process over these past few months. The goal of this project was to think of a problem or situation that needs solving or improvement. The situation I thought of is the concept of the Bucket List. Everyone seems to have one, but it is easy to lose sight of your dreams, hard to find the time to accomplish your list, or simple do not have the means to accomplish it. That eventually led to a lot of research and brainstorming which gave me the idea of "The Bucket Truck" as seen below:

Final Sketch

After banging out some sketching ideas, conducting a survey, and one on one interviews, I decided that what people needed the most from a design for a better bucket list was continence, and the ability to do activities with other people. Thus the Bucket Truck was born. The concept is that the truck will come to a location, with a "Menu" of all the things you could do in your area, such as sky-dive, swim with dolphins, horse back ride, rock climb, go to the beach etc. all things that might be on someones bucket list. The truck would bring you to the location of the activity or event and would help you plan, enjoy and even capture pictures of you at the event. The reason for the truck and not an app is that not everyone has an iPhone, and there is no human connection in an app. There would be real people working for the Bucket Truck that would be "Dream Facilitators" and help you accomplish things on your bucket list. The truck would also take requests and suggestions for new ideas and activities. This all comes down to Empathy. Many people stated in my survey that if they had one day to live they would spend it with friends and family, this truck gives people a way to do just that. 

Final Prototype 

"One Step Closer": Giving The Gift Of An Experience

PROTOTYPE FOR ASHLEY

(Boom Box and Lincoln Park Tickets)

It is important when doing and Crash Course that you have never done before, to keep an open mind and try the best that you can. This is similar to a any creative experience in life. In order to succeed, you must learn to accept that sometimes you won't always get things right on the first try. Learning about empathy, and understanding a consumer is an important part of learning how to become a better innovator, and creator. In this Crash Course, we were instructed to pick a partner we did not know very well, and ask them about their most recent gift giving experience. Using a Crash Course Packet of sorts, we fallowed the video through each step of the creative process. The goal was to eventually enhance the gift giving process to meet the needs of the gift giver. The process starts off with an interview, lasting about 8 minutes. The goal is to somehow get a story or something you didn't know before our of the person you are interviewing, so you may better understand them. My partner, Ashley, said the last gift she gave was to her friend for christmas, and it was Lincoln Park concert tickets. She said that the friend had been the one to introduce Ashely to concerts and got her into them. Ashley also went on to talk about how she missed spending time with her friends ever since she transferred colleges. The second step of the process was to dig deeper in an interview, get out more emotion and reason behind the gift giving process. The thirds step was to "Capture Findings" and figure out the goals and wishes of Ashley. I decided that Ashley's goals were friendship and sharing experiences with her friend. Step for was thinking of Ashley's needs from her point of view and why. I said that Ashley needed to share an experience with her fined because her fined had influenced her and added something special to both their lives by introducing Ashley to concerts, which even since they have attend together all of the time.  The next step was to sketch out 5 extreme ways that the users needs could be met through the gift giving process. 

The best idea I thought I had was my second idea, of Ashley giving her friend and experience by playing the song by Lincoln Park on a boom box while giving her the tickets with balloons attached. Listening to the music would be a good way for Ashley and her friend to share another experience together. I then reflected on whether the prototype met Ashley's needs, and began to sketch it out. Eventually leading to my prototype (as seen at the top) and sharing my solution with Ashley, who really liked the idea. Overall I believe I met the needs of sharing an experience from my consumer and her friend and met Ashley's emotional needs to feel closer to her friend again. 

The Importance of Empathy in Design Thinking

Empathy is a term we all know well from our lives. The ability to feel the emotions of another, however, I had never considered it's importance in design and the business world. The aim of empathy in design is to evoke emotion to try and help solve an issue or problem. In a video about empathy in design thinking, an idea is brought up about an "Empathy Museum" in which you walk through and get to experience how other people different from you live, work, or interact. This could aim to solve the problem of divide between cultures and class systems. The museum would be designed to evoke some sort of emotion or feeling towards others. When trying to think of how to create an image that conveys empathy in design thinking, I first brainstormed, what are problems that need solving? There are obviously many worldwide issues that effect many humans such as hunger, homelessness, poverty, sexual violence, women's rights, etc. 

However these problems all seemed too large to try and convey in one image. I began thinking about things in the world that bother me, that if I could, I would try and make all people bothered by. I am very passionate about animals and protecting animals so I thought of illegal animal hunting and poaching. There are many people in the world who agree with me that wildlife needs to be protected and preserved, however there are also many who do not agree. I imagined what I would do to try and convince poachers and hunters that killing animals for money or fun is putting many species in danger and I see as being morally wrong. I then began sketching ideas for animals I could use to help evoke emotion. I did not want to make the image too dark or depressing, but still wanted to get a message across. I felt that drawing would be the best medium for this since I enjoy drawing, and also do not have access to any live animals! I thought of rhinos, and how I have seen articles about the diminishing number of rhinos in the wile. Rhinos are killed and their tusks are cut off and sold for profit. So I began thinking of how I could use a rhino to convey the negative side of poaching and killing. 

I then remembered going to a restaurant called "Bugaboo Creek" when I was little. The walls were covered in animal heads on plaques. I was afraid of the heads when I was little because I did not understand why they weren't attached to the rest of the animals body. I remember being disturbed by this image of an animals head on a wall for decoration. That is when I thought of using the image of a head on a wall, and the idea came to me to use humans in place of animals. And flip the roles around. I thought about how disturbing it would be to see a humans head on a wall in a restaurant. Imagine if poachers walked into a cafe or bar to have a relaxing meal and saw their buddies head hanging on the wall or being sold in a store for profit. It would be highly disturbing, and might put the hunters in the shoes of the animals. So I began to draw and sketch multiple times until I came up with an image I was happy with. Although one image cannot solve a problem, it can evoke emotions hopefully from those who never thought about the problem before, and that can spark change!

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

An Electrifying Meal (final)

Attempt #1 Electicution

Attempt #2 Pranks

Attempt #3 Drunk Driving 

This project was particularly difficult but also exciting. The idea is to show a story beginning middle and end using only pictures and no words. I began by trying to think of exciting endings to stories, and then working backwards. I drew sketches of ideas I had such as someone being electrocuted, someone drunk driving, and someone pulling a prank on someone else. I tried to think of endings that would make someone want to know what was going to happen next, or shock someone (no pun intended). It was easy to think of the first idea, then came the struggle of thinking of something both creative and practical. This brought me back to learning about design thinking, and going through the steps. So I thought really big, like a ten car pile up, and then brought it down to something I could realistically take  a picture of, such as someone drinking then driving. 

So I began with taking a picture of the last scene in my story, and working backwards from there. How would these people have ended up in these situations? How did they get there? This was the hard part was figuring out how to create the situations in 3 photos only. It was very difficult to make sure that the story I had in my head was being conveyed in my images. I wanted so badly to be able to use words or even video, but had to work on taking the best still images I could. 

My best story ended up being the electrocution story but it needed refining. So I went to Good Will and bought a cool antique fork that I found with embroidering on the handle. Then I tried to find a more interesting plug to use so I used a power strip because it has multiple plugs. I had to set the scene, a man eating and not paying attention goes to stick his form in his pasta and sticks it in the socket on accident. A simple scene turns into a crime scene in a mater of seconds!

Trial and error was definitely the theme of this project. I would try different lighting camera angles, props and set ups until I thought I had accurately conveyed my story the way I wanted to. Electrocution is obviously sad but there is something amusing about the set up of the situation. 

"If at First You Don't Succeed.....": Learning Typography

TYPOGRAPHY ATTEMPTS: Ranked from My Favorite to My Least Favorite

attempt #4

attempt #5

attempt #6

attempt #3

attempt #2

attempt #1

MY PROCESS

                  This was one of the more difficult projects I have ever done. This type of creativity came from a part of my brain I have not used in a very long time. Entering blindly into this "Typography Quote" project, I had never even heard of Typography. I quickly went to the internet to do some " google image result" research and headed to a few creativity websites for advice. What I found was that my designs could be virtually limitless. There were no real rules or regulations to follow, except for to think outside the box, and to not have any white showing on the paper. I began searching for quotes and sketching ideas of what I thought typography should look like. 

                 What I did find online was a bit confusing, I was struggling to understand exactly what made something Typography, and not just a quote on a piece of paper. I quickly realized that most of the examples I saw or read had different types of font, were colorful or creative, and used creative shapes or tools to write their quotes. So I first went to the only place I could think to find creative type: a magazine. 

               In middle school art class we always used cut outs from magazines to make collages or write things on paper so I figured this was a good place to start. Finding a role or american flag duck tape on my scavenger hunt for more magazines I thought this might be a good way to incorporate more materials into my piece. My quote was "See what the the others don't see." In fact, the first few times I read this quote I did not notice the intentional double "the." This drew me to the quote because it was different and exciting. So after spending countless hours searching magazines for the perfect letters I created Attempt #1 (seen above). I was uncertain this would be considered "typography" but I thought it was creative non the less. 

             After finding a lot of great patterns and colors in the magazines, I chose to stick with this as my primary source for my next two attempts. I was stuck on the idea of incorporating an eye into my second piece. Looking around my room, I my coffee mug which is filled with fake sunflowers. I snipped off the petals and used a cutout eyeball as the center for an "eye-sunflower." This three dimensional aspect of this piece was a nice change, unfortunately my writing on the petals is sloppy and hard to read (see Attempt #2 above). Finally when I got to my third attempt I felt fresh out of ideas, and energy. I tried to think of symbols besides an eye I could use to show "seeing". That is when I thought of a magnifying glass (see attempt #3 above). For this piece, I really like what I did with the magnifying glass, I just wish I would have made it bigger to fill the page more. I also really loved my background for this attempt, but it distracted a lot from the quote (which was meant to be the main focus). 

           I have to say, I was pretty proud of my work in my first round of attempts, even though they may have missed the mark, I was glad to know I put all my effort and creative energy into them. After a week of further discussion with peers and a new quote, I felt ready to take on my final set of attempts. My new quote I decided on was " Don't quit your daydream" which I viewed as a twist on "don't quit your day job." It made me think about how designers are dreamers and being creative is their job. This new quote gave me new inspiration and ideas. 

          First I immediately knew I wanted to try my hand in using my X-acto Knife. So I looked online for picture of cool writing that might be easy to cut out of paper. That was when I came across an image with a font I had in mind. So using my tracing paper I traced the letters of the quote from my laptop screen. This took a very long time but it was worth it to achieve the perfect letters. After transferring the writing onto cloud covered paper, I began my cutting out process. This was tedious to say the least, and left me with a few cuts on my fingers. However in the end, I was extremely happy with my result. (see Attempt #4). Next I knew I wanted to have the rest of my quote "don't quit your" in different font and style. Looking around my room once again for inspiration, I noticed my colorful tissues box in the corner. I used the box to cut out my letters for the rest of the piece. For background I used an old folder I had in my desk drawer. 

         With my second attempt, I wanted to play around with symmetry and drawing designs. I knew I needed to make my type look clean if I wanted to add a funky design around the boarder. So  went to Word and played around with fonts until I found one I liked. I then began the tracing process once again, this time feeling more confident in my abilities. After what seemed like hours of tracing and transferring I was ready to careful outline my stencil with Sharpie. The fear of permanence made my hands sweat but I pushed on. After outlining all my writing I sketched on scrap paper ideas for pretty boarders or designs. I once again took to the internet where I took ideas from multiple designs to make my own. (See attempt #5). To ensure each side was even and the same I once again traced and used my transfer paper. After outlining all the designs I used a Sharpie paint stick to fill them in. I am so proud of this design and really happy with how it turned out. 

        Thinking about my final attempt hurt my brain. I had already used the X-acto knife, stencils, cutouts, sharpies and just about all of my creative energy. I had to sit and really think about what I had not done yet, or what I had not thought to do. As I sat I starred at my quote trying to think of what it mean to day dream. I imagined little girls pretending to be princesses or playing dress up, imagining a different world in their daydreams. That was when it hit me, I grabbed my makeup bag and began practicing and experimenting. Something about the word daydream feels very light and airy so I thought what better medium to use then blush and eyeshadow. So I began covering an entire sheet of paper with my blush, bronzer and eyeshadows. 

        After inhaling more dust then was actually on the paper, I dug through my bag to get more inspiration. I searched online for my quote and found an image that had writing which resembled lipstick. I traced the letters of the quote for the main part of my piece (See attempt #6) I tried to free hand a few attempts but they all looked too messy so I stuck to tracing. After tracing onto my paper with pencil, I pulled out my eyeliner and began slowly going over all my light lines. The tip broke several times and my frustration mounted as the tip grew smaller and smaller. Finally I finished filling in my "don't quit your day"part and it was on to the final "DREAM". I pulled out my lipstick and free hand wrote the last piece of my quote. I wanted this part to look free hand to give it an authentic feel because lipstick can be messy and imperfect, as well as designs and art. 

       Overall I am very proud of the work I produced considering I have no prior experience with this type of design. I have a much greater appreciation for people who have mastered X-acto knives and envy their patience. That was the biggest part of this process for me was accepting that nothing creative can be made in 10 minutes. It takes time and patience, and accepting that not every move I made was perfect, but that I tried my best. 

Finding Design Thinking In PR

I have to admit I judged Design Thinking too quickly, and it is true what they say first impressions are not always right. I assumed that Design Thinking was a concept that I could only apply to this class, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I was wrong.  I watched a TED talk involving Design Thinking, and creative thinking in the real world. The talk was by Ted Brown and revolved around how designing can be so much more than just creating something “cool”. It made me realize that design thinking is all around me, and can be applied nicely to my Public Relations career path. In PR, you have to be able to come up with new ideas all the time, some of these ideas may involve putting your, or someone else’s reputation on the line. 

This reminded me of a video on Lynda.com, about Design Thinking. We often have to problem solve in our every day lives, and while we can come up with ideas that are practical, they are often not overly creative. The point of the video was to try and teach yourself how to not old problem solve, but to do so creatively. In public relations, if you are solving a problem for a client, you are putting your name and their image on it. The problem at hand might have a simple solution, but there also might be a more creative, or innovative way to solve it. It occurred to me that I often follow routines every day in my life; the way I walk to class, the foods I eat, and my bedtime routine even. All of these have created boring patterns in my life. In order to practice thinking creatively I need to first practice losing certain routines, and trying new or innovative ways to go about those processes. For example, taking a different, perhaps more interesting route to class, or a different way of driving back to school.

There is a Wikipedia reading on Design Thinking, which discusses “Wicked Problems”. These are problems that are “often tricky or difficult to solve.” The reading discusses how these kinds of problems; do not always show all their cards right away. Meaning that it may take time and effort to identify all aspects of the problem. These relate to real world problem solving in public relations because nothing will very be cut and dry. For example, if I have to write a public statement for McDonalds regarding someone finding a Band-Aid in their burger, the way of going about that will require a lot of creativity.  There are clearly man issues at hand with that situation, and in order to address the problem creatively, I would need to sue design-thinking skills that I have learned. The bottom line is, design thinking can be utilized in almost every aspect of any profession. Luckily I am entering into a field that often requires original ideas, and creativity.