Design Process: The Metaphor Model
Defined by Stanford d.school in 2010
Empathize
Why?
Keeping the user in the forefront of mind is the most important thing. Empathy is the centerpiece of a human-centered design process. As a designer, we solve the problems of a particular set of people for which we must gain empathy for them to get a clue about their values and what they think and feel. This allows us to infer the intangible meaning of their experiences in order to uncover insights which give us a direction to create solutions. Since these insights are not obvious, sometimes a good conversation can be surprising for both designer and the subject that ultimately leads to good design.
How?
In this step we study people who fall under the context of our design challenge. We then explore, observe, examine, engage and understand people in their natural environment by observing and asking the following to capture physical manifestations of their experiences:
🔦 What do they do?
🔦 How do they do it?
🔦 Why do they do that in that particular way?
🔦 What are their physical and emotional needs?
🔦 What do they think about worlds perception about their way of doing things?
🔦 What is meaningful to them?
Note:
Always ask “Why?” and make sure it feels more like a conversation and less like a interview.
Methods
📜 Participant observation
📜 Walking conversation
📜 Follow the object
📜 Stakeholder analysis
📜 Design a workshop
📜 The qualitative interview
📜 Be the problem
📜 Five whys
📜 Ecosystem
📜 Backbiting
📜 Photo safari
Before moving to nest step…
1. Present the research in a visual form (on a wall).
2. Share what you found with fellow designers.
3. Start making connections.
Note:
Documentation is a crucial part of this phase. Why??
Refer this link: https://link.medium.com/0yLSDOEzdU
Define
Why?
It results in your point-of-view (POV). Define mode is sense-making where we learn more about the context of their project and the potential directions for solutions. Based on the insights gathered by synthesizing information about your user, we define a narrowly focused problem statement which is meaningful and actionable. This leads to yielding both greater quantity and higher quality solutions when we are generating ideas.
How?
🔦 Ask multiple “Why’s” to connect a particular person to the larger context.
🔦 Express insights by synthesize information.
🔦 Select a limited set of needs that you think are important to fulfill.
🔦 Brainstorm topics that answer “How might we…?”
Then articulate a point-of-view as an actionable problem statement.
Note:
A good point-of-view is one that:
⭐ Is distinct.
⭐ Provides focus and frames the problem .
⭐ Inspires and empowers the team to take independent decisions.
Methods
📜 Design a workshop
📜 Challenge map
📜 User journey
📜 Service blueprint
📜 How might we…?
📜 Mindmap
📜 SWOT analysis
📜 Ecosystem
📜 The actantial model
Ideate
Why?
Ideate is the mode where we concentrate on idea generation. We go wide in terms of concepts and outcomes. It provides both the fuel and also the source for building prototypes and getting innovative solutions into the hands of your users. While ideating, we push forward the widest possible range of ideas from which one can select one or multiple solutions. The determination of the best option is done after user testing and feedback.
We ideate to:
✔ Combine the understanding of the problem and people we are designing for with our imagination.
✔ Generate fluent(volume) and flexibile(variety) innovative solution concepts.
✔ Increase the innovation potential of our solution set by uncovering unexpected exploration areas.
✔ Harness the collective perspectives of the team.
✔ Get obvious solutions out of your heads and drive the team beyond them.
How?
🔦 Be prolific, wild, and visual.
🔦 Add constraints, surround yourself with inspiring related materials, and embrace misunderstanding. This allows us to reach further than we could by simply thinking about a problem.
🔦 To maintain ones innovation potential, bring multiple ideas forward for prototyping.
🔦 Take breaks. Sometimes when you are not focusing on developing ideas, the best ideas will emerge.
Methods
📜 Innovation matrix
📜 Good ideas vs. bad ideas
📜 Megatrends
📜 Idea selection by dot-voting
📜 Idea selection based on weighted criteria
📜 Idea clustering
📜 Confusion tolerance
📜 Brainwalking
📜 Brainwriting
📜 Classic brainstorm
📜 Journaling
📜 Inspiring cards with words
📜 Obstructions
📜 Change boards
Prototype
Why?
The Prototype mode is the iterative generation of artifacts intended to answer questions that get you closer to your final solution. In design thinking we make prototypes of products, services, experiences as well as processes. It brings us to a point where decisions have to be made. This encourages new ideas to come forward.
A prototype can be anything that a user can interact with:
✔ A wall of post-it notes
✔ A gadget you put together
✔ A role-playing activity
✔ A storyboard.
“If an image is worth a thousand words, a prototype will leave you speechless.” _ Shane Williams
To communicate your solutions to the world prototyping is important. By prototyping you reduce the risk of failure by testing possibilities in less time and less money. Also, investing less allows you to pursue multiple ideas without committing to a direction too early.
How?
🔦 Explore options, test ideas, gain empathy and communicate vision.
🔦 Start building even if you aren’t sure what you’re doing.
🔦 Don’t spend too long on one prototype.
🔦 Let go before you find yourself getting too emotionally attached to any one prototype.
🔦 Identify what’s being tested and how it is going to be tested with each prototype. Build with the user in mind.
Methods
📜 Planning of the prototype process
📜 User journey
📜 Service blueprint
📜 Rapid prototyping
📜 Changeboards
Test
Why?
We test to collect feedback about the prototypes from your users . It is an opportunity to understand and gain empathy for the people you are designing for. Here we focus on figuring out the problem in distributed prototypes and their potential solutions. Sometimes it may reveal that not only did you not get the solution right, but also that you failed to frame the problem correctly.
How?
This can be done by asking people to use it within their normal routines or by creating a scenario in a location that would capture the real situation.
🔦 Let them interpret the prototype.
🔦 Watch how they use (and misuse!) it.
🔦 Listen to what they say about it.
🔦 Listen the questions they have while and after using it.
🔦 Bringing multiple prototypes to the field and ask the users to compare them.
Always prototype as if you know you’re right,
but test as if you know you’re wrong.
Methods
📜 Participant observation
📜 Pitch
📜 Plan the pitch with the NABC-model
📜 Planning of the prototype process
📜 User journey
📜 Design a workshop
📜 The qualitative interview
📜 ChangeboardsIteration and making the process your own
Iterate
Incorporating insights from the tests (i.e. feedback) into new ideas for solutions is a fundamental of good design. It is most important to iterate the design after testing a prototype during the innovation process otherwise the test phase goes in vain.
The test and iterate phase together tells when a prototype can start to converge towards a final solution based on the feedback from the user.
Resources:
https://innovationenglish.sites.ku.dk/metoder/
https://innovationenglish.sites.ku.dk/model/design-thinking/
https://dschool-old.stanford.edu/sandbox/groups/designresources/wiki/36873/attachments/74b3d/ModeGuideBOOTCAMP2010L.pdf?sessionID=1b6a96f1e2a50a3b1b7c3f09e58c40a062d7d553Contact:
📧 sakshi.kumari.1@nift.ac.in
https://www.facebook.com/sakshikumari204
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https://www.quora.com/profile/Sakshi-Kri
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