DESIGN THINKING COURSE REFLECTION

TAKEAWAYS/LEARNING

• Design of space matters. Think about the environment you want to create when you ideate and create prototypes. Doing so will also make you aware of the space of the people you will be designing for.

• Question your stakeholders carefully, digging deeper for their thinking with questions such as “why” or “how come”? However, don’t lead the witness!

• Be alert to the emotional states your stakeholder is expressing and the non-verbal cues s/he is giving you.

• Be sure to include “blue sky” ideas, even if they can’t actually occur in the real world. You never know how you can adapt an idea to the real world.

PROCESS MAP

Watched videos and read materials about design thinking

Considered how I thought about things

like design space, empathy, ideation,

and prototyping

Worked on my design challenge

Applied the design thinking process to additional areas of

my life

Honed questions

for my stakeholde

r

Would I have

enough ideas?

Worked to truly

consider needs of my stakeholder

Was happy the challenge had relevance in my job as a high school

teacher

Having prior knowledge of

design thinking made starting easier

In line at Best Buy recently, I

was considering how to improve

my own user experience using

DT

DESIGN THINKING AT WORK

• As a teacher:• Requested that my

classroom be redesigned – or better yet that I redesign it with my students – so my stakeholders – the students – are more successful

• Considering how to incorporate what I learned and prototyped in the design challenge into my classroom and school setting

DESIGN THINKING AT WORK

• As a teacher of teachers:• Have solicited

teachers about questions they have on the area of professional development I’ll be focusing on with them

• As member of an educator group:• Shared my design

thinking class experience with members of an education Facebook group I belong to

CONCLUSION

• I see many applications of Design Thinking, particularly in my workplace, and can’t wait to implement all I’ve learned!

DESIGN THINKING AT HOME

• BEST BUY• On line at the store,

I concluded Best Buy needed a course in design thinking: customers had to return merchandise and meet with Geek Squad in the same place! #notuserfriendly!