designthinking Archives

Prototyping – the quickest way to learn how bad your ideas really are!

TomDesign Thinking, FeedbackMarch 9, 2018March 9, 20182 Comments

Prototyping is all about the process of generating multiple versions of a solution so you can continually improve it.

Prototyping is one of the later stages of the design process and is normally folowed by a period of testing. You can make a prototype without testing it. This stage normally follows on from a time when you and your team have generated and filtered a range of ideas.

It would also be true to say that the sooner you are prototyping and testing the better as this often instigates new thinking quite quickly.

A different way of thinking about this stage is that prototyping is to engineer as many opportunities for feedback as you can. Feedback is the main reason anyone creates rough versions of anything. Rough and ready versions give us the chance to test and think about what works and what doesn’t. And to truly understand how bad our ideas are.

You have to remember that the only thing that is worse than a bad idea is one that has been isolated from feedback for too long.

Feedback is oxygen for your ideas. It will help them to grow and get stronger, starved of it and your ideas will get weaker.

When you create a rough prototype, first draft or early sketch you are using iteration to develop your creative ideas.

Often the first prototype you can create is the moment you describe your idea to someone else.

What if we…
Imagine that you…

Your FVP (first verbal prototype) is the kick to then begin representing your idea in a more tangible way.

I developed this little decision tree to help you and your students think through some ideas for prototyping.

A Visual Prototype will be one that focuses on the look (and feel) of the product, but it will not function. You will likely focus on:

Sketches and illustrations
Storyboarding a short video
Digital / paper wireframes
Creating the packaging for your product
Making an advert for your service
Photo sequence for a new service
On-the-shelf mockup (placing your new packaging alongside competitors in a real store)

A Functional Prototype will be one that focuses on showing how something will work, even in a rudimentary way. The visual quality will be ignored.

3D printing
Paper prototype and mockup
App mockup
PPT or Google Slides for a website mockup
Bodystorming a service (using roleplay to act it out)
Cardboard life scale mockup

You might also explore the following reflection promtpts to help you make the most of the prototyping process.

Which type of prototype is most feasible / useful in the time you have?
Why is your choice appropriate for the solution you are exploring?
What resources and support will you need to build your prototype?
Who are you testing your prototype on?
What specific aspects of your idea do you want feedback on?
How will you record feedback and ideas?

–

I discovered the little app POP by Marvel which is a fantastic way to quickly prototype ideas for apps. I drew around my phone and then did some sketches. Took some photos and added some links and hotspots and then you have a little functioning app.

Sketches

Hotspots

App screens

Took me 5 minutes (including downloading the app) a great example of a functioning prototype. I need to work on the visuals!

If you enjoyed this post you should check out my article on the Prototyping Disposition and Learning in Perpetual Beta.

Toolset, Skillset, Mindset

TomDesign Thinking, FeaturedAugust 29, 2015April 22, 20198 Comments

Over the last few years I have developed three different lenses through which to see any creative inquiry process. When we are facilitating or planning with clients, schools and teachers we explicitly talk about our Toolset, Skillset and our Mindset.

The design thinking process has distinct phases and although we may well be seeking to developing an overarching capacity it has always been helpful to be a little more specific about what this actually means. Sometimes it can seem a little fluffy around the edges. When we link Toolset, Skillset and Mindset to a particular phase of design thinking inquiry it becomes much clearer what is expected. This intentionality is wired into each of the different lenses helping to clarify to those involved what tools are involved, what skills are likely to be required and what mindset is needed.

Below is a good set of definitions which helped me better understand their relevance to my work with design thinking and creative inquiry:

Toolset (How you Get, Have, Use) – Means a set of widely accepted methods, techniques, models, approaches and frameworks that can create value in the chosen field.

Skillset (How you Do, Act, Behave) – Means a number of things like a person’s capabilities and abilities, knowledge and understanding, and motivation and ability to use these capabilities and knowledge. The level of expertise in a particular task determines the efficiency and effectiveness to perform that task.

Mindset (How you See, Perceive, View) – Means a set of beliefs, a way of thinking, a habitual mental attitude that determines somebody’s behaviour and outlook and how s/he will interpret and respond to situations. Without a change in mindset, the world cannot be viewed differently.

[In addition to these you may well consider a Knowledge set, something to activate and use or to continue to add to.]

For example during the Synthesis phase you might see the following explicitly shared with participants or students and dialogue to make the expectations clear:

Toolset: Patterns and grouping of physical artefacts, Hexagonal Thinking, P.O.I.N.T (Problems, Obstacles, Insights, Needs and Themes)

Skillset: Pattern recognition, categorisation, organisation, problem finding, prioritisation

Mindset: Convergent, combinatorial, relational

What we have found is that most people want to have a conversation about the Toolset. It is the most enduring memory of a workshop: the physical, tactile experience of the tools we used. All too often creative processes focus too heavily on simply the tools, moving from one thinking activity to another, from one framework or post-it note task to the next. Ideally we escalate the dialogue to the Skills we need to operate those creative thinking tools. The last step is to engage colleagues in a dialogue about what Mindset is needed or expected in order to be most successful.

You might consider having a conversation about these three elements before a lesson or period of learning with students: what are the tools we are going to use, the skills we will develop or need and the mindset we should take. This offers a much clearer way to talk about learning intentions or success criteria.

The Mindset at each stage of the design thinking process is much more constant and more persistent, whereas the Skillset and the Toolset can always change. We should be drawing from a range of tools to suit the part of the inquiry process – but regardless of the tools we use the Mindset remains relatively constant.

It would also be true to say that out of the three different lenses the Mindset is harder to observe, whereas the tactile Toolset is much more explicit. From Change to Constant, from Extrinsic to Intrinsic, from Toolset to Mindset.

Whereas it is easy to switch out and change a tool during a phase of the process, it is much harder to change a Mindset if it does not currently exist. An example we see most often is a convergent mindset – “I know what the problem is and I know what we should do” – when we are immersing ourselves in the area of development. This Immersion phase requires an open and divergent Mindset. You can change the activity to explore the topic but it is much harder to change the disposition.

Stick around for future posts exploring some of the design thinking inquiry Toolset and the activities we all enjoy. In addition we will explore the Skillset and the Mindset needed to make the most of them.

A Prototyping Disposition

Tom28 Days of Writing, Creativity, Design ThinkingFebruary 1, 2015February 2, 20178 Comments

I bump into different views of what “prototyping” is, should be or could be quite regularly. It is interesting to try and help people, especially educators, change the way they perceive a word and begin to use it, even understand it, in new ways. After all language is such a decisive factor in our willingness to understand and so to change.

Although not a designer by trade I know that prototyping is about making versions of something, creating various attempts and that these attempts have a trajectory. A direction they are heading towards. An outcome their production is seeking. I get that this is an iterative approach, resting on the knowledge that we will gradually get better through advice and comment from others.

Ultimately though a prototype’s success lies in the mindset or disposition that they are created with. Or to say it more clearly, when we make stuff if we are iterative in our approach we are more likely to succeed. But there is a lot going on if we begin to consider prototyping as not just about making something, but a disposition too.

It is not just about junk modelling or computer aided design or 3D printing or physical building – a disposition towards prototyping means we:

Are committed to the expertise and ideas we might gain from others and don’t just simply rely on our own perspective.
Believe in the value of feedback and how critique can move our ideas forward.
Engineer as many opportunities for feedback as we can, as early as we can.
Are willing to share what we create when it is extremely, painfully incomplete.

Learning, and often learning within a school, can be such a creative process, I know that teaching is one of the most creative of professions I know. The prototyping disposition is a stance we need to consider for our learners and for ourselves.

All too often our design of the creative tasks we ask our students to embark upon do not signpost these perspectives. Constraint is rare and we open the doors for our students to emotionally commit to a project, a creation, whether prose or painting it is much the same.

Simply stating the traits of an iterative or prototyping approach is far from enough – we need to consider how we can design them into scaffolded or modelled tasks. For example increasing the constraint of resourcing and time when we get started.

“You have 5 minutes to write the first 2 sentences and yes you can only use a post-it note. Ready go!”

What comes next is easy to understand – feedback and feedforward. Next steps and critique. So much has been written about the high impact on student outcomes of high quality feedback that I do not have to restate it. What perhaps does need pointing out is how woven it is into the fabric of an iterative creative process. So let us look again at how we might model this approach in all of our work and consider ways to engineer multiple versions followed up with as many feedback opportunities.

Prototyping is not just about physical modelling, it is an iterative mindset towards anything that we, or our students, create.

Creative Learning is Relational

TomCreativity, LearningJanuary 9, 201511 Comments

There is a great deal written about creativity these days, the need for it in our schools, ideas for fostering it in our physical environments and praise for those icons from the past and present who seem to epitomise the creative mindset. The following is a quote from Bruce Nussbaum, a writer and teacher, on the definition of creativity or being creative. The quote has always been something I reference as it so plainly states the key aspect of a creative approach.

Creativity is relational. Its practice is mostly about casting widely and connecting disparate dots of existing knowledge in new, meaningful ways. To be creative, you’ve got to mine your knowledge. You have to know your dots. – Bruce Nussbaum

As disarmingly simple as it is stated by Nussbaum we are still left with the question of how you actually take action – what can we do in the classroom to foster such dispositions and put into place such processes? I thought I would share a few ideas with you all from my experience of working with design thinking in the classroom for inquiry but also as a strategic process for school improvement.

Casting Widely

Design thinking inquiry processes would signpost the practice of “casting widely” as Immersion – an initial period of time where you are learning broadly about a curriculum topic. If we continue the analogy further – we are not casting a single line for a single target but looking to cast a net that gives us the flexibility and breadth of study. Designing and planning for learning experiences that are multi or trans-disciplinary is the order of the day here. We have the ability to engineer these broad learning experiences by thinking about other subject domains, other areas of study that are relevant and probably most importantly sharing our intentions with colleagues and students to help you find those missed opportunities.

Time for Tangents

With strong provocations and engaged learners you will have momentum during Immersion. This magical sense that your class are fuelling the inquiry themselves. However we have to be intentional again about providing time for tangential study. What I mean by this is ensuring there is enough room in your own planning so that groups or individuals, or even the whole class, can explore an unexpected idea to a satisfying degree of depth. All too often we tighten our grip on what has to be covered and dampen enthusiasm for exploring tangential ideas for study due to a lack of time. Nussbaum describes these ideas as “disparate dots” – give learners the time to be able to uncover these untrodden paths, pull back the vines and discover something new and unexpected. Importantly though we have to be intentional about this commitment of time, in my opinion, we can’t just bolt it on – we should be positive, back ourselves and plan for the fact that our engaged learners will discover some unexpected paths.

Developmental Learning Space

When we are working with a burgeoning amount of information we have to be able to make use of a space to keep those elements of interest and study within our eyeline. A developmental learning space grows with the learning experiences of the group or individual. Preferably this is a physical space or board that is populated with all of the “dots” of new and existing knowledge and learning experiences. Where there are physical limitations you might create a shared digital space, but for the youngest of learners the tangible output of our collective inquiry is most useful. I have often called this a project nest – a space that we can stand in front of and scan the “disparate dots” of our study so far.

Teachers from Melbourne Catholic Schools working on hexagonal thinking task.

Making Connections

There are lots of ways to act upon Nussbaum’s intentions of connecting up the dots. When working with teachers we talk about the second step of design thinking inquiry being Synthesis – connecting our learning. A simple way to do this would be to use the physical artefacts collected in the classroom (see above) and move them around, sorting, ordering and rubbing them up against each to see what ideas emerge. Another activity to help would be the use of a hexagonal thinking task which helps learners filter for some of the most interesting pieces of information and then encourages them to tesselate the hexagons and justify the connections that emerge. Those of you who are familiar with the SOLO Taxonomy would of course have recognised Nussbaum’s phrase when he describes creativity as being “relational” – we could broadly state that learning is the same. We know that when learners begin to offer explanations of how ideas or knowledge relate to each other they are demonstrating much higher order thinking.

Use images for learners in the early years to support their thinking.

Mining Knowledge

I have been saving to the online bookmarking tool Delicious for a long time now and many years ago I soon realised that I was not really using the links that I saved with any regularity. But what I was doing was building a resource with which I could later dig, or mine for ideas. When returning to the thousands of links saved there I want to be able find and resurface ideas I have gathered. Nowadays I use Evernote (and still have any Tweeted links saved into Delicious and funnelled into Evernote) for the mining and it is a great way to find existing content for curriculum planning and for unearthing old links or resources. Another way to do this is by using the Evernote Web Clipper – an extension for Chrome – which provides search results from your Evernote account alongside a normal set of Google search results. You can switch this option on in the extension settings.

There are many more ways to put into action what Bruce Nussbaum states as the practice of creativity and it would be great to hear your thoughts in the comments on how else we can act on such intentions. Hopefully these practical ideas give you some simple steps to engineer the best conditions for creative learning.

Uncertainties, mysteries and how to nurture your negative capability

TomCreativity, Design Thinking, LearningJanuary 4, 2015October 16, 20196 Comments

The quote from John Keats that inspires this post is from a letter he wrote to his brothers George and Tom in December 1817. He was commenting about the ideal literary state of mind, one in which someone exhibits “negative capability”.

A sense of calm assurance and innovatory endeavour in the inevitable “uncertainties, mysteries and doubt” that defines the ups and downs of striving for something original.

I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason
Keats, John (1899). The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge Edition. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 277

Most of the time it is what we don’t do in any given creative inquiry that helps us the most. This is especially true for when we are working on an issue with our teams that requires us to generate some new thinking or ideas.

It is also true when we are exploring a new line of inquiry with learners. In both of these situations, we are consciously choosing to step into a state of flux, a situation that can often be defined by what is not known rather than what knowledge we share.

Human nature does, in some way, dictate that we prefer the habits, rituals and the agreeable comforts of processes we know. We draw a degree of situational steadiness from the fact and reason we can rely on. We see this type of reaction in others as we work with them to move on to new practices or technologies.

The comfort in the known is often too tempting to make the leap and embrace something new. The physical reality of technology is even more challenging as it is harder to ignore and move off of your desk than an ideological concept.

Letting these go and embracing the state of change and the unknown that surrounds us is counter-intuitive and it takes practice to fully accept. Here are some ideas to help.

Accept the mess

The learning process seems to be defined by these moments of flux we experience, sometimes they are fleeting, but often they are protracted. Uncertainty, doubt and mystery is part of our process of learning.

Accepting that we will experience the uncertainty of such times is a great first step for us personally and within our teams, whether learners or leaders. After all, “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” as Einstein once suggested.

Reflect on how uncertainty makes you feel

Secondly, we must be emotionally aware of this uncertainty. What I mean by this is to use our emotional state to help prepare for future experiences that will be similar.

When you are navigating an organisational inquiry it not only puts you in a state of cognitive flux but one of mild emotional turmoil as your intuition presses you to seek steady ground and the reassurance of decisions. We are torn between seeking originality and the comfort of tried and tested ideas.

We should be mindful of how this uncertainty feels, how we react to it and how our emotions change. When we have the energy to record our own emotional experience of such moments we are far more likely to recall them in future times and use these emotional schemata to respond more appropriately.

As an aside I think that meta-emotion is an area we must help learners understand much better. On a simple level to be able to help them manage their own learning more effectively by having a better understanding of their own emotional topography.

Trust the process

A third area that contributes to a better creative approach to inquiry is the understanding that we have a process. When you take this knowledge away or it is not shared amongst a group, we are introducing another mystery: where is this all heading?

We have all experienced those meetings or projects which never went anywhere, great energy and contribution but no follow up or shared understanding of the direction it was heading.

All too often inquiry can feel like we are researching forever, as much as we want to embrace not knowing, and Einstein’s suggestion from earlier, our process needs to signpost the way through this.

I believe that when we are able to recognise “uncertainties, mysteries and doubt” as a natural part of learning; when we share a process and if we have awareness of our emotional reaction, we are engineering the best possible conditions for creative inquiry and hopefully new ideas to flourish.

Photo by Tomas Sobek

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