Earlier this year, I mentioned that I had taken a course on Design Thinking and its application in education and medicine. Week after week, I watched students explore and experiment with their ideas to eradicate poverty, reduce infant mortality, and provide communities access to clean water. Although the design teams were given complex social problems, the best prototypes were simple in design and use. For example, watch this short video on how a student changed lives through repurposing a plastic water bottle.
While reading through your posts on the social determinants of health, I sensed your concern regarding the welfare of others and I want to encourage us, as a cohort, to consider how we can initiate change through using a Design Thinking paradigm. For example, after reading Stephen’s piece “Operating on a Child’s Heart: A Pedagogical View of Hospitalization,” I thought about developing curriculum and programs that respected, integrated, and voiced children’s experience in the medical setting. However, before I invest this time into the “prototype” phase, I have to understand the user’s needs, define the problem or possibility, and generate a series of ideas that attempt to resolve the issue. Once those preliminary phases have been completed, I can then develop a prototype and test its effectiveness and usability.
Design Thinking Paradigm
Empathize – Define – Ideate – Prototype – Test
(Reference: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford d.school)
For further reading on the topic, I’ve attached "An Introduction to Design Thinking: Process Guide."
Blogging Towards Your Final Paper
First, I’d like you to consider what you have read over the past few months, your topic of inquiry, and the direction of your final paper. In terms of the topical direction of your paper, review your blog postings and determine what have you learned, what areas interest you, and what you want to further explore. Adapting this Design Thinking paradigm to your paper may also serve as a framework and help to “flesh out” the issues or questions you have.
Assignment
Select an article that inspires or contributes to the focus of your paper and apply the Design Thinking paradigm. Your blog post may cover all or one phase of the framework and should total 3-4 paragraphs in length. At the end of your post, invite your audience to provide feedback.
1. Empathize: How does the article reflect the subject’s needs, values, or vision of wellbeing? How well does the author make an emotional connection with the readers, and how effectively do you believe the author delivers a call to action? Consider sharing the article with someone familiar with the problem or possibility, and ask whether it shows a sincere understanding of his or her experience.
2. Define: How does the author define the problem or possibility? Is the definition consistent with your interpretation of the issue? If you have interviewed others on this issue, is the author’s definition consistent with your interviewee’s description? I encourage you to explore other literature on the topic to compare and contrast how this problem or possibility may be interpreted and redefined through a different lens.
3. Ideate: What are the author’s ideas or recommendations and how does she/he respond to the problem or possibility? Based on the author’s “handling” of the problem, how knowledgeable or well qualified does she/he seem to be with respect to the subject matter at hand? Does the article provide sufficient, unbiased evidence to support its conclusion or recommendations? Now, brainstorm at least 10 of your own ideas that should range between those that would be easily implemented to “blue sky” ideas that question current thinking.
4. Prototype: Compose one to two paragraphs that further develop one of your ideas. Maybe you would design a new practice, program, protocol, procedure, or policy? Maybe you would design a new tool or instrument that assists you in measuring your objectives? It is important to detail how your prototype or plan and its components specifically alleviate the problem or enhance the possibility.
5. Test: Consider sharing your prototype with a person that would be directly impacted by its implementation and gather constructive feedback. What are her or his thoughts on your idea? Identify the changes that your prototype’s implementation may cause.
The assignment is due Friday, November 23rd. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Jacqueline
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