After the Case was revealed, we each began brainstorming on how to structure the upcoming workshop week to ensure the best possible outcome in the limited time we’ll have for the project. We all took notes and then gathered in a meeting to share our ideas. Eventually, we developed a timetable with activities assigned for each day:
First, we thought about two angles from which we could look at the topic: The private and the business context. In connection with the business context, we thought that it would be rather difficult to get in touch with people to achieve good results on a design-thinking basis due to time constraints. Nonetheless, we also want to deal with this area briefly and create a kind of overall concept of how to proceed here without actually implementing concrete measures.
The focus should be on the private context. Here, we would create different Personas that differ primarily in terms of age groups. We would divide a younger group (approx. 18-30), a middle group (approx. 31-49), and people over 50 into one group. We could then concretize these Personas in small groups and fill them with life.
As a group, we decided to structure the week corresponding to the phases of design thinking. After creating the Persona, we would continue with the empathize phase and develop different methods of best addressing the respective target groups. Surveys or observation strategies can be used here. We would also implement this in different small groups so that everyone has something to do. Once the strategies have been created, we can start implementing them.
On Tuesday, we will first go on a short excursion to see and learn more about data storage at the University of Münster. Afterward, we can continue with the Empathize Phase and implement the surveys and observations to learn as much information as possible about the needs of our Personas.
At noon of the day, we would summarize the results of the individual groups. In the Defining Phase, we can briefly present the results from the small groups to the large group and then define specific problems that arise from them. Here we can incorporate the different perspectives of our Persona.
On the short Wednesday, we would start the Ideation process. Initially, all Wild Ideas are welcome. Here, too, we would subdivide the ideas according to the Personas and collect all the ideas in groups. We can then cluster and rank them in order to select the final and most promising ideas in a final step.
On Thursday, we would then enter the Prototyping and Testing phase. Here, of course, only ideas that can be implemented in such a short time are possible to test. Nevertheless, we could test the ideas with a test-group and get feedback and improvement ideas. At the same time, a small group can already start with the final presentation and the corresponding slides.
On the final day, we would then summarize all the results and finalize the presentation. This plan will help us to organize our thoughts at the start of the week. However, it is normal to deviate from the plan, and we expect some flexibility, especially in a large group.
