The Process

Step 1) Need Finding

Following the design thinking process, we wanted to ensure that we were not converging on an idea too quickly. The need finding step ensured that we considered all possible user problems and remained open minded about a potential solution. Beginning this discovery process enables better problem solving because we began by thinking about needs as opposed to thinking about solutions based upon an assumption.

Highlights

During our ethnographic process, we attended two campus events. The first was the famous Ben Shapiro talk that caused controversy because of the expensive security cost, and the second was "Reply All", a professor-facilitated panel on the relationship between violence and social media.

Step 2) Design and Lo-fi Prototyping

After synthesizing the data from our ethnographic interviews, we pinpointed a user need to solve and developed a How Might We statement. From there, we brainstormed potential solutions with sticky notes, clustered our ideas by category, and created a UX prototype.

Step 3) Dark Horse

At this point in the project, moving forward thinking the problem is solved can limit a team from thinking of revolutionary ideas. At this point, we thought of some dark horse ideas to try and foster divergent thinking again in a way that might be foolish, but yield helpful insights.

Step 4) Conceptual Use Study

At this point we had a potential solution, but wanted to pause and validate some of out hypothesis to see if we were on the right track or needed to make some adjustments to better fit our users.

Step 5) Conceptual Use Study and Working Prototype

Incorporating some of the feedback from step 4, we were able to make some last minute adjustments to the working prototype based on feedback from step 4.

Step 6) Pilot User Study

Before collecting feedback, we tested out our process to ensure we would get the best results in a user study. After, we adjusted the user study procedures based on what worked well and what didn't.

Step 7) User Study

The user study informed how to prioritize features for our last iteration because it provided insights into the utility of the app and what worked and didn't work. .