Students develop interview questions and connect with the user to generate empathy for design considerations
Resources
Interview Questions PPT (Teacher Resource)
Questions Guide Worksheet (Student Resource)
Virtual User Narratives Sheet (Teacher/Student Resource)
The client will be defined by the instructor. If you have arranged a community partner such as a builder or charity organization, etc. then please direct the students to develop their client profile and interview materials based on your situation.
If you would prefer to use imaginary clients we have included some ideas for a few of those as well in the document linked above. You may choose to assign these randomly or allow them to choose depending on your preferences. Alternately you may decide to allow the students to identify and/or create their own virtual client.
Students define the client and create an audience question guide and assign interview responsibilities.
1. Individual exercise/warm-up
Would you like to live in a tiny house? Why or why not? Imagine how your daily routine, from wake up to bedtime, would change as a result of living in the smaller space of a tiny house and create a rough schedule of your day.
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2. Group exercise
Building on their experience from the Design Thinking Primer students will develop interview questions, then synthesize the user responses in to an empathy map.
Students individually define questions for the user, then summarize their questions as a group
Part A
Teacher reminds students about interviewing guideline by showing slides on Interview Questions to prepare students to think about interview questions. Students write interview questions individually on post-it note paper, one question per post-it note. Teacher should monitor students to make sure all students have at least 3 to 4 questions that can be shared with their group.
Part B
Teacher shows slide on Summarizing a Question Guide and directs student groups to summarize their questions on the Questions Guide Worksheet.
Suggested homework
The teacher will need to decide if they want students to do interviews in class and/or as a homework assignment. Because the audience for this problem is the general public and some of the users/clients may not be part of the class** it is suggested that some of the interviews be done as homework.
**Student safety procedures should be reviewed regarding any interactions with persons from outside of the school environment (no solo interviews, bring a trusted adult chaperone if possible, choosing an appropriate, public location, making sure parents/guardians know your schedule, etc.). Developing these student safety rules as a class makes a great 15-20 minute class brainstorm/discussion where each class compiles a list of safety rules and then the following day all class lists are compared and refined into a single, shared document.
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3. Interview user/client and/or develop user profile using other user-centered activities
While using real world clients is ideal and allows additional connection of the content to the students' perspective it is still possible to complete this assignment based on fictional, yet realistic, virtual clients. We are providing a few sample Virtual User Narratives as a starting point. Please do not feel restricted to these ideas. Rather shoot for the moon! Quite literally, even. Perhaps they need to design a self-sustainable habitat for lunar colonization? Use these ideas as is, modify them, or use them as discussion starters for the students to write their own virtual client profiles.