Design Process

Overview

PBL teams will produce work products during each quarter. The primary work product is the Weekly Prototype Report. It provides documentary evidence of the team's efforts. Importantly, it reflects the team's application of their design process. STEM III emphasizes the Design Thinking Process, however, other design processes are popular and are often complementary to the Design Thinking Process. These design processes are described below.

Design Thinking Process

The main tenet of design thinking is empathy for the people you are designing for. The empathy step involves understanding the needs of the user and researching the problem. The define step includes re-defining and focusing a design challenge question that captures the essence and richness of the problem. The ideating, prototyping, and testing steps emphasize creative solutions with a high degree of user involvement. This representation of the design thinking process includes multiple loops to underline the iterative nature of the process.

Empathy

STEM 3 Empathy Events

• Pre-Kickoff Research

• Project Kickoff Event

• Communication and Feedback from your Project Sponsor

Define

STEM 3 Define Events:

• Project Kickoff Event

• Communication and Feedback from your Project Sponsor

Ideate

STEM 3 Ideate Events:

• Pre-Kickoff Research

• STEM 3 work time both inside and outside STEM 3 classtimes

Prototype

STEM 3 Prototype Events:

• Pre-Kickoff Research

• STEM 3 work time both inside and outside STEM 3 classtimes

Test

STEM 3 Prototype Events:

• STEM 3 work time both inside and outside STEM 3 classtimes

• Communication and Feedback from your Project Sponsor