Boys & Girls Club Project

The B&G Club Project

The Boys & Girls Club project was a collaborative effort in the Design Thinking classroom to redesign their tech room and transform the space to become overall more inviting, appealing, and functioning. I worked in a team of 3 to complete this.

Over the course of this project, I have learned partially what types of challenges this class hopes to tackle and that design thinking is both this class and a process in and of itself, where everyone participates and works toward similar goals; in the end everyone is able to put their individual thinking together to conjure a final prototype. This prototype is a product of many collective minds coming together to conquer the same feat.

During this project, I have learned many things about myself. Most of these learnings consist of who I work best with and what I am capable of when it comes to these sorts of projects. I work well with quick thinkers and people who prefer to take action after a small amount of planning rather than plan out an unpainted future. I enjoy, and work best with, people who let me lead or lead partially. I also have learned that I need practice with drawing layouts and the proportions of them, as well as that my art ability comes in handy when executing things like this.

I can apply the design thinking process and my art ability in many ways outside the classroom. This process can be used whenever I tackle projects similar to this one, whether they be personal projects, community, or paid ones. My art ability is also not just for personal benefit. I can apply my abilities to other situations in jobs and can be relied upon as someone who can create visual representations of what is desired or required.

Progress Collection

Empathizing, Defining, Ideate, Prototype, Test

Above, we worked to frame the challenge and create a problem statement. This was in the first few stages of the design thinking process; empathizing and defining.

Notes from a visual session; trying to narrow it down to one prototype idea.

Brainstorming The Split

After our initial empathizing and defining stage, we had to brainstorm how to split into multiple teams.

Visiting the PM Board

We utilize a project management "Board" (tape on two windows) to publicly define our plans for the project.

Prototyping, Storyboards & Feedback

Prototype Feedback

A shot from the prototype feedback session on our 2-D and 3-D prototypes.

Feedback (Continued)

Essentially, these sessions were short ~15 minute open time-slots where teachers from around the building along with fellow classmates would pop in and ask questions, probe us for further thinking, and overall give us feedback on what we were doing well and what could be improved upon.

This is an image where you can see multiple teams; the person in the foreground to the left, and my teammate and I in the background.

Above are photos from the roundtable conference we had about the 5 drawings for the room's projected layout, as well as shots from the final presentation and feedback from that presentation.

The Finished Layout Drawings

A Reflection

Personally, I think this project was a wonderful introduction to the class. It was nice getting to work with a client and actually make a difference in the community for this organization that helps so many kids. From my experience as a freelance artist and voice actor, I'm used to working with clients in a virtual setting- getting to shake hands and present live in front of a group was definitely a refreshing experience.

What really made this project worth it was how much the entire group of Design Thinkers was able to put into it, and how we can still look forward to a final result in the coming weeks. As I'm writing this, we do not have a final result in the B&G Club Tech Lab, but the final result is in the works and will be posted below when possible.

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