Design Thinking is an approach to problem solving that centers the ultimate solution and design around the needs, feelings, and desires of the target audience. Equity Centered Design Thinking does the same, but with an added layer of reflection at the beginning that invites the designers into the process by evaluating their own identity and approaches to the work before taking action.

The first step is to understand one's self. Before beginning the work, I had to take stock of who I was and am in order to clearly identify my own biases and approaches.

The second step is to listen to the people you want to help. Throughout the project my partners and I talked with both the students and the Space Foundation to identify what everyone needed from the project.

The third step is to clearly define the problem. Once we had conducted empathy interviews and surveys we were able to define the kind of project that needed to be built out by the students.

The fourth step is to think of potential solutions. We did this in partnership with our industry partner, the Space Foundation.

The fifth step is to prototype a solution. We went through multiple prototypes over the course of our project.

The last step in the process is to test your prototype with an authentic audience. For this project we co-exhibited at the 37th Annual Space Symposium!