Reflection - Visualization tool

Challenge    Last year I took a Design Thinking workshop which concluded with a final assignment for the  workshop. The challenge for the respective assignment was to design a digital product that would  improve the navigation experience in shopping malls. We paired up in teams of 4 people and started  our challenge by outlining our process: empathize (research) - define - ideate - prototype - test. We  also picked out one shopping mall in which to concentrate our research and design efforts. The  shopping mall we picked is the second largest shopping mall in my country, and, as you can  imagine, and as we, ourselves, have discovered through our research, there are a lot of friction  points in the customer's experience, related to navigation and not only. I will address these further in  this paper.    Selection    Even though we used all the tools described in this course for our challenge, for the purposes of this  assignment I will detail the Visualization tool. I chose to talk about this tool because, in my opinion, it  was the tool that delivered the most powerful insights during our research and define phases, and, of  course, it played the main role in the idea generation phase. Working in a team of 4 people, we  sometimes had different opinions or understandings of the different concepts that arose during our  project. The Visualization tool helped us gain a common understanding  of these concepts and align  our views. I think that this is one of the biggest strengths of visualization - it helps the team share a  common understanding. This is widely discussed in Tim Brown's ​Change by Design​ book, which I  recommend to you all.    Application    As I said before, we used the Visualization tool in different phases of our Design Thinking process.  In the research phase, we used a "research wall" - an empty wall on which we collected sticky notes  with thoughts, photographs of people in shopping malls, print screens of apps that help facilitate  navigation in shopping malls, insights from people we interviewed and so on. We collected all this  data on our research wall and began categorizing it in what we called an "affinity diagram". This  approach helped us build connections between different findings and understand the bigger picture.  We also drew experience maps to better understand what a customer's experience is when  navigating a shopping mall, build a clear view of his/her pain points and discover friction points in the  shopping mall experience.    In the define phase, we used visualization to build our personas (fictional people that represent  potential users of your service or product). Building our personas helped us stay on track during the  later phases in the design process. Whenever we faced concerns, we would return to our personas  to remind ourselves what our users' goals and frustrations are, what their personalities are like and  how we can build our product in a way that would best improve their lives and fulfill their needs.

In the idea generation phase, we used visualization by drawing some storyboards in which we  imagined how a product could improve our user's lives. Storyboards are simple drawings of people  performing different activities. By drawing these storyboards, we began understanding in which  direction we should take our product. And of course we used a lot of visualization in the prototype  phase - we drew simple sketches to illustrate our app idea. Also, by drawing an actual prototype of  our product, we were able to test this prototype with real users and gain feedback and insights from  them.    Insights and approach    The visualization tools I talked about in the previous paragraphs helped us gain a lot of insights from  our user and build connections between the problems we discovered, in order to gain an  understanding of a more complex problem. Even though at the beginning, our challenge was to  improve the navigation experience in shopping malls, we discovered that the navigation problem  was linked to a lot of other problems.     For example, we discovered that a lot of the customers of the shopping mall were mothers with  babies - who were using the baby stroller. For these customers, a simple app that would tell them  how to get from point A to point B wouldn't have been enough. They had to know if the path they  were taking was stroller accessible and if there were any mother-baby rooms on their way.  Another  important insight we discovered was that a lot of mall customers never really did any shopping in  shopping malls - they did all their shopping online. We dug deeper into this situation and discovered  that they preferred online shopping because, in shopping malls, they never knew which shops would  fit their budget and which shops to visit if they were looking for a certain item.     Having discovered all these great insights, we were able to design a digital product that not only  improved the navigation experience, but also helped mall customers find out in which stores they  could find the product they were looking for, if those stores fit their budget, how to get to those stores  in the quickest and most accessible manner for them.     Without using visualization, we would have never seen a connection between these insights and our  product would have only delivered a solution for navigation, without taking into consideration all of  the other issues we discovered. We ended up improving not only the customer's experience, but  also addressing the business goals of the shopping mall. And without using visualization to draw a  prototype of our product, we wouldn't have been able to test it with real users. We were able to  improve our product after every round of user testing, based on feedback and insights from the  users.    After this experience, I have been using visualization to deal with all kinds of challenges, related or  not to design. I do think of myself as a visual thinker - I am way better with images than with words -  so every time I am faced with a complex issue, I gather sticky notes, pictures, diagrams, maps and  all kinds of visual artifacts to help me break the issue in smaller chunks, build connections and open  up my mind for possible solutions that can bring innovation.


Reflection - Visualization tool Challenge Last year I took a Design Thinking workshop which concluded with a final assignment for the workshop . The challenge for the respective assignment was to design a digital product that would improve the navigation experience in shopping malls . We paired up in teams of 4 people and started our challenge by outlining our process : empathize ( research ) - define - ideate - prototype - test . We also picked out one shopping mall in which to concentrate our research and design efforts . The shopping mall we picked is the second largest shopping mall in my country , and , as you can imagine , and as we , ourselves , have discovered through our research , there are a lot of friction points in the customer 's experience , related to navigation and not only . I will address these further in this paper . Selection Even though we used all the tools described in this course for our challenge , for the purposes of this assignment I will detail the Visualization tool . I chose to talk about this tool because , in my opinion , it was the tool that delivered the most powerful insights during our research and define phases , and , of course , it played the main role in the idea generation phase . Working in a team of 4 people , we sometimes had different opinions or understandings of the different concepts that arose during our project . The Visualization tool helped us gain a common understanding of these concepts and align our views . I think that this is one of the biggest strengths of visualization - it helps the team share a common understanding . This is widely discussed in Tim Brown 's ​Change by Design​ book , which I recommend to you all . Application As I said before , we used the Visualization tool in different phases of our Design Thinking process . In the research phase , we used a " research wall " - an empty wall on which we collected sticky notes with thoughts , photographs of people in shopping malls , print screens of apps that help facilitate navigation in shopping malls , insights from people we interviewed and so on . We collected all this data on our research wall and began categorizing it in what we called an " affinity diagram " . This approach helped us build connections between different findings and understand the bigger picture . We also drew experience maps to better understand what a customer 's experience is when navigating a shopping mall , build a clear view of his / her pain points and discover friction points in the shopping mall experience . In the define phase , we used visualization to build our personas ( fictional people that represent potential users of your service or product ) . Building our personas helped us stay on track during the later phases in the design process . Whenever we faced concerns , we would return to our personas to remind ourselves what our users ' goals and frustrations are , what their personalities are like and how we can build our product in a way that would best improve their lives and fulfill their needs . In the idea generation phase , we used visualization by drawing some storyboards in which we imagined how a product could improve our user 's lives . Storyboards are simple drawings of people performing different activities . By drawing these storyboards , we began understanding in which direction we should take our product . And of course we used a lot of visualization in the prototype phase - we drew simple sketches to illustrate our app idea . Also , by drawing an actual prototype of our product , we were able to test this prototype with real users and gain feedback and insights from them . Insights and approach The visualization tools I talked about in the previous paragraphs helped us gain a lot of insights from our user and build connections between the problems we discovered , in order to gain an understanding of a more complex problem . Even though at the beginning , our challenge was to improve the navigation experience in shopping malls , we discovered that the navigation problem was linked to a lot of other problems . For example , we discovered that a lot of the customers of the shopping mall were mothers with babies - who were using the baby stroller . For these customers , a simple app that would tell them how to get from point A to point B would n't have been enough . They had to know if the path they were taking was stroller accessible and if there were any mother - baby rooms on their way . Another important insight we discovered was that a lot of mall customers never really did any shopping in shopping malls - they did all their shopping online . We dug deeper into this situation and discovered that they preferred online shopping because , in shopping malls , they never knew which shops would fit their budget and which shops to visit if they were looking for a certain item . Having discovered all these great insights , we were able to design a digital product that not only improved the navigation experience , but also helped mall customers find out in which stores they could find the product they were looking for , if those stores fit their budget , how to get to those stores in the quickest and most accessible manner for them . Without using visualization , we would have never seen a connection between these insights and our product would have only delivered a solution for navigation , without taking into consideration all of the other issues we discovered . We ended up improving not only the customer 's experience , but also addressing the business goals of the shopping mall . And without using visualization to draw a prototype of our product , we would n't have been able to test it with real users . We were able to improve our product after every round of user testing , based on feedback and insights from the users . After this experience , I have been using visualization to deal with all kinds of challenges , related or not to design . I do think of myself as a visual thinker - I am way better with images than with words - so every time I am faced with a complex issue , I gather sticky notes , pictures , diagrams , maps and all kinds of visual artifacts to help me break the issue in smaller chunks , build connections and open up my mind for possible solutions that can bring innovation .