Example Reflection – Visualization

Challenge  I’m the founder and CEO of a mobile application development company, with a background in  enterprise document management and archive solutions. Our challenge was to provide an on- the-go solution that enables a government top-ranking official (minister) to securely approve  (primarily digitally sign), and issue work directives (within their organization) using their paper- based documents, where cloud-storage or cloud-processing is not an option (systems are  locked within the organization for security). The medium of choice was the iPad, and the  primary objective of the project was to enhance and optimize the official’s response time to  decision-making requirements while on-the-go (out-of-office, or more specially so, out-of- country), eventually minimizing latency in execution.       Selection  Being familiar with several design thinking tools, and given the sensitivity of the  challenge/project, we opted to adopt the visualization tool among the diverse group of  stakeholders in the early stages of the concept development prior attempting to identify and  define possible solutions to the challenge; provide a shared and expanded understanding of the  need.     We particularly focused on adopting visualization at the envisioning phase to align ideas and  provide a broader understanding of the challenge, elicit inductive reasoning to crystalize the  need, unlock and extrapolate the creativity potential, solicit and detail the envisioned  functionalities, and articulate the preferred user experience.       Application  For our first visualization attempt, we developed rich screen mockups of the primary user  journey; digitally signing a paper-scanned document and issuing directives to drive work within  their organization. Although the initial presentation of the mockups was conducted for the IT  office, where the request originally generated from, we eventually transcended into conducting  multiple sessions, each with different stakeholders (CIO, CTO, Minister’s office), and ultimately  an all-stakeholder session. Throughout these sessions, we progressed through understanding,  reflection, tweaking and reworking the mockups towards the final all-stakeholder session.    Our second attempt for visualization was then to transform those refined mockups into a more  lively, interactive and rich user experience, and re-present the outcome primary to the Minister  himself (along with senior executives of his organization). What was required is a visualization  that is more than a storyboard, with rich user-experience detailing every step (user journey) of  the minister’s process to sign the documents, but not an actual prototype – more of shell  representation (i.e.: Navigating actual functional screens, with actual documents and process-

data, but with rich UI that mimics a live-final app and carefully crafted compelling user- experience details (UX) - yet without any connectivity or integrations.    For us, the purpose of this was to capture the ultimate user agreeability and consent to the  whole user-experience prior to engaging with the CIO office for detailing the required business  rules and integrations with their systems.        Insight & Approach  Iterating and engaging with the different stakeholders has revealed many insights into our  adopted process, our understanding and our initial assumptions. Our initial mockups were too  focused on the functional side, whilst the senior officials focus was ease of use and simplicity.  Balancing between functionality, security and ease-of-use added several iterations to our  developed mockups.     Our team will be reviewing whether prior stakeholder interviewing (without mockups) would  have bridged some of the potential understanding gaps that we may initially have had of any  presented challenge. That said, to address the identified insight, and circumvent the gap, the  team incorporated a second visualization attempt-cycle; that of adopting a lively, interactive,  rich shell representation.     An interesting and critical insight was related to top-official perception and understanding of  the experience when signing a document, leading us to re-envision the whole signing process to  become more immersive, through incorporating the capacitive pen and leveraging the whole  landscape of the iPad as a signature pad.     These kinds of insights are truly what are most valuable from using design thinking tools:  provide collaborative reflection, understanding, definition and discovery at early stages of the  challenge.


Example Reflection – Visualization Challenge I ’m the founder and CEO of a mobile application development company , with a background in enterprise document management and archive solutions . Our challenge was to provide an on- the - go solution that enables a government top - ranking official ( minister ) to securely approve ( primarily digitally sign ) , and issue work directives ( within their organization ) using their paper- based documents , where cloud - storage or cloud - processing is not an option ( systems are locked within the organization for security ) . The medium of choice was the iPad , and the primary objective of the project was to enhance and optimize the official ’s response time to decision - making requirements while on - the - go ( out - of - office , or more specially so , out - of- country ) , eventually minimizing latency in execution . Selection Being familiar with several design thinking tools , and given the sensitivity of the challenge / project , we opted to adopt the visualization tool among the diverse group of stakeholders in the early stages of the concept development prior attempting to identify and define possible solutions to the challenge ; provide a shared and expanded understanding of the need . We particularly focused on adopting visualization at the envisioning phase to align ideas and provide a broader understanding of the challenge , elicit inductive reasoning to crystalize the need , unlock and extrapolate the creativity potential , solicit and detail the envisioned functionalities , and articulate the preferred user experience . Application For our first visualization attempt , we developed rich screen mockups of the primary user journey ; digitally signing a paper - scanned document and issuing directives to drive work within their organization . Although the initial presentation of the mockups was conducted for the IT office , where the request originally generated from , we eventually transcended into conducting multiple sessions , each with different stakeholders ( CIO , CTO , Minister ’s office ) , and ultimately an all - stakeholder session . Throughout these sessions , we progressed through understanding , reflection , tweaking and reworking the mockups towards the final all - stakeholder session . Our second attempt for visualization was then to transform those refined mockups into a more lively , interactive and rich user experience , and re - present the outcome primary to the Minister himself ( along with senior executives of his organization ) . What was required is a visualization that is more than a storyboard , with rich user - experience detailing every step ( user journey ) of the minister ’s process to sign the documents , but not an actual prototype – more of shell representation ( i.e. : Navigating actual functional screens , with actual documents and process- data , but with rich UI that mimics a live - final app and carefully crafted compelling user- experience details ( UX ) - yet without any connectivity or integrations . For us , the purpose of this was to capture the ultimate user agreeability and consent to the whole user - experience prior to engaging with the CIO office for detailing the required business rules and integrations with their systems . Insight & Approach Iterating and engaging with the different stakeholders has revealed many insights into our adopted process , our understanding and our initial assumptions . Our initial mockups were too focused on the functional side , whilst the senior officials focus was ease of use and simplicity . Balancing between functionality , security and ease - of - use added several iterations to our developed mockups . Our team will be reviewing whether prior stakeholder interviewing ( without mockups ) would have bridged some of the potential understanding gaps that we may initially have had of any presented challenge . That said , to address the identified insight , and circumvent the gap , the team incorporated a second visualization attempt - cycle ; that of adopting a lively , interactive , rich shell representation . An interesting and critical insight was related to top - official perception and understanding of the experience when signing a document , leading us to re - envision the whole signing process to become more immersive , through incorporating the capacitive pen and leveraging the whole landscape of the iPad as a signature pad . These kinds of insights are truly what are most valuable from using design thinking tools : provide collaborative reflection , understanding , definition and discovery at early stages of the challenge .