The Design Thinking Quickstart Guide, made for teachers who want to create innovative solutions for classrooms, schools and communities.
Design
Thinking
for
Educators
Improve
your
school!
in 1
hour
or
less!
“How can I
improve my
school in just
an hour?”
Well, truth is, Educator… you are also a Designer.
This little book will introduce you to a process that helps you be inspired to design new solutions for the challenges you face.
Design Thinking is a process that is optimistic, collaborative, and creative. So, embrace your inner designer, step out of your comfort zone, and try Design Thinking on for size. You might just learn something new yourself!
“ I draw on design process all of the time now in thinking about almost every system you can imagine, from how to archive student records to how to involve parents in our new student assessment strategies.”
Karen Fierst Learning Specialist New York, NY
First, you have to choose a design challenge.
What’s your wish for something you want to fix in your school?
I WANT TO DESIGN A:
CURRICULUM SPACE PROCESS OR TOOL SYSTEM
HERE’S A TIP:
Think of a few things you may find yourself complaining about or wishing could be better. You may wish for a better way to teach a tough lesson or for a
better way to collaborate with your peers. Maybe you have dreams of a library that better serves today’s learner or want to consider a new way to use your classroom space to more deeply engage students in learning. Heck, maybe you even wish your day would be more balanced and wish that your school would design ways that teachers and students can be well. A new format for parent-teacher conferences that really engages parents. A new vision for the school day schedule. The opportunities are endless!
I have a challenge.
How do I approach it? DISCOVERY
1
I learned something.
How do I interpret it? INTERPRETATION
2
Already
feeling
nervous?
Good!
That excitedenergy will help you as you move through the 5 stages of the design process.
Get
curious!
Make
sense
of it all!
I see an opportunity.
What do I create? IDEATION
3
I have an idea.
How do I build it? EXPERIMENTATION
4
I tried something new.
How do I evolve it? EVOLUTION
5
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, TAKE A MOMENT TO MEDITATE ON THIS:
Design Thinking is about believing we c an make a difference, and having an intentional p
rocess in order to get to new, relevant solutions t
hat create positive impact. Design Thinking gives yo
u faith in your creative abilities and a process for t
ransforming difficult challenges into opportunities f
or design.
Keep
it going!
Generate new
Discovery
Get
curious!
If you want to create new and innovative solutions, you need to find a new way to get inspired beyond the things you already know. Dare to go out of your comfort zone and explore… A good designer is always looking to be surprised, finding inspiration through asking great questions or seeing the world with “beginner’s” eyes. There are many ways you can get inspired.
Here are a few ideas for you…
Immerse yourself in the context of the person you are designing for. Designing for a student? Sit in their chair! Designing for other teachers? Sit in their classrooms!
Visit a totally unexpected place. Designing a new library? Visit a hip retail store! Designing a new approach to teaching fractions? Visit a pizza parlor!
Ask someone about their life. Are you designing a new way to engage students in learning foreign languages? Ask them about what they love to do over the weekend… it will give you ideas for how to engage them! Designing an approach to professional development for your school? Ask another adult about the last time they really enjoyed learning something!
1
MINUTES15
A team from Riverdale Country School was designing new ways for their teachers to collaborate. They visited a number of analogous settings—a fire station, a corporate office, and a design studio—to inspire new solutions for their challenge. They were so inspired by some of the meeting dynamics in the corporation, they decided to use them in their school.
A team redesigning a sc
hool library went to the Apple store and wa
s inspired by the in-store concierge expe
rience. The team ended up designing a ser
vice experience directly inspired by what t
hey saw.
FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE THE METHODS LISTED IN THE TOOLKIT:
1-1 Understand the Challenge 1-2 Prepare Research 1-3 Gather Inspiration
DISCOVERY
Phase
1
WHERE YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS WHAT’S IN THIS PHASE
1-1 Understand the Challenge 26 1-2 Prepare Research 29 1-3 Gather Inspiration 33
Interpretation
Make
sense
of it all!
2
FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE THE METHODS LISTED IN THE TOOLKIT:
2-1 Tell Stories 2-2 Search for Meaning 2-3 Frame Opportunities A team of educators from t
he Howard County School District explorin
g the question of creating a 21st century l
earning experience for their students capture p
atterns they found after meeting with youth, parents, and te
achers.
INTERPRETATION
WHERE YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS WHAT’S IN THIS PHASE
2-1 Tell Stories 41 2-2 Search for meaning 43 2-3 Frame Opportunities 46 Interpretation Phase 2 MINUTES
10
DO THIS INYour job as a designer is to see the forest through the trees. Interpretation is the art of making sense of what we’ve seen and heard during the observations. It’s a process that takes us from scattered observations to meaningful insights.
During this step, you reflect on what you discovered and see it from a totally, completely, new perspective.
What are 3 interesting patterns or themes that the people you talked to or the place you visited inspired for you? List them as opportunities for design. Not answers, mind you... That will come in the next step. A design opportunity gives you a moment to think about what you hadn’t noticed before... And is most helpful when you turn those insights into an opportunity. We like to do that as statements beginning with “How might we…”, or “What if…”
Let’s say, for instance, that you are redesigning the space of your classroom and you chatted with some students who made you realize that they’re wishing for a mix of comfort and structure in the classroom. You could say, “How might we create our classroom to integrate comfort and structure?”
A team of educators from the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) was tasked with publicizing the programs in their newly-built building. Through interpreting their observations they discovered the simple (but powerful) insight that parents were the gatekeepers of students’ time. By shifting marketing materials to focus on parents versus students, they caused program enrollment to skyrocket.
Ideation
Generate
new
ideas!
FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE THE METHODS LISTED IN THE TOOLKIT:
3-1 Generate Ideas 3-2 Refine Ideas
This is the part you’ve been waiting for…Brainstorming! Sometimes it takes a lot of not-yet-great ideas, to find the ideas that really feel innovative. Sometimes it takes combining multiple ideas to find the solution that feels best. Brainstorming is a unique Design Thinking method in that there are actual rules, and yes, you must follow them! Trust us, this will help push you to generate out-of-box solutions and get your creative juices flowing.
3
IDEATION
WHERE YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS WHAT’S IN THIS PHASE
3-1 Generate Ideas 50 3-2 Refine Ideas 54 Ideation Phase 3 MINUTES
10
DO THIS INBRAINSTORM RULES
DEFER JUDGMENT. There are no bad i
deas at
this point. There will be plenty of tim
e to narrow them down later.
ENCOURAGE WILD IDEAS. Even if an idea
doesn’t seem realistic, it may spark a g
reat idea
for someone else.
BUILD ON THE IDEAS OF OTHERS.
Think
“and” rather than “but.”
STAY FOCUSED ON TOPIC. To get more out
of your session, keep your brainstorm question
in sight.
ONE CONVERSATION AT A TIME
. All ideas
need to be heard, so that they may be built upon.
BE VISUAL. Draw your ideas, as opposed to
just writing them down. Stick figures a
nd simple
sketches can say more than many wo
rds.
GO FOR QUANTITY. Set an outrageou
s goal—
then surpass it. The best way to find one good
idea is to come up with lots of ideas.
Ideation
Generate
new
ideas!
TIP Find at least 2-3 people to join your brainstorm. The more heads in the g
ame, the more ideas you’ll come up with!
Experimentation
Make
something!
FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE THE METHODS LISTED IN THE TOOLKIT:
4-1 Make Prototypes 4-2 Get Feedback If you build it, you will learn. Prototypes allow you to share your idea with other people and figure out what’s working—and what’s not working—about your concept. It can sometimes feel daunting to “bring an idea to life,” but we assure you, you can do a lot with paper, scissors, and imagination.
The important thing is to make your idea tangible. Don’t worry about getting it right the first time, just get started. The best prototypes change significantly over time. You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn about your idea just in the process of building it out.
4
EXPERIMENTATION
WHERE YOU ARE IN THE PROCESS WHAT’S IN THIS PHASE 4-1 Make Prototypes 58 4-2 Get Feedback 60 Experimen-tation Phase 4 MINUTES
15
DO THIS INPrototypes come in all shapes, sizes, and forms. Challenge yourself to try prototyping a form you don’t usually work with. You might surprise yourself with how much fun you have with this new working style!
DIAGRAM
A team of teachers from schools across t he nation were redesig
ning the school library for the needs of today’s student. They w
anted to see what a library experience would f
eel like if it was built more l
ike a tree-house. Before talking to architects a
bout the idea, they tested it out in a r
apid and rough manner.
FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE THE METHODS LISTED IN THE TOOLKIT:
4-1 Make Prototypes 4-2 Get Feedback INTERACTION ROLE PLAY MOCK-UP MODEL
Evolution
Keep
it going!
Phew, by now you’ve attempted to change your school for the better. How did it go? What was it like to go outside your comfort zone—or your classroom—to look for inspiration? Evolution is all about reflecting on what you’ve done, what you learned and how you’d do it differently next time, and then—perhaps, most importantly—what you want to do next.
So, what do you want to do next?
5
A group of community volunteers and educators at Design Thinking Hawaii, wanted feedback on their design challenge—the Castle Complex Redesign Initiative. In order to assess community interest, get feedback, and test the resonance of their current ideas, the team held an outreach session at the local Windward Mall.
MINUTES
5
For a deeper dive into
Design Thinking and
step-by-step worksheets
to guide you through your
next design challenge,
download the (free!)
Design Thinking
for Educators Toolkit
and
Designer’s Workbook.
www.designthinkingforeducators.comWe want to hear about what you’re working on! Send us stories about what you’ve been designing. [email protected]
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