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User Inspired Design MUO-E3005, 2015
Lauri Kkel, lauri.kakela@aalto.fi
Aarne Leinonen, aarne.leinonen@aalto.fi
Tuomas Puttonen, tuomas.puttonen@aalto.fi
Lindsay Simmonds, lindsay.simmonds@aalto.fi
The target of our UID project was to help young people
to choose their future. We quickly limited the scope
to include only career and educational decisions that
the young people face. We made interviews with two
school counselors and a focus group session with the
kids aged 14-15. The total allocated time of the team
was 73 man-days. We came up with a concept that
Tuomas
Lauri
Lindsay
All Artefacts can be found in digital format from a dropbox folder. Link: bit.ly/1GtApYE
Aarne
Invitation
As one of the first things during our process we
designed this Invitation to our Human Centered Design
research for school counsellors and teachers. Our
initial research question shown revealed to the test
candidates was How can we provide teenagers with
better tools for choosing their own future? The idea
was to use the snowball method; we thought that
through teachers and counsellors we could efficiently
reach groups of students as well.
Making the invitation was a piece of cake compared to breaking the experience
machine.
Reflections
Aarne
Lauri
Lindsay
Tuomas
The task itself was quite light to deal with. We were struggling more with the process that lead to the
result: during the first week we already had to frame what we would be working on for the rest of the
course. After getting over that stress, the invitation was fairly easy to conduct.
It was interesting how all the groups in this course picked so different topics. I wonder how much did
the topics and outcomes reflect ourselves?
The start was really fast. Still assembling the pieces of the course outline and already blasting full on
with the team project.
Comment
Week 2 / Codesign
Reflections
Aarne
Lauri
Lindsay
Tuomas
what worked:
dual interviews of students who were either friends or knew each other allowed them to have
discussions and comfort giving us an opportunity to ask more questions.
Pictures and writing/drawing on post-its resonated w/participants and generated more discussion,
text not so much.
what didnt work:
Group of four with two pairs of friends had a power dynamic that was difficult to navigate, discussion
wasnt open and free, resulting in fewer quality responses.
Sessions were quite short for us to get in-depth responses. We werent able to get into questions
about positive and negative influences (pressures) of family and friends. In terms of length of time and
the students attention span they were suitable length of time, but perhaps a follow-up one-on-one
interview after analysing the results to investigate the problems more in-depth.
what we learned:
We dont know how much the images we provided influenced the students responses
what wed do differently:
more workshops and only done in pairs and follow-up with one-on-one interviews
Comment
The Story
The blended HCD and CD workshop with the 9th
graders gave us an understanding of what kind of
situation and emotional state these young students
are in that they suddenly have to make a long lasting
decision about their future. Now we needed to translate
the raw qualitative data we generated in such a way
that would visually communicate the most important
findings we did, and enable us to export this
information to others in an engaging way.
caption
Left: we used affinity diagraming to determine three themes in our
research: information, influences and making decisions. Above, left:
to begin our research analysis we compiled all our data and put
key points on post-its. Following this we categorised and coded our
post-its and reassembled them into major themes. Above, right:
Once we had our themes we crafted and illustrated Wilmas story.
caption
Reflections
Aarne
Lauri
Lindsay
Tuomas
Designing Wilma was harder than expected. We needed a tricky combination in terms of the school
system forcing her to choose between vocational and high school, but also a realistic palette of
interests and personality for our audience to easily relate to.
Being emotionally touched by our own story was new to me. Now reflecting on that moment I realize
how important it is to make an emotional bond if you are trying to impact somebodys mind and
behavior.
As an illustration technique, using the post-its in a very honest way worked well for our idea. It was
a good choice to show our hands in the pictures. It made our strytelling voice stronger, without
interupting the audiences immersion in the story too much.
Comment
STAKEHOLDERS
ACTIVITY
COUNSELLING CLASSES
Exploring
Weekly lectures
Discovering strengths/
weaknesses
Possibilities
Gaining knowledge
Failing
DOING
TET
FACE-TO-FACE COUNSELLING
Discussing about
personal strengths
Expressing personal
interests and goals
Possible alternatives
Visitor talks
Excursions
Following instincts
Developing own
insights and ideas
about working and
careers
Surfing University/Institute
websites
TALKING TO PARENTS
Asking opinions
Talking on dinner table
Parents parenting
Exchanging information
TALKING TO RELATIVES
TALKING TO FRIENDS
Share information
Sympathizing together
Application process
Signing life away
After 3 years realise theyve
made a mistake, they
change career direction
Im not alone
Anxiety
Anxiety
Confused
Compare options
Dinner talks
Listening to stories (adult
to adult)
This is helpful
Complex sites
Wow. I didnt know I could
study this
Am I good enough?
Excited about future
Bored
Sense of impending doom
Dread
Inspired
Confused
FEELING
Inspired
Reluctant
Supported
Fear
Compassion
Comforted
Insecure
Companionship
Excitement
sense of accomplishment
Offering information in
coherent, structured way
Reflections
We reused the post-its from our affinity diagram in our first draft of the process chart.
Aarne
Lauri
Lindsay
Tuomas
Deciding what kind of chart we wanted was hard. Everybody had their preferences varying from
personas to user journey map. Sketching few alternatives helped us to decide what chart would be the
most helpful. Still I feel that we did not get the perfect one. Seeing more charts and variations could
help to realize all the possibilities.
The chart revealed two sets of missing information: how the parents and relatives think and feel
about the process. Although I was aware that we didnt have data from this group, seeing the gaps
on the chart was a strong visual reminder. This raised my awareness of the areas that I would likely
have to make assumptions about the young students. It would have been very helpful to our concept
development to arrange interviews, or a codesign session, with the parents and relatives.
Comment
Image
This simple picture represents the goal of our
concept: a young person can collect little pieces of
information, put them together and reflect on those
in order to see some glimpses for ones future. The
kid is actively building his own board and starts to
see his dream job. The picture is intended to work in
a poster.
Our team started brainstorming by drawing a picture
per post-it. By working closely we got inspired by
each others ideas. The post-it size ensured that the
ideas would be simple enough. The final picture was
produced with a palette of different medias such as
vector drawing, 3D modeling and rendering.
Reflections
Aarne
Lauri
Lindsay
Tuomas
Simplifying the concept in a single picture can be helpful. The idea can be communicated much easier
when there is a simple picture that captures the essence of the idea. This task was much like making an
advertisement for the concept.
We were a bit too focused on this strong metaphor of a mirror, so the image might be a bit obscure for
a first-time viewer. However, Its a strong message for someone who knows a bit of our concept.
Comment
Week 6 / Presentation
Proposal
We propose a new communication manner between
the student and the counselor. In our concept the
student becomes an active agent by building a board
of his or hers own career research. The expanding
board is them working as a communication tool
between the student and the counselor.
Reflections
Aarne
Lauri
Lindsay
Tuomas
Even though we dropped several important themes and drivers from our concept in order to avoid a
swiss-army-knife solution, it still remains quite complex. Hovewer, with pragmatic work we managed to
get the complex package seem quite convincing - or thats what I think at least.
In my opinion we went too far in suggesting a new specific platform when there are plenty of those in the
market. Understanding what it means to design, code and maintain a completely new communication
platform, I would avoid it to the very last. The strengths of our concept were in its adaptiveness and
openness. By making only suggestions about potential platform, the idea could scale quicker. In the end
it is not the platform that makes the difference but the supported behavior of the people.
Comment