Design Journal Series: Week 5
[As part of my design thinking class at the Harvard Graduate School of Education this Spring, I’m exploring how edtech experiences are designed and tested, with the help of a great bunch of classmates, instructors and ex-colleagues (who I debrief with first thing after class!). I’m starting this series of weekly design journal- where I hope to list down my assumptions, thoughts and post testing reflections.]
Last week- I met one of the most talented and thoughtful cartoonists of my life, Tomihiro Ono (Tomi! Glad to have sat next to you in class and learned so much!)
We prepared for a storyboarding workshop in class for our first stab at building a simulation prototype, as part of our mixed reality module.
I wanted to build a mixed reality prototype focused on the question:
Can empathy be taught via MR/AR/VR?
And the problem statement
“How might we create exposure for social entrepreneurs to understand the challenges of implementing tech based interventions in a low tech environment”
Tomi listened to my very amateur pitch, that I was building for my MIT D Lab supervisor, as part of my work, and changed it to this following story.
It’s an interactive simulation that is designed for social entrepreneurs. This prototype is a generic one, we’re still in the beginning of the double diamond process- this prototype serves the purpose of collecting more questions for the simulation design
[Frame 1] Entrepreneur thinks of an idea and player chooses from options. Fleshes out some challenges, potential solutions and assumptions
[Frame 2] Player chooses EdTech. Entrepreneur goes to sleep and sees a dream. She is in a school in a rural area.
[Frame 3] She is trying to focus in a classroom. Teacher is talking. She has a tablet in her hand, she is sharing with two more classmates. The tab is slow. There are too many distractions. She can’t focus. The teacher’s voice isn’t clear. She couldn’t understand the instructions.
[Frame 4] After similar layers of challenges.. player gets an option to include more perceived challenges.
[Frame 5] She goes back and notes down changes to her initial solution. What new things did she learn? Any reality checks?
[Frame 6] She collaborates with other social innovators and entrepreneurs.
Tomi also suggested the idea of including a version where player takes the perspective of the teacher. He made the story much more engaging. This was a HUGE creative inspiration for me. Thanks Tomi!