The Design Tree
Customized Design Thinking that incorporates a simulation of the customer story.
Research, Instructional Design, UX, User Testing
Background
"The 21st century will favor adaptability and continuous innovation". Design thinking is more than a mindset but a process that we can use to collaborate to solve problems. There are a variety of design thinking strategies implored all over the world. These design thinking strategies are rarely found as a comprehensive set.
Collaborative Design Thinking
Challenge
How can we create a comprehensive design thinking reference for Application Development Managers and their teams? A design thinking reference that would incorporate digital storytelling and could be used in collaborative design thinking to prepare teams to embark on new projects.
Tutorials
Each design thinking strategy was thoroughly researched and began with a question declaring its purpose, allowing the user to understand why this strategy was used. It continues with animation describing the overall purpose and illustrating why this exercise is needed. Each video then continues with an animation of the design thinking diagram and the steps the user should take to execute the design thinking strategy.
The first iteration to solve this problem implored a familiar format; a list table was used to organize all the design thinking strategies captured in video format. The list table displayed design thinking strategies alphabetically and included a search feature. The early prototype failed as a reference guide; it didn't allow the user to thoroughly survey the list and compare and contrast design thinking strategies. Finding the correct format for The Design Tree was challenging, but the logo design provided clues on how we should approach the interface. The Design Tree logo was itself a reference, and quickly a concept emerged, a grid table format was born. The new grid table format included five rows for each step in The Design Tree. The videos within the grid were exchanged for an image of its corresponding design thinking diagram. Each diagram was interactive, allowing the user to click on the diagram to view the video of the design thinking strategy. The grid table format was ideal visually it served as a reference to plan design thinking exercises and was interactive, allowing the user to click into the diagram to learn more information. In addition, the video page included a share text link and text link back to the design tree, along with a button to download the strategy and instructions.
Results
Finally, The Design Tree transforms any space into a Design Lab. Engaging leaders, entrepreneurs, companies, and ecosystems collaborating, co-creating, and cross-collaborating to create innovative companies and a transformative future economy. The design tree incorporates a powerful new strategy called digital storytelling our customer story in video format which serves as the perfect prompt into all design thinking and the perfect repository for collaborative user research. Which make it possible for us to design think beyond individual companies but to design future economies. After creating our digital story, our customer story is in video format. We can now utilizes The Design Tree’s 40 collaborative design thinking strategies to collaborate and co-create with others and even cross-collaborate to design future programs, policies, and products. This modular format allows The Design Tree to work individually and collaboratively giving communities the opportunity to see how their individual ideas can work synergistically as a community, ecosystem, or a future economy.