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The Digital Innovation Playbook

Pre-Presentation

The Innovation Board is a framework that combines best practices from user-centered design. 

Its main goal is to create a shared language to bridge the communication gap between Doers (Individuals involved in creating or improving digital products and services) and Enablers (managers who want to foster innovation through user-centric development). Just like in the story of Babylon, a project is to fail when the people do not understand each other.

Before one can start there a few basic tools mentioned that are essential for innovation. To name a few:

Time-Boxing: In the last module Design Process we were asked to create a first prototype within 30 minutes. I learned how valuable such "pressure-cooker" exercizes are. There is no time for discussing back and forth instead it requires a "yes and" approach in teamwork.

Teamwork Techniques: The book touches on the topic of teamwork, presenting multiple ways to improve it such as not creating a hierarchy, encouraging silly ideas and a profound work culture. Especially in Interaction Design this is a crucial aspect.

Next to the tools the board is structured around three main modules: Explore, Create, Evaluate 

Explore: In Design the main goal is to find out "What problem does the user have?" and then iterate on "How might we change this?". Truly understanding the user is inevitable. In this phase it is important to collect data with methods such as Qualitative Interviews or Explorative Interviews.  

What I found useful to increase the quantity of interviews is to visually show one's intentions. Again in the Design Process module, on our first field research day barely anyone wanted to get interviewed by me - around 1 out of 4 people accepted an interview (25%). Next time I came with a sheet showing the most important information such as ZHDK and the name of the module. I started the conversation by showing this sheet and suddenly people were ready to talk. Around 9 out of 10 people agreed to be interviewed (90%).

Create: I found that most of the methods listed have already been implemented atleast once in our projects, I think multiple methods work well and I wouldn't say one is better than an other. The probably most often used method is:

Brainstorming: fast-paced method. Everyone contributes with sticky notes and visuals while giving input. This works especially great on figma where everyone can add images and such communicate on a level beyond the spoken word. It has aspects of the Ideation Tower method (building on each other's ideas) but it still happens simultaneously and randomly. Sometimes it helps not to communiate with each other the ideas since this leaves it open to interpretation and new directions could grow from that.

What we haven't explored yet are Inspiration Cards. I do think this could be very useful to move away from our usual associations with a specific subjects.

The authors suggest to mix intuitive methods (open-ended, free-flowing) such as Brainstorming with discursive methods (structured, logical) such as Ideation Tower of idea generation to create more balance. 

Evaluate: It wouldn't be correct to call this the last part of the process since design is about switching back and forth between these modules while iterating, improving and refining the product. However the evaluation step encompasses practices, among them:

Rules such as  "Kill Your Darling": I believe it is the most important part of a creative person to adapt. There should never be a dead end. Thus it is important to be able to easily discard features or even entire concepts. One should always strive for what makes most sense. I believe that Design should have a trajectory but that one must be open to whatever impressions one experiences while following this trajectory in order to deviate from it and form another new trajectory. Design isn't a straight line, but a zigzag. 

Pre Mortem: I did not know of this method yet and I'm yet unsure how useful it is. On one hand I find it crucial to identify potential risks. This also shows how each team member thinks and where their cognitive focus lies. One person may be more prone to teamwork conflicts and may suspect this as a potential pitfall while the other may be more focused on specific technical parts. On the other hand there's the saying that goes along the lines of "if you imagine the negative, you will attract the negative". In other words if we are preoccupied with what could all go wrong and worry this will push down the morale of the group. That's why I think it makes sense to try to approach this method more delicately.



AI Disclaimer: Because of time constraints ChatGPT was used for support to understand larger information of text in a shorter amount of time


Post-Presentation

Interaction Design History

Ergonomics already implemented around 500 BC - integrating user experience. Some important designers or milestones in the field of UX:

     >  Henry Dreyfuss > "Designing for people" , importance to scientific approaches. There should not             be friction between the products and the users.

     >  Disney as one of the first UX designer's , Mickey's Ten Commandments

      >  User interface of Xerox Star

      >  Bill Atkinson (Apple Macintosh): importance of iteration and rewriting. Sometimes what we                     think is easy to understand is not actually easy for the users. 

      >  Susan Kare (Apple) > graphic and icon designer, Geneva and Chicago for Apple (typographies),                 importance for universality (should speak to every single person). 

      >  Muriel Cooper  (MIT Media lab) > going from 2D to bridgin to 3D. 

      >  Don Norman (The Design of Everyday Things) > founded the term UX."it's a system that's e                     everything"

      >  Miller columns > navigate through music libraries (iPod Classic)

Double Diamond Process: 

Part 1 "designing the right thing" : Discover/Diverge (brainstorm, field & desk research, gather artifacts, sources) > Define/Converge (insights, themes, How-might-we-questions)

Part 2 "designing things right" : Discover/Diverge (ideation(yes and approach)-evaluation cycle) > Define/Diverge (Built-iterate-test cycle)

Design Thinking Process

User-centered approach / iterative process(defining, ideating, prototyping, testing) / multidisciplinatory collaboration / embracing experimentation (failure are a good thing for the whole process)

Design Sprints

Day 1: context, what do we want

Day 2: sketching solution ideas / recruit users

Day 3: discuss sketched ideas > voting. decide what to test. Prototype and plan

Day 4-5: user testing, record notes, quotes. observe sessions. Recap findings

Next: Design Refinement

Digital Innovation Playbook

Megatrends / Jobs to be done / Design Thinking / Service Design / Lean Testing / Rapid Prototyping / Business Model Canvas

Persona Method

Tool to put ourselvese in the shoes of our users. Developed after initial interviews and data was synthesized. Not an individual person but a synthesized collective/essence

Consists of : Name & Last Name / Gender Identity / Age / Profession (where, what) / Financial lifestyle / Family / Biography (city, neighborhood) / photos (illustration)

> We define the inner value cosmos of our persona  

personality / money spending / hobbies / digital devices & digital behaviors / specific needs / everyday joys / everyday challenges / desires / passions / 

User Journey / User Flow

Step by step guidance 

Journey: holistic, high-level experience, across channels & over time (for example choosing a university degree). Connect all the touchpoints and their emotions. (macro-view & long term) 

Flow: Outline ideas and typical steps to accomplish  (micro-view & short term) 


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