The DESIGN Blog

[itsmdgblog]

The sketches are my process in deciding what kind of package I wanted to represent my overall design of Zoco Choco chocolate. The inspiration derived from my own background as a Mexican American and decided to understand where cocoa came from. To my discovery the cocoa bean was greatly used by Aztec and Mayan Tribes. Zoco Choco is stemmed from an Aztec god that represents love and desire. Therefore, the logo is derivative of a Mayan glyph that signifies love. 

[itsmdgblog]

ZOCO CHOCO 

#conceptstrategies

#comdes 

[itsmdgblog]

Vernacular Typography 

Street Signs 

Roaming around the streets of Downtown New Braunfels was quite the experience to visit a new place and observe the variety of signs in neon lights, fonts, sizes, and styles. “Street Signs” is based primarily on the name of an art school near the street San Antonio. Therefore, the hierarchy of this poster is “Total Art Design and Architecture,” referencing the Communication Design Program. Moreover, the visual texture within the title accompanied by the low opacity of text and color consisting of red, yellow, and a tint of green draw the viewer’s eye to the street sign San Antonio alongside with the vertical position of the title. Overall, the decision to have a dark background allow the composition to have a contrasting, brighter foreground color so that the hierarchy can remain as emphasis throughout the composition. The location and date that the images were taken is placed on the left hand corner of the composition opposite of the title to have a symmetrical balance of text throughout the layout.

[itsmdgblog]

Letter Forms and Objects

M & G 

In a Serif Font, the uppercase letter M is primarily composed of two stems on each side that connect with two strokes in the middle which creates a vertex, or the foot that created a point at the end of the letter. In addition, above the vertex, an apex is created with the connection of both stems and strokes meeting in the middle to create the letter. The left and right stem vary from one another because the left stem and right stroke appear to be thinner compared to the right stem and left stroke which are thicker. This permits the visual, asymmetrical balance of the position of the leaves due to the difference size of strokes within the letter. The left and right stem contain a bracket that connects between the stem and therefore, creates a foot on both sides which allows the letter to rest upon the baseline. The counterform or partially enclosed negative space is noticed by the remaining negative space of the two stems connecting with the strokes in the center. The foot permits the viewer to recognize the Serif Font type in this letter. Therefore, the letter “m” is constructed with the Serif font type Adobe Caslon.

The uppercase letter “g” in a Serif font begins with a bracket or foot, then it is curved into an arm leading to what is called stress and it is also considered the main stroke. The arm and stress or curvature on the side of this uppercase letter is connected to the spur; the spur is a small projection that deviates off the main stroke. Then it leads to the chin, or the upward stem which ends in the upper right serif where the letter is completed. The counter of this letter is the open space that is created by the beginning serif and ending serif that encounter each other but do not meet. The uppercase letter is between the baseline and the cap-height line. Therefore, the letter “g” is constructed by the Serif font type Century. The counter within this letter successfully permits the mountains to occupy the open space that balances throughout the illustration because the stroke of the letter g is broadened. The waves towards the bottom of the letter depict the idea of water, therefore, the color blue throughout the letter portrays water and allows the viewer to conclude that the letter g acts as a body of water to establish the scenery of a mountainous landscape.  

[itsmdgblog]

Book Jacket 

Dirty Work

"Dirty Work," by Larry Brown is a narration of two complete strangers that share their memories, romantic escapes, and childhood stories alongside each other in a Virginia hospital while drinking beer. Walter James and Braiden Chaney were both born and raised in Mississippi, fought in the Vietnam War, and were gravely injured and met at a Virginia hospital. The book jacket's layout is primarily a representation of a flag in reference to their service, however, the fifty stars are replaced by twenty-two skulls portraying the twenty-two years that Braiden Chaney has spent in the hospital with hope to die soon. The centered red line depicts their loss of physical blood during their service and the agony of the days, months, and years that they have spent separate from their families, and the loss of a normal life of a man. The title of constructed of magazine letter cutouts and placed to give the idea of a ransom letter due to the fact that they have been kidnapped from the life that they wanted to have, yet could not due to their post-war injuries.

[itsmdgblog]

Creative Book

Barber Shop

Barbers are a growing, artistic business that has been increasing back in my hometown, Laredo, Texas. Therefore, this artistic profession inspired me to create this book. It visually demonstrates the commonly used tools that barbers use to execute their cuts and styles. Although, there is not a step by step process due that every client is different based on their preferences, but have the similar need to style and cut their hair. Thus, the layouts in each page display the primary image of the tool accompanied by secondary and tertiary image of the same tool in a different angle, close up, or set accordingly to the barber in its station with a threshold adjustment to create texture within each page. In addition, to capture the artistic sense of the barber a black box with a difference adjustment was set on the left hand corner of the page to create contrast with color.

[itsmdgblog]

Opposing Forces

Hear, See, Talk No Evil

As an individual, we all have to examine ourselves from the inside out. From my own personal experience, I belief that each one of us at some point of our lives categorized ourselves as someone without fault. However, that makes all of us hypocrites. Therefore, the incorporation of the allegory of “Hear, See, Talk No Evil,” represents how we perceive ourselves as individuals who have never seen, heard, or spoken evil to others or even our own image. To emphasize the reality of ourselves, the eyes and lips are exposed opposed to the saying because the truth is, we hear, see, and talk evil unconsciously and consciously. The contrast color of the red lips portrays the dangerous trait that every individual possesses, yet it is hidden behind who we believe we are. The eyes are centered in the design which permits the audience to be drawn into the mystery of analyzing and accepting themselves as hypocrites.

[itsmdgblog]

Pictograms 

The pictogram system is based on the primary or recognizable face features of each zoo animal- eyes, mouth, and specific characteristics, such as feathers, small eyes, nostrils, or large ears. The concept of this system is to obtain their most prominent features of their frontal profile in order to be labeled. The hexagonal shape is used to replace the natural identity of the zoo animals creating a unified system by obtaining a unique contour outline. The negative and positive space are accurately distributed by maintaining a consistent size stroke and equal amount of details within each zoo animal. By continuing the hexagonal shape to create the form in each animal allows this system to remain cohesive, however, the distinct geometric shapes, lines, and the contrasting use of negative and positive space allows each animal to be identified independently.

[itsmdgblog]

Headline Interpretation

Beset by a Golden Curse

“Beset by a Golden Curse,” is the headline of the chosen article which describes the discovery of gold within the land of Brazil. The Kayapo Indians contracted white men to work in their mine and have a percentage of their revenue divided between the two races. In obtaining profit, the Kayapo Indians began to modernize their everyday lifestyle by wearing closed shoes, such as running shoes, shorts, and dresses for the girls. While expanding my research, the Kayapo Indians have been exposed to technology and now use cellphones and engage in social media. However, as they are being exposed to modernism, such as clothing and technology, they remain true to their culture and traditions. Hence, my design depicts and Indian man with a traditional headdress, loop earrings, and a spear while wearing Nike shoes. The incorporation of the words “Do It,” is a reference towards the Nike slogan of, “Just do it.” The overall composition has a poster-like design image-based solution of simply using the headline of the article. The negative space is proportionally balanced with the positive space of the depiction of the Indian because it is positioned in the center allowing the audience to engage in the image by reading it vertically. Therefore, the eyes of the audience are directly placed on the word “Do,” that allows a vertical line to guide the viewer towards the Indian unto the “It.” Overall, the conceptual concept and graphic composition align successfully with the article with the proportional balance of negative and positive space and depiction of a Kayapo Indian.  

[itsmdgblog]

Content in Form

Ride Green

The world has been deteriorating before humanity’s eyes for the past decades. Humanity has seen how global warming has affected the ozone layer, the North and South Pole, the animal’s habitat, and the environment. The structural content within this design is to emphasize the shapes of the bikes to realize their existence as an alternative method of transportation. This eco-friendly of riding a bike to school, work, or simply to run errands is not just an option to stay active, but need to be taken into consideration for the benefit of planet Earth.

[sydneysokora]

Design Writing 1

Sydney Sokora

ARTC 1302

Professor Kim

October 12, 2019

          Without design, where would we be as a society? Nowhere. Without design, we wouldn’t have safe cars (air bags), an easy way to keep catalogs of items (bar codes), or a way to adhere things to one another (tape/glue). Our world would be unorganized, unsafe, and inconvenient. The people who generated these ideas used various processes such as creative thinking and design thinking to come up with these innovations.

          Creative thinking takes time. For some, ideas come easily with some focused thinking. For others, it takes a plan for creativity. In the book, The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas, the author delivers a four-stage process of creative thinking. The first stage is preparation. In this stage, your goal is to research and find out everything you can about your problem or topic (“Creative Thinking Process”). Second, you let your brain fully process all the information you found in stage one through “incubation” (“Creative Thinking Process”). Illumination, the “Aha moment”, is stage three in the process. This idea appears when you are least expecting it and can give you an “emotional reaction of joy” (“Creative Thinking Process”). The final stage in the process is verification. In this stage, you want to evaluate, test, and hopefully verify the idea” that you received in the third stage. While this is not a fool proof way of generating ideas, it is very helpful for many of people when you feel like you might be stuck.

          Design thinking is similar to creative thinking in the way that they both require the person involved to explore all perspectives of the issue. However, design thinking is “a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems” (Dam). Just like creative thinking, design thinking has a process. The first stage is to empathize. In this stage, you will be doing in-field research, meeting with experts in order to find out more about your problem. The goal is to immerse yourself in the environment, so you can empathize with people and be able to better appreciate their experiences (Dam). Secondly, you must “define the problem” (Dam). Once you’ve reached an understanding of your user, you will begin generating ideas in the third stage, ideate (Dam). In the fourth stage, the designer will create a prototype in order to experiment with the product and discover any adjustments that need to be made (Dam). Lastly, you will “test the complete product using the best solutions identified during the prototyping phase” (Dam). The design thinking process is a very useful tool when trying to determine solutions to design related problems.

          Creative thinking and design thinking are responsible for some of the world’s greatest inventions. These ways of processing information for a problem or issue have helped many understand what it is like to think like a creative designer. As a society, we will continue to come up with new ideas and innovations that help humans live simply.

“Creative Thinking Process.” The Peak Performance Center, thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/thinking/types-of-thinking-2/creative-thinking-process/.

Dam, Rikke, and Teo Siang. “5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process.” The Interaction Design Foundation, The Interaction Design Foundation, 26 Jan. 2019, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process.

[itsmdgblog]

I love how you were able to describe the similarities of Design Thinking and Human- Centered Design because I just had so much trouble to do so. Yet, Human-Centered Design requires for the designer to emphasize and immerse themselves into the environment in order to understand their problems and conclude with a sensible solution. You mentioned their processes, which are quite similar, therefore it helps me understand that any designer must go through each step in order to finalize a project. For example, we discovered our creativeness, and problem-solving techniques throughout these courses because in our first stage of sketches we observed what worked best and what did not. Then, we brought that design into the program we were using and still made changes throughout to better express our concept to the audience.

[angelamm251]

Design Writing: Walk On

Walk On: The Pace and Place of Creative Thinking

“Sit as little as possible.” The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche continues: “Do not believe any idea that was not born in the open air and of free movement—in which the muscles do not also revel.” 

In this article, the author highlights the notion that the power of exercise can lead to better creative thinking, and I wholeheartedly agree. While this theory used to be just an abstract idea, many of the great thinkers and philosophers of history have used this secret to getting into a creative mindset. However, neurotechnology has vastly improved and in 2014, Stanford University was able to quantify this idea, and published a cognitive study that definitively concluded that just walking regularly improved both convergent and divergent thinking by at least sixty percent.

In the past, I was never a regular at the gym, and I believe my creativity took a dive because of it. When you have a sedentary lifestyle, your entire mindset becomes lazy as a default. As an active child, I was always coming up with crazy ideas, making crafts and drawings, seemingly having unending energy and imagination. A few years ago I came to realize that as an adult, I could sit in front of my easel for hours without making any significant progress. My brain felt foggy, distracted and slow. I wanted to recapture that zest for art and creativity that I used to have ever flowing when I was younger. Having hardly any motivation or energy for creating, I decided that I should start a yoga practice to help with the problem. 

Once I began taking small steps toward being more active, I realized that afterwards, I felt more like sitting down and figuring out how and what to paint. Eventually, yoga turned into jogging and then I decided to join a boxing gym. Since I have been training, the endorphins and adrenaline that are released help significantly lessen anxiety about how “good” or “bad” my work is and I am able to detach myself from the creative blocks in my head. Intense exercising helps me to open my mind, leading to finding solutions for many different problems in my life. When you quiet the useless thoughts, there is a whole other world of intuitive thinking for open ended ideas. 

The author of this article asserts that “seeking out the ‘path less traveled’ is synonymous with a creative lifestyle, literally and figuratively.” Mental dexterity and thinking outside the box are the basis of any creative practice, and I have discovered that for me, having a regular routine of waking up, boxing and kickboxing for a few hours, cooling down and then sitting at my desk with the intention of having a productive day has completely changed my mindset in my creative practice. Once you begin training your body, you are training your mind to overcome the voice that says “you can’t do it” at the same time, and it eventually becomes second nature.

Rose, Suzanne. “Walk On: The Pace and Place of Creative Thinking.” Door County , 1 June 2019.

[austinfarar8451]

I really enjoyed reading your essay! I hadn’t thought about the idea that exercise improves the thinking mind and helps process information better. Now that I know this information, I can understand why the body and mind process better after physical activity. It only makes sense; when you are pushing your body to be at it’s highest potential, your mind and body essentially thanks you and turns it into a positive mental reinforcement that in turn–opens your variance when creating. Exercise speeds up the birth of new brain cells and increases the size of the hippocampus; improving memory and helping one “imagine new situations.”

A man who exercises every single day, Haruki Murakami, runs for long periods of time and eventually completely clears his mind. Once he reaches that stage, ideas start “abruptly crawling” into his mind and he can then clearly articulate his ideas in his writing.

I am glad I read your essay because it made me realize that I need to get to the gym more and rejuvenate my creative mind!

[itsmdgblog]

I am completely astonished with your statement in realizing how exercising does not only benefit our life by living healthy, yet benefits our minds by allowing our creativeness to flow. In addition, I agree with your statement because many of my ideas have been produced through the act of being active, rather than sitting down trying to think of an idea for some odd reason becomes a time consumption because we are not heading anywhere. It is interesting to know how our lifestyle affects our ideas, creativeness, and mindset. In addition, this can definitely apply to designers because we cannot be lazy or have a stagnant life because then our ideas and creativeness would be affected. Furthermore, I agree with Austin, we must all move our bodies in order to think creatively. 

[nleo19]

Design Thinking

Everywhere we look we see all these products that companies come to produce, these products start with a lot of key steps; involving orientation, analysis, conception, and implementation. Some important design questions to apply to a design concept or solution is the who? What? When? Where? and Why? Design thinking is a problem-solving process that can identify gaps within the marketplace or any other environment that needs problem solving.

As David fastuca said “good design requires people to believe in possibility and to think in the abstract” which I do agree with, no matter how ridiculous and idea may sound it can always be the possibility that it may turn into a great outcome. The work that it involves is challenging because we must look at all possible outcomes and flaws that may appear during the analysis and implementation phase. We also need to remember that during the ideation process we shouldn’t be critiquing our own work since ideas and sketches are being jot down to get more quantity over quality during this stage. The next step would be sharing or ideas and rough sketches with others to compare and discuss the best solutions that will work and decide how we can narrow it down all into one concept. Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki said “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” This phrase does a good job in reminding us to keep our minds full of all sorts of ideas and possibilities because as we become experts, we tend to narrow down the possibilities of a design, depending on the client’s needs.

The difference between business thinking and design thinking is that design thinking is a more intimate, collaborative, empathetic, and visual process; while business thinking is derived from a stakeholder point of view. As described by David Fastuca “design thinking uses observational techniques to uncover problems and issues that people haven’t picked up on”, and by being able to pick up on these topics we can solve the solution to any design. By knowing what kind of audience, a business is targeting, it helps narrow down the specifics of what the product will be, also thinking in how it will be received by others. It all comes down to how we can come up with a solution that can meet the customer’s needs while making it easier for them to use in a simplified way.

The final step in finalizing a design is implementation, which aligns with a comp; the process in developing a detailed representation of a design concept thoughtfully visually and composed. It may include either a printed piece or mock-up/dummy which refers to a three-dimensional piece. This is also the stage where the client/designer review happens and most often than not, they may request certain changes to the piece. After the discussion phase, we as designers go back and add changes to the piece so, in the end we have a finished product or solution in which the client envisioned from the beginning.

Citation Source:

Locomote Technologies Trading Pty Ltd. “Corporate Travel Management.” Locomote, David Fastuca, https://www.locomote.com/.

Jacobi, Margaret. “DESIGN THINKING: Even Experts Need a Beginners Mind.” Essential Design - Blog, News & Events, 29 May 2019, http://blog.essentialdesign.com/design-thinking-why-experts-always-need-a-beginners-mind.

Landa, Robin. Graphic Design Solutions. Cengage, 2019.

[itsmdgblog]

I appreciate that you mentioned the difference between business thinking and design thinking because that helps the reader understand the background of each product produced. For example, the business aspect of a designer is to think how they can increase their revenue through their product, rather a designer whose product is to facilitate someone’s life is primarily based on empathy. I would also like to point out, through design thinking the designer is able to have empathy due that they have to place themselves in the consumer’s shoes in order to understand the problem and create a reasonable solution which could be endless.

[mallorytxstate]

Design Thinking 101

“We’re always looking, but we never really see…it’s the act of attention that allows you to really grasp something, to become fully conscious of it.” 

-Milton Glaser, designer of the I <3 NY logo

What is design thinking? Design thinking is a process of applying creative thinking towards traditional business problems. The process was coined by David Kelley and Tim Brown of IDEO, who combined methods and processes that had been around for years into a unified framework. Design thinking ideology approaches problem solving with a user centric focus with the belief that this leads to innovation and thus a competitive advantage. The design thinking process is comprised of three stages of thinking which include understanding, exploring, and materializing which are then further broken into six phases that are empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement. 

Design Thinking revolves around developing a clear understanding of the user and addressing the problems that need to be solved. In order to accomplish this, the understanding portion of design thinking is broken into two phases: empathize and define. Empathizing is the preliminary phase of the design thinking process, this stage is crucial to understanding questions such as: who is the user? how do they feel and what do they do? Once this is done, use the gathered information to determine what needs and problems remain unaddressed for the user. For example, when considering the user base for a specific product, ask the question, “Is there an unsolved problem across many different users?” Empathizing with the user and defining unaddressed problems leads to innovation.

Once the users’ needs and unsolved problems have been identified, the second portion of the design thinking process is exploring potential solutions. This portion is again broken into two phases: ideation and prototyping. The ideation phase is brainstorming as many ideas and new angles for problem solving as possible. This phase is the no judgment zone, ideas should challenge the status quo and it is encouraged to explore alternatives. By the end of this process, ideas should be narrowed down before moving forward to the second phase: the prototyping phase. Prototyping is the phase where ideas finally turn into tangible products. During this step, flaws and product constraints can be easily identified and the prototypes may go through several iterations before landing on a solution ready to move on to the next phase of the design process. 

The third and final portion of the design thinking process is broken into two phases: testing and implementing. In the testing phase, product prototypes are put in front of real users to gather feedback. Ask questions such as, “Are users’ needs being met?”, “Has this improved the users’ experience?”, “Has it made a positive change in how the user accomplishes a task?”. In most instances, the results of the testing phase will mean revisiting the prototyping phase to make changes or redefine specific challenges. Once this phase is complete, the final step is implementation. This is where the solution materializes and affects users’ lives.

In summary, the design thinking process is simply one approach by which problems can be solved. It is a framework of thinking that is user centric with advantages such as addressing user problems not previously addressed, utilizing collective and collaborative expertise through teamwork, and creating innovative products that solve problems in new and unique ways. 

Works Cited

Gibbons, Sarah. “Design Thinking 101.” NN/g Nielsen Normal Group, Nov. 2019, https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/

[itsmdgblog]

Design Thinking

Leading brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Google have been dedicated to their users and continue to meet their needs through Design Thinking. Design thinking is a creative process for problem solving which “seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and identify alternative strategies and solutions,” (Dam and Siang).  It is a process that allows the designer to question the problem, the assumptions, and the implications within the circumstance. Design Thinking is a method that allows the individual to exercise their creativeness through brainstorming sessions, hands-on approach, and experimentation, such as, sketching, and testing their ideas through prototypes. In addition, Design Thinking is also known as thinking outside the box to certain problems or designs that any individual can encounter.

According to Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Sandford, Design Thinking is distributed through a five-phase model which is not predominantly sequential. This five-phase model consist of empathy, understanding their user’s needs and problems, creating ideas for innovative solutions, hands-on prototype, and finally to test their solutions. Although, there is room for failure, as a designer, Design Thinking is an iterative process where one needs to repeat certain steps with a different approach to obtain their desired results.

However, when humans tend to think outside the box, they sometimes create bigger problems than what their current situation is and even then, the solution seems to be right in front of their nose. For example, a truck driver got stuck under a low bridge which resulted in a traffic jam, therefore, emergency personnel had to arrive to the scene. Many firefighters and engineers were thinking of creative solutions as to remove the bridge or to dismantle the truck, yet a teenage boy walking by observed the dilemma and thought “why not remove the air from the tires?” At that moment, everyone was shocked with such innovative solution to the problem. Overall, this anecdote symbolizes the obvious solutions we have before the problem, yet are some of the hardest ones to pursue because as designers and humans we constraint ourselves to work with extremely creative solutions.

In addition, Design Thinking is guided by a scientific approach which includes analyzing, researching, and application. For instance, the designer such as Apple needs to analyze how their users interact with their products, research their needs, and how they can apply their findings and create a solution to the problem that they may be encountering within their products. This is where the five-phase model is applied because the designer needs to empathise to help define the problem, ideate for innovative solutions, and create prototype to test possible solutions; however, this is a non-linear process.

In comparison to Human-Centered Design, Design Thinking is also a problem-solving approach to a specific design that affects others. Design Thinking also involves a scientific method through analyzing, researching, quantitive research, and testing. Therefore, Design Thinking is for everyone, not only designers, such as businessmen, “creative employees, freelancers, and leaders who seek to infuse design thinking into every level of an organization,” (Dam and Siang).

 Dam, Rikke and Teo Siang. “What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” The Interaction Design Foundation, https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular

[itsmdgblog]

Human Centered Design

The news media always broadcasts the unsolvable circumstances within several continents, such as, poverty, gender equality, and even mention that clean water is becoming scarce. However, Human Centered Design is the ability to realize and believe that all problems have a solution despite the odds. It is the opportunity to invent and create a solution to where it seemed as if there was no way out.

           Furthermore, Human Centered Design does not only discover solutions to problems that have been neglected, but practice empathy towards others. This is part of the design process to conclude with a successful solution. According to the article, The Field Guide to Human Centered Design, one has to be inspired, generate ideas, and implement the solution to the problem. Primarily, inspiration to solve the problem is where a design team will begin by understanding the people’s wants, needs, and by stepping into their shoes. This will allow the designers to understand their lives and their perspective towards their current situation. Ideation will be the following step which the designer will generate ideas, identify their opportunities for design, test, and refine solutions. At last, the implementation to solve the problem occurs! This last step of the process allows the designers to bring their solution to life by figuring out how to get their idea into the market, and how to maximize its impact onto the world. Nonetheless, failure is also part of the design process because certain ideas may seem like a great solution, yet once it was implemented it may not have caused the expected outcome. Thus, the designer will continue with the process by keeping an iterative approach after a failure by creating more ideas, and trying a variety of approaches towards the problem.

           For instance, IDEO.org developed a Clean Team working along with Unilever and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) by providing a solution to Ghanaians without in-home toilets. The resolution to their basic need problem impacted their lives by establishing a cleaner and healthier lifestyle. Their process began by becoming inspired in helping Ghanaians with such a basic need through interviews, “talking with sanitation experts, shadowing a toilet operator, digging into the history of sanitation in Ghana, and talking to scads of Ghanaians” (160). During this stage of the process, the Clean Team had to understand how the toilets will take form by their appearance and how they would collect and dispose of waste. To further the process, the team had to generate ideas and create prototypes in order to have a complete solution to the problem. The Clean Team had to undergo through a variety of questions, such as, “what aesthetics did people like? Would a urine-diverting toilet work? Would people allow servicemen into their homes? Where would the toilet go?” (160). These questions facilitated their research to create and idea of how the toilets should function, look, and where to place them within the Ghanaians’ homes. The implementation process for the Clean Team was a success because they were able to manufacture toilets as of 2012 that have helped the lives of thousands of people. Yet, at the beginning of the implementation process difficulties emerged because the materials needed for the project were expensive, but WSUP “used off-the-shelf- cabin toilets, which approximated about 80% of the toilets that IDEO.org would design” (161). The Clean Team practiced the Human-Centered Design process to solve the basic need of a in-home toilet for Ghanaians.

           Overall, Human-Centered Design is a process where the designer needs to be confident in believing that every problem has a solution by following its process- inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Such as, the Clean Team that successfully provided in-home toilets for millions of Ghanaians that can now experience a cleaner and healthier lifestyle.

Org.IDEO. “The Field Guide to Human Centered Design.” 2015, pp.1-161

#ComDesFoundations

[itsmdgblog]

Creative Thinking: What is Creativity and How to Get Better (includes challenge)

Creativity is our ability to look at a problem and come up with a good solution to solve it. Once we understand this, we realize that it has nothing to do wi...

Creative Thinking 101