paola@design

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Reflection on the Creative Problem Solving Process

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Evaluating the Process

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Finding a Solution: Process + Solution Statement

Team 6 - Digital LIfe

Paola Sanmiguel, Brett Tavarez and Donielle Sullivan

OUR PROCESS FOR SELECTION: Our group was quite prolific. We generated over 15 themes for solutions and about 75 individual ideas within those themes using the online brainstorming platform, Mural. We arrived at “Solution Week” without even the slightest hint of narrowing of these possibilities. Despite hearing that several groups had already selected an idea, our entire group seemed to be quite accepting of our “divergent phase” and trusted the process. When we entered into our break-out, we quickly reviewed the ideas to date and made sure that we all understood the meaning of the contributed concepts. We then took a quick group vote on just the themes so we could focus our thinking on assessing a much smaller group of specific ideas. This seemed to be the catalyst needed to begin working toward a selection. We found ourselves deeply engaged in connecting several underlying similarities between the themes. It was amazing how cohesively several of the ideas intersected towards the same type of solution. What emerged after a rich and collaborative discussion was a tremendous concept that incorporated elements of several ideas. Rather than feeling like a compromise, our group achieved a truly enhanced blend of ideas . The criteria for selection seemed to be (1)impact and (2) leverage of technology. Adolescents really stood out as a critical population of users for whom improvements to digital life could be profoundly beneficial. While we thought about an array of non-technical solutions, artificial intelligence seemed to offer the greatest potential for improvements due to the volume and qualitative nature of the information moving through digital personas.

OUR SELECTED SOLUTION: A technology platform that uses artificial intelligence to provide word maps and infographic summaries about the health and happiness of a user’s digital persona. The initial target user will be adolescents, their parents and their schools.

This AI-enabled technology uses algorithms to analyze natural language in social media feeds, determines overall speaker’s mood and ranks top usage key words. This image metadata is stripped of confidential details and context. The key differentiator of our proposed solution is its ability to  compare this analysis against a crowdsourced sample to determine how the user’s mood compares against the whole. The reporting is based on flags determined by the user-based recommendations taking into account high and low mood thresholds in the crowdsourced sample as well as high risk trigger words.

The basis of the concept would be to incorporate artificial intelligence behind-the-scenes to constantly extract metadata from posts, emails, texts and photos. It would then provide the user with a word map or other infographic summary to highlight emotions being projected through the user’s digital persona. The user could narrow the view to just take into consideration a particular app or even a particular relationship. The user could also select to see the word map morph over time showing the transition of their digital persona from a year ago to the current moment. One might also go beyond their own word map and see how their infographic compared to other people their age, their community, their school, their sex. You might even compare and contrast it to a user of the same age in a remote country across the world.

The technology would be designed to enable the user to either keep the mind map running and viewable at the bottom of their phone or computer screen, or toggle to it and view when they wanted to see the health trends of their digital persona. Parents would be able to set up alerts where they might be able to see if the mind map for their child was suggestive of mental health challenges, trauma or risky behaviors. Users would be able to run real time reports using specific variables and be presented with dynamic or static infographics depicting their data in a digestible format. They’d have the ability to change and combine variables to view the information from different perspectives and enhance their understanding of their own digital interactions.

The Supportive Parent Module would be a feature that allows parents to monitor the mental health of their children. This option will allow parents to receive an alert when their child is experiencing duress, depression, anxiety, anger etc. while posting and engaging in digital and social media. The same AI algorithm technology will analyze natural language and compare mood and word usage against the wider sample. The parent can access this data through the app with detailed breakdowns when flags are triggered. One of the great features of this unique approach is that since only metadata would be shared, the teenager’s privacy is preserved. Parents are then  able to quickly identify possible problems and support their teenagers  if they are  trending toward an unhealthy digital life.

We envision that biofeedback peripherals may be added to create an all-encompassing mental and physical health suite. These peripherals would work in conjunction with smart wrist devices (watches, Fit-Bit), shoes (nike+), and clothing. These sensors would gather basic health metrics that would be coupled with the AI digital persona content tracker to correlate comprehensive well-being. These signals would be compared against the artificial intelligence language analysis results to surface any correlations between physical signs of stress or depression and mood anomalies online.  

Our hope is that getting this type of infographic insight about our digital persona would surface opportunities to improve our health and happiness and prevent the type of unmonitored and dangerous isolation that seems to be leading to so many dangerous behaviors.

[paolasanmiguel]

Process Journal #5: Ideation

The key exercise that our group used was the 8s. We started with a rapid round of 8s squares to generate as many ideas as possible. After that we used Mural to organize these into thematic groups. We augmented the ideas with the teams individually and came as a group to both edit themes (combine and eliminate) and talk through ideas (augment and delete). Once we had the themes and ideas pretty locked, we voted on the top themes we thought sounded the most interesting and/or had the best ideas worth developing. From three top themes we focused on a single theme and we talked through the essence of the ideas mentioned--the key potential for the technology. Once we discussed that, it was clear that the key capability was something we could leverage to address many of the problems we had surfaced. We ended up with a broad statement focused on the use of the technology’s key capability as the starting point for developing a full solution. 

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Conjunction Junction

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Process Journal #4: Definition. Methods and techniques used to define the problem.

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Process Journal #3: Analysis. Reflect on the methods and techniques for analysis.

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Process: Acceptance

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Destination & The Journey

Topic Description

We have chosen to concentrate on what we are calling “The Digital Life,” a term we are using to describe the second world we now inhabit in the digital realm. We want to explore how our reality has in essence doubled or better yet, folded, where we now live nearly (though often not) parallel lives. Some interesting question may include:

> Self-image, both emotional and physical. What happens when your real and digital selves diverge?

> How will these two worlds continue to merge? What are the possible cultural, social, political, physical consequences?

> What are the mental health implications of this growing Digital Life influence?

> How can our digital Life be leveraged to increase our health and  genuine human connection?

> How can we narrow and cultivate our digital life for greater intimacy and richness in life?

> How will our digital life be influenced by artificial intelligence?

> How might  we increase the integrity of digital life?

> How will political and legal candidate validation be viable in the future with such expansive and often non-discerning social posting in adolescence?

>What role will our digital health records play? How much will we share and how will they affect our treatment, outcomes and financial implications?

Why Paola?

I’ve been interested in computing since I was a kid and in digital media since it started making inroads in the civilian world with the advent of the Internet. I was in college in the late 90s’ at the height of the browser wars and at the cusp of Amazon and Google launching. As a Science, Technology & Society major, I wrote my thesis on the history of communications and how they led to the new media revolution we found ourselves in. As a graduate student I continued to research the field and then worked in Silicon Valley supporting the development of these technologies. When the next social media revolution came in the mid-2000’s, I was once again in the middle of it as one of its earliest adopters. I have thought through these trends as an academic and lived through them as an user. It will be fascinating to aggregate all that experience to collaborate with my colleagues and find a new lense through which to critically evaluate nascent pitfalls in what has become our new “reality”.

Why Donielle?

I have been an early-adopter tech geek since dial-up networking transformed my first business role in medical imaging. (I hate to carbon date myself, but I could probably find a floppy disc with the AOL software on it somewhere in my office cabinet.) I have spent the past three decades immersed in technology launching the first filmless imaging center in the world and providing leadership to an array of companies exploring digital leverage. I have seen the profound impact of the digitized world in business and have raised three children who are natives to digital communication, relationships, photography sharing, entertainment and data searching. I have seen first-hand, the painful disconnect that seems to be expanding in the adolescent years where digital personas seem to hold greater priority than actual experiences. We have had two suicides in the past few years at our high-school, both students who seem to fit the profile of “isolated and estranged”. With increasing frequency, our news telegraphs issues of bullying and separation as those in “IT crowds” post their “perfect digital lives” and those in the “OUT crowds” are constantly bombarded by posts of their exclusion. Navigating the permanence and appropriateness of these posted-life experiences initiated in adolescence has become a challenge for our emerging workforce. With the challenges we have faced in recent years with political and legal candidate validation and confirmation, it is unimaginable how we will find acceptable candidates in the future with every childhood growth experience documented for discernment.

Why Brett?

I was born into technology, the first piece of tech I used was an N64, which was in a sense grooming me for the future. The most crucial technology throughout my schooling was the search engine and still is. Google, Wikipedia, Ask Jeeves (90s), etc., have revolutionized the way my generation has interpreted old ideas and used the power of the internet to create new ones. Social media has allowed small voices to be powerful with Facebook, Tumblr, Myspace, and Twitter. I have been a part of this internet generation from the start and now that I’m older, it is clear some of positive/negative implications of this digital life. Not only do we have to manage our normal day-to-day lives but now our social platform lives. Growing up in the internet and social media platforms I have seen the bullying, disrespect, and other negative acts that have happened on message boards. It only gets amplified when at the same time you are expected to have a perfect life depicted in a single profile picture. These are a few of the many topics that Donielle, Paola, and I will explore in the digital life.

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Contingency Management

Team Conclusions:

Because of the broad context of our subject matter, we will be particularly focused on targeting our research and seeking focused applications for our inquiry and impact.

We know that we are all juggling an array of priorities and responsibilities, so our goal each Thursday/Friday will be to:

Have each member review the group assignments for the next week to help in understanding scope of work ahead

Schedule time for any group calls in the upcoming week

Write out work to be done by each member with commitment dates for completion.

We each value slightly different “daily delights”, so we are setting up a personalized pain/gain incentive based on meeting or missing any team goals. Photos of shame or fame are encouraged… teehee:

Donielle: Gain: A spectacular chocolate, Pain: A day without Starbucks (aka… end of days)

Paola: Gain: Additional time to take care of other duties or a walk along the water if time allows, Pain: Won’t get to watch a movie/fav TV show that day.

Brett: Gain: Watch favorite youtube channel for 20 minutes, Pain: do 100 pushups or extra 10 minutes of workout.

Donielle: Contingency Planning:

   We have an incredibly organized and motivated group.  Our greatest challenge will be finding a time for group scheduled calls as we all navigate our busy work lives and the assignments for other classes. Given our Thursday evening class schedule and the need to most likely complete the asynchronous coursework before diving into the group work, I am guessing that we will need to coordinate our calls early in the week. This may conflict with family time and with work travel. To combat this challenge, we may want to review the upcoming assignments in advance of our Thursday night class and use our break-out time during class to map out our target group interactions for the upcoming week.

  I have no doubt that we will be very efficient and effective in allocating the work load among our team and that we are all highly engaged in the assignment. It will be essential that we continue to balance the level of contributions from each team member and that our approach pulls from  the strengths of each member and creates opportunities for growth. I think we have chosen an incredibly robust topic to delve into and that we will learn a lot from our discovery. Our shared passion in the subject matter should prove to be a very cohesive force as we collaborate.

Brett

Likewise as Donielle has stated, our team seems very engaged in our topic. Some obstacles that will most likely impede progress is carving out time for our group to collaborate on the topic. This problem is a common amongst groups, but I feel that our team can come together to set up a concise time to communicate. Sunday or Monday evenings are good options for our team to come together to work. This allows us enough time to get the asynchronous work done prior to collaborating. Along with this is finding a medium to use that will help facilitate productive meetings. We have Zoom, Google drive and others but it is now deciding on one to help us get to our goal. That being said I think we can come together at a close to perfect time table but we will have to recognize that our lives may throw us unexpected problems. Our group will have to be flexible and utilize the tools to meet our objectives.

Paola

I echo Donelle’s and Brett’s points on time and task management. We all come from very regimented backgrounds (military and corporate) so i am sure we will work that part out.

One key challenge i see is narrowing scope without limiting ourselves. In a topic so rich as this one, with so many “arms” if you would, it’s very easy (and terribly tempting, intellectually) to start  jumping around topics that are connected or touch on each other. The trick will be to find an interesting question that we can delve deep and stay focused (though not entirely at the expense of potentially good side information) or a potential pivot into a more insightful thesis.

We are all very excited and curious, and in a project with this depth that can be a double edge sword. Targeting our enthusiasm and keeping our eyes on the prize (but without blinders) will be the greatest challenge for this team.

That is AFTER we narrow down the topic. That will be the big hurdle. Picking something that is both interesting enough to ask a novel question, current enough to find secondary material on it without being outdated, and simple enough to be able to tackle in the time allotted. Getting through this process quickly will determine our timeline and picking the right mix of difficulty and available research/material will determine how great of a problem and solution we can come up.

Question for the team:

What strengths do you think we have (practically, photoshop, research, etc.) in our team?

1. Powerpoint

2. Research

3. Qualitative research

What are some gaps?

Experience in subject

What do we want to set up as rewards?

Individualized-- see top of document

What could aks as accepted “consequences” when work is missed, etc.

Accountability during project or after, with documented missed work incidents.

Can be further judged at culmination of project against overall performance.

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Complementary colors

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35 Excellent Wireframing Resources

**Wireframing** is one of the most valuable parts of any web design project. It can save a designer tons of time by hashing out the details

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Definitions of Creativity

> Boundless imagination > Curious originality > Peculiar genius > Perpetual ingenuity > Development of new meaning > Novel communication > Innovative connection of ideas > Broad perspective > Making something out of nothing > Breaking down ideas and solving problems > Finding opportunities > Constantly improving things > Designing new objects, products, processes and solutions > Introspective and empathetic > Revolutionary > Fearless and disruptive > Trailblazing