Design Thinking: How Are Goods And Services Developed

Recently, we completed a Year Three unit on goods and services. All of the unit was approached using design thinking. This blog post will highlight some of the highlights of this rich unit.

Central Idea: Products and services are created to meet the needs in a community.

Lines of inquiry:

Where they are from and the goods and services that we have in our community

What are the steps involved in producing goods and services?

Products and services that can meet the needs of our community

As a way of applying the knowledge gained from the "frontloaded", it is commonly assumed that the design thinking framework should be implemented at the end. Although understanding and knowledge are crucial for design success, they can be acquired at any stage of the process. (Notice how Empathise below contains two additional verbs: Understand and Discover). Design projects can be started by students, which adds more relevance and importance to the unit content.

Here are some highlights of the unit. They start with general inquiries about goods and services and end with a specific design opportunity. This unit was taught using a hybrid learning approach and some activities were done remotely.

Virtual Design Hunt

This blog post will feature Agency by Design practices multiple times. These practices have become a part of my daily routine and can be used across the curriculum. The Design Hunt was the first activity of the unit. This routine is great because it encourages students and teachers to look at the systems and objects around them. Design Hunts increase students' sensitivity to design and encourage them to critically evaluate designs. Students will examine the design of goods and services that have been created around schools and their motivations.

Masarang integration

Masarang Foundation is a close partner of our school. We have supported their sustainability efforts for many years. Click here to find out more. Students learned about palm oil, as well as the environmental impacts of these farming practices. They began to think about ethical design and how we can balance our needs with other considerations. The discussion also led to responsible consumption.

Parts and Purposes

Students are encouraged to examine objects/systems in greater detail and to consider how they interact to make them function. Even the most simple of objects can have many parts and complexities. This activity is especially useful when students are able to physically disassemble objects (click here to see examples). Students learned remotely while they studied the design world at home, choosing household products to analyse and observe.

Similar activities were done with Ozobots. The Learn Anywhere lesson sequence was created by the Ozobot team during COVID-19. It is designed to help teachers with remote learning. Their Introduction To Ozobot lesson is a great connection to this unit. It encourages students to look closely at Ozobot's components and to think about how they work. I modified their lesson to add some elements and use the familiar language of Agency by Design. Students had another chance to look closely at objects and consider how they are made and designed.

My school adopted a 1:1 approach in robotics, purchasing an Ozobot per student. These robots are portable and small, so students can use them at home or in school.

Parent speaker: Dr. Pao (Parts, People, Interactions).

Next, students learned about services and how they are created to meet the needs in a community. A psychiatrist was one of the students' parents and gave a presentation on the mental health service and its role within the larger healthcare system. To explore the complexity of this industry and to develop systems thinking, students used the People, Interactions procedure. This was also a great opportunity to talk about the importance of mental well-being, even though it wasn't directly related to the unit.

Identifying the need in our community

The school and local communities have faced many challenges due to the current pandemic. These challenges offer students authentic design opportunities to create solutions and exercise agency. Students came up with the idea of too much screen time after brainstorming. Students and teachers are now spending far more time online than they would normally due to remote learning. What can we do to address this problem?

To learn more about their experiences and gain valuable insights, students sent out a Google Form asking their peers from other classes. While the majority of students supported screen time, there were a few myths and misconceptions. Online research was also affected. It was difficult for students to find reliable, consistent information on excessive screen time.

Parent speakers: Dr. Lin, Dr. Lau

We once again used the expertise of our parent community to cut through the confusion, myths, and noise. Students were able to talk directly with doctors who are familiar with the subject. Our guest experts answered students' questions with valuable information. These insights allowed students to define the problem and create solutions.

Defining design challenges and opportunities

Over one hundred students were sent the survey. We noticed many patterns and decided to apply these generalizations to Mark, a fictional student. It was easier to design for one user than it was to please everyone. Mark was not a real student but he did represent the real struggles and experiences of the wider VSA community. We created the problem statement below and the user profile with Mark in mind.

Most of the 'how might they' questions were developed to meet Mark's needs, and to draw on medical insights from our guests.

Testing and prototyping

Although I've used a design thinking framework before, I didn't always make the most of the prototyping or testing phases. This is usually because of time constraints. This is an important part of the design process, and I wanted to emphasize it in this project.

A prototype allows the user to test the idea in a cost-effective and efficient manner, so they can give feedback to improve it. This creates a feedback loop, and prototypes can get more complex as they move closer to the final solution.

Imagine What... and Four Whats

To support self-reflection as well as the collection of feedback, we used several routines. To begin, students used the Imagine If... procedure to evaluate their prototypes. The routine then suggests ways to improve them, make them more efficient, ethical, beautiful, and better. Although these words were difficult to understand, students made good use this routine. Students then gathered feedback from users and organized it using the Four Whats question grid. These ideas and suggestions were used to inform later, more advanced prototypes.

Another fun, design-filled unit. It's been great to see my students become creative problem-solvers. I am learning a lot about design thinking and having fun along the way. I will be sharing more soon.