Design thinking

For the next two weeks you are going to work on designing and prototyping a device that Michael Johnson, an auto racer who is confined to a wheelchair, can use to shovel snow in his driveway. As I explained in class (and in the video below), you will be using the Design Thinking process for generating a solution. 

THIS WEEK YOU WILL WORK ON THE FIRST THREE PHASES OF THE "DESIGN THINKING" PROCESS.

1. Empathize, 2. Define, 3. Ideate

NEXT WEEK YOU WILL FINISH IT, AND TURN THIS PORTION IN.

Get started now, because it is a lot of work and this is worth 40 points (I've combined two weeks of assignments into one)

WATCH THIS VIDEO TO UNDERSTAND DESIGN THINKING:

In the wonderful ABC video below, you will see a real creative team (you will WANT to work there!) from the company IDEO, who invented "Design Thinking" tackle the challenge of redesigning a simple everyday object, the shopping cart. And the demonstration is compelling. Here’s an object we use on an everyday basis, that is almost universally used from one end of the planet to the other, and we hadn’t even thought about making it more user-friendly.