Today in class we used a series of thinking exercises and group activities to help us grasp and explore the scope of this project and the problems we may be dealing with.
First, we did the "ripple effect activity," where we each identified a goal we would like to achieve with our design, in relation to a specific problem or inter-cultural misunderstanding. Then we thought about the "ripples" – how that effect would impact ourselves, our immediate communities, and the larger community. We continued to think broader and broader until we had thought about the positive and negative consequences of this goal in a number of contexts.
Then, we each thought of some questions to ask our group members that would help us identify the problems we each need to address, related to the specific issues we each are choosing to work with. This was helpful because it helped me focus my ideas.
Finally, we shared our specific ideas as a class, expressing them quickly and concisely. We then talked about each of them and voted on the ideas we were most drawn to.
The key insights I learned from this activity involved conceptual thinking. It was helpful to use these activities to internalize the issues we're dealing with, and learn how to think about them from different angles. I liked talking with my group members and with the class because it helped broaden my perspective and think about aspects of the problems I had not considered.
Our next steps are to solidify our ideas, conduct further research, and create a prototype for next week. We will be moving away from the conceptual phase and moving into designing. As we do so, however, we will not stop ourselves from exploring more ideas as they come up and looking at different ways of addressing these problems.
