Design Thinking Project Analysis

Design thinking is a group process of identifying problems, empathizing, and coming up with innovative solutions for a user. Within our challenge, we had very few limitations, one being that our solution could be done within a $500 budget. For our Design Thinking project, our group originally decided to examine campus safety through the eyes of other students, and empathize with them in hopes of creating a solution to their problem. By interviewing people who had concerns with issues regarding campus safety, I was able to gain some useful insight that enabled me to establish a level of empathy with the interviewees. From listening to their experiences and concerns, it is evident that there is a need for more lighting on campus. That would …show more content…
The main concern of Eftyhia was that there's not enough lighting on campus especially walking from the art building back to her apartment. During my interview with her she talked about how dark it was and how she has to sing on her way back to her apartment from the art building because it made her feel safer. That made me empathize with her because I know I would be scared if I were walking back in darkness not being able to see my surroundings well. We later began brainstorming possible solutions and prototyping them. My group decided that purchasing small lights to stick in the grass along the sidewalks leading from the art building to the apartments would be feasible. Then, we began to think of possible challenges that could come along with that like, the budget we were allotted, would the school grant us permission, or would there be complaints about other areas of the campus not being as lit. Unfortunately, towards the end of attempting to solve Eftyhia's problem, we found that we could not solve her problem within a $500 budget and that sent us back to square …show more content…
We continued to try and think of who we could empathize with to ultimately solve a problem they had with Banks bathroom. Fortunately, Dr. Lease being the great teacher that he is, shined a light on our group. He told us that we could interview the Housekeeper, but we could not go do it on our own. My group had to go through Dr. Lease to set up an interview with the housekeeper. We waited for a couple of days, but then finally he received a word back that we could interview the housekeeper the next day. Two of my group mates went to interview the Banks housekeeper, Kira. When the results of that interview were brought back to us, my entire group was horrified and we instantly empathized with her. She talked about how students leave their bloody pads on the floor, clumps of hair in the drains, and how others would leave dirty pots and pans in the kitchen for up to three weeks. Also, she felt like students relied on her to clean up after themselves which makes her go beyond her job description. It seemed like some students do abuse the fact that they know someone is going to clean up after them, or maybe some just do not see an issue with what they are doing. I really thought it was amazing to see how my group suddenly empathized with her; I think anyone