Proposal Development Week 4
Timeline and Methodologies
Date: 28th May, 2022
When I joined the course at University of the Arts London as a product designer, I had developed notions and perhaps prejudices when it came to employing tools for delivering solutions. I do not disregard any of the tools that I had learnt as a product designer, but over the course of the past few months here at UAL, I have learnt to step back and wait for the process to inform progress of delivering designed solutions. As designers we often emphasise on the empathy being the most important stage in the design process but I have realised all through my years of design training and working that it is not a stage of the process but a partner of the same. To undertake this project I have written down an editable yet directive timeline based methodology which an amalgamation of product design and service design tools aided by systemic and speculative research tools. Seen in fig.1: Timeline and Methodology, I aim to employ the double diamond incorporating of 4 stages, in collaboration with EDIPT or Design thinking Tool kit of 5 stages applied with tools of speculative research to lay foundation for the initial discover and empathy and later introduce asset mapping and enabler/disabler tools of systemic thinking for social change. Though the model and approach is listed with dates, I have learnt that as a designer one can only attempt to stay on course with a plan and allow room for the process to inform the upcoming stages and hence edit the course on the way.
The following are the reasons that best describe the selection of methodologies and tools that I will use to inform my design:
Double Diamond: Also known as the 4D’s of Design- an abbreviation for Discover, Define, Develop & Deliver will be used as the overall perimeter of the methodology to enable achieving tasks in the assigned frame of time.
Design thinking Tool Kit: EDIPT an abbreviation for Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. The five stages of this process are widely applicable to almost all stages of the double diamond process which makes them easily usable as tools under the same as shown in the diagram.
Systems Thinking: Tools of this methodology like enablers and disablers are key to identify the relationship between various elements of design and service design thinking. It will allow me to build and synthesise stakeholder relations that influence the current situation and their impact on the same in the future.
Speculative Thinking: Over the past few years I have realised that most projects are thought of at a particular time and their application is realised years laters which changes many aspects of the projects materialisation and consumption by the user as they or their surroundings change or evolve as well. Hence, it is important to use tools of speculative thinking in the process like imagining or prototyping a future and placing the current project in a time slot of a tool called Backcasting.