DESIGN THINKING ACTION LAB

DESIGN THINKING ACTION LAB

Prototype & Test

Submitted By:Shubham Singhal,India

Problem Statement

A smart, intelligent, hard working student at a reputed B-school needs a way to manage time between studies and work (doing projects and part time work)

Idea 1- for prototyping

Use calendars and to do list to keep a track of meetings in the office and assignments in the college and prioritize the work accordingly.

The tools used in prototype

Working of the prototype

The student can use the tools as mentioned in the previous slide to his aid for:Better organizing his workKeep a track of his deliverablesThese can beOnline (like Google docs)Offline like physical diaries and making notes with pen/pencilsSoftware based- using apps like Any.Do, Google Calender, Reminders, SchedulersThe student in this way can keep a track of his office work and the B-school studies and assignments and thus complete all his deliverables in time by prioritizing the work based on their importance and urgency

Testing the prototype

Who? A smart, intelligent, hard working student at a reputed B-school also doing part time work Process:- The student was explained the prototype, its working and how he can benefit from it. A demo was given of all these applications and software which can be used even from his smartphone on the go keeping him always updated and track and plan his work. The Required apps and softwares were installed on his laptop and his mobile phone.After a few days his responses on the this new system were noted, asking his valuable feedback

Space used

Colleges Discussion Room

After explanation of prototype

Observations

What Worked?

- He felt nice.- He was surprisedIt was interesting to use the technology for daily tasksHas made his life a lot simplerHe can now prioritize and meet all the deadlines

What could be improved?

Integration of the apps and his calendar with automatic reminders at the right timeUsability ease for the stakeholderAutomatic putting up of tasks and categorize them as per their nature of work

Questions

- How much will this be effective in meeting the need?

Ideas

- Make separate entries/calendars for separate work, and have a way to even view the combined calendar/to-do list

Idea 2- for prototyping

Use time management tools

Working of the prototype

The grid showing how to do time management can be used as a toolThe 4 quadrants can be used to categorize ones tasks intoImportantUrgentBased on their importance they can be categorized intoImportantNot importantThis model can actually help a person to know where his time is getting wasted and where he should be putting more time and when those tasks have to be done

Testing the prototype

Who? A smart, intelligent, hard working student at a reputed B-school also doing part time work Process:- The student was explained the prototype, its working and how he can benefit from it. All the 4 quadrants were explained to him, with even creating a mock time management table categorizing his tasks so as to help him and give him a demo of how to go about it. After a few days his responses on the this new system were noted, asking his valuable feedback

Observations

What Worked?

- He felt nice.- He was surprisedIt was interesting to such a simple looking tool to categorize his daily tasksHas made his life a lot simplerHe can now prioritize and meet all the deadlines

What could be improved?

Further divide the 4 quadrants into smaller segments to get more insight and capture the data in a better and more precise wayAutomatic putting up of tasks and categorize them as per their nature of work

Questions

- How much will this be effective in meeting the need?

Ideas

Make separate entries for separate work based on the nature like:Personal workOffice workAssignmentsTeem meetings

Reflection

Since the idea as well as the prototype were well received by my stakeholder, I would stick with the idea and try to incorporate his ideas and suggestions. The next step would be to have a clearer understanding about the different parts within the tools mentioned. I would prototype each part and test it with my stakeholder(s). Usually when I have ideas that I really like and present them I am a bit disappointed by a lot of criticism. This time, I saw it as something neutral for me which is designed for my stakeholder. I felt more professional about it.