Once you have defined your problem, it is time to brainstorm and think of some ideas. This step is the ideation step. In this step, your goal is to think of as many ideas as you possibly can think of. In the next you want to take all of the ideas you thought of and test them. So in the ideation step, you want to think of everything. Take some ideas and combine them so the best aspects from them are in a different idea.

In the Creative Spirit they start off with a statement, “You’re out for a jog, you’re completely relaxed, your mind a pleasant blank. Then all of a sudden into your head pops the solution to a problem you’ve been mulling over for days or weeks. You can’t help but wonder why you didn’t think of it before.” This is the way that ideation can work. No matter where you are or what you are doing, an idea can strike. So you must be always prepared to jot down your idea. And sometimes that idea might turn out to be a bust and you’re back at the start again.

In class we were given the idea to try and come up with as many ideas for a newly designed app for the Quinnipiac cafeteria. The current app we have is very difficult to access and does not show much of the nutritional information about the food they are serving. Most of the time when using the app, I try to find out what they are serving either at the main cafe, or at the Bobcat Den. When I look to see what the food is, I normally get a message stating “We can not display this content right now.” That is frustrating when you want to know what they have different today. In the app that I would create, I would have the content displayed more reliably than the current app. Along with reliability I would want to add a place where I could see the nutritional information for all of the food in the cafe. No matter what section in the cafe it displays the nutritional information for all of it. Lastly, I would want to create a way to pre-order my food. After you create your meal you can check out and use your Q card account to pay for it. Once you are ready you can go pick it up and it’ll be ready for you.

Although I am not actually changing the Quinnipiac Dining app, I wish these changes could be implemented because they would be extremely useful. I had fun creating the screens for my version of the app. It was fun to be able to see my ideas come up in a drawing of an I Phone.

For our final project we were given the option to make one of two things, the first option was three black out poems, and the other was to create a ransom note. I decided to create the ransom note.

Making the note wasn’t as simple as cutting out letters and putting them over a background. There was a process that I had to go through in order to make my idea come alive. My first step was to empathize, what am I doing and who am I making this for. I realized that although the audience is my class, the possibilities were endless in what I could make. As long as it was appropriate I could make it.

After I empathized I had to define my problem. The problem at hand was, I need to create a ransom note for my class. And that is when I started to ideate.

My thought process started with looking at the example we were given in class. The one we were given seemed to have a humorous aspect to it while also giving a threat. I tried to follow that idea with giving an obscure place that seemed weird for a threat, so I decided to use a playground. After that I thought of the threat or ultimatum. So I just decided to use the phrase or else. This is letting the viewer pick whatever they want for the or else punishment.

Once I had the phrase I had to prototype my project. My first prototype for this project was actually made through photoshop and I created my own ransom note with a background of a newspaper and a playground. Eventually I scraped the photoshop version and cut out my own letters to use. I still used the background of the newspaper and playground for a place I can put my letters.

During this entire process I was using the design thinking process and I never realized it. We all use this process whether we realize it or not.

For the last step in the design process we have the storyboarding step. Storyboarding is important because it is how you are able to show your ideas in words. The best ideas that have been polished and perfected through the previous steps now get to become a reality. 

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the definition of Storyboarding is “a panel or series of panels on which a set of sketches is arranged depicting consecutively the important changes of scene and action in a series of shots” You get to create a set of images detailing what you have been thinking. It can be anything in those panels and there can be an unlimited number of panels, as long as you get your point across to whoever you are showing the storyboard. 

In class we were told to make a 5 or 6 panel storyboard following a guideline set of images. This exercise was fun since we were able to take an idea that we’ve already seen and put it into our own creative way. For my panels I decided to make a standoff between two people on a boat. The first panel is of the boat from a wide angle. The next panel is of the room that the two men are in. Next we have a closer view of the two, followed by two panels one close up for each of the men. First of all, my artistic skill is not the best so excuse the poor drawings. But creating this short little storyboard panel was fun because I got to create something that I enjoyed making. 

Storyboarding is most commonly used by people trying to make their ideas for things such as movies and TV episodes and put it into pictures. They take their ideas for scenes and put them into similar storyboards from what I made. Although the storyboards they make are much more complex. 

In Ivan Brunetti’s video titles Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice, he talks about the way you can start storyboarding. It is as simple as making one character out of simple geometric shapes. That means you can make a person out of a circle, triangle, square and some lines. Next make them into a few poses, just put their arms up or their legs at different angles. After that sketch a simple background, which can be some lines for a tree and some rectangles for a building in the background. The next two steps are finding an object or prop for your little character and the last step is having an action or a verb. Something that can make the character interact with the prop. 

In the end, storyboarding was one of the best parts of the design thinking process. I had fun being able to take some ideas that I had and put them into drawings or take pictures of random objects that I had hanging around my house. I wish we could have been able to be in school for this part of the process because I could imagine that the activities we were gonna do in class would be so much fun!

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Out of all the steps of the creative thinking process, the two most closely related and the two that provide the most feedback are the prototyping and the testing steps. Although the other steps help you find out who you are working for, what you are making and who the audience is, prototyping and testing your ideas will let you know how the public will respond to it. Although with prototyping it will not be with the entire public, but with a small group of people and depending on what they feel, can resemble the public’s view. Especially in a classroom setting, and in our case an online classroom setting, feedback is easy to come by with the help of our classmates and professors. And for our assignment of creating our own app with the help of Marvel, getting feedback on our ideas via breakout rooms on Zoom and replying to our screens and ideas in the discussion rooms on Blackboard, it was easy to tell receive feedback on our apps. “Optimizing how you gather feedback – and, therefore, learn from your prototypes and users – is essential to help you save time and resources in the Prototype and Test stages of the Design Thinking process.”  When receiving feedback, it helps with saving your time, since now you have many other people giving their opinions about what you have.

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            For class, we had to create our own app that could fit into the current times that we are living in. In other words, we had to create a pandemic app. My idea that I create is an app called Home Theater and, in this app, it replicates going to the movies. Originally the app was only going to be movies, where you could watch newly released movies and older movies as well. But my first important piece of feedback came. Professor Marchese gave me the idea that what if the app was paired with something like UberEATS and you can have a meal delivered for your movie. This idea helps replicate the feel of being at a movie theater, since whenever you go to the movies, you get snacks and a drink. Well with UberEATS, you are redirected to their app and you can select what food you want, and it gets delivered to your house during or before your movie. My next piece of feedback was as simples as putting back arrows on each of the screens. I thought that the app was pretty straight forward at first and that was until I got feedback from one of my classmates, and they mentioned how it can be slightly frustrating to use since there was no back arrows on the pages. After I read the feedback, I knew exactly what I needed to add. This is an example of feedback saving time, since instead of trying to figure out what I need to improve I knew exactly what I had to do in order to improve the experience for the users of the app. The original idea for this app came from my family. My brother who is a big fan of movies has not been able to go to the theater because of the recent pandemic and my mother thought of an idea similar to my app. So, I decided to take her idea, modify it a bit and turn it into something real.

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            When designing my app and drawing in my sketchbook I knew the inspiration I had in my head. I was trying to make something similar to Netflix, Door dash, and Apple TV. But you might think what Door Dash has to do with movies. When thinking about how I wanted to design my app, I liked the way Door Dash was set up with having the options of what type of food to get, so I wanted to keep a similar idea to that but change food to genre of movies. The other two apps are self-explanatory as both are apps where you can watch or purchase movies. One thing special I liked when looking at Apple TV was the option given for deals. So that’s how I decided to include both weekly and daily deals on my home page. And the set-up of the page had inspirations from Netflix where I have search bars where I can look for movies and/or actors/actress and how you can be shown movies based off of previous things you’ve watched or searched on the app.

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One of the most important steps in the problem-solving process is the ability to define the problem. It is impossible to be able to solve your problem if you have no idea what the problem actually is. What is the audience that you are solving for, what do you need to make to solve the problem, or where will your product be placed? Knowing these questions can help you solve your problem. According to Glasgow Caledonian University, “In almost every problem solving methodology the first step is defining or identifying the problem. It is the most difficult and the most important of all the steps. It involves diagnosing the situation so that the focus is on the real problem and not on its symptoms.” After empathizing and finding out who your audience is, the next step is to define. As the article said, it is the most difficult yet the most important step out of all of them. Being able to define what your problem is can be difficult since you need to be able to discover what the problem is. But once you are able to discover the problem at hand that makes every step after so much easier.

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In a video by Jordan Robert, she gives a quote from Albert Einstein. The quote is “If I had an hour to save the world, I’d spend 55 minutes finding the problem and 5 minutes finding the solution.” This quote shows the importance of defining the problem, and it came from one of the smartest people to ever live. If you’re going to trust anyone it better be Albert Einstein. Besides listening to Einstein, himself, the quote shows how important problem defining is. For any situation there needs to be more time dedicated for finding out what the problem is, and once you find the actual problem the solution should come easily.

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Later on in the video Robert later mentions that the product that you are creating his to work with any pre existing products. Although the product may be perfect in what the client wants it to be, the product can still fail since it needed to fit into a pre existing system and could not. Another topic that Robert mentions is the fact that the product cannot be made just for one person, the product has to be something that can be used by a wide audience of people instead of just one individual. In other words, Solve the problems for the majority of the world not a small percent of it.In order to determine what the problem at hand really is, you must create a problem statement. Most effective problem statements begin with a “how might we” or “how can we” phrase. The statement should also be a question because when discovering the problem, you will be answering your question. The statement should not limit your options to solve. There should be nothing related to time, money or any other types limitations so the answer to the statement may be free. The phrase “short and sweet” is something that applies to making a problem statement. If the statement is too long, then it becomes more detailed which simultaneously makes it more detailed. Making the statement short leaves more room for a wide variety of answers and ideas to solve the problem. Lastly, one of the most important aspects, the statement must be human oriented. The statement should not be made for an organization but instead the humans working at the organization. The human is the one utilizing the product so it should be the

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One of the most important things to remember about empathy is that anyone can be empathetic. Empathy is not limited to a few types of people. Empathy is something that can be used by everyone in any situation. For some people, it is hard to be empathetic towards other people if they do not even know what empathy really means. The definition of empathy is “the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling,” according to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkley. One major component of being empathetic is the ability to understand what the other person is dealing with at the time. It is impossible to be able to empathize with someone if you have never felt what they have felt. If not then it is sympathy instead of empathy.

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For a person to be truly empathetic there are four qualities to take into consideration according to Brené Brown’s video about empathy. The four qualities are perspective taking, staying out of judgment, recognizing emotion in people, and communicating that. Understanding a situation is different than just hearing what they are saying. Perspective-taking is putting yourself into their shoes and understanding it from their point of view. Although you might be listening to their story, hearing it and thinking about more than just the story and thinking about how they feel is how you empathize. Next is to stay out of judgment. This step is difficult because sub-consciously most people judge other people. But you can concentrate for a small period of time and make sure that you do not judge the other person for their story that they are telling you. After you hear what they have to say and avoid judging them, you have to recognize the emotion that they are conveying to you. The emotion is a vital component because that is one of the main reasons why they are telling you the story. And lastly, you must communicate the emotion that they are trying to show you and you must communicate it back to them and also communicate your own emotion to them.

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Although aspects of empathy seem to be just being nice, being empathetic is more than just being nice. As I said in the last paragraph, empathy is putting yourself into someone else’s shoes and understanding their problems. According to an article by Michael Ventura he talks about what empathy is not. Although the things he says do help with empathy, they are not what makes someone empathetic. He says being generous, courteous, having good manners, and a pleasant tone of voice are not what make you empathetic. What makes you truly empathetic is combining all of those things with the four qualities that Brown talked about earlier.

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According to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkley, there are many reasons why we should be empathetic. When looking at the list of reasons it includes things such as the fact that empathy is contagious. When groups of people encourage empathy with each other those people are more likely to be empathetic towards other people in other situations. Along with the contagiousness being empathetic is good for office morale. Managers who are more empathetic towards their employees have reported that there has been less time called in sick and overall office happiness is improved. Lastly, empathy is beneficial for personal health care. A study stated that empathetic doctors have reported that their patients enjoy better health. Along with the patients, the doctors themselves have reported that their own emotional well-being has improved as well.

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Empathy itself is also not just one individual thing, but actually, there are two different types of empathy. There is cognitive empathy and there is affective empathy. Cognitive empathy is being able to understand other people’s emotions. In other words, it is perspective taking and putting it someone else’s perspective. Affective empathy is in response to emotions. It is the empathy that we cannot put into words and is what we feel when hearing these problems or stories. In other words, it is the sensations and feelings we get in response to other people’s emotions.

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Many people do not understand what design thinking really is. When I first heard the words design thinking, I thought of it to be just how a designer thinks about what project they are about to be working on. Although that is true, the true definition dives much deeper into what design thinking really is. According to the Interaction Design Foundation, design thinking is described as “an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions,” or in simpler words, “a solutions based approach to solving problems,” Nowhere in that definition was there anything about the word design. That is because earlier in the article it is said that “all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, and business have practiced it,” This means that the design thinking process is not limited to just visual designers or designers. With knowing this information, using design thinking will not be limited to just this course. I can utilize this in any other course that involves an aspect of research in it.

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Although creativity is a vital part of the design thinking process, being a good artist or coming up with ideas really fast does not make you more or less creative. In David Kelley’s TED Talk titled “How to Build your Creative Confidence ” he states that many people who consider themselves “Not the creative type” would rather opt out of an assignment because of how uncomfortable they are. But he later says that when people stick to the design process, in the end they do “amazing things” surprising themselves in how creative they actually are. Kelley talks about how people are afraid of what the idea they have in their mind is not going to be liked by the rest of the crowd. They have a fear of their idea being a failure, and because of this fear, they avoid the creative process as a whole. Before this course and the COM 130 course (Visual Design) I never really thought of myself as a creative person and I felt very similar to what Kelley had mention. I was afraid of what other people had to say about my ideas, or my ideas would end up being a failure. That was until when we started to work on projects, and I realized how easily ideas came to me about what I wanted to do my projects on. Although ideas I had did turn out to be a failure, I was able to take what I learned and make my next version of the project a success.

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This design process is not just thinking of an idea, making your idea, and presenting your idea. There is a process that goes along with design thinking. Actually, there are five steps that goes along with the design thinking process . First you must empathize, then define, then ideate, then prototype, and lastly test. Each of these steps come together to make a design project. The process starts by empathizing. This step is about getting to the audience of what you’re making this project for. In this step things like interviewing and researching about things such as where the project is going to be placed. The next step is defining. This step is all about defining what the problem at hand is or why you are making this project. You need to find out what problem you are trying to fix with the project you are making. After you have defined the problem you will need ideate. In this step what you are doing is just coming up with as many ideas as possible no matter how bad they might seem. Right down every idea cause even one that might seem crazy could actually be the best idea there is. Now the next step works hand in hand with ideating, and it is the prototyping step. Prototyping each of the ideas that you came up with and ruling some ideas out and passing some on to the next stage to see if it is a valid thing to send out. Once you have the best prototype out of the rest, you test your project on the market and then repeat the process all over again.

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Design is a topic that is involved with many different fields other than design itself. In Tim Brown’s TED talk titled “Designers – Think Big!” he describes the story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his inventions. The inventions he talks about include things such as a train ride across the British countryside and tunnels. He goes on to describe that the way these projects were invented was very similar to the design thinking process. In this story the inventions were not made for graphic design but for things that would help in transportation. The design thinking process is not limited to just one area of work but has no limits on where it can be used.

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