Innovation and Design

Week 2: Orient

The secrets to starting well: a great project brief, solid secondary research, and a dazzling research plan

Tuesday, January 17

• - Chapter 2 - Converting need into demand, Change by Design
• - "Empathize," "Define," and "Assume a Beginner's Mind" from the Bootcamp Bootleg by Stanford's d.school.
• - Please give a copy of your draft project brief to Matt

• - Presentation from Herman Miller:
• - Gretchen Gscheidle, Director, Insight and Exploration
• - Shilpi Kumar, Senior Researcher, Insight and Exploration
• Note: we have been moved to room 159
•  

Thursday, January 19

• - Hear, IDEO
•  
•  

• - Team share-outs: Radical collaboration - share project brief & begin work on research plan
•  
•  

• 
• Tools and templates: Section 1 (1:00 class) | Section 2 (3:00 class)


• - This is a wonderful website and a fantastic example of a great innovation and design project. Under the "RESEARCH & STRATEGY" section you will find three projects. Each one is well worth a look.
• This is an optional video, but one that is well-worth watching.

Week 3: Observation

The essence of great innovation? Deep, sensitive user-centered observation

Tuesday, January 24

• - Please have your secondary research and draft research plan ready to share in class.
•  
•  

• - Meet in the Giovanini Commons for team share-outs: Secondary research and research plan
•  
•  

Thursday, January 26

• - Pages 10-15 in the Bootcamp Bootleg
• - Watch the video on ethnography & interviewing you will find in the red "Resources" section below
• - Read Chapter 5 - Returning to the surface in Change by Design
•  
•  

• 
• - The New York Times had an interesting article on brain health titled A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond
• - Tools and templates: Section 1 (1:00 class) | Section 2 (3:00 class)
• - A couple of articles from the New York Times on brain health: Article 1 | Article 2

Week 4: Synthesis

Pattern spotting, synthesis, and making sense out of users' lives

Tuesday, January 31

• - Meet in room 159: Guest presenter -- Marty Cregg, CEO, Chase Designs
• - An introduction to personas and how to create them, Calabria, Two Step Designs
• - Create, IDEO Human-centered Design Toolkit
•  
•  

Thursday, February 2

• - Please have your data & notes from your initial research and amended research plan ready to share in class.
•  
•  

• - Meet in the Giovanini Commons for team share-outs: Initial research data & amended research plan
•    Please note that we have Commons C -- the back room. There is another class in Commons A and B.
•  

• 
• - You will find pages 16-29 in the Bootcamp Bootleg very, very helpful.
• Web resources: Section 1 (1:00 class) | Section 2 (3:00 class)
• - Many Eyes: innovations in visualization
• - Wordle: DIY word clouds
• - Kuler: selecting colors that work

Week 5: Ideate

On how to generate ideas

Tuesday, February 7

• - Please have your research documentation and preliminary synthesis ready to share in class today
•  
•  

• - Meet in the Giovanini Commons for a brief lecture and then project work
• - Milestone for today: Preliminary synthesis & update research plan
•  

Thursday, February 9

• - Read "Ideate" (p. 6) , "Prototype" (p. 7), and "Test" (p. 8) and pages 30-36 from the d.school Bootcamp Bootleg
• - Chapter 3 - A mental matrix from Change by Design
•  
•  

• - Meet in the Giovanini Commons for a brief lecture and then project work
• - Milestone for today: Finalize synthesis
•  
•  

• 

Week 6: Refine & validate

How to select, test, and hone the best ideas

Tuesday, February 14

• Milestone for today: Preliminary ideas
•  
•  

• Brief lecture, then team share-outs & project work day
•  
•  

Thursday, February 16

• - Chapter 4 - Building time to think in Change by Design
• - Accept defeat: The neuroscience of screwing up, Lehrer, Wired Magazine

• 
• Interesting story on Nike's Digitial Design innovation group [thanks to Jens Kaunitz for this]
• Bob Sutton's article on why brainstorming can be a great ideation tool
• An optional article on how failure leads to better ideas, from the Wall Street Journal.
• You will find these pages very helpful: pp. 37-44 from the d.school Bootcamp Bootleg
• Tim Gable mentioned this TED video as a favorite example of design thinking:

Week 7: Pitch

Getting others to jump on to your idea bandwagon

Tuesday, February 21

• - Deliver, IDEO Human-centered Design Toolkit
• - Parr & Anzbaugh, Ideacide
• - Chapter 6 - Spreading the message in Change by Design
• - Read pages 45-48 from the d.school Bootcamp Bootleg

Thursday, February 23

• Draft idea pitch
•  
•  

• Meet in the Giovanini Commons for team share-outs: Final ideas

• 
• - Elsbach, How to pitch a brilliant idea, Harvard Business Review
• - Presentation Zen: escaping from Power Point hell (See especially Garr's presentation tips)
• - Electrolux hosts a design competition each year. You can see the presentations by the finalists here.
• - Here is an example of a design report that, although it contains only a small portion of the final report, it illustrates very well both great content and great style.
• - This is a research article that provides scientific evidence that it is very hard to get people to understand a new idea. Remember your reaction to Nike Fuel? Was your initial reaction curiosity or criticism?

Week 8: Sharing your work

Lights...camera...action!

Tuesday, February 28

• Please have your draft idea pitch ready to share
•  
•  

• Meet in the Giovanini Commons for team share-outs: Draft idea pitch
•  
•  

Wednesday, February 29

• Giovanini Commons: Team idea pitches
•  
•  

Friday, March 2

• Sourcebooks due by 5 p.m.

• 
•  
•