Purpose
Empathy, brainstorming, and ideation are essential elements of design thinking, allowing teams to generate creative solutions to user-centered challenges. In this discussion, you will engage in a hands-on design thinking exercise, practicing brainstorming and ideation techniques while collaborating with peers to refine and enhance innovative ideas.
Task
This discussion simulates a collaborative ideation process where you will analyze a common user challenge, generate creative solutions, and build on the ideas of your peers. Your work here will serve as a foundation for a future assignment.
Step 1: Explore the Challenge (Individual Work)
We have all waited in line and thought, I could be doing something else right now or there has to be a better way. For this brainstorming session, you will focus on the following challenge:
Improving the waiting experience: Redesign the experience of waiting in line to make it enjoyable and efficient.
In your initial post, address the following:
- Identify the User Group. Articulate the specific user group you are targeting for your challenge. What is the user waiting in line for?
- Empathize with User Pain Points. Using empathy, briefly describe one or two pain points this user group might experience while waiting in line.
- Generate Creative Ideas
- Propose three ideas to address the challenge. Use a brainstorming technique such as mind mapping, SCAMPER, or rapid ideation to generate your solutions.
- Indicate which technique you used and briefly describe how it helped you generate your ideas.
Step 2: Build on Ideas (Collaborative Work)
In your responses to peers:
- Enhance Ideas. Select at least one idea from your peer’s post and build upon it by suggesting enhancements or alternatives.
- How can the idea be made more user-friendly, efficient, or innovative?
- What additional features or perspectives might improve the solution?
- Provide Feedback. Offer feedback on their understanding of the user’s pain points:
- Do the proposed solutions effectively address the identified pain points?
- What empathy-driven insights could strengthen their approach?
Submission
- Post your initial response outlining your challenge, user group, pain points, and three ideas by 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday.
- Respond to at least two classmates by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, building on their ideas and providing constructive feedback.
Criteria for Success
Discussion participation is graded using a rubric based on the following criteria:
- Quality
- Quantity
- Timeliness
- Writing
- For more information, review the Discussion Rubric.
