The third lecture as part of the University of Canterbury causes on Design Thinking. This lecture was taught by Mark Billinghurst on December 10th 2013 and focuses on how to create a good problem statement.

1. HITD 201
Framing Problems
Mark Billinghurst
HIT Lab NZ
December 10th 2013

2. Design Thinking Process
5 modes iterated through

3. Empathize

4. Define
 Expresses the problem you are addressing
 Defines your unique point of view
 Unique design vision based on Empathy outcomes
 Two Goals
 Deep understanding of users and design space
 Actionable problem statement (point of view)

5. Expressing the Problem
[User] needs [verb phrase] in a way that [way]
How might we [verb phrase] ?

6. Empathy Map
 Synthesize observations and draw out insight
 4 quadrant layout
 SAY: What are some quotes and defining words
your user said?
 DO: What actions and behaviors did you notice?
 THINK: What might your user be thinking? What
does this tell you about his or her beliefs?
 FEEL: What emotions might your subject be feeling?

7. Empathy Map

8. Stakeholder
 Identify key elements of target person
 Demographics
 Occupation
 Motivation
 Express as adjective description
 Develop typical persona

9. Personas
• Personas are a design tool to help visualize who you are
designing for and imagine how person will use the product
• A persona is an archetype that represents the behavior and
goals of a group of users
• Based on insights and observations from customer research
• Not real people, but synthesised from real user characteristics
• Bring them to life with a name, characteristics, goals, background
• Develop multiple personas

10. Persona
 Capture elements relevant to problem

11. Need
 Human emotional or physical necessities.
 Needs help define your design
 Needs are verbs not Nouns
 Verbs - (activities and desires)
 Nouns (solutions)
 Identify needs directly out of the user traits you
noted, or from contradictions between
 disconnect between what she says and what she does..

12. Insight
 A remarkable realization that you could leverage to
better respond to - a design challenge.
 Insights often grow from contradictions between
two user attributes
 either within a quadrant or two different quadrants
 Asking “Why?” when you notice strange behavior.

13. Journey Map
 To gain empathy for a person’s process
through an experience
 Consider the details of that process to illuminate
areas of potential insights
 Create diagram with multiple observations
 Organize data in timeline with significant dates
 Look for patterns

14. Journey Map

15. 2 x 2 Matrix
 Use during problem synthesis process
 Organize relationships between things or people
 Process
 Pick two spectra - axes
 Draw 2 x 2 matrix
 Plot items on matrix
 Look for gaps/opportunties

16. Example: Breakfast Cereals

17. 2 x 2 Matrix

18. Problem Definition Creates Insight
User + Need = Insight

19. How Might We … ?
 Short questions that launch brainstorming

20. Good Point of View
 Inspires your team
 Provides focus and frames the problem
 Provides a reference for evaluating ideas
 Fuels brainstorming by suggesting ‘how might we’
 Captures the hearts and minds of people
 Guides your innovation efforts

21. Assignment Two
 Interview people to find out what are the key
elements in a creative space for them
 Complete an empathy map and define a
problem statement with insight into how
space could be improved
 Sketch/write a list of things that could be done
to improve the class space for creative design
 Submit the empathy map and list of
improvements