What an exciting quarter! In the last 10 weeks, students discussed the implications of different algorithms in the “I Love Algorithms” card game; debated the benefits and drawbacks of utilizing chatbots in healthcare; and learned about doom scrolling in the attention economy. We’ve had an array of class visitors such as designers from Facet. Ai and the Tech We Want to contextualize our learnings. Not only that, but students also tackled loneliness, mental health, and bike theft issues on campus through their own group design projects. All while learning design processes and methods. In a short, but sweet couple of weeks, students have gone from defining what design is to calling themselves designers.
In the finale for our class, students showcased their projects in a playtest, where guests were able to interact and react to the students’ prototypes! Friends, teaching teams, and even Stanford transportation and safety officers came to experience these design solutions in class.
One team tackling mental health and loneliness on campus came up with a mobile app solution called “House of Cards.” In this application, students can create an account to find study buddies for a class, gym buddies for workouts, or a casual friend. To boost engagement, there is a question of the day, which sparks conversation and a sense of online community. In their playtest, the audience had the opportunity to click around the low-fidelity, figma prototype. Feedback from the audience was captured on a feedback matrix as mentioned in Week 9 documentation.
Another team tackling bike theft on campus developed a solution called “Scoot Secure.” This approachable, online interface allowed students to report stolen bikes, while leveraging the existing solutions that Stanford Transportation put in place, not replacing them. For example, many students don’t know that when you file a stolen bike report, Stanford transportation can lend a detained bike to help students get around campus while they are trying to find a new bike.
Chatting with the officers, it became clear the students aren’t aware of where the office of transportation is, who to contact if they have public safety concerns, and the current solutions put in place by the department. The officers’ insightful comments shed light on the misalignment between students and admin. For example, their main channel for updates and communication is through articles in the Daily, which doesn’t reach all students. Additionally, the transportation department operates on more analog processes, such as phone calls to report or business cards, while students rely heavily on web/ texting methods. Scoot Secure includes an AI chatbot to help publicize these resources, and students can ask questions about anything bike/ scooter related. Officers from Stanford transportation interacted with the balsamiq prototype and had lots of enthusiasm in supporting something like Scoot Secure that bridge the gap between students and the transportation department.
In our last class of the quarter, students had the opportunity to debrief the playtest. Many commented on the need to be adaptive to the audience’s interactions during testing sessions, whilst catering the experience to the user at hand. Students were surprised by the ideas that came out of the feedback and the tangents that strayed away from the solution on the table. Some found it challenging to not guide the audience in their experience and ‘let go.’ Overall, students recognized the importance of sharing early and often.
In our open discussion reflection portion of the class, each student shared what they learned in the class. Many students resonated with how low-fidelity prototypes are a method of moving from an idea in your head to a real world design. Oftentimes, students struggled with being ‘in their head’ and taking that first step, but this class as given them a way to become comfortable in the gap of ambiguity.
“Put yourself in the mindset of ideating and making, you’ll realize you’ve grown so much more and you’re closer to the idea than you think you are. Utilize constraints as a way to fuel critical thinking and creativity rather than a hinderance. ” - Natalia
Other students expressed that the class demystified design and gave them a formalized way to express ideas that weren’t fully flushed out. They appreciated the opportunity to discuss the ethics and implications in a practical contexts rather than just the optimization, contrary to the culture that dominates Stanford’s campus. One student commented that they liked the critical but also optimistic framework of the class, amidst what they described as a culture war between creatives vs. technical people. Lastly, students were greatly appreciative of the community aspect of the course and the collaborative nature of the team projects. Ultimately, the students are able to leave this class with a fundamental understanding of practical ethics in emerging tech, how to apply core design methods, and friends!