Our approach
Within Studio, our students learn about how to create effective teams and about how to investigate and tackle challenging briefs. There is a skill and a process to coming up with innovative solutions, and this is the key content that we teach within Studio. The themes of the projects that students are working on and the organisations which students will be placed with will change year-by-year, reflecting the need for them to be authentic and to reflect the interests and needs of our students.
Our approach to problem solving takes theories of ‘design thinking’ as its inspiration:[1]
[1] This 5 stage model was developed by the clever people at Stanford d.school - one of the most exciting academic departments at the highly successful Stanford University in California.
Empathise
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Learn about the audience for whom you are designing, by observation and interview.
Who is my user? What matters to this person?
Create a point of view that is based on user needs and insights
What are their needs?
Brainstorm and come up with as many creative solutions as possible
Wild ideas encouraged!
Build a representation of one or more of your ideas to show to others.
How can I show my idea?
Remember: A prototype is just a rough draft!
Share your prototyped idea with your original user for feedback.
What worked?
What didn't?