Follow me, I know the way
In my previous blog, I spoke about what I thought it took to be a really good subject leader. Part of my approach to being forward thinking this year has been the revelation of using online learning platforms to do some of my dirty work, and it was through a recent conversation at a CPD event that I realised that everyone could (and should) be doing the same.
Respect to IDEO
As a former Loughborough design graduate, I feel confident in saying that I know a few UK based design companies that are quite special. Seymourpowell is one that springs to mind, and during a sixth form workshop many years ago I was able to learn about their innovative “hero profile” approach to design ideation. I still use this technique today, from Year 7 up, as a way to shift students away from designing drab and boring products for themselves. Now they design for Lady Gaga (joke), but certainly they do more creative thinking and designing thanks to the approach of a company that design project for future changes in fashion and society.
But IDEO has always been my favourite. So much so that I applied, and was offered an office admin role at the company, which I subsequently turned down when Wetherspoons offered a better pay packet so that I could afford rent when I first moved to London. A sad and regretful, but necessary mistake in my life. But my affinity with IDEO remains fourteen years on. So when Acumen Plus direct emailing landed in my inbox at work, offering an IDEO developed course on Human Centred Design, I was intrigued. Upon further research, I realised that not only was the course a tasty 7 week programme of learning online, just a mere 3 hours commitment a week, and with the juicy carrot of a certificate at the end, but it was free too. Over the Summer this year, I enrolled as an observer (rather than taking part and doing the work I could simply look around), and had unrestricted access to the materials of each of the five classes, opportunity to look at what other students did during the 7 week programme (you upload your evidence online as you go) but I was also able to look around other courses available, including a Prototyping course, and a Design Facilitator course. By the end of the Summer, having evaluated all three, I knew there was something special here I wanted to share with my students.
Planning it
I am lucky to have 6 hours per week with my AS level students. The IDEO course provided, on the face of it, a really detailed and thorough introduction to the approaches behind successful human centred design to solve real world problems. The Loughborough Design School taught me this, but I had not passed this onto my students in any great amount since becoming a teacher. Why? Well simply it was only a small bit of the exam specification, so I saw little need. How naive I was.
With the course planned in detail over 7 weeks, each of the five classes had content for students and teachers to engage with. There is a pre-read, for students to do before a lesson. I really like this idea of reading a topic before you come to lesson, so that students don’t start from zero each time (I now get all students to pre-read before all of their lessons, and we seem to be getting much more done). Alongside the pre-read are short videos to use in lesson, each 1 minute long, and each explaining a concept from the pre-read. A workshop document is also provided, which includes all the handouts, lesson plans, concepts and examples needed to discuss and explore the topic of the pre-read. The materials are designed for a design team in a company, who get together and develop better practice under the guidance of a lead facilitator, normally their line manager. For example one lesson has examples of a storyboard generated after some research has been conducted, but also handouts for students to do the activity on, and a list of materials needed to do the task. Really neat and simple to follow. Some classes have evidence requirements, this means a student has to upload something they have done online to prove they have done it. Tasks are small and focused, and normally take an hour to create. At the end of the programme, all work submitted is moderated, and assuming you have done the required tasks, you receive your printable certificate. On November the 10th, two days after the 7 week programme window closed, I received mine, along with all of my students.
So was it useful?
The IDEO programme is great. That needs to be clear. And I mean really great. The materials are spot on, aimed at adults (the course is after all designed to help companies shift to a human centred approach to help their business do better), and apply perfectly to a typical product design project at AS or A2 level (more on that in a short while). The fact that the course only really needs one hour per week to deliver is also great. We did it in one of the six periods each week, and while other five lessons picked up the theory and coursework I had already planned on doing. The pre-read was homework for the group, and the class activities only required printing out handouts, providing post-it notes, and eventually the making of a low tech cardboard prototype.
So what did we do?
The brief was to do with helping people around us from low social backgrounds to make better healthy food choices. As product design students doing an AS course, we are doing a portfolio approach, so having this project alongside two others is no problem, as all work can be put in the portfolio and sent to the examiner. With a broad age range of students on our school site, we were able to access lots of users, so taking a human centred design approach was always going to be easy, because its very nature is to watch, analyse, interview, and focus on the target group, and involve them regularly, which we could (companies might struggle with this part).
We started by brainstorming what we knew on the healthy topic, then moved on to conducting live research. One student went to a supermarket with £5 and tried to buy a healthy meal by looking at pre-made lasagne and compared it to making a lasagne from scratch. Another interviewed a gym instructor on what it means to make healthy choices. Another did a tally of children buying healthy and unhealthy snacks from our cafeteria. Each student in our design “team” had instruction to do something live, different to their peers, and linked to the topic. By the end of week three we were designing things as a group we would never have come up with had we simply sat and conducted some “internet” research in the classroom. Our final design was a pick and mix concept that, through subtle signals and cues (and smart design), encouraged someone filling a pot to make healthier “small” changes to create a balanced snack pot to eat during the school day. This was instead of a chocolate croissant or a pizza slice, so potentially made a small but highly effective change through design. The prototype as crude and simple, but allowed us to test and reflect on the project by the end of the 7 weeks. We eventually pitched the concept to the head chef at the school, and we hope to see the concept in school in the coming months.
Did it make a different?
In short, yes. A huge one. Firstly the group now understand the importance of research. Their research was rich, real, surprising and totally unique to our demographic, and resulted in excellent innovative and iterative designing. The final design was not planned (we had no idea a pick and mix would be our solution because we had no idea what the problem really was until we researched it). Which if you reflect back, is just how design should be for all students. Assuming you are not still handing students pre-cut bits of wood to assemble and paint in different colours, you too will recognise the reality that good design is based on good research. This programme has made my students experts at good…no… great research.
Following completion of the programme, we started an independent project with the group, focused on making people around us healthier (our context for the year), in any way possible. The group have branched into environment, product and service design, and are thriving with the complete freedom they are afforded. Keep in mind this is what your GCSE classes will need to look like and function like next year with the new specifications. The best bit about all of this personally, is I no longer have to teach them for the next four weeks. Last week they wrote their own brief, created a research plan, started to conduct their research (all live and human centred by the way), and will be designing and developing iterative prototypes by Christmas. All of the evidence from the IDEO programme has gone into their portfolio (including their certificates too), and I am now facilitating them as they work autonomously. It has been a huge step up inboth independence and application of learning from the previous cohort, and has yet to show up any negatives. Even the fact that the work online was all done as a team, but divided up equally to each member, means there are no slackers in the group. All contribute or all suffer.
Where next?
In short, we are working our way through this new context now, and the students are excelling, there is no other way to describe it. The prototyping course will be next on my list, and the human centred design course will be written into my SoW for next year and forever more. The students are now better designers than they were, and also work more independently. I feel I have seen the benefit of making students prepare for their lessons, so that lesson time is more effectively used, and now provide pre-reading on all major topics for all exam groups. I intend on bringing it into the lower school when I have the time. The timings of the courses mean you need to sign up within a certain window to take part, but once you and your students are part of this online community, you are learning about design alongside nearly 6000 people worldwide. Our group were privileged to see real social projects in Africa being brainstormed alongside companies in San Francisco looking to innovate in their next product, and all the time we had a professional learning platform at our command to network and learn through.
Would I recommend you registering your sixth form students for the next course? I think you know the answer to that already.
Phil Holton 