David Roedl

On Friday, I presented my master’s capstone project, which in a symbolic sense concluded and summed up my design school experience. Putting together the presentation gave me a chance to reflect on the type of work I did this year: my approach, my process and the tacit knowledge gained. I came up with a few concepts that I think especially characterize this capstone project, and also synthesize much of my learning experience from the last two years.

Chief among them is the notion of design as service. In their book, the Design Way, Nelson and Stolterman write that design is about creating intentional change in the real world. As such, a designer must always work within limited time, resources and knowledge. And furthermore, design is never solitary, but is rather defined by dynamic relationships, working in service of others.

This is related to the idea of service learning, a method in which a student learns experientially by engaging in community service. I consider my capstone a service learning project in that my primary objective was to create a tangible result for the benefit of the IU community; any intellectual goals came secondary. Committing to this outcome put significant constraints on the project: technical, organizational and temporal. But by negotiating these constraints, I feel that I have learned a great deal about professional design practice.

For instance, I now have much deeper appreciation for the role of prototyping and strategy in design. In the HCI/d program, we use the PRICPS framework (Predispositions, Research, Insights, Concepts, Prototype and Strategy) as way to practice the essential components of a design argument. Most of the projects I’ve worked on in school have consisted of thorough exploration of PRIC, but usually stop short, leaving the PS as an afterthought at best. In contrast, this capstone was a great opportunity to immerse myself in prototyping and strategy.

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO wrote a nice article about the core role of prototyping in design:

“Design thinking is inherently a prototyping process. Once you spot a promising idea, you build it… the goal is to elicit feedback that helps us work through the problem we’re trying to solve. In a sense, we build to think.”

I remember what my advisor, Eli Blevis, said when I first approached him about the energy contest: “Sounds great! Now go build it. ” I remember being a bit taken back. I suppose I am a person who tends to over-think and over-research details before acting, which is why I like to explore as many alternatives as possible in the early stages of design. However, in retrospect, it was the perfect advice. I already had the basic concept; what I needed to do was refine it, and the best way to refine is by prototyping.

Implementing a hi-fidelity, production prototype also gave me the opportunity to work though strategic elements of my design in a way that could not have happened otherwise. In putting on the Energy Challenge, the interactive component was really only one piece of the puzzle. I spent as much time, if not more, coordinating various stakeholders, planning the event, designing the promo poster and publicity, etc.

For a design to achieve success in the real world, social, technical, business and organizational contexts are as essential as user experience. The ability to integrate all these elements into a long-term strategic plan is an invaluable design skill that I hope to continue to develop throughout my career. Of all my experience in grad school, I am most proud to know that the IU Energy Challenge will endure so that this year’s modest successes might be improved on from year to year.