Assignment - Create concepts
Throughout this class, you will work on building a product to solve a user problem. Your final project is to produce development-ready specs (product requirement document, UI designs and prototypes) for the product. Most of your assignments will build towards your final project. In this first assignment, you'll pick a "How Might We" problem statement to focus on for the rest of the course, then begin generating ideas in the form of "Can We."
Throughout the course, you will work with your squad members. If your squad has 3 or fewer members, you will be on one team. If your squad has 4 or more members, you will split up into two teams. Each project team must have 2 or 3 people.
Part 1: Ideate solutions to a HMW problem statement
Choose a HMW question to focus on
Look through the list of HMW questions below and select one that you will design a product for this term. If there is another problem/idea you are keen to develop a product for, message your instructors in Discord (via private message) with a custom "Wildcard" HMW problem statement. You must obtain instructor approval if you want to work on an idea of your own.
How Might We
- Help people learn and practice their native language
- Help African artisans sell merchandise to global audiences
- Help secondary school students discover and learn about potential career paths
- Help young (and young at heart) people learn and practice the latest dance moves
- Help religious communities engage their members digitally
- Help busy university students live healthier (physical, emotional, social) lives
- Wildcard: come up with your own HMW statement to work on
Brainstorm ideas, i.e., "Can We"
Brainstorm potential solutions for your chosen HMW. Your solution should start with "Can We." You should brainstorm a minimum of 30 ideas, including at least 10 "bad ideas." Some tips for brainstorming:
- Try to find synchronous time for your brainstorm. If you don't have time you can brainstorm asynchronously in Discord.
- Creative block? Try the Crazy 8s activity described in lesson 1.6
Part 2: Create concepts for testing
In this part of the assignment, you will create concepts for your How Might We. You will eventually test these concepts with your classmates, and with real users in the target demographic. To complete the assignment following the steps below.
- Create a Google Slides deck for your concept. The title slide should include
- Concept Name
- The "HMW" problem statement
- Full name of each team member
- Then, each slide should include a concept (more on that below)
- Revisit the solutions ("Can we") that you brainstormed to your HMW concept. Group similar ideas together to create product "concepts" then create a slide for each concept. You should have 4-6 product concept slides. Each concept slide should include:
- A written headline that describes the category of idea. Optionally, you may add a written subtitle with more information
- 2 - 4 product feature ideas, represented by both an image and some text
For examples of product concepts, review:
- Bookworm, a set of concepts for the problem: "How might we encourage people to read more books"
- The intro to concept testing video, and slides from lesson 2.4
Submission
(1) Update the slide permission so that anyone at Kibo School with the link can comment
(2) Submit your assignment in Gradescope
- Each team member must submit separately
- Watch this video to learn how to submit using online assignment type in Gradescope
- In addition to a link to your slides, you will answer the following questions about your collaboration:
- Summarize your individual contribution to this group assignment/project.
- How balanced were the efforts of the group members? Did everyone do his or her fair share of work?
- If you had done this by yourself, would the outcome have been better or worse?
- Given the choice, would you work with the same group again?
- (Optional) Is there anything else you want to share with instructors about the way your team worked together?