Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MODULE V
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AUTHOR:
Lieven Desomviele BA, Msc: Creativity coach, teacher and self-employed drama therapist
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
A. (Knowledge) By the end of the course, participants will be able to recall:
a. Distinguish between the terms creativity, creative thinking and innovation.
b. Know what the 4P model of Mel Rhodes is
c. Know the different phases of the design thinking process
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KEY MESSAGES OF THE MODULE
Creativity and creative thinking are a skill that often has been brought into a context of
mysticism or vagueness. We believe that creativity is a grounded skill that consists of 1%
inspiration and 99% perspiration. It is the ability to produce something original and useful
and appropriate for the context it has been created for. Creation needs a structured process
through which we can gather the insights of both the users and the criteria, to which the
created concept must be adapted to. We use the creative process of service design in order
to structure our thinking. A complete outline of this process will be offered in this course.
INTRODUCTION
The UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), the guiding line of the
EU’s Disability Strategy 2010-2020, embodies a ‘paradigm shift’, from the charitable and the
medical approaches to disability to one which is firmly rooted in human rights (‘inclusion
paradigm’). This paradigm implies that support services should be adequate, accessible,
adaptable, affordable and tailored to the individual needs and wishes. Design-enabled
innovation can be considered as a prominent example of "user-driven" innovation, where
user involvement in the process is central. Services that are by definition co-produced are
good examples of this value co-creation model. In this context, design has the great
opportunity to bring at its core the value and meaning generation. The term co-creation
describes the interaction with individual users in terms of improving their quality of life.
This approach can also support the co-creation of wellbeing in communities. However,
literature within the field of health & social care has very little theory on how to foster user-
centred adaptive responses in persons with disabilities. So how can we create a user-
centred service provision? What thinking process should we follow? What thinking process
offers a helpful structure in order to get the best and most efficient outcome to foster these
adaptive responses? ...
It is our belief that we need more creative thinking in order to do so. Logical/ linear thinking
offers us opportunities in solving linear problems. But what if user-centred service provision
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is not an entirely linear process? When this happens and logical thinking isn’t sufficient, we
need more. Therefore there is a big need for creative reasoning next to a more clinical
(logical / linear) way of thinking. Creative reasoning aims to find new and appropriate
solutions in order to solve problems or to make situations better where the logical thinking
alone is not sufficient. That leaves us with the question: How can we facilitate creative
thinking which can offer new opportunities when people can't fall back on their familiar
thinking patterns? So how can we use creative thinking within service provision in order to
create different opportunities in situations where logical thinking cannot solve the everyday
problem or cannot enhance the users’ quality of living?
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The Process refers to the way the creative process is structured, for example the service
design methodology, creative problem solving methodology. Every creative process is
characterised with an iterative process of diverging and converging. We call this alternating
use of divergent thinking and critical/analytical thinking "the creative heartbeat” (Figure 2).
So the misconception that creative thinking is all about diverging is false. Diverging is the
ability to come up with different and lots of different answers or ideas for one question.
Converging is the ability to think in a goal-focused was and to filter and connect the best
ideas. Logical and critical thinking is useful when it comes to converging. It is a yes/no-
system. With yes or no device, we accept or reject an idea, we make a choice, we decide, we
commit ourselves. Logical thinking is immensely effective in developing ideas once they are
available; therefore the logical thinking is the second stage of thinking. As much as the
logical thinking is good at processing ideas, it is useless at generating new ideas. All new
ideas seem to run contrary to the established ones; otherwise they would not be regarded
as new. Almost every scientific idea, and every invention, has at first been attacked as being
unsound, because it did not fit the established ‘thinking patterns’.
The Product refers to the standards that the outcome needs to reach:
What is desirable
to users?
INNOVATION
What is What is viable
possible with in the
technology? marketplace?
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The Creative person refers to the personal ability of the person(s) involved within the
creative process. The personal creative capacity depends on different characteristics. The
age, gender, the cognitive thinking style, the memory system, the personality, the attitude,
intellectual ability, the executive functions, the birth rank, the intrinsic motivation are cited
in the literature as variables which have an influence on creative behaviour. Three
‘intellectual abilities’ are particularly important (Sternberg R., 1985): the synthetic ability,
the analytic ability and the practical-contextual ability. The ‘synthetic ability’ has been
described as the ability to see problems in a new way and to escape the bounds of
conventional thinking, to generate novel and task appropriate ideas. The ‘analytical ability’
includes the capacity to think convergent. This consists of planning, monitoring and
evaluating task performances. It is the ability to recognise which of one’s ideas are worth
pursuing and which are not. The ‘practical-contextual ability’ translates abstractions and
theories into realistic applications. One needs enough ‘knowledge’ to develop something.
The importance of certain ‘personality attributions’ has been supported in research. These
attributions include, but are not limited to, self-efficacy and a willingness to overcome
certain obstacles, taking sensible risks and tolerating ambiguity. Intrinsic, task-focused
‘motivation’ is also essential to creativity! When you don’t want to make a situation better
or overcome an obstacle it is very likely that you won’t.
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from their creativity through school systems which are structured around logical / analytical
thinking. ‘’From a personal perspective, as a teacher in higher education I experience this
disconnection from creativity as ever present in students and professionals in all different
working fields such as teacher education, occupational therapy, etc.. It may be suggested
that education taught us not to ask questions but rather give answers and more important,
that there is only one answer and only one solving strategy’’ (Raats, 2007). This is all derived
from a logic thinking point of view. Our systems have been built upon pass or fail structures
whereby in the diverging phase of creativity there are no good or bad ideas, you cannot pass
or fail. The quantity of the ideas is the most important. One core element of creating new
ideas is breaking the functional fixedness or breaking familiar patterns connected with
objects or thoughts. From my experience the practical ability of creativity from children are
often blocked by teachers and educators. Like Picasso says: “We are all born as artists, the
problem is to stay one”. Robinson (2009) outlines this as: ‘Kids aren’t afraid of being
wrong. Of course being wrong is not the same as being creative but when you are not
prepared to be wrong, then you will never come up with something original and by the time
we get to be adults, most kids lost that capacity because we stigmatise mistakes. And the
result of that is that we are educating people out of their creative capacity. My critique on
current education is that we are educated into a judging way of thinking whereby wrong or
right is prior to possibilities and opportunities in terms of facing problems. So to be able to
learn to think creatively again we need partly to break with our educational context and let
go of some believes we have been thought. ‘(Robinson K., 2009). In order to truly engage
with our users we need to let go our judgmental state when it comes to generating ideas.
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V.3 Design thinking: use of our own creative thinking to develop
services or aids for the user
V.3.1 Adaptation
Adaptation is a process of selecting and organising activities to improve life opportunities
and enhance quality of life according to the experience of individuals or groups in an ever -
changing environment. The adaptation process is defined as putting (oneself) in harmony
with changing circumstances. Professional user-centred service provision requires creativity
and imagination, along with knowledge, thinking skills, and good professional judgment to
find the best solution for each user in an ever-changing environment. The skilled service
provider applies creativity as he/she helps users and their families in achieving optimal
performance capacity. The theory enables to identify that level and therefore identify the
most effective intervention to enable occupational performance growth towards his/her
maximum potential.
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V.4 The service design model for developing services
V.4.1 Thinking design
Design thinking however is a structured way of non-linear thinking whereby creation is a
central focus. It is a well-structured creative process in which solutions are formed around
the user’s needs and wishes. The process consists of five steps:
The purpose of design thinking is the development of useful services which are desired,
viable and feasible for the user.
ALEXANDER OSTERWEELDER
Service design models have proven their value in profit and non-profit organisations. The
central place given to the end user and repetitive prototyping is distinctive for service
design. The most common techniques to involve the end users are user interviews and user
observation. Both are done with a focus on gaining empathy for the user. What makes a
service human centred?
The design is based on an explicit understanding of the user, the tasks to be done and
the context
Users are involved during the whole design and developmental process of the new
service
The design is driven and fine-tuned by user-centred evaluations
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The process is iterative
The design is directed towards a complete user-experience
The design team involves multidisciplinary expertise and skills
A big difference with other creative process models is the central focus on empathising and
iterative prototyping. Empathy is one of the key elements in the user-centred design: it
makes it possible to put yourself in the position of the final user for whom you design your
service. Martine Delfos, a Dutch psychologists describes empathy as the phenomena of
putting yourself in the position of somebody else and that you can imagine his or her
feelings that doesn’t mean that you need to be able to feel what the other feels in that
moment. Now we can ask ourselves if it is actually possible to empathise with every end
user in every kind of situation. Below we review four example how can we empathise with
the person having the syndrome of down or any other experience which is very far away
from our own life. The key lies in the design thinking tools. Observations and task analysis
bring together the puzzles in order to get inside the needs and the behaviour of your user.
Rapid prototyping and repeating the verification ensures that the designer validates his/hers
own collection with the design and that he/she doesn’t need to design on the basis of
his/hers own pre-assumptions.
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V.4.3. A Understanding empathise
Phase 1: Understand or empathise
“You need to know your user through and through in order to create meaningful innovations”
Observe
View users and their behaviour in the context of their lives. As much as possible observe
them in relevant contexts in addition to the interviews. Some of the most powerful
realisations come from noticing a disconnection between what someone says and what
he/she does. Others come from the work adaptations someone has created without
realising its significance, but could be useful as well as very surprising to you as the designer.
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Engage
Sometimes we call this technique ‘interviewing’ but it should really feel more like a
conversation. Prepare some questions you’d like to ask, but expect to let the conversation
deviate from them. Keep the conversation only loosely bounded. Elicit stories from the
people you talk to, and always ask “Why?” to uncover deeper meaning. Engagement can
come through both short ‘intercept’ encounters and longer scheduled conversations.
V.4.4. A Define
Phase II: Define:
“Framing the right challenge is the only way to create the right solution”
Now, start to unpack the impression you absorbed about your users and their experiences.
Get all the information out of your head and stick them on a wall. Write quotes down on
post-its, talk to your fellow designers about what you’ve found and capture the bigger
pictures and interrelated connections- anything that captures impressions and information
about your user. Once you understand the challenge at a level of detail that reveals subtle
nuances you likely would have missed without taking the time to develop that
understanding, you can clearly define in specific terms what the challenge is and why it
needs to be addressed.
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V.4.4. B How to formulate the ‘define mode’
The Define mode is all about bringing clarity and focus to the challenge. It needs to address
the framework in which the challenge takes place and the user’s needs and insights. A form
in which the challenge could be defined is:
How can we help (users name) in order to (users need) because (insight)
The aim of the Define mode is to craft a meaningful and actionable problem statement. This
should focus on the insights and needs of a particular or composite character (persona).
Your point of view defines the right challenge to be addressed, based on your new
understanding of people and the problem space. It may seem counterintuitive but crafting a
more narrowly focused problem statement tends to yield both greater quantity and higher
quality solution when generating ideas.
V.4.5. Ideate
Phase III: Ideate
Now that the challenge is defined you can unleash your creativity and begin imagining
solutions. Ideation is by far the phase that everyone enjoys most, and because of that, many
teams or individuals get bogged down here. Teams are also tempted to jump ahead to this
phase, completely forgoing the Understand and Define phases. Avoid both tendencies at all
costs, or you could very likely generate a wealth of fantastic ideas that aren’t relevant to the
challenge or go off on fantastic sideways.
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Deferring judgment is by far the main focus of this phase. That means that the evaluation of
the idea needs to be separate from the generation of the idea. Thus you allow the ideas the
possibility to grow and to develop before they are evaluated. Research shows that new
ideas need time to settle in one’s mind. Therefore it is absolutely crucial to defer your
judgment in this phase of the process.
Try to aim for lots of ideas. The amount could differ in between 50 and even 300 ideas.
They could be a direct solution for the challenge, defined in the second phase or they can be
an association with the challenge, etc. it could actually be everything that relates to the
challenge.
V.4.6. A Prototype
Phase IV: Prototype
Once you draw the ideation phase to a close, the next step is to scroll through the idea
inventory and select the cream of the crop. These are the ideas you’ll take into the
prototype phase. This is the iterative generation of artefacts intended to answer questions
that get you closer to your final solution. A prototype can be anything that a user can
interact with. Ideally you build to something where your users can interact with.
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multiple ideas forward – a radically different approach than setting on the single idea that at
least the majority of the team can agree upon.
It goes without saying that you do this phase together with your user. Prototyping will start
to give your ideas depth, so you can get an impression of how they will take form in reality.
Prototypes aren’t always tangible items. It is just as important to prototype a service,
experience, process, or other intangibles.
In design thinking, you prototype not just products but also services, experiences, processes,
and other things most would consider intangible.
V.4.7. A Test
Phase V: Test
The test mode is when you receive feed-back about your prototypes you have created. It
gives you the opportunity to gain empathy from your user-perspective. Again, do not ask
binary (yes/no) questions but ask “why?” they like or dislike your service. Ideally you test
within a real context of the user’s life. For prototyping a service, try to create a scenario in a
location that would capture the real situation. If a real situation is not possible, try to give
actor end-users a specific role or task.
Testing will help you save money and energy during development and avoid potential
disaster. This sounds dramatic, but it’s true. It gives you the opportunity to really tailor your
intervention to the users need. Testing doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive.
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V.4.7. B How to Test
Show- don’t tell. Put your prototype in the user’s hands and don’t explain everything (yet).
Let your user interpret the prototype. Hear what they like about it, if they have more ideas
to make it better, what questions there are, etc. Ask users also to compare different
prototypes.
V4.8 Iterate
Iteration is a fundamental of good design. Iterate multiple times through the process in
order to tailor your service better and better on the needs and wishes of your end-user.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY/RECOMMENDED TEXTS
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RESOURCES
IDEO training package
Design thinking for educators: toolkit
Design Kit: The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
Service design toolkit
TRAINING MATERIALS
Useful guidelines for every step in the design thinking process
END OF HANDOUT
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