Creative Thinking Strategy: Design Thinking

On November 6, 2017 we discussed how the design thinking approach is structured, and what we liked about it.  Thinking "sideways" was a common theme that many people liked, along with "all questions are valid."

Here is the link to Stanford University's d school's power point presentation (look only at the first minute, more if you like..)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSuK2C89yjA 


Elise Roy's TED Talk "When we design for disabilities, we all benefit."

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2m97gPI70I 

Main points of her talk:

1. She lost her hearing beginning at age 10, and then fully at age 15 when she became deaf.  She thinks it's the best gift she's ever received because it has made her more observant of the world, and has taught her to "think sideways."  She also thinks that this kind of thinking, and because it's based on her unique experience as a deaf person, can help make the world a better place.
2. She used to be a lawyer defending people with disabilities. Then she got into international law with a non-governmental organization (NGO), and found she spent much of her time convincing people that those with disabilities have a lot of skills. 
3. Designer: she thinks she's been a designer since she was a kid. Design thinking includes these phases:
1. Look at the problems/constraints & EMPATHIZE (put yourself in their shoes)
2. Observe the context & DEFINE what is needed
3. Generate hundreds of ideas; the more, the better: IDEATE
4. Create a prototype: PROTOTYPE
5. Experiment prototype to TEST IT, see how it works
6. REFINE, adapt as needed
7. IMPLEMENT (and check for SUSTAINABILITY)
4. Look sideways (appreciate alternative ways of thinking); ask those stupid questions (all questions are valid); COLLABORATE & GET FEEDBACK from multiple people in multiple professions to generate a lot of ideas.
5. Design for positive change in society
6. Being a BEGINNER can help because you are not weighed down by expertise, nor years of experience:  you have a FRESH approach.
7. Many elements used in products and services for disabled people are now mainstream:  OXO carrot peeler (originally designed for people with arthritis), TEXTING (originally designed for the deaf and hard of hearing).
8. WHAT IF WE CHANGED OUR MINDSET? What if we designed for all by designing for disabilities?
9. Design Thinkers = problem solvers, alchemists
10. She encourages people to fail, again and again because you'll eventually succeed, and adapt your behavior/thinking. 
11. Designers often seek out extreme situations because they inform and give stimulus to designers.
12. Pre-determined solutions often fail because they are not based on OBSERVING & ASSESSING IN CONTEXT (e.g. the deaf in Haiti after an earthquake and their food/goats being stolen without them noticing. Elise Roy designed an alarm based on lights turning on and off so the deaf would realize something was wrong in the middle of the night. 

Creative Thinking Strategies: Key Word Maps (Mind Maps)

In class, we demonstrated how key word maps can be flexible, expanded, or retracted, depending on your idea flow.

Here are two examples:

https://bubbl.us 

http://www.mindmapping.com 

We also noted how mind mapping can help you define your key word tags for social media.

Augmented Reality - Case Study

We analyzed the benefits of and contexts for using Augmented Reality in Branding:

http://www.adweek.com/digital/how-brands-are-using-ar-to-engage-consumers-and-measure-results/

Jobs in Branding & Experience Design

Here are two links that my help you in your future profession:

The University of Kent (U.K.) & their Career Services web page:
https://www.kent.ac.uk/ces/

Personal Work Styles
https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/Choosing/personalstyles.htm

The BBC Personality Test (15 minutes approximately)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/personality/index.shtml

Words with Brand & Product...

Find the definitions to the collocations with ‘brand’ and ‘product’.

BRAND…..

1. loyalty

2. image

3.  stretching

4.  awareness

5. name

a) the name given to a product by the company that makes it

b) using an existing name on another type of product

c) the ideas and beliefs people have about a brand

d) the tendency to always buy a particular brand

e) how familiar people are with a brand

Brand stretching case study: search YouTube for Hawkins Power & Light and you'll experience an example of brand stretching for Netflix's Stranger Things:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPvxiNSeLf8 

Do you think this is an effective example of brand stretching? How can it help raise awareness of Season Two: Stranger Things on Netflix?

Practice: Complete the sentence with the correct collocation.

1.  The creation of Virgin Cola, Virgin Air, Virgin Rail and Virgin Bride is an example of brand _____________________.

2.  Consumers who always buy Levi’s when they need a new pair of jeans are showing brand  ___________________.

3.   Not enough people recognize our logo; we need to spend a lot more on raising brand_______________________.

PRODUCT…

1.  launch

2. lifecycle

3. range

4. placement

5. endorsement

a)  the set of products made by a company

b) the use of a well-known person to advertise products

c) when products are used in films or TV programs

d) the introduction of a product the market

e)  the length of time people continue to buy a product

Practice:  complete the collocations with ‘product’.

1  David Beckham advertising Vodafone is an example of product____________________.

2.  A product__________________consists of introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

3.  The use of BMW cars and Nokia phones in James Bond films are examples of product___________

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Mad Men "Pass the Heinz" case study

We analyzed this video clip in class in two ways:

1. ...to observe body language when giving project pitches
2. ...to see if showing a product is always necessary in branding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDzZg3OE3B8 

My Creative English - Project Pitch for Final Exam

Here are the guidelines for the final, oral exam:

• It is a project pitch for the service "My Creative English." 
• You and your team members will have to think of, and explain the branding for that service. This includes what kind of form it will be. For example, you may decide that an App is the best, or a YouTube channel, or a website. This is one element you have to define.
• Define the target: most obviously, it is for IED students...on all campuses, internationally.
• In addition to the oral project pitch with a PowerPoint presentation (10 slides, 12-15 minutes), you will have to write the Project Brief.

Here is the 'Client Brief':

Where are we now? Currently, the IED Roma departments have only two departments that offer English language courses that are geared for professional English. These two departments are Comunicazione and Moda. As far as I know, no other IED program in Rome offers specialized professional English. I do not know if other IED campuses, in Italy and abroad, offer such English courses. 

With this in mind, I think it's important to underline that the English courses currently offered by Comunicazione and Moda are "English for Specific Purposes;" that means that they are courses specifically designed to teach special terminology, and workplace English while dealing with topics directly concerning Comunicazione (Communications) and Moda (Fashion). 

As students of Comunicazione, you are familiar with the type of professional English we are dealing with in our courses. You  might like to know that for the English for Fashion course (a corso a scelta), there is a dedicated book which I published with Oxford University Press, and which is titled English for The Fashion Industry, by Mary E. Ward. Still, there is need for online support, especially in the areas of writing, sentence boundaries, pronunciation, etc. 

Where do we want to be?  This is a good question as it has never been discussed across departments, nor campuses. English has never been used as a promotional tool, with the exception of the Open Day in 2017, for IED courses. It could be part of the promotional package for potential, in-course, and recently graduated students. All types of students could promote IED via word of mouth based on interaction with the IED service "My Creative English."

What are we doing to get there?  As you know, I currently have several online blog platforms to provide a direct line of communication with students. Other than that, I am working on my own website.  

Wo do we need to talk to? Potential students, in-course students, and recently graduated students, and possibly potential master's program students.

How will we know when we've arrived?  Maybe via feedback from users; perhaps we could ask students how they heard of "My Creative English."

Background: After 10 years of teaching professional English at the IED Roma campus for the Comunicazione and Moda departments, the instructor saw a need to give students a tool they could use 24/7. Based on her years of teaching, the instructor outlined the following areas as those that most commonly need attention:

E-MAIL: get the tone right

Social and Online Media: get the verb and image description right

Branding Vocabulary: get the story line and example right

Lost, and Found,  in Translation: how to avoid direct translation, and clarifying if borrowed English words in Italian, such as ‘lo shooting’ are correct or not. This is an extremely important area if our graduates are to work internationally; ‘lo shooting’ in an English context means ‘sparatoia’ (!) and not ‘photo shoot’ as it should.

Project Pitches: get the expression & slide design right.

Pronunciation: especially relaxed vowels, word stress, when and where to pronounce [s] and [z], if ‘gh’ should be pronounced or not.

Objective: Provide potential, in-course, and recently graduated IED students with a digital language tool that will help them with professional English. It could be considered as part of a professional 'tool kit.'

Brand: IED Comunicazione, Moda departments...but other departments may be included, if they like.

Communications Objective: IED Professional English will be there for you, whenever you need it.

Target Audience: Primary: IED Roma Comunicazione/Moda students in 1st, 2nd, 3rd years, and Master's students. Secondary: IED students in other departments in Rome, and on all other campuses in Italy and abroad.

Key Message: Confused about English? Fear not. My Creative English will help you shape your messages correctly.

Consumer Takeaway: Resource at their fingertips. No confusion as to where to find an authoritative voice on what's correct and what's not. Reassurance they can produce clear English.

Tone of Voice: Friendly, helpful, professional.

Timing: flexible: to be decided.

Budget: no budget

Response Mechanism: users register to use the tool and have to say at which IED campus and department they're studying.

Evaluation/Success criteria: Itinerant voluntary survey, possibly via SurveyMonkey.

Mandatories/guidelines: IED logo (s), copyright of teacher-generated materials.

Approvals: Lorenzo Terragna, Patrizia Boglione, ....(others ?)