Welcome to
The Design Tree!
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In this phase, the empathizing phase our goal is to get to know our persona, our users, and our customers to understand who they are and their ethnography.
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In the Defining Problem phase we wish to define our user needs and to validate our persona and their problem.
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In the digital story phase we will visualize our persona and the critical emotions surrounding their problem.
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In the Collaborative Ideation phase we want to use our digital story as a prompt and engage our team in a brainstorming sessions.
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In the Prototyping phase we will select the best solution from the Ideation phase. Our goal is to expand upon our idea and transform it into a workable prototype.
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In the Testing phase our goal is to validate our solution. Through a series of conversations we can test our prototype and gauge if our solution is meeting the needs of our persona.
Step 2. Validate the problem in your digital story.
Defining Problem Statement
Reflect on the empathizing persona, discover where the persona encounters the problem, document events that precede, and proceed the persona's frustration. Then define the problem.
Defining Tools
Use the following tools to define the problem and the customers needs from their perspective.
How Might We Question
Use to create the correct problem statement through an open-ended exploration of a wrong and right problem statement. How Might We Question is a problem framing tool to develop the right problem statement to help focus our attention on the innovative solution that could solve the problem.
Vision Cone
Use the Vision Cone to design a future outcome. A Vision Cone works by imagining a new future and crafting actionable steps to arrive at the new vision. A Vision Cone can reinterpret the problem and discover new market opportunities.
Critical Items Diagram
Use to identify and prioritize key elements or factors for successful problem-solving. A Critical Items Diagram helps us brainstorm key experiences and functions leading toward crafting an innovative solution.
Storytelling
Use to create a narrative around those experiencing the problem. Storytelling engages our target demographic to define the problem through their statements. It helps us define the problem from their perspective and to craft a solution that addresses their needs.
Context Mapping
Use the Context Map to understand the perspectives, needs, and behaviors in their social and cultural context. A Context Map helps us craft solutions that are conscious of our customers social and cultural context.
Validating the persona and the problem through interviews.
Use the following strategies to validate your persona and their problem.
Interview for Empathy
Use to understand users' perspectives, needs, and emotions through meaningful conversations. Interview for empathy is a framework for conducting and interview with our target market/customers to obtain and understanding of their perspective needs and emotions.
Explorative Interview
Use to gain new insights, ideas, and perspectives of those experiencing the problem. An Explorative Interview is an interview framework that involves asking a series of open-ended questions to gain an understanding of how our target demographic experiences the problem.
Design Thinking Plan
Create a design thinking plan a list of design thinking stategies you can perform to validate your digital story and develop, and test your solution.
User Participant Group
After creating your digital story organize a user participant group. A user participant group is a collection of people who mirror the persona found in your digital story. Use your user participant group to validate your digital story and test your prototype.
Step 3. Update your validated digital story.
Digital Storytelling
Collaborate with your team and use the information from your Empathizing Persona and Defining Problem Statement to create a Digital Story. Use your digital story as a prompt for collaborative ideation and conduct design thinking experiments to validate its narrative.
Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling Customer Story Part 1 Example
With a digital story we can visualize our persona and the critical emotions surrounding their problem. In the first part of the digital story we will describe our persona and how their frustration may motivate them to find a solution. This crucial part of our digital story which defines the persona and their problem will be used as powerful prompt for ideation, prototyping and testing. Giving us insights into how to solve the user problem but also the guidance to ask the right questions to validate our assumptions. The second part of the digital story we will illustrate the details of our solution, how it works and the expected outcome.This powerful visualization will document the persona, their problem and our solution making it easier to refine our solution and create unrivaled user experience.