Framing the design challenge for a project is an important process in the design journey. It gives us something to work to and makes us think about what it is our project is trying to do and what impact we want it to have. While we are not at the stage of actually designing anything yet, it is key for the success of the entire project that we are able to define clearly what we are trying to do and what problem we are trying to solve.
Framing the design challenge is a technique to help us get these clear ideas on paper and provide direction. It is a method suggested by IDEO as part of their design process and they offer a guide on how to go about it here: *https://www.designkit.org/methods/frame-your-design-challenge.html Last Accessed 20/02/24*
We completed this task during Week 3’s class and we needed to look at six key areas to get a final result. We started with the problem we are trying to solve and then we developed this into a design question. Once we had this initial design question we could start to look at other factors such as our intended impact, think about possible solutions to the design question and consider the context and the constraints this may cause to our design. After we had looked at all this we were in a position to take a second look at our design question and with this further thought tweak the design question to better represent the true aims of the project.
Below you can see the work I did to come up with my design question.
I found this a really useful exercise as it made me think carefully about several areas of my project and analyse them in more detail. I have done a lot of research over the past few weeks and developed my project from there, however, I feel this was a good time to step back and complete an exercise like this where I could look at my project with a wider perspective and tweak where necessary. I feel my final design question is open enough to allow me to explore a range of potential solutions but is closed enough to keep me on track and remember the goal of my project.