03/10/13
Storytelling With Purpose
Storytelling With Purpose
When you tell a story, you transform what you heard during research into data and information that your team can use to imagine opportunities and solutions. One team member’s specific, descriptive and timely story can become shared knowledge and provide inspiration to the whole team. Because stories are accounts of real people, real situations and specific events (not general statements or summaries) they provide concrete details that help you address particular problems. Time: 4 Hours - Days Difficulty: Easy Materials: Post-it notes Markers Large paper or flip pads Tape Participants: design team The HCD Toolkit and all HCD methods are licensed under:
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Storytelling With Purpose
Instructions for this Method 1. Gather the design team together in a room with plenty of wall space. Optimally, the team should be sitting in a circle. Distribute post-it notes and markers. Have a flip pad or large sheets of paper nearby, as well as tape to attach these sheets to the wall. 2. One team member begins by sharing the story of the person(s) they met. The storyteller tries to be both specific (talking about what actually happened) and descriptive (using physical senses to give texture to the description). They should report on who, what, when, where, why, and how. Proceed to have team member tell their stories person by person, one at a time. 3. While one storyteller speaks the rest of the team captures notes, observations, and thoughts on the post-its. Try to capture everything that is said during story sharing in a note: life history, household details, income, aspirations, barriers, quotes, and observations. Notes should be small pieces of information (no longer than a sentence) that will be easy to remember later. 4. Stick all the post-it notes to the flip pads or large pieces of paper on the wall. Use one large sheet per story. When the story is finished, hang it on the wall and move on to the next story. At the end of story sharing, you will have many sheets lined up on the wall with hundreds of post-it notes. Consider this shared information as a group and begin to imagine opportunities and solutions. Tips
Share stories with your team soon after research so that details are not forgotten. It helps to begin stories with “One time…” or “After such and such happened…” Some techniques for effective sharing include: Gather your notes, photos, and artifacts prior to story sharing. If possible, print the photos and display them on the wall to refer to. Tell stories person by person, one at a time. Group meetings can be told as the story of a particular community. Split information into small pieces to make it memorable. Make each piece no longer than this sentence. Use vivid details and descriptions. Try to avoid: Generalizing Prescribing (they should, would, could…) Hypothesizing Judging Evaluating or assuming
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Create Frameworks
Create Frameworks
A framework is a visual representation of a system that illustrates elements and relationships. When you create a framework, you put the specific information you have gathered from stories into an easily visualized system. This helps you to contextualize information and see the issues and relationships in a clear, holistic way. You can use the framework as a tool for discussion and as a means to develop or build upon key insights. Not all Design Challenges will yield or require frameworks. Time: 1-2 Hours Difficulty: Difficult Materials: Pen Notepad Participants: design team The HCD Toolkit and all HCD methods are licensed under: Instructions for this Method www.hcdconnect.org/methods/create-frameworks/print.html
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Create Frameworks
1. Gather the team to share stories. Ask team members to listen for moments in story sharing when the topic fits into a larger system or is linked to another piece of information. 2. When team members suggest structures or relationships between things, ask them if they can draw what they are saying. Consider using the example framework types shown in Practical Pointers below: Process map, Venn diagram, Relational map and Two-by-two matrix. 3. Allow some time for your team to play with re-drawing their framework several times until they feel it represents what they want to say in a robust way. Then discuss what the framework implies for the people you are designing for, the community and your organization. Capture any insights and add them to your Insight list. Tips
Dual Frameworks: Sometimes, it will make sense to create two different frameworks, one from the perspective of women in the community and one from the male perspective. To determine whether you need to do this, consider how women’s stories differ from those of men. Does a participant’s gender influence his or her stories about household activities, income opportunities and barriers, and market relations? Is gender itself a theme? Think about creating two different frameworks that will yield different sets of opportunity areas for women and men.
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03/10/13
Empathic Design
Empathic Design This approach to problem solving begins with peoples’ thoughts and feelings. Your design team will work to develop empathy and connect emotionally with the people you are designing for, in order to understand the problems and realities of their lives. Ideally, your team will do research across many different groups of people and “walk in their shoes’’ before trying this method. Time: Days - Weeks Difficulty: Moderate Materials: Pen Camera Notepad Participants: interviewer interviewee community members The HCD Toolkit and all HCD methods are licensed under: Instructions for this Method 1. Encourage the team to connect both rationally and emotionally with people you are designing for. Try out their experience first hand. Feel, see, and hear as they would while going about this activity and day. 2. Remember your task is to understand and empathize with people, not to judge them, their behaviors or decisions. Cultural differences are important to recognize. 3. Make sure the team has spoken with enough people in the HEAR phase to develop empathy. If not, go back to the field and conduct more research. Tips
If you plan on employing empathic design methods, it is important to do research across many different www.hcdconnect.org/methods/empathic-design/print.html
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Empathic Design
groups of people. Consider using empathic design when: the design team has the skills required to develop solutions, the solutions you are seeking are “new to the world� or community politics make it difficult to select a few individuals to work with. Include men and women in the design team to ensure a balance of perspectives. When possible, recruit members of the community with the skills needed to be members of the design team. While the design team generates solutions, you should always have the people you are designing for in mind.
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Extract Key Insights
Extract Key Insights
Dig into your research and you’ll be surprised to uncovering hidden meanings. Insights are revelations, the unexpected things that bringing visibility and clarity to your research. As you extract key insights you’ll turn individual stories into overarching truths and you’ll come to see your Design Challenge in new ways. Time: 45-60 Minutes Difficulty: Moderate Materials: Post-it notes Markers Participants: design team The HCD Toolkit and all HCD methods are licensed under: Instructions for this Method 1. After completing the Storytelling with a Purpose method, ask the team to go to the wall with all the www.hcdconnect.org/methods/extract-key-insights/print.html
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Extract Key Insights
stories and choose five key post-its (stories, quotes, observations) that are most surprising, interesting, or worth pursuing. Edit out the details that are not important. 2. Group these important notes into related thoughts. If some of the thoughts are linked, take several related pieces of information and re-write them as one big one. 3. Write a succinct insight statement that summarizes the big idea for each grouping. Write this on a new post-it note. 4. Post these new insight post-its where all can see. Refer to them as you move towards real-world solutions. Tips
Example Insight: A combination of an observation and quote from an interview yielded the following Insight. Observation: Farmers rely on farming information from their friends and neighbors, though they know this knowledge is limited. Quote: “If the Privatized Extension Agent lived outside my area, I would want to visit his farm so I could see his production.” Insight: Trust-building and knowledge sharing happens through ‘seeing is believing.’ Work at the same level. Check that the insights sit at the same level — that they are all big thoughts. If you find you have some lower level insights, consider whether they might be reframed at a higher level. If they need to be dropped a level, they may be best talked about as needs that inform and support the Insight. Remember P.O.I.N.T., a handy technique for translating the problems and needs identified in storytelling into Insights and Themes. P = Problems O= Obstacles I = Insights N = Needs T = Themes
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Find Themes
Find Themes
Finding themes is about exploring the commonalities, differences, and relationships between the information you’ve gathered, in order to find meaning. Begin by grouping data and sorting your findings into categories or buckets. Cluster related ideas into themes. Consider the relationship between them and look for patterns. You can group and re-group the data in different ways to help you identify opportunities. Time: 30-60 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Materials: Post-it notes Markers Participants: design team The HCD Toolkit and all HCD methods are licensed under: Instructions for this Method 1. Have the team go to the wall or board where they have placed their key story and insight post-its www.hcdconnect.org/methods/find-themes/print.html
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Find Themes
and select the five most interesting quotes, observations and/or insights. 2. On a new board, sort these into categories or buckets, and then cluster the related ideas into themes. 3. Ask the team to look for patterns and consider the relationship between categories. Check to make sure the themes are at the same level and covering the same things. If a theme is too specific, find the bigger idea. If a theme is too broad or has too many different ideas under it, break it down into several buckets. 4. Try moving the post-its around to re-group the data in different ways. Get input from the team and/or expand to seek input from a broader group. 5. When finished sorting, give each theme a title on a new post-it. Make sure there is enough space between or below the different theme categories for the next step of identifying opportunities. Tips
Creating themes can be an engaging and rewarding experience, as you start to group and transform the data before your eyes. Some good techniques for doing this are: Work together as a team to decide how to create buckets and themes. Arrange and re-arrange the post-its on the wall until the team is satisfied with the groupings. If there is a theme that contains almost all the post-its, break it out into several smaller themes. Try to see not only the connections, but also the relevant differences between the information. Remember P.O.I.N.T., a handy technique for translating the problems and needs identified in storytelling into Insights and Themes. P = Problems O = Obstacles I = Insights N = Needs T = Themes
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