Why is this a problem worth solving (or designing for)?
Often we think of products or experiences, or even larger systemic areas to design for, but are we considering the whole landscape?
This assignment is a jumping-off point for you to recognize how interrelated all of the layers of design are and to realize that design applies to many issues within each one. Everywhere there is a design, there are values and choices to be made. Each time you work on something creative that sparks change, you’re changing things in multiple layers at once. Even the tiniest project or application of your creative skills has implications or makes a ripple. You can be quite powerful!
How does it work?
Print the downloadable Problem Space Map or use it as your guide to draw a larger-scale version of it on a board or a big piece of paper. The poster helps you to identify all the opportunities for design interventions across data, tech, product, experience, system, and implication landscapes.
Plan to spend thirty to forty-five minutes exploring a topic of importance to you. It could be based on your work or something closer to home, like your own experience as a student in a school or that of your kids.
The activity
Step 1. Prompted by the word in each layer, think about how your topic shows up in each layer of the map. You might be naturally drawn to start in one of the layers in the middle–and that’s fine. Most people find it easiest to begin with Products or Experiences. Use whatever sequence stimulates your thinking the most. You don’t need to go in a specific order, but make sure to respond to all of them. Toward the end of the allotted time, step back and make sure that you haven’t left any category blank.
Implications (positive, negative, intended, unintended, predicted, unexpected): What societal changes or phenomena do you see?
Systems (platforms, movements, schools, governments): What systems are connected to your topic? What systems make the things in the other layers possible? What problems might be related to these systems?
Experiences (events, spaces, moments, feelings): What are some known problems with the current experiences? Hypothetical opportunities?
Products (digital, physical, form, function): What physical or digital products are part of the current experiences?
Technologies (emerging, essential, standalone, integrated): What technologies are currently used in the landscape of your topic? What’s needed? What’s missing?
Data (sources, algorithms, big data, qualitative data): What types of data might be available that are related to your topic?
Step 2. On a sticky note, write down as many examples as you can for each layer of the map, posting them directly on the map as you go. For most layers, you’ll be able to come up with ten, twenty, or even more. You might find yourself coming up with things that existed in the past, are current phenomena, or might happen in the near future–all of these are fine.
Step 3. Now that you’ve populated the map with many examples, reflect on two things: framing your work and thinking about implications.
First, imagine you could work on anything. Think about all of the new or unexpected places that you might focus on that could bring new value or a fresh approach to designing within this space.
What intrigues or inspires you? What are nontraditional ways to apply your creative skills within this space? What more do you need to learn to move forward? If work constraints limit or proscribe what you can focus on, can you use your new insights about how these layers connect to start a conversation about a more holistic approach that’s within your mandate? What would have to be true in a different layer to make your current work most successful?
Second, now that you have thought more about the upper layers of the map, what implications are happening or could happen that concern you most? Excite you the most? How can you orient your own creative efforts going forward to drive toward the future of this topic that you most wish to see?
Revisit your map from time to time as your work progresses. The more you know about your topic, the more nuance you will see in the relationships between different elements and layers and the more easily you’ll be able to navigate the design space you wish to be in.
Credits
Originally published in Creative Acts for Curious People by Sarah Stein Greenberg. Featuring the work of Carissa Carter, Megan Stariha, and Mark Grundberg
LICENSE: CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE 4.0 INTERNATIONAL