NEW CLAREMONT COLLEGES STUDENT CENTER
Design Project #2
The future Student Center is intended to be a new type of building on campus – one that is forward-thinking, supports diverse student needs in innovative ways, and creates a welcoming home for all. It is also intended to be transformational from a service and resource perspective, allowing TCCS to best support students through evolving needs, delivery methods, and service models. The services will include health and wellness, spiritual life, affinity group spaces, and some food.
EMPATHY AND OBSERVATION
The team observed two locations. We used the AEIOU framework to make sure we were fully immersing ourselves in these areas and being attentive to many dimensions of the space. We picked these locations because we wanted to look at places that operate similarly to how a student center operates- a place where students meet up, do homework, socialize, grab food and/or a drink, or just relax and chill. Louisa observed the Motley on Scripps’s campus, and found the variety of activities going on and the cozy atmosphere the most interesting. Kunal observed the Grove House and noted that the space was incredibly dynamic. There always seemed to be a lot going on inside, which made for an exciting atmosphere. One of the most interesting things that Kunal observed was the fact that the space felt like it belonged to the students rather than Pitzer College.
FOCUS, IDEATE, AND BUILD
Your insights are as important as your solutions. As a group, we used empathy maps and other tools you will learn in class to unpack all descriptors of your interviewees, their stories, needs, and insights (and document this through notes, sketches, and photos on your foam core board). Create rich user profiles and 3-5 Point-Of-Views (POV) for your interviewees, including meaningful user descriptions, needs, and insights from your empathy work. Narrow down to the one most compelling POV with a clear unmet need.
Now, generate a wide range of ideas (at least 100 ideas), select the most breakthrough and interesting ones, and create 2-3 service, experience, and/or product prototypes for people to interact with. As you see below, life-size prototypes can still be very low resolution. Take chances and explore wild ideas.
TEST AND ITERATE
We tested our 2-3 low-res prototypes with our users, user groups and architects of the project. This was a pivotal point in our project because after hearing feedback we learned our prototypes were underdeveloped. What we thought were good ideas turned out not as strong. So we went back to the drawing board, created new, deeper POVS, generated 100 new ideas, and created new two new prototypes. Iterate, adjust, and retest. Select one direction to move forward within your iterative testing and designing. Change needs, insights, and your prototype as needed based on user feedback. We re-tested our prototypes with classmates.
FINAL PRESENTATION
Running on adrenaline and passion for our 4-week project of success and failures we walked our audience through our design process and thinking, and allowed them to experience our prototypes.
