MILAN MADGE


SCHOOL OF DESIGN THINKING



The International Winter School of Design Thinking is an intensive week long programme run at Hochschule Luzern (Luzern University of Applied Sciences and Arts) in conjunction with the University of Stanford (USA).


The programme selects individuals from all over the world and of disciplines such as Architecture, Industrial Design, Product Design, Product Design Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Manufacturing Design and Marketing, to come together, share knowledge and to design innovative solutions to everyday problems.


You can find the blog Milan ran whilst attending the International Winter School here.




LUZERN MORNING STROLL



01.02.14 - Snowing as expected. Met some great people today, Architects, Industrial Designers, Product Designers, Product Design Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Aerospace Engineers, Civil Engineers, Manufacturing Designers, Marketing Researchers and more.



HOCHSCHULE LUZERN



01.02.14 - Where the magic happens. This is where a mixed disciplinary team will tackle industry set projects for a week.



LUZERN CENTRE



01.02.14 - Central Luzern, the place where will will conduct our user research, testing and interviews.



TEAM BUILDING



01.02.14 - Snow still falling, team formation. It’s me (Loughborough, UK), Francisco (Valencia, Spain) and Sam (Zürich, Switzerland). Our first challenge of the day was to build the tallest tower possible from chocolate matchsticks and marshmallows. Harder than it sounds, but still tastes pretty good.
(Photo Credit HSLU)



QUICK PROTOTYPING



01.02.14 - Next was the paper stilt race. 2 hours to design and prototype 120mm stilt shoes to run a relay race, using nothing but paper and duck tape. Our super strong shoes were well designed to cope with the foot of snow covering the track with their griped soles and waterproof layer, but we 3 men completely underestimated the difficulty of walking in heels. Needless to say there was a lot of falling over.
(Photo Credit HSLU)



THE BRIEF



02.02.14 - The brief - How might we support people caught in modern life, to recover free time? Going to be a challenging one. Initial ideas include blank watch faces, automated robots, and time machines.



BENCHMARKING



02.02.14 - Benchmarking helps us look for new opportunities in an already busy market. What current products are available? What do we need to ask users? What is free time, and how can you recover it? By re-defining the question and targeting specific user groups we can hope to converge ideas, and hopefully deliver a valuable solution to this broad topic.



USER INTERVIEWS



03.02.14 - We’ve completed our benchmarking, now we need to find out what our users think about our mission, and the subject of ‘free time’, or lack of.

"Excuse me sir, do you have a moment to talk about free time?…. No. I’m busy." - Perhaps we need a different approach.



PROTOTYPING



03.02.14 - Results from the need finding are in today. Collating all our findings and identifying common issues, pain points, and gains.

We've created a persona, Lisa. Now to start tailoring our ideas to her.



REDEFINING THE PROBLEM



04.05.14 - Designers and Engineers always consider feasibility. But how can we create something truly innovative if we always limit ourselves by this negative mindset? Today we build a ‘dark horse’. A prototype in a utopian world where anything is possible. This is a break from the negative mindset of the designer and a chance to explore crazy, ludicrous ideas...



REDEFINING THE PROBLEM



04.05.14 - Tipping the problem on its head and doing something mad really opens your mind and has already made us reconsider what our user really needs. “Why is that not possible?” “Why can’t that be done”. How do you recover time? Well the simple answer is that you can’t. But why did you lose time in the first place? Let’s re-define the problem and get you your time back.



PROTOTYPING



04.05.14 - Well the week is coming to a close. So far we’ve re-defined our problem statement, made critical function and experience prototypes, the dark horse and today the funKy (functional) prototype. Our Persona, Lisa, appears to be really happy with our progress



PROTOTYPING



04.02.14 - More prototyping. This week has included a lot of hands-on model making for user testing.
(Photo Credit HSLU)



NIGHT IN THE SWISS ALPS



04.02.14 - A night in the Alps to enjoy fondue, mulled wine, and freezing temperatures.



NIGHT IN THE SWISS ALPS



04.02.14 - A night in the Alps to enjoy fondue, mulled wine, and freezing temperatures.



PRESENTATIONS



05.02.14 - The last day here at Hochschule Luzern. Final presentations of ideas to international brands such as Mammut and Logitech.
(Photo Credit HSLU)



PRESENTATIONS



05.02.14 - The last day here at Hochschule Luzern. Final presentations of ideas to international brands such as Mammut and Logitech.
(Photo Credit HSLU)



THE TEAM



05.02.14 - The group of Architects, Industrial Designers, Product Designers, Product Design Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Aerospace Engineers, Civil Engineers, Manufacturing Designers, Marketeers and many more that made up 2014's International Winter School of Design Thinking.
.(Photo Credit HSLU)



MILAN MADGE





milanmadge@me.com

© Milan Madge