The Deep Dive

1. “From the buildings in which we live and work, to the cars we drive, or the knives and forks with which we eat, everything we use was designed to create some sort of marriage between form and function.”


2. The folks at IDEO state that they are not experts in any given area. But, they do claim to be experts on the process on how you design stuff, which they apply to the innovation of consumer products.


3. After the team of designers is brought together, told the problem, and informed they have five days to “pull it off,” what phase of the design process do they immediately engage in?

Went out and experienced and learned about the shopping cars first hand


4. Give two examples of what the team members did during this phase.

a. went to the store and used a shopping cart


b. talked with store people who use them everyday and got information about how they could be improved, (i.e. the wind catches them and they can move really fast)



5. List five rules-of-thumb that IDEO employees follow when they share ideas during the brainstorming phase:

a.One conversation at a time. 


b. Stay focused


c.encourage wild ideas


d.defer judgement


e.build on the ideas of others



6. Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?

Because if you build on those ideas and they end up being better than the appropriate ideas.
aka "Focused chaos"


7. After the brainstorming phase was over, the team narrowed down the hundreds of ideas by voting for those ideas that were not only “cool” but also buildable  in a short period of time. What phase of the design process is this called?


8. IDEO believes that the ideas and efforts of a group will always be more successful than the planning of a lone genius.


9. Once the ideas were narrowed down and divided into categories, the group was split into four smaller teams. What phase(s) of the design process was each of these groups responsible for?
Purpose refocus the deep dive by diving into groups and give each team a "need" area. 


10. The leaders at IDEO believe that playful behavior and a fun environment are two important reasons why their employees are able to think quickly and creatively to produce innovative results.


11. Sometimes, people come up with great solutions that work by trying their ideas first, and asking for forgiveness later.


12. Design is often a process of going too far and having to take a few steps back. What phase of the design process would the critique of the four mock-ups come under?

Refining and Communicating Results


13. Upon critique of the four teams’ models, it was obvious that none of the teams had developed an optimum solution. However, the people at IDEO believe that it is important to fail often often in order to succeed sooner.


14. What percentage of the entire week’s time did it take to fabricate the final prototype?


20%

15. Instead of showering his design team with a tremendous amount of praise, what did the boss require his employees to do with their new design?

Improve on the design


16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?

the human body and nature


Conclusion

1. What did you find to be the most impressive part of the team’s effort?
>The amounts of fun they had while working
>The great ideas they came up with
>How effective their shopping cart was

2. What advantages are there to having a design team with members that have non-engineering backgrounds?
>Different perspective
>Provide more information on the things engineers might have not thought of
>The psychological and marketing aspect of the design


3. There was a point in the process where a self-appointed group of adults stepped up, stopped the ideas, and redirected the group to break up into teams. Why was this done?

TO GET PEOPLE FOCUSED AND TIME MANAGEMENT


4. At the end of the video, Dave Kelly states, “Look around. The only things that are not designed are the things we find in nature.” Can you think of anything that would contradict this statement?
No, I think that the things we design are taken from the design of the things in nature.