Proposal Paper: Exploring Area of Interest and Design Thinking for a Technologically Based Product,

Area of Interest and Passion

This part will be delivered in a paper format. Your paper  includes the following:

1. Area that you are interested in or passionate about. There is no restriction on the area you’d like to focus on, but since you will be proposing some sort of technologically based product, service or process, you may want to focus on areas that you may already know something about.

2. Your research about emerging trends and opportunities in that area.  That should include:

a. Four web search sources

b. At least two reference to articles in trade or association journals

c. At least one academic reference

d. At least one interview with someone who is in that particular area (which can be in person, phone, Skype or email)

3. Pick one specific way in which the products, services or processes currently function in that area, and use the five stages of design thinking to:

a. Empathize: How well does the product, service or process work to support all or some sub-group of the people in that area? What is the experience like for them? Where could it be better? What trends are supporting a resolution to those shortcomings?

b. Define: Define a problem in a human centric way. What is the specific problem you hope to resolve? How will it improve the lives of your target population?

c. Ideate: Describe some possible ways in which this problem could be tackled through technology. Then pick one you’re going to run with.

d. Prototype: Now put some flesh on the bones of your idea by putting together a simple diagram and description of the way in which it could work. You can do this through:

i. A simple process map

ii. Flow chart

iii. Journey map

e. Test: Describe how you might actually test your suggested solution in the real world. You do NOT have to test your solution, but you must:

i. Describe the basic elements of your solution required to test whether your solution might work. In other words, what is simplest, minimum representation of your solution that would allow it to be tested? Is it a paper representation of your solution? Is it a clickable set of links? Is it a simple model?

ii. Describe the way in which a simple version of your solution might applied in a real world context, and the methodology you would use to test it.

iii. How you would incorporate the results of the testing into your next design iteration.

4. Briefly describe how feasible you think your suggested solution is. By feasibility, I just mean how possible is it to achieve your solution. Does the technology exist today, or are you developing something brand new? What do you think are the biggest risks associated with your solution? What are the resources you need to make it possible (money, expertise, time, etc.)?

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