What?

Since I added this course later than other students, this was my first in-class experience. I really enjoyed the fact that it was a workshop, because such activities can really tune students’ ways of thinking. The design thinking workshop was conducted by Design For America UIUC. They presented a general method for design thinking and then introduced four specific case studies. The class split off into four groups and brainstormed innovative ideas on how to tackle each case study. The overall general theme was “combating blindness”. The steps we were taken through went from general to quite specific, which aided the process of tuning in the best and most appropriate solution. Not only did we formulate our solutions verbally, but we were provided materials to create physical prototypes of our technological solutions.

So what?

Sometimes it is quite easy to get “tunnel vision”, a phenomena when a person cannot come up with different ideas and can only focus on one, when it comes to solution-oriented tasks. Design For America has formulated a method to get around this. Another factor I noticed was that DFA involves mainly college students, who are one of the most enthusiastic and innovative people. These projects really bring together people who are passionate about a certain project and want to make the most out of it.

Now what?

For me, personally, I actually would like to join DFA. I had previously been a part of EWB (Engineers Without Borders) an organization that has a similar vision to DFA, but specifically geared towards the benefit of humans for basic needs. DFA has a wider perspective, and depending on the project that I choose, I would gain more human interaction rather than a physical project. Even though both organizations are similar, I got more of a technical perspective from EWB, whereas DFA will give me the ability to understand the human tendency better.