YakShaving

Our final media cart prototypes

In talking to a friend lately, I realized that not many people really know what design school is like. Well, I’ll try to help with that.

I keep having to explain that I’m in Foundation, which is a graduate introduction to Design. We take introductory classes in Product Design, Communication Design, Digital Media (and Photography), and Design Planning. I’ll get more into the different kinds of projects that we work on later, but today I wanted to highlight an engaging experience I had on Friday.

Our class split up into smaller groups, and everyone had 5 hours to completely rethink the design of the classroom media cart.
We had foamcore and hot glue, copious amounts of sketching paper, and other miscellaneous objects. The intent was to create a tangible, visual representation of a potential future for the media cart. There were few constraints (besides those that were self-imposed).

Needless to say, the teams moved extremely quickly, in order to ideate, sketch, and finally rapidly prototype their “next generation” media carts. The intent was not to ARRIVE at a final model that we could send to China and have manufactured next month. The intent was more intended to explore potential ideas and vet them for feasiblity later on. The communication that takes place when you’re in a pinch for time is amazing– There is a lot less “positioning” and worrying about what someone will think of your idea… It almost reminds me of improv, where you need to accept everything with an “and”. You’re always looking to add to an idea, and build upon a wacky one.

Our final model, as shown in the picture to the right, and in my Flickr photostream, reflects our thinking(As you can see from the model, I was lucky to be part of a fantastic team). Our model illustrated a “media center” model, in which a technologically removed lectern was a satellite to the media cart itself, which contained the technology “guts” that no one wants to look at because of the hideous wires. We also moved the cart and projector close to the front of the room, so that no one’s vision is obfuscated. Finally, a port replicator/KVM offered panel access so that the user doesn’t need to ever see the back of the desktop.

As I reflected on the day, I thought about situations in the past where I was working to solve a problem in an organization. I’ve sat in “workouts” before (the GE workout, not Tae Bo)… But in no way did I feel that those were as effective as Friday. Its hard to imagine a problem that wouldn’t be solved better by spending in a design charette and rapidly ideating/prototyping.

I wonder why more companies don’t use the charette more frequently. ..?