Week two was a “Creative” week on the calendar at Boulder Digital Works, although the previous week’s “Business” focus and this week’s “Technology” leaning have brought out plenty of creativity from the 12 of us.
The main focus of week 2/60 was Design Thinking. We started by watching a couple videos from Tim Brown of Ideo, moved on to redesign the water fountain and a system for getting people to drop bottled water and then were exposed to Lane Becker, founder of GetSatisfaction.com and Winston Binch of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky.
Two crucial elements of design thinking that we explored throughout the week were returning design to the big time by using it to create tools and systems not just objects and products and putting the user at the center of everything you do. These notions are changing the world of design and that’s almost hard to believe because they’re so basic. If the user isn’t at the center of design considerations who is? Wouldn’t every system and product be better and more successful if the creative team behind it considered the end user in the design process?
The concept of user centered design doesn’t blow your mind, but the idea that this hasn’t been the norm does. Alex Bogusky and John Winsor explore this in their new book Baked In.