VTaL : Design Thinking - Consulting with Stakeholders
I had the pleasure of meeting with one of the stakeholders I identified in the ‘Who’ exercise undertaken at our first MIT weekend in February. The reason I wanted to meet was to discuss the design process of the website and mobile app that he’d put together for his business, and whether I could apply any of this to the design thinking process I am undergoing for my project.
I was shocked to learn the start up costs of the development of an app, not including ongoing maintenance etc. I don’t know why I was shocked. I guess that came from just generally not knowing what the start up costs actually are. This lead to the discussion around information flow, in terms of user interaction with the contents and materials within both a website and an app. When I explained that I wanted to organise information within a digital tool, that would encourage users (essentially teachers) to both learn from, download resources from, and apply within their teaching practice, it became apparent that perhaps an app wasn’t necessarily the best or most effective tool to develop. This aligned completely with feedback from Dorothy and Zac from the prototyping task at our second MIT session earlier in the week.
What I have learnt from this conversation is the value of feedback from people who have existing digital tools, and the need to revisit the problem and opportunity that I am wanting to address. Learning from other people’s experiences is particularly useful in using my own time and resources effectively, and also clarifying the direction of the next steps that I will take in the design process.
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