1) The design cycle
The nature of design
Design can mean many things in different contexts, for example;
- The art or action of conceiving of and producing a plan or drawing of something before it is made.
- Decide upon the look and functioning of (a building, garment, or other object), by making a detailed drawing of it.
- Do or plan (something) with a specific purpose in mind.
Architects, web-developers, graphics designers... these are the people we normally refer to as designers. So where do designers in Educate! fall? We are designers of learning experiences. We are not just curriculum designers, we design solutions for problems in the education systems in Africa. And in the process of designing we are disciplined! We follow design principles and learning theory to guide our design, and we always seek to create meaningful impact for our end-users by understanding their needs and strengths. We never stop learning and are always ready to go with a better idea!
We have a process, a body of knowledge and a bold mission guiding our design!
So far in the Design Academy, you've covered some principles, let's look at the process.
What kind of designer are you?
Before we start, let's appreciate that design is a creative process, and we all bring unique characteristics and strengths to the table.
Read this article here and tell us what type of designer you are on the discussion board.
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The Educate! Design Process
Our design process is based on several premises:
- Set the problem, before solving it - To apply 'backward design' and 'meaningful impact' in our design we need to know what the problem is and why we are solving it. We spend time on framing this problem and researching it as much as we can. This happens at the discover and strategize steps.
- Questions and feedback are vital - Every designer in Educate! from a newbie to founders will receive feedback and questions in the design process. As individual designers your role will be to develop drafts and prompts that eventually accumulate into the best design product possible! Sometimes you will share rough straw-models and 'ugly' drafts along with specific questions for other designers to help you come up with the next step.
- Each design project is unique - The steps taken in design will look differently for every design project, however what all projects have in common are the intensive questioning and inquiry steps at the beginning.
- Don't let great be the enemy of good- Design is a process that never ends, it can always get 'better'. But at some point our designs have to hit the printers! Plan your process well, to come up with a good design, in time! Don't over-work to achieve 'great' and run out of time, leading to messy implementation.
Design process visual.pdf
Example// Leadership & Entrepreneurship Course, Uganda, 2018-2019
Discovery & strategize
The leadership & entrepreneurship course has been implemented in Uganda for over 8 years. In 2013 it had received a major review based on a pilot with a new type of mentor. Since then feedback has been incorporated on a termly basis. In 2018, we started a re-design process to feed into SLP design. In this design project, discovery and strategize were interconnected since the goals and skills map of the LEC were set and would not change. We conducted the following activities to discover needs and strategize during this review:
- Synthesizing feedback received in 2017, 2018 - We analyzed the feedback given through curriculum reflection forms and IAB notes and identified problem areas (i.e. mostly sessions taking too much time, some case studies being outdated, etc.)
- Pressure cooker sessions - To agree on the new outline of the course, the design team met to propose major changes to the course outline. All along we were working within the same skills map & learning objectives of the overall course.
- Mentor panels - For each term, a mentor panel was organized to get feedback on the new sequence, lesson topics and lesson objectives. Mentors were also engaged in brainstorming activity options, giving recommendations for language and graphic design. Designers prepared specific proposals and prompts to get very specific feedback from the mentors (e.g. do you think its better to do this activity this way, or this way and why?)
- Approval - A new course outline was shared with the final approver and major changes to the new lessons were summarized for her approval.
Drafting
Based on the ideas generated in the discovery and strategy phase, the drafting process went through different stages:
- Outlines - brief, half-page outlines were sketched for each session and shared with team members and the approver for a go-ahead.
- Full drafts - Designers then created full drafts of the sessions filling out all prompts, scripts and case studies.
- Pre-testing - To ensure timing was on-point and activities could be executed efficiently by mentors, we pre-tested selected sessions with real students in-schools.
- Final drafts- Incorporating lessons learned from the pre-test, we finalized drafts, including preliminary pages, visuals, assessment tools, etc.
- Approval - The final version is approved before sending it to the printer.
Deployment
In Uganda, the training structure is layered, this meant that:
- We trained Regional Officers - who trained Program Officers - who trained Mentors.
Since the LEC is implemented at scale, Admin follows procurement procedures, this implies that:
- A Procurement Request Form is submitted 8 weeks to the date the materials are needed to be in the field
- A sample is submitted to admin, service providers have to print an example for approval by the designer
- Final materials are boxed and shipped to the field at once! This is managed by admin.
Always learning
We are now implementing the new designs and will capture feedback for next year's LEC through:
- Curriculum reflection forms
- Internal Advisory Board meetings
- Observations during mentor induction/training
- Observations by different departments in a monitoring tool
Assignment #1 Reflecting on a recent design process
- You will interview one of your team members about a recent design project.
- Find out in the interview: What did the design team do at each of the design process steps? How did the team plan for this process? What tool/tracker did they use? What design activity contributed most to the success of the design? What would the designer have done differently if they could start the process again?
- Add at least 3 of your own questions.
- Write a brief report with your findings on each of the 8 questions.
Send your findings to designacademy@experienceeducate.org