The project was designed around the United Nations sustainable development goals, which is a series of 17 goals set up by the UN in 2015 with the intention of being completed by 2030.
Our project was orientated around goal 3, Good health and well-being. We had to identify design opportunities around the world and work with either a future CERN or ATTRACT technology to solve the problem.
The project also involved a 2 week trip to Switzerland where we worked with designers from all around the world to develop ideas.
The 2 week intensive revolved around; teamwork, problem identification and idea generation, along with presenting these ideas to CERN staff for critique.
This is an on-going project that will finish in May 2023.
“what if...?”
‘What if...?’ statements are used to envision a problem in a different light.
What if cars didn’t exist?
What if doctors were everywhere?
What if cars didn’t exist?
What if doctors were everywhere?
By doing this we create new ways of generating ideas and new systems for problem solving.
“yes, and...”
‘Yes, and...?’ was used to snowball an idea into a discussion. No idea was a bad idea and taking away any roadblocks from an idea can lead to exciting and innovative concepts.
We always want to encourage and accelerate a thought.
“why...?”
‘Why...?’ questions were used when analysing a problem to try and get to the root cause. We ask ‘why?’ over and over to reach new problem depths.
“how might we...?”
‘How might we...?’ statements are used to frame a challenge to invite new ideas, while also defining the scope of the problem in relation to the stakeholder.
a new perspective
Every day we teamed up with a new group from a different background to generate ideas and present a concept. This cross-collaboration involved different disciplines as well as different countries and languages.
conflict resolution
With every team comes the possibility of personalities clashing, after all we are human. We had to learn how to resolve these problems and openly communicate our ideas without fear of being put down. This often comes down to respect and empathy, multiple techniques were used to overcome any issues.
prototyping
Each day involved presenting 1-4 concepts in the form of a rapid prototyping, many techniques were used for this;
- Role-playing
- Lego and playdoh models
- Interactive presentations
- Role-playing
- Lego and playdoh models
- Interactive presentations
presenting
Communication is a key skill for designers and presenting comes along with that, we had to present rapid prototypes to staff, classmates and even physicists.
Cold approaching a physicist on their lunch break to pitch an idea was one of the most fun and scary things I’ve ever done, and the confidence and experience gained through this was invaluable.
back home, and still learning
We have since returned home and continue to work towards a solution that contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #3.
The project continues, and is due to be completed in May of 2023.