Creative Possibilities

Design Challenge 4: The Cultural Agenda

Challenge opportunity:
Changing luxury fashion to create cultures of sustainability through its
leadership role in re-considering its aesthetic, aspirations and viability

© University of the Arts London 2018

1. Focus Activity
First you will select one agenda and one Select one agenda and one issue from each list to focus on.
issue to focus on.
Task 1a — Select an Agenda
By selecting this design challenge you have already selected Cultural as your agenda. Continue to task 1b.
Why?
There are many possible sustainability issues that we
could address. Selecting a specific area to focus on
allows us to think more deeply in one area to help us
shape and form potential design ideas.

Social Economic Ecological Cultural

Task 1b — Select an Issue

Select one of the issues below to focus on (we have pre-selected the below issues as they are most
relevant to your chosen agenda).

Consumption Wellbeing Climate Diminishing

& Waste (Human & Animal) Change Resources
(Natural & Human)

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2. Reframe Activity
Reframe your selected issue as a design question starting with the words “How might we...” This turns your
Reframe your selected issue as a design
challenge into opportunities for design.
question that starts with “How might we...”

Task 2a — Come up with at least 4 “How might we...” questions for your issue. (Have a look
Why? at the examples on the left for guidance.)
Writing a problem in the form of a question invites
design solutions, and helps us focus on a more specific
problem. 1: How might we… ________________________________________________________________________

______ __________________________________________________________________________________
Example: if our issue was Wellbeing – which considers
working conditions/wages/employment rights, some
2: How might we… ________________________________________________________________________
“How might we…” questions could be:
______ __________________________________________________________________________________
“How might we use technology to track and ensure fair working
conditions?”
3: How might we… ________________________________________________________________________

“How might we create an alternative system for fashion production ______ __________________________________________________________________________________
that collaborates with local fair trade charities?”
4: How might we… ________________________________________________________________________
Notice how these questions address a more specific
problem in the area of wellbeing. ______ __________________________________________________________________________________

Task 2b — Now select one and write it here:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your selected “How might we…” question will form the basis of your ideas generation.

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3. Identify Participants Activity

Create three characters that represent Task — Fill out the three worksheets on the following pages to create three participants.
people who will be affected by and involved
with your selected issue. You will need to draw a rough sketch for each of your participants and add as many details as possible to
create a full picture.

Why?
We want to ensure that any solutions we come up
with consider real people. By creating a character
in some detail (also known as creating a ‘persona’ or
‘participant’) we can begin to imagine how your selected
issue (and your subsequent design solutions) will affect
people in their real daily lives. Participants give us a
person to connect with, someone who has goals for
using the product, or who will be affected by your idea.

Example participants might be: a designer, CEO,

factory worker, customer, retailer, conservationist,
researcher, farmer, herder, artisan etc.

(Remember to consider people across the supply chain.)

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Make sure to keep your “How might we…” question in mind when filling out this worksheet.

Participant 1 Name Age & Gender Occupation & Location

Sketch

Details

Add details like

Marital/family status
Hobbies/interests
Likes/dislikes
Where do they spend their time?
Where do they spend their money?
What do they enjoy doing?
Who do they interact with? What one thing would make this person happier?
What are their daily challenges?
Technology familiarity & devices
Goals/motivations/needs

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Make sure to keep your “How might we…” question in mind when filling out this worksheet.

Participant 2 Name Age & Gender Occupation & Location

Sketch

Details

Add details like

Marital/family status
Hobbies/interests
Likes/dislikes
Where do they spend their time?
Where do they spend their money?
What do they enjoy doing?
Who do they interact with? What one thing would make this person happier?
What are their daily challenges?
Technology familiarity & devices
Goals/motivations/needs

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Make sure to keep your “How might we…” question in mind when filling out this worksheet.

Participant 3 Name Age & Gender Occupation & Location

Sketch

Details

Add details like

Marital/family status
Hobbies/interests
Likes/dislikes
Where do they spend their time?
Where do they spend their money?
What do they enjoy doing?
Who do they interact with? What one thing would make this person happier?
What are their daily challenges?
Technology familiarity & devices
Goals/motivations/needs

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4. Idea Generation Activity

Think broadly of possible solutions Task — Brainstorm ideas

and interventions, and come up with
multiple ideas. Come up with 5-10 ideas (or more!). The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible. Go for quantity!

• Write one idea per box (see next page)

Why? • Any idea is fine for now – be open minded.
We want to think broadly about possible ideas to
make sure we don’t get stuck in only one way of
thinking. Try to combine the understanding you
have of the design question and the participants
who are affected along with your imagination to
generate many possible solutions.

Be creative and open minded and let the ideas flow!

No idea is a bad idea at this stage; you will have an
opportunity to choose the best one later.

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4. Idea Generation
Write each idea in a box

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5. Idea Selection Activity

Look at all the ideas you have generated Task — Select one idea from the previous task.
and select the most promising idea, or the
one you are most excited by.

Why?
After thinking broadly of possible solutions, we need
to take one idea at a time to investigate in more
detail. To begin, choose one idea that you think is
promising, or that you would like to explore further.

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6. Storyboarding Activity

To add detail to our idea and bring it to Task — Fill out storyboard worksheet (see next page) to show how one or more of your
life, sketch a simple storyboard of how it personas would engage and interact with your idea in a real world context.
would work in a real-world scenario.
Try and answer some of the following questions when making your storyboard:

Why? • How would your participants come into contact with your idea?

We want to take the selected idea and think • What impact would it have on them?
through what it would mean for real people and the • How does your selected idea work in a real-world scenario?
environment, if applicable. To do this, take your
participants that you sketched out before, think
about their day to day lives, and think about how
your idea affects them.

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 Storyboard — Design Idea Name:

1 2 3

Sketch

Description

4 5 6

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7. Prototyping Activity

Finally, if we think the idea is promising Task — Instead of actually carrying out the prototyping in this activity, you will identify
enough, we will identify a way to test some some simple ways that you could test your idea (or a part of it) in the real world.
part of the idea for real.
Describe a couple of ways you might be able to test your idea for real:

1. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
Why?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Once you think you have a promising idea, the next
thing to do is think about how to test it in the real _________________________________________________________________________________________________
world. A prototype is a small, simple test that helps
you learn about if your idea is meaningful and feasible.
2. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
It does not have to test the whole idea, just a small part
of it. _________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
You can make any type of prototype: a model, digital
mock-ups, a service.
And what would you hope to learn from each one:
The goal here is to make something tangible that
conveys the idea you want to test. 1. _______________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Doing this will help you learn more about your users
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
and their needs, and identify next steps to improve and
refine your prototypes and solutions.
2. _______________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Optional: of course feel free to actually prototype your idea if you like!

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