Reflecting on Central St. Martin's Service Design Short Course - day 2

This morning Vincenzo asked if there were any product designers on the course - I'm not one, but as I mentioned in my introductory video, always wanted to be an inventor, so stood by with interest and was invited to knock up a door wedge to keep the doors open, which I did with creativity and enthusiasm. But when I finished my wedge made from coffee-cup holders, not only was it too big to fit, but as Allan pointed out, both the doors already had handy wall-hooks to hold them open.

Moral of the story? Use research to refine the brief...

Thinking of briefs, I'm on the green team, with a client brief from Camden Council's cycle training scheme. We were asked to review a selection of design methods, and come up with a plan for researching and creating a design over the remainder of our two weeks. We came up with something based on the Design Council's double-diamond approach:

I really want to deliver something good, and I'm itching to narrow the aims of the project down to something that will be do-able but still impressive. But I have to remember that we're still in the opening, divergent, phase of the first diamond, and where I want to be is the end of the second, convergent, phase. I have to hold myself back from jumping the gun.

In other words, I have to trust the process, Francis. Use research to refine the brief...