Mindsets of a Human-Centered Designer

I practiced the Innovation is for Everyone mindset when I had to initially brainstorm with my team, without having any prior "Innovating" experience, other than my first run with the Innovate Monarchs Team during the Spring of 2020. We each put out a lot of ideas on the table, and were quite amazed by the results, especially when zooming out and seeing the team results. This taught me that no one really is an innovator by birth, and no one becomes one, after their first innovation. Innovation is a process that can be developed by anyone, but requires great effort from individuals and teams!

I practiced the Know Your Why mindset when I had to deal with different problems throughout the process. Innovations that lead nowhere, innovations that hit a wall, or innovations that didn't quite fulfill our needs and wants for the project. Those were real problems we encountered during the design thinking problems, that had to be solved one way or another. What was the key to solving them? Knowing our why. Knowing why we are a part of this team, knowing that we are working to create something better, to bring a new wave of ideas for all students at Old Dominion University, but more specifically our African American and Latinx classmates. This taught me that a "why statement" is something easy to formulate, but a bit tougher to remember when times are rough. If you do remember however your why statement, when times are toughest, you will be able to overcome any problem.

I practiced the Show & Tell mindset when I had to start making ideas a reality. During the entire process of the website and prototype creation, we had to find the best ways to convey to the reader what one of our ideas really was about. This taught me that often times its not just about the idea itself, but the way you convey the idea too. At the end of the day, some might prefer one idea over another, not because it was better as a whole, but because they understood it better.

I practiced the Radical Collaboration mindset when I had to come in contact with a significant number of faculty during our process. Emailing back and forth with them, setting up meetings, and even iterating sometimes with them! This taught me that having multiple groups of people that understand your goal, and have plenty of knowledge and experience in them, can drastically help in perfecting your project.

I practiced the Empathetic & Human-Centered mindset when I had to put myself in the shoes of a larger group of people, when I had to think, what a typical ODU student would think about and idea/change. Our ideas throughout the process were definitely A LOT, but we always had to keep in mind which of those best catered minority students, and specifically our African American, and Latinx classmates. This taught me that empathizing might be one of the most crucial parts of any project. If you don't empathize and really understand the people you aim to serve, your project will be set for failure.

I practiced the Embrace Ambiguity mindset when I had to constantly be open to new ideas and mindsets. I had to carefully listen to anything another team member had to say, as well as to the ideas other teams or faculty members brought to the table. This taught me that mindsets can change without us even noticing, but that is something good! It shows us that we are progressing and gradually making our project better!

I practiced the Iterate, Iterate, Iterate mindset when I had to perfect an idea. We would often get incredible ideas during our design thinking process, but unfortunately many of them didn't click immediately. He had to iterate over and over again, until we were completely satisfied with that idea. This mindset is perhaps one of my favorite, since it taught me that iteration can happen even at the final parts of a project and is a process that never stops once you start!