Ideate
This section is a place to capture artifacts (pictures, video, drawings, descriptions, etc.) from brainstorming activities. Documenting all your viable ideas here will provide a place to come back if the solution you choose does not work out. Consider:
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What method will you use to generate ideas (Mural / Biomimicry, etc.)?
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How will you rate the viable concepts that the team ideated? What will be your deciding criteria?
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Report the deciding criteria prioritise
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You can use any of the methods discussed below for brainstorming (biomimicry, mural canvas, combining different methods). Choose quantity over quality and brainstorm as many ideas as possible.
Evaluate solutions using decision matrix
Goal: Take your brainstormed list of ideas and narrow it down to 5-8 best options, considering what would best accomplish the priorities and delight users.
Then measure each of your top options against your top priorities (consider social, economic and environment factors when scoring).
In choosing your top idea, balance user needs and business priorities. One good way is to make a decision matrix like this:
Follow the steps below:
1. List each criterion (or factor) you need to consider when deciding on the best overall solution or design.
2. Assign a weight for each criterion from 1 to 5, (with 5 as the highest value). This should reflect how important you think the criterion is. Thinking about whether it is a constraint vs a consideration may also help you determine its weight (a constraint should be weighted more heavily). This is a judgement call students should make. It is important for students to understand that they are not ranking these factors in order of importance. Multiple factors may have the same importance.
3. For each criterion, score each option on a scale of 1-5 (5 being best) based on how well that option seems to meet the criteria.
4. Multiply the weight for each category by the score you gave each option to get the weighted score. Calculate total weighted scores for each option and compare.
5. Students should critically think about whether or not the outcome makes sense overall. If it doesn’t, it may mean students need to go back and review how they assigned values or weighted certain categories. Alternatively, it may mean that the matrix is revealing an outcome they hadn’t fully anticipated, and thus should consider that option more seriously. The more often students practice using matrices, the more meaningful and reliable this tool becomes.
Write your rationale for the choice of criteria and rationale for each weight in a brief paragraph here.
Propose final solution with feature description
Final Solution:
Rationale behind choosing this solution:
Feature description: Think about the various features of your solution and what benefits they bring along. Describe the top three features below which confer the greatest benefits.
