My first impression of the Sim Center, when we first walked into the floor, is that it was much nicer than I thought it would be. Not that I thought that it would be run down, or anything like that, but that someone had spent far more money on this facility than I had expected. This thought continued as we went through the different wings and saw all of the different rooms, tools, and (essentially) props that were available. For whatever reason, I had assumed that this kind of role playing would be seen as being too much like play for the medical community and would not have received this level of investment. I’m sure that assumption says more about me than it does about them, but there you go.

I think that it is interesting how much of the facility, for all of its professional seriousness, felt like play to me. Maybe it is because it reminded me of a ‘job museum’ I went to as a kid, where 10 year olds could pretend to work for the postal service or produce a news report. But, I think that the Sim Center doe have a similar sense of people trying something on to see how it fits that is in common with children at play.

I think that it is easy for us to forget how much of play is serious for children and the opportunities it gives them to practise roles they will take later in life. Much of professional development is really faking it until you make it. What if there were somewhere where people felt more comfortable saying to themselves “I am a product designer and I am going to lead this team” without feeling like a failure was going to cost them. Maybe this is something that does exist already, but not that I know of.

“Content Crumbs” is an interactive educational tool that helps users take new learnings or bits of information, teach it to their future self via a short audio clip or “Content Crumb”, and virtually place it in relevant locations for future use. Think augmented reality but with audio.

Problem statement

Often, educational content isn’t contextualized in the real-world or is hard to summon up in a moment of relevance or need.

Concept description

This concept is essentially to help make pieces of educational content accessible on the go. As the student learns different modules, they (or their instructor) make an 1-2 minute audio recording or “Content Crumb” of their learnings and tag it to a specific geolocation where it might be useful later. As the user goes about their life, with the Content Crumbs app running in the background, when they bump into a place that has a virtual Content Crumb, they’ll be notified and able to revisit past learnings. The hope is that this both summons up past knowledge and helps solidify the lesson in their mind.

On the flip side, the user can take photos out in the real world and bring them back into folders on the app (or whatever it is), for inspiration back at their desk/office/workspace. Kind of like Pinterest for the real world.

I’ve decided to create a timing/scheduling module—something that might be a plugin for a Google calendar, a newclasses-type environment, or a future-state online university.

I did some research into similar tools for business and found many—Projector, Wendia, Resource Guru, to name a few.

I’ve established the following design criteria:

On teacher side, I’m creating standardized intake fields for every task assigned, including time estimate and due date. Teachers can also have visibility into other class’ assignment scheduling, and the student’s calendar, in case they choose to publicize other life events like work or religious holidays or other critical engagements.

On the student side, features will include the ability to modify tasks, automate or customize calendar blocking, and customize to calendar view versus to-do list view.

Spent this week evaluating chatbot products. I think api.ai is going to be the best for my purposes. Also, I’m beginning to ‘chunk’ the conversation so I can program it into the bot.

 

Some defined and scattered thoughts, and project status.

defined user:

• graduate school students in non-technical fields

defined problem:

• learning happens in silos, whether outside or inside the classroom, and learners must rely on their memory to summon up the right information

defined design challenge:

• how can we help bring relevant or complicating information to learners in the space/time when it’s actually relevant/needed?

defined objectives:

• takes burden off users
• can be used for both students and teachers
• is enjoyable to use
• is easy to use
• enhances applications of academics, doesn’t replace them

defined constraints:

• uses two different memory pathways

defined KPI:

• regular student and teacher usage
• longer students and teachers engagement in the subject matter
• more integrated thinking from students and teachers, rather than linear module- or unit-based thinking

defined project plan:

• formalize project and goal 11/7 – 11/14
• gather research + inspiration, sketch + prototype 11/14 – 11/21
• iterate 11/21 – 11/28
• tell story 11/28 – 12/5

scattered ideas:

• geofenced information modules, either bringing information from classroom contextualize in the room, or things you’re learning out in the world, to complicate/advance ideas at your desk/home
• virtual world, “mind palace”
• social aspect, other people adding things for people to find?
• visuals versus audio output
• randomized or frankenstein-style ideation games
• instant picture to inspiration card
• more about mental notes, journaling
• time integrated schedule, addressing the whole person, whole living radius
• being able to work wherever, through designed friction
• project management tool
• open question/answer service/community/forum
• open question/answer self-service tool

First and foremost, I’d ensure that the environment is more conducive to work and collaboration. This means fewer people or twice the space. In that space, we’d need many small, reservable rooms to facilitate deep work sessions for group work.

I’d like the space to feel much more like MAGNET—a place where quality, compelling work is created, rather than creative chaos. That’s a personal preference, but the environment often influences the style and finish of the work produced there. This would probably help also help improve the vibe of the floor so people aren’t constantly sending out nasty, patronizing emails about cleaning up after yourself and what it means to be adult (though the mess is super frustrating). An easy near term fix? Make the floor look less junky so people don’t treat it like junk, and hire a full-time cleaning staff.

I’d like furniture and the spaces to be more conducive to learning different subjects and working different ways. This means modularity. No bolted-down, massive tables or unweildy chairs. Everything small, and reconfigurable, and stackable, and on wheels.

Similarly, all flat surfaces should be white board materials (walls and tables) and have cleaner at the ready. This will both make the space feel cleaner (the black tables are always so gross!) and provide a prompt to student to constantly be thinking and connecting dots (something that often comes AFTER prototyping). Each room should be equipped with brainstorming materials like pens and post-its and flipcharts.

I think staging desks should be eliminated from the general workspace and the kitchen should be separated from the general workspace.

I also think there should be a display gallery, that is highly public (at the front of the floor) and highly curated. Each item would need a placard to force students to refine concept and subject matter, like real artists/designers must do.

I’d make staging space be a separate area, that doesn’t encroach on the general work space and create the “have” and “have-not” subtle dynamic. This would prevent 2nd-year students from boxing out the newer (and less grabby) students, who aren’t as aggressive or pre-emptive enough to book (or squat on) permanent (often unnecessary) staging space.

The main changes to my floor plan would be:

• Twice the space.
• A separate quiet room to work.
• A separate kitchen to eat and socialize in.
• A separate staging space to temporarily set up permanent shop.
• Rentable work rooms.
• And then a 2-section truly egalitarian space for people to work and collaborate in—one part for loud work like the shop, and one part for less equipment intensive work like coding and design.
• A curated public display gallery.
• All rooms with modular furniture.
• All rooms designed for brainstorming and concepting with white-board surfaces and cleaning supplies, geared toward brainstorming.
• All rooms clean and creativity-inducing.
• The floor structured from “quiet” to “loud” : gallery to quiet room to staging space to rentable rooms to normal workspace to kitchen to loud workspace.

not pictured: missing embankment for classrooms