The goals in the define stage of design thinking are to define a meaningful and actionable problem statement that we and our team can work to solve. The define phase is all about bringing clarity and focus to the design space, and then we will need to make sense of the vast array of information we’ve gathered about our users to understand which meaningful design challenge we should address.
If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
— Albert Einstein
đź“ť Tools & Methods to Define VR Problems Effectively
🗺️ Journey Mapping
We need to identify good, bad, or missing interactions between a user and the current system through journey mapping because it focuses on a person as a user of a system or customer of a product or service. You can find more detail about journey mapping on NN/g’s article ”Journey Mapping 101”.
đź“‘ Affinity Diagrams
large-scale data collection that is arranged according to relationships into groups or themes. The affinity diagram method works effectively for organizing related observations, ideas, concepts, or findings into distinct clusters, as stated in the Interaction-Design Foundation’s article”Affinity Diagrams: How to Cluster Your Ideas and Reveal Insights”.
🗨️ Problem Statements
We will define who our user is, what their needs are, and what insights we have around them based on the research and fieldwork conducted before in the Empathize phase. Clearly defining problems sets the foundation for meaningful solutions in VR. Without this step, design efforts risk being misaligned with user needs, leading to frustration, discomfort, or even abandonment of the experience. A well-defined problem leads to a better-designed solution.
We can use a POV Madlib to reframe the challenge meaningfully into an actionable problem statement, as stated in Interaction Design Foundation’s article”Problem Statements”.
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âť“ How Might We (HMW) Questions
Short questions derived from your problem statement. They help to encourage brainstorms and other ideation sessions to generate a wide range of solutions. These questions serve as a transition step between the define and idea stage of design thinking.
They help us in identifying topics that reflect subsets of our problem statement before we move on to the mass generation of ideas in the next stage.
Some tips to write a good HMWs:
- Start with the Problems (or Insights) You’ve Uncovered
- Avoid Suggesting a Solution in Your HMW Question
- Keep Your HMWs Broad
- Focus Your HMWs on the Desired Outcome
- Phrase Your HMW Questions Positively
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References:
- About journey mapping, NN/g’s article “Journey Mapping 101”.
- About affinity diagrams, Interaction-Design Foundation’s article “Affinity Diagrams: How to Cluster Your Ideas and Reveal Insights”.
- POV Madlib to reframe the challenge meaningfully, Interaction Design Foundation’s Article “Problem Statements”.
- How might we NN/g’s Article “Using “How Might We” Questions to Ideate on the Right Problems”
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