Week 2
“Give them what they need rather than what they want. “
In week 2 of the class ADD101 – Design Thinking, we were asked to design an object for the person next to us. It could have been anything, a purse, a wallet, a bag, etc., and I chose to design a wallet for my partner. First we had to sketch out our designs based on our observation of our partners, then talked to them to fix and finalise our designs.
My observations of my partner was mostly correct, that she was kind of a minimalist, she also liked things to be quick and convenient. Before talking to her, I designed a wallet in the size of a mobile phone, made out of black leather and had a small string attached to it. After talking to my partner, I learned that: 1) she did not like any kind of string attached to her wallet/purse; 2) she didn’t drive and didn’t usually bring her umbrella; and 3) she’d like to keep her coins safely in the wallet, since coins usually fall out easily. Therefore, I finalised the design to be an average sized wallet made of white waterproof leather, and the pocket for coins had a small clip so her coins would be secure. The wallet was also designed to be secure on both ends when closed, so her cards wouldn’t fall out.
Through this small exercise, I learned that people don’t really say what they need, we have to listen carefully to find out ourselves; and as a designer, we need to put what the customer actually needs before what they want.
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