Nidhi Bhaskar | ASAP Fall 2020 Cohort
In exploring the ideas of design thinking, I noticed that ASaP employed a radically altered approach from my previous experiences with design thinking and ideation. The practices of innovation and design from the STEM-based approaches that I have usually employed usually require divorcing personal backgrounds and avoiding whimsical, and implausible ideas from the ideation process, in favor of choosing the most practical and rational method to impact a given problem. In contrast, ASaP’s approach created a central focus regarding stories of empathy and overcoming challenges and used our personal experiences to guide problem-solving endeavors within the session.
From the very first icebreaker, in which our smaller breakout groups shared personal information and goals with one another, the care centered approach that we participated in not only requested but required our identities and extended imaginations to be deeply imbibed within the process. Holding one-on-one interviews in pairs and then using the “results” of this personality deep dive to inform our solutions provided us space to have authentic conversations and share stories of vulnerability that evoked empathy. Furthermore, almost all of the prompts that we were given to brainstorm ideas for our solution required us to think outside the usual constraints. Once we were able to find solutions without considerations of monetary constraints (“Think of a solution that costs at least 1 million dollars), bound by legal precedents (“ Find a solution that will get you arrested”), or limited to the laws of physics (“Create a solution that involves some amount of fantasy or whimsy”), our groups were able to more quickly identify many of the root causes surrounding a problem and scaling back our creative solutions into more coherent and plausible outcomes.
Applying principles of design and innovation to causes related to care is not a new field. From the pioneering of simple solutions to improve mobility in patients with Parkinson’s disease to the designing of novel hospital imaging devices that are approachable and non-threatening to children, combining design thinking with open-mindedness and the inclusion and leadership of target populations represent a key facet of empathetic design.