empathy: observe, engage, immerse.
Like any good d.school students, we plunged into the design thinking process with empathy protoyping first. We spent hours on Market Street observing, engaging, and--literally--walking in other peoples' footsteps to get a sense of what the experience is like.
We visited the site multiple times to get a sense of how people use the space as it is. We talked to people in the cafe, in the building next door, and on the street to find out what they wanted to see in the space. What we found is that though people move fast, when given the opportunity, they will stop--and in fact, they want to--and engage with objects and people. Every opportunity we threw at them--posterboards to write on, business cards with our emails, a maraca to shake, Nancy dressed up as a fortune teller--they followed through on. So we wanted to design something for this space to be inviting, and foster a sense of connection between people and the city.
We visited the site multiple times to get a sense of how people use the space as it is. We talked to people in the cafe, in the building next door, and on the street to find out what they wanted to see in the space. What we found is that though people move fast, when given the opportunity, they will stop--and in fact, they want to--and engage with objects and people. Every opportunity we threw at them--posterboards to write on, business cards with our emails, a maraca to shake, Nancy dressed up as a fortune teller--they followed through on. So we wanted to design something for this space to be inviting, and foster a sense of connection between people and the city.
ideation: design elements.
How might we create this "invitation" on Market Street? The next part of the design process was to ideate and come up with as many ideas as possible, no matter how simple, far-fetched, or crazy. Of course, picking one idea out of hundreds wasn't as easy as just picking our favorites; we also had to consider three key design elements that we wanted to incorporate into our creation.
The first was that we wanted something visually striking: something to make people pause, stop, wonder, and be drawn into the space. We were inspired by one of our favorite art installations on campus by the Stanford Graduate School of Business:
The first was that we wanted something visually striking: something to make people pause, stop, wonder, and be drawn into the space. We were inspired by one of our favorite art installations on campus by the Stanford Graduate School of Business:
The second element was something participatory. Not only did we want people to leave their own mark, but we also wanted to create something where people could see what other people had left behind.
Finally, we wanted to capture one of the unique aspects of the microenvironment: the wind. This particular area of Market Street is practically a wind tunnel, and that is a feature we couldn't possibly ignore when considering the structure of what we wanted to create. This also provided an opportunity for us to harness the wind's power in creative ways. We were especially inspired by Ned Kahn's stunning works of art, but wanted to do something more than create a beautiful kinetic sculpture. Again, we wanted to create an invitation for people to interact with one another, and feel more at home in a public space in the heart of San Francisco.