Reflection - Visualization tool 

 Challenge     Last year I took a Design Thinking workshop which concluded with a final assignment for the   workshop . The challenge for the respective assignment was to design a digital product that would   improve the navigation experience in shopping malls . We paired up in teams of 4 people and started   our challenge by outlining our process : empathize ( research ) - define - ideate - prototype - test . We   also picked out one shopping mall in which to concentrate our research and design efforts . The   shopping mall we picked is the second largest shopping mall in my country , and , as you can   imagine , and as we , ourselves , have discovered through our research , there are a lot of friction   points in the customer 's experience , related to navigation and not only . I will address these further in   this paper .     Selection     Even though we used all the tools described in this course for our challenge , for the purposes of this   assignment I will detail the Visualization tool . I chose to talk about this tool because , in my opinion , it   was the tool that delivered the most powerful insights during our research and define phases , and , of   course , it played the main role in the idea generation phase . Working in a team of 4 people , we   sometimes had different opinions or understandings of the different concepts that arose during our   project . The Visualization tool helped us gain a common understanding   of these concepts and align   our views . I think that this is one of the biggest strengths of visualization - it helps the team share a   common understanding . This is widely discussed in Tim Brown 's ​Change by Design​ book , which I   recommend to you all .     Application     As I said before , we used the Visualization tool in different phases of our Design Thinking process .   In the research phase , we used a " research wall " - an empty wall on which we collected sticky notes   with thoughts , photographs of people in shopping malls , print screens of apps that help facilitate   navigation in shopping malls , insights from people we interviewed and so on . We collected all this   data on our research wall and began categorizing it in what we called an " affinity diagram " . This   approach helped us build connections between different findings and understand the bigger picture .   We also drew experience maps to better understand what a customer 's experience is when   navigating a shopping mall , build a clear view of his / her pain points and discover friction points in the   shopping mall experience .     In the define phase , we used visualization to build our personas ( fictional people that represent   potential users of your service or product ) . Building our personas helped us stay on track during the   later phases in the design process . Whenever we faced concerns , we would return to our personas   to remind ourselves what our users ' goals and frustrations are , what their personalities are like and   how we can build our product in a way that would best improve their lives and fulfill their needs . 

 In the idea generation phase , we used visualization by drawing some storyboards in which we   imagined how a product could improve our user 's lives . Storyboards are simple drawings of people   performing different activities . By drawing these storyboards , we began understanding in which   direction we should take our product . And of course we used a lot of visualization in the prototype   phase - we drew simple sketches to illustrate our app idea . Also , by drawing an actual prototype of   our product , we were able to test this prototype with real users and gain feedback and insights from   them .     Insights and approach     The visualization tools I talked about in the previous paragraphs helped us gain a lot of insights from   our user and build connections between the problems we discovered , in order to gain an   understanding of a more complex problem . Even though at the beginning , our challenge was to   improve the navigation experience in shopping malls , we discovered that the navigation problem   was linked to a lot of other problems .      For example , we discovered that a lot of the customers of the shopping mall were mothers with   babies - who were using the baby stroller . For these customers , a simple app that would tell them   how to get from point A to point B would n't have been enough . They had to know if the path they   were taking was stroller accessible and if there were any mother - baby rooms on their way .   Another   important insight we discovered was that a lot of mall customers never really did any shopping in   shopping malls - they did all their shopping online . We dug deeper into this situation and discovered   that they preferred online shopping because , in shopping malls , they never knew which shops would   fit their budget and which shops to visit if they were looking for a certain item .      Having discovered all these great insights , we were able to design a digital product that not only   improved the navigation experience , but also helped mall customers find out in which stores they   could find the product they were looking for , if those stores fit their budget , how to get to those stores   in the quickest and most accessible manner for them .      Without using visualization , we would have never seen a connection between these insights and our   product would have only delivered a solution for navigation , without taking into consideration all of   the other issues we discovered . We ended up improving not only the customer 's experience , but   also addressing the business goals of the shopping mall . And without using visualization to draw a   prototype of our product , we would n't have been able to test it with real users . We were able to   improve our product after every round of user testing , based on feedback and insights from the   users .     After this experience , I have been using visualization to deal with all kinds of challenges , related or   not to design . I do think of myself as a visual thinker - I am way better with images than with words -   so every time I am faced with a complex issue , I gather sticky notes , pictures , diagrams , maps and   all kinds of visual artifacts to help me break the issue in smaller chunks , build connections and open   up my mind for possible solutions that can bring innovation . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection - Visualization tool 

 Challenge     Last year I took a Design Thinking workshop which concluded with a final assignment for the   workshop . The challenge for the respective assignment was to design a digital product that would   improve the navigation experience in shopping malls . We paired up in teams of 4 people and started   our challenge by outlining our process : empathize ( research ) - define - ideate - prototype - test . We   also picked out one shopping mall in which to concentrate our research and design efforts . The   shopping mall we picked is the second largest shopping mall in my country , and , as you can   imagine , and as we , ourselves , have discovered through our research , there are a lot of friction   points in the customer 's experience , related to navigation and not only . I will address these further in   this paper .     Selection     Even though we used all the tools described in this course for our challenge , for the purposes of this   assignment I will detail the Visualization tool . I chose to talk about this tool because , in my opinion , it   was the tool that delivered the most powerful insights during our research and define phases , and , of   course , it played the main role in the idea generation phase . Working in a team of 4 people , we   sometimes had different opinions or understandings of the different concepts that arose during our   project . The Visualization tool helped us gain a common understanding   of these concepts and align   our views . I think that this is one of the biggest strengths of visualization - it helps the team share a   common understanding . This is widely discussed in Tim Brown 's ​Change by Design​ book , which I   recommend to you all .     Application     As I said before , we used the Visualization tool in different phases of our Design Thinking process .   In the research phase , we used a " research wall " - an empty wall on which we collected sticky notes   with thoughts , photographs of people in shopping malls , print screens of apps that help facilitate   navigation in shopping malls , insights from people we interviewed and so on . We collected all this   data on our research wall and began categorizing it in what we called an " affinity diagram " . This   approach helped us build connections between different findings and understand the bigger picture .   We also drew experience maps to better understand what a customer 's experience is when   navigating a shopping mall , build a clear view of his / her pain points and discover friction points in the   shopping mall experience .     In the define phase , we used visualization to build our personas ( fictional people that represent   potential users of your service or product ) . Building our personas helped us stay on track during the   later phases in the design process . Whenever we faced concerns , we would return to our personas   to remind ourselves what our users ' goals and frustrations are , what their personalities are like and   how we can build our product in a way that would best improve their lives and fulfill their needs . 

 In the idea generation phase , we used visualization by drawing some storyboards in which we   imagined how a product could improve our user 's lives . Storyboards are simple drawings of people   performing different activities . By drawing these storyboards , we began understanding in which   direction we should take our product . And of course we used a lot of visualization in the prototype   phase - we drew simple sketches to illustrate our app idea . Also , by drawing an actual prototype of   our product , we were able to test this prototype with real users and gain feedback and insights from   them .     Insights and approach     The visualization tools I talked about in the previous paragraphs helped us gain a lot of insights from   our user and build connections between the problems we discovered , in order to gain an   understanding of a more complex problem . Even though at the beginning , our challenge was to   improve the navigation experience in shopping malls , we discovered that the navigation problem   was linked to a lot of other problems .      For example , we discovered that a lot of the customers of the shopping mall were mothers with   babies - who were using the baby stroller . For these customers , a simple app that would tell them   how to get from point A to point B would n't have been enough . They had to know if the path they   were taking was stroller accessible and if there were any mother - baby rooms on their way .   Another   important insight we discovered was that a lot of mall customers never really did any shopping in   shopping malls - they did all their shopping online . We dug deeper into this situation and discovered   that they preferred online shopping because , in shopping malls , they never knew which shops would   fit their budget and which shops to visit if they were looking for a certain item .      Having discovered all these great insights , we were able to design a digital product that not only   improved the navigation experience , but also helped mall customers find out in which stores they   could find the product they were looking for , if those stores fit their budget , how to get to those stores   in the quickest and most accessible manner for them .      Without using visualization , we would have never seen a connection between these insights and our   product would have only delivered a solution for navigation , without taking into consideration all of   the other issues we discovered . We ended up improving not only the customer 's experience , but   also addressing the business goals of the shopping mall . And without using visualization to draw a   prototype of our product , we would n't have been able to test it with real users . We were able to   improve our product after every round of user testing , based on feedback and insights from the   users .     After this experience , I have been using visualization to deal with all kinds of challenges , related or   not to design . I do think of myself as a visual thinker - I am way better with images than with words -   so every time I am faced with a complex issue , I gather sticky notes , pictures , diagrams , maps and   all kinds of visual artifacts to help me break the issue in smaller chunks , build connections and open   up my mind for possible solutions that can bring innovation .
### Output: 