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| My sketchnote of the keynote address at #DTGC2017 |
Design thinking to me is a methodical way of critically understanding a problem, and crafting creative solutions to them. It relies more on expressing empathy with your clients, understanding the root of their need/problem, and prescribing innovative and sustainable solutions to them.
At yesterday's Design Thinking Conference in Accra, organised by the Ashesi Design Lab and the Ghana Design Network, participants were introduced to the concept of design thinking and the steps involved in harnessing its simple but effective ideals in solving problems.
After the introduction, participants were then put into four groups: service design, product design, policy design, and program design. In teams of 5 - 8 people, participants were to design a solution to solve the plastic waste problem Accra faces.
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| Chart used by my team for our pitch. |
My team, A-Z Recyclers (from the service design group), proposed a behavioural change as the solution to the problem. This change would be ensured by distributing dustbins to homes, offices, and at vantage points across the city to be used solely for the collection of plastics.
These would then be collected by employed individuals/volunteers. Consumers are given incentives (bags/cartons of water, recycled plastic products).
We collect the plastics, recycle them into pellets, and sell them to makers of plastic products such as @trashybags.
My friend Julius (@juliussap) recorded this video of the pitch.
