Case Study: Problem Solving Steps

An App for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Solving a problem in the service industry

After building upon our understanding of our user and recognizing themes, opportunity areas, and answering the “how might we” question: Ta-dah! First diamond of the double diamond design theory:

[Double diamond design thinking from Dan Nessler]
[Rows of rocks] & [No Interaction]

Research, Empathy, Insights

There is a reason design school teaches you about user personas. When you’ve built a user, you can revisit your materials if you get stuck or need a refresher of your goals. The result of these exercises is you should be deep in her pain. I’m so uncomfortable with her pain-points that I need to find her solutions. I am compelled to fix this for her!

[Proto-persona of a typical museum attendee] & [Fully-formed User Persona]
[We seriously made an empathy map] & [My sticky notes are in pink]
[THIS REEKS OF STUDENT WORK]

Themes

We knew what Megan was thinking, feeling, saying, doing during her trip to the Mineral Exhibit. We next wanted to know the details of when Megan felt those things. Where were the biggest pain points occurring? That might show us where we can make the biggest impact in her journey.

[Our User Journey’s journey]

“How Might We”

This activity led us to narrowing our potential solutions. This was the “How Might We” activity that helped us solve our user’s biggest frustrations. The app was going to create unlimited interaction points for all items in the exhibits. This would educate the user and engage the user in “collecting” items throughout the museum. At the end of the experience, the user could have a collection of what they saw to share with others and promote their amazing experience at the Natural History museum.

[Brainstorming Solutions] & [Drawing potential screens] & [Addtl iterations]
[Adding “delights” to the app]
[Users simulating our InVision app at the museum]

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Experience designer, content curator, confidence builder, joy cultivator, dog + tiny human mom, chronic over-thinker, deficit levels of attention

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Maggie Campbell

Experience designer, content curator, confidence builder, joy cultivator, dog + tiny human mom, chronic over-thinker, deficit levels of attention