#designcharrette

Charrette. Defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a public meeting or workshop devoted to a concerted effort to solve a problem or plan the design of something. As a period of intense work, typically undertaken in order to meet a deadline. (2017). A design charrette is a short intense collaborative workshop designed to design something and solve a problem. A way to quickly ideate and produce a refined and innovative product.

This week, as part of the preparation for our large upcoming Design Charrette, we were asked to take part in a minor charrette. A five hour burst of collaboration, planning, ideating, prototyping and presentation. Where in two hours we were to: plan and research a topic; to refine and prototype an innovative idea; to create a one minute promotional video for our idea; and to create a 5 minute PowerPoint presentation and speech about the product. This of course seemed far too short a time to complete such a daunting task to the standard of which the project was asking. And it was. As our lecturer Jaz Choi had said in our briefing "I want you to fail. Spectacularly" (Choi, 2017) because you don’t learn from success you learn from failure.

(Kennedy quoted in Walter, 2013)

Asked to create "… an innovative concept [based within the Botanical Gardens] to meaningfully engage people  in sharing stories" (Choi, 2107), we jumped straight in, formed our group and then made our way into the Botanical Gardens, the focus of the task. With only two hours to create everything we needed we jumped quickly into our research and planning. Unfortunately, to save time, our group did minimal research and focused on an early design concept instead of engaging in complex ideation and planning, leaving us with a rather basic idea. Although I did suggest more time be spent on creating a more innovative idea and design question, the group came to the conclusion that a basic idea was favoured over not having presentable content, so the idea remained and we continued on with idea development. As limited planning and ideation was done, with no talk of the ideation techniques we were shown, and no design question created, our groups project ended up with a broad target audience which left us with an unfocused idea.

Focusing on a way to make our project easily accessible, we decided to base our idea on something that could be accessible via both smartphone and without. For this we looked at the noticeboards that were set up around the park. Akin to the use of augmented reality programs like Pokémon Go, we had the idea of using these unused noticeboards as sharing platforms for stories both in AR and though the physical board itself. With the app, users could interact with these billboards through prompts asking them to share their stories. These prompts would also be available on the actual notice boards and users would be able to write their stories on paper and post them on the board. These boards, both physical and online, would be moderated by individuals to remove any inappropriate content and allow for new content to always be available to be added.

Our project was titled Sonder, after the term and feeling that has come about in recent years under the same name, that looks at "the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own" (Jkcreativ, 2013). This idea was the driving concept for the charrette and the project we had created, and thus made the perfect name for the brand and project.

With a name and an idea, we delegated out the remaining tasks required to different members of the group in order to complete all tasks in the time remaining. Working individually allowed us to greatly reduce the time we spent on the project but also meant that we didn’t get to see what everyone else had created. This became problematic when the group members had each finished their work only minutes before presentation, leading to the group not exactly aware of the final PowerPoint's content. This meant that when we got up to present it to the cohort, we didn’t know exactly what was coming on the slides and exactly how many there were, or that we needed to talk about each. Content was repeated, skipped and not covered as we struggled to meet the time limit, and for those of the group that were not exactly great at public speaking or improvisation, we struggled to talk. We ended up with such a lack of time that we didn’t even have time to show the promotional video that we had made for the project.

When it came to feedback we were told to narrow our demographic; that we needed to justify the digitisation of the concept; focus on particular aspects of the concept and refine them; and move away from our first idea. None of this came as a great shock to me as our lack of time and limited time management had meant that our idea was still in need of major development and refinement when we took to the stage.

(Robinson quoted in Walter, 2013)

Overall our project was a massive failure but that’s what I had been expecting. With limited time working, mostly with people that I had never met before, the project was sure to be a bust. But a bust is not necessarily bad. It showed me what I needed to do for the major charrette. What worked and what didn’t. What it means to be stuck on your first idea and how bad a plan that is. It solidified in my mind how important logical ideating is to the success of a project and how a specific audience is required for a refined idea. A fail may be a fail, a slip and miss, but a fail helps you get up and run faster in the future. To avoid the obstacles you didn’t see originally. This charrette, although stressful and tough, has shown me what needs to be done in the future and how sometimes failing is the most important thing to do.

References

Choi, Jaz. 2017. “UrBNE Stories – Sharing Stories in the City". Accessed  May 21, 2017. https://blackboard.qut.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-6777445-dt-content-rid-8245953_1/courses/DXB101_17se1/DXB101_Mini-charrette_Brief%281%29.pdf

Jkcreativ. 2013. "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" Accessed May 21, 2017. http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/23536922667/sonder

Oxford Dictionary. "Definition of charrette in English" Accessed May 21, 2017. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/charrette