Sprint Start in Nantes
The first week of my exchange semester abroad at L’École de Design Nantes Atlantique (EDNA) was an intensive five day sprint style design workshop. This was definitely one of the most interesting learning experiences I have ever had and taught me a lot about not only design but also learning and working.
On the first morning, we were divided into interdisciplinary, multicultural teams. Our team consisted of an information and digital design student (me), one interior architecture student, one brand design student, and two industrial design students. Three of the students were from France, one from Taiwan, and I am from Canada. Right off the bat this created an interesting setting as we had all just met and had drastically varying backgrounds both in terms of culture and experience.
No time was wasted. After a short presentation about the methodology we were to use for the project we were given the topic for the design sprint: “Hygiene and the City.”
Phase One: Research
We were immediately sent out to identify a relevant problem in the city, which we were all totally new to, and complete preliminary research – all to be presented the following morning. With such a tight time limit it was essential that we were organized. To keep our project moving, we used a structured brainstorming session to come up with key users who could act as a starting point for our observations and research. We decided to look at children. After an afternoon of observations around the city and some desk research completed on the go in a café, we finished our presentation on the topic of children’s hygiene on playground equipment.
The next morning we pitched our identified problem to our peers and panel of professors. Another interesting element of this sprint was the interdisciplinary, multicultural team of professors who were not only mentoring us but judging our projects. Our presentation was well received and it was time to brainstorm solutions.
Phase Two: Potential Approaches
As per EDNA’s methodology, we developed three potential approaches to the problem including concept sketches, user journey maps, actors maps, and opportunities for the identity, use, and technology related to the idea. This was where the combination of our diverse backgrounds brought out some really interesting ideas ranging from products that create an educational experience to spaces that tell a story.
In this phase, some of our differences also began to create interesting challenges. Our differing language skills required that I use my French to communicate with some of my colleagues. This was the first time that I ever spoke French in a work related setting and I greatly enjoyed the challenge.
After presenting all three of our ideas, our professors asked that we pursue our third idea called ‘Colour to Clean.’
Phase Three: Development and Presentation of Final Idea
The final presentation of this design sprint was a rough prototype video that summarized all of the work that we did on this project and proposed potential brand collaboration.
My roles in the production of this video were creating the outline for the structure of the video, writing the script, and doing the voice over.
Key Learnings
Trust the Process – While it felt stressful and overwhelming at first, this project taught me to trust the design process used by EDNA. Because I successfully completed the process and saw how it facilitated the generation of interesting ideas in a condensed period of time, I found it easier to then follow this process during my large, semester long projects. It was also an effective introduction to the standards of this new university.
Collaboration – The interdisciplinary collaboration involved in this project was particularly exciting to me. In university we are often siloed by discipline so it was both interesting and refreshing to collaborate with other types of designers.
Embrace Speed – This format forced me to work much more quickly than I am comfortable with. Through this experience, I realized that working quickly can be a useful tool in moving through the design process. When you don’t have time to overanalyze and second guess, you can come up with and develop really interesting ideas. There is always time to rigorously evaluate the idea and work out the details later.
Overall, as an exchange student I found this design sprint to be an extremely useful introduction to my new, temporary university and a useful tool for learning about their design methods.
This project was course work for the International Class at L’École de Design Nantes Atlantique in September 2018 completed in collaboration with Baptistine Pichon , Elvin Chan, Léa Doucet, and Mathilde Liégeois.
You can see another project that I completed at L’École de Design here.