Phase 2: CONCEPTUALIZE
After the Design Review for Phase 1 (EXPLORE), the next class, we were immediately were prepped for the second phase of UOCD: CONCEPTUALIZE. The goal of this phase is "to establish bold conceptual directions in which meaningful contributions could be made to people's lives while evolving your appreciation for and understanding of those lives." Again, the designers should not take the approach of just "design for" but also "design with" and "design by." Thankfully, Prof. Linder and the staff take on a more humble approach to the design project that I think many STEM students could benefit from: "We don't seek to look smart." For Phase 2, the symbol is no longer a sponge but a compass. Now that we have "soaked" and "squeezed" to gather information about our users, it is time to "make sense" of this information. We ended Phase I with our insights about the experience of community gardening, identif...