At the beginning of the secong semester I asked to be put into the d.mindset class because I thought it would benefit me a lot to learn and practice embracing ambiguity and mindfulness. D.mindset was also all about finding our "ah-ha moment" and applying that to our d.tech experience. We started out every class by meditating with a mindful minute which allowed us to ground and center ourselves. We then took walks so that re could reflect or had discussions about our lives and where we saw ourselves later on.
Towards the middle of the challenge we were asked the question, "How might we boost self-esteem in 5th and 6th graders?" I was assigned a group which interveiwed many different people and then created our end-user using that data. Our end user was Taylor, a nervous and closed off 5th grade girl. We then set to work designing a product that would help boost her confidence. Our project is a mail system and each kid is given another kid to write an anonymous compliment. These compliments would be monitored by the teacher and if there's ever a problem, the teacher knows who wrote it so they can address the issue.
After testing this product many times on many different users such as just students or teachers, and a mix of both. All of our testers said that the compliment cards made them feel happier and that if done on a regular basis would make them more confident asw a person. Although we never implemented our product, I know that if schools take on this project and complete it weekly or bi-weekly their students will become more confident and have a higher self esteem.
D.MINDSET
2016

Taylor is our end user who we created by collecting information from many different people on their childhood and piecing all of that together.

This is our prototype viewed from the side

These are my pitch notes and pictures of a document that was used to foster a discussion on one of our walks.

Taylor is our end user who we created by collecting information from many different people on their childhood and piecing all of that together.