Design Thinking Important Case Studies

Design Thinking Important Case Studies 

(NPTEL Transcript)

Arcturus IV Case Study

So, he used what you will see is a very important case study, a very famous case study in that

point of time called Arcturus IV.

Now, to give you a brief history of this case study itself, is that, Arcturus is a star

in a constellation called Bootes.

I may get the pronunciation wrong, but it you can look it up.

It is a constellation this particular star is 33 light years from Earth.

In light year is the distance light travels in a year.

It travels very fast, so, within a year it travels really long and 33 years like that.

So, if you were to send the signal today from Earth, it would be received 33 years later.

So, that is it is that far from Earth.

So, he asked the students to imagine a planet, fourth planet from the Sun, the Arcturus,

not the sun, Arcturus.

And he said, imagine, small civilisation over there and say 1000 years in the future Earth

people they go there and start establishing a business out there.

So, he called at the MIT or Massachusetts intergalactic travel company.

So, MIT what he is called as fictional company in 1000 years in the future.

So, he said those aliens are very different from us, from us Earth people.

So, they for example, he said, they have the aliens there have three fingers.

So, they are not like us, with five fingers in each hand.

So, each hand is three fingers.

They have three eyes.

So, one of them can actually see x-rays.

So, the very different.

There, the atmosphere that they have is not oxygen rich but methane rich.

So, he called the aliens Methanians or Methaniance.

So, they were very different from Earthlings, also, is their temperature, their average

summer temperature was -50° C and their average winter temperature is -110° C. So, none of

what is valid for Earth is actually valid for Arcturus, IV.

Also, another thing to be noticed is that their gravity is 11 times more than that of

Earth.

So, if you were to jump, be able to jump, say 11 m here that person would be able to

jump only 1 m there.

So, that is kind of difference in gravity as well.

In terms of industrial evolution as well, they were probably lower in the ranking scale,

so, Prof John Arnold remarks that consultants from here have gone to Arcturus IV and found

figure out that there are probably few people owning what looks like a scooter to us.

So, that is all is their developments scale.

So, now what.

Prof Arnold did during this case study or why are this case study is to make students

think of not themselves and what is true for them, but in a completely different environment,

in a completely different culture, in a completely different environment setup.

So this is what design thinking focuses on is to lift you off from where you are comfortable,

where you are assumptions are valid to places where it is not valid to an age group, to

a different culture, different environment setting, everything is different, so this

is what Prof Arnold was hinting at for students to do that, and students took up this challenge,

it is widely publicised as one of the most successfully, you know, carried out endeavour

in terms of thinking exercises.

Lots of companies bought this idea and actually brought Prof Arnold to their company and said,

“hey can you do this for us as, well for our employees as well,?” so it was largely.

Some of the successful designs that the students actually did was one of them.

I am going to show you on the screen is called Eggomobile.

So, this is a personal transportation for the Methanians.

So, this is what one of the students designed.

This is apparently a very popular when it was publicised in media and press as being

a very out-of-the-box set, sort of thinking,.

You can see the Methaniance sitting there in an egg like structure with their long arms,

their physique is different.

Everything that we assume of what humans and you can also see a human being for height

comparison.

So, this is what that the Terranians had designed.

Terranians meaning people from Earth have designed for the Methanians.

So, this sort of sparked a lot of creativity in the students and widely popular as you

can imagine with the students.

And Prof Arnold equally sporting, he went with the flow, are being 3 or 4 times the

revised this and came up with the complete case study, is now available on archive dot

org.

I will drop a link in the list, reference list as well.

Prof Arnold’s son, I assume, John Arnold Jr., he is published it in archive dot org,

so that it preserves this case study as one of the stellar design thinking exercises.

That is still available and accessible to all of us.

So, I thought that I will show that to you.

One more was like.

Prof Arnold has shown us that communication between Earth and Arcturus IV is on how fruit

actually grows in Arcturus IV and how they are plant.

So, you can see here is how plants grow or are planted in Methanians surface, their fruits

grow underground and you can see all that here.

how they look like.

So, he went to great detail and detailing what their environment might look like, so,

this is a kind of detail he wanted students also to do in a real life, and this is a great

case study for them.

Thank you.

Teacher - Student Case Study

We are here to discuss an analysis tool that will help you figure out a root cause quite

easily.

So, I want to illustrate that through a story, one of my students was very regular in coming

late to classes.

So, I used my usual methods - sarcasm, making him a butt of all jokes, threatening him not

that I won’t give him attendance all that.

None of them worked.

So I said come on I am a systematic guy I need to figure this out, what’s really happening

here?

That’s when I thought I will use a tool called multi-why analysis or 5 whys analysis.

The tool works quite simply, like a 5 year old ask ‘Whys’ multiple times, that’s

the essence of the tool.

This is popularised by Toyota in the 70s almost and it’s quite effective because it’s

so simple to use, so I’ll demonstrate this particular story.

So why was this guy/student late to all my classes?

Turns out he was sleeping late that was the main reason he was late to class, so that

begs the questions why was he sleeping late?

Well he had tons and tons of assignments to finish and that’s why he slept late and

now that begs a question - Why did he have tons and tons of assignments to finish?

Well he was a procrastinator, he really didn’t have the time or discipline to do all the

assignments on time.

So he procrastinated and everything piled to the deadline and that’s why he came late

to class because he woke up late.

Now why was he a procrastinator?

Well he was habituated into such procrastination because of his course load and that’s what

his habits were.

So we started way back there with why was he late to classes simple thing and we come

down to his personal habits, so that’s a simple illustration of how these 5 whys really

work and you can try that as well to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Thank you.

Teacup Zen Monk - Scholar Case Study

The story about a scholar and a tea cup like the one you see in front of me.

So this particular scholar’s main job was to learn new things, new skills, new languages.

Oh!

But he had one problem, he just couldn’t learn anything new.

Given that his profession is to learn new stuff, this was a big obstacle for him.

It’s an annoyance that he can’t learn new things, new skills, new languages.

So his friends counselled him and said why don’t you visit this Zen Master who seems

to know it all, why don’t you approach him?

So he approached, the scholar approached the Zen Master and there was a lovely tea cup

on a beautiful table and a lovely carpet right underneath that and right next to it was a

tea pot much bigger than my little tea pot here but it was a bigger tea pot.

So the Zen Master asked the scholar to start pouring tea and with the only condition that

you should stop pouring only when I ask you to, till then don’t stop pouring.

So he took the tea pot and started pouring tea I have milk here but in my story there

was tea and he started filling it up with tea.

The tea cup was slowly filling up little by little and it reached the end and the scholar

thought that the Zen Master would ask him to stop but he didn’t.

He let him pour even more than my level, I don’t want to ruin my tea but you get the

idea.

So he kept pouring in, kept pouring in, and guess what happened to that tea that he was

pouring after it was full?

All the tea started spilling all around on the table, started messing up the table.

Scholar started getting nervous and jittery and he was not comfortable with that idea

and the tea started pouring on the lovely carpet and that got ruined also.

Scholar was all upset.

Zen Master finally took pity on scholar and said now you may stop.

Scholar was all festered and said, Oh my God!!

I spoilt your carpet, I spoilt your table.

It’s bad, so what do we do now?

So Zen Master said it’s okay, I will get one of my students to fix the carpet and the

table.

Don’t worry about it.

I want you to tell me what happened to the new tea that you were pouring once the cup

was full.

The scholar thought about it and said well the all the tea spilled out, it is all around.

So tell me one thing if you want tea, fresh tea to be filled one even after the tea cup

is full, what do you do?

And the scholar answered well empty the tea cup, transfer it somewhere or just throw it

out and start pouring it again that’s how you get new tea into the tea cup.

Zen Master said exactly what is happening with you, you are already full up to the brim

with knowledge and there’s no way on earth you are going to get new information, new

skills, new language.

What do you have to do then?

You have to throw away empty your tea pot your tea cup sorry tea cup and that is the

way you can get new knowledge, get rid of your old habits, get rid of your whatever

you are clinging onto and that is how you learn new skills.

That folks is why I made you empty your head.

Do you get it?

Thank you.

5 Blind Men and Elephant Case Study 

This time it’s a story of 5 blind men and the elephant.

So these blind men, this is from an old Indian folklore so to speak, 5 men blind men were

moved on to an elephant.

They went close to an elephant like the one you see behind me and they touched different

parts of the elephant and tried to figure out what it was.

One of them went and touched the trunk and said, Woah!

This looks like a fat thick snake.

The other one went on to the foot and said, Oh!

This looks like a pillar.

The other one went behind the elephant and pulled on the tail said, Wow!

This looks like a rope.

The last one went on top of the elephant and said, and touched its ears and said, Wow!

This looks like a fan.

They all came together later and started quarrelling amongst each other saying no this is a fan,

this is a rope, this is a pillar, this is a snake, none of them really agreed upon this.

What then came along a wise man put them altogether and said, Look!

I know you guys have been touching different parts of this elephant but it’s actually

an elephant, it’s an big animal called an elephant.

So lots of times we look at smaller portions, smaller solutions, smaller ideas and we think

this is what will solve it, whereas something put together unity actually would do the trick.

So that’s why we need to sort of put all these ideas together and get a concept out

of it and that’s why this story.

Thank you.