Designing Healthy Communities The Buzz about Design Thinking People are using design thinking to improve lives and solve big problems around the world Students have used design thinking to discover wonderful community solutions For example a design thinker who wants to encourage healthy living might create special exercise programs to get kids active at school Design thinking offers limitless possibilities What Is Design Thinking Design thinking is a step-by-step process that helps designers solve problems It inspires collaboration with others to find solutions and active participation within our communities To participate means to be involved in something Design thinkers actively participate within a community to create solutions At the center of design thinking is empathy which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others In design thinking we use empathy to understand the user’s specific challenges thoughts and needs Who Is the User The user is the person or the group of people with a problem or need A user could be a middle-school student with diabetes who needs better school lunch options The user could also be a group of people such as the survivors of a hurricane who require access to clean water and food How Design Thinkers Work Through research interviewing and listening to the users design thinkers develop a deep understanding of the users challenges and their needs Empathy is the driving force behind design thinking Guided by empathy design thinkers collaborate with the user to work through steps toward a solution These steps involve trial and error Mistakes are part of the creative process and they often lead to better solutions 4
meet some change makers WE Charity and Clean Water in Communities Craig and Marc Kielburger the founders of WE Charity use empathy to help improve the lives of people in communities around the world They learn about the communities needs then work in partnership with those communities to create long-term solutions In 2010 team members at the WE Charity went to the community of Dos Palais in Haiti to understand the needs of the people there WE team members talked with the community members and asked questions about their needs They learned that the elementary school was old and falling apart The classrooms were leaky and overcrowded and the teachers had few school supplies It was hard for children to learn in these conditions There were also many new students coming to the school after the major earthquake in 2010 destroyed over 4,000 other schools in Haiti making the classrooms even more overcrowded With this understanding WE worked with the community to build a new elementary school for the children of Dos Palais and the others who had come after the earthquake They also equipped or provided the school with supplies The Kielburger brothers attend WE Day events in many cities This special event inspires young people to become change-makers in their community and around the world Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and most Haitians live in extreme poverty In Dos Palais most community members do not have jobs and have no way to earn money To also help solve this problem the WE team hired local workers to build the schools Because the WE team used empathy to understand the different needs of the Dos Palais community they were able to create a solution that could help its many members In Dos Palais each part of the school is painted a different color When students were asked what color they would like to paint the school each grade chose a different color of the rainbow 5
The Design thinking Process the design thinking process is a set of steps that support creative problem solving There are different versions of the process but all of them start with empathy and putting the user's needs first In this book you will follow these steps to develop user centered solutions We explore this process throughout the book to help you be a design thinker The steps are iterative This means they are repeated many times until a solution is found Empathize Develop a deep understanding of the user's needs Reflect Evaluate how well the solution met the user's needs Reflect on the process Define Identify the user's point of view and define a problem to solve Test Share your prototype with the user and collect their feedback Ideate List many creative ideas for possible solutions Prototype Build a model of one idea you choose
What Is a Community A community is a group of people who live work and play in a place In a healthy community people have access to the things they need to keep their bodies and minds in good health including exercise food and clean water Some people face challenges in their communities that put their health at risk For example natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding can block people’s access to safe food and water A lack of space or programing can make it difficult for people to stay fit and active Design thinking can create solutions to these problems Mindset Tips In a healthy community everyone has access to plenty of fresh whole foods Communities in remote places often do not have the same access to a variety of foods that people in populated places do They may have to grow their own food or rely on buying unhealthy processed food This book features case studies about barriers that interfere with people’s ability to live healthily By using the design-thinking steps you will be able to understand the needs of people and work toward solutions Stay Open When working in a group keep an open mind about the ideas of others Dig Deeper If you don’t understand something a group member is trying to say ask questions Take Turns Let all members of the group have a chance to share ideas and ask questions Share Think about and share your own memories and experiences to relate to ideas and get around roadblocks during the design-thinking process Pace It Keep track of the time during every aspect of the process 7
