For Immerse, we reached out to different studios and had them fill out a survey. We also all did phone interviews with studio leadership and asked them a series of questions about their studios. If we create a design journal that includes many DFA studios, all the studios are stakeholders (our super-stakeholders could be the studio leads).

 

“Design thinking is a principle of understanding human needs.” -Jason Charles

 

We realized that pain points of the studio come in many different flavors:

1. Studios have problem with recruitment / retention
   1. People outside of DFA don’t know what DFA is / what the human centered design process is
   2. After students get busy, it doesn’t seem “worth it” to stay
2. Studios have problems getting community partners
   1. Often community partners don’t know what DFA does
   2. They often confuse DFA members w/ interns
   3. Community partners don’t understand the design process
3. It’s hard to explain the DFlAnguage to people who aren’t involved
   1. Human Centered Design?
   2. Key Insights?

DFA members also have many motivations for joining / staying involved:

1. DFA is a resume builder
2. The DFA community
3. The social impact
4. The opportunity to engage with the community

 

 

User Persona

“Pake Jeacock” – Studio Lead

Background:
Computer Science major
Final year in undergrad

Story:

Has been part of DFA for 4 years.
Wants to grow their studio.
Worried about recruitment and teaching the design process.
Wants to find the best community partners for their studio members and help facilitate as many successful projects as possible.