Design thinking case studies

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Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to Social Innovation

278 calificaciones

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University of Cape Town

Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to Social Innovation

278 calificaciones

This free 6 week course is for anyone who wants to make a difference. Whether you are already familiar with the field of social innovation or social entrepreneurship, working for an organization that wants to increase its social impact, or just starting out, this course will take you on a journey of exploring the complex problems that surround us and how to start thinking about solutions. We will debunk common assumptions around what resources are needed to begin acting as a social innovator. We will learn from the numerous examples of social innovations happening all over the world. You will be challenged to get out of your comfort zone and start engaging with the diverse spaces around you. By the end of the course, you will have formed your own approach to social innovation, and you will have begun to develop the concepts, mindset, skills, and relationships that will enable you to start and evolve as a changemaker. You will be able to purchase a Verified Certificate if you wish to show evidence of your achievements, but this is optional, and you may apply for Financial Aid if you are unable to pay the certificate fee. The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship co-created this course with RLabs, a social movement ‘born-and-bred’ in Bridgetown, Cape Town that is now active in 22 countries. The movement empowers youth through innovative and disruptive technology by teaching them vital skills and providing much needed support and a sense of community. Advocating and supporting initiatives such as RLabs forms part of the Bertha Centre’s mandate. The Centre is a specialised unit at University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, and is the first academic centre in Africa dedicated to advancing social innovation and entrepreneurship. You can view the course trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcWYG64WO20 Tweet about this course using the hashtag #socinnMOOC

De la lección

Innovating by design

A number of methodologies and processes can help generate ideas and creative opportunities, and some of these have been used in business to generate new products and services, and are starting to be applied in social innovation. Human-centred design is incredibly important, and the Design Thinking process allows you to start early and wherever you are with whatever you’ve got. Design Thinking has evolved as a way to respond to deeper user insights, to connect more with people and with communities so that we can actually design solutions that are human-centred. Design Thinking is not just about products, but also helps create new processes, new systems, new services, and importantly even user experiences. Following a Design Thinking process will help you iterate and test your solution with end users, with an emphasis on failing early and often through trying things out and prototyping. Powerful Design Thinking methodology can help you to come up with human-centred design solutions that manifest economic viability, technical feasibility and social desirability in your social innovation.

Rlabs: Journey of Hope Part 47:33

Generating ideas3:00

Design thinking principles7:26

Design thinking steps3:26

Design thinking case studies5:23

Discussing design thinking7:12

Reflecting with RLabs: design in social innovation10:09

Conoce a los instructores

François Bonnici
Director
Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
Warren Nilsson
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
Marlon Parker
Founder
RLabs

[MUSIC]

Now we'll talk about how we can give examples of design thinking in action.

But just to start,

I'd like to remind us that design thinking is not just about products.

It also helps create new processes, new systems, new services, and,

importantly, even user experiences.

So we have three domains that we must keep in mind constantly, again.

We've got people.

Design thinking is always about people.

From the beginning right to the end of the process.

It's also about the process itself.

We've just spoken about how you can change, using technology or

other means, a process that becomes more novel and

more innovative so that it supports a better user experience.

And then we also have place.

And place is the context within which everything happens.

And place can also give us a lot of insight in the way people interact

with the space.

So I'll just give a couple of examples, and one of them is the M-Pesa,

which everyone knows, which evolved from Kenya.

And it's a mobile, money transfer platform,

which uses very simple cell phone and mobile phone technology to transfer

money from one person to another using a series of vendors.

And it's very straightforward.

Not even smartphones need to be used for this.

And the second example I'd like to give is one of Ushahidi.

And Ushahidi is an activist mapping system that deploys an open source software

which allows people to actually generate content and send content to

a central aggregator to show you what's going on on the ground in real time.

This developed out of the post-election violence of 2007 in Kenya.

But it has since gone into even early warning systems for

weather, agricultural applications, and so on.

So this is another way in which communities in grassroots

context actually are becoming part of an entire global system

of communication where they support one another.

An excellent example is also the RLabs.

And in my view, the RLabs has the most comprehensive engagement of design

thinking because it impacts just about everyone within the community.

And it brings the community into a space where they can contribute to

the well-being of the other members of the community.

And I think this is an excellent example how social equity and cohesion can be

promoted using social innovation in a context, right here in Cape Town.

Then another example, actually,

would be that of the Warka Water, which has been developed in Ethiopia.

And the Warka tree in Ethiopia is a place where the communities gather

together where they have their own communal functions.

And this group of designers and

architects actually referenced that tree as the meeting place,

the soul of the community, to come up with a very interesting system which

uses high-tech meshes that gather mist, and fog, and rainwater.

And put them into a reservoir that community members can use.

And this has been quite effective in showing how community members can actually

co-design a process themselves.

And this project won the World Design Impact Prize of 2016.

And it's available for anyone interested in seeing how communities can get involved

at that level.

Then the final example I'd give you is the ABC syringe.

And this was developed by a team, essentially from the UK, of designers and

engineers that saw that a lot of deaths and infections were happening because

people are using syringes that were already infected.

But there was no way of knowing that they were previously used visually.

So they developed this technology that allows the syringe to turn color.

In this case, it turns to red if it has been used by someone else, and

that stops people from accidentally using it.

Very intuitive, very straight forward, and that also has used design thinking

to support something that community members needed but

no one had actually realized there's a possibility existing.

This project also won the World Design Impact Prize of 2014, and

it's also available for anyone looking into this further.

So to summarise, I want to reiterate the importance of people.

People must be at the centre of everything we do.

Leopold Senghor put it beautifully.

He said, I feel the other, I dance the other, therefore I am.

And the Ubuntu philosophy also references this when I say that I am because

we are, or I participate therefore I am.

So we cannot just observe other human beings and not be moved by their context.

And this is what social innovation allows us to do, and

design thinking as a methodology supports that.

And ultimately,

the goal of design thinking is to surprise in a pleasant way and to delight people.

Not just to create functional products that just do what they should do,

but to surprise people with insights.

And when you have deep empathy, you can generate insights that actually help

produce new products, new services, new systems, and superior user experiences.

So I'd really encourage you to go on this journey of design thinking, and

apply it in your lives as well as in your practical and professional worlds.

And see how it will actually change the way you see the world, and

the way you can also impact on the same world.

[MUSIC]

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