2-2. Defining the Problem to Be Solved Ver. 2022.03.31

Consider The Following...

To begin, please answer the questions in the Google Form below. Your response will be anonymous. When you have finished answering, please review the other learners' answers.

In this lesson, we will learn how to set up a problem to be solved by design using a Point of View (PoV). Once you have finished this lesson, please "evaluate" what you see here one more time.

Doing so will allow you to compare the "you" from before and after you have engaged the key question of each lesson. What is important is that you experience this learning process for yourself. When doing so, please remain aware of any changes to your vocabulary or perspective that have come as a result of this lesson.

Q. Why Were You Able to Point Out Areas for Improvement in the Key Questions?

How were you able to point out areas for improvement in the digital content presented to you?

Perhaps you assumed the purpose of the content and pointed out areas for improvement. Without the perspective of "what purpose does the content have to achieve," it would be impossible to point out areas for improvement.

However, there are probably only a few people who have pointed out improvements with a clear sense of purpose. Improvement plans created without a clear sense of purpose tend not to be able to explain why the improvement is necessary.

Whether you are improving a digital product or creating a digital product from scratch, it is necessary to decide the issues that will be solved by design (i.e., goals / objectives) and to clarify the criteria for value judgment in the design process.

In this lesson, you will learn how to define the problem that will be solved using worksheets. Click on the link below to download the worksheet and check out the contents.

The worksheets provided here are tools to help you express in a Point of View (PoV) the challenge you want to solve through design.

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Expressing Your Challenge in a PoV

What is a Point of View (PoV)?

A Point of View (PoV) is a template for expressing the problem that will be solved by design, based on your viewpoint or insight. The strength of a PoV lies in its ability to give a straightforward expression of the creator's aim and perspective.

The PoV is part of the process from deciphering to designing. It summarizes the thoughts in the divergent and convergent processes of "finding the right problem" and orients the design goal.

The following PoV is used in this lesson:

1. I am here for [anyone who wants to achieve a specific goal].
2. Not [something that brings an existing experience or value].
3. I want to provide [something that brings a new experience or value].
4. Because [reason: matching your wants with people's needs].

The blanks in the PoV (marked by square brackets [ ]) correspond to the four essential perspectives for design.

1. People's needs
2. Existing experiences and values brought by products
3. New experiences and values brought by digital products
4. Your wants

These perspectives can be organized into the following four quadrants.

The framework of a PoV is to provide a new product to solve a problem faced by an existing product. By examining "people's needs," "existing experiences and values," and "your wants," you can find "new experiences and values that can be brought by digital products."

The process of organizing your thoughts while filling in a PoV is similar to finding the North Star in the starry sky, which indicates the direction you should go. By verbalizing the PoV, even if you are lost, you will be able to regain your direction.

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Procedure for Creating a PoV Using a Worksheet

Next, we will explain how to use the worksheet to create a PoV. The main steps are as follows.

1. Create a foothold for exploration
2. Expand your viewing field (= divergence sheet)
3. Narrow your fiewing field (= convergence sheet)
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3

The first step is to create a foothold for exploration, where to start thinking, and what to do first. We recommend that you start by filling in the PoV and extract any keywords you want. After that, use the keywords as a starting point to expand your viewing field (i.e. diverge), verbalize your insights, narrow your viewing field, update your PoV (i.e. converge), and circularly repeating the process. When you can visualize a concrete solution in the process of elaborating on a PoV, and when you feel energized and uplifted, you can say that you have completed the process.

In this lesson, worksheets are provided for each task.

Now, let's go over the main points of each step.

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1. Creating a Foothold for Exploration

First, try to fill in the PoV in any way you can. Then, take note of what you can and can't complete?

Keep in mind that thinking about the items that you can't complete easily is an important process to explore the connection between your interests and the current issues surrounding digital products.

Also, the keywords you can fill in here will be a stepping stone to broaden your horizons using the divergence sheet.

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2. Expanding Your Viewing Field (= Divergent Sheets)

The divergence sheet is used to envision a new relationship between people and digital products based on keywords that you can include in the PoV or images that come to your mind. It is good to broaden your perspective to include things you are not usually aware of and then delve into themes that interest you.

The most important thing to focus on in this task is to understand the current situation and imagine the future. In other words, it is about rethinking the status quo and drawing out your own "way of looking at things" (=insights). We will deepen our understanding of the interaction between digital products and people, and think about what kind of experience and value we can provide to make people happy.

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3. Narrowing Your Viewing Field (= Convergence Sheet)

The convergence sheet is used to focus on the specific items uncovered in the divergence sheet, narrow down the field of view, and verbalize the issues to be solved.

Again, it is important to try to create a PoV and figure out what is missing at that point. Thinking about what cannot be easily verbalized is an important part of discovering issues that need to be solved, and is the purpose of the work.

The empty spaces at the top and bottom are used to summarize the output from the divergence sheet or to compare it to something in order to make sense of and organize the information. The unexpected connections between the listed keywords may lead to new ideas.

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Points for Using Worksheets

In the process of inquiry, it is good to keep the following three points in mind. The spirit of self-criticism is very helpful to streamline the process of in-depth exploration.

• When you are confused, ask yourself "why? "
• You don't have to use the worksheet perfectly (it's enough if you can understand it when you look back at it later).
• Keep questioning your own output (really? / why? / what should i do?)

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Procedure for Creating a PoV: Summary

Once again, let's look back at the steps.

To begin, we identify the things that can’t be included in the PoV and use the keywords that could be included as a stepping stone for exploration. Then, using the keywords as a starting point, expand your vision (i.e., diverge), verbalize your insights, narrow your vision, and update your PoV (i.e., converge), circularly repeating the process. In the process of exploring divergence and convergence, it is also important to keep tweaking your own output. The process of elaborating on a PoV is complete when you can visualize the right focus and feel your spirits lifted.

In the next section, we will learn how to use the worksheet concretely.

How to Set a Challenge

Now, let's take a look at the process of setting up a challenge using the worksheet. In this section, we will create a PoV for the following:

Expected assignment

• Situation: An assignment for a class on digital literacy
• Assignment: To create a web article on the theme of subscriptions
• Condition: Submit the URL of a web page created with Adobe Creative Cloud Express

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1. Trying to Fill in the PoVs

The following video (2 min 42 sec) shows the first step in creating a basis for exploration by filling out a PoV based on a given task, to understand what has not yet been verbalized.

From here, we recommend printing out the worksheet and working on it while watching the video. If you cannot print it out, you can reproduce it by drawing lines in your notebook or on a piece of paper. We encourage you to come up with your own ideas on the same topic as the assignment. You can also use the key question about improving a poster as your theme.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

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2. Expanding Your Viewing Field (= Diverge)

The following video (4 min 36 sec) shows the process of broadening one's perspective to understand the current situation and discover the right problem.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

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3. Narrowing Your Viewing Field (= Convergence)

The following video (1 min. 50 secs.) shows the process of deepening one's insights and narrowing one's vision through the process of verbalizing the contents of divergent discussions.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

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4.Repeated Divergence and Convergence

The following video (5 min) shows how to repeat the work of expanding one's vision (i.e., divergence) using keywords as a starting point, narrowing one's vision by verbalizing insights, and updating the PoV (i.e., convergence).

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

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Example of a Completed PoV

After the above process and a lot of polishing, the PoV is complete. Let's check what kind of issues are being addressed.

1. I am here for [people who have a thirst for knowledge, who want to understand social changes through everyday examples, and who use subs daily, but are not interested in subs per se].
2. Not [web articles explaining definitions and related information about subs].
3. I want to provide [a web article that examines the change of era through subs].
4. Because [for those who are not interested in subs per se, it will be more intriguing to examine the change of era through subs. Also, by examining subs from the perspective of "innovation of meaning," which has attracted much attention in recent years, we can provide a framework for examining social changes based on everyday examples].

This PoV presented the challenge of looking not at the core audience that is interested in subs, but at the outer periphery audience, and providing "articles that think through subs" rather than "articles about subs".

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Let's consider a few examples of deployment that differ from the demo.

For example, let's say you have a "want" of designing a web article that tells grandparents, who are not Internet-savvy, about the safety of subs. The question then becomes, "How will people who are not familiar with the Internet access the web article in the first place?" In this section, we will discuss how to create web articles.

Here, the production of web articles is an absolute requirement. In this case, a possible solution is to set the generation of children and grandchildren generation as the target audience for the web article. For example, for "people who want to explain subs to their grandparents in an easy-to-understand way," you could set the task of providing "web articles that introduce how to explain subs to grandparents in an easy-to-understand way based on actual experiences".

Looking deeper, why do we need to tell grandparents who don't use the Internet about the safety of subs? In what situations do we need to explain subs to grandparents in an easy-to-understand way? These are fundamental questions about "people's needs". At this point, there is no need to disagree with the starting point of "your wants." Rather, by uncovering these questions and searching for areas where "your wants" and "people's needs" overlap, you will be able to see the new experiences and values that digital products can bring, and the issues you need to solve will become clear.

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Summary

Now, what did you think of the process of defining the problem to be solved? First, we created a basis for exploration by "filling in a PoV". After that, we gradually clarified the problem to be solved by repeating the process of broadening our perspective (i.e., divergence) using keywords as a starting point, verbalizing our insights, and updating the PoV (i.e., convergence).

The process and PoV showed here are just an example. Please imitate what can be imitated and criticize what should be criticized, and use them in your practice. As you practice, we hope you will challenge yourself to create your own original worksheets and PoVs.

The purpose of creating a PoV is for you to find your own problem to solve, not to simply create a PoV. We hope that you will enjoy the process of finding the questions that are most important to you.