A framework for teaching Design for Social Impact

Every wicked problem is a symptom of another problem and no solution of a wicked problem has a definitive, scientific test. Solving a wicked problem frequently is a “one shot” design effort, as a significant solution changes the design space enough to minimize the ability for trial and error. Every wicked problem is unique. A designer attempting to solve a wicked problem must be fully responsible for their actions. [5]

This puts the designers in a fix, as they are often not able to understand clearly the problem they are trying to solve, as all the problems appear “attractive” to attempt to work on.  Many times the problem itself is not very evident upfront, as it is hidden under the sociological constructs. The goal thus is to create a list of problems that cover almost the whole Social Space.

We cannot work easily following the conventional way of working path i.e. the context–>problem–>work–>solution. Due to complexity of the social spaces, each section requires for a deeper understanding. As a result of this, there are so many ways for the project to fail: while striving to solve a problem, we may forget some of the sub-problems it implies; we may design something that solves the problem but creates another one.

It is under these circumstances that the notion of designing for the system, by the system and with the system takes place. This forms the crux of the solution part of our Social Design Framework.

Defining the problem in the child education project

Once we had enough information, we were able to define several problems that the education in Bihar is currently facing. Some problems have been found while searching for data, like the fact that children are almost all enrolled but still don’t come regularly or come to schools only for the mid-day-meals [12]. Others have been deducted from the compilation of several facts, our own experience or with inputs from working professionals or specialists. Needless to say we came up with more problems than we had initially started with. In the ideal world, if we solved all these problems, education in Bihar (and in India) would be of a great level.

We had to be very careful when were choosing our area of work, as the challenge was to pick a problem, which was relevant to solve and consistent enough, but, which also gave us the freedom to use our designer skills.

We identified two of these “the” problems, which were equally interesting for us to work on. One was to making schools more attractive and proposing alternative learning methods. The second was to inspire the stakeholders to save and invest in education.

Out of the above we selected the later, as we felt strongly about notion of micro-savings [21] and wanted to explore how these savings could be used for the sole purpose of education and improvement of its quality.

TOOLS AND WORKSPACE

With the complexity of the problem space, it is essential that the designers use a large space to work as one goes through several brainstorming phases, exploiting different creative tools. We use A1 paper sheets, whiteboard and markers, colored posts-it and the wall to fill it up with our understanding of the space. Usage of whiteboards and A3, A1 sheets and post-its ensured that we were able to repeat the brainstorming processes many times. Putting them up on the wall ensures that we are able to arrange them, and see the connections between one sections and points form.

Figure 3: A Social Designer’s workspace

This whole process is repeated many times till a satisfaction level is been reached. The goal is to ensure that every written element was classified and put as a part of a hierarchy (information architecture). It helps to keep track of everything and have the capability to justify their source. This allowed us to visualize problems, put down dependencies, add the what-if conditions and link them. We displayed them on a wall, and for each of them we added basic solutions, projects currently held about it (from exemplars research) as well as the sub-problems it implies.

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