Mapping the Trip Take Two: Student-Led R&D Continues at Utah State University

Christine Flanagan
August 10, 2011

In January 2011 the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) and Utah State University (USU) introduced a unique semester-long design studio course that brought together 15 students across the University to research and develop ideas to transform how students understand, evaluate and articulate the skills, competencies and capabilities they learn in college. The course introduced students to a design-driven process for innovation, ultimately landing on a set of solutions to improve their college experience. At the conclusion of the semester, students presented their research and ideas to a group of University officials that included faculty members, advising and career services department heads, the University provost, deans and assistant deans, and other USU administrators.

Far too often, innovation efforts end with the idea. It was never the intent, however, to end this course with the idea. From day one, students were led to believe that their voice, their research and their ideas have merit. And it was the University’s intention to rely on their work to begin to improve the overall student experience at USU. We're thrilled to announce that one of the solution ideas has been selected by the University and through BIF's Student Experience Lab, we move off the white board and into the real world!

During the Fall 2011 semester, BIF and USU will take students to the next step of the design process. The overall goal in this studio is to envision an entirely new experience framework and interaction model for the delivery of student services — to conceive of a web-based, one-stop shop model that transforms the student services experience from a siloed, institutional focus to one that’s customer-focused and seamless across university services.

Using BIF’s student-centered participatory design approach, students will learn and apply principles of design thinking in real-time as they move past the discovery phase and the search for solution ideas conducted in the first studio towards a detailed experience design phase where they will design, generate and test concept prototypes for an e-student services solution.

Within the design studio, students will:

1. Gain knowledge of a human-centered experience design process that includes primary research with system stakeholders, defining the needs of multiple communities of use, interaction scenario development, feature set ideation, iterative prototyping and user testing.
2. Recognize and synthesize the various social, political, cultural, economic and personal perspectives that influence abilities to design new solutions.
3. Improve their ability to present, communicate and substantiate a given concept to various audiences (fellow students, faculty, administration).
4. Gain a body of knowledge specific to student services and its changing role within universities.

And in return, USU will receive a prototype of a new e-Student Services experience with a corresponding set of documents that describe the feature set of the experience.

Getting students directly involved in improving their own college experience is priority number one for the Business Innovation Factory. In addition to offering University leadership with new ideas for enhancing the student experience, our participatory design studio demonstrates a new technique for engaging students in an ongoing internal innovation process within the context of for-credit course work that is both interdisciplinary and action-oriented. It’s an important example of how organizations can proactively put students in the driver’s seat of their own internal R&D activity.

Truly exciting times here at the Student Experience Lab!