The wallet challenge

The Wallet Project is a famous, fast paced exercise from Stanford University d.School that takes the participant through the entire design process in less than one hour. Find a partner and follow the steps! Let us know how your design looks like at the end of the course!

Instructions

First things first…

*** FIND A PARTNER****

You can also go to our Slack channel Introductions, meet someone new and ask him/her to participate in the challenge!!

Join here

PREPARE:

• Pencil and paper

• Scissors

• Paper, cardboard, fabric or whatever you want to prototype a wallet

• Tape, glue, clips or staples

Warm-up –

Draw your colleague. – 5 min

We go through the process simultaneously

Step 1: Interview – 10 min (5 min interview each)

Show your wallet to your colleague. Ask questions about how he/she uses it, what he/she likes, when she/he uses it…

Keep asking “Why?” and “How”. This is often a great way to elicit stories and dig for feelings and emotions. At this stage, we want to be curious and avoid making assumptions or even jumping to solutions. Take notes!!

Step 2: Digging deeper, reframing the problem – 5 min

After listening and jotting down notes from your partner, take some time to gather your thoughts and synthesize your leanings into goals and wishes. Goals represent the needs of your partner. What have you learned about your partner’s feelings and motivations related to his/her needs? Combine goals and wishes.

HMW QUESTION:

How might I help ….(name) ….to ……… (solution)…. to….. (solve problem)

Step 3 : Ideation! ( Sketch at least 5 desirable wallets to meet your user’s needs ) – 5 min

Once you have formulated the problem statement, the next step is to generate ideas: Go for quantity and no judging of ideas.

Step 4 : Share solutions and gather feedback – 10 min (5 min each)

Capturing feedback is a critical part of the design thinking process. It’s very natural for us to be defensive when explaining our concepts to someone new to the idea. Being open to feedback generates opportunities (new insights) to learn more about the users and their problems. In this step, you will generate a single idea which can be based on your previous ideas or be something completely new to proceed.

Step 5 : Prototype and Test! – 10 min

Create the ideal wallet for your partner using the materials you have prepared. Once done, share it with your partner to gather more feedback and always keeping an open mind for new ideas ( what could be improved, any new features could be added).

Take notes on what went well and what could have been improved. Would you need to repeat any step? which one?