Proposal
Project Title: Investigating the Impacts of Design Thinking on the Journalistic Process
Supervising Professor: Sofie Hodara
Synopsis
This project seeks to answer what it means to think like a designer through the exploration and designed intervention of the domain of journalism and the journalistic process.
Project Description
I have a friend who recently started her co-op as a living/arts reporter for the Boston Globe. When I was talking to her about work, she mentioned she was stuck thinking of pitches to show her editor. My advice to her was to think like a designer: Who am I writing for? What are the demographics and interests of my audience? What stakeholders are involved? These are natural thoughts to have when creating a product (or in this case an article) but the conscious act of considering these factors allows us to narrow down our audience. With these questions answered, she adjusted her pitches and got two accepted, gaining a byline in her first week.
Everyone can think like a designer, but what separates a designer from other jobs that also problem-solve? What does it mean to “think like a designer?” I plan to answer this question by investigating a specific domain and designing a solution. In the spirit of my friend and my 8 months as a Product co-op at the Boston Globe, I want to redesign the journalistic process for reporters. Specifically, I want to synthesize different elements of popular design kits (like the one created by IDEO) and alter them to apply specifically to arts/culture/lifestyle/sports reporters.
Deliverables
- UX research, including personas, user stories, sketches, etc.
- Low, medium, and high-fidelity prototypes
- System Usability Scale Results
- Final presentation of research, product, and results\
Timeline
This project will be broken up into five phases:\
- Phase 1: Audit different design kits and their characteristics - 1 week
- Phase 2: Audit the journalistic process and create a wireframe of a potential solution - 2 weeks
- Phase 3: Test process on existing toolkits - 1 week
- Phase 4: Create a new design kit to fit in with the journalistic process - 1 month
- Phase 5: Test the new kit with journalists (System Usability Scale) - 2 weeks
- Phase 6: Analysis of Results - 1 week
My supervising professor and I will meet once a week for 30 minutes to check in and discuss progress on each phase. The primary constraint with these phases are tracking down reporters, interviewing them, and having them test out a solution. I have a couple of leads I can follow to get people involved, including my former co-workers at the Globe and the BU/The New School journalism schools. I plan to meet with these contacts individually and talk to at least 3 of them for each phase requiring user input. I plan to do a weekly exercise to reflect on the thought processes practiced in other professions besides reporting, reflecting on my findings.