The Master’s of Innovation Design (MID) program at Wichita State University offers a variety of
courses focusing on entrepreneurship, design, and innovation. One of the main things that drew
me to the program is not only the freedom it gives students to choose from a variety of courses
within the college, but the ability to take courses from other departments to further students’
education in their desired field. In my case, the majority of my non-MID courses and projects
were UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) design focused. Some non-MID courses
included Human Computer Interaction and Software Psychology. The material I learned from
MID’s Design Thinking class was heavily related and applicable to these two courses and the
UX/UI field.

The main project goal for my Software Psychology team (which consisted of me, Jade Driggs,
and George Altman, who are both Human Factors PhD candidate students) was to create a
prototype for a more streamlined myWSU platform. After meeting with WSU’s Information
Technology Services and interviewing students, we identified the main goals of our hypothetical
system. Throughout this design process, we used several techniques and methods that were
covered in Design Thinking. Several tools that I have been introduced to through MID were
often used as well, such as Mural.

 

(Jade Driggs, Valerie Hubener, George Altman)

 

The Design Thinking course was especially helpful in my HCI class. Having never taken a
computer science class in my entire undergraduate career, I was expecting to be at quite a
disadvantage compared to the other students who were mostly CS majors. However, design
thinking was discussed in every class and chapter. This gave me a perspective to the class that
others may not have had. The best thing about design thinking is that it can be applied to
essentially any field. UX/UI designers that I have spoken to have emphasised the importance of
design thinking techniques and their value. It teaches you to consider other perspectives and
aspects of design and businesses that you otherwise would not have.

 

(Work Flow Diagram created with Mural for Software Psychology)

 

I am looking forward to further applying what I have learned with our NASA
SUITS Design Challenge team.

 

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