This week got off to a good start – I checked in with Ayla and she was very happy with my project and how I’m progressing! I was particularly happy to hear that she thought my project was well aligned with the Te Whare Tapa Wha model. It’s a stream brief requirement but I wasn’t just happy to be aligned for the sake of getting the marks, but also because I tried to push myself to adopt a Te Ao Māori led approach in my capstone and having it validated by Ayla is awesome. I also had the opportunity to consult with Ayla about how to incorporate the Mana Kai framework into more of my tools. At the moment, only the conversation starter cards are distinctly tied to the Mana Kai framework. Ayla encouraged me to incorporate the purposes and values of the framework as guiding principles. They don’t have to be explicitly present in the tools but as long as they are used as guiding principles it is enough. 

Another highlight of this week was the partner presentation. Sounds kind of sarcastic because how often is it that a University student says a presentation was a highlight of the week?? But hear me out, we delivered our presentations in the University marae! It was my first time visiting the marae and it was so cool to be inside. We’re back in the marae in Week 10 and I’m really looking forward to it! For our stream, everyone was encouraged to present their low fidelity prototypes. So that was also a bonus hearing about where everyone is up to and interacting with their prototypes. I must say that I was quite taken aback at how high fidelity some people’s prototypes were already. Caused a little bit of stress to kick in but it’s okay because I know that I’m on track with my own project timeline. 

Over the last few weeks, I’ve managed to finalise three out of four of my tools. For the fourth one, I have known for a while that I wanted it to be related to identifying actors/stakeholders. That way, every single one of my tools would target a different aspect of co-design. In the reading I mentioned a few weeks ago about the use of tangible co-design tools in healthcare (Rygh, 2019), one of the example tools was “Actor Mapping Flags”. It’s very similar to conventional stakeholder mapping exercises except it is physical and uses flags to represent stakeholders (Tristancho, 2023). Rygh noted that the activity allowed for people to physically interact with the actor flags and easily push and pull them around based on discourse related to where they belonged (Rygh, 2019). Based on some rudimentary Google searches, I believe this is different to conventional stakeholder mapping exercises that are usually digital or 2D. This is a very functional tool that can be and is used for all sorts of projects (Tristancho, 2023). I think for many of the target users, it will feel very familiar because of how often stakeholder mapping exercised are used in business environments. 

I also started writing the content for the facilitator’s guide. I thought long and hard about whether to create a guide for all the participants to read, or just the facilitator. In the end, I went with a facilitator’s guide because, from personal experience during my internship, most consultation workshops will have a facilitator. It also logically makes the most sense for the facilitator to understand the toolkit themselves first and then guide the rest of the participants. The facilitator’s guide contains instructions for each tool as well as a thorough breakdown of the Mana Kai framework. 

While I was writing the instructions, I flipped through board game instruction manuals I had at home for inspiration. I was particularly interested in the tone of voice, layout and vocabulary used. I did this not just so I could have a general writing guide, but also to enhance the gamified feeling of my toolkit. I want the toolkit to feel similar to a board game at every level, including the instruction manual. I’ve found this method of referencing board games really helpful and plan to keep doing it as I refine my final prototype. 

I am slowly reaching the end of content creation for my toolkit. Meaning, I have almost finalised all my tools, how they work, the components in the toolkit and the instruction manual. Of course I will always be reiterating but in the coming weeks my time will be focused on the physical presentation and implementation of my toolkit. It has been such an interesting journey moving from the Inspiration phase to the Ideation phase, and soon to the Implementation phase. I thoroughly enjoyed the Ideation phase. The brainstorming, innovating and creating involved felt like the very essence of “design”. 

‍

REFERENCES

A screen capture from my Miro board of the content I have written for the facilitator's guide (Kōrero Cards and Actor Mapping).[Digital Image] (2023). https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVM1EOxvs=/?share_link_id=555568399592.

A screen capture from my Miro board of the content I have written for my facilitator's guide (Value Pursuit Board and Mahi Board). [Digital Image] (2023). https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVM1EOxvs=/?share_link_id=555568399592.

Rygh, K., & Clatworthy, S. (2019). The use of tangible tools as a means to support co-design during service design innovation projects in healthcare. Service design and service thinking in healthcare and hospital management: Theory, concepts, practice, 93-115.

Tristancho, C. (2023). Stakeholder Mapping 101. Project Manager. https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/stakeholder-mapping-guide.