MOLD
Overview
Design-focused research has shown how diversity-related considerations are central to the design process; yet and still, racially minoritized individuals are largely absent from the field of professional design. Such existing disparities in racial representation are not due to a shortage of potential designers of color, rather a lack of access to design education and resources within racially minoritized communities. Grounded in the notion that teaching design thinking aids individuals in building skills that translate to situations beyond design, expanding the reach of design education is beneficial to racial minoritized students’ personal development. This case study explores the development and application of a design toolkit that aims to facilitate design education in focal communities. Minorities’ Opportunity to Learn Design (MOLD) is an equity-driven platform that delivers a unique experience to design thinking and learning. Using an exploratory sequential approach, this study examines the development and application of MOLD in real-world settings. This case study highlights and disrupts the minimal focus on design education within communities of color.
Problem
The lack of diversity in the design industry has existed for years, but is growing in prevalence in recent years as the U.S becomes more diverse. It is important to ensure that the design industry represents the society that it is responsible for creating products for. Unfortunately, not enough access to design resources exists and minority students remain less aware of design. This lack of access will continue to lead the design profession down a path of homogeneity and products that do not serve the needs of all its users. Thus demonstrating the imperative need for change in this area, with specific regard to how we educate minority students. Offering minority students a design-based education option will give them direct access to developing skills that are desperately needed.
Objectives
- To examine key issues that low income minority students face in education and distinguish how a design thinking driven pedagogy can benefit these students.
- To investigate data that contributes to the causes and effects of the lack of diversity in design.
- To develop a design thinking tool that introduces minority students to possibilities of design. (but could also be used for all students)
- To conduct a workshop with minority students based on design thinking tool from objective 3 and evaluate its effectiveness (grasp of the d.t process, awareness and value)
Design Process + Methodology
To facilitate the exploratory sequential approach, this research was executed in four phases, beginning with a qualitative step to determine the educational needs of minority students and the benefits of a design-based education.
Phase One
Literature Review
A literature review was conducted that focused on the current lack on minorities in the design profession, and the barriers of entry they face; education needs of minority students; benefits of design-based pedagogy; the minority designer's journey map; and the importance of diversity in design. The review of literature helps set boundaries for the development of this research case study. Prior work from design scholars supports this study’s major suppositions, specifically the lack of minorities in design profession, the importance of diversity in the field of design, and barriers to enhancing diversity within the field. This literature review was also used to formulate and develop a list of minority educational needs to be reviewed by educators that work primarily with minority student populations later in the process.
- Students working together
- Critical thinking
- Rich complex curriculum
- Engagement and competitiveness
- Ability to impose order on chaotic data
- New standards on assessments
Minority Educator Online Survey
The initial educator survey for the needs analysis was conducted with nine educators, three of which have over six years of experience working with minority students. The responses from this survey were used to validate the minority education needs found throughout the literature review.
Expert Interviews
Qualitative data was gathered through minimally structured expert interviews. Online surveys with educators that work primarily with minoritized student groups were also conducted. Relying on the list of needs identified through prior research, these surveys were used to gain further knowledge of students’ educational needs as observed by active classroom educators. Interview one was with a Houston-based entrepreneur that created a non-profit organization to teach design thinking techniques to entrepreneurs. Interview two was with a Ph.D. student in the Educational Policy and Planning program in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on K-12 educational leadership preparation, the role of principals, and school improvement
I transcribed the interviews and then coded and recoded key terms I found before being put into groups that lead to three themes that were incorporated into the development of the design tool. Special codes were selected if there were seen throughout the literature review or educator survey responses. Frequency of the codes and special codes were taken into consideration when developing categories. These categories were then integrated in three main themes that were considered through the creation of MOLD .
1) Learning to Think
2) Culture and Humanity
3) Access to Profound Experiences
Goals After Phase One
Problem-Centered Curriculum
Based on the expert interview responses developing the design learning tool’s curriculum is a vital part of delivering a credible learning experience to the participants. This DLT will employ a problem-centered design curriculum because it puts emphasis on teaching students how to identify a problem and try to figure out solutions to the problem. In this type of curriculum the participants will be exposed to real-life issues, which should help them develop skills like critical thinking. Tracking the engagement of the student and how effectively they present their research and prototype will serve as a means of assessment.
Adaptable
Based on the expert interview responses the MOLD experience must be adaptable in the manner of being able to be delivered in person or online to increase accessibility. The MOLD toolkit must be adaptable in the manner of being able to be completed at school or at home.
Feasible Access to Profound Experience
Based on the expert interview responses the MOLD experience must be feasible in the manner of providing the necessary tools that are needed to excel in the learning experience. MOLD must be feasible in the manner of cost affordable to underfunded school systems and underserved communities.
Culture-Driven
Based on the expert interview responses the MOLD experience must be culture-driven in the manner of making the content relevant based on the life experiences of the participants.
Phase Two
MOLD Holistic UX Design
Following the needs analysis, digital and physical prototypes of the design tool were developed based on the design themes found in the research analysis. Card sorting and affinity mapping helped me to distill down the findings into general design principles to guide the MOLD content hierarchy.
The experience design and content development approach centered around the inquiry: How can MOLD deliver design learning content in a fun, coherent and interactive way? Since this will serve as an educational platform user research first targeting people who work to educate minority students to develop the content requirements. Then, user personas were created through using information from location based research.
Digital UX Design
Several iterations of lo-fi wireframe sketches were made on Adobe XD to develop the MOLD online experience. Responsive web prototypes were mocked up in Webflow. Initial prototypes were tested using SUS user testing conducted by me with members of the UH ID program. There were also several critique session between the Director of the UH ID program and I to further direct the project. The goal of MOLD is to give minorities access to the power of design and design thinking through education, and resources. The goal of the experience aligns with this.
Before the website layout was constructed the MOLD’s content was inventoried and audited. The content was evaluated in terms of value that it provides for users which helped create a hierarchy of information for the website. Next the content was grouped and labeled to investigate any potential relationships between the content.
The goal of MOLD is to give minorities access to the power of design and design thinking through education, and resources. The goal of the experience aligns with this. Before the website layout was constructed the MOLD’s content was inventoried and audited. The content was evaluated in terms of value that it provides for users which helped create a hierarchy of information for the website. Next the content was grouped and labeled to investigate any potential relationships between the content. The grouping of content gave insight into what to begin labeling and how to prioritize navigating the content delivery.
From there wire-framing was done based on that content navigation insight. MOLD’s online experience was developed through focusing on giving design access and resources to minority students. The website utilized a clean aesthetic that emphasizes the content on the page. Accent colors are a subdued palette of primary colors to be non-gender specific. For the second online prototype a different website builder was used. Along with a more simplified approach that focused more on aesthetic and user interaction. The landing page employed a hero video of the design workshop to entice the user to continue on through the website.
MOLD Website UX Wireframes
Mobile Focused UX
The digital UX design of the MOLD Learning System was crafted as a mobile-first experience. This was because in my research I found that nearly 95 percent of the school population age eight to sixteen used a mobile phone to access the internet in 2018. Meanwhile, only 18 percent of minority students in HISD have consistent access to a laptop or desktop computer outside of school.
Physical UX Design
The ideation process for the physical experience of the MOLD consisted of a combination of building simple models with cardboard, foam core, tape, and other inexpensive materials to build mock-ups to be explored. The physical prototype for MOLD utilized recycled products that included: bubble wrap, tape, denim, upholstery foam, waxed string, and duct tape. Using miscellaneous material could allow for more adaptability, but it could also sacrifice the instructor’s control over the workshop. The next part of the process focused on more of a structured approach to the MOLD experience.
Accessibility Consideration
The structured approach allows more control and direction in the process. It allows for anyone to participate, even with specific disabilities, and it ensures the participant has the needed tools to complete all tasks. Although the structured kit would introduce another overhead cost to launch MOLD, it was believed that it would provide a better overall learning and engaging learning experience for the participants.
Solution
MOLD is an acronym for a minorities opportunity to learn design. MOLD is a design learning system focused on providing design resources to under-served minority populations through a problem-centered learning curriculum. The MOLD prototype has several parts that work cohesively together. Introductory design courses, design challenges, and a design thinking framework branded MOLD IT was created for the platform. MOLD was developed to provide design learning access, resources, opportunities and value to minority students. These four pillars will serve as the foundation to the MOLD experience.
Adaptable Learning Experience
One of the design challenges this project faced was to develop a learning experience based on a problem-centered design curriculum. The focus was design the experience to serve the educational needs of minority students. The design learning experience must be adaptable enough to be implemented in different settings.
Culture-Driven Integration
To bring in the culture element, the MOLD’s initial challenge focused footwear design. Sneakers and urban minority culture have been integrated for over 40 years. Launching the initial challenge as a sneaker will help explain design with products that most of the participants already know about.
Accessible Design Learning Content
The integration of video content was also vital to developing the learning experience. The current culture of content revolves around video and story-telling. A video to explain the theory of design was created and edited by the researcher to serve as introduction.
MOLD IT Design Thinking Process
The MOLD IT is the framework to teach the design thinking process to underserved minority youth developed for MOLD. The design process includes simplifying the human-centered design process into steps that are easier to consume.
- Monitor and research the situation.
- Outline the problem
- List ideas
- Draw and design
- Inspect, investigate, and improve.
- Talk about it!
Design Courses
MOLD’s design thinking courses give underserved minority students access to a design thinking approach for innovation and developing ideas. Introductory courses focused on “What is Design?” and “MOLD IT Design Thinking Process” The design courses featured a series of videos to help MOLD realize its goal of reaching a younger generation ages. MOLD’s design courses emphasize the power of design and the value of a tangible process to take ideas from paper to prototype. The design courses will be implemented during presentation apart the physical experience and offered in digital experience as an online course.
Design Challenges
MOLD’s design thinking challenges are developed using a problem-solving framework to get students thinking while solidifying their collaboration and building skills. The initial MOLD design challenge focused on footwear design.
The challenge offered three options to themes tied to creating the shoe to provide the user with a culturally democratic learning environment. The challenge options focused on real-world problems. Option one was science and anatomy-based; it asks the user to create a shoe prototype for a person with missing digits on their foot. The second option focused on business and branding. This option asks the user to create a shoe for someone looking to start a shoe company inspired by animals. The last challenge option allowed the user to freestyle their prototype based on a theme the user comes up with.
Student & Facilitator Handbook
The student handbooks were designed with the MOLD IT framework in mind. This handbook takes the user through the entire MOLD IT process and sets the foundation for the building the prototype. The facilitator handbooks were developed as a step by guide for the workshop facilitator. These handbooks takes the user and facilitator through the objectives of the lesson and the state assessment goals that are achieved through completing the workshop. The student and facilitator handbooks and lesson plans were reviewed and revised by a Ph.D. student in the Educational Policy and Planning program in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.
Student Handbook PDF
Facilitator Handbook PDF
Phase Three
Validation
The final prototype for MOLD was tested with minority students and educators at the Hall Center for Education in Aldine during a design workshop I facilitated. The racial and ethnic demographic make-up of the educator’s classroom fit the demographics of this study’s focus. Workshop participants completed a before and after survey about their design awareness and their perceived value of design. Their reactions and feedback about the prototype design tool were recorded through both qualitative and quantitative responses. The participants’ main educator was also interviewed to collect feedback on the MOLD Design Learning System. In response to COVID-19’s demand for stay-at-home learning activities, a slight pivot was made to focus on the at-home and online experience of the design tool. The “at-home” adaptability for the physical design tool was tested by a participant under the supervision of a parent. In the last stage of phase three, the online experience of the design tool was tested by conducting a website usability survey. There were three different versions of the online usability survey. The first survey targeted minority students, the second survey targeted educators, who work with primarily minority students, and the third survey targeted designers.
To validate the content and learning experience we examined the participants' value and awareness of design before and after the workshop with a survey. Every participant stated they found the MOLD IT process to be useful in bringing their ideas to life. This confidence is key to developing critical thinking skills. After being asked if their personal definition of design changed after taking the workshop, one of the participants stated “yes, design is everything.” Another participant said the workshop “really opened my mind to how I could create different things, in different ways.”
After the workshop was over the educator of the classroom participants was interviewed to receive feedback on what he saw transpire during the MOLD workshop. When asked about MOLD’s overall experience, the educator of the participants "I think it was awesome, my kids were extremely receptive to everything that you were instructing them to do It was something completing different than what they are used to. You can see that they were challenging themselves creatively and mentally throughout the process." When asked do you feel like the students were more engaged during the challenge compared to a normal class day, they stated, “Definitely. I even had kids in my classroom that aren't normally in my class.
MOLD Usability Test
Student Responses
The responses from the student usability test detailed all of the participants stated that the landing page made them want to continue through the website, liked how the website looked, and thought the interface was easy to use. 74% of student participants stated they would like to try MOLD’s sneaker design challenge, and 87% of participants said they would like to learn more about design. Average SUS score 86.
Professional Designer Responses
The professional designers surveyed work in eight different design fields, including industrial design, UX design, and graphic design. The designer participants were identified from five other races or ethnicities. The responses from the designer usability test showed that all participants understood the purpose of MOLD. Adverse reactions and design critiques were collected through the designer participants when asked what they would change about the MOLD website. One of the participants stated, “Stronger home page & navigation.” Positive responses from the designer participants included, “MOLD is practical, doable, realistic, and I can see this included in a school project within a class or curriculum.” Another participant stated, “I love the idea of this! I think early exposure is key in developing design talent.” Average SUS score 79.
Educator Responses
A majority of the educators believed MOLD offers a credible learning experience; one of them responded, “Yes, I do. I believe so because MOLD is aligning its education to today’s world. It’s more creative with its education. While still challenging students’ creativity and thinking. It’s giving students a new experience in education.” That participant also added, “We all know it has been way overdue for education to make changes, and MOLD is stepping in and doing just that.” Average SUS score 83.
Conclusion
A diversity-focused design tool, MOLD, was created, tested, and branded as a minorities’ opportunity to learn design. MOLD was developed based on the hypothesis that providing design access and resources to racially minoritized students will increase their awareness of design, the perceived value of design, and knowledge of the design thinking process. Minority students, educators, and designers participated in this study by providing feedback on the physical, digital, and overall learning experience of MOLD. After testing, a majority of the student participants expressed their excitement of the new learning experience and the results of pre and post-surveys revealed that their awareness and value of design grew as well. This outcome supports the hypothesis since engaging underserved minority students with an equity-driven design tool led to higher awareness and perceived value for design. By offering interventions such as MOLD to minority youth and educators, we might one day have a field of designers that represents our diverse world.
This study suggests that students enjoy having a design-based learning experience, and educators believe learning design skills can significantly impact the students. Further, this case study serves as an example of a way to introduce minority students to the benefits of design and design-thinking and a way to increase the diversity efforts within the design industry. The impact of this study could be seen outside the targeted demographic as well, as the benefits of a design-based education not only serve minority students but can elevate the creative thinking skills of all students.
Further Development
After graduation in 2020 MOLD was established as a non-profit organization and has partnered with the University of Houston's ID+ program. Together they have created a city-wide design learning system of social impact by connecting and working with community partners. Starting with MOLD’s partnerships with different K-12 public schools in economically disadvantaged areas in Houston, ID+ provides an exhibition for students who want to continue to build design projects with ID+ partners.
A cycle of social impact and community design can be illustrated as: using supplies donated by Reuse, a Houston recycling center or Magpies & Peacocks, a non-profit (501c3) design house dedicated to the collection and redesign of post consumer fashion, textiles and accessories; building students’ design prototypes with HTX Made, a ID+ partner and local manufacturer; and presenting design projects in diverse ID+ partners’ galleries and showrooms. The promotion stage is the celebration of participants' achievements and creative talents from MOLD design learning and the creation of a sharing economy. ID+ partners like Furniture Bank or the Project Row Houses in the Third Ward put students’ projects on display at the showroom to be sold or donated by local charities. Furniture Bank has been a ID+ partner to promote empathy and love of care, especially for families of single mothers who need to have furniture at home. This system of social impact makes minority students and their design projects agents of social impact in their own communities.
MOLD Research + Case Study
MOLD Case Study for IDSA (Short Version)
MOLD Website UX Wireframe
MOLD Official Website
