Prototype Plan – Innovation & Design Thinking

Prototype Plan

Consider the setting

Our prototypes are centered around the experience of students at Clay High School. For this reason, it would most likely be valuable to prototype with them present, to understand how our solution can best address their complex needs.
Although it might be useful to sketch out a general outline for how we will structure our various solutions, it will ultimately be most valuable for us to see how our ideas would play out with actual students.
Maybe we could draw small focus groups of Clay Students and ask for feedback on our initial ideas and designs as we go along the process.
It could work to run a focus group experiment in a classroom at Clay. We could test our mentorship program idea from our Clay Connections solution this way.

Define what to test

We would need a great deal of feedback from the students, parents, and teachers at Clay.
From the teacher perspective, we would be seeking feedback regarding the feasibility of our plan. If we have this grand idea of a new system/process we want to implement, but it would be impossible for teachers and administrators to do, then our prototype will need to be revised.
As for the students, we would want to know if they would even be interested in having some sort of “Family System”, or Clay Day. Obviously there will be people who resist the ideas we present, but if there is a sweeping majority of people that would not support our designs, then we might need to consider alternative solutions.
In regards to the parents, we want to know if our proposed ideas would be enticing for them in terms of the betterment of their children’s education and general school life. As parents do have a big influence on which school a student attends, it would also be important to cater their needs even if that means we have to consider alternatives.
Ultimately, it is also important to get feedback on how our ideas could help solve some of the underlying issues of the school. Perhaps when we’re gathering feedback about the effectiveness of our designs, we might discover a new need that we can meet.
Goals for our design:
- Help students feel more comfortable and safe in school, to ensure they can focus on aspects like academics and extracurricular activities.
- Help students across class and academic level feel more connected at Clay.
- Enhance the reputation of Clay by bringing true improvements to the school, rather than utilizing deceptive marketing.
- Help Clay better advertise the best elements of the school, to increase the likelihood of parents enrolling their students in the school.

Define feedback activities

Focus group: We will conduct an interactive focus group. Since it is important that the solutions we propose are appealing to the general student body, this group should include students, parents, teachers that represent various ethnographies of Clay. Throughout the process participants should be able to express concerns, support, or even alternatives to our prototypes.
Trial Clay Day: For our prototype of Clay Day we would want to find a way to use a classroom for a few periods of a school day. We could partner with one Clay teacher to run a mock Clay Day where we raise money for some cause that Clay is currently working with. We could sell raffle tickets to allow the students to participate in the Clay Day activities that would involve watching a movie or playing games for a class day instead of doing normal classroom activities. By doing this we would be able to learn if a Clay Day fundraising type activity is something students are able to participate in economically, and we will learn if the incentive for raising money is something students are interested in. Also something interesting would be to see if word spreads throughout the school day of Clay Day and students not in the class we conduct the prototype in show desire to participate in the Clay Day activity. We really want to see what kind of Clay pride could potentially come out of a day like this. We would be using a pop-up shop type approach for this prototype.
Option 1 Design the brochure: For our brochure prototype, we would partner with an art class, preferably a graphic design class, and ask the students to design a marketing brochure for Clay. This could be a one-day activity or even be an assignment. Students will be asked to include proud aspects of Clay that they would want prospective students to know. Our team will not only observe the brochures that the students make but also observe the process. Thereby, we will be able to learn if this type of activity is something students are willing to participate in. If the results are good, we could even develop the prototype further by making a Clay Brochure Committee, similar to an yearbook committee, in which students will participate in a year-long project to make a new brochure or update it.
Option 2 Design the brochure: Principal Eid wanted us to come up with a physical prototype of a brochure that could potentially be used at Clay High School in the future. For our prototype of the brochure we would mock up a brochure based on what Clay High School could look like if they implemented our ideas. We would focus on aspects of Clay that Principal Eid wants to see a bigger focus in the brochure, such as academics, but we would also showcase the growing Clay Pride and Clay Connections that result from activities such as Clay Day, Clay mentorship programs, and the Clay language program. We could title the magnet program of Clay the “liberal arts magnet” in this brochure. This brochure could be shown to many different Clay users such as administration, teachers, current students and parents, and prospective students and parents to receive feedback. We want the students to feel that Clay is a smart school and is providing competitive opportunities to succeed in various extracurricular areas.
The Clay Connection is a tough one to prototype because it is more about the building of a long-term relationship between Clay High School and some of the local middle schools and Notre Dame. The best way for us to prototype this right now would be to have students from Notre Dame come to Clay to participate in an afterschool tutoring or coaching program. This prototype would be cost efficient because Clay would not have to worry about transporting students to Notre Dame on short notice. To run this prototype we could have our group act as the tutors from Notre Dame coming to help at Clay. We could put flyers around Clay advertising for a one day tutoring and college advice session being held by Notre Dame. We could see what students think of a program like this and see if the turnout is any better than any current tutoring going on at Clay currently. If students do like this program maybe it is something that would add to Clay being a smart school that does well to prepare kids for college because of the connection with Notre Dame.

Create solution evaluation matrix

User Value Criteria:

Easy for students to support the idea
Does not detract from other essential goals of Clay
Enhances student experience
Creates a more safe and welcoming school
Increased enrollment at Clay

Provider Value Criteria

Easy to implement into Clay
Not overly expensive
Does not further damage the reputation of Clay
Still allows teachers to focus on teaching

Criteria	A	B	C	D	E	T	F	G	H	I	T
“Clay Pride”	4	4	3	4	2	17	3	4	4	2	13
“Clay Marketing”	2	4	1	2	4	13	3	3	2	4	12
“Clay Connections”	2	3	4	3	4	16	2	2	4	4	12