R-001BRIEF CONSIDERATIONS
The users of your experience
Think beyond humans; We live in a world where plants and machines are our collaborators.
Your Groups Strengths
You are a Team and stronger because of it. Utilize each other’s skills and expertise.
Your Culture
How does your concept reflect who you are, where you’re from, how you see the future?
The Story
You are creating a vision for the world to engage with, what do you want them to feel? How will you make them feel it? How will you make them imagine it?
R-002TEAM INTRODUCTION
Investigating the future inhabitants of
the Metaverse —
This exercise is simple. It is meant to create an environment where you get to know the people around you through the way they think, and try to understand why they think the way that they do.
Below are a set of steps, with suggested time limits, for you to follow. You of course are welcome to ignore all of these steps and create a method of your own. That choice is up to you. You can begin at any time.
Imagine…Your entire life has been shifted to the Metaverse. You have 1 minute to imagine what this is like. Keep your thoughts to yourself. These thoughts will be the framework to answering the questions moving forward.
With one word, answer the question: Why did this happen? You have 1 minute to answer this question. After the minute expires, each member should share their words with their team. How you share is completely up to you. Sharing should take no more than 2 minutes.
With two words, answer the question: What does this mean to you? You have 2 minutes to answer this question. After the two minutes expire, each member should share their words with their team. Sharing should take no more than 4 minutes.
With one word, answer the question: What do you value the most? You have 1 minute to answer this question. After the minute ends, you will share your answer with your team. Sharing should take no more than 2 minutes.
With two words, answer the question: Who is in your community? You have 2 minutes to answer this question before you share with your team. Sharing should take no more than 4 minutes.
At this point each of you should have 6 words. Working together, create a story about the future inhabitants of the Metaverse. You have five minutes to create this story. Hold on to this story – you never know when it may be of use.
R-003RESEARCH & IDEATION
Step 01
Reviewing the Brief
(15 — 30 Minutes)
You have just been given a brief with an extremely tight deadline. Relax, take your time to go through the brief and think about how you understand it and what about it you don’t. Spending time at the beginning of a process to think through the challenge can save you more time in the long run.
WHAT TO DO —
Everyone in the group should take notes and write down what stands out to them. What is piquing your curiosity? Take a few minutes for everyone in the group to share their thoughts.
As a group, think about the research you might want to do. Where can you look for inspiration? Is there someone you can talk to? Something you have seen before? Something you have read?
Questions and more questions. What questions do you have? Could these questions act as inspiration for the next phase? Below is a small guide on how to think about asking pointed questions:
“Why” questions help us to explore the purpose or the reason we do something
“Who” questions help us to think about our users
“When” questions help us to think about time in all its forms (Linear, Multi-dimensional, Lateral…)
“Where” questions help us to think about different spaces and places.
“What” questions help us to think about the different contexts surrounding our situation.
“How” questions help us to think about doing things.
Step 02
What are you thinking?
(30 — 45 Minutes)
Your group has developed some key questions and initial thoughts that might be going through your heads. Now is the time to fuel your curiosity and explore. Take time to look into your questions and build your knowledge.
WHAT TO DO —
talk to people or role play a scenario with your group.
create a mood board for your inspirations and your research.
record the key questions and observations you make as you go deeper with your thoughts.
Step 03
What do you think?
(30 — 60 Minutes)
Your team now has research and inspiration. It’s time to move into the ideation phase. This is where you need to let go of practicality, and maybe even reality ;). At this point in the process, nothing is holding you back! Sketch, write, or record anything that comes to your mind.
WHAT TO DO —
The key here is to use your research and inspiration boards to get you moving. Ideas are not precious, so use the materials provided to you to keep track.
Once you start to develop a fair amount of ideas you may want to begin to sort them. You could create themes or categories that you see emerging, or group ideas based on different formats or users.
You can imagine a series of user profiles and create ideas that directly respond to their needs. These profiles can start simple and be further developed as your ideas and concepts grow.
If you are having trouble starting, take one of the questions you have developed as a group and try to answer it with eight ideas in eight minutes. One person in your group can be the timer, the goal is for you to develop a sketch or idea per minute. For example, if you do this for eight minutes with 5 group members you have the potential to come up with 40 ideas.