Gear Up & Get Inspired

Before you begin testing your design ideas, it’s crucial to understand the foundation of creating a solid student experience.

Whether you're developing an idea from scratch or shaping an early concept, every design sketch needs to be clear, actionable, and informed.

In this phase, you’ll transform your ideas into a comprehensive plan that’s ready for testing by keeping a few key principles in mind. This ensures your design is well-supported, aligned with your goals, and primed for success in real-world application.

Let's Gear up & Get Inspired before we Dive in and Try this out!

Building a Test-Ready Student Experience Design

Turning an idea into a fully testable student experience requires clarity, strategy, and a foundation based on solid principles. By focusing on these key aspects, your design will be ready for real-world application and feedback.

Clear and Complete

Your design needs to be fully fleshed out with specific activities, routines, and instructional flows. By using tools like storyboards or daily schedules, you ensure the design is actionable and leaves no gaps, making it easier for others to follow.

Realistic Yet Ambitious

While your design should reflect the community’s starting conditions, it should also aim for ambitious, transformative outcomes. Balance practicality with aspiration, leveraging existing strengths while pushing for new possibilities.

Evidence-Based and Powered by Community

Build your design on solid research, proven models, and local insights. Include diverse stakeholder input, ensuring alignment among students, staff, and decision-makers. This makes your design more relevant and actionable, increasing its likelihood of success in testing and scaling.

Student Experience Sketch

Before moving on, let’s familiarize ourselves with the design outputs you’ll be capturing next.

These include high-level design parameters, evolving descriptions of the student experience, system-wide implications, and the research backing your ideas. Each section will help you build and document a strong foundation for your design, ensuring it’s clear, evidence-based, and ready for testing.

Component	Purpose
Experience Snapshot	Capture the high-level parameters guiding your design. This section orients team members to the design challenge, goals, and overall vision, maintaining focus on the big picture.
Experience Overview and Details	This is the heart of the sketch. Document brainstorms, key elements, and high-level outlines of the experience. Allow space for multiple drafts to capture evolving ideas.
Implications	Track assumptions and questions with system-wide implications that emerge during the design process.