Mobile Hive
Background
Since starting my associate position at the Hive, I was interested in conducting a case study answering the question: how might we bring the collaborative, educational environment that the Hive offers to those who can’t access the Hive? The Hive offered semester-long space reservations in three of our “classrooms” for professors at The Claremont Colleges. Professors who wanted a more generative, collaborative, and iterative learning environment could apply to teach their class in one of these rooms. But what if they weren’t able, for any reason, to teach in a Hive classroom? How could we still bring elements of creative collaboration to them?
I pitched this research question to the directors as a case study that I would complete on top of my regular duties and responsibilities at the Hive. As the project aligned with the Hive’s strategic mission to lead a renaissance of liberal arts education, they readily agreed. Read below to see what I found!
Role
User Researcher and Prototyper
Duration
Eight months (personal side project during contract’s duration)
Type
Product Design
Programs
MURAL, Adobe Illustrator
Deliverables
Findings from user research, low-fidelity prototypes, and action plan for future steps
Photos of our classrooms at the Hive. Most furniture was on wheels so that they layout of the room could be changed each class, creating a more generative learning environment. Each room was equipped with rolling whiteboards, couches, tables, and prototyping carts.
Goals of Research
Interview key users of the Hive space to understand what about the space actually promotes collaboration and increases creative confidence. If we can identify these elements, we can start to suggest what might go into a Mobile Hive kit.
Incorporate user research being done by other team members: the Hive Impact Assessment, which qualitatively and quantitatively measures changes in changes in students’ creative confidence after a semester of learning in the Hive.
Present findings that may align stakeholders on the Hive’s future plans.
Target Audience
Originally, I wanted the kit to be something that would available to buy, rent, or borrow, by anyone in the area, such as middle school students, teachers, or club presidents. Then, after talking to stakeholders, I narrowed my audience to professors at The Claremont Colleges. Based on user interviews, I later narrowed this down to professors at The Claremont Colleges who have previously taught in the Hive space, but cannot do so anymore.
Design Sprint
I did a short design sprint with my fellow design associates at the Hive, just to get a feel for what they might put in a “Hive-in-a-box” or “Mobile Hive.” This was a great warm-up exercise for me because it allowed me to see what users of the Hive (all of us associates were once students who were users of the space!) think of when they’re asked what tools promote creative confidence and collaboration. We each wrote out a list of tools that we believed were necessary to the Hive’s generate learning environment. I then had us go through and pick the top three from this list to see if there was any overlap.
Question Guide
If you could put the Hive in a box, what would go in there?
What about teaching in the Hive space is different from teaching in your regular classroom?
What are the tangible differences? And the intangible ones?
While teaching in the Hive space, do you feel that your students are able to enrich their understanding of your course material with design thinking principles?
Do you feel that your students’ creative confidence has increased?
Key Users to Interview
A sociology professor who wholeheartedly believes in the Hive’s mission, is a founding member of the Steering Committee, and teaches a class in the Hive space almost every semester.
A history and environmental sciences professor who is more new to the Hive, has taught a couple of classes the space, and is on the Steering Committee.
A neuroscience professor who is completely new to teaching in the Hive space. This is her first semester doing so, she is not a member of the Steering Committee, and she was just introduced to the concepts of human-centered design recently.
A student who is taking a class at the Hive taught by one of the Hive’s directors.
Synthesizing Research
Affinity Mapping & Key Insights
"It's not just me at the front of the class, it feels like we're all collaborating in the experience of the class, and we all have permission to fail." - Professor E
Quick, snappy projects like making a lo-fi prototype relaxes her students, and instills a bias towards action. It encourages students to "just start" and not think so much about what could go wrong.
It only takes a small shift in learning environment in order to change mindset.
With the stoke deck being used at the beginning of every class, it's easier to get to know each other, and be able to ask questions and discuss. This makes students more comfortable speaking in class and possibly being wrong. This breaks down fears of participation.
Physically moving during class makes a big difference: physically moving their bodies and moving around the space creates a more energetic atmosphere.
Presenting Findings
I presented a very low-fidelity prototype to the Hive’s Governance Committee. Our revised user persona is: a professor who has taught at the Hive before, seen a positive impact in the learning of their students, but can’t teach the Hive due to space constraints. The goals of the kit are to increase creative confidence, increase psychological safety, and increase permission to fail.
In the first iteration of the kit, I included multiple stoke decks, prototyping supplies, a QR code for the Hive’s Spotify playlists, our crash course in design thinking, our principles posters, and a threshold of creativity. The threshold would mimic the idea of stepping into a more creative and generative space, if students and professors can’t make it to the physical space of the Hive.