Min Yeh Design Portfolio 2015

My Story

Research / Strategy

Workshop Facilitation

Prototyping / Developing

Visual Design

Published Works

A portfolio for design Research and strategy

MY STORY

I co-founded a design studio focusing on B&B branding years ago. Like

other entrepreneurs, we saw an opportunity to provide our service to

improve those businesses. Our studio was successful because every B&B

business needed a website or other visual design products to thrive in this

technology driven age.

However, I knew web design services were not the best and the only answer

to the challenges those business owners faced. I kept asking myself the

same question: What can design do beyond making graphics and logos? How can we serve businesses with solutions for their sustainability? It wasnt until I invested in a degree to study design processes that I found

the answers to those questions and my passion for design.

Being an Entrepreneur & Learning Design Process

When I look back now, I find I have transformed my perspec-tive from being a graphic designer to a design strategist. I believe design can not only make things more pleasant but also serve as a holistic approach to problem solving.

I have been working on projects with startups and adopting the design

process to identify problems, synthesize data, and visualize information.

Now, years later, I am answering those questions here by practicing design

to make a social impact.

A business models current state mapping with a startup in Philadelphia.

Research / Strategy

Industry : Culture, Education

Project length : 12 month

Area of focus : How learners can activate their mindset to adapt new

cultural norms?

Design method : Boundary object, ideation, improvisation, data

visualization, stakeholder map, SWOT, future back

wards, card sorting, co-design, rapid prototype.

Designing a Tool to Activate Mindsets for Behavioral Changes / THE BRIDGE 2014

Research

In this thesis project, The Bridge, utilizes design tools and methods for

cross-cultural interaction and group collaboration. it addresses issues

that most international students experience; they have self-identified as

passive learners and possess high anxiety from cultural barriers. Thus,

this project started by using a boundary object (a LEGO mini-figure

interview board) to reduce students anxiety during the interviews.

Document Link

Thesis Project: THE BRIDGE 2014

Mindset to Behavior Learning Path was developed to explore the learning process across ex/in-ternal world.

Designing a Tool to Activate Mindsets for Behavioral Changes / THE BRIDGE 2014

Research / Strategy

Data collected from interview boards

Sense-making

It was an iterative process between research and sense-making that

included several workshops, interviews, and data synthesis. In one

workshop the future backward method helped students to identify their

needs as a group. Later, in a co-create workshop, students brainstormed

the ideas for a reminder that has both cultural and personal elements.

Implementation

In the final stage of this thesis project, a toolkit with a self-reflection

board and a reminder was tested with international students and

instructors.

Outcome

Overall, this project opened a conversation about the underlying commu-

nication issues that international students are facing. During the self-

reflection segment of the tool, some international students addressed

how it helped them to know themselves better. Later, this project was

supported by the DSI program at UArts for its further development.

Ptototype testing

Thesis Project: THE BRIDGE 2014

Industry : Public Service

Project length : Three month

Area of focus : Volunteer engagement in Election Protection Program

Design method : Contextual interview, role-play, 3D mapping, workflow

chart, service map, rapid prototype, survey.

Designing with a Good-Government Think TankThe Committee of Seventy 2013

Research

In this three-month long project we worked with the Committee of Seventy on

improving their Election Protection Program. Interviewing volunteers and staff who

contribute to this program from the outset helped us to identify opportunities to

make change in this more than one-hundred year old organization.

Sense-making

We visualized the workflow together with our stakeholders by introducing the design

tools. We also conducted a role-play workshop to facilitate conversation on different

scenarios with volunteers whose experience could inform actions for improvement.

Implementation

On Election Day, we implemented prototypes to help volunteers performed their

services better: a paddle with a map, a volunteers badge, a volunteers guide and

a poster of a public survey. Finally, we provided documentation of actionable solu-

tions and a presentation on our design process to the Committee of Seventy staff.

Outcome

Our client had very positive feedback from their volunteers after the role-play

workshop for volunteer training and design implementation on Election Day. After

experiencing those different ways to actively engage with volunteers, the Election

Protection Program decided to incorporate them into their program.

Research / Strategy

The Committee of Seventy 2013

Role-play session in the workshop

Prototype implementation One of the prototype for volunteers

Process mapping

Industry : Design, Culture

Project length : One month

Area of focus : Exploring trust and design in Beirut

Design method : Boundary object, Generative interview, Rapid prototype, KJ sorting,

Brainstorm, Data synthesize, Data visualization

Design in Translation -Exploring Trust and Design in Beirut 2013

Research / Sense-making

In the summer of 2013, as part of Beirut Design Week, my colleagues and I travelled to

Lebanon for a design research project exploring the translation of design methods and

tools across cultures. We conducted two community workshops to co-design and develop

Beirut-specific boundary objects to interact with public discussion on the sensitive

topic of trust.

Research / Strategy

A boundary object for sense-making

Beirut Design Week 2013

Implementation / Outcome

By implementing boundary objects created from workshops:

1. Trust in a time of need a street voting illustration. 2. Trust timeline.

3 Online survey, we were able to engage people, raise conversation

and gain insight into the theme of trust in their lives. In the end of the

project, we visualized our findings in a poster and had a conversational

presentation as a part of the Beirut Design Week conference.

Prototype implementation

Ideation session in the workshopPtototype testing

Industry : Healthcare Union, Education


Area of focus : Improve the visibility of Training and Upgrade Funds

services for union members

Design method : Boundary object, data visualization and synthesize,

co-design, KJ sorting, persona, 3D mapping, role-play, weekly report.

Co-design with 1199C Union - A Training and Upgrade Fund 2013

Research

The project cooperated with 1199C Healthcare Workers Union Train-

ing and Upgrade Fund and focused on improving the visibility of their

educational services for union members in the healthcare system. In

the exploration phrase of the design process, we brought in design

tools to engage members to talk about their experience.

Sense-making

Furthermore, we facilitated workshops with the Training Fund

that mapped out findings, issues, and funneled down the problem

between members and their usage of the Training Fund service. In

the second workshop, we co-designed with our clients to come up

with possible solutions for their service. Materials were prepared for

participants to put their thoughts into prototype and were presented

to one another.

Implementation

After the co-design workshop, we refined ideas and implemented

them in the different context of promoting their service :1. A set of

physical outreach tools, 2. A online promotional Video.

Research / Strategy

1199C Healthcare Workers Union 2013

Outcome

Finally, we presented our findings and recommenda-

tions to the Training and Upgrade Fund. It included

deliverables of refined prototypes and suggestions

for future actions. In this project, our client not

only showed their excitement by participating in

workshops, but also took our recommendations in

the end. It set up a positive partnership for a later

two-year collaboration. Prototypes from co-design workshop

3D mapping for current service

Affirnative mapping

Co-design workshop

Industry : Working space, Service design


Area of focus : Operate a co-working space in a meeting room rental

business model.

Design method : Contextual interview, customer journey map, card

sorting, Data visualization

Designing a Future Co-working Space - The HUB 2012


My team and I worked with this organization to design a new venue for

people who require office space outside their own companies. Before

jumping into designing the physical space, we started the project

by understanding our stakeholders and their clients, their needs for

the future new space, and the services they provide. We conducted

contextual interviews with employees and analyzed the current service

model. During the design research process, we identified the major

obstacle of getting front-line employees and staff on the same page.

This was critical for the project to move from the current service model

to a future one.


By presenting the research outcome at the end of the project, we

learned the important lesson--that its necessary to walk our clients

through the design process and demonstrate its value along the way.

Setting the participatory project tone from the beginning by designing

with them instead of designing for them is the key for introducing

design thinking into an organization.

Research / Strategy

The HUB Meeting and Collaboration Center 2012

A customer Journey Map

Images Sorting with interviewee


Exercise: empathy mapping

Exercise: story mapping

Exercise: choose values from Axis maps

Germantown Town Hall Community 2014

Industry : Community Engagement

Project length : Two weeks

Area of focus : Germantown residents collective vision to future

Germantown Town Hall

Design method : Rapid prototype, empathy map, axis tool, story mapping

A Collaborative Design Project with The Germantown Town Hall Community 2014

Background

The graduate students and I were invited by DSI faculty members

at UArts to design and facilitate a workshop with the Germantown

Town Hall Collaborative. Germantown Town Hall (GTH) is a city-owned

property built in the 1920s, but that has not been used since the late

1990s. The purpose of this workshop was to bring the Germantown

community together to create a set of guiding principles for the re-use

and redevelopment of the building.

Process

The team designed a series of activities to embody residents

collective values through conversations. With around thirty Germantown

participants, we facilitated the sessions with story mapping, Axis tool

and empathy mapping during the workshop. Each of the exercises led

participants to share their stories, experiences and visions for GTH.

Later, the information collected from these three exercises were briefly

summarized by the team and presented in the end of the workshop.

The participants collective values mainly suggested a hybrid-function-

al usage of the Town Hall, a preservative redevelopment to it and a

sufficient employment of sustainable material.


Heaven State Steps lead to HeavenCurrent State Hell State

Center for Teaching & Learning 2014

Industry : Education

Project length : One hour

Area of focus : How might we better engage students with their learning?

Design method : Future backwards

Ways to Enhance Class Engagement Workshop -Center for Teaching & Learning 2014

Background

Jordan Shade, Vrouyr Joubanian, and I had a chance to conduct an

one hour workshop with educators in the Center for Teaching & Learn-

ing at The University of the Arts. We adopted a design method named

Future Backwards for the experience educators to make sense of

their collective goals, hopes, and fears. Participants in three groups

focused on the following topics: 1. Student to student relationships

& collaboration, 2. Critique and presentation culture, 3. Faculty and

student relationships.

Process

Each group wrote descriptions for their current state on post-it

notes and identified the most significant event in the immediate past

that shaped their current state. All the descriptions posted on the wall

needed to reach groups consensus through discussion. Later, each

group repeated the current state process for an impossibly good and

bad future (heaven state/hell state). By working through each step

backwards from the heaven and hell state to current state, participants

identified the significant events that might lead them to a future of

heaven or hell.


Orientation workshop : interview with a body board

designing an orientation Data synthesize

FastFWD program (Good Company) 2014

Industry : Business, Service

Project length : One week

Area of focus : Design a orientation activity for Entrepreneurs

Design method : ideation, rapid prototype, KJ sorting, storytelling

Designing an Orientation for Entrepreneurs - FastFWD program (Good Company) 2014

Background

This workshop was the first activity in the three-month-long FastFWD

program that was designed to support entrepreneurs in launching

their business. This orientation workshop was aimed towards helping

entrepreneurs get to know each other better while experiencing design

methods.

Process

Before we planned the orientation activity, we tried to understand our

audience, and learn about the entrepreneurs needs, fears, motivations

and inspirations. Then, as a group, we brainstormed ideas to inform the

goal of the orientation workshop. The tool we implemented later was a

body board used for entrepreneurs to interview each other with a list

of questions. After they interviewed each other, a third entrepreneur

interpreted the body board for the group. This activity not only provided

a chance to demonstrate an interview technique, but also collected data

from those entrepreneurs to structure the next design activity.


Ideation Identify an area of focusing

Fox Design Challenge 2013

Industry : Multi-disciplinary design, Competition

Project length : One day

Area of focus : Design solutions that could bring changes to peoples

lives in Philadelphia

Design method : Observation, image sorting, AEIOU, user scenarios,

ideation, mock up.

An Annual Civic Innovation Competition - Fox Design Challenge 2013

Background

The Fox Design challenge is an annual civic innovation competition

to transform great ideas into actions. This day-long design challenge

brought over one hundred students from different programs at Temple

University, University of the Arts and Philadelphia University to develop

rapid prototyping solutions for problems occurring in Philadelphia

neighborhoods.

Process

By following the design process, participants brought the data collected

from their research trips from days before the challenge. We employed

design methods to make-sense of the information and brainstorm ideas

for the opportunities we identified through the process. Facilitating

multi-disciplinary collaboration proved a significant learning experience

for me as a designer.

Industry : Education

Project length : Two month

Area of focus : Class engagement and self-reflection learning

Design method : Co-design, mapping, storytelling, visualization

Research

The design tool used an interactive object to externalize thoughts and

served as a reminder to help students change their mindset. It was tested

with international students at the University of the Arts. From collected

data, we discovered that one of the touch points, where students felt most

challenged, was when they first arrived in the U.S. It made students in the

English as Second Language program in the right context.

Sense-making

ESLI educators and I identified the opportunity in their writing class to

incorporate my design. We started a co-design session to create a new

version of design tool: a series of timeline mapping activities.

Implementation

The timeline mapping tools were used in the ESLI writing class for two

semesters. Students were asked to organize their thoughts, visualize their

experience, and share their stories in class.

Outcome

Instructors and students both gave positive feedback:

1. This activity improved class engagement.

2. It helped students to reflect on their experience and produce in depth

responses.

3. It provided a way for students to know each other better. Some of the

students kept using the tool after the class.

Co-design with Educators in ESLI program @The University of the Arts 2014


The future map

ESLI Program @ UArts 2014

The present map

The past map

Industry : Design, Public conversation

Project length : One week

Area of focus : Create a public conversation in Philadelphia city

Design method : AEIOU, visualization, ideation, rapid prototype.


After an observational trip in the city, we used the AEIOU method to

make sense of the information. It led us toward an oppor tunity to

create a public conversation about another sense of citizenship. Later,

we brainstormed ways to make this conversation happen and decided

on a feasible one: A kindness exchange box.


Utilizing the design process we sparked a conversation in the center

of City Hall. During one day prototype testing, we heard stories from

citizens and built awareness of being related to others in this city.

Design a Public Conversation - Design Sprint 2013


Video Link

Design Sprint 2013

Industry : Design

Project length : One month

Area of focus : Design a physical tool for design process facilitation.

Design method : Rapid prototype, Second hand research, Ideation

Prototype / Test

Discover Design is a design method tool, the product of a collaborative

effort of designers: Nidhi Jalwal, Jordan Shade, Vrouyr Joubanian, and

myself. The tool is meant to be used to support working through the

design process. Methods of discovery, sense making and enactments

help teams, communities and individuals create meaningful changes in

their process, environment and products.

Support Works with Design Process - Design Methods Tool 2013


Design Methods Tool 2013


Data visualization for customer satisfaction in United Airlines

Data Visualization plays a key role in conveying messages and

information to people involved in the design process. Also, it allows

me to organize information in a way in which the audience is able to

understand it in the context of a complex system.

Data Visualization 2013

Data Visualization 2013

Process visualization from workshop with Jonny Goldstein


Window display design for JUST-SHIN IMAGE Corporation

Graphic design for Red House Theater & Nokia promotional material

Visual Design 2006-2014

Visual Design - Graphic & Logo

My graphic and logo design experience included clients from fashion,

music, commercial, manufacture industry and historical preservation

organizations. In some cases, it required a series of design products

that included a logo, website and promotional materials. In other

cases, the visual design could be the representation of graphics in a

physical space.

Link : My Journey Maps Facilitation Guide & Printable Tools

Logo Designs

During the fellowship in the master of Design for Social Impact program,

I further developed my graduate thesis work through designing and

testing a conceptual / behavioral / pedagogical model with educators

and entrepreneurs. This roadmap planner aimed to provide a path

for turning great ideas into actions. Meanwhile, it tracked the learning

points along with prototype testing that informed the next idea with

sustainability.

Ideas-to-Acts Roadmap Model & Project Planner 2014

Published Works

Link: A Roadmap Leading Ideas to Acts

Ideas-to-Acts Roadmap 2014

Ideas-to-Acts Roadmap

My Journey Maps contains timeline mapping tools that aim to help

international students develop, organize and share their thoughts

without being constrained by their current language capacity. The

activities have been designed to meet international students needs

for expressing their ideas in an active learning environment.

My Journey Maps: Facilitation Guide and Printable Tools 2014

Published Works

Stats

Room Setup & Tools

Before Starting

Essential Questions

Activity by Steps

Suggested time : 40- 90 Minutes

Level of difficulty : Moderate

Participants : Students

Materials needed : Colored pens/markers, long roll of

paper, colored masking tape, glue sticks, printables.

Step 1. Introduce the tool

Timeline

This is where students will note the years, people, or experiences

that have influenced them, giving a details or descriptions on

the timeline paper on the table.

Bus

Each student is the driver of their bus. This is a metaphor for

their life. Student should put their name and draw an image

of themselves on it.

Keys

These are used to represent people and experiences that

influenced the students from their past. Ask each student to

identify people that influenced them in different stages of his/

her life. Once he/she decides who will get on their bus at each

important time, they should put the names of these people

on the keys. Keep one key on the timeline table and the other

stapled/glued to the bus.

Step 2. Model the tool

Demonstrate how to map out your past on the timeline. It is

useful for the teacher/facilitator to do this as an example of

what brought them to their present.

Step 3. Create your timeline map

Students work individually on their timeline.

Step 4. Share

Students share their own timeline stories by taking their

buses to the start of timeline. The other students listen and,

if time permits, ask questions to gain clarity about the details

of the past story.

Step 5. Reflect

Students will be prompted questions to reflect on their learning

experience from the activity. They also will discuss what they

liked most, what was challenging, and how the map will help

in writing their autobiography. Also, the buses generated from

students past timeline will be the takeaways for them and can

act as evidence of their own learning experience.

1. A long table covered with paper

2. Color tape or sharpies (for drawing timeline)

3. Printed buses (letter size, for each student)

4. Key I (people : friend, family, teacher, artistetc.)

5. Key II (the crucial experience.)

How can students learn about themselves by connecting the dots from the past?

1. Metaphor: explain what a metaphor is and how it

can be used in writing a journey/autobiography.

2. Provide the context of traveling to a new environ-

ment by using the metaphor of a bus.

Keep one key on the timeline table and the other stapled/glued to the bus.

Facilitation Guide for My Journey Maps

An Open-source Design Tool for Educators 2014

FACILITATION GUIDE & PRINTABLE TOOLS

MY JOURNEY MAPS

By Min Wen YehA class engagement & self-reflection tool co-designed with the ESLI program at UArts.

Copyright 2014

Link : My Journey Maps Facilitation Guide & Printable Tools

Thank You. Desgin by Min Yeh 2015

Min Yeh(215) 588-8061

[email protected]

Website : minyeh.com

Min Yeh Design Portfolio 2015

Documents

Transcript of Min Yeh Design Portfolio 2015