Lab 3: Sniglets and Redefining

Part 1: Seeing and Defining Something: Sniglets

Husbanimal (ˈhəz/bən/əməl/) – The syndrome where a husband snuggles with his pet animals more than his wife.

Emarrasing (ē/mā/rəs/iNG) – When someone is watching you read an email and witnesses your face reading an unexpected message.

Runpresspee (rən/pres/pē/) – The pressure sensation you feel in your lower abdomen when you can’t hold back your pee anymore while running.

Snobilation (snō/bbəˈlāSH(ə)n/) – The giddiness you feel when you find out you have a snow day the night before instead of at 5am the next morning.

Part 2: What’s the Problem Really? Reconsidering and Reframing

Aside from being a teacher, I am the program coordinator for an awesome non-profit called Girls on the Run. The Girls on the Run program combines training for a 5K (3.1 miles) running event with lessons that inspire girls to become independent thinkers, enhance their problem solving skills, and make healthy decisions. All of this is accomplished through an active collaboration with girls and their parents, schools, volunteers, staff, and the community. One of my jobs is to design the 5K course for around 1500 runners. In the past we have always held our 5K at a zoo, but now have changed venues to a school campus because our numbers have grown. The issue with the new course is we have multiple points where runners bottleneck because girls need to slow down and walk or the pathway becomes to narrow. Also, our water stops have not been planned accordingly with the issue of water running out and this being a place of huge congestion. Overall, we had multiple complaints about the water stop and the explosion of running traffic and certain spots along the course. Therefore, to redefine, or modify this problem, I collaborated with a 5K committee to brainstorm solutions on how to space out the runners and create an even flow of running traffic. One of our solutions was to start the runners in waves, meaning every 3 minutes another 100-150 runners would be released onto the course, with all waves starting before anyone would be finishing the race. Also, we created two water stops to minimize build-up and made sure to increase out supply of water from the previous year. These updated conditions allowed the runners, especially the young girls, to space out and still walk when they needed to o without the risk of congestion.

Thinking of this experience from the designer’s perspective, it is easy to make misconceptions like “the girls just need to slow down and wait for the heavy traffic to clear” or “don’t walk or drink as much water and the situation would not happen.” However, this would be skipping the first part of the design framework of empathy. Once I realized these course issues were not a reflection of “bad runners” or “heavy water drinkers,” but issues with timing and space, then I was able to start redefining the problem on the course. As a designer I needed to listen to constructive feedback and examine why this was happening. This was not a situation where the entire course needed to be rerouted or that it was not an efficient course, but a matter of understanding how to space out runners and give them the space they needed to participate effectively in the event. I was able to use the public feedback and my own personal observations while running the course to redefine how we initiated the race instead of modifying the course. Overall, I realized it was a good course, with one aspect that needed to be updated to make it a great course. I have learned that sometimes all you need to do is change one thing to make the product successful.