The Future of Everything? Design Thinking Blockchain & Decentralization (2 of 3)

In the 2nd session of our 3 part series on Design Thinking for Blockchain we'll discuss some of the UX and usability challenges that should be considered when designing decentralized applications that record to a blockchain.

Then, in groups, we'll deep dive into business and social use cases. Together, we'll map out how existing transactions and centralized trust systems work, who are the key actors/users and their pain points. Finally, we'll ideate around approaches for disrupting these centralized systems and determine how we might design viable blockchain solutions.

If you missed session 1 of the series, Understanding & Empathy, where we provided an intro to user needs and to foundational blockchain concepts, before the workshop please get familiar with some key ideas. These 2 videos are a great start on how a blockchain works as a secure, distributed ledger that records transactions that can be publicly verified:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-ab9was1p0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4CZjTyLYG4

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Blockchain will change everything ... it’s the dawn of the second internet, it will usher us into the trustless economy … OR … blockchain is a fad, "crappy technology and a bad vision for the future." The conflicting hype around blockchain is confusing and endless, requiring us to learn a new vocabulary … cryptocurrencies, distributed ledgers, cryptographic hash functions, dApps, ICOs...

But what is blockchain, exactly?

And why does understanding blockchain matter for designers and other creative problem solvers trying to improve the way we connect, transact, and communicate with each other?

In a three-part series for blockchain beginners, let’s draw from the designer’s toolkit of empathy and experimentation to tackle how teams can evaluate and apply complex, emerging technologies like blockchain to solve challenges and create new opportunities for business while never losing sight of the human impact of what’s being created.

Let’s also consider how we can bring more diverse perspectives and have a voice in these new technology standards while they are being built.

Session 1: Understand & Empathize (Completed)
Review foundational blockchain concepts through visual explanations and real-world examples. Share our hopes and fears as well as current UX and service design challenges around blockchain. Develop personas and journey maps to identify needs, priorities and pain points in current centralized systems (e.g. finance, health and insurance, logistics etc.,)

Session 2: Define and Ideate
In groups, deep dive into a business domain and identify decentralization opportunities and use cases using design thinking tools. Discover the moments of trust in existing systems – how it is ensured and what could go wrong. Identify potential blockchain application, or just as valid, explore whether blockchain is actually a technology in search of a problem with little practical application to any actual user needs.

Session 3: Prototype and Test
Build low fidelity prototypes of a business solution that uses blockchain
(Note: blockchain is most useful when what you’re building requires a decentralized system for managing provenance, smart contracts, verifying data, protecting user security, or dealing with financial assets). Test your ideas across teams, get feedback and share ideas to iterate.

As these sessions will build upon each other we recommend participants join and attend all three sessions to get a taste of how to use the integrated Design Thinking process for problem solving. However if you missed session 1 but already understand core Blockchain concepts (Blockchain 101), it’s ok to join from Session 2.

We will be hosted by the great team at SAP. Guests are required to check in with a photo ID and your full name must be provided when you signup.

Spaces are limited and we want to ensure those who sign up actually attend - $5 signals your commitment. Refreshments will be provided.