IS4445 Principles of Interaction Design Lecture 7: The 6 Thinking Hats Rob Gleasure R.Gleasure@ucc.ie www.robgleasure.com

Course structure Or more specifically Week 1: Introduction Week 2: Empathise 1 (personas) Week 3: Empathise 2 (empathy maps) Week 4: Define 1 (journey maps) Week 5: Define 2 (value curves) Week 6: Ideate 1 (mind maps) Week 7: Ideate 2 (6 hats) Week 8: Prototyping 1 (storyboards) Week 9: Prototyping 2 (wireframes) Week 10: Test 1 (Testing cards) Week 11: Test 2 (UX audits) Week 12: Revision

IS4445 Today’s session Online discussion The 6 Thinking Hats What Why How When Where 6 Thinking Hats exercise

The next next impossible problem Having honed in on specific qualities, then unpacked them in every direction we could think of, we must now begin to produce practical solutions It’s time to get specific and start producing actual workable solutions We want to move from loosely grouped ideas to distinct competing solutions We want to do this as a group, harnessing the creativity of all team members

Why the 6 Thinking Hats? Creative collaboration is hard Communication of ideas is lossy Ambitions differ It hurts to put forward an idea and have it shot down The same people tend to dominate discussions

Why the 6 Thinking Hats? Frames of reference and solution concepts Problem space Frames of reference and solution concepts Frames of reference and solution concepts

What are the 6 Thinking Hats? The ‘6 Hats’ method of thinking simplifies the process by dealing with emotion, logic, hope, information and creativity separately as a set process This approach drives better exploration and sharing of perceptions, while reducing adversarial behaviour and wasted time

Rationale Behind the Thinking Hats Everyone knows which part of the creative process is currently the focus Everyone knows they will have a chance to express an opinion, positive or negative Every person and every idea is given fair hearing

White Hat Indicates neutrality and purity of thought. Neutral and objective, does not offer interpretations and opinions. Two-tier system of information: Corroborated facts Working assumptions  Outputs Given some concept we want to take forward from our value curves and mind maps What do we know about the relevant technologies, social structures, and practices?

Green Hat Indicates fertility, growth and the value of seeds. We’re trying to spread as many seeds as possible, knowing many of them won’t end up growing We’re looking for actual solutions; things we could make We look to provoke new ideas and push each other – ‘what would be another way to do that’?  Outputs Usually want 20-30+ ideas from this stage Progress is measured by the number of ideas, not their quality

Yellow Hat Indicates positivity, sunshine, brightness and optimism What is positive about each individual idea? Can be logical or practical, can be a feeling, can be a prompted memory – anything is fine Constructive and generative  Outputs One or more complements for every idea If everyone can’t agree on at least one complement for every idea, you’re not trying hard enough

A note on positivity and creativity Concepts and experiences are bound to memory by association Negative emotions cause attention to focus on a small number of things Positive emotions cause attention to expand More chance of bringing subtle associations to mind

Black Hat Indicates caution, reality-checks, and constructive criticism Considers risks, dangers, obstacles, potential problems and the downside of a suggestion. Black hat questions could include: “Can we actually do this?” “Is it morally right to do this?” “Is it strategically right to do this?” “Is someone else already doing this?”  Outputs One or more threats or weaknesses for every idea

Red Hat Indicates emotion and feelings, the validation of feelings as an important input Serves to encourage individuals to make their feelings explicit, as well as encouraging them to consider the feelings of others Doesn’t try to explain or justify the feelings, just makes them a visible and legitimate part of the conversation  Outputs One or more feelings from every individual for every idea

Blue Hat Indicates organisation and clear thinking Distils all of the earlier discussion into a workable consensus on the most promising idea  Outputs A specific idea or group of ideas most worthy of trying out A characterisation of each idea that summarises anticipated positives and negatives A simple SWOT for the idea(s) being taken forward is often enough

A mind map for the 6 hats Image from https://imindmap.com/gallery/

When to use the 6 Thinking Hats? These are mainly used during ideation. However, that ideation can be revisited on an ad hoc basis as needed Some ideas won’t play out and it’s back to the drawing board Don’t be afraid to keep the initial list of ideas in case a direction doesn’t play out Equally, don’t hang onto ideas if the group clearly don’t want them

Where to use the 6 Thinking Hats This technique should be used to bring the group together, particularly if everyone has gone off in different directions to research different things The 6 Thinking Hats is also a useful tool for conflict resolution, as everyone gets a chance to explain the source of their concern

Building your report Pick one of your group to keep time; you’ll want roughly as much time for each of the six stages Put on your white hat – what do you know about the tech, people, and practices involved that is relevant? Put on your green hat – how many different solutions can you come up with? Put on your yellow hat – what is positive about each solution? Put on your black hat – what is negative about each solution? Put on your red hat – how does each solution make you feel? Put on your blue hat – what’s your best solution to take forward and what are it’s strengths and weaknesses?

Posting online You can be as creative as you like in describing your idea but I would recommend Keep it to one page Present a textual description of the most promising idea you identified Describe why it fits what you know about the problem interaction Summarise in a SWOT analysis

Reading De Bono, E. (2017). Six thinking hats. Penguin UK. Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449): 1367–1378. Interaction Design Foundation: The Basics of User Experience Design (https://www.interaction-design.org/)