Shahpar Mirza
Stanford University, Class of 2019
B.S. Product Design Engineering
678-234-2600
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Hypothesize!
The Guessing Game Meant to Inspire Curiosity in People of All Ages
A team of Stanford Product Design majors put their heads together to create a game that allows players to explore the wonders constantly surrounding them without a fear of failure. Our goal is to lower the barrier of entry to science while inspiring the next generation of problem solvers.
Problem
How Might We:
help high school girls feel more confident in their STEM abilities?
Process
One-on-one interviews with high school students and teachers in the Bay Area
FINDING #1
STEM is perceived by high school students on the binary.
"You're either a STEM kid, or you're not. . .
And if you're a STEM kid, you're set for life.”
Isabella, 11th Grade
FINDING #2
Failure in school is high stakes and traumatizing.
Yet, in extracurricular activities, failure builds you.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
We applied the following design principles when creating prototypes for our educational board game.
Remove the fear of failure
Overlap with personal interest
Lower barriers to entry
Level the playing field
PROTOTYPING & TESTING
Original Concept
This was the very first iteration on the idea that ended up being the foundation for our final product.
Rapid Prototype
My team and I began creating the first version of the game deck using index cards and sharpies.
User Testing
We tested our concept by having students of ages 12 - 22 pull cards from our prototyped deck and sketch their unique explanations for scientific phenomena.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
