re:Learn Designing with the User in Mind – SAP AppHaus

Discovery of the Day

AppHaus

Although I’ve been meaning to visit this space for a while, today I finally had the privilege of getting a personal tour of the SAP AppHaus in Heidelberg, Germany (thanks Lennart Keil for the kindness). I can say I was really impressed with the location and concept behind it: as I perceived it, an open space where teams can come together and collaborate on solving real problems starting from discovery, always with the end user in mind.

One very appealing aspect of the design principles behind such initiatives is the creative freedom that manifests itself even in the furniture, the room themes, objects lying around, activity kits and more. In the case of the AppHaus, there are themed conference rooms with a creative title and related decoration such as the Sherlock Holmes room to inspire discovery, even the furniture in some of the areas was made by hand by the teams working there.

The personal, tactile approaches employed in the design process by design thinkers, if done right, tend to make results more tangible, in an organized free-flowing array of ideas that build upon each other.

Need inspiration to help you think outside the box when tackling a design problem while empathizing with your user stories? See AppHaus’s “Scenes” kit. Tangible cutout scenes and characters to help you navigate through situations your audience can relate to.

App of the Day

Hyper Island Toolbox

Not exactly an app in a strict sense, but a great resource or library with a plethora of activities that help you facilitate design workshops. The resources are sorted in various categories such as “innovation”, “energizers”, “self-leadership”, enabling you to organize activities that foster purposeful discovery, design, and perhaps the delivery of innovative solutions.

Book of the Day

Mark Twain’s A Tramp Abroad. I’ve been reading this one for a while in my spare time. While it is not related to the Learning and Development industry, it is quite inspirational how this American author visited Europe, especially Heidelberg and the surrounding region, to find inspiration during a rough period. Between excursions on the Neckar river, cultural immersion in long-winded opera spectacles, art lessons, and German language lessons, he sought inspiration in what wasn’t familiar to him. I think he found it, having written a whole book out of the experience.

Quote of the Day

Since I’m in Germany on an assignment and I just mentioned Mark Twain above, here it goes a quote from his (friendly satire – he loved learning German after all) “The Awful German Language” essay also found in A Tramp Abroad:

“Never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.” – Mark Twain

Some photos from SAP’s App Haus in Heidelberg