Ideation World This week, we held a collaborative brainstorming session and generated a wide range of potential solution ideas. We then categorized them into feasible solutions, non-feasible solutions, and surprising ideas, alongside additional creative thinking exercises designed to push our imagination. In parallel, we built a timeline and mapped the daily emotional journey of “socially invisible” teenagers, identifying recess as the central pain point. From this process, w

Deepening Our Understanding & Exploring Existing Solutions This week we presented our project and received valuable feedback that helped us better define our target audience and core challenge: socially invisible teenagers during unsupervised free time. Through interviews and an empathy mapping exercise, we refined key emotional needs such as loneliness, fear of rejection, and the desire for connection, and sharpened our How Might We question. How might we help socially invis

Research, Interviews & Early Insights This week we deepened our understanding of “socially invisible teenagers,” focusing on what happens to them during unstructured free time. Through academic research, interviews with an education professional, and conversations with a socially invisible teen, we learned that these teens are often overlooked because they are quiet and non-disruptive, making late identification common. Recess and after-school hours emerged as the most diffic

Need Identification Interview This week we moved from interviewing experts to speaking directly with teenagers. Based on last week’s insights, we created an open interview protocol with 5-6 broad questions to better understand how teens experience social connection in their everyday lives. We focused on two main challenges: social pressure to belong, which often leads to fear of self-expression and rejection, and experiences of bullying or exclusion that result in loneliness

First Group Meeting & Brainstorming Session This week was the first time we met as a team! We started with a fun and creative brainstorming session using sticky notes, where we shared ideas and came up with as many problems as possible related to youth and social cohesion. Each of us then conducted an interview with an expert who works with teenagers - such as psychologists, educators, and social workers - to better understand the challenges young people face today. From thes