The shoe challenge was one of the most interesting activities. The challenge required designing a shoe using paper and other materials within a period of 45 minutes in groups of three to four people. The key goal of this challenge was to test and exercise our creativity as part of the design thinking class module. All teams were expected to brainstorm ideas and design a shoe model. Even though I always seen myself as a creative person, I had never thought of designing a shoe before this experience. Therefore, this was a right moment for me to explore my creative capacity.

One thing I have realised about the introduction of any new product into the market is the importance of working with the target market in mind. Listening to their perspectives and having an understanding of their tastes and preferences is helpful. In line with this fact, we as a team decided to understand the types of shoes people thought would meet their needs and match their tastes and preferences. We engaged in short interviews with fellow students within the campus whereby we asked about their perspectives on shoes. It was an interesting activity as we got an opportunity to interact with all sorts of students and made funny jokes about shoes. At the end of these interviews, we had gained more knowledge on possible opportunities in the market on shoe designs and models. This understanding guided our ideas as we attempted to design a unique and original shoe to meet the needs of our target audience.

In the classroom as we brainstormed ideas on our shoe design, we were more informed. This was our chance to explore through the possible insights that we had gained during the interviews, add our creativity and put the ideas into action to design the shoe. During the brainstorming process, I came to the realisation that creative thinking is much easier when done in a team. We were able to assess a range of alternatives that we had and ultimately, we designed on paper a unique pair of shoes that was not only comfortable but also different. We came up with a ‘mule’ shoe style for both men and women. The shoe had no constraint on the front foot and was comfortable to wear particularly during summer.

After designing the shoe on paper, we gathered the various materials we had planned to use for our model, and we got into real action. I must say that this part was overwhelming yet interesting. While it was easy to draw the show on the paper and theorise how we would combine the various materials to make the shoe, it was not the same during the actual process of making the shoe. It was a bit challenging to make the actual design without drifting from the design we had in mind and on paper. However, our joint effort as part of a team was a success and we finally designed a very unique ‘mule’. This challenge was interesting and eye-opening. We were able to gather the importance of collaboration and teamwork which supported our ability to come up and successfully design a unique shoe design.