Lab: HMW rewrites & an app you love

Part 1: sharpen five vague ideas (30 min)

Below are five vague "somebody should make…" ideas. In your FigJam file, rewrite each as a problem statement (person + need + why) and then two HMW questions at a useful altitude:

1. "An app for eating healthier"
2. "Something to help people save money"
3. "Fix how hard it is to find a good tailor"
4. "An app for remembering birthdays"
5. "Make commuting less painful"

Quality bar for each: no solutions hiding in the problem statement; HMWs that a room could brainstorm on for ten minutes (not "HMW build an app that…").

Then do the same for your own Week 1 problem — the one your deliverable will frame.

Part 2: tear down an app you love (30 min)

Pick one app you genuinely use and admire. In FigJam, answer with evidence (screenshots welcome — paste them in):

1. What problem does it solve, and for whom? One crisp sentence.
2. What's the core task? The one thing users do most — and how many taps does it take?
3. Find three deliberate design decisions — a default, a shortcut, an empty state, a color choice — and write what each one is for. ("The search bar is on the home screen because…")
4. One weakness: where does it fight you? Frame it as an HMW.

Deliverable

Both parts in one FigJam file, sectioned and readable. This lab builds the two muscles the whole course leans on: framing problems sharply, and reading other designers' decisions instead of just consuming them.