A Workshop Series in collaboration with Design Thinking RVA

Join us for a design thinking workshop at the Institute for Contemporary Art,

on Saturday, November 22nd, 2025, from 11AM-12:30PM.

☕

Enjoy a cup of coffee with us at the ICA Cafe.

Stick around to see the galleries after the workshop.

RSVP for November 22nd

Building Cities with Character

A 90-minute design thinking lab using LUMA’s three movements... to listen to the East Riverfront, make sense of its complexity, and prototype civic tools in real time.

👁️

Looking

Ethnographic inputs & the East Riverfront story

Project real voices, quotes, and artifacts from the district.
Practice “seeing” lived experience as design data, not anecdotes.
Connect observations to ethnography, walk-a-mile, and contextual inquiry.

🧩

Understanding

Stakeholder Mapping, Problem Tree & Patterns

Map people, institutions, and influence across the East Riverfront system.
Use a Problem Tree to trace root causes, branches, and visible symptoms.
Cluster patterns and priorities in a fast mini-affinity session.

⚙️

Making

Live AI prototyping with VoiceBuild & the third prototype

Translate insights directly into live prototypes inside Character Developer.
Watch a “district scorecard” and other features emerge in real time.
Small groups design a third prototype the AI team builds on the spot.

Session Frameworks

Session Focus

The Building in Question

Intermediate Terminal Building, Circa 1939

3101 Wharf Street

📷 Photography by T. Alford Jr.

Introducing your Co-Design Thinkers

Alexander Whiteway, M.S. | Facilitator

Philosopher-Builder & AI Vertilateral Strategist. Founder, Managing Partner, Principal @ Modern Ancients | Tech Advisor, Strategic Ecosystem Design Architect and Capital Connector for Transformational Placemaking
Contact
Ruth Lemma | Co-ost of Design Thinking RVA

Digital Marketing & Growth Strategist | Campaign Optimization | Content & Social Media Strategy | Driving ROI & Engagement for Brands & Communities
Contact
Thurmond "T." Alford Jr., (MFA-DT) (C-MP/T) | Co-host of Design Thinking RVA

Design Thinking Meets Mindfulness: Building Human-Centered Solutions that Inspire Calm, Focus & Creative Brilliance
Contact

☕

Enjoy a cup of coffee with us at the ICA Cafe.

Stick around to see the galleries after the workshop.

About The Technology

Character Developer by Modern Ancients is a civic-intelligence design platform powered by VoiceBuild, letting community members, planners, developers, and city innovators speak insights directly into an AI that instantly turns them into maps, scorecards, prototypes, and shared tools… a way for anyone to translate lived experience into actionable design intelligence that cities can actually use.

Beta Launch, Coming Early 2026.

Introducing the

LUMA System of Innovation

Three complementary modes of practice... Looking, Understanding, Making.

Looking

Observe human experience directly... watch what people actually do.

Understanding

Make sense of the patterns... frame the right problems and priorities.

Making

Envision future possibilities... prototype and share what could exist.

🟡 Looking

Methods for observing real human behavior and lived experience before you lock in a solution.

Ethnographic Research

Interviewing

Structured conversations to explore beliefs, motivations and behaviors.

How it works... Structured or semi structured conversations with users to uncover beliefs, motivations and behaviors through open questions and probing stories.

What it reveals... Internal reasoning, emotional drivers, hidden constraints and what people value but rarely say directly.

Ethnographic Research

Contextual Inquiry

Observe people working in context while asking questions in the moment.

How it works... Observe people while they work in their natural environment and ask questions in the moment as they perform tasks.

What it reveals... Real workflows, shortcuts and the gap between what people say they do and what they actually do.

Ethnographic Research

Walk a Mile Immersion

You do the user journey yourself to feel real friction and complexity.

How it works... The team tries to perform the same tasks or journey as the user to experience the friction first hand.

What it reveals... Embodied understanding, empathy grounded in reality and a feel for operational complexity.

Ethnographic Research

Fly on the Wall Observation

Quietly watch people, spaces and interactions without interfering.

How it works... Quietly observe activities, interactions and environment without intervening or asking questions.

What it reveals... Cultural norms, social dynamics, tacit rules and workarounds that no one explicitly names.

Participatory Research

What is on Your Radar?

Participants map the issues, needs and opportunities they see.

How it works... Ask participants to map issues, needs or opportunities on a shared visual surface or canvas.

What it reveals... Collective priorities, clusters of concern and how individuals see the landscape of problems.

Participatory Research

Build Your Own

People assemble their ideal solution from modular pieces.

How it works... Invite people to assemble their ideal solution such as interfaces, processes or service packs from modular pieces.

What it reveals... Desired features, preferences, intuitive structures and mental models of how things should work.

Participatory Research

Buy a Feature

Limited tokens force real tradeoffs between features.

How it works... Give participants limited tokens and a list of possible features and ask them to spend only on what they value most.

What it reveals... True priorities, perceived value and the tradeoffs people are actually willing to make.

Participatory Research

Journaling

Participants log experiences and reflections over time.

How it works... Participants record experiences, behaviors or reflections over time in diaries, apps or simple logs.

What it reveals... Longitudinal patterns, emotional swings and context driven behavior that short sessions miss.

Evaluative Research

Think Aloud Testing

Users narrate their thoughts while trying to complete tasks.

How it works... Ask users to perform tasks with a product while narrating their thoughts out loud.

What it reveals... Mental models, confusion points and where the interface misleads or surprises people.

Evaluative Research

Heuristic Review

Experts review against usability principles and best practices.

How it works... Experts review a product against known usability principles and best practice guidelines.

What it reveals... Design debt, common UX violations and quality issues that can be fixed quickly.

Evaluative Research

Critique

Cross functional review of concepts against shared criteria.

How it works... Gather a cross functional group to review concepts against clear criteria like desirability, feasibility and viability.

What it reveals... Strengths, weaknesses and the clarity of rationale behind design decisions.

Evaluative Research

System Usability Scale

Standard 10 question usability scoring after a session.

How it works... Use the standard 10 item SUS questionnaire to score overall usability after a session.

What it reveals... Benchmark usability over time and compare experiences across versions or products.

🟢 Understanding

Methods for analyzing challenges and opportunities so teams can move from noise to focus.

People & Systems

Stakeholder Mapping

Map actors, relationships and influence across the system.

How it works... List all relevant actors and map relationships, influence, flows of information and dependencies.

What it reveals... Power dynamics, bottlenecks, key allies and who must be engaged for change to stick.

People & Systems

Persona Profiles

Composite portraits of key user groups based on research.

How it works... Build composite portraits representing key user groups based on research data and patterns.

What it reveals... Motivations, goals, constraints and behaviors of the people who matter most.

People & Systems

Experience Diagramming

Map the end to end journey across channels and emotions.

How it works... Map the end to end journey across touchpoints, channels and emotional states.

What it reveals... Where friction, gaps, confusion and delight show up in the lived experience.

People & Systems

Concept Mapping

Connect related ideas and insights into a visual network.

How it works... Lay out related ideas and insights as nodes and draw connections between them.

What it reveals... The structure of the problem space and how themes cluster and relate.

Patterns & Priorities

Affinity Clustering

Group similar observations to surface natural themes.

How it works... Group similar observations or quotes into clusters on a wall or digital board.

What it reveals... Natural themes emerging from the data without forcing categories too early.

Patterns & Priorities

Bull's eye Diagramming

Sort elements into core, important and nice to have.

How it works... Sort items into rings that represent core, important and nice to have elements.

What it reveals... What sits at the center of success versus what can flex or be deferred.

Patterns & Priorities

Importance Difficulty Matrix

Plot impact versus effort to find quick wins and big bets.

How it works... Plot opportunities on a 2 by 2 grid of impact vs effort or importance vs difficulty.

What it reveals... Quick wins, strategic bets and items that should probably be dropped.

Patterns & Priorities

Visualize the Vote

Make group preferences visible through dot voting or similar.

How it works... Give people dots or digital votes to mark ideas they support on a board.

What it reveals... Visible alignment, disagreement and surprising outliers in group preferences.

Problem Framing

Problem Tree Analysis

Map roots, trunk and branches of a central problem.

How it works... Draw a tree mapping the central problem, its root causes and its consequences.

What it reveals... The deeper drivers behind surface symptoms and where to intervene effectively.

Problem Framing

Statement Starters

Reframe issues using prompts like "How might we...".

How it works... Rewrite issues using generative prompts such as "How might we..." or "What if...".

What it reveals... Reframed challenges that invite solutions instead of just describing pain.

Problem Framing

Abstraction Laddering

Climb up with "why"... climb down with "how".

How it works... Move up the ladder by asking "why" for higher purpose and down by asking "how" for concrete steps.

What it reveals... The most useful level of abstraction at which to design and decide.

Problem Framing

Rose Bud Thorn

Quickly spot what works, what hurts and what could grow.

How it works... Label elements as positive (rose), opportunity (bud) or pain point (thorn).

What it reveals... A fast emotional snapshot of what is working, what could grow and what hurts.

🔵 Making

Methods for generating concepts, prototyping them and communicating a future that could exist.

Concept Ideation

Thumbnail Sketching

Many small rough sketches to explore directions quickly.

How it works... Create many small, rough sketches of ideas without worrying about polish.

What it reveals... Breadth of possible directions and low commitment exploration.

Concept Ideation

Creative Matrix

Use a grid of users, needs and tech to spark combinations.

How it works... Build a grid that combines dimensions such as users, needs and technologies as prompts.

What it reveals... Unexpected combinations and novel concept sparks.

Concept Ideation

Round Robin

Each person builds on someone else's draft idea in sequence.

How it works... Have participants add to or modify each others ideas in sequence.

What it reveals... Collective creativity and stronger ideas built collaboratively.

Concept Ideation

Alternative Worlds

Solve the problem as if it lived in a different world.

How it works... Ask teams to solve the same problem as if it lived in a different world or domain.

What it reveals... Pattern breaking and fresh approaches free from current constraints.

Modeling & Prototyping

Storyboarding

Sequential frames to show a journey through the solution.

How it works... Draw sequential frames showing a user interacting with a service or product over time.

What it reveals... Flow logic, emotional pacing and key interaction moments.

Modeling & Prototyping

Schematic Diagramming

Simple diagrams of systems, components and flows.

How it works... Create simplified diagrams of systems, components and flows.

What it reveals... Shared understanding of how the system is structured and how pieces interact.

Modeling & Prototyping

Rough & Ready Prototyping

Ultra low fidelity prototypes to test assumptions fast.

How it works... Build very low fidelity prototypes from paper, cardboard or quick screens.

What it reveals... Fast validation of assumptions without heavy build cost.

Modeling & Prototyping

Appearance Modeling

Higher fidelity mockups to show look, feel and interaction.

How it works... Create higher fidelity mockups that show visual style and interaction feel.

What it reveals... Realistic sense of look and feel, including brand expression and usability.

Design Rationale

Concept Posters

One page story of problem, insight, solution and benefits.

How it works... Summarize each idea on a poster with problem, insight, solution and key benefits.

What it reveals... Clarity of value proposition and easy comparison across concepts.

Design Rationale

Video Scenarios

Short videos that show the solution playing out in real life.

How it works... Produce short videos that illustrate how the solution plays out in real life.

What it reveals... Emotional impact, narrative coherence and sense of plausibility.

Design Rationale

Cover Story Mock ups

Future magazine cover celebrating the solution's success.

How it works... Design a future magazine or news cover celebrating the success of the solution.

What it reveals... Long term aspiration, bold outcomes and what success looks like publicly.

Design Rationale

Quick Reference Guides

One page guides for using or rolling out the solution.

How it works... Create one page guides that explain how to use or roll out the solution.

What it reveals... Operational clarity and simple handoff for teams and stakeholders.

Like human-centered design, it starts from people’s real needs and experiences, and like classic design thinking it cycles through looking, understanding, and making... but LUMA’s contribution is to turn those big ideas into a curated library of named methods that any team can pick up, combine, and run with — interviews, journey maps, concept posters, co-creation games, and more, all described in plain language.

Where much of design thinking remains fuzzy or facilitator-dependent, LUMA is intentionally operational... It’s a shared method vocabulary so cross-sector teams — community, government, business, arts, and tech — can work the same way without needing to be “designers.”

It comes out of decades of applied practice in industry and civic contexts, where organizations needed repeatable ways to innovate, not just post-its and inspiration.

We need that structure now for Building Cities with Character, because cities are messy socio-technical systems: if we want development, infrastructure, culture, and equity to move together instead of against each other, we need a clear, human-centered, method-driven way for diverse stakeholders to see what people value, frame the right problems, and prototype better futures in public... LUMA gives us the shared playbook to do that work with rigor.

What is the LUMA Design Thinking System?

A practical, codified “design literacy” system that pulls together methods and frameworks from human-centered design, service design, and IDEO-style design thinking into a simple, teachable toolkit for problem solving.

Learn more about LUMA Instutite

We look forward to seeing you at the next workshop.

Join us for a design thinking workshop at the Institute for Contemporary Art,

on Saturday, November 22nd, 2025, from 11AM-12:30PM.

RSVP for November 22nd

Building Cities with Character

Looking

Understanding

Making

The Building in Question

Intermediate Terminal Building, Circa 1939

Alexander Whiteway, M.S. | Facilitator

Ruth Lemma | Co-ost of Design Thinking RVA

Thurmond "T." Alford Jr., (MFA-DT) (C-MP/T) | Co-host of Design Thinking RVA

About The Technology

Introducing the

🟡 Looking

🟢 Understanding

🔵 Making

What is the LUMA Design Thinking System?

A practical, codified “design literacy” system that pulls together methods and frameworks from human-centered design, service design, and IDEO-style design thinking into a simple, teachable toolkit for problem solving.

We look forward to seeing you at the next workshop.