Welcome to our Community page!

This is the place where we communicate, announce events and workshops or
just show off our achievements and past projects.

We are building a local design thinking community at Sandbox. We focus on the local community of students, alumni and partners as well as international cooperation, which provides students with the opportunity to participate in global design and product development projects. We strive to create a shared understanding of how to spark and support innovation.

Partner company: SEB

Course: Digital Product Management Industry Project
Team Emotional Payment: Kaisa, Birgitt, Tejas, Peeter
Semester: Spring 2022

The challenge
Making payments from your account to someone else’s account is a rather technical thing. However the intentions are not always technical. SEB assumes that people sometimes use money as a gift, as a bonus for a well-done job, as a help or support, as a donation etc. However, the bank’s existing payment forms in Internetbank or Mobile App do not support people to fully convey the emotion when making the payment, and people look for alternative channels to deliver it

Partner company: SEB

Course: Digital Product Management Industry Project
Team Finbest: Monica, Karl, Asso, Binghua
Semester: Spring 2022

The challenge
SEB presented the challenge that a large proportion of the society is facing financial stress on a daily basis. Some people are able to manage their finances well but some are struggling. Different customer groups have different approaches to managing financial stress and therefore also need different solutions. In addition, financial stress can create not only financial problems but also impact health. The challenge of this project was to find out the customers' financial stress and lead them to solve it with our

Partner company: Metatellus

Course: Digital Product Management Industry Project
Team vME (Virtual ME): Helena, Joonas, Joy, Yashar
Semester: Spring 2022

The challenge
Our modern everyday digital environment has created many problems for both users and providers of digital services to deal with. Two most significant problems are:
1. Increasing disconnectedness from real life
2. Poor human-computer interaction
When applied to the field of Metaverse and the onboarding processes, these problems lead to one big question. How to build up the onboarding and retention so that the app gets as much information about the user as possible with as little input as possible?

Process

Sandbox Toolbox: Font Safari with Maria Laanelepp (26th of May)

Registration link: https://forms.gle/cfc2LBXKYgEarXbc7 (Limited spots only)

We will finish the season off with a bang. 🔥🔥

The manager of the Sandbox programme (aka the Sandboss) Maria will step on the stage herself. Font lover, Graphic Designer, Entrepreneur, and Educator in the design field. These are only a few keywords to describe her. At the Font Safari she will share her passion for typography. 🔎🕵️‍♂️

Fonts are no longer just for graphic designers - thanks to technology and all the devices we use. Fonts play a vital role in our everyday life. We all are under the influence of type.

History of Sandbox

The Sandbox considers itself to be a “Digital Product Management & Design Thinking education hotspot in Tartu”. As of 2022, Sandbox has worked with 13 partner companies, trained several students, conducted numerous hands-on toolbox sessions, is part of the Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) and provides a massive 300m2 creative space for students and partner companies to work in the Delta. The Sandbox space also houses the only fully functional kitchen, complete with an oven, in the building. This is an important detail as you will see later. Given the work that has already been done there is no

The Essential Design Thinking Reading List

At the Sandbox we’re all about Design Thinking, and when it comes to it a lot of literature has been written and published in the field already. Starting with timeless classics such as The Design of Everyday Things to more recent books such as Sprint, there is plenty of ground to cover. This can be quite intimidating to beginners. In order to clear the clutter and help you to get started here is an essential reading list which the Sandbox team recommends.

The Design of Everyday Things

By Don Norman

What do doors, microwaves, washing machines, websites and apps

International Collaborations at Sandbox

At the University of Tartu there are multiple ways in which students can get international exposure. One of the most well-known ways is to study abroad for a semester with the Erasmus+ program. However this isn’t the only way to gain some international perspective at the university. One of the lesser known paths is to take up courses which are taught in collaboration with different universities abroad, like the Global Digital Innovation Project (GDIP) offered at the Sandbox.

The Sandbox offers this course in collaboration with inno.space, Germany. Both Sandbox and inno.space are part of the Design

Sandbox Toolbox: User Research with Helen Kokk (2nd of March)

We're happy to announce another Sandbox Toolbox event with Helen Kokk! Meet us in Zoom on the 2nd of March to learn how to conduct meaningful user research with your users. The workshop is going to be delivered by Helen Kokk, from OCCO.

All the workshops of the series are highly hands-on sessions, meaning that already during the workshop, you will have a chance to practice what you've learned.

Sign-up here: https://forms.gle/WXxNSRaHSU9rLitM7

Hurry, the places are limited!

NB. You'll receive the Zoom link a day before the event

Industry Project with The Estonian National Museum

Our commitment to working with the industry has been well established since the beginning of the Sandbox program. With every passing semester, we are filling up our partner wall.

Partner wall at the Sandbox

To the end of working more closely with the industry, one of our course offerings is Digital Product Management Industry Project (DPMIP). The course is designed to provide a real-world setting for the students to practice their Design Thinking and Product Management skills.

As a quick summary here is a timeline of how the course works.

  1. The Sandbox partners with companies
  2. Problem statements for students are
What is DFGN anyway?
Design Factory Global Network (DFGN) is a network of innovation hubs in universities and research organisations in five continents of the world. DFGN is on a mission to create change in the world of learning and research through passion-based culture and effective problem solving. Shared understanding and common ways of working enable Design Factories in the network to collaborate efficiently across cultures, time zones and organisational boundaries fostering radical innovations.
- DFGN website

DFGN currently has 35 member organizations as of December 2021. Sandbox is a proud member of the network since 2018. We actively participate in the community-building efforts