Shadowing Practice: How to solve problems like a designer - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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This is the first Apple computer mouse.
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It came with Apple's $10 ,000 Lisa computer, and it was designed by a product design consulting firm that would eventually become known as IDEO.
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The assignment was straightforward.
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They had to take the computer mouse, a $400 device at the time, and bring it down to under 35 bucks, make it mass -producible and reliable.
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And above all, it needed to be simple.
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We control Lisa by pointing to these images on the screen with this unique item called a mouse.
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Fast forward about 30 years and IDEO doesn't really create products anymore.
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They've transitioned to designing networks and experiences, things like Los Angeles's voting system and the Red Cross's method for finding donors, even entire schools.
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So what does making a computer mouse have to do with creating a school system from scratch?
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It It turns out, quite a lot.
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The world we live in is one where really the complex things are the things that are mostly broken, not the simple things.
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We have lots of great products, lots of beautiful products, lots of products we can use every day.
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Everything from, you know, furniture to tableware to consumer electronics.
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They're mostly pretty good, right?
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And yes, there's opportunity to do better and do more.
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But I'm interested in the things that don't work very well
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and the things that you can impact society with and then mostly the more complex things.
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Back in 1971, a designer named Victor Papanek wrote a book called Design for the Real World.
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The premise was pretty simple.
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Creators could take some of the same design strategies from the creation of industrial products
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and use them to tackle problems like pollution and overcrowding and food shortages.
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By 2001, IDEO had done just that, pivoting from products to real -world experiences.
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But the design steps?
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Tim Brown says they stay just about the same.
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The first piece is observing the world in order to ask an interesting question, right?
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And you can observe the world in lots of different ways.
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When we talk about human -centered design, we're really talking about observing the way humans live their lives and asking interesting questions about, hey, why does somebody do this and not that?
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Or why is somebody struggling with this problem?
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Why is it hard for somebody to open that jam jar lid?
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Well, so maybe I could redesign the jam jar lid, right?
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Or maybe I could give them a tool to help them, right?
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So why is this happening?
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So the first step is that looking at the world and coming up with a good question." For making a mouse,
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that means watching how people use computers and observing what they want and what they don't.
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For designing a school, that meant spending a month in Peru, Meeting with students and parents,
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teachers, investors, government and business leaders to address needs like academic planning, modular classroom space, accessible technology, and affordable tuition.
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The next step is taking all the insights you have about those questions and starting to imagine ideas.
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Like, here's what I could do, here's what I might imagine doing better or differently.
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So that's what we often call ideation or idea -making.
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Then comes the fun part.
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You test it out.
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Right at the beginning of the process, it might be a really simple cardboard model or a quick sketch, or if it's digital, it might be a quick digital simulation or something.
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And you try it out with people.
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Sometimes those drafts can be pretty rough.
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The first prototype for the mouse was a roll -on deodorant stick and a butter dish from a Palo Alto Walgreens.
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And you test it and it doesn't work.
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OK, so I need to rethink my idea and I do it again, and this is where the iteration comes in.
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You learn from the prototype, you realize what's not working, or maybe it's a crummy idea, you have to go back and find a new idea again, and you go through that loop over and over again,
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asking the question, having ideas,
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prototyping, learning, until you get to something that truly meets somebody's needs or a set of people's needs.
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Now, the last bit of the process, which arguably happens in that iteration also,
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is the storytelling piece, because always you're trying trying to explain to people why your idea is interesting.
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I think what you need to design a complex system is not one brain, you need lots of brains.
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You need lots of brains with different perspectives, different creative contributions that you make, working together to get to an outcome that is literally rich enough
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and sophisticated enough to be able to behave like a system instead of being like an object.
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Thank you.
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About This Lesson
You're practicing English with "How to solve problems like a designer" using the Shadowing technique — a method originally developed for professional interpreter training.
Focus on sounding like the speaker — not just repeating words. With 15–30 minutes of daily practice, you'll build real-world speaking confidence.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.