John's IYA Blog

[fightonjohn22]

Evaluation

The Wearables team has made so much progress in the past few weeks, and it is incredible to take a look back and see everything we have done. We have been able to take a concept that we identified has major room for improvement, and collaboratively formulate new methods for manufacturing and distributing prosthetics in a cheap and sustainable manner. This could not have been done if it weren’t for each of the creative problem-solving steps we have taken to make progress in this project.

During the evaluation process, the Wearables team really utilized the “Formative Evaluation” technique.  This technique, defined as evaluating the process as a whole allowed us to maintain the sight of our goal and continue to work towards a feasible solution. This was clear during all of our steps, where we reached this evaluation technique during nearly every meeting. This would give each member of the Wearables team a voice about their thoughts and how it could impact the project. I thought we did a great job in always coming back to “How does this effect our goal of wanting to build an accessible prosthetic for the millions of people who cannot get one?”.

Because of this, there were some adverse effects that we did not properly handle. For example, our team had many great ideas and free flowing thoughts, which was awesome. It did however, take away our ability to get feedback from stakeholders, outside sources, etc. This could have been an important step since it would have given us a perspective outside of our meetings (where we held mostly convergent discussions). An outside source could have shown us a thought process that we were not previously considering. However, I am still very glad with how our team did and how we communicated, I just know that this step could have been improved upon even more than before.

Altogether, I know the Wearables team did a fantastic job working together and taking the proper problem-solving steps to continue innovating and improving upon our prosthetic idea. I think we made a ton of progress along the way and we are very happy with how this project turned out, both with our ability to work together and with our final product.

[fightonjohn22]

Implementation Pt. 2

The Wearables team luckily has not needed to pivot very much. We have done a good job identifying potential problems during collaborative phases and haven’t found too many pain points during the individual work that we have done. From this, we have been able to create 3D models and detailed drawings as I mentioned in my previous blog post.

However, these 3D renderings have been very difficult to do since none of us specialize in creating 3D models, let alone complex models like a prosthetic. This put us in a tougher spot, since we were worried our visual wouldn’t be able to come across properly without a great 3D model. We decided to focus our efforts on a very detailed drawing with labeling and texturized labels that will provide a ton of clarity to the user for the prosthetic.

Speaking of users, utilizing our user personas has been a crucial step in maintaining our goal. A huge thank you to the Wearables team for creating these perfectly clear user personas, as it provided so much clarity to who exactly our audience is and how they are going to use our products. This will continue to be helpful as we focus our attention to the super detailed drawings of the prosthetics.

[fightonjohn22]

Implementation

For the Wearables team, the Implementation phase was something that we were itching to start (our minds had already been wanting to go there throughout our previous meetings).

We started this process by building User Personas that would help us during this phase. We did this so that we knew our product had an audience that needed it – ensuring we stay on track. This was a very useful step to take because we could always come back to the user personas if we were stuck during the Implementation phase. The various backgrounds, pain points, and expectations of each persona allowed us to really dive into the implementation phase knowing that these scenarios exist for future audiences.

We then worked on drawing out our initial ideas and doing the prototype documentation. This was a very useful step because we were able to locate exact areas that might cause issues. Seeing a visual is also useful in this instance, no matter how “rough” it might be. This gave us something to build off of as we went further in depth.

We used that documentation to start prototyping the prosthesis. We were able to generate a rough 3D model of the different aspects of the prosthetic itself during this process. Seeing a 3D version and being able to locate which materials/textures will be used where gave a nice introduction to the start of our Implementation phase. We plan to continue to refine the 3D model, adding textures to the model so that it can be closer and closer to the real product.

We definitely are planning to use Quality Assurance as we move forward in our project. Since this topic is out of our expertise areas, there will continue to be many ways to improve upon ideas that we think are “perfect” at the time. This will allow us to build upon on current model and keep refining it until we have a product that is ready to benefit millions of people in the United States!

[fightonjohn22]

Ideation

The ideation process for the Wearables group  was a very important and crucial step forward in our prosthesis work. Initially, we were full of tons of ideas, as our minds went in a million different directions after defining our problem and having a couple of days to let it sink in. We discussed these for a while and talked out all of ideas, which led us to revisit our initial problem statement.

We found that our problem statement was too broad. In order for us to have a successful ideation process, we must narrow down our problem statement so we know who exactly we are creating solutions for and navigating the feasibility of these ideas. After narrowing down our problem statement so that it focuses on adults , we then used “Group Brainstorming” to analyze our problems and generate some ideas. This was an important phase because we received immediate feedback from our group. We then took a break – over the course of about a day or so. Our group brainstorming meeting was draining and there were so many ideas being thrown around, so taking a break was a necessary step to clear our minds and allow it all to sink in so we can digest it. It was clear that this was necessary during our next meeting, because we immediately hashed out our thoughts in a much more efficient manner during another group brainstorming exercise.

The group brainstorming process certainly consisted of many crazy ideas. These were good because they sparked other ideas, but as I stated before, also received immediate feedback from the rest of the group. This was a very good meeting and aligned all of our thoughts so that we knew we had made forward progress.

Looking back, I like the group dynamic and the steps we took in our ideation process. I think we could have had an even better process if we implemented the “Lateral Thinking” step. This could have been very beneficial since (generally speaking) our group is not super familiar with prosthetics. Getting these new perspectives could help us slightly pivot our thinking to possibly generate new ideas that we were not thinking towards beforehand. Nonetheless, the Wearables group has certainly made a ton of progress and this ideation step was a big step forward in our work!

[fightonjohn22]

Definition

The Wearables group has had a ton of productive collaboration in various meetings over the past few weeks, where we have discussed the idea of improving prosthetics. This idea has certainly transformed over the course of collaboration thus far, thanks to various methods and techniques that we have used while formulating our main goal.

The first method that we used was “Talk it Out / Write it Out”. Somewhat obviously, our team had many different ideas that were all over the place initially., Consolidating our ideas into a shared document was useful for all of us to see each other’s ideas and piece together ways that we believe overlap can occur. This was very useful to get ourselves in a more comfortable place where we could effectively communicate.

The second method we used was “Priorities”. We understood that there were a ton of issues with wearables and prosthetics, so we wanted to prioritize our thoughts with which challenges were the most important to us and why. This led us down the path of accessibility – we wanted a much larger audience to have access to prosthetics since so many people cannot obtain them because of price, technology, location, etc.

We ended our process with “Boiling it Down”. This was a simple process after going through the first two because all we had to do was use our consolidated thoughts and priority list to create a simple statement that covers all of our thoughts.

I thought we were very effective in communicating with each other and hearing each other’s opinions on the matter. The dialogue with the Wearables team has all been very productive and it was not surprising that we ended in a place where we were all on the same page and comfortable with our problem definition.

[fightonjohn22]

Analysis

As I stated in the acceptance journal, I’ve never used prosthetics or been around them very often. Because of this, the first thing that we did was familiarize ourselves with prosthetics. This ranged from understanding the functionality, to learning about how to make them using specific materials, to seeing what products already exist in that space. We also focused a lot on that statistics of prosthesis: what are some surprising facts that we can learn about these and the people that use them? We used a lot of different company websites that make prosthetics, as well as World Health Organization for prosthesis statistics.

We started with looking at the individuals that need prosthetics. Looking up various statistics on where the most common prosthesis areas are, to learning about what they think is lacking with these products. We found that depression and anxiety and very high among prosthetic users, so we wanted to focus on improving these products in a way to promote inclusivity. Our initial idea was centered around trying to establish a better skin tone technology (similar to Band-Aids) that will allow people with varying skin tones to feel more accepted and have the prosthetics blend in better. We liked this idea a lot because we figured that there were technologies that exist that we could build off of. Further research showed that there were already a few companies doing what we were talking about… for about $3000. This was a little surprising because we did not expect it to be so much, which led us down another path (we still plan on implementing this, however).

We started placing an emphasis on creating a prosthetic that is obtainable by multiple demographics, income levels, geographies, etc. We found that many prosthetics can be up to $150,000 and still need to be replaced every so often (sometimes people need to travel to replace them as well, adding to the cost). This was shocking, but showed that there is a lot of room for improvement.

We then focused on how prosthetics are made with different materials. There is a wide range of materials used and a wide range of manufacturing processes. This took us down a path of very in-depth research on prosthetics themselves. After gathering all of this information, we started brainstorming ways to improve the cost of manufacturing and delivering prosthetics. We believe that narrowing down to a list of materials for each specific extremity could be the most cost-effective approach for our project.

Our last step was gathering every possible material we could use and comparing prices with the pros and cons of each material. We believe that there is a really good idea somewhere in there that can help millions of people have more affordable and durable prosthetics. We plan to have this low-cost approach be a simple, yet effective way of improving the lives of people in need of prosthetics.

[fightonjohn22]

Acceptance

The ability to change a person’s life with a cheap, functioning, and obtainable prosthetic is substantial. I have personally never had to use a prosthetic, but I do have acquaintances that rely on prosthetics to have the ability to complete simple daily tasks. This realization that a very complex and expensive mechanism is needed for some people to come remotely close to being able to do half of the things that I can do is unsettling.

Being able to build a prosthetic that achieves all of the goals that we want would be a massive accomplishment for building a community that focuses on acceptance. Depression and anxiety are proportionally higher among people that need prosthetics to complete daily tasks. Creating and distributing a product to these people can take away the stresses of cost and obtainment, allowing them to feel more accepted within the general population. So much of the prosthetic community has no options, since these products can become as expensive as $100,000 and might have to be replaced somewhat often. Our product will be available at a much lower cost and will be much easier to obtain, thus narrowing the gap between people that need prosthetics and those who do not. We plan to help millions of people be more comfortable in their own skin on a daily basis.

[fightonjohn22]

Creativity

Creativity is when one innovates by diverting from the status quo. This comes from challenging the accepted values, traditions, norms, and routines that confine people in any aspect of life. Examples of this include discovering unorthodox solutions to problems, posing new questions, and changing the way that others perceive.

Creativity, contrary to popular belief, is something that is learned. To me, creativity is not an innate skill or characteristic, but rather something that can be learned from observing others’ work, allowing yourself to experience new things, and maintaining an open mind without fear of failure. Most importantly, creativity introduces a new perspective to other people and influences their perception. It is not only confined to art – creativity is useful in nearly every aspect of our daily lives through our ability to problem solve and extrapolate.