Sana's Process Journal

[ismisana]

Evaluation

The evaluation phase of the seven step creative problem solving process really helped us finetune our solution and flesh out the final details. We were lucky to have the opportunity to get feedback from our awesome class, which really helped us fill in and bridge the gaps in our final solution. 

Our goal is to inspire consumers to repurpose their clothing in hopes to disrupt the fast fashion industry. Our solution is called #thispatch and it is a pop-up installation where consumers are invited to mend their jeans, instead of disposing of them and purchasing a new pair of jeans. One of the main components of our solution is a patch, and during the evaluation phase we finally buckled down on a final patch design. We couldn’t have done this without receiving feedback from our awesome class, we were able to present our patch designs during class and posted them on the slack channel for our class to vote or give us feedback. We were able to take that feedback and recreate our patch designs to better fit our vision/goal. 

Also, During the evaluation phase, something we didn’t realize we were missing in our solution was how our solution was going to live on beyond the pop-up installation. We received a lot of feedback from the class on this, lucky enough Alicia was super passionate about creating an app so we were able to tackle this gap pretty quickly. Our app will be a one stop where individuals can receive more information about the fast fashion industry, learn more about fabrics, take a fashion footprint calculator quiz and also scan their clothing tags to learn more about their clothing. We will also provide resources on ways individuals can take action to help shop more sustainably/recycle their clothing. This app really tied our solution together and was the final piece we needed for a complete solution. 

The main methods and techniques we used in the evaluation phase were: 

Polls, Voting and Ranking 

Formative and summative evaluation

Metrics and rubrics 

Our team also made sure to revisit our “how might we” statement to make sure we touched on all of the points and goals in our solution. Overall, the evaluation phase really tied our solution together and I am excited to see the final product as we work through the final details this next week! :)

[ismisana]

Implementation Part 2

The implementation step in the creative problem solving process was the step I was most excited about. Team Azurite had such great ideas and I couldn’t wait until we start bringing them to life! Although it was exciting, it was definitely a challenge for us. We had to pivot this week during the second implementation phase, and I am so glad we did. Our original idea was to utilize a “vending machine” type box that would contain an eco-friendly shirt to encourage/inspire individuals on how they can still be in style while being environmentally conscious. As much as I loved this idea, I think the vending machine set some constraints and we were unable to move forward as a group with the implementation process. Davina gave us advice to think outside of the vending machine, and to also think of the setting we hope to have our pop-up museum (New York Fashion Week). This helped us a lot with brainstorming in the implementation process. 

Another roadblock we faced was finding enough time to work together as a group. Since 3 of us were on the east coast and two were on the west coast, it was difficult to find a time that worked for everyone, so that limited us to 1 hour meetings with most of our work being done independently. This week we decided to make more time to work together as a team, and this helped us significantly. To reach to where we are today, we brainstormed as a team and bounced ideas off of each other. We utilized the same concept but narrowed our focus to create an impactful experience. Our new idea is to have a pop-up exhibit where individuals can bring a pair of jeans (or any denim) to the exhibit and get their denim mended with an exclusive patch. Producing and disposing denim has a huge environmental impact so we hope to inspire consumers to fix their clothing instead of replace their clothing. We named our exhibit “#thispatch” and designed the patch to include statistics on how the patch reduced the environmental impact of buying more denim (Co2 emissions, water, waste etc). The whole experience should be approx. 15 minutes (4-5 minutes to mend the denim) and the rest to look around our exhibit, take a quiz and learn more about fast fashion. 

We used wire framing, graphics and prototyping to create visual assets for our exhibit. I also got to create a mood board for the first time which was honestly kind of frustrating for me but I did have a lot of fun. It was interesting because most of the components of my moodboard were restaurants or coffee shops that I have been to so I drew a lot of inspiration from places that I have been to.  We hope to refine and include these assets in our final presentation to visualize and walk our audience through this experience. We still need to refine the details but Team Azurite is onto a good start and I’m excited to see how this all comes together.

[ismisana]

Implementation pt. 1

So far, the implementation stage has been my favorite stage of the creative problem solving process! Team Azurite pivoted from our original museum “pop-up” idea and decided to go with a smaller installation to raise awareness and disrupt the fast fashion. After speaking with Davina, we decided to narrow our focus and create a simple yet impactful experience. We met as a group to brainstorm ways we can create an impact and we first landed on the idea of a “fast fashion truck”. We liked the idea of having a truck that could move around easily to different areas. Shawn brought up a good point about how utilizing a diesel fueled truck might go against our message (sustainability) so we decided to pivot from that idea and go with a street vending machine idea where we could potentially have people turn in their clothing and then receive a sustainable/eco-friendly shirt in exchange. When we initially got together to brainstorm, we were bouncing ideas off of eachothers and building on each other's ideas and we were all for the most part on the same page. We decided to branch off and each write our own narrative on what we envision this interactive vending machine experience to be like. We decided to meet again and go over each of our thoughts / visions and it was so cool / interesting to see what everyone came up with. After discussing our ideas, we still felt like we needed to dive further so Alicia suggested we do a MoSCoW method so further analyze what we want to implement in our solution. We grouped those ideas and came up with a general idea of our solution, we still need to work out the kinks and details but I am really excited with the direction we are headed! So far, we plan to create exclusive t-shirts, partner with designers, and partner with other companies who want to disrupt the fast fashion industry. Some of the methods we plan on using to pitch/visualize our idea to stakeholders are wireframing, rendering, modeling and data visualization. I am looking forward to dive deeper into the implementation stage.

[ismisana]

Ideation process journal

Before we started our team brainstorming session, we refined and finalized our “how might we” statement. Our idea generating question is “How might we inspire consumers to purchase sustainable fabrics to disrupt the fast fashion industry” (shoutout to Richelle for your help on this!). 

We decided to do an individual ideation dump using Miro. We each had color-coded sticky notes and jotted our ideas. I tried my best not to look at my teammates’ ideas until I was done with my initial idea dump. I personally used the “what if…” and “forced connections” brainstorming method/technique. When I was done, I looked at my teammate’s ideas and drew some inspiration from their ideas and added my own twist to some of them. I was excited and thrilled to see that some of us were on the same page with some of our ideas. After that, we got together via Zoom and decided to sort our sticky notes and group the ideas that are similar and assign them different categories. We used lines to connect similar categories or ideas, it sort of turned into a mind map! I feel like we touched on all of the brainstorming methods and techniques we learned in the asynch. We asked each other questions about ideas we found interesting and we also spoke about ideas that we felt passionate about exploring. We had great discussions and drew a lot of inspiration from each other. We combined some of our ideas, added little twists and we finally were able to narrow it down to our top 5 choices. We decided to walk away and come back with fresh eyes and vote for our top three choices.

Our top three choices are:

Sustainable fashion stylist subscription (ex: like stichfix) - makes it easier for people to find sustainable clothing

Scan-able clothing tags that provide information about fabrics and materials through an application

User entered info and displays in data visualization system for brands + pop-up museum of fashion casualty

Overall, it was a great brainstorming session. Our team does a great job at bouncing ideas off of eachother and combining ideas as well and I feel like we followed the brainstorming rules of conduct.I am super excited to hear everyone's thoughts about our top three ideas! :)

[ismisana]

Team Azurite Problem Statement

Team Azurite branched off individually to come up with our own problem statements before coming together as a group. I feel like this was essential in our process because it allowed us to hone in on a problem/topic that we were interested in without being influenced by our team members. We each posted in our process journals and also added to a shared document where we included our individual problem statements along with our perspectives on why we chose that specific problem to focus on. After I had already posted my problem statement, Rae shared with our group that she had a burst of inspiration and after sharing her problem statement, I was inspired and decided to shift my focus and interest more towards her problem statement. I felt like her statement was a unique and tangible solution, which intrigued me to explore it more. Our group met via Zoom and we each took turns sharing our problem statement and explaining our process, we decided to wait until everyone was done sharing before we started our discussion. We had a great discussion and it was interesting to see that most of our group was already on the same page and there were a lot of similarities within our problem statements. I shared with my group that I am open minded and willing to go out of my comfort zone to explore their problem statements if that was what the majority agreed on. We agreed to focus on the consumer aspect of fast fashion, however we felt rushed and we wanted to take our time to refine and form our problem statement. We discussed key words, agreed to form new individual problem statements using those key words and agreed to meet again the following day to refine and agree on a problem statement. After some discussion, we formed a problem statement that we all agreed on.

I really enjoy how flexible, open minded and comfortable our group is. I believe this has allowed us to have great conversations and challenge each other's thought processes, leading to new and creative ideas. I am so excited to dive deeper into our problem statement!

Team Azurite’s problem statement:

With the textile branch of the fashion industry contributing 10% of global CO2 emissions, how can we inform consumer buying choices around fabrics to influence fast fashion to move to sustainable practices along the supply chain?

[ismisana]

Individual Problem Statement

Individual problem statement: How can we as individuals be more vigilant on the products we are buying from fast fashion retailers and what can we do on a consumer level to reduce our environmental footprint?

Perspective: I really value tangible solutions / solutions that can be implemented today or tomorrow. If a consumer is given the proper (and user friendly)  tools / knowledge on whether or not their clothing is fast fashion AND what they can do to help, I feel that they are more likely to be more conscious of the products they are buying etc. Fast fashion is attractive to consumers because it is cheap and they are able to keep up with trends, so how do we make slow fashion attractive again and what are some quick ways for us to determine if a retailer is in the slow or fast fashion industry? What are some simple / accessible ways we can reduce our environmental footprint (better donation systems, more awareness on harmful materials used in fast fashion clothing, sustainable alternatives etc). 

Fast Fashion is a broad topic and there are so many different angles our group can explore. I am excited to see our group come together and form one problem statement :)

[ismisana]

Analysis Process Journal

After our team decided on a topic, we moved on to the research/analysis portion of our project. 

The research we have done through this topic was inspired by a great conversation my group had when we initially met to pick our topic. After our brainstorming session, we jotted down a few subtopics and decided to use the tool “Miro” (which is similar to Mural) to dump and organize all of our ideas. This helped us create and visualize the bigger picture, as well as identifying subtopics.  We also created a research document where we dropped links to different articles we found valuable (through google, news articles, USC online library, USC blog posts etc). I also watched a Netflix documentary by Hasan Minhaj called “The Ugly Truth about Fast Fashion” which gave me a great overview on the topic and also gave me some insight on different subtopics I should research. Our group mostly worked individually but we had periodic check-ins to discuss our topic and put our information together. After we gathered research, my group worked together to form a morphological analysis, where we analyzed different relationships of categories/groups and this helped us identify gaps in our topic. 

I think the most interesting piece of information I have discovered was learning about the fast fashion process: from the start of production to disposing the article of clothing. It was also shocking to find out how many brands that I buy from (basically my entire closet 😢) are part of the fast fashion industry. Also, there was one piece of information I read about that really stuck with me. In one of the articles I read, the author mentioned that instead of repairing our clothes, we just buy new ones because it’s less time, money and effort. I noticed that it wasn’t too long ago where I would ask my mom to fix my clothes, and at some point in time I made the shift to just replace rather than repair. Some questions I ask myself are: Why and when did I shift my mentality on this? Was I influenced by social media or my peers? These are questions I plan to ask myself throughout this entire project and hope to self reflect as I go. 

So far, our research shows that fast fashion has more negative impacts than positive, and I am curious and excited to explore this more!

[ismisana]

Acceptance Process Journal

I am honestly so excited to tackle the subject that my group and I have chosen, which is fast fashion. When brainstorming different topics, I listed the topic we chose because it’s a subject that I have been very conscious about lately, especially during these past couple of months. I know it’s just the beginning, but so far it seems that everyone in my group is passionate/excited to work on this topic and we are generating tons of great research and ideas, which puts me in a positive and motivated state of mind. 

When I reflect on what potential benefits I could accrue from this project there are a few that come to mind:  I will become more knowledgeable on the problems and solutions for Fast Fashion and hopefully apply what I learn to my personal life. I could potentially save money in the long run and be more environmentally aware. When I am more knowledgeable about a topic, I tend to talk about it more often with my friends and family so I hope to bring more awareness on the negative impacts of Fast Fashion and hope to provide those around with me with alternatives/solutions. There are so many different angles our group can take with our topic so I feel like I won’t get bored/lose steam while doing this project. There are different subtopics within our topic that I am passionate about (such as the environment, technology, labor laws etc) so I will have the opportunity to also explore more of my passions. I will (hopefully) get to interview/meet people in the fashion industry regarding our topic. Someone in my group went to a Fashion school and they have connections so I am excited to build a network and meet new people.  My group is very diverse and we all have unique perspectives/point of views. Even though we are still in the beginning stages, we have had great conversations about the topic and that has helped me be more open minded about different topics. 

Overall, when I think of success after this group project, I imagine that I will be able apply the problem we have overcome as a group to my personal life and I will be more knowledgeable on this topic (as well as subtopics) and see different perspectives.

[ismisana]

Creativity + what it means to me...

Creativity is one of the few things I truly depend on to get me through different aspects of my life. Whether it’s rearranging my room to better my head space or using my critical thinking skills to solve a problem at work, I realized that it has NEVER failed me. Even when I have failed, a lesson is almost always learned and that usually pushes me to think more creatively and truly push my boundaries. To me, creativity is to challenge yourself to unlock different levels of your imagination while going the extra mile to bring your imagination to real life. 

I did not always consider myself to be a “creative individual”. Most of my life has been dedicated to science, where we have to follow strict procedures and protocols. I always felt like my ability to be creative had to be restricted if I wanted to stay in this field, but I was wrong. I learned that I can still be passionate and involved with science and still exercise my creativity, I was just in the wrong environment to do so. As creators, it is important that we place ourselves in the right environment, whether it is our work space or even the type of work/job position that we hold. For example, I currently work in a lab setting where we follow standard operating procedures. Everything is so restricted from the way I have my desk arranged to colors of pen we are allowed to use. To me, this is not the ideal environment for someone who truly values creativity so I feel that I need to take initiative to change the type of work that I do so that I can thrive in a creative environment. 

To me, creative individuals are never satisfied and are the main reason we grow as a society. If everyone was comfortable with the way of life in previous years, would we have cars? computers? phones? etc. A good example is the creation of the mailbox, Phillip B. Downing was tired of walking to the post office to deliver his mail and came up with an innovative idea of installing mailboxes around neighborhoods and common areas for people to drop off their mail. The blue mailboxes you see today are the product of his dissatisfaction and creativity. I believe being creative is essential to truly making an impact in this world and enriching lives.