#chri2970

[designumn2015]

Weekly Reflection

This week, I thought the presentations were very interesting in that they reminded me of business presentations. I saw a lot of connections between any sort of proposal and the creative thinking process. Overall, I think this class has helped me break down the creative process that I already do into more intentional pieces and also has stressed the importance of certain steps that we often underrate or forget, such as ideation and refinement. It has become clear to me that creative work isn’t so much about an end product, but about the refining process that leads to an increasingly better product. As I think about it, a product is never really finished; it can always be improved upon and refined.

[designumn2015]

Project 3 Process (part 2)

This week, my team evaluated the results from our survey and used it as a tool to hash out as many pieces to our solution as we could think of. We organized them in a list format:

*cost of installation and materials

*sustainability through winter

*aesthetics

*fencing / enclosing

*accessibility (could increase safety)

*safety

Main Question: How can we improve safety and security of light rail platforms at a low cost?

Audience: clients - MetroTransit, etc; users - riders

Experience: for users - safety, effiency, ease of use; for clients - cost effective

Also, we divided up some main areas of interest to do further research on, and to eventually present to the class.

The following week, we reported on our findings and did some refining of our ideas based on the limitations we found in various areas.

[designumn2015]

Project 3 Process

Our initial brainstorming session was a little slow. We selected the category of transportation, but most of the ideas we came up with had already been done. We began with a list of different problems we could think of that were related to transportation. At the end of this brainstorming session, we decided our best idea was a food truck that provided meals for the homeless.

On our second brainstorming session, we had more than doubled the size of our group, so we had a lot more ideas generated. This time, we came up with a solid, tangible idea - increasing security of the light rail stations. They are something we all use, and something with minimal security, as we have personally noticed how many riders do not pay fares. And since the light rail is maintained partially with the people’s tax money, this is a public issue.

Our first idea for a solution was installing turnstiles in all of the stations, so that a rider would need to pay before entering the station platform.

As a first investigation into this solution, we created a survey to poll which features people wanted, with the understanding that people’s concerns would probably be with perception of safety, speed, and ease. We agreed to distribute the survey online to as many light rail riders as we could. Even though this would mainly be students, we decided this was still helpful information, since the U of M platforms are such high traffic.

[designumn2015]

Reflection

It is amazing to me how much wealth the first world has accumulated, and in contrast how impoverished other places in the world are. There are complex reasons for various injustices, but I think this type of design thinking can help open up the flow of resources. On the other hand, I have read some criticisms of this “Design Will Save the World” trend. Most of them have to do with Western designers trying to prescribe a solution to a third world problem that they don’t fully understand. The designers haven’t taken the time to understand the cultural context of the problem, and they end up designing a “Western” solution to a non-Western problem. I think as a new designer who would love to do humanitarian work, it would be very easy to develop an ignorant, know-it-all attitude. I think if I somehow get the opportunity to somehow “change the world,” or at least work outside of my home culture, I want to be very careful to develop sensitivity and listening skills so that any solutions I may come up with really work.

[designumn2015]

Project 2 Process

This week, my team had to decide how create the final prototype we would present to the class. Up until this point, we hadn’t identified any sort of labor division, so this took some thought. After several tries, we finally came up with a way to divide this project into different tasks that would allow us to each put our own expertise into something without the pressure of a large team discussion. Most of us were tasked with an element of the site to work on. Deciding how to work on this digitally was challenging because we weren’t familiar with any tools that would make collaboration for a graphic design type of project easy, especially since we had different levels of experience with common graphic design tools. As a compromise, we decided the simple shape tools on Google Docs would suite our needs best, and we agreed on a timeline.

[designumn2015]

Bill DeRouchey: Don't Have a UX Career

I found this video this week, and I thought it went along perfectly with what we have been talking about in class. DeRouchey has some thought-provoking insights into the interdisciplinary applications of design thinking. Around 15:28, he begins listing skills designers learn that help them excel in a wide range of fields, and he gives some examples too. If you have time, I'd recommend watching it.

One thing the speaker said on Wednesday that really made me think: when people get to a spot where their current skills and knowledge are inadequate for the task at hand, they learn (paraphrase). I recognized that that is precisely how I learn both at work (where I do graphic design and web development) and in school (where I study computer science). These fields are similar in that they require problem solving using the tools at hand, and when I do not have the tools in my repertoire, I am forced to learn something new. Both design and computer science very closely follow the "learn by doing" pattern the speaker was talking about, so it resonated with me when he talked about its merits in the education system. When someone asked a question in class, What do we do when we aren't given Learn by Doing types of projects in our classes? I think the answer is that learning by doing is something we must really take responsibility for ourselves. In business classes, for example, I would say, find internships or other types of extra-curricular experiences where the principles we are learning in classes can be played out in real life.

[designumn2015]

This is my process post #1. 

Initially, this project was a little bit of a challenge because I kept thinking of solutions instead of problems. Eventually, though, I started brainstorming, and I came up with a list of problems that I had on a daily basis. It's difficult to think abstractly about problems people have, so I began with myself - problems that I have on a daily basis.

Here was my list:

 + I don't have enough time.

+ I spend too much time in transportation.

+ Time spent in transportation is unproductive.

+ I spend too much time sitting at work and in class.

+ Most chairs are ergonomically wrong and uncomfortable.

+ The libraries are too loud and crowded.

+ Chewing is awkward in a silent room.

+ I check Facebook way too often.

+ I check Instagram way way too often.

+ A lot of websites are designed stupidly.

+ It's hard to find what I'm looking for on One Stop.

I really liked that last one, but I tried to look through my list to see which problem might resonate with my audience the most and which one I felt the most excited about. I ended up picking  the One Stop problem because user interface design is an area that I really do care about, and I thought it would be fun to describe the type of design problems I work with at my job every day.

[designumn2015]

Week 6 Reflection

The presentations this week got me thinking about how successful and helpful products come into being. At first, all of the problems being presented seemed trivial and not worth my attention, but as I kept thinking about some of them this week, I began to realize that all successful and helpful products must have started with ideas like these ones. Perhaps many of the ideas we think are silly are only silly because they challenge our ideas of normal. It seems to me like, if all of these ideas were turned into real products, some of the strangest ideas might be the most successful.