#lakha009

[designumn2016]

Reflection 14

As an undergraduate doing engineer, I never get to see the design aspect and the creative thinking that goes into a good idea. I thought they just sort of happen on its own, but now I know there is a process. At the beginning of this class, being a creative thinker was really tough for me since I was always used to hard math where there is always a right answer or right way doing a certain problem. I feel like this class has given me the tools to be a creative thinker as long as I continue to practice creative thinking, and follow the design process. The one thing I also admire about the design process is that it can be used as a way to help a company or it can be used as a way to reach beyond yourself or both. Although I had just taken this class as an Arts and Humanities credit, I can definitely see how I can implement the lessons from this course into my future career path.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 13

This week listening to the other people’s presentations were interesting. Each presenting group seemed to frame their idea well, as well as how their prototypes were used in refining their ideas. Among one of those groups was our group, The Novices, which was about protecting the welfare of animals in zoos. Although we gave short and long term goals of keeping a score card and consolidating zoos by individual ecosystems respectively, the idea of the utopian holographic zoo really resonated in the audience and captured their attention. This idea proposed by one of our team members, Nina, may seem unrealistic now and very difficult to visualize at the current moment. But with technology constantly advancing in an ascending direction, the dream of holographic zoos could one day become a reality, we just don’t have the technology yet. If holographic zoos really are the answer to protecting the welfare of animals, the really test for this prototype lies in the future, where the idea can be refined and retested.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 12

This week I realized that each person in our group took the idea of the protecting the welfare of animals in differing directions. One part of our group thought it meant increasing the quality of living for animals from their current status, while others believed it as there should be no such exploitation of animals by human kind, showing the broadness of the problem statements given in class. By splitting our problem into three separate parts (what can be done short term and long term, as well as what would a utopia look like), we all took the problem in a different direction unintentionally. Our site visit on Monday to the Como zoo was not as productive as we anticipated because there were hardly any animals and we didn’t see any zookeepers. It got to the point where I felt kind of sorry for the animals during our visit, showing that human exploitation are affecting animal lives. On Wednesday we did some rapid prototyping and presented it to the class. We presented our idea of hospitalizing the animals in zoos, rather than just being used as a family outing area, which can be used to perform research on animals as well. After presenting our idea, we got some good feedback from the audience, one very interesting idea was having four major zoos for each of the four ecosystems. I think playing around with this idea could lead to better ideas for the long term improvements for the welfare of animals.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 11

Our design project (group 10) is people need a way to experience wild life without harming wildlife, because current practices do not protect the welfare of animals. This week we have worked on this issue and have made some progress on the matter. However the controversial nature of this topic leads to many road blocks. Each idea our team came up with, seems to have pros and cons when looking at the issue overall. For example one team member suggested the idea of one gigantic zoo in the US so that enough funding can go into the welfare of animals, but this would limit the access of people to be able to see animals in real life. Although this can protect the welfare of animals more, it severely limits public access to experience wildlife. To further solve this problem, our group divided into three subgroups each having a specialized topic: (1) what does a wildlife utopia look like, (2) what are realistic long term solutions, and (3) what is possible to implement now. In order to help each subgroup address their designated question, we decided to have our site visit at Como Zoo to see our problem first hand and hopefully lead to more inspiration on our topics.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 10

The presentations this week really exhibited the importance of prototypes. Even though before presenting a prototype may seem meaningless at first, the feedback received for each presentation seemed to give each group a way to develop their idea in ways they had not thought of before. For example our “lego desk” idea. We had presented what the desk was meant for and prototyped how each add-on can be added to the desk. A student in the audience took our idea a step further saying that since this idea was made for college students why not find a way to implement it into college dorms. That way students can have a customizable desk already in their dorms. Another idea was to make the desk more universal by building it such that the desk may not be just for studying but could be used for other purposes such as gaming. From the feedback our group received in class, I now know that our idea does not just stop with the construction of the “lego desk” but can go beyond just a desk. With the feedback received, I believe our group has the tools we need to continue to develop our idea.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 9

The guest speaker from Azul7 gave an interesting lecture on biomimicry, a concept I had never fully understood until after the lecture, in which designers use nature as inspiration for their ideas. Although previously taught in high school biology that nature is in constant competition, designers have noticed that nature is more cooperative than competitive. This mode of thinking allows designers to see that each part of nature consists of a set problems that is uniquely overcome with a set of efficient solutions. An example of which would be the invention of Velcro. The designer had gotten the idea from plants that stuck to clothing with barb on it to hook the fibers in clothing. Although annoying to take off, it’s an idea that has shown to be very useful! I’m certain that nature has more to offer if observed even more.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 8

Is it important to build diverse work teams? If so, why?

 It’s great to work in teams in general because each person is able to contribute a unique view point that could potentially benefit the team as a whole. However this could also be limiting because if each person in the group grew up in the same environment then the team as a whole will be biased towards one mode of thinking. On the other hand, if each person is raised in different parts of the USA, that team would have a broader perspective with their idea creation that can be inclusive of more people, though their ideas would likely be limited to the people in the US. Let’s say a design team is constructed of people from different countries from different corners of the world. The team’s ideas would very likely be able to reach out to people in different part of the world because each person would have very different experiences, which is much broader. From this it is easy to see the importance of building diverse work teams, which is more diverse teams create better ideas that are inclusive of more people.

[designumn2016]

Reflection 7

Empathy is an important skill as a designer which allows you to understand the emotional and personal position of other people. Two weeks ago my team, team 10, decided on the idea of maximizing work space out of each of our ideas. From which we performed the diverging and converging ideas exercise to come up with potential solutions to the idea. We used empathy as a tool to realize that although college students have desks in their dorms, it’s often messy and cluttered with all kinds of papers. Also college students are on a tight budget so cost is always a major issue. To address this, we came up with many ideas which we soon realized was modification of parts of the desk or add-ons. After realizing what our ideas actually were, we came up with the idea of a simple desk where personal modification can be made based on the user. We have called it for now the “lego desk”. Thus far we have created a mini table which is the basis of our prototype and started to make add-ons out of paper and other simple materials to simulate which ideas are feasible to prototype our design concept.