Category: Unconventional Design

In this workshop, the class was divided into 6 groups to implement parallel thinking process that helps people be more productive and focused. The problem statement for this workshop was getting our user, in this case, Eric Parren to start meditating regularly. The first group repressed by a white hat, calls for the facts and just the facts. The second group represented by the yellow hat symbolized optimism, the third hat which was black played the devil’s advocate, the green hat focused on creativity and possibilities, the red hat provided the pros and cons of the solution presented by the green hat and the blue was used to manage the thinking process. The group I was part of was assigned to be the blue hat, using a creative thinking process we came up with a solution we thought would encourage our user to meditate on a regular basis. According to the information we were given, our user didn’t have a fixed schedule. Hence this inconsistency created a gap for improvement. We recommended our user to develop a fixed schedule that can be followed through each and every day.

In this workshop, teams are required to interchangeable work and design an enchanted object with discursive agenda and goal of increasing performance.

The first step to design was determining the problem statement. My team’s problem statement was about protecting and feeding stray cats.

After writing our problem statement we exchanged our workplace with a second team and started discussing solutions for the problem statement they second team wrote. Their problem statement was about how to effectively clean cat wet eating bowl. We came up with various solutions, some of the solutions we proposed were: an automatic fluid vacuum cleaner and a sink bowl that can pass fluids through. Next, we moved to the second team’s workspace. Their problem statement was feeding cats in a timely manner. Based on their problem statement, we designed a model which has a button a cat can reach and touch. When it starts it gets food to the cat’s bowl. After the cat finishes eating the model cleans the bowl. This workshop was thought-provoking and interesting. We weren’t limited by resources or material, we just came up with ideas and tried to implement them.

I look into the Empathy Toy from 21 toys in my research for the empathy workshop. In their description video, they demonstrate the rule of the toy. It’s a game of two, both players are required to cover their eyes when playing, one plays the role as a commander and has an already assembled piece of the juggle. The other is required to assemble the same piece of juggle according to only to the first player’s verbal instruction. By playing this toy, the players learn to work with others better. I think empathy is an important virtue in teamwork when Echo and I are working on our final project and also in my experience when working on the group project, the first thing we need to achieve is to understand each other, there can’t be chaos inside a team.

Echo showed me the suggestion that was made by Gabriel during Monday’s class. I find lots of his suggestions extremely helpful, even though some changes he thinks of might not be applied on our prototype, his suggestions help me rethink many design choices I made in the first place, and I modified some of my plans accordingly. A suggestion we decide to apply to our product is adding an AI system on our WatchPad. Even though we were afraid that sound may affect the user when he/she is gaming, we forget that our product should also be multi-functional when the user isn’t gaming, therefore we decide to add an AI function for the none-gaming mode and deactivate it when the user is gaming.