Project Experience Reflection
Before this project, each of us agreed that it would be difficult. Not only were we practicing everyday activities in a way that was new to us, but it was also doing it in away that impaired you. Regardless of our thoughts going into this project, we still learned quite a bit. Our biggest lesson was learning empathy. By actually acting out someones disability, it allowed us to actually empathize for someone in this situation. In regards to specific tasks, we noticed some tasks are more difficult than others. Opening products was difficult because we did not have a hand to keep steady and a hand to open. Another task that was difficult was putting up hair and doing makeup. It was possible, but it could not reach a professional level of standards. After completing these tasks, it was helpful to create these mind maps. It effectively organized our thoughts as a team. Ultimately, we found that the ability to get ready in a practical and efficient way would be very important to our user.
The class as a whole also had an impact as to how we approached and completed this project. Having the weekly Tuesday lectures to learn what goes into designing products made putting all of those ideas to play on Thursday much simpler. More specifically, week four’s lecture on designing for humans helped to not only look at this project from a everyday person’s perspective but to also look at it from a designer’s perspective. This helped us use emotion and factual information.
In the end, being impaired to this extent effected us much more than anticipated. It helped that we took the project seriously and actually attempted these tasks with one hand. Having these experiences and new found knowledge will help going forward whether in the design world or not.
Ideation Reflection
The sketching and prototyping process was one of the more difficult stages in this process. Having to come up with new ideas and variations other than ones that have already been created and patented for one-handed individuals was more difficult than anticipated. Figuring out dimensions and pushing past the details we already had created was difficult until we came together as a team. Coming together as a team helped create more ideas and details to those ideas to create a solid picture in our head of what we wanted to show. With more time, our concepts and details could be further developed. Overall, the sketching and prototyping process became much easier when we came together as a team. Our concerns moving forward are figuring out the materiality and making these prototypes functional.