MIAD Design Project
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Planning
Inspiration
For this project, we were introduced to the idea of industrial design and were given the opportunity to create a new or improved design of a product, whether it be pre-existing or not. My person of inspiration for this project was a man by the name of Doug Dietz, who I was introduced to through a TED talk. We are working on this project with a retired teacher from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) by the name of Larry Murphy (Murf). He is guiding us through this project and explaining what he has done in his career as an industrial designer. I personally have a lot of respect and give much credit to Murf for helping me find my preferred career path as well. After hearing his story and about his experience in this field, I changed my entire career major from something I had wanted to be for my entire childhood, to industrial design. It's all very interesting to me and fits my creativity and personality. I absolutely love designing things, and organizing things, so this project was right in my field of interest. Doug Dietz is a friend of Murf's that helped design medical equipment such as CT scanning machines for GE Healthcare. However, he soon realized that these were scary and intimidating to children. He worked with Murf to try and make these more kid-friendly, adding paintings and landscapes to make them fun and imaginative to a child. These distracting paintings and scenarios are very creative, and a great example of a way that changing the design of something so simple, can change the appeal to the user.
Ideation and Info Gathering
First, I had to figure out what I was doing for this project. I started by asking family to see if any of them needed any sort of re-designing for any product or something that they owned, or a problem they possessed. To no prevail, I went to a favorite teacher, who in-fact needed help with a system design. Mr. Chay, my math teacher, has eight cabinets in his room that are rarely even opened. These cabinets have many useful materials and expensive equipment that weren't being used, and he wanted a way for students and teachers to not only know what was in there, but have a way for them to use it, and for him to keep track of items when they were in use. So I sat down with him and gathered the initial information I needed to know, like what he was looking for in the final project and what should be considered. He stated that his initial primary intentions for the project were "to make an inventory of supplies, and to develop a system to allow staff and students to access it".
Sketching and Dimension
To gain an idea of how big and how much space the classroom was and the cabinets were, I took photos of the classroom to be made into drawings. For this, I had Mr. Chay stand next to the cabinets for scale, where he decided to be funny, but I though it would be fun to have a humorous aspect for this project. I also took measurements and added little notes, like the fact that all the cabinets without sinks had removable shelving.
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Plan of Action
After considering different possibilities and consulting with Mr. Chay on what he though was the best, I came up with my final ideas. I was going to first take inventory of all the cabinets, and organize them for efficiency. He has a 3D printer in his room and 3D printing supplies in the cabinets. So, for efficiency, the materials were going to go closer to the printer so they can be easily found and reached. The technology-type items were going to go nearer to the door, and the items of little value, or nothing at all were to go under the sinks, as requested. This was in case something were to happen and the sinks would leak or something, nothing would really be damaged. After the cabinets were organized, I added descriptions of every item to the inventory list to make sure students and staff knew what the items were. I then made a google form for people to fill out to take out the 3D pens, that then Mr. Chay can see the results of and see where the pens are going and such. I also decided that as more of an incentive to return the pens, to make a place for the student to put their ID in a slot of an organizer. It is color coded to match the pens (red-assigned pen, ID in red slot in organizer). Finally, I made a rules poster to go on his wall near the cabinets for people to read, with a slightly threatening message (requested) to make sure they are followed.
Drawing process & Board Creation
For my sketching, I took pictures of Mr. Chay's room and the cabinets and his hand to draw from the images. I used a straight edge for the lines of the cabinets. I added more drawings along the way as I thought I needed them to explain something or give reference to something. I then, added small notes on some of the drawings to point out some things or make notes on them. Once I was satisfied and thought that I had enough sketches, I began scanning them into a USB drive and compiling them into a Photoshop sheet that was 30x20 inches and had 170 resolution because we were eventually going to be printing this on a 30x20 in. presentation board. I moved things around and changed the size until I was happy with the placement of everything.
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For creating the board, we first saved the finished file as a PDF. onto a USB drive. Then, I put my USB into the printer and set it up to print. It took about 5 minutes to fully print and I made sure as it was printing to stay there so when it fell, I could catch it so it didn't curl more in the catch basket. Then, some paper was laid across a table to protect it from the next step: gluing. I wanted to make sure I sprayed an even coat across the entirety of the page. Then, I had a friend help me to hold it up so I could lay it even and work it onto the foam core. I lined it up perfectly with the edge, and moved my hand across the page, laying it down and minimizing bubbles until it was all stuck flat.
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My experimentation was talking with Mr. Chay about his ideas and thoughts for ideas, and trying to change the final product to implement his ideas. After the board was digitally complete, Murf and some professional designers came in to critique our boards and listen to what our intentions and proceedings were. I took their feedback and altered the final piece a little.
Reflection
For the reflection, I'm not only reflecting on how I think I did on the project, but I also talked with Mr. Chay to see what he thought of the results. Personally, I think for the inventory, organization parts it went really well and I accomplished exactly what I was going for. I've already heard that he has used the inventory to find items, which to me sounds like a success. I asked Mr. Chay a set of follow-up questions:
1. Restate your needs for the project:
"To make an inventory of Makerspace supplies, and to develop a system to allow students and staff to access those products"
2. Do you think these needs were met?
"Inventory, yes, I don't know yet whether or not the google forms part worked until we've actually implemented it"
3. What is something that you never considered?
"That organizing the materials in a way to be more efficient for the classroom would be a great use of the existing classroom space" (3D printer materials by 3D printer)
4. Were all possibilities considered?
"In reality, No because there are so many, but several were expressed."
5. What level of involvement was preferred? Were you happy with your level of involvement?
"In a dream world, I would have had no involvement, however, I was happy with the level of involvement I had."
Were your ideas considered and/or put into place?
"As far as I'm concerned, yes."
1. Restate your needs for the project:
"To make an inventory of Makerspace supplies, and to develop a system to allow students and staff to access those products"
2. Do you think these needs were met?
"Inventory, yes, I don't know yet whether or not the google forms part worked until we've actually implemented it"
3. What is something that you never considered?
"That organizing the materials in a way to be more efficient for the classroom would be a great use of the existing classroom space" (3D printer materials by 3D printer)
4. Were all possibilities considered?
"In reality, No because there are so many, but several were expressed."
5. What level of involvement was preferred? Were you happy with your level of involvement?
"In a dream world, I would have had no involvement, however, I was happy with the level of involvement I had."
Were your ideas considered and/or put into place?
"As far as I'm concerned, yes."
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork...
Doug Dietz found a small point of error that could be corrected to appeal more to the users, so I think that caused me to look a little deeper into detail for this project.
What is the overall Point of view the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research gave a great explanation of Doug Dietz's intentions, as well as what the design thinking process is and how empathy impacts outcome.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Empathy has a large impact on the outcome of a project; if you feel how the client feels and really try to understand how it is going to affect them, it makes them feel that you care and that you really want to help them.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea was to make something that helped many people and dig deeper into detail of organization.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I never really thought to make an empathy map to write the feelings and emotions of the client.
Doug Dietz found a small point of error that could be corrected to appeal more to the users, so I think that caused me to look a little deeper into detail for this project.
What is the overall Point of view the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author of my research gave a great explanation of Doug Dietz's intentions, as well as what the design thinking process is and how empathy impacts outcome.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Empathy has a large impact on the outcome of a project; if you feel how the client feels and really try to understand how it is going to affect them, it makes them feel that you care and that you really want to help them.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea was to make something that helped many people and dig deeper into detail of organization.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I never really thought to make an empathy map to write the feelings and emotions of the client.
Google Form
SOURCES
Design Thinking Cycle. (n.d.). Retrieved 2019, from https://thisisdesignthinking.net/2014/12/changing-experiences-through-empathy-ge-healthcares-adventure-series/