2009
SHOWCASE
AYLIN GROENWOUD S082790 BLOCK: B1.1 COMPETENCY COACH: MICHAEL CRUZ DATE: 09JAN09
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TABLE OF CONTENT Vision Competency Development Past Present Future Work Project: DPM06 Sneakshot Assignment: DG000 Competency‐centered Learning Project: DPL01 Happy Shirt Assignment: DG200 Creative Programming for Designers Assignment: DG401 Trends Cockpit Aylin Groenewoud
P. 4 P. 6 P. 6 P. 9 P.11 P. 13 P. 13 P. 18 P. 20 P. 25 P. 26 P. 28
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VISION
In my opinion a product is more than just a combination of design and technology. Designing is a kind of problem solving process. First of all you define a problem and you analyze it to formulate requirements. Later on you start to generate solutions. Making solutions is all about making interactive products, which should be close to user needs and perceptions. Nowadays, I think it is not just a product designers make. It is a way of thinking, which they want to express in their designs. A lot of designs are very complex to make it happen. It’s the trick to make them as simple as possible. As I mentioned the design of a product should be simple, but the way to operate should be simple as well. In my mood board I showed a lot of different users. Some of them are in an interactive way operating a product, like the man in the right corner at the bottom. It is obviously clear I still think any design has to look beautiful in a most simple way as possible. Technology is still important as well, which can be seen in the I‐LIMB hand. This is a prosthesis, which can be controlled by a highly‐intuitive system. The picture of an inside view of a dream jet in the left upper corner, shows a new way of flying to your destination. It is a new way of thinking, which the designer expresses in his design. It is making clear, he set up different priorities, which are making a regular jet his “dream” jet. The kitchen unit shows a complex thing which is designed as simple and compact as possible. Summarized, for me should in design, function and design come together. This should be most of the time showed in an interactive way, which could be operate as simple as possible. Vision on my identity as a designer Being creative helps me at the modeling stage and with building a prototype. I like to work with materials which are not usual used materials. Like this way, it is for me every time a new challenge to explore what is the best way to manufacture them. This is giving a new kind of view which can help me during the design process. For me, it is a bit as driving me to make the impossible possible.
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Social skills help me to get to know what I what to know. Chairing information with other students helps me to get a notion about what the Industrial Design department expects from me. Actually I always want to discover new things. For example going on vacation and explore new environments, but it also can be done in just daily life experiences. Like talking to a weird guy in the train and get to know why he is using a mailbox as schoolbag. Discovering new things is helping me at the idea generating point, like finding new solutions. When I got stuck I easily go to the next step into the design process. This is giving me a flexible way of working. Evidence “Within the team you are taking in a thought oriented role. In your case you like to present new ideas and approaches. For you it is not that hard to think out of the box. Brainstorm sessions are showing you easily can come up with funny and good ideas. Besides you do a lot of analyzing of options. This is helping in setting up weak and strong points, but I have the notion it is still a bit difficult for you to make hard decisions. I mentioned you have clear goals in front of your eyes which are helping you to take specific tasks within the project group. Taking these tasks is helping you in your personal growth as a designer.” Vivian van der Burgt B1.1
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COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT Past
Within my first assignment DG000, I had to make a booklet concerning the 10 competency areas. This booklet had to show what I expected from these competency areas at the first notion and a kind of reflection about these areas after a lecture. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/DG000booklet.pdf Competency area; Ideas and Concepts Ideas and concepts is all about getting ideas by the outside world. Keep your mind open en get inspired by the things you see around. I think this can be everywhere at any time. After all the inspiring things, you have to analyze your ideas by sketching, making mood boards, brainstorming or mind mapping. It is the first step of the design process. It is important to use different techniques for idea generating depending on your subject. Not mentioned in my interpretation or reflection but also “acting out” can be valuable. Actually this competency area is a way of thinking. Namely as a designer, you have to present your own style. Your concept should be a whole process including your own vision all of the time. So it is very needful to keep your mind open every second. Ideas and concepts is not only about working with brains, using your hands is needful too. Competency area; Integrating Technology It is about learning and analyzing technology, theoretical and physical as well. Theoretical it will be about electronics, programming and math. Physical it can be about working with engineers, building prototypes and writing scientific papers. In this competency area it is wise to know, using technology should technical and economical always be realistic. Communication with several experts is needful; they can advise you, can give you specific knowledge or can help you further looking in this branch. New knowledge about technology can help you to create new concepts. Competency area; User Focus and Perspective As a designer you always should keep your target group in mind. Perhaps it is not directly on supporting people in their everyday life, but can it be in different ways. Maybe it is all about challenging or helping the user. I think it depends on your project. User testing is very important during your design process (can be showed by video). It shows your product is working and actually it is visually evidence. Doing research and involving other people’s opinion by pen and paper researches can be useful too. Like this way you can get a better view of what’s the focus of your user. So try to place yourself in your users head. Page | 6
Competency area; Socio‐Cultural Awareness This area is strong related to previous one. Like in the competency area user focus and perspective, designers are not designing for themselves. In Socio‐cultural awareness, this is more about how different cultures are involved in the designing processes. What’s happening in society when a new product is bringing on the market? Therefore you need a lot of analyzing. Going outside and always be occupying in mind. Probably the main goal of this area is trying to make a product for the global market. The product should be so universal it is not in conflict with other cultures. Conclude, designers should try to think active about how people from different communities should react on their product. The best way for a designer, is to try to replace themselves in people from different cultures. Related words: Cultures, visions, religion. Competency area; Designing Business Processes Within this area the emphasis is on how the products are bringing on the market. I noticed there are two possible solutions; the traditional way and modern way. Traditional: companies are gaining money when it sells the product itself. Modern: the products are giving away for free, the money is gained somewhere else in the business process. For example Becel, the butter increases the number of heart patients. Companies are earning money from government. I noticed market growth, corporate goals and entrepreneurship are also important. Actually I think the most important thing in this area is where your product is going, when selling it. Competency area; Form and Senses Form and senses is all about visual communication. Sound, taste, vision, smell and touch can be influenced by a product. This depends on the form (shape, color, material etc.) and technology (light, sound etc.) the designers used. Interactive connections between the user/customer and the product exist when people get in touch with the product. Especially children are reacting very strong on form and senses the product creates. Competency area; Multidisciplinary Teamwork and Communication Nowadays it has become almost impossible for a single designer to posses all the necessary knowledge and skills to develop a completed design. So it is very usefully to work in teams. People do not only bring their knowledge to the design project, they also bring different views, interpretations and ambitions. Therefore designers have to develop teamwork and communication skills. Teamwork is not only about working Page | 7
together; actually it means to attain the planned goals, by helping each other. Supporting and care taking of the other project members are important things to do. Giving feedback about the team activities, help to set up goals and to change present day conditions. Competency area; Design and Research Processes At the industrial design department, they have a specific thought about how to design and doing the research process. They are using two flexible models. One of the models contains 5 main activities, which a designer should do and think of during the process. The other model is about the competency framework. These models help you to focus on the awareness of your own design process. Giving feedback, making reflections and conclusions are very important in this competency area as well. These are playing a big part in the design process. Designing is taking decisions based on too little information. It is like you choose one solution out of hundreds and look if it is working. Now I also know decisions you take during the design process are related to each other. You always have to look back. Competency area; Self‐directed and Continuous Learning It is important to get the ability to look with a third person view at yourself. Like this you, you get an overall view of who you are. It will help you to noticing strengths, weaknesses and what kind of things should be changed. With this information you can develop yourself in a more successful designer. Actually it is all about making reflections, doing evaluations and developing your way of learning model. Reflections can be done by set up a lot of questions using the words; how, why, when etc. This competency area is all about how to learn new knowledge not about learning knowledge. Competency area; Analysing Complexity Analysing complexity can be done by making models. It is a simple version of a prototype, which does not work at all. It is actually the step before making prototypes but can be done in the whole design process. Producing a variation of models is the best method to analyse complexity. The models can be easy used as simple tools in real life. I noticed models help you understanding, deciding, planning, calculating (electronics) and explore (what would happen). Analysing complexity is more than that. Actually it is about using mathematical modeling for calculating. In short: analyzing terms by math. Afterwards I noticed this assignment helped me to rise in awareness about the overall competency of designing and the ten different competency areas. Within this assignment I was able to get a sneak peak from every competency area, which helped me to understand I had to develop them in the future. Besides this I mentioned the overall competency area of department of design also contains the five activities that are connected with each other. At the end I realized every connection between an activity stands for a reflection. By doing and perceiving these reflections you learn and Page | 8
develop yourselves much more than doing a designing process without these reflections. This information helped me getting started with building my PDP and writing my project report. Present
Within this period I have developed:
Competency area 1: Ideas and Concepts Within my second project, one of my team members discussed a lot of different brainstorm methods. This was a nice way to come up with new ideas for the project. Besides this it helped me and my personal growth as a designer as well. Afterwards it was way much easier to think out of the box and it helped me in coming up with new design solutions. Competency area 2: Integrating technology
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The assignment DG200 Creative Programming for Designers helped me to increase my program skills. Besides this assignment I also developed some technology skills when making circuits for the models we used for the second project. Competency area 3: User Focus and Perspective Within my first project I made a photo‐booklet which included pictures from people noticing we took pictures of them and without noticing as well. This photo‐booklet contained the most interesting photos we made during the project. It is split up into three sections. The first section ‘Reactions’ showed some failed pictures. These people on these pictures caught us in the act and they react to us in different ways. The next section displayed pictures that we found interesting from a behavioral point of view, and the last section of the booklet contains examples of photos that stimulated us to think about design. The ‘design opportunities’, so to say. Each of the photos has a title, a question and an analysis. Especially the last part about possible design solutions helped me in finding designs which people are really in need of. u. Therefore, we encourage you to have a good look at a picture before reading the included analysis. Competency area 4: Socio‐cultural Awareness The target area of the assignment DG401 Trendscockpit is core competency 4 Socio‐cultural awareness on sub‐competency 4.2 Socio‐cultural trends. Within this assignment I learned to look and observe, this time more related to trends. Competency area 6: Form and Senses During my Happy Shirt project I have learned to work with the computer program InDesign to create different styles of Lay‐outs. In the case that this area is all about talking with visible, and a lay‐out has to express something as well, I think I already have made a kind of start of development concerning this area. Competency area 7: Multidisciplinary teamwork & communication Within the first period I followed a lot of workshops concerning teamwork and conference skills which helped me to decrease in skills concerning this competency area.
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Future
For reaching the next stage, I will have to develop:
Competency area 2: Integrating Technology I already developed some skills within the Happy Shirt project and within my assignment creative programming for designers but I am still not satisfied with these skills. In my opinion I need to learn and develop this area more. Therefore I am probably going to choose an electronic assignment if it is available. Page | 11
Competency area 5: Designing Business Processes I have still not developed any of my business skills and I really want to know how to set up a kind of business plan. Within my next project I am going to try to work on these skills. Besides I think it is needful to know how to bring new products to users into a global market. Therefore I have chosen the assignment DG501 Analysing and Modeling NPD. Competency area 8: Design & Research processes In my opinion it would be very useful for me if I should develop my reflecting skills and my design strategy. At this point I know it is very good to have reflecting skills and I already have developed them within a lot of workshops, but it is still hard to apply them. I need to understand what kind of activity designing is and how I can develop myself into a successful designer. This will help me in choosing abilities I want to develop and setting goals. My design thinking I think the best way I should develop my design thinking is by reading books like “Understanding Design”. Reading will help me to develop my English as well. This would be useful when writing reports and using the right design words.
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WORK Project: DPM06 Sneakshot
Project description This Sneakshot project was my first project and my very first real experience with designing. This project is all about taking pictures related to the point that observation is the primary starting point for any design. The goal of observation is to understand what people do, why they do it and how they do it. With a camera a designer can capture a situation and analyze it later. Using a regular camera to take pictures of people without them noticing can be hard. You can use several tricks and techniques, but you will often be noticed. Most people do not like being observed and the observer may feel busted as well. That’s why we want to design a tool that blends in with the scene and therefore won’t be noticed. Concept description We chose the cube because of its neutral outer appearance. It is made of wood which is not a typical material for a technical product. The cube shape is easy to build and use. And most importantly; it does not attract a lot of attention. To turn the device on, the lid first has to be opened. To make this first action more understandable we made several horizontally grooves where you have to push the lid up. The more you open the lid the more you zoom in. Under the lid, we hide a small LCD display, so you can see what you’re taking a picture of. For taking a picture you have to move the small loose cube on the right of the lid. For turning it off again you have to close the cube. To make the different interactions easier to recognize for the user we changed the surface and color of the several parts. The upper part has a lighter color than the main part with the display and the small cube for taking a picture is smoother in texture.
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Reflections Deliverables •
Working Prototype Actually, I did not expect at all we were able to make a camera like we did. I thought the technology part from a camera was too complicated to make it by ourselves. Especially I did not have any technology skills. Concerning the idea we just started this study, I expected my other team members would not had technology skills either. So in my opinion it is amazing, Casper integrated the technology skills without any Phidgets or MAX experiences at all. It is a pity we were not able to get a display before the deadline. I think it would be very nice if we could integrate one but seven weeks is very short for such project. Besides, I am very happy we were able to come with the cube camera as end result. The only thing, which could be different in my opinion, is the way we came to the cube concept. I think we got very quick to the cube idea, probably we should have come with more concepts before deciding. The cube was nice but perhaps other solutions were possible too. After all, I was very glad we achieved our goal: making a working prototype.
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Picture Analysis Booklet The picture analysis booklet captures the amusing and provocative ways that people react to the world around them. This made me realizing pictures can tell very much about people’s behavior. When you are taking a lot of pictures from the same object, it helps you to set up a kind of scenario. Scenarios can help you to discover people’s background, knowledge, attitude, condition etc. This can help you to explore user needs and expectations. The picture analysis booklet showed me, observing such interactions can inspire new design opportunities as well. In my opinion we achieved our main goal; making a picture analysis booklet. It is nice we also developed a new way of interaction when taking pictures without people noticing. We showed through thinking with our bodies, we discovered new movements. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project1Picturebooklet.pdf
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2 Videos: prototype tests The videos proved our device. Without such clear evidence, it would be harder to support the cube. Especially concerning the goal: it should not attract people’s attention. Besides, video cameras can capture people’s movements better than regular cameras. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project1Prototypetest.wmv Page | 14
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Report It is a pity we had to do a lot of work before the deadline. Next time it is necessary we start earlier. Also the content could be more professional and in a more designer’s way of writing. Besides, I am proud on the way it looks, like lay‐out, form, logo etc. In my opinion we did not delivered “high‐school” piece of work. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project1FinalReport.pdf
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PowerPoint Presentation It was a pity we could not show our Pecha Kucha Power Point presentation. At the beginning I thought it would be very hard to show the audience our seven weeks project in just 6.40 min. We practiced and it was amazing we could tell the whole project in such very short time. Seriously, every slide was exactly 20 seconds, like supposed to be. I learned a presentation should not have to be 30 minutes to show your main concept. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project1FinalPresentation.ppsx http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project1InterimPresentation.ppsx
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Learning Activities This period I learned a lot about the competency area idea generating, making models, user testing, making a prototype, evaluating, and reflecting. I noticed idea generating can be done by making mood boards, image boards, brainstorming or mind mapping. The main item within this area is being as productive as possible. When you get stuck you should go to the next step. Producing a variation of models is the best method to analyze complexity. A model is a simple version of a prototype, which does not work at all. For this project we used just foam, a very cheap material which worked perfect. The models can be easy used as simple tools in real life. I noticed models help you understanding, deciding, planning, calculating (electronics) and explore (what would happen). Actually, making models is the step before making prototypes but can be done in the whole design process. Within a later stage, we did a lot of user testing. I mentioned it is a very important step within the design process and surely I will do it again during the next project. A good user test is kind of evidence your concept is working. When building the prototype I worked with different elements like wood. Actually everything went quiet good but I should like to develop more manufacturing skills.
Besides these usual things I also learned to understand people’s behavior by analyzing pictures for the photo‐booklet. This was helping me to find opportunities in coming up with new kind of design solutions. At the starting point, we took pictures by just using a regular camera. When taking these pictures I noticed body language is very important. If I did not want to be noticed I had to develop new kind of interactions concerning the use of the camera. By doing these new interactions I learned to talk with my body. I discovered several ways to take pictures without noticing.
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Project: DPM06 Sneakshot Competency Area 1: Ideas and Concepts Competency Area 3: User Focus and Perspective Competency Area 7: Multidisciplinary Teamwork & Communication Other competency Areas
Evaluation In my opinion our teamwork was quit ok. There was a very good communication within the group. This helped us to set up rules, which were clear for everyone. Comparing to other groups, we almost never had big troubles with getting late etc. (you just had to bring a pie!) Striking, we were all very “doing “persons, which was very useful when being productive. Fortunately, none of us was a gamer! Concerning being productive, being a gamer really matters if I look up to other groups. When we got stuck, we easily moved to the next step. At the beginning we were all working in the same step, on the same task. This was necessary in first stage, when you are doing a lot of idea generating. Later on we noticed it helped us to divide tasks to get things done as quickly as possible. Within the team, everyone had different weaknesses and strengths. We sometimes did a group evaluation, in which everybody had to say good and bad points about the other members. It really helped in developing your bad points. Concerning the weaknesses, I noticed we just showed progress in the things which were easily to achieve. Contrary to the things which were not that easy to achieve and were somebody else’s strengths which we did not learn. Everybody was just focused on his or her skills and used it as
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most as possible within the project. It was very useful at the moment, but not for your personal development. Within my next project I will try to focus on my weaknesses as well. My effort within the project: Idea generating Doing brainstorming sessions, making mood boards, making image boards, sketching and making models. Research Doing research on the internet, visiting exhibition Anthoney Gormley at Kunsthal Rotterdam, talking with expert Angelika Oei Building Models and Prototype Building different models out of foam, making prototype (design and manufacturing wood) User testing Participating the 1st user test (testing models), making movie Participating the2nd user test (testing prototype), making movie Besides Taking pictures for picture analysis booklet, analyzing these pictures and making the content for picture analysis booklet. Making the prototype (design and manufacturing wood) Writing parts of the content of the report
Assignment: DG000 Competency Centred‐Learning
I learned Industrial design is about developing yourself in a successful designer. In which each student will be going through an unique transformation. Within the Bachelor’s the focus will be on interactive systems. Master students will be focused on the depth and the expertise on interactive systems. Becoming excellent is all about talent combined with energy. Therefore you have to use your brains, hands and heart as well. Industrial Design at the TU/e uses the competency‐centred learning model. I noticed this is a view of design in which students are integrating ten competency areas. These ten competency areas should students force to develop in skills, attitude, knowledge and growing as designers. Besides these ten competency areas there is an overall competency area. This area contains five main activities, which are connected with each other. Every connection between an activity stands for a reflection, feedback or evaluation. I mentioned this competency‐centred learning model is very complex. The model’s main item is it wants that students are responsible of their own learning activities. Page | 18
Summarized, I noticed this department wants your design processes are transformative and a way to explore opportunities. Within, they expect their students are making reflections, give feedback and doing evaluations. This assignment was an obligatory assignment. First of all I thought it would not be that interesting, but afterwards I noticed it really gained my attention and was very helpful. All these lessons helped me to understand the Industrial Design department. Now I know they focus on competency‐centred learning because this system will not limit designers within their creativity. This competency centred‐learning model tries to stimulate identity building, expertise building and community building. This assignment gave a short overview about the content of design and helped me rising awareness about the overall competency of designing and the ten different competency areas. Besides, this assignment was very useful within my projects especially for my first one. It helped me to get to know what this department expects. Like being very reflective, doing a lot of evaluations and the importance of user testing. This all was helping me to come up with a good end result. Within my own development as a designer this assignment increased my knowledge about the design process. For the future, I think this assignment helped me to get a basic of knowledge about the content from each competency area. This basic knowledge helped me to get to know were probably my difficulties are. Awareness of these difficulties will help me to choose the right assignments which are necessary to develop for my own growth as a designer.
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Project: DPL01 Happy Shirt
Project description An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a method to measure the activity of the heart. The client TNO developed a solution to integrate the ECG technology into a t‐shirt. The heartbeat itself provides information for many different applications. The concept can use the heartbeat information in many ways. The goal of this design project is to find a sound application for this new ECG technology. Questions we had to ask ourselves were: What info does the heart provide? What can you do with this info? How can you translate this in user value? Who is this user? Concept description Kids about the age of 12 leave the playground of elementary school to become first graders. They stop playing outside and disappear behind their computer screens. While child obesity is a rising problem, it is un‐cool for first graders to play outside and so they miss out on important exercise. This concept brings the gaming element into already existing game hide & seek and lures the kids saturated with the thrills of movies and games outside. It encourages face to face interaction and makes kids aware of each other’s heartbeat. The most exciting, heartbeat‐raising game for kids to play outside has to be hide and seek. You can probably still remember hiding in the bushes, feeling your heart beating like a madman, being afraid that the seeker will hear it. But what if the seeker could? If the seeker is wearing our device and comes closer to a hider he feels the heartbeat of the hider rising and becoming stronger and vice versa for the hider. Instead of their sense of sight we ´force´ the kids to use their sense of touch, by using the device in the dark, making the game an even bigger thrill. A perfect market for our concept is summer camps for they often organize games at night. Kids that play this game on summer camp will love it and take it home.
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Reflections Deliverables •
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Working Prototype In my opinion it was really great we were able to make our device wireless. Especially if you keep in mind we spent 4 weeks within the idea generating point and just 3 weeks were left for doing research, making models, user testing, writing the report etc. Besides it was a pity we were not able to get the real TNO technology to implement in our bracelet. Now we had to simulate our device, it would be way nicer if we could get an output of a real heartbeat. Of course it would be more beautiful if we were able to make a better bracelet, which looked very good and fitted perfectly. But I still think we did our best concerning the fact we were doing a seven weeks project. Models Our first models made me realize it is not necessary to have an already finished prototype when you want to do a user test. The user could easily get our concept with just pretending it was really working. Next time I will do it like this way again and trying to force me not to focus on a very good looking prototype. It will cost a lot of time to produce and when a user test is showing your product is not working you have to make another one. Besides, these models helped me to increase my technology knowledge. Before this project I never made such circuit by myself.
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Report As the lay out was this time all in my hands, I was very curious how it would look like at the end. Luckily, it went all good and I got a lot of compliments. Somebody was even saying: “When a report looks like this, the project will be probably very good as well.” In my opinion this can’t be a better thing to hear, so I was very glad I achieved my goal. This project we started with writing the report from the start and it really saved us time. I noticed it is good to have a kind of logbook in which you write the project’s developments and tries to keep it up to date. Within this project we made a digital logbook: http://happyshirt.wordpress.com/ . This will help you to remember the project’s process and is structuring your mind as well. It worked out so good, that I will go to use this within my next project as well. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project2finalReport.pdf
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Video Again the videos improved our device. Especially at the exhibition a lot of people came by and were saying our video really attracted their attention. It was a pity we could not arrange a user test with the real target group anymore. There was no time left anymore, in fact we changed the target group in case of the little children could not get the purpose of the game. This cannot take away the video still improved the children liked the vibrating option and the older target group as well. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/
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Power Point Presentation This presentation helped me to understand the importance of the lay‐out. A good lay‐out is making your presentation coherent. Besides it was very good we reserved a slide for the references. In case of having a big audience, it is nice to have such slide because they probably want to know where they can find the information. The storyboards were making our story way much easier to understand and we gave a good back‐up with research which was very convincing. Next time I have to keep in mind to make more connection with the audience. http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/project2InterimPresentation.ppt Learning activities One of my goals during this project was getting to know how to deal with computer programs like InDesign and Flash. When we had to make the report I start figuring out how to work with InDesign. My focus was all the time on how could I make our report as best looking as possible. I did not spend my time with reading books, I just started trying out. It took me a lot of hours, but at the end we had a beautiful report and my InDesign skills were increased. I reached my goal! Another goal was increasing my technology skills. At a certain moment we were supposed to make electronically models. I could easily figure out how to make the circuit. I was very surprised about the fact I really liked to work with the materials. I did not expect at all working with these technology was so nice! Within the idea generating part, Jaap van de Schaaf learned me different ways to develop my brainstorm techniques. Like thinking out of the box by starting with writing down all kind of words associated with the subject‐ in our case ‘Heart Rate’. ‘Think Bubbles is a graphic technique for organizing your thoughts. It creates an actual, physical picture of the way your mind blueprints a challenge. Think Bubbles allows you to record, store, and manipulate information about a challenge in a variety of ways, as well as letting you see relationships between different parts of the problem.’ ‘When you take your separate thoughts and organize them on paper by mapping them‐thoughts are immediately given a new identity. Another method Jaap showed me was the silent technique of brainwriting, ‘allows for multiple ideas to be suggested at the same time and is thus parallel, contrary to the traditional brainstorming process, which is serial. Therefore brainwriting increases idea productivity dramatically. Also brainwriting ensures that the loudest voices don’t prevail and ideas can’t be shot down as soon as they are offered.’ The last out of the box thinking brainstorm method is called the synthesis. It is a process of combining ideas or elements or parts of ideas. Synthesis is regarded by many to be the essence of creativity.
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This project helped me to understand everybody is different. My team member Matthew Gebski, a real nice polish guy, gave me insight about being open to new things. One of the first project days, Matthew came with ideas like brainstorming on the 12th floor, a nickname for our project group and a very strict system concerning our meetings. My first opinion was like this guy is totally nuts, I could not get his point of view. Later on I noticed trying out is good, be flexible and don’t be scared for new things. Sometimes changes can be bad but they can turn out very positive as well. You only can know this when you stop thinking and doubting, but just start trying out. During this project I also learned a lot about teamwork. I mentioned designers actually rarely work alone. Designers need to interact with all kind of different people who are all having different ways of looking at the design problem. Luckily designers are creative and probably are able to handle all these different opinions. I learned it’s very needful to act as a negotiator and should not be scared for discussions.
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Evaluation Within my previous project we had some troubles concerning getting started with the report. This time we start building the report at the first project day. This helped us in a way of saving time at the end. I also mentioned this project was way much easier in a way of getting started and saving time when arranging things. At this stage we all had a kind of knowledge about the university and were we should be for the things we wanted. We saved a lot of time in searching for having the right things which were needed within the project. Contrary to my previous project when had chosen very quickly a concept, choosing a concept took us this time more weeks. This project I want to do it within a different way, so we spent a lot of time brainstorming, making mood boards and getting ideas. The problem we considered was we spent this time TOO much time within the idea generating point (4 weeks). In the case we had a seven week project we had to do a lot of things within the left three weeks. Such weak start was hard, but staying motivated was our strength and fortunately helped us coming up with a good concept. Next project I have to find a way between this. Besides, this project we also did a lot of user testing. Again these user test showed we got kind of evidence about our models were working. A lot of users gave us tips and techniques to improve our device, so it also helped in developing the best possible prototype. Next time I certainly are going to try to do user testing again. Page | 24
I also liked we really had to deal with consumers and were able to work with the client TNO Maastricht. Within my previous project we did not had a client at all. Contrary to my Happy Shirt project I noticed the importance of the consumer. My effort within the project: Idea generating Doing brainstorming sessions, making mood boards, story boards and sketching. Research Doing research on the internet, reading books Building Models and Prototype Building simple electronically models First steps of building the prototype User testing Participating the 1st user test (just playing hide and Seek), making movie Participating the2nd user test (testing models at young children), making movie Participating the3th user test (testing models at classmates), making movie Besides Making the report’s lay out in InDesign Writing parts of the content of the report Doing presentations Visiting a TNO workshop Visiting the exhibition Futuro Textiel at Kortreijk Belgium
Assignment: DG200 Creative Programming for Designers
The main goal I had to achieve concerning this assignment was learning to work with Processing. Processing is a simplified version of Java, a more serious but at the same time more complicated language. But processing has all the benefits of Java with a much simpler and optimized environment for creative coding. In my opinion learning about programming would be one of the first steps for a designer to approach intelligent systems. Therefore choosing this assignment would be very necessary concerning my design career. Page | 25
Within the first lessons I learned about easy things like having fun with visuals and graphics. Later on it became more difficult when I had to make tasks with serious things such as variables, data structures, control flows, interaction events and some basics of computer graphics. For me it was sometimes a bit difficult to make the tasks on my own. Most of the times I could easily conclude what should be done to make the thing working. The problem was lying within the language. For me it was hard to make the task in a “processing language” instead of using a daily life language. I just kept working, trying out and at the end Ronald and I were able to program a robot almost all by ourselves ‐ we had to program the robot in couples. In my opinion OOP (object‐oriented programming) is the most important thing I learned within this assignment. OOP uses classes to modularize code, adding efficiency, organization and portability instead of functions. I mentioned classes go much further than functions in their ability to be modular, independent and reusable entities. It made me realizing the ability for classes to extend other classes is a powerful feature of OOP. I think within the future it will be very necessary to have some knowledge about OOP. Probably OOP will be useful in projects and return in other assignments. Of course, at the moment when you start prototyping it is useful to have some programming knowledge. Besides this the assignment made me realizing, you should never give up. If you really want to, you can achieve every goal you have in front of your eyes. Reflection Deliverable • Robot At the beginning I did not expect I should be able to program a robot. Luckily it turned out very well, and me and my partner Ronald Helgers were able to made the robot follow a line. The robot used his light sensors to keep riding on the white tape. When working on it, I noticed my program skills are not that well developed I would be able to program a robot on my own. But it was nice to see how far you can come with just a little help. Movie robot YouTube http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/DG000_CreaPro_Final_AdMoveo.zip
Assignment: DG401 Trendscockpit
Trends are always created by people, so trend spotting is about watching people, if a new, innovative style is visible in two or more industries at the same time, it is likely to be a trend. Before participate this assignment I already knew trend spotting is not only desk research but also field research. Visiting specialized fairs, shops, various cities, knowing and experience different cultures, brands and lifestyles makes a very important base for the trend analyst. Page | 26
This assignment made me realize, this base gives you information about the “market DNA”. When a designer knows what’s already done and what’s in now, he can translate all these data within his new designs. I mentioned this DNA is a designers’ language, it’s their terminology. I noticed having a creative way of thinking is very important when being a designer. Nowadays a lot of designers are designing from the thought of the product they want to make‐ like a task. I learned not yet existing design could be inspired out of already existing products. Of course these not existing designs should be made for a new context. Like the blender is a design which is inspires by the already existing mixer. This gave me a kind of insight of being innovative. I noticed being innovative can be discovered by looking in several crossed over domains. These domains can be seen as different capabilities. When you want to be a good designer you have to know about all these domains. These domains will give you inspiration, when waving this inspiration you can easily come up with a new design ‐you applied a domain into another domain. Within several lessons I learned how to communicate to clients about not yet existing designs. Just presenting the final design is not wise full. I noticed it is very useful to use a kind of story telling method, in which you present from A to Z your design‐ in this case A is the existing design, Z is your not yet existing design. For the future this assignment helped me to understand it is good to know what kind of designer I want to become. Do I want to become a designer who is working for big brands like Apple and Adidas? Or do I want to become a designer which has his own style and specific way of designing and tries to make it with his or her own name? http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/DG401Presentation2.ppt http://www.student.tue.nl/W/a.groenewoud/Evidence/DG401Presentation3.ppt
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AYLIN GROENEWOUD
Doing projects helped me developing my overall competency of designing and my growth as a designer. I think a good designer should be a little bit different than ordinary people. A designer must have that little crazy thing shown by attitude, which represents his opinion. Without this thing it would be very hard for a designer to be unique. Just as for an artist, being unique is a very useful item for coming up with good ideas. People with this little crazy thing have another view on world. They notice different things which help them to be creative. I am quite sure I have this little crazy thing. Design thinking is way much harder than I thought when I started this study. Especially when you have to use the right words when writing deliverables. Therefore I think I should develop this way of thinking. So far I noticed the design process is very complicated. It is quite a job. I already know different steps like: idea generating (ex. brainstorming, mind mapping, mood board), making models, user testing and building a prototype. So nowadays I have little experience with this process, probably I will learn during this study how to handle it. I agree with the outcome of the banners I am between blank and awareness. I already have developed a notion about the ten competency areas. Some of them are quite good developed but of some of them I need more knowledge. I am already started with building awareness with respect to interactive systems, but in my opinion still not enough. During my assignment called “competency centred learning” I noticed this competency framework is very complex. Nowadays I can come into this notion from the framework, but not every area is as clear as I want to be it is clear. Probably this is not a very big issue, because I think I will enlarge my knowledge by working with it during the coming project days. At this stadium I know how to reflect, evaluate and give feedback. As I know, making interactive systems is what industrial expect from me. During my projects we tried and we did a quite good job. For the future I have to think about if want to become a designer who is working for big brands? Or do I want to become a designer which has his own style and specific way of designing and tries to make it with his or her own name? Personally I prefer the designer which has his own brand. I think this will force me to develop my creativity and will not make it possible to lose my creativity‐ which is my greatest fear concerning designing. Questions are popping up like is it realizable to make it within a world of big scale of good artists and designers with your own name? And is it possible for me to become at the top? These are serious things I have to think about.
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