Category Archives: Week5

Week 5 Summary: Brainstorming with Empathy & Structure

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We had studied how to use Cura and Autodesk Fusion360 in the past several weeks. We explored the functionalities of these two software and printed the words designed by other users from the third-party. It was interesting and exciting to see the design being printed by the 3D printer layer by layer, while we still needed to move forward and started to develop our own designs.

 

The authors of the article from Science magazine argue that creativity is more efficient when there is a structure laid out or a framework to follow. More specifically, the structure is clearly defined and may have constraints imposed. Professor Vishal gave us a “How can we…” or “How may we…” question structure. These question structures provided us a form of discovering an ignored user demand, improving an already existing product, or changing the status quo. By keeping asking ourselves these similar questions, we could inspire each other and find great ideas as a part of the semester project. Many group came up with excellent HCW statements:

 

  • How can we get busy individuals who are working or in college to drink more water?
  • How can we create a laptop case which can fit all laptops and keep them from breaking?
  • How can we get households around the world to save energy?
  • How can we get bikers in college to wear helmets and keep their bikes safe?
  • How can we get people in working areas such as college or the workplace to keep their whiteboards clean?

From Bakliwa

 

  1. How can we conserve water when doing dishes and washing our hands?
  2. How can we make smart home products less expensive?
  3. How can we stop hot air from escaping through window cracks?

From Jorge Castro

 

Once these statements had been listed, we began to rely on our innovations to find ways to solve these problems. But, how could we solve the problems effectively and creatively? Michael Carroll, a researcher at Fast Company magazine, used to work with C-level leaders who have difficulty to support their ideas as an executive coach. Based on his experience, Michael found that the people who can successfully bring new ideas to maneuver have a common characteristic, empathy. It is important to resonate or experience others as if from within their own skin so that agents could have a broad perspective about the whole issue. Most of us chose the college students as our target customers. Following the empathy methodology, we began self-reflecting about what we needed most while the current service or objects could not satisfy us. Many students generated interesting ideas such as:

 

1.How can we save water when cleaning dishes?

First problem we identified is that too much water was wasted when we wash dishes by hands. A considerable amount of water was not utilized effectively when we rinse the dishes. As we all agreed, our concern in this issue is to save resource and energy instead of water bill.

When we moved forward to think about possible solutions, we were inspired by a product design on kickstarter.com, which pulverizes water stream. Our team thinks we could build on that idea and design a product that works with different types of home-use or commercial faucets. We will be continue working on brainstorming solutions in the following meetings.

From Xinlu

 

2. Fitbit wristband attachment – solves issue of dehydration

wristband

 

Universal laptop case – solves the issue of lack of non-Apple laptop cases

universal laptopcase

From Ana

 

3.Comprehensive: HCW & Solution

 

FullSizeRender (1)

From Taofik

 

As emphasized by the David Kelly, the CEO of a global firm IDEO, he highly values the benefits brought by empathetic design or user-centric. Empathetic design requires the designers to think about the feeling of the client he/she is making the product for. This design methodology brought unparalleled competitive advantage for the IDEO. All in all, the HCW structure helps us to focus on improvement process and empathy reminds us the significance of user-centric. It is amazing to see that all of us can generate so many great ideas within 20 minutes timeframe. Moreover, these ideas will become part of our final design and the will be printed at the end of this semester.

 

The Ideation Process

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In this week’s class our group brainstormed ideas for the semester project. Our main objective during this session was identifying everyday problems that people face. We delved deeper into the process and targeted college students. At the end of the session, our group came up with three How Can We statements:

#1. How can we help young professionals tie a tie more efficiently?

#2. How can we help college students stop losing their items (phones, wallets, and keys)?

#3. How can we help young adults have more optimal audio experience?

Through these statements, we were able to think of products that could address the issues. For example, in addressing statement #2, we came up with a stopper that clips onto the bottom part of a T-shirt and the pant pocket to prevent things from falling out. As a group we decided to spend more time outside class to brainstorm ideas and coming up with more HCW statements. I think the HCW statements are a great starting point for a business idea because they are empathetic to the consumer’s needs and asks a question that can be answered in a variety of ways.

In an article from Science magazine, the authors argue that creativity is more efficient when there is a structure laid out or a framework to follow. The structure is clearly defined and may have constraints imposed. HCW statements fall under this type of creative process, since there is a sentence format to follow. Creating ideas from randomness, while still holding value, is seen as inefficient in problem-solving. I agree with the authors’ statement that creativity is “assessed by  the eyes of the beholder.” I believe both brainstorming creative ideas and coming up with an idea randomly are both effective. However, the ideas will need fine tuning as suggested in this article on evaluating business ideas.

The questions evaluate business ideas by placing them in reality. Are there enough resources? Do they address consumer needs? What are the positives and negatives of this business idea? Once you are able to answer all the questions posed, I believe your ideas will become more concrete and well defined. From this, you can set strategies for moving from the ideation phase to the prototyping phase.

There are several ways to help with the creative process. Forbes suggests individually working out and solving the problems and then meeting with your group to brainstorm. It’s important to note that brainstorming sessions can be ineffective unless certain guidelines are established. Another article from Entrepreneur suggests shying away from the need to be perfect and coming up with as many ideas, even if they’re bad. At the end of the day, I think we should try out whichever creative processes and stick with the one that work better for us.

Identifying Solutions to Everyday Problems

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Problem Recognition

Our attention for the week shifted from acclimating ourselves to the design software to analyzing problems encountered in everyday life. In order to do this, we analyzed problems from the perspective of proximity, scope, and practicality. Problems we looked at were local, narrow and specific in scope, and able to be resolved using realistic means. Once we chose our respective issues, we diagnosed responses through the lens of, “How can we…” or “How may we…”. These questions came in the form of improving an already existing product, removing the bad in something, changing the status quo, questioning assumptions, and so forth. After enduring the process, our team came up with three individual problems that we hope to resolve as part of our semester project. The first problem is one that many college students can relate to: struggling to tie a tie. The second also deals with active students, as objects can easily fall out of pants and coat pockets. Finally, our last problem was a lack of portable music optionality. Our ideating poster is shown below.

In addition, Mike Bohlman, the Assistant Dean of Technology at the College of Media, spoke to us about the various maker projects he has embarked on in order to solve everyday problems that he encounters. He touched on three projects in particular: first, there was the airplane radio he designed, then the litter box that notified him when it needed to be cleaned, and finally a smart board game that allowed for reusability while still keeping the consistency in tact. His presentation, along with the two articles “Ten Ways to Evaluate a New Business Idea” and “Creative Sparks”, gave us great inspiration for the rest of the semester, and I look forward to improving on the ideas we have already generated.

Food for Thought

One outside article I found to be particularly interesting was one titled “Dubai: DEWA Innovation Center to Offer Education in 3D Printing & More for the Disabled”, in which a radical initiative by the Dubai government aims to encourage 3D printing. Already, 150 students are enrolled in a program to teach them advanced technologies, such as robotics and 3D printing. This program specifically targets disable students, as learning these technologies, where manual labor is at a minimum, will propel them ahead in the job market.

Another article, titled “3D Food-Printing Developed in Cambridge”, is one that strongly resonated with me. As a self-proclaimed “foodie”, I enjoy food, but not the hassle of going to the grocery store. This Cambridge-based company, Dovetail, developed a 3D printer that utilizes pre-packaged liquids and certain forms of raw ingredients to produce food, and can print food on demand from a smartphone. While I would enjoy this for selfish reasons, scientists also believe it could be one avenue in which to curb the global food problem. Very exciting!

“3D Food-printing Developed in Cambridge.” BBC News. BBC, 13 Feb. 2017. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Millsaps, Bridget Butler. “Dubai: DEWA Innovation Center to Offer Education in 3D Printing & More for the Disabled.” 3DPrint.com. N.p., 24 Feb. 2017. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

Getting inspired

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WEEK 5

#DeliveringIdeas #HowCanWe #BrainStorm #IDEO

I was greatly inspired by David Kelly, who is the CEO of a Global firm IDEO which incorporates human behavior into product design. In his interview on a show called 60 minutes, he talks empathetic design. Empathetic design is when the designer thinks about the feeling of the client he is making the product for and tries to be in his/her shows. IDEO’s concept of brainstorming ideas collectively and using each others perspective allows the invention of products which would be difficult for a single person. It would be good to keep in mind that having concepts is just the first step towards making your product.

Our class was mostly devoted to thinking of problems that our team would like to solve by coming out with “How can we” statements. The 5 problems that our team came up with were:

  • How can we get busy individuals who are working or in college to drink more water?
  • How can we create a laptop case which can fit all laptops and keep them from breaking?
  • How can we get households around the world to save energy?
  • How can we get bikers in college to wear helmets and keep their bikes safe?
  • How can we get people in working areas such as college or the workplace to keep their whiteboards clean?

When we look around us we can find so many designs and products that have been made for such specific purposes and solves them perfectly. If we think about it patiently we would know that a lot of thinking has gone into making one product. It is not just a matter of 2-3 days. Another problem that we faced was that most of the time we think of the product forst rather than the proble we face. This was one of the habits that Professor Vishal changed by asking us to think of a problem first rather than a product. As this would help us in coming up with a number of solutions to one problem rather than just one product that solves that problem. It would further help us in re-designing and making the prouct better each time.

After this we had a guest speaker, Mike Bohlmann, who was a big time maker himself and works as the assisstant dean of technology for the college of media. He was very much into making things in his own time. It was more than a passion than a job for him. The kinds of products that he made was quite innovative and interesting. In all, it was a day full of inspirations.

 

Structured Creativity: Being the Piece to the Puzzle (Solution to the Problem)

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In recent times, people believe that every problem has already been solved or that there are no more ideas to come up with – the difficulties and lack of creativity. This week helped us find ways around this.

To be the missing piece to the puzzle, you have to know what the puzzle is – you have to imagine what will fill in the missing spot.

This is the first thing we learned this semester – how we can address problems using What/SoWhat/NowWhat template. It is a brainstorming method that can help ideators immerse themselves in the problem/situation to be able to empathize with the user and then come up with a solution – the missing piece. This template allows people to have a structured way of being creative, innovative and problem solving. It gives a broadly scoped problem a structure, a frame and a regularities. And during this week of class, that is what we did, using the What/SoWhat/NowWhat and the HowCanWe that we learned first from our exercise with the Design for America group. Jacob Goldenberg, David Mazursky, and Sorin Solomon’s article “Creative Sparks” does a great job in explaining this and analysing the need and usefullness of the application of frames or regularities in the creative process. They even go further in giving examples and I could draw more examples from industry situations where companies essentially copy another companies process but for a different field or problem but are still deemed ‘creative’. This template used more specifically to coming up with a solution to an already given problem by using or modifying something that already existed. This kind of tied into what David Kelley said in his interview with 60Minutes.  It encompassed the How Can We methodology and the idea to improve on something else that already exists. Using what we learned, we came up with diagram below which showcases that structure that we used to come up with ideas listed below.

FullSizeRender (1)

We used this structure in a different way. We used it to decide which problem to tackle then applied it to that problem. As seen in our picture above

For our semester project, what we have so far:

1.) Feedback/Story droid –   inspired by the blabdroid

-How can we capture students stories in the MakerLab?

-How can we make a place (The MakerLab) more interactive?

2.) Self Watering Plant pot – inspired by a thingiverse model

-How can we help potted plant goers water their plants when they are not around?

3.) Board copier/transfer – our very own idea

-How can we help students with limited/timed access to whiteboards keep/transfer their work to another whiteboard or physical print?

4.) Time management compact holder/watch – our very own idea that we came up with using the template in the picture above.

-How can we help busy students manage their time or balance between (Sleep, Study and Social Life)?

We also got to listen to Mike Bohlman tell his story in creativity and the maker movement at the Makerspace in Urbana. Not only is he a pilot and gamer but he is a maker who comes up with ideas in the area of former two such as 3D printing holders for instruments in the cockpit for one of the planes he flies and the StarWars game that he made and is up for display at a game store in Champaign. To see more of his great work and projects, they are all available on his website at this link. He incorporates the lessons (templating) we learnt this week in his work with arduinos by improving and modifying code that he finds online in a new and innovative way.

This concept of structured creativity is a powerful concept, and I hope to incorporate it in our semester project. Other resources to learn more about this is also Edward de Bono’s article ‘Creativity is easier when it’s structured’.

Solving Real World Problems

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Trying to come up with a problem to solve was quite difficult. In addition, it was difficult to answer the “how can we…” question. Our team brainstormed a bunch of problems we face in our daily lives. We wanted to start very broad, and then narrow it down to a specific community. Since taken this class, it has really changed the way I approach a problem. I am definitely more open minded. Here are the three problems we came up with in class.

  1. How can we conserve water when doing dishes and washing our hands?
  2. How can we make smart home products less expensive?
  3. How can we stop hot air from escaping through window cracks?

Our first problem was an idea that came from a Kickstart project that claims you can save use 98% less water using the same tap. Our second part to this problem is, how can we use this product, and make it better. As of now, it seems like this “nozzle” only works with certain taps. We would like to come up with a tap that can be universal to all taps.

Most people in today’s day and age want a smart home. However, most smart home products, like light bulbs or wall switch, can be pretty expensive. In addition, most of these products require some sort of techy-ness. We want to create a product that does not require any drilling or changing the electric wiring. We want a product that you can just place over an existing light switch and make it “smart.”

For the last problem, most college students notice a huge increase in the electricity/gas bill during the winter times. This is most likely because a lot of hot air escapes through all sorts of openings, causing your heating system to be used more frequently. Currently, the only product that helps with this problem is insulation or a plastic film you put in front of your window. We thought this is great but can cause some problems. So we want to create some sort of product that can be used throughout the years and is easy to install every year.

Here’s the “drawing board” for the three problems I have just discussed.

View post on imgur.com

In last week’s class, Mark Bohmann, the Assistant Dean of the College of Media, came to talk to the class about his passion for the Maker Movement and all the side projects he uses 3D printing for. Mark displayed to the class some of his amazing work with 3D printing. The most memorable one is how he created a rack for one of his board games. Another one I really liked was how he programmed an Arduino with programmable LEDs for a board game. I don’t really remember how the game was played but the LEDs would light up if the town was being attacked (or something like that). I have actually worked with Arduinos before. I haven’t done anything crazy with them. The only thing I’ve done with Arduinos thus far is learned how to program LEDs and make them do cool little things. My long-term goal by doing this was to make a 6×6 LED cube that would do some cool animations. Here’s a video of what I wanted to accomplish. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEm3tqcn3U0. Unfortunately, I did not end up making this, as I did not have the time necessary for this project.

The Arduino website has some great guides for using the Arduino. If you plan on using an Arduino for your project and have no idea how to use one, I would highly recommend going to this link to learn more about how to use one. https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage

In honor of the Academy Awards being today, click here for a video on how the Oscar statuettes are made. I think it’s crazy how even these statuettes require 3D printing! Check out the video, it is quite interesting!

 

Initial Project Scoping

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In this lesson, we implemented the first stage of the “design thinking” process that we learned in previous sessions for our term project. Each team in the class was asked to come up with three “How can we” statements. The point of this procedure is to identify problems that could possibly be solved with our skills. It doesn’t have to affect a huge population, while it must address some problem that bothers people in real life.

In the given 30 minutes during the class, we identified three problems came from our lives as college students:

How can we save water when cleaning dishes?

First problem we identified is that too much water was wasted when we wash dishes by hands. A considerable amount of water was not utilized effectively when we rinse the dishes. As we all agreed, our concern in this issue is to save resource and energy instead of water bill.

When we moved forward to think about possible solutions, we were inspired by a product design on kickstarter.com, which pulverizes water stream. Our team thinks we could build on that idea and design a product that works with different types of home-use or commercial faucets. We will be continue working on brainstorming solutions in the following meetings.

How can we make smart home more affordable and hassle-free？

When we were discussing what else problem we have in our life, we came to a consensus that it is really annoying when we realized the light was still on after we jumped to our beds at nights. All of us really want to control the light remotely from our phones. However, as renters, we can’t install the device in the wall. Therefore, it came to us that although smart home is becoming trendy these days, it is still inapplicable to a lot of people, such as renters and people lack of technical capabilities. In addition, the prices of smart home are high for non-tech fans. For instance, Phillips Hue Starter Pack costs $200 without handling fees (more information). How can we make smart home accessible to more people?

One possible solution we came up at the first stage is to have a device that can be adhered to the wall on top of the switch and control the switch through mechanical movement. The device can be connected to the phone through bluetooth or wifi. This approach allows hassle-free installation and is zero knowledge required. We will probably dive deeper into this idea in the later process.

How can we prevent heat from leaking through window while allowing us to open window during winter time?

In winter, a lot of us may have sealed their window trying to prevent heat to come out. However, it might not work effectively due to uneven faces. Meanwhile, it also prevents us from opening the window when weather became nice temporarily (like last week). Therefore, we think it’s a problem that might have a better solution. We will continue brainstorming the solutions in future sessions.

Next Step

As I mentioned above, we will continue our “design thinking” process in the future. We will brainstorm solutions for each “How can we” statement and choose one for term project based on the our skill sets and what we learned in the reading “10 Ways To Evaluate A New Business Idea”.

Week 5: The problem with solving problems

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This week, we met in our MakerLab for the first time in a little while. But we weren’t there to print anything just yet, at least not for the class. This session, we began the process of creating ideas for our class project. This isn’t always as easy as it sounds, however, as the first steps of design thinking can actually be the most difficult.

A major difficulty of problem-solving is deciding what problem to solve. If one already has an idea in mind, this can be easier, but for someone who simply has a broad scope of issues, it can be hard to narrow it down. Even with the three of us in my group, it took us quite sometime to find a problem that we thought would be worth fixing. Not all “problems” have solutions; some can just be improved. But just because they can, doesn’t mean they have to. It is perfectly fine to make small adjustments to existing designs or solutions, but we decided to create a whole other approach entirely for “more serious matters”. Being college students, we focused on problems that most young adults seem to have. We ended uncreating 3 relatively straightforward designs: a tie helper, pocket stopper, and earbud holder that could also be used as a speaker.

An important aspect in improving and finalizing a solution is getting feedback from others.   Communicating one’s ideas to others allows them to get another perspective and prevent creator bias, it also is an opportunity to maybe receive criticism and suggestions for improvements. Something to be wary of in creating solutions is being to close-minded or focused on your own opinions of the issue rather than those of people who desire a solution to said problem. Even if the creator of such a solution is plagued by the same issue, people have different levels of impact from it. As Duncan Brennan’s blog “The Art of Engineering” states “[creating solutions] requires more lateral thinking and gathering information from a far wider variety of sources”. Problem-solvers sometimes get so absorbed in trying to find/create a fix that they forget the very purpose for doing so: to help others. We work to resolve these issues because they have personal meaning, or because we simply wish to make the world a better place for all.

Being a problem-solver can be an extraordinarily beneficial experience. One can grasp and gain the tools to assist those in need with solutions: no matter how simple or complex they may be. One can discover more about themselves; how they wish to benefit the world, what skills they possess or would like to improve. According to the Harvard Gazette, “One of the most exhilarating aspects of [an engineering/design curriculum]… is the opportunity to make stuff”. That “stuff” is both their solutions to problems and the benefits to the world that come of it.

Crafting Solutions to Real Issues

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When we look around us we can find hundreds of objects and products designed intricately as well as empathetically to solve our personal needs. We often ignore these objects in our life as they fulfill a purpose that we so often times take for granted. Upon scrutinizing these everyday objects, its astonishing to see how much detail and sweat was put into these products by their inventors. This weeks class opened my mind to identifying problems not only faced by college students but also specific communities. I was greatly inspired by David Kelly, who is the CEO of a Global firm IDEO which incorporates human behavior into product design. In his interview on the show 60 Minutes, he talks about how he creates solutions by thinking of peoples problems empathetically. IDEO’s concept of brainstorming ideas collectively and using each others perspective allows the invention of products which no one person can do alone.

It is also very important to understand that coming up with an idea is just a small part of crafting and implementing a solution to real issues. As quoted by Thomas Edison, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”, your idea is just that 1% of inspiration, the other 99% is the amount of work and sweat you put into making that idea an incredible story. Much of our class time this week we focused on ideation and coming up with 3 design solutions for common problems:

  1. Water Wastage : A product which could fit onto water taps and reduce water use drastically.
  2. Expensive Smart Homes : A product which can fit around light switches allowing for a remote turn off and on option all done without a need of expensive electronics.
  3. High Winter Heating Bills : A window air sealant which can be put around house windows to avoid the loss of heat.

Often times while coming up with designs we tend to spend more time thinking of a product than a problem which the product would address. Dr. Vishal made it very clear while we were pitching the ideas that we talk about the problem we are addressing rather than the intricacies of the product itself. Products can always be fine tuned and re – designed, but the problem at hand is really the deciding factor in ones journey to create a successful business model. After all business is people and if we do not have a product that the people need it will never sell. Design thinking is an art and there is a lot of science behind it than what most people think. This MIT Technology review briefly talks about the essentials of design thinking and its worth a read!

For the last part of our class we had, Mark Bohmann, who is the Assistant Dean at the College of Media, talk about his passion towards the Maker Movement and his own side projects. I was so amazed that so many people including professors and students of almost all majors are so deeply invested in the maker movement and every week I feel it getting bigger and bigger.

Old Problems, New Perspectives

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Thus far, our coursework has introduced us to the various technologies and processes at our disposal as we begin our journeys as 3D makers. This week’s content encouraged us to engage all we have learned about the ideating process, as we began developing potential ideas for our final projects. Our brainstorming session was entirely focused upon identifying a need (or a problem to solve), and then developing a solution; we were to avoid immediately deciding upon a product, as this would streamline our thinking at too early of a stage. This concept of total freedom and creativity was introduced in “Creative Sparks”, which discussed the infrastructure necessary to effectively brainstorm.  It also ensures that the product or service at hand will fulfill a real need or provide a solution to a problem existing in the real world, as discussed in “Ten Ways to Evaluate a New Business Idea.” These articles provide an excellent framework to consider when pursuing a given idea, and serve as excellent guidelines for developing a product that will translate to real world success.

This approach is crucial when partaking in any sort of creative brainstorming process. In Mary Barbour’s “Better Content Ideation Through Lateral Thinking”, she discusses the importance of being able to approach age-old problems from a new perspective. It is this ability that distinguishes innovators from the rest of the population; one does not need to be presented with a new problem in order to develop a unique solution. One of my favorite takeaways from this article was the point that sometimes the most effective way to brainstorm is to identify the most obvious ways to proceed when faced with an issue, and then ask oneself how to proceed if those options were not viable. This helps structure the ideating process. Dorie Clark’s “How to Think Like An Innovator” brings these ideas into context on a more personal level, urging you to assess your own strengths and weaknesses when developing a concept (this idea was prominent in our assigned readings for the week.) Finally, Clark encourages assessing from both an industry perspective (perhaps through a SWOT analysis) as well as considering the opinions of specialists far removed from the industry; this provides an accurate depiction of the product’s role from both an internal and external perspective.

I now have a much stronger understanding of what questions I should be asking myself as my group and I being to refine our ideas, and define exactly how our product will function. These articles brought up issues that we did not consider in our initial brainstorming sessions, and therefore will overturn some of our previous assumptions. For example, Clark highlights “What trend is most threatening to your industry right now?” as crucial question to consider. When developing our idea of a contraption that can be attached to trash cans in order to compact and push down trash; in doing so, a household can reduce the number of trash bags they go through in a given amount of time. While this has financial incentive for students such as ourselves, one of the largest threats to the plastic goods industry is the environmental impacts – therefore, we can market this product as an environmentally friendly option, and tap into a large demographic of customers that may previously have been less interested in our product. In summary, these lessons have been formative in how I approach product development and creative thinking.