WEEK 3 REFLECTION
#Week3 #DesignProcess #LogoPrinting #HowCanWe
As written on the website of Chicago Architecture Foundation, “The Design Process is an approach for breaking down a large project into manageable chunks.”[1] Today was all about the design process. The ways in which one should go about in making a product. Coming from a major that is all about design, it was a good revision. For this, a club called Design For America had come to class to make us all experience and explain the distinct steps of a design process.
What’s so great about the design process? ‘We keep saying that there is no set start point for your own products design process, but the concepts and focuses of each phase are essential in helping you to build bigger, long-lasting products for the world to enjoy. Without a clear concise plan, you are only setting yourself up for a long road of setbacks and delayed products.’[2]
We were given three different cards, which had three different words on it. Each card had a different meaning depending on the color at the back of the card, namely, for whom the product was, what is the purpose of the product and a constraint. Our team had to make a product for preschoolers through which they could play music and the product should grow. This step is called defining a problem. Each team got a different problem. At first we were all puzzled on how to make a product grow but eventually, we were able to figure it out. We took a different meaning for ‘grow’ and that was the product could be expandable. Next, we were supposed to think of different ideas for the product, this process is called ideation. We had to share our ideas with the other team members.
After this, to actually delve into the whole process of design all of us were given one problem. The main focus of this product was senior citizens. We had to think of the problems that senior citizens come across and make a product that could solve one or more of these problems. In this activity, we went from ideation to actually making a low-fidelity prototype for our product. We even made a “How can we” statement. Our team’s ‘How can we’ statement was: ‘How can we get senior citizens in retirement homes to feel needed/autonomous/respected?’
This was not it! After this informed lesson we got on to making a design for our team logos and names. The name of my team is ‘Ex-nihilo’, which is a Latin word meaning ‘out of nothing’. For the logo design, we were introduced to the software called Tinker CAD which is basically a CAD software for beginners. It was fun using the software.
Printed logo Image https://www.flickr.com/photos/151781568@N06/31977109693/in/datetaken/
To conclude, it was a day full of learning, from getting to know the design process to actually designing a logo using a CAD software.
[1] “DiscoverDesign Handbook.” DiscoverDesign. Chicago Architecture Foundation, 2016. Web. 08 Feb. 2017.
[2] “ZURB.” ZURB – Product Design, Interaction Design & Design Strategy. N.p., 2017. Web. 08 Feb. 2017.