This week we had the pleasure of having students from Design for America come into our classroom and teach us the art of design. Being a Business major, designing and creativity is rarely in our curriculum, so this was an interesting and beneficial change. This group is extremely important to have. DFA allows young minds to think of issues going on and how they can fix them. What I found most important the presentation is how collaborative the whole process was. Everything they spoke about involved working with their fellow members to fix a problem; there was little to no solo work.
This organization and the people in it seemed very professional, philanthropic and genuinely interested in helping out. I think a lot of times society points out specific problems but it is rare that they do any further thinking about ways to fix that problem. Design for America is different in the fact that they take these issues one step further and try to fix the initial problem.
During their presentation, we had to choose a person who was blind that is having a specific problem in their life. We chose a young woman, Jess, that goes to UT Austin and is having trouble fitting in in social situations. We know that football games are popular at UT, so we narrowed our focus on that. We created a prototype of a walking stick with a sensor, attached to wireless headphones. These wireless headphones would let the person know where exactly where you are and if there is anything ahead of them that they should worry about (cars, potholes, etc.)
Having this sensor that lets her know where she is and if there is anything she should watch out for will allow Jess to feel more comfortable at football games. I believe students with disabilities can feel isolated when they aren’t able to do the same things students without disabilities can do. Therefore, I believe it is worth it to create these innovative products in order to make them feel more comfortable, even if it only changes one to two lives.
Overall, creating and designing is a much more complicated and collaborative process than I realized. I think it is beneficial for everyone to understand the design process.
Hey Maddi!
I really enjoyed the DFA presentation as well and the way it allowed us to think a bit outside the box from our normal business courses. Our team also focused on Jess and a solution to help her at Football teams although with less technology incorporated into your solution. I like how your team’s solution can not only be used in football games but also in Jess’s everyday life. Great post!
Maddi,
I also enjoyed speaking with the DFA team this week. Working with you and Ria helped me understand Jess’ issues and I’m glad we came up with a viable solution. I think you might agree that the hardest part of building a solution for Jess was trying to understand her perspective. Hopefully, we’ll continue to improve as we progress.
Jason