#blogpost6

Melanie in The Girl With All the Gifts was stuck in a corner and isolated. She was set apart, which was seen when she answered the riddles, was the only Black person, controlling the hungries, unknowingly choosing who the Doctor experimented on, and her beautiful short story. I see myself in Melanie in so many ways. I never thought I could relate to a character so much. I even had my own Ms. Justineau, the woman who never doubted me when my world was crashing. I too was subjected to disgusting names that became my identity. For Melanie, it was “frigging abortions,” for me, it was fat, slow, not good enough, Moto Moto, ugly. For both, our hearts remained pure as we faced hate from all around. 

My Ms. Justineau, was my first-grade teacher Mrs. Benach. They say you never forget those who helped you when you were low, and oh, was she unforgettable. I was going through hell at home and school. This affected my academic performance and social life. My first-grade teacher saw my weariness in my behavior and attitudes towards others. She offered support beyond my little mind's understanding at the time, but the memory can never fade. She fought against the stereotypical boxes my peers and teachers put me in. She sought the understanding of me when the people in her circle told her it was better to give up. Through my mistakes and flaws, she was my Ms. Justineau, instilling in me constant hope that I am bigger than what THEY call me. Ms. Justineau, Ms.Benach, two blessed souls, the same, all in one. 

Blog Post 6 - Originally Noted on March 28th, 2023:

Perception and connection is a thing that can be tricky or simple in life. I think though that it depends on whose shoes you see. Page 307 of Watchman looks into this when referring to a thermodynamic miracle. 

Thermodynamics refer to the study of work, heat, and energy of a system. This will make sense in a second, though first I wanted to include these quotes to go along with this, all from 307:

“But if me, my birth, if that’s a thermodynamic miracle… I mean, you could say that about anybody in the world!”

“But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become common places and we forget…”

“We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.”

These quotes point out the ideas of connection between individuals. Whether it be a friendship, relationship, love just in general, it depicts that built connection. This is why referring to a thermodynamic miracle makes sense, because we are referencing the system of connection of work, heat, and energy of one another. Communication with work and energy, heat with bodies, it all plays back to that. 

I also like the aspect of getting crowded we often forget, because it can relate to today’s media and how we capture our lives online. Everyone often will have judgment or opinion of one, it is just human nature. However, we might not even think in another viewpoint or change until we are in another’s vantage point, in their shoes. For example, the comments one might make on another’s relationship and who their partner is. Maybe someone doesn’t understand what they saw in someone, unless they were the individual themselves, rather than just someone scrolling through their social media feed.

From Bill Fester in Interactive Visualization : Insight Through Inquiry, information visualization can be defined as a visual representation that can be interactive that serves the purpose of better understanding the abstract. He also states in the same breath that information visualization is similar to, if not the same, as informatics. Visualization is valuable for a number of reasons. Visualization helps people to gain a better grasp of the information they are 

consuming. As detailed by Bill Fester, Visualization helps with pattern recognition in data. Pattern recognition is very important because it is the backbone of digesting the data you have. Collecting a large amount of raw data and doing analysis on it is important for any project. However, having the ability to process this data and create a visual representation of what you have collected is great for streamlining the analysis process and figuring out where the holes in your data are located. Once you take your raw data and are able to place it in a visual format, patterns will become more easily apparent. Taking that step will help anyone realize in their project what more analysis can be done. Sometimes having all the data laid out in a visual format brings to life new questions in your project. One key example of history visualization is the case of John Snow. He was the one who was able to figure out where a cholera outbreak in London had originated from. He did this by visualizing the locations of all of the sick people in London. Once he was able to see everything laid out, it became easy to see that this outbreak was from a contaminated water pump. This case is very impactful to the medical field, as it is one of the first steps away from miasma theory. 

Fester also developed the ASSERT model. The ASSERT model encourages the following: to ask a question, search and structure the data, envision the result, represent the visualization, and to tell a story. This framework allows for the use of common data gathering methods to be used to tell a compelling story through visualization. This is a method that combines project based learning with the use of tools to dig deeper into these topics. 

One Day or Day One.

You Decide. 💫

Everyday is a Choice.

Everyday is a Chance.

A minimum viable product, or MVP, is a product with enough features to entice new customers and validate a product concept early in the product development cycle. To put it another way, this is the process of creating a simplified product to test your hypothesis. In industries like software and IT, the MVP can help a company or startup get user feedback as soon as possible so that it can iterate and improve the product.

Furthermore, it allows businesses to cut costs and risks many times over and, with the right approach, come up with a viable business idea, as opposed to the previous methodology, in which companies create a product, launch it, and then discover that it is not a viable product. What a waste of time and money! MVP enables a company to collect as much validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort.

Developing NavigaTour’s Prototype

Mr. Ronald mentioned in his discussion that it is best to create the wireframe as a group, which we considered, but I was in charge of the layout of our application as NavigaTour's engineer. I chose a med-fidelity wireframe with Canva, which included a more accurate layout of the application. We ensured that our application has the combination of the following features in such a way that its core features solved at least one problem effectively and kept us competitive; while also including exciting features that solved a problem – something unique to our target customers. We then demonstrated our prototype to friends and family and received some positive feedbacks. 

A few people mentioned how much they liked the idea of catering to everyone, including people with disabilities and those who are visually impaired. Some expressed concern about mall updates, speculating on the possibility of shop relocations within the mall. “Do you think you'll be able to update it right away?” This question raises an intriguing point, which is why we set up a separate account for management so that we can easily update the application. A few people also mentioned that they wished the color palette was a little friendlier, and I couldn't agree with them more. I actually had trouble deciding on a color for the application. I thought it would be great to stick with our brand color, but our respondents said they preferred a more user-friendly palette.

This process aided our application in the following ways: we were able to test our product hypothesis with limited resources, we received valuable feedback without hiring or wasting engineering hours, we were able to get the product to our customers, and we established required abilities in crafting our application.

“Breath, Eyes, Memory” by Danticat Edwidge can relate to the well known classic movie “Coming to America” with key actors such as Eddie Murphy who plays Prince Akeem who leaves his wealthy country and position to come to the hardships of America to find a wife who sees him more than just his title. The movie Coming to America I believe shows a form of irony to the novel by Edwidge, where one leaves wealth for hardship and the other poverty for hopes of wealth but both are the same destination. Coming to America and the novel both show the reality of the romanticized idea of the “American Dream” which shows that hardships are everywhere just as Sophie was dealing with in Haiti and her mother in NY trying to provide for her.

The novel “Breath, Eyes, Memory” by Danticat Edwidge is told through the narration of a young Haitian girl named Sophie Caco who leaves her homeland Haiti at the age of 12 to move to New York to her mother. In the first couple of chapters of the novel, readers get to see Sophie grow up with her Tante Atie who raised her in Haiti till her mother sent for her. Readers can see how the young girl had to leave all she knew, the people she loved for an unfamiliar land, unknown language, and a mother she did not know. In these early pages, Sophie is told she will be better in NY with much more opportunities than Haiti could ever offer but she arrives in Flatbush NY to see the struggles of her mother trying to provide for herself and her family in Haiti. From the beginning, Sophie’s education is held to higher importance, even back in Haiti. When Sophie arrived her mother had already dreamed of her becoming a doctor a dream that was once her mother’s but her limited resources did not allow her to accomplish that. In this novel I believe the theme of finding oneself, purpose, love, and family will be very transparent.