#fitch087

For this weeks reflection, I’m going to use one of the prompts and talk about why adaptability and flexibility is important not only in design, but in all aspects of life. In a workplace, one absolutely has to be adaptable and flexible with their schedule and life. Things are going to go wrong, and timelines are going to be screwed up and that’s just how it works. A good designer, and I don’t mean like a typical designer, since we are all designers I mean all of us, needs to be able to think on their toes and adapt to the new situation appropriately and be flexible with it. 

Now that the presentation is over, I feel like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Presenting a crazy idea to a group of classmates is a little nerve racking especially when you really think you have a cool idea. What if other people don’t think it’s cool or down right think it’s stupid? Maybe they don’t relate to the issue? Anyways, presenting went well, I think, and I think we got a decent response back from the class. Since everyone there is a student and has to walk outside at some point during their day in the horribly cold Minnesota weather, they could benefit from our new triple layer sock product. The inner layer of wool helps keep feet warm at extreme temperatures, the middle layer of runners material helps cool feet down when in contact with moisture/sweat, and the third layer of gor-tex wicks away said sweat so feet won’t get “recold” when returning back outside to walk somewhere else. 

Professor Stover did ask us our “prototyping” plan and whatnot, which makes sense since right now it’s just a rough idea of a product. I do think that maybe the first and second layer should be reversed, so that the runner’s material will begin cooling right away when the foot starts to sweat, instead of after the sweat makes its way through the wool layer, but the order of fabrics is something that would need to be tested in order to find the best. A person in class also mentioned instead of a sock, maybe a shoe liner? I think this is an awesome idea as it could be used in any shoes then and not be a thick sock around your feet. I imagine that it might be kind of constrained down there if you had on a three layer sock, but again, that’s something we would test when we make a real prototype in the future (project 3 maybe?)

Now that are project is wrapping up, I thought I would elaborate on it. Our team worked very well together, in fact so well we almost finished the entire presentation in class on Wednesday. There was no conflicts and we were all open with each other on our ideas. 

Our project is about having too hot/too cold of feet in the winter time. We’ve all experienced this walking to class or waiting for the bus where our feet are freezing but once we get inside our not so “warm” shoes all of a sudden turn into saunas and feet start to sweat! And then to top it off when we go back outside, all of that sweat freezes and makes your feet even colder than they were in the first place! 

We, group 6, decided to approach this problem by creating a mind map first, shown in my process 1 post. On the mind map, the problem was broken down into audience, students/homeless/public transportation users, constraints, cost/materials/safety, and potential ideas for fixing the problem. We came up with many of these from socks that are electric to microwavable boot liners to our final choice, a three layered sock.

The idea behind the three layered sock is quite simple. The first layer is a thin layer of wool, a material that is notorious for keeping feet warm in the winter. The second layer would be a layer of a special fabric used for running clothes. This fabric reacts to certain situations and can change the climate such as when it comes into contact with moisture (sweat) and will begin to cool itself down, making temperature regulation for the user much more simple! This fabric is super cool and sciencey and I love that we’re using it. The third layer, outside layer, is a layer of Gor-Tex. Many of you have probably seen this word stitched on your winter jacket or apparel. Gor-Tex would wick away any sweat.

The wool layer now is strictly to keep the foot warm in cold situations. The middle layer, runners material, is to help regulate the temperature inside the sock and cool down when it begins to be too hot. Then the Gor-Tex is used to wick away moisture, eliminating the problem of frozen sweaty feet. All three of these put together should help make walking outside more enjoyable. 

We don’t claim that this will work perfectly, but we do believe it will eliminate the extremes of our problem. As long as your feet aren’t super hot or super cold, it make walking outside a more enjoyable activity in the winter.

I talked to a few of my friends about our project idea, and they thought it was innovative and cool! They believe it would work too, and would definitely like to see this sock actually happen. They did however bring up the order of the sock. We would need to experiment more on what the best order would be, because maybe the runners material should go first and be placed up against the foot so it would feel the sweat immediately as it radiates off the bottom of the foot so it doesn’t have to wait to go through the wool layer. However, since these materials are so expensive and this is just a project, we don’t have the funds to go out and buy a decent amount of each of these materials to experiment with. Especially since the runners material, as far as we know, can only be bought if we bought a jacket made of the material and so on, which is way too expensive for a few kids on a college budget! These are things to think about though and can possibly come into play once we get farther down the design process if we do.

Next, we outlined a few of our thoughts on the future of the product. Obviously finding the best order of materials is the first, and then there is manufacturing. We want the socks to be under $20, give or take, and to be sold everywhere socks and athletic clothing is sold. Target, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, shoe stores, etc... We also would want to make varying heights of the sock so it can be worn with all shoes and then many different colors. The idea of maybe making  summer sock came about as well. This sock would do more cooling than heating and could be essential when participating in outdoor activities in the summer months such as running or hiking!

In class yesterday we talked about prototypes and how they show up all over the place in our every day lives even if we don’t realize it! 

My definition of a prototype wold be a draft of a design, but is either tangible or visible. The process to make this prototype is to first find your problem, then brainstorm ways to fix and find a solution. A prototype can look like anything you want it to depending on what you are designing. It’s probably a little rough and made out of cheap materials. A prototype also isn’t perfect so there’s a few kinks and flaws to work out. Those flaws are easy to find with a prototype because you can move it and use it other than just looking at a design on paper. 

In my everyday life, I see myself using prototypes all the time. Rough drafts of papers and lab reports could be viewed as prototypes. It’s a building block that I can use to create something bigger and better. It’s flawed and needs to be worked on. Also, in cooking I use prototypes. There’s been multiple times where I’ve added too much of something and the next time I make it I change it a little bit. Like with cream in my coffee. Now I know exactly how much to put in for my perfect taste but when I was first trying to figure it out, I either put to much in or too little. 

After learning about the multiple intelligences once again, I can definitely say that I am "logical" the most. I found a definition on a website that I think describes the term very well in reference to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences:

Logical -Mathematical - reasoning, calculating. Think conceptually, abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships. They like to experiment, solve puzzles, ask cosmic questions. They can be taught through logic games, investigations, mysteries. They need to learn and form concepts before they can deal with details.

Taken from http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html

When I read this, I feel like I am picturing my entire life. I am very analytical, and organized. I love solving puzzles and logic games. In fact, I have about 10 logic books in my room, and find myself doing them to calm me down when I'm stressed or just bored. However, I definitely get frustrated in class when I don't know the concepts behind things when I am learning details.