I am so happy that I was able to take this class this semester. I have been able to use the skills I learned in this class to produce higher quality work in other classes. I really liked the Wednesday guest speaker, because it was a way that we could see the material we learn on Monday’s and in the book, being applied in the real world. It was really awesome to see fellow students come up with amazing ideas and solutions in their projects. This was truly a class from which I can take nuggets of advice to use from her on out!

We kicked of this week by writing up our project proposal for our client. We also put the finishing touches on our prototype and presentation slideshow. These past weeks really went by quickly. I am really amazed that we were able to come up with a solution after just a few short weeks. The presenters on Wednesday did a great job of getting the presentations for this final project rolling. It always hard for the initial teams to present because they don’t have any reference points on how other teams presented. However, the teams that went first really did a great job. We learned that we will need to be prepared for all questions that come our way. No matter how well we prepare our speeches and slides, someone is going to ask a good, difficult question and we should be ready to give an answer.

This week we really dived deep into Project 3. On Monday, my team and I were able to talk over our project details, solidify our project plan, and get feedback from other teams. On Wednesday, we went over to Ruttan Hall on the St. Paul campus to talk with some agriculture experts and get some information on agricultural techniques that could be used in third world countries to increase production and efficiency. With the information we received we believe that we are in a good position now to put the finishing touches on our final product for our client. 

Zooming out and trying to see the large scale picture has proved to be difficult. That is why we decided to start with a bottom-up approach. Instead of trying to see the big picture first and then create a solution, we are doing research on all the small agricultural inefficiencies around the world and trying to come up with a common theme around them. In our brainstorming session on Monday, we found agricultural problems all across the globe spanning the Americas, Africa, and Asia. We came up with a list of problems associated with each geographical location and then tried to see what the recurring theme was. We concluded that an improvement in education and access to technological resources might benefit the African agricultural economy. For example Burkina Faso, a country in the arid part of western Africa, significantly improved its agricultural production since the 1990s thanks to modern drip irrigation technology (which came out in the 1950s). We believe that by teaching farmers more techniques like this, we can provide a solution to the problem.

Video games in a design class - what a different perspective on design. Turn everything into a video game was the advice I received on Wednesday. This was a completely different design paradigm than I had previously seen. I think the work going on at Glitch is pretty neat. I never thought that video games could actually improve people’s awareness to environmental, social, and other important issues. I think it’s a pretty powerful way to get a message across. The only hurdle you have to get over is creating an attractive game. This is also an awesome way to get passionate computer programmers to participate in design thinking.

There were a lot of really neat ideas presented this week. I never thought that people could actually apply the concepts we learned in class so well. I felt like I was watching entrepreneurs pitching their ideas on the TV show “SharkTank”. It was really an engaging two sessions. I could definitely tell that people were more deliberate in their design process this time around than in Project 1. This time people actually showed their steps: Data Collection -> Research -> Survey -> Cost/Benefit Analysis -> Prototype -> Market Analysis. It seemed very professional. I think many of the solutions that were talked about could actually be turned into a business venture. All in all, it was a good week in Design and I learned a lot from it.

Lisa’a talk this week regarding her work at Azul7 was very interesting. I felt like she actually gave us solid, tangible advice in our deign thinking - try to mimic the design of nature. This actually sounds like a great idea, and the more I think about it, the more I realize it all around me. Many of the things we use these days probably gained their design inspirations from nature - cars, dams, Velcro, airplanes, helicopters, etc. Researchers are even trying to create mini-robots that mimic the behavior of cockroaches, and they have found that these creatures have extremely complex structures, which can be studied and applied in our own design of industrial machinary. Overall, I think it was wonderful to be exposed to this method of thinking. I hope it comes in handy for me in the future.

I used to think that prototyping was only possible with a 3D printer. It turns out that paper and tape aren’t all that bad either. Prototyping is a powerful tool that can save a lot of money.