Reflective Assessment
I knew that for my final workshop project I wanted to graduate with a bang 💥, and while I was stressing over what this masterpiece could possibly be during a typical episode of insomnia, I reflected on who I’ve become so far, the people I’ve met, which led me to wonder: What happened to all those people whom I’ve lost touch with 🤔? It was such a strange phenomenon to me because I couldn’t label each relationship with a reason to their end. Majority of these relationships just faded and dissipated with time. Even though I do sometimes check up on (stalk 💩) some of my past relationships or see them casually on my feed, they are almost strangers to me, yet I know the majority of their lives up till now (even the moments when we weren’t in each other’s lives).
From there I conducted secondary and primary research based on this phenomena, hoping to uncover why it occurs and whether there are ways to prevent these relationships from ending or to potentially reignite past ones 🔥. Secondary research allowed me to understand these fleeting relationships from a more general level, but I used personal experiences and memories from my life to garner more specific data for my primary research 🔍.
The first sprint allowed me to explore patterns of physical interaction by documenting and reminiscing about 150 of my past relationships 💞. From this data, I realized that physical interaction and proximity is a small component in the strength and maintenance of the relationship. This led me to move towards the third sprint which analyzed the integration of digital-physical relationships and a more in-depth analysis on the “connectors” that bind the relationship together 🌱. I did this through a web interface that could filter these “connectors” so that I could see patterns within my own relationships.
After using a more data-centric approach for my other two sprints, I decided to create a more emotional-driven book for the third sprint. I documented my most recent recollection of twenty people who have made a significant impact on my life 💫. I did a blind contour and wrote about my memory of these individuals.
Each design sprint helped inform me of my next steps to take. Moving forward, I hope to continue my research, write, design, meet people, share, and hopefully laugh and cry by the end of this semester ❤️. Although I still don’t know what the final end of this project will be, I hope to continue to explore through design ways I can document and approach the fleeting relationship 🌈.
