#week6reflection

I think I did come up with a creative problem for my design brief. I was the only person in the class to choose the topic that I did, and it is something not a lot of people talk about. I am a strong believer in adhesive bandage innovation, and I would love to see a change in the way bandages work. I have spent countless hours trying to remove the left over stickiness from adhesive bandages, and I have been continuously hurt by the pain that comes with taking off a bandage.

The first time I read the word crowdsourcing I wasn't concentrating much so I read it crowdsurfing, which is pretty much the same if you think about it. (And it's a lot funner to say surfing rather than sourcing, am I right chaps?) :)

To understand why crowdsourcing and crowdsurfing is probably the same stuff, you need to know what the original word means. Crowdsourcing is, by definition:

The use of this word have risen since 2010, if you're curious about the history of this word, here you go: (what is crowdsourcing)

(Definition source: google)

I said earlier that the two words: crowdsourcing and crowdsurfing, are similar to each other anyway because it is about obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. It's like going in and surf the crowd itself to obtain relevant ideas.

Right? Riteee?

(Source: kateordie)

Anyway, I'm feeling to talk about the question that popped inside of my head, "Is crowdsourcing necessary for designers and innovators?" and to answer that I need to list the good things crowdsourcing offers. First of all, crowds. The crowds would be willing to help us anytime they want, because there are a massively high number of people, so in other words they are available anytime. Crowds are like the main target in order to sell our innovations, by crowdsourcing, we'd build relationships with the community we are working with. Relationships lead to networks, networks are needed by professional selves, by having networks we are having people we can trust and having people who can help us promoting our works.

Lastly, it's cheaper. Of course it's cheaper to ask online communities to obtain informations for us instead of hiring professionals. I don't have to say much, the word cheaper is already powerful; plus, people usually expect foolish things if they feel like something is too expensive, so cheaper is better.

Yep.

(Source: plated-jeans)

I would say the reason some designers don't use this method is because of the cons of it. It doesn't matter how good somethings are, it'd still have flaws. The main disadvantage interestingly mirrors the main advantage (the cheap part): cheap labour results less credible product if compared to professionals, of course. Professionals have experiences, expertise, and they are dedicated; on the other hand, online communities do not have these things.

In order to start getting some feedback we must have an access to our target group and people who participated in the project (and hopefully is still participaing). We assume that you have made nice long standing connections which I mentioned in previous blogs and then you must have communicated about whole process in all the way. So the good start is half the job. This will make half of your questions easier to answer, because people who you work with must be passionate about the theme.

Another very important part is get good feedback from your teammates and yourselves as well. It may sound strange, but we sometimes can’t really notice the whole process as a whole. It may take some time just to obtain a ‘fresh eyes’ and in that part I suggest communicating within your team briefly. You may found some things which you didn’t like along the path and even may want to fix some of your design (we all know that design is being polished ten thousand times till its ‘good enough’) as clear mind provides with some insight in your own work. Anyway don’t haste and do careless fixes because you may cause may damage than good. That’s why your teams here for.

If you can do it, share your research and insights with your target group and research connections. The best way to do it of course to gather for a last meeting to see really how people feel like about the whole process. That should give you more ideas about your design and you may (yes, again!) redesign it!

For nice feedbacking and talking methods on various socal themes google “Compass”. Issued for NGO’s from NGO’s.

My learning so far? I have learnt to work in a team, through better and worse, I have learnt that having a 'team leader' doesn't make that person the boss, I have learnt that communicating between team members is very important. Also that the Belbin test wasn't very accurate nor very useful as for our team, the roles don't matter so much and everyone needs to do as much work in researching and evaluating. Thankfully, we are all working well together now. 

My learnings so far are going all right as far as I know. I can work well in teams, I can use different platforms successfully. If there is any advice on what to do or how to change or improve, I would willingly hear it so that I can work better for the rest. Constructive criticism is always helpful.

As a team, I believe we have learnt a lot, especially about team work and trust. We can work together, we can work as a team and we have gotten through some challenges. We have learnt to cater for others needs when necessary, supporting each other with work when they need it.

My largest contribution and and one of the only individual assignments we have had in our group was to learn more about IndieGoGo.com; the history, people who work there, and the overall goal and accomplishments  In a group setting i think that my contributions have been different. When we studied in the first weeks what type of personality you can bring to group work, I tried to hold onto what my role was deemed ''best'' at. Bringing in fresh ideas and looking for solutions out of the box. Though it would be silly to limit myself as i see it to only fulfill one role, I have been focused on creating myself as that type of person with in the group setting. 

I would say I've done a lot of work for the team, as I remember it was only me and one other team member who were taking notes while we were having discussions and going through the teamwork activities. I have set up multiple meetings with my group and have now also formed a collaboration between my group (group 6) and group 3.

I have learnt quite a lot from my group experience throughout this project and have also backed up previous thoughts on group work.

To be honest, that’s how it was at the beginning: At the first lecture I was sitting and thinking “why I am here?? What I am doing here?? Ok, I will follow others and will do everything what they would do”. At the second one– “at least I am not the only one who doesn’t know anything what we are doing here”.

At the third lesson I started to understand what we are doing, at last! I was quite sure about everything and when I tried to know other persons in my class. I am really bad with names but know I have learned a lot.

6 things:

1.       Listening to other opinions. I think, that this is the main thing what did I learn. Not at university, I was always very busy to listen to others opinions; one or two opinions were enough to solve problems. And now, when we are working in teams, we have to listen to others, it’s not hard but it is very helpful to know what do everyone thinks.

2.       Team work. It was the biggest “?” for me. I had an idea what it is, I had been working in a team, but this is not this kind of team. Your mark depends on team members, you have to do everything perfectly to make your team happy, and you have to solve all problems with everyone, not alone. I these quite fast, it’s a very good beginning for later job.

3.       Take notes of the most important things. All the time I was thinking: “I will attend all lessons, I will listen and I will read books, I don’t need to take any notes, I will remember everything”. noooo, its complicated now. I am not at all lessons, I would love to be at all but it is quite impossible because of many reasons. I listen what teachers say, but I don’t read anything except projcomm page information. And now, I need to take notes, because no one will give all information “on the plate” for me. I understood that these notes are soo helpful, when you need to answer some question or even to write a blog, I can check my notebook and find some useful information.

4.       Now I know what NGO’s are. I always knew that there are some organizations, which help people in developed countries, who improve their lives and so on, but I know what do NGO’s really do, how they do it and mostly everything about them, I had never had any idea that they are doing so much.

5.       Other cultures. I have met many people from other countries, also, people from our class. They said how it is to live in their country, traditions, food and etc. I tried to explain something about my county, people, traditions, me and my family. I always loved to communicate with people from all around the World; I have many friends from other countries so it is not very hard to communicate with people who have many differences from me.

6.       Blog writing. I a l w a y s hated this thing. But know, then blogs are obligatory, I need to do this. It found and good sides of this, now it is not a penalty to write it, I quite enjoy it.