Since I created my prototype, about a week ago, I have used it as a space to create two works of art. I made my first work the day after I made my prototype, since I was so excited to use the space and my art supplies. I drew a butterfly on one of my canvases and colored it in with paint pens. While making this piece, I was watching Netflix on my laptop. Watching Netflix on my laptop is something that I have been spending a lot of time doing while social distancing, so pairing that activity with a more productive one made me feel a lot better about it. The combination of the two activities also made both activities a little more enjoyable and relaxing. The next work that I created was a portrait. I have never been confident in my ability to draw people since most times in the past when I have tried to, I was not happy with my finished product. However, realistic portrait drawing has always been something that I have wanted to be good at. Because of this, I wanted to try drawing a portrait again just to see where my skills were at. I decided to draw a picture of Billie Eilish because she has distinct facial features that I thought would make the process easier for me. I sat at my desk and drew the image while listening to music. In the end, I was actually pretty impressed with my drawing. I know that I still have a lot of room for improvement, but I think that I proved to myself that I have the potential to get better at these kinds of drawings.
The only change I made to my design after using it was putting newspaper down on my desk in order to prevent damage to the desk’s surface. I decided to do this because when I was drawing with paint pens, it got a little messy and some color got on the desk. I thought that a protective layer, like newspaper, would be the best way to prevent this from happening again. Also, newspaper would make cleaning up easy since I could just throw it out. In terms of the designer hierarchy of needs, it is not so easy to think of a “wow factor” addition to my design. I think that maybe a new organization system or easel might improve my experience. However, I do not feel that these things are completely necessary for me right now.
So far, I have really enjoyed using my design. Prior to transforming my desk into an art space, it was an area in my room that was largely unused. And, ever since being in quarantine, the only place in my room I have been spending time is my bed. Now, I think that my new desk design has really changed the experience of being in my room for me since I spend less time lounging around. Judging from what I have already experienced with my design, I think that making art in my room will be a great quarantine hobby for me. It has made me feel a bit more productive and is also somewhat of an escape for me. I also am starting to appreciate some of the free time I have since I would never spend so much time on art under normal circumstances. My design also led me to make some other changes in my room. While sitting at my desk, I noticed that the couch in my room is really close to it, and was making the space feel a bit confined. Because of this, I did some rearranging; I moved my couch closer to my bed and moved my dresser to the space my couch was previously in. Although I was not planning for my design to cause me to rearrange my room, I was happy with the results. I think my new room setup is a bit refreshing since it doesn’t feel so much like I’m stuck in my highschool bedroom.
The design process was a lot less simple than I thought it would be. Things such as the constraint map, and brainstorming, were not easy for me. I was unsure of what kind of issues I could include in my constraint map and if there were “right” or “wrong” answers. And, having to brainstorm so many ideas was definitely a challenge for me. After coming up with about half of the ideas, I got a bit stuck and it took a while to finish my list. Also, I did not know if I could be creative enough to convert any of my brainstorm ideas into a real design. At times, I was questioning certain aspects of the design process and did not see how they directly related to the design process. For example, my constraint map included larger societal issues so I could not see how I could incorporate anything from my map into a design. However, although I did have some struggles and concerns throughout the design process, I also had a lot of positive experiences. I enjoyed the more visual activities such as creating my concept board, 3 sketches, and prototype. Drawing out sketches made my brainstorm ideas come to life in ways where I could imagine taking my ideas further. And, getting to create my prototype was a great experience since I was able to relate it back to all of the earlier steps of the design process in order to see how one led to another.
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