Markets, Innovation & Design - Spring 2020

Habits Reflection

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Learning about the five main habits of innovation and design was very interesting for me this semester and fun to try to use. I think the one that I gravitated the most towards was failing forward and learning to be ok with being wrong. I think this was one that I half struggled with, and half was using it before this semester. I would struggle with it in some areas of my life, such as if I got a question wrong or if my design wouldn’t come out how I wanted it to be, I would just give up sometimes. Other times, such as when pursuing goals of mine, if there was an obstacle in the way or I failed one time at it, I would have the persistence to keep going. I think this habit especially showed for me during this last project where when I lost track of doing my challenge, instead of just giving up on it completely, I reworked it and found something that works better for me that still achieves the goal that I wanted.  

The other habit that was fun for me was Child’s eye. I think I’ve always been pretty detail-oriented, and a lot of times, when I’m walking around, I will notice things because I like to look around and take in my surroundings. It has become more constant, and now when I’m at home, I’m always looking around and using a lot of my senses to take in the world around me. 

The habit that I still want to work on embracing ambiguity. Right now, I am still really bad with it, especially when thinking about big ambiguous questions such as “what do I want to do with my life.” I am a person who needs a little bit of structure and likes to be goal-oriented so that I have something to focus on. In this case, though, where I have no clue what I want to do with my life after college, I am stressing. I think that I can practice growing with this habit by giving myself some constraints like using a constraint map. I also could just jump off the high dive into the deep end and go down one path, knowing that there is always the testing and iteration and that I can then later change my mind and go down a different way. Overall really liked this course and have had fun learning about these five habits and hope to continue to use them and the processes I’ve learned in my everyday life and career going forward.

Iteration #2

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My desired outcome for this project was for me to do something fun every day and not just sit around on my phone or watch tv all day. My original design was a 30-day challenge where I scheduled a fun thing to do every day and I would check it off every day once I completed the activity. It went really well in the beginning and I was so into it until I just missed a day because I had so much school work to do and that by the time I had free time, I didn’t want to do the thing scheduled so I didn’t. Then one day turned into two and then a few more days and I realized I had not stuck to my schedule. I was still doing a lot of fun things like baking or painting or playing basketball, but they were not the originally scheduled things. I was doing whatever I felt like doing in the moment because there were sometimes where I just did the activity that was on the challenge because I had to do it, not because I truly wanted to do it. I then was watching a YouTube video one day and it was 100 things you can do during the quarantine. I saw how many different things there were to do so I decided to write them all down, tweaking a few to make them more applicable to me. Now instead of having something scheduled, I can look at the list and choose the activity that moves me at the moment or if I don’t know what I want to do I can just use a random number generator that will pick the activity for me. I think that this will be a good way to continue to keep me busy and have a little fun during these crazy times.

Test and iterate

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When first faced with the task to “intentionally design our habitats to adapt as well as we possibly can to our new environment” I didn’t really know what that could entail other than rearranging a room. I was still conflicted about how I could tackle this task after doing the constraint map. Then I was looking through social media and I saw a lot of “30-day challenges” for working out or self-care and I had previously done a few and thought that it would be fun to make my own for things to do during the quarantine. Once I had the idea, it felt like everything came together very quickly. I immediately knew what kinds of things I would put on there, as many of them were things that I enjoy doing and have wanted to do more of but never had the time at school. I loved making it look pretty and organizing everything into the template. 

One of the things that I didn’t truly factor in making the challenge was materials or weather. For example, I initially put baking as one of the first days, but when I went to go make some recipes I had found online, I realized we didn’t have all of the ingredients I needed and would have to wait to go to the supper market because we are only shopping once a week. The other one was the weather. I had put outdoor activities such as bike ride and walk on the beach earlier on the schedule, but when the day came for a bike ride, it was bad weather so I had to move a few things around. 

Overall I think that the challenge has made life a little better in quarantine and has gotten me to do other things besides watch tv. I have found that I have been doing some of the activities more than just the days I scheduled them. For example, I have played the guitar more than just the two lessons I scheduled for the past week which has been super fun, and I have probably baked and cooked so many different things than just one day. It has also been nice to cross off each day with a big red X showing what I have accomplished and how far I’ve come. 

I think I could take this to the next step by using it not just during quarantine, but during other times of my life. I can also change up the activities depending on the month/ season like if I wanted to do it during the summer I could put sailing or swimming, or if it were in the fall I could go apple picking and go to a football game. Also, maybe I could add the wow factor of having to document each day’s activity in a fun way either through a picture or a short video and then at the end of the challenge I have a whole scrapbook or video of memories to show what I accomplished. 

Overall, I really liked learning about the design process and putting it into a real-world context. I think the hardest part was the constraints, because of how I was really unsure of what I should be including and also what the actual constraints are for the pandemic. I really loved the brainstorming phase because I have been in a lot of different brainstorming situations from themes of parties to what we should have for dinner, and I loved the concept of letting your brain go to the farthest and craziest edges. I feel like I still have to work on the testing and iterating part of the process, as a lot of times when I have an idea, that is final and I don’t like to change it. Whereas now I know that iteration is really important in making the idea even that much better. I hope to continue to use the design process not only in my career but in many more areas of my life.

Prototype

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30-day-quarantine-challengeDownload

I chose to pursue the 30-day challenge because I thought that it would be a fun way for me to keep myself entertained during this time, and give me small goals to achieve. When creating the prototype it took a little longer than I thought it would because not only did I wanted to make it look pretty, but it also required me to plan out a few of the days to make sure they fell on a certain day of the week where I knew that performing the task would be more doable. For example, I tried to make sure that the bike ride or walk on the beach would be on a day that I don’t have lacrosse workouts already, or game nights on a day that we could have my brother who lives in California participate.

I started by creating a list of all of the things I like to do or have always wanted to try but haven’t had enough time to do so. I then went onto Canva and picked out a pretty calendar template to then fill everything in. I think that this will make my experience in quarantine a lot more fun and a little more structured as I know have things to actually do rather than just resorting to watching Netflix all day. I hope to implement this starting today (April 1st) as it fits perfectly in the 30 days of April.

3 concepts

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The first sketch on top is a mock-up of a daily schedule that I am trying to set for myself. I very much like structure and organization as it personally helps me be most productive and keep myself sane. In times like these, it has been hard to keep myself motivated when there is no set schedule, so creating one myself can help keep me focused. In terms of hierarchy of needs, I think that the schedule meets the functionality, the basic requirements of what a schedule is supposed to do, and also it personally fulfills a safety need for order and time management.

The second sketch which I then did another iteration of digitally, is a quarantine 30-day fun challenge. I like doing thirty-day challenges as they give me small goals to achieve which boosts my confidence and happiness when I do achieve them. During these times, with so much more free time than a school, it can be hard to know what to do or just fall into the trap of watching tv. I wanted to make it a little more exciting and do some of the things that I like to do or have always wanted to do more of but never had the time. Some things include getting back into learning the guitar and french lessons on Duolingo, baking more, or movie nights with my family. I think that this meets the usability need as it is pretty self-explanatory and anyone can adapt it to include their own interests. It also meets proficiency as having things already planned out to do will help life be a little better than before as it will keep people from getting bored.

My final sketch is some ways that I can hang out with friends during these times. The first is to go on walks (preferably by the water) and stay at least 6 feet apart, the second is to have a movie night together but from our own homes through Netflix party, and the third is to meet up at a place and sit in our the trunks of our cars (or on top) and talk to each other in order to stay 6 feet away. I think that this can help meet the love need for human connection. I hope to be able to do all of these three things or combine them in some way to perform throughout the rest of these crazy times.

Brainstorm

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When doing my brainstorm, I put down every idea that popped into my mind, no matter how ridiculous it was (there was no way I could ask my parents to get me a dog or a new car). When looking at the list, I saw that there were many ideas that were very similar, just slight variations of one another. I kept looking at my concept board the whole time and would try to look at individual pictures to give me ideas. The central themes that I saw from the list were around organization and structure, being active whether it be fitness or getting outside the house, or ways to do things that make me happy.

From the fifty, the five ideas that I want to do is first clean up and organize my room by putting away all my stuff from college that I brought home and haven’t unpacked, and then organize my life by creating a schedule for myself. I then want to be more active by choosing to do 30-day challenges, whether it be food, health, or fitness related as a way for me to have short term goals and challenges I can work towards. The next one would be to have more social distancing hangouts and adventures with friends. Whether it be taking beach walks 6 feet apart or hanging out in a parking lot sitting in the trunks of our cars, just being able to have more human interaction and make life seem more normal all while being safe. Finally, one idea that might be a little more out there, but one that I would still like to try is to go and stay in my aunt’s and uncle’s house in Maine and see if I am more productive there than at my house. I think being home makes me less productive because of how I might associate it with vacation and not really school work, so I would like to see if a change of scene would make me more productive since I could pretend like I am more at school.

Concept Board

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When coming up with a list of words that I wanted to convey in my concept board, they all made me feel like summer last year. The main words that I wanted to focus on were happy, calm and relaxed, active, organized, and productive.

My first focus was the word happy as it has always been something that I want to be in life. With all the change and big mood killers such as not being able to play lacrosse again for a while, not being with friends, and just not being on campus, there is a lot to make people unhappy. The first thing that I want to work on is doing things that will make me happy through these hard times.

The second is calm and relaxed, yet productive. I feel as though I have been pretty relaxed since I have so much more free time than I ever did at school, so I am less stressed out. However, sometimes I feel like I am too relaxed and rather than doing school work, I may watch more Netflix. I want to be able to have an environment and mindset where I can be relaxed and not stress out about time since I have so much more, yet still, be productive in getting my school work done. In addition to being productive, I also want to be organized again. I very much like structure and organization in my environment, and with having such a big change so fast my schedule has disappeared quickly and my room has no order to it. I hope to be able to take the time to clean everything up and create some kind of order or schedule for myself, which I think will help with productivity.

Finally, I want to focus on being active. I am not a person who can just sit around for hours on end doing nothing. I very much need to be outside and doing stuff. Thankfully my trainer is still giving us workouts we have to do for lacrosse so that I am staying active, but I would like to go on longer runs or adventures such as hikes and beach walks. I also think that being active would look like getting out of the house more to go for drives to the beach or hang out with friends (six feet apart) and still do things in person. I hope to be able to achieve all of these and make the best of the situation given to us.

Corona Constraint Map

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I found that the constraint map was a little hard to start. I used the book template for a starting point and found that I couldn’t really adapt it until the endpoints where I was able to tie in the specific constraints of needing to stay home, limited resources such as toilet paper and cleaning supplies, as well as most businesses shutting down. I think that the areas that present opportunities for change are how to meet human needs for exercise, food, hygiene products, education, and health care all while minimizing leaving the house and while many businesses are shutting down. 

When looking through the media to see how people are responding, there is definitely a spectrum of feelings. There are those who are reacting like it is the zombie apocalypse and going into bunker mode, teenagers who are not taking it very seriously and are still hanging out with friends and going to parties, and those who are in the middle just trying to maintain as normal a life as possible. Some awesome things I’ve seen about people trying to help is by offering services such as child care who aren’t going to school, people going to the grocery store for elderly people so they don’t have to risk exposure, and many people donating to different causes such as Feed America to help the food banks. Some other creative ways that people are changing their habits or helping is others are people posting workouts that you can do at home, people having fun family game nights or movie nights, and finally, Jimmy Fallon still doing The Tonight Show from his home and posting it to youtube. 

From the reactions I have seen in the media, I think that the constraints that present the best opportunity for change given the state of the pandemic are exercise, access to food, and entertainment. I hope to pursue these areas in the design challenge.

Inspiration week 3

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I really like picking out the clothes that I am going to wear the next day the night before. I like to look put together and it helps me save time in the morning not having to spend it worrying about what to wear. I felt like I was starting to get into a little rut of wearing the same few outfits over and over again when I have a whole closet of nice clothes. I did this with my best friend at home over break where she helped me clean out my closet and help me either donate pieces I never wore or showed me new ways to wear pieces I already had. I had the idea to let my friends pick out my outfits for a week. The rules were that I couldn’t talk when they were planning outfits and that I would have to wear the outfit all day until I went to practice. I wanted to see if I could get inspiration from my friends from new outfits from the clothes I already have.

While I really liked the idea, in practice it didn’t succeed this week. I was only able to get one of my friends who said they wanted to help in this experiment to come to my room, and Tuesday and Wednesday I was constricted in my outfit choice (Tuesday was presentation and my group chose to wear black turtle necks and jeans and Wednesday I had a lacrosse game so I had to wear our travel gear). While I didn’t get a whole week’s worth of new outfit inspiration, my friend Serena who picked out my Monday out chose my favorite outfit that I already wear and added a jacket to it that I had never thought of doing before and wearing it with different shoes. I hope to do this experiment again a different week so that I can actually see if it works and what clothes I will start wearing more.

Inspiration Week 2

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On a long bus ride for a lacrosse game, I went onto Disney plus to watch something to pass the time. I came across a documentary series called “the Imagineering story” which is about the Imagineers who created Disneyland and Disney World. I decided to watch it because it sounded cool to see how “the Happiest Place on Earth” was created. Also, I really loved the idea of “Imagineers,” which sounded like an engineer of imagination.

Watching the first episode, there were somethings that stuck out to me. The first is I loved how Walt described his workplace as an Art studio, think tank, design center, an innovation lab. It’s a cool concept that his workspace was not just another office building, but truly a place where creativity lived and could be explored, and where he said he didn’t work, but rather where he played. The second was that he encouraged the Imagineers to stand in line and follow children around the parks to have the curiosity and mind of a child in order to help improve the parks. Lastly, there was “creative chaos” to it all, in the sense that it was super organized creativity without being strictly organized linearly. This allowed for so many flowing and moving parts to work at the same time. I think this is an important concept because of how when things are too organized and strictly linear, it hinders the creativity and imagination of the mind. After watching the show, it was really interesting to see how some of the most creative minds in the world work and I will keep these concepts in mind when I am trying to be imaginative and creative in creating things.

Inspiration- week 1

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I often find that I get inspiration when I am running and working out. Partly its because my mind wonders to distract myself from what I am actually doing, but also because when you are active, your brain gets more oxygen and nutrients, which I think helps with thinking. While I was lifting for lacrosse on Thursday, my brain was wondering while I was getting a sip of my drink, which I had chosen to put half vitamin water, half normal water in my bottle in order to water it down and make it less sugary. Then it got me thinking about what I had eaten before- half a cliff bar- and how much sugar was in that and how nutrition and properly fueling for an athlete. Then that got me thinking since I am trying to cut back on sugar consumption to be a better athlete, that I should start making my own granola bars and energy bites to eat before practice and working out to be able to cut back on the sugar. I had done this before when I was at home, and they were very good, but I don’t really have access to the resources here at school or the time, so I haven’t made them yet. This is related to inspiration in the sense that you have to look for it and be active; you can’t just sit around, hoping that it will come to you. It also is about getting an idea and really considering it as a possibility, and I know that if I get some time that I will probably revisit this idea and make some.

Boo Perfection

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I want to try to stop striving for perfection in the first round and get better at doing iterations and accepting developmental feedback as apart of the process. In many cases in school, it is a one and done kind of thing- you have one chance to perform well on the test, paper, project and then you will receive a grade so you spend hours working on it and become so stressed about it being perfect and getting the A. However, this class seems to be a lot about iterations and taking the developmental feedback to then improve your project or task or newly learned skill to make it better or get better at it, not to perfect it.

MIDE 300 HUMANS

Abby Harris (21), Abby Hislop (21), Alana Bortman (21), Alexander Smith (20), Allie Kotowitz (21), Amisha Chhetri (22), Caitlin Tucker (21), Carly Binday (22), Claudia Glasgow (21), Collin Smith (28), Elana Smith (21), Emily Chopoorian (22), Emily Goldman (23), Erin Mooney (21), Faith Reilly (22), Hannah Moriarty (22), Jabril Mohamed (19), Jane Meng (22), Liam Moriarty (22), Lindsey Knutzen (20), Liza Heyl (21), Lucia Singer (20), Madz Cabico (4), Matt Cervon (19), Meg Coyle (18), Natalie Notz (21), Natalie Ring (23), Nikki Bott (23), Olivia DeNicola (21), Prof. Allen (1), Renne Venico (19), Rowan Beiter (23), Tarrin Earle (20), Zack Yoelson-Angeline (14)