Markets, Innovation & Design - Spring 2020

Habits Reflection

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I feel as though the habit that played the biggest role in my life this semester was embracing ambiguity. I have never been one to do well under limited constraints or vague instructions. I live and die by structure in everything I do in my life, I need to have a set schedule with everything planned out during my day so I follow it to a T and accomplish everything I need to. Also when it comes to an assignment or just a task I have to do in life I am person who needs to know the exact details of what needs to be done and in what why so I have clear idea of what is right or what’s wrong. It’s almost comparable to the design attitude vs. the decision attitude. In those the design attitude embraces all possible designs and avenues to choose from while decision is just about option 1 or 2. In my life I feel like I need option 1 or 2 and how to do each one and which one is right to seek that approval that I am on the right track. However, this semester has opened my eyes to the ability to embrace the unknown of what my final product will be and to realize that there is more than one avenue to take during an assignment. I have learned embrace ambiguity starting in the classroom, especially on the assignments such as mind maps and our creations with the tea lights and ultimately our final design project. I found myself trying to constantly email professor Allen or Smith or ask my classmates what they think was expected for the assignment because I couldn’t work without knowing if my final product was right. I eventually began to become more comfortable with becoming more creative and not worrying whether or not my creation was “right”. This let my creative outlet grow because I was able to start to produce some things that were out of the box like my in home gym and become okay with taking a different path than others knowing that it was just my creative path. ambiguity allowed me to break through the need for constraints in my life in general as well, allowing me to be more spontaneous with activities I did, and especially with my leadership on the football field. There isn’t one set manual on how to lead, so I thought I had to emulate leaders I saw before me. I learned that I don’t need to constrain myself to how they lead, I can learn how to lead on my own and the best way I see fit.

I would say failing forward comes most naturally to me because I have learned a lot from the mistakes in my life. I feel as though if you come from a sports background you are bound to have this property because it is just a part of any game to mess up at something and learn how to do it the right way to succeed. This has led me to embrace being wrong on an assignment in class better and taking the feedback given to improve my design on the next projects, especially with the mind maps. Failing never has put me down, it has always been a way for me to learn how to do things the right way. So it was pretty easy to accept that my designs weren’t perfect or my answers weren’t always right because I felt as thought it would help shape how to do things right for the rest of the class.

The habit I want to work on the most is my creative confidence. I have never considered myself a very creative person, especially in terms of artistic abilities. I feel as though my lack of artistic abilities hinders me from thinking that I can be creative when it comes to design processes because I have a fear in the back of my mind that someone will be better. It limits me to only creating very simple things that I believe will be “right” instead of trying to push the creative boundaries.Things like the brainstorming activity, mind maps, and creations didn’t come easily at all because I wasn’t confident enough to really step outside of the box and think of something interesting or improve on my idea,I just went for purpose and really getting the job done. A way I can practice growing in respect to this habit is by allowing myself to push the boundaries of creativity in everything that I do. I won’t stop at making just one and final version of creation, I will make two to three to really let my thoughts grow and figure different ways to improve besides what I think is “right”. I will also working trying to block out my inability of creating good art and realizing I can still be creative without doing so. I will practice finding different pathways and pushing myself to not just stop when I think I have “completed” something, yet constantly look to think outside the box and improve.

Lastly, building an innovative character for me is all about not holding myself and seeing things from multiple perspectives. This class has helped me step outside of my comfort zone on multiple occasions, especially with the inspiration posts. I feel as though I have felt myself grow from just a person who follows the rules and creates what should be done to figuring out what my best work looks like and having the freedom and confidence to make this happen. The different ways I’ve been pushed to this has helped me evolve into a person that is more innovative in aspects of life outside of school and has really shown me the multitude of different ways I can go about doing certain tasks. It will be crucial for me to grow on this quality and embrace this ambiguous world by lifting the constraints I am constantly putting on my life.

Test and Iterate #2

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Recently I have made major adjustments to my at home gym. I realized that the basement was just too confined for me to get all work in and too cluttered with furniture and things that needed to remain clean. I had to find a spot that was able to be messy and big enough to work, and what better place than the garage. Although it is usually cold, I just wear a long sleeve and sweatpants too accommodate for this. My mom moved her car out and I ordered a mat online to provide optimal space and range of motion. As you can see, my dad and I put our worker’s hats on and got building. Instead of just trying to use miscellaneous wood as weights, we decided to construct a squat/bench rack to hold up a bar and give me a more conventional way of benching/squatting. The bench itself was made to be able to incline as well, and this whole process took a good long week of hard work. We use cinder blocks as weights to load into the boxes on the side and have weighed out everything so I know exactly what I weight I am doing. The maximum I can load it up to is 250lbs, which is pretty good considering the materials. The only problem I have encountered while working out is the stabilization of the buckets on the side, they tend to swing a little even after we taped them throughly. That will be the next step in trying to build the perfect in home gym experience. In the early process of still testing it out and seeing how well it will holdup with weight, but so far so good.

Test and Iterate

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Over the last week I have used my design 5 times to work out. Overall, it has been a very positive experience using the design to workout in a way that feels like a gym. We had never invested in anything around the house to use for workout purposes because we were always members of gym, but this experience has so far proven to be effective for me. It has changed the way I worked out at the start of the quarantine period which has lead to more intense lifts and exercises and overall more intense environment. I have been able to get more hype and locked in due to the addition of the sound bar that I placed down in the basement which vibrates throughout the whole room (even though I have gotten in trouble for having it too loud at times). The various weights I ordered and objects I’m using as weights have helped me be able to stick to normal exercises that help me instead of working with body weight exercises that don’t hit every muscle group I need. The space has ultimately given me a sense of normalcy in these crazy times and has been somewhere I can take my mind off things for a couple hours.

To take this idea to the next level I have found that a couple things need to be improved. The first is space to workout in. The couch as a divider I thought would be a good idea to separate the two sections of workout space, but overall it just gets down on the mobility I have and space to work with. This also goes for things like the nightstands and baby playpen that are taking up space. What I plan to do is move the couch to the side for the time being and night stands in this awkward are of basement that isn’t used and leads to storage rooms. This will give a bigger space to dynamic stretching in and things like broad jump. The other change I want to make is adding a large mat or rug onto of what is down here to be able to possibly put cleats on or shoes to do agility shoes. At the end of all this my basement will have to go back to normal and not be torn up. I feel as though I waste too much time going in my backyard to do those type of drills and then transition back downstairs and back out, I would rather just have everything in one place. Lastly, I hope to try and post this on social media platforms to possibly inspiring others who are struggling to find a place to work. The overall experience using the design process has been a struggle, yet very enlightening. After the zoom meeting on Thursday, I realized that m design didn’t fit all of the hierarchy of needs yet, I had room to grow to become more creative. That led me into the tweaks in my design to try and meet the hierarchy of needs. I felt as though the hierarchy of needs almost acted as guidelines for me to try and break through the surface level and really address what was important for me about my design.

Prototype

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Creating the prototype was actually a challenging experience for me. I had to worry about much more than what was being used to workout with. I had to figure out what I could use to be stable benches that could hold my weight as well the weights of the free weights, which is why I used the big coffee table I had since it was sturdy. I also had to worry about where I would place the music bar to reduce the sound heard upstairs so it wouldn’t distract my parents from work. Space was a huge dilemma in where I wanted to place things as well as comfort. I wanted the ability to move around freely in the limited space I had without being cramped and being comfortable doing various lift so it didn’t detract from my performance and overall workout. I feel as though my concept will impact my experience in quarantine in a very positive way. The ability to have a space where I can efficiently workout and actually make gains toward the upcoming season is crucial as I feel this will give me an advantage over most who don’t the tools of a quality at home gym. This will also give me something to do during this time of isolation. I am a person who loves to be outside playing games with my friends or just being around people a lot, so it’s hard for me to be stuck inside a house. being able to workout at anytime I want will be a great way to take my mind off the current situation, pass time on in the day, and help develop a new love for routine and work ethic. This might be what I needed to hopefully take the next step in how to work hard to achieve what I want. I feel as though this in home gym will also help me feel like I had a productive day and as if I did something, which will be good for my mental health and overall happiness.

3 Concepts

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    The first concept I sketched out was the idea for my home work space. I am the type of person who needs to be in a place of comfort and organization to thrive with little to no sound around me, that helps keep me focused and relaxed. I wanted to sketch a space that would encompass those three things in order to try to get the best and most productive work out of me. I used my bedroom as the location for this because it is upstairs away from where my parents are working during the day, and out of the sound range of my baby nephew when it is time for him to take a nap or he gets fussy, as his room is down the hall. It also has a window so I can have sunlight in my room or air if I need it, as I don’t like to work in places where I can’t see what’s happening outside my bubble. My bed has really no function to the room but I can’t move it as I still sleep there at night. I would love to turn my night stand into my supply drawer where I store my books for classes, computer, pencils, scissors, paper, etc… whatever I need for class since I have nothing in my drawers at the moment anyway. I would want to pull the two bean bag chairs up from my basement to my room to help give that comfort aspect and feel to the room, along with the yoga mat. The TV could be of use too, and these three things will bring a great aura to the room as well as good uses for breaks so I don’t get overworked. I would pull an unused desk up from our storage space and place it across the desk in my room to provide two different work areas, one for my management courses (MIDE 300 and MGMT 203) and one for elective courses (PHIL 256 and BIO 121). Looking at the heirarchy of designer needs, my room would check all the boxes. For functionality purposes I made sure that my design was a place that could be easy to get my work done in. It’s pretty reliable because the only things that could be changed are through me, and provides me the comfort I need. The space is very easy to use, there’s no jumping over things or having a hard time finding something, everything is designed for my type of work. It is profienct in the sense that no other in my house would offer the comfort, organization, and peace and quiet I need to work to my maximum ability, and creative in the way I placed certain areas to give the space the feel I want.

    The next thing I sketched was the design of my in home gym. I felt as though sketching it on paper wouldn’t do justice to some of the unorthodox ways I’m using things in my basement, for example my table and ottoman as different benches for different workouts. Also the things such as the stationary bike or little wood boxes provide great ways to get creative with different workouts. I leaned on the designers hierarchy of needs in constructing how I wanted to preliminary place things and how I could best use this space. Function was easy because it is a big enough space to do all the things required of me to get better. However usability and reliability are a challenge because I have to see if I get too hot in my basement or if the “benches” give out with too much weight, or will my rug soak in and retain that sweaty smell? I tried to pick the best possible options for those scenarios not to occur. As for proficiency and creativity, this is the best and only option in my household to workout in so I have to make due, and it’s definitely thinking outside the box with some of the different things that aren’t traditional to a workout.

    The last virtual sketch was of how I plan to spend time outside to not go stir crazy in my own house and practice safe habits with the virus. As you can see from the video I have sketched out certain activities I could do in different spaces around my house and neighborhood, with location or activity subject to change. Each and every one of them follows safe habits to help try to stop this virus, but I feel strongly that it is very important to ones mental health and overall happiness to get outside and be productive. Functionally all these activities are safe ways to get outside and explore. Looking at reliability and usability, each activity is dependent on what you can and how you enjoy it, so I just picked things I know how to and will make me happy to do and motivated to get outside. It is proficient in the sense that it is better and healthier for you then sitting inside and watching Netflix all day, and creative in the way I use space. For example using my cul de sac to walk with my friends at a safe distance or my driveway to talk. Also using my backyard as a chipping green is an innovative way to do something I love without going to a golf course. Again, I don’t do well drawing my designs so this was the best way I could communicate it.

    Brainstorm

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    Module 2 brought a lot of interesting challenges for me and was a way to help me shape a plan for what I wanted my home life to look and feel like in these crazy times. After looking at the concept board I had created, I decided to try and sit down and set a time limit of 30 to 40 minutes to flesh out 50 ideas that would work for my personal life and things I could work on it to make my situation as best as possible and grow. The list talks about a variety of things ranging from how I can interact with friends to how I’m going to be able to eat. There were 5 ideas that I found to be the best opportunities to help me achieve my vision that I set out on my concept board. The first idea of creating an in home gym is very key for me. My board shows multiple pictures of working out so it’s safe to safe it is very important to me to maintain my strength and conditioning during a time where no gym is available to me. I must be able to stay up date with the competition so I don’t let my team down and myself down come season time because there are no excuses. Creating my own work space along with treating school like I’m at college are two very important ways to achieve my ideal at home vision. Just because we left school doesn’t mean we are in summer mode, and it’s honestly harder to lock in and take school serious in an environment we are used to being school free in college and a place for vacation. Creating a work space with no distractions from my parents, sister, or especially my nephew is huge to being able to focus and get my work done, as you can see on my concept board it is one of the bigger images. Creating a strict class schedule and sticking to it will bring structure to somewhat “free” at home life as well. Taking at least an hour outside everyday will be huge as the outdoors is a big part of my life. I have depicted a couple outdoor activities on my concept board because I feel as though it is essential to get fresh air, run around, do whatever you need to to keep your mental health and just health in general. It is also a great way to take see friends at an acceptable 6 feet apart. Lastly, help family and friends stay positive is big in my life. I show a lot of family and friend interaction in my board, and just being able to check in and make sure all my people are okay will help me feel better about the situation and have a better positive outlook on it. Whether that be digitally or through safe social distancing practices, it is big for me to stay in contact with my people.

    Concept Board

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    The concept board was a fun task for me. I tried to show the most important areas of my life I thought needed to be modified or changed to help me live a happy and successful life in quarantine. The hardest part for me was getting the mood right. I tried to go for a relaxing in home type of vibe with pops of positivity to show my bright side. I don’t like to see this whole situation as negative, I like to see it as a way for change and growth within myself and way to still get better. I wanted to convey the areas of my life I deem most important at this time through size of picture along with location to try and group certain areas together to make it easier to direct and follow.

    Constraint Map

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    This assignment forced me to assess the constraints around me and how it was going to affect my daily life. I tried to break down and look at the most important aspects of my life that would be changed, and used the example format to flesh out different ways the design, production, and end user constraints would affect each one. The assignment opened my eyes to the amount of ways my life was going to have to be confined and changed and how many different factors affected one another. When trying to get ideas going about what would be different for me, I relied on the research the module prompted to get some examples.

    I first looked at news in the media and positive ways people were trying to attack this life in quarantine and help others. On social media I was surprised to see a large amount of people giving out free home workouts to do without the availability of gyms and how much celebrities are looking to give back to those in need. Looking at the workouts, a number of personal trainers I follow whose livelihoods depend on getting paid to work people out are offering free workouts for those with no weights at home to help them get better. This act of kindness doesn’t benefit them financially at all, yet it’s a great way to help give people at home something to do and hopefully get into now that they have time. It also can be a great way to market themselves. As for the celebrities, especially professional athletes, many of them are helping to pay a couple weeks worth of people in their organizations salary to help keep their family afloat during this time of crisis. It’s really cool to see that community band together to help those less financially stable than them who help their lives everyday.

    Looking at historical event that rivaled this virus in history, the bird flu and SARS epidemic in China matched up perfectly. All three epidemics originated from China and each one China’s government was slow to take any action as they were trying to save face, causing the diseases to spread rapidly. In this case China’s government was a little more quick to respond which helped their country, but almost too little too late as it has affected countries across the globe. In the other two cases the same thing happened just not on as national of a level, with diseases spreading into Hong Kong and surrounding countries. The lack of government action helped me realize that this disease is out of the control of the common peoples hand as we can’t constrain those above us.

    This research and my common knowledge helped me comb a list of different ways I thought my life would be different in different aspects. This will help me be able to create a clear plan for how I am going to attack each phase of my life to adapt and make it the most I can. The boxes represent the areas which I feel as though I can change the most to best fit my life. Things like changing the space and area in which I workout in, or how to use time management now that there are so many more distractions, and even finding alternative ways to interact with people. These are all different areas of life that are important to me that I feel as though I need to take action on immediately. Being able to have the opportunity to reevaluate and take time to figure out if my focus needs improvement or if the materials I have are enough will help me break out of my routine of everyday life and inspire me to make necessary changes. this serves as an opportunity grow my creative side which lacks in these types of situations, and the constraints I have compiled will help to serve as a guideline for what conditions I’m working under and how to utilize them.

    Inspiration Week 4

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    Inspiration this week was a little bit harder to think about because I feel like the past two weeks I have really stepped out of my comfort zone and branch out. Then I realized I needed to be inspired to work harder in the classroom. We are hitting that point of the semester where it is becoming increasingly harder to continue to push myself to apply myself to each class and give my max effort in each to succeed. 6 am workouts are beginning to take a toll on me and I’m finding myself very lazy during the day. So I decided to basically interview my mom about how she goes about her work life.

    My mom works at a computer software company and we usually don’t talk about her work because it is too confusing to me. I decided to interview her because she wakes up at 5 am everyday to get to work and works til about 5 pm. I wanted to know what has kept her so motivated to get up and work every single day and not have a lack in production. After the conversation I learned a lot about what drives her, which is mainly fear of letting herself down, and she is able to have that mindset. She sets out personal goals for herself weekly to meet a certain deadline or get a deal done, because she never wants to be satisfied with her performance. This inspired me to set little goals for myself for each class so I was motivated to let myself slip through the cracks the rest of the semester. I feel as though this fuel me coming back from spring break and as spring ball starts.

    Inspiration Week 3

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    Last week it was very inspiring to take the route of branching out and trying something new, and that was faith. So this week I decided to branch out and try something that my best friend has tried to get me to do for years, and that was attend a black student union meeting. I have always felt alienated by the black community here because of the expectation that because of my skin color I must immerse myself within the community and attend every event they have. Since I had my team I never felt the need to but was always friendly with everyone, but I never became apart of BSU.

    Sunday I finally decided to attend a meeting to see what it was all about and support my friend, and I knew most of the people because I had been to some events they held before. I wouldn’t say being there was out of my comfort zone but it was out of my realm of knowledge because they were talking about the importance of the black vote and current political situation. I myself don’t follow politics, but it was eye opening to me to see how our community could stand together and try to have an impact on this upcoming election. I learned so many things I didn’t know about the candidates and what to look for, and it inspired me to become more immersed in the current political situation. These elections (General down to Local) will affect my future and way of life in this country and I want to stay up to date so I can have a reasoned say in it.

    Inspiration Week 2

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    Last week I did something much more structured and already planned into my weekend. Taking the advice Professor Allen has pushed to us I decided to go out of my way to try and spark my inspiration for the week. I fortunate enough to have my Uncle and Grandma live 5 minutes away from campus since my Uncle is the head wrestling coach here. I often neglect going to see my Grandma since I want to try and live and college life away from family. She constantly invites me to bible study on Tuesday nights and I always find a way to get out of it since I am not as religious as her.

    This Tuesday I decided that I would join in on her bible study with her friends and my Uncle and go spend some quality family time and learn some things I didn’t know. After an hour and half bible study I realized how many great lessons I could learn from the Bible and how I can connect them to sports and my life and general. I’ve always been very shut off from faith but it opened my eyes to some valuable lessons. I was inspired to incorporate a little bit more faith into my life, not fully agreeing on all aspects, but maybe a few verses of the Bible a week to keep up.

    Inspiration- Week 1

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    As a student athlete at Bucknell, I often have a biased opinion on how I feel like this school compares to others around the country. Looking at it from an academic and social I feel as though most schools cannot stack up to the elite education Bucknell offers as well as maintaining our stature as one of the schools with the best social scene that is inviting. From an athletic lens, our football program is on the rise after numerous years of being known as one of the worst in the Patriot League, and new facilities coming in 2-3 years reflect that. Our new coaching staff is one of the best in the Patriot League and there’s no better time to hop on our bandwagon than now, so I often get complacent in having this idea that my school is the best combination of those three things anyone can offer.

    This weekend I hosted a recruit that was on his official visit and seriously considering Bucknell. I decided to ask him about the other schools he was looking at and he named 4-5 schools in the Patriot and Ivy League. After talking to him I realized that there was so many unique offerings at places like Holy Cross and Harvard that Bucknell can’t provide. Sure we might be great in the areas I talked about but I learned from conversations with the recruit the whole weekend that I must open my eyes to things outside of Bucknell and possibly how I could implement them into my experience. It inspired me to go and talk to my coaches about different tweaks to a certain workout or gamely music/experience that the team and prospects would like. It was a great way to step out of my comfort zone and admit that other schools do great things in sports and academics as well, and it’s not bad to learn from them to make my experience the best it can be.

    Being Confident

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    The one thing I want to do in this class to break my personal norms is become more confident and speak out in class. In my life I am a very outgoing person who loves to be social and interact with all sorts of people, conversation doesn’t scare me. However in the classroom setting I can never find that confidence to speak up. I am usually quiet and hardworking which leads to good grades, but I never speak my mind. I have this fear of being wrong and looking dumb in front of the whole class, and I always second guess myself or know the answer and choose not to say it because I am thinking too hard. The introductory class today really resonated with me because it opened my eyes by being creative and having fun in a course instead of just worrying about if I am going to be right or wrong. Hopefully this different type of classroom environment will help me break out of my shell and participate more in class. There have been too many times where I have sat back and let other people say what I was thinking and contribute to the class, and I feel I can add value that I’ve been withholding.

    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)