Because of the cold day, we met with Milestone Labs and the rest of the class virtually. They were still able to go through their presentation with us through sharing their screen, as well as we were still able to meet with just our teams through virtual break out rooms.
My group chose to highlight two of the experts, Ron and Ryan. Through our presentation we didn’t have that big of a solid grasp of an opportunity area, and wanted to engage in more conversation. Luckily we were able to listen to some of the answers Ryan gave to the questions Adam asked, which ultimately helped us decide on our opportunity area.
Ryan talked about how he wasn’t really able to do video interviews, as there was no way for him to set up a heavy camera by himself. This made us thinking about and attachable tripod to the wheelchair that could assist in an interview setting. This insight helped us think in an even broader sense of multitasking. The final opportunity described in one sentence is listed below:
How can we can improve the ability to multitask for people with limited mobility in their arms or are in wheelchairs.
Getting to this statement is really exciting because we weren’t really sure of a set opportunity area in the beginning of class or even when we were presenting. It was interesting to see what other groups were able to come up with as well, and how groups have chosen to focus on different areas.
Going forward I think we should interview the experts to see in what situations they multitask, as well as do research on common multitasking situations. We can also do research on tools that are used if someone can’t use their hands, as if a wheelchair user is using their hands to move forward, they won’t be available to do other tasks.
I am excited to keep working on this opportunity and see where it leads us!
After having the chance to meet with my team and discuss who we wanted as our mentor, it was an easy decision. Arielle was someone who each of my teammates connected with throughout our visit to DRES. With her experience as an athlete and starting her own business with the creation of racing gloves through 3D printing, she makes a perfect mentor for this project. After speaking with her more we understood that there is opportunity to improve the racing chairs. Creating wheels that have different handrails with better grip would allow for the gloves Arielle makes to fit with the wheel creating a more efficient stroke. As you can see in the photo below, hand rails for racing chairs are made of rubber, becoming slick with any undesirable weather conditions, such as rain or snow. This could also improve racing in normal weather conditions as well just by increasing the ability to hook the glove onto the wheel.
The potential issue with this solution is the possibility of increasing friction. Adam, Arielle’s coach, mentioned adding a complex texture to the wheels may be a great solution, but it is important to be aware for friction to be created between the gloves and new wheels. In order to avoid creating a less efficient handrail, we will have to go through multiple rounds of testing. Luckily, there are great resources at DRES and we will have the opportunity to test out the facilities that the athletes use during their training sessions. With all of that in mind, I am excited to pursue this opportunity in hopes to find a solution that can aid Arielle’s current gloves to create a better experience for the racers. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet in person due to the weather, I look forward to working with my team, Adam and Arielle in the upcoming semester.
Additionally, Arielle mentioned creating an app that would take pictures and create measurements of the hands to help her current business. This may not result in an actual product, but if we may have the opportunity to walk through mockups for an app to streamline her business. This may not be our main focus throughout the semester, but their is potential for learning, improving, and creating new opportunities outside of the classroom
This week was a little different from the previous weeks. Illinois experienced one of the coldest days ever. Therefore, we didn’t have class in person but instead online. The class was also different because we had guests from Milestone Studio Labs. The guests were present in class to hear our presentations and mentor us through the process of formulating a plan for our team project.
The presentation from the representatives of Milestone Studio Labs was interesting and different. From their perspective innovation is created by everyone and as a result, it takes on different forms. Some of us may go throughout our day without knowing that we are innovating to accommodate for some of our everyday needs. The design process in my opinion can be stressful because at least for me when I go through it I am always trying to find the next big idea. The exercise and presentation from the representatives helped me to realize that sometimes the “next big idea” can be something very simple and small.
My team was deciding between three projects to potentially work on and one mentor to work with, Ron Malik. After receiving feedback about our presentation, we decided to hone in on one of our ideas which is to create a D.I.Y. IKEA-like wheelchair. Since this project has such a wide scope and we have so little time we decided to reframe what aspects of the wheelchair will be D.I.Y. From listening to Ron and doing a little of our own research it became our goal to focus on the aspects of the wheelchair that is expensive and or most replaced. Like IKEA we also wanted to ensure that our product has an element of customizability for ascetics.
The suggestions from the representatives were very helpful. They emphasized how our main problem could possibly be the scope of the project. However, they seemed to really like the idea and encouraged us to refine our initial idea into smaller practical pieces. Looking forward is it clear that we have a lot of work ahead of us. Like I stated in my previous post, ambiguity is going to be something that we have to be comfortable with. Luckily we are all working in teams and we get to encourage each other throughout this journey.
Class this week was a
little out of the usual as due to the dangerously subzero temperature as a
result of the polar vortex, we had to have class through a different medium rather
than in usual in-person sessions. Professor Sachdev demonstrated to us on how
technology can solve problems even those imposed by mother nature by hosting
class online through video telecommunication software.
Professor Sachdev happily greets the class.
However, pre-class activities were delivered through the usual
method on our class website. From the videos on HCD, I learned that it is
important to record the elements that inspired us during our creation phase as
it would be helpful and useful to have references in the later stages. Perhaps
I was too caught up in the mentors’ amazing individual stories that I forgot to
take notes. Whatever the reasons were, I now know better and will for sure remember
to use all the tools at my disposal to record the moments and elements that
will inspire and guide my team in the future.
For our lecture this week, we were fortunate enough to be able
to have consultants of Milestone Labs to help guide us on transforming our
ideas into actual plans for our projects. The session was indeed interesting as
the consultants encouraged us to brainstorm throughout the class and eventually,
we were told to join breakout sessions with our team to further discuss our ideas
based on the pre-class videos and the materials presented in class. My team and I decided to settle on our Yoga
support extension based on Jenna’s personal story. Due to her unique situation,
she found it challenging when performing certain poses during her yoga class
and a simple detachable attachment would solve the problem and help her find
balance while performing those poses. It was reassuring to her the consultants
praise our idea even though it was a simple one.
I know that the extent of our idea may only be applicable to a
small group of individuals in the world. However, this does not change the fact
on how much value it can created for these individual users and add to their
experience of life overall. Furthermore, I can see this project only being a
starting product for a line of other gadgets that can be modified and crated
for individual users to assist them in different tasks. I know that myself and
my teammates are thrilled to work with our mentors for the rest of the semester
and work to make our idea come to fruition.
Week 3. This week to me is kind of mind-blowing. Starting from the pre-class readings, I started to feel regret of the previous group interview. With the time constraint, I did not get a chance to ask more in-depth questions as I would like to have a more in-depth understanding of the mentors’ experiences. I did not capture most of the things I see through photo during the site visit. Prior to reading the HCD reading, I did not notice the importance of capturing the things I see, hear, feel, smell and taste during the site visit. But I think there things that I did well from the previous week that allows me to define the opportunities from experts’ experiences, including listening patiently and taking good notes of mentors’ inspiring experiences that I heard. When there is a chance for us to have a more in-depth interview again with the expert who we are working with, I would start to apply the techniques I read from the reading to deepen my understanding of the situation and better define the opportunities available.
Milestone Labs Workshop
With the extreme weather of the past week, unfortunately, our face-to-face class time is canceled. Instead, we had an interesting online session. I really love how the consultants from the Milestone Labs guided us through the steps for design thinking to inspire us to get to our final opportunity statement. Starting with the discussion of the unmet social needs, I was shocked by how we, people, are so creative in overcoming the small problems that come into our lives and how simple the solution can be. Without complicated technology, each one of us can find a very simple solution to the challenges we faced during our daily lives. During the brainstorming session, I thought of something that I usually do when I am drinking hot water with a glass. I did not have any cup holders at home. When I wanted to drink hot water or tea, the cup got very hot. To solve this problem, I just grabbed a tissue to serve the purpose of a cup holder. The tissue absorbed some of the heat, so my hand did not get burned when I was holding the cup. I was so shocked when I thought of my real life example. I never realized, prior to this class session, that I was so creative in the way of making simple solutions to overcome my daily challenges.
After the brainstorming of unmet needs, we shared our desired mentors as a team. Before class, we were struggling in choosing a mentor and narrowing the opportunities down to one. During the presentation, we were inspired by the consultants from the Milestone Labs who seemed very excited about our idea of making a product that improves the balance of people with a prosthetic leg for recreational use, particularly in yoga, that can also expand to daily usage. Therefore, we went forward with defining this single opportunity. Going through the opportunity worksheet, we finally got to a single sentence opportunity statement:
To create an extension for prosthetic legs to increase balance, particularly in yoga.
Our idea of getting a surface area extension to help with balancing with the prosthetic leg is new that I did not find any related products online, but I found some benefits of doing yoga to people with prosthetic legs (you may click on this link to view more information regarding the benefits). With the benefits of yoga and our product to help make the more practices in yoga possible for people with prosthetic legs, we can encourage people with prosthetic legs to practice yoga and gain confidence in working out. I am excited with the opportunity we defined, and I hope to bring this idea to reality to encourage people with prosthetic legs to practice yoga and other excercises.
I am a student who’s currently studying accountancy and management of information systems. I am graduating this year and entering the MAS program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I love programming and accountancy as much as I love taking photographs and learning how to play the Rubik’s cube. I love trying out new things and learning new skills. Learning how to make accessible designs utilizing digital making skills is one of the new skills I learned.
This week we had one of the coldest days of my lifetime. We experienced the polar vortex. Temperature dropped so low that the Chancellor of the University canceled classes campus wide. Being the doers we are, the cold front didnt stop us from innovating. We held course digitally and got to get to know the creatives at Milestone Studios. They told us a bit about what they do. Each team was required to present the areas of opportunity gained from our mentors stories. Each team was given feedback and later went into an extensive brainstorming session.
We broke into breakout sessions with the mentors we met the week prior. The task was to really hone in on the problem statements. We did this by completing the challenge sheet provided by Milestone studios. After this activity we had a clear vision of specified areas we’d like to innovate.
My team and I were very moved by Jenna’s story. We really want our design to be driven by affordability and accessibility. We decided to move forward with the idea of designing a shoe tread that gives prosthetic users the ability to safely walk through snow, rain, and other inclimate settings. A tread for all terrain. Jenna stressed the complications of using her prosthetic even further. She was really behind our idea. The thought of a detachable thread for prothstetics could make all the difference for its users. Our opportunity statement is: “To create detachable tread attachments that can be used to travel in a variety of terrains.” Our device won’t be limited to just snow but all inclusive for users to maneuver through sand, uneven ground, and pretty much any terrain as previously mentioned.
I personally feel that we can create rea value for people with this potential product. Nearly every single one us of have experienced the inconvenience of issues with daily mobility. We all face a multitude of difficulties that surprisingly could benefit from such a product like the one we are developing. We have to do more research on a few things, and possibly some case studies, but we are in a good place. We plan to meet and get a few concepts down on paper. We’re designing with the user in mind and at the forefront. In the weeks to come we’ll work towards having fidelity models ranging from low-high. I’m excited for the future potential applications of this device we are developing.
It was so unfortunate that we had such cold weather last Wednesday, since Milestone Labs had come in to speak to our class. But despite the weather, we were still able to have a productive class via Zoom online. It was great to hear from Milestone Labs a second time, as they had video chatted with us previously in Disability + Relevant Design. The work they do is both inspiring and incredible. They seek to find super simple solutions to help people that have various physical limitations. What I enjoyed most about their presentation was how they talked about the evolution of glasses from being just a piece of assistive technology into something stylish and fashionable. It’s such a different way of thinking of something we take for granted every day. It got me thinking about what other areas of design can be improved in such a simple and seemingly obvious way. I would love the chance to explore this idea further!
Though we faced freezing weather that blocked the class from meeting in person, it did not stop us from continuing to explore the inspirations that we encountered the past week. With the representatives of the Milestone Studio Labs on a video conference with the class, we continued to brainstorm as a team regarding several ideas that we thought would improve someone else’s quality of life. From the stories that our mentors shared, we realized the significance of affordability and accessibility, which is why we decided that those two factors will be the center of our design. Whatever it was that we were designing, we wanted to ensure that it would be accessible to the people who we were designing for.
With that in mind, my team and I came up with three ideas that we possibly would want to explore further throughout the semester:
Snow/sand tracks for wheelchairs
DIY wheelchair
Shock-absorbing wheelchair
These ideas were inspired by the mentors and the stories that they shared last week. Although with their experience and knowledge, they are able to find ways to get around these problems, we wanted to make the process easier for them. As our professor emphasized, we were not trying to solve their problems. We wanted to help with improving the process and making it easier.
When we shared these ideas with the representatives of Milestone Studio Labs, they were very supportive, providing constructive feedbacks that raised our confidence. However, what I found to be even more helpful came after that. They pushed us, as a team, to identify an opportunity that we wanted to explore and design for. That is when I realized that without having a clear goal, the opportunity that we are pursuing after, we would not be able to design an effective product. I was ready to jump into designing a product when we haven’t even defined clearly the opportunity that we were hoping to address with the idea.
To identify an opportunity that we wanted to explore as a team, we went back to our core factors: accessibility and affordability. That is ultimately what we really wanted to provide for the people in need of a wheelchair. For this reason, we decided to explore the DIY wheelchair idea further. We wanted the users to be able to customize and replace the parts of a wheelchair as necessary. However, we also recognize the challenge with this idea. With the time and resources allotted to us, we probably will not be able to create a whole DIY wheelchair, which is why we are looking to begin with a part of a wheelchair that commonly requires a replacement. To identify such a part, we will need to do more research and talk with our mentors to gain an understanding, but now that we have the opportunity that we want to explore clearly defined, I am looking forward to where the design will lead to.
Due to the weather condition, we did a online session with the Milestone Labs and Professor Vishal. We used this program called Zoom and it was a enlightening experience for each group and it changed my mind in approaching our project.
I really loved how Milestone guided us through making our project step by step. Today, we went through ideation which I feel like it’s one of the most key steps when it comes to designing. As an industrial designer, we were told that the best design is when we have achieved to fulfill the needs of our target audience. Products that looks aesthetic and has no purpose is a terrible design because no one will use them. So, I really love how Milestone pushed us to collaborate between our groups through activities to clarify our target audience and project scope. Our group mostly focused on the need of the user and the feasibility that comes out from it.
With the help of Milestone Labs, we came to a conclusion to make a knee cap for people who are using prosthetic legs. We discussed that most prosthetic legs that have knee caps or protect them are four times more expensive than the ones without it. And with the help of our mentor, Jenna, we will further explore to minimize the cost and weight of the cap, so other people will be able to use it as well. This way, our product will be sustainable in the business as well.
Thanks to the online seminar, I feel like our group is much more confident going into week 4. Our mentor Jenna will help us figure out the dimensions of her prosthetic leg and try out our prototypes to find the best model. We will make 3d models of the buckle that goes around the knee, but we will try to make the cap using other cushion materials.
During week 3, we had an online session with Milestone Studios and our mentors to explore how to make a social impact. I was a little bit disappointed that we didn’t have the class physically, because we could have more interactions with the studio as well as our mentors if it were a face-to-face meeting. Still, I gained many insights from the class and now have a clearer view of what to do next.
We started the class by discussing unmet social needs. After seeing some examples of how people overcame those challenges, we were asked to brainstorm the problems that we had encounter in our life and how we overcame them. I was shocked by this activity. I have always considered myself to be a person who has creativity, yet during this exercise, I was unable to think of anything that fitted the criteria. I have had the cases where I identified the problems, yet the solutions that I found were usually too complicated, or I myself didn’t have the technical skill to realize them. Seeing the simple solutions in the examples, I reflected on my way of thinking. In the future, I should try harder to pinpoint the core of the problem so that I can come up with more affordable and more accessible solutions.
Another activity that led to many thoughts was writing the opportunity statement. This is related to the defining stage in the design thinking process. Two new words that I learned was analysis and synthesis. The analysis is breaking down complex problems into smaller, easier to understand pieces. The synthesis is combining small insights into whole ideas. We applied those two concepts when we created the opportunity statement. Filling in the statement, we sparked ideas that we didn’t consider before. Previously when we prepared the presentation slides, we had more plans for Ron and only a vague direction for Ryan. As we brainstormed the opportunity we could have with Ryan, we realized “improving the ability to multitask for people with limited mobility” would be an area with great potential. This idea could benefit not only people with limited mobility when they do tasks such as filming and drawing, but also the general public who may need to accomplish tasks with fewer limbs. In the class, we didn’t have the opportunity to talk with our mentor. Later, I plan to interview him in more depth. One technique that I think would be helpful is the conversation starter which we studied in the reading. I believe this would be an excellent way for us to see how our mentor reacts and we can identify more possibilities.
I am Huan Wu, a leadership-oriented undergraduate student studying Accountancy, Supply Chain Management and Information Systems/Information Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I chose to major in those areas because I am a person who likes to learn new knowledge continuously and take on challenges. The challenges bring me excitement, as I enjoy the feeling of using my expertise to tackle hard issues, find insights and initiate change. I believe having an understanding of different fields allows me to have a broader perspective when I look at issues in business. I aim at improving myself and learning skills to initiate change and make real impacts in the world in the future.
My LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/huan-wu-0507/
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