Week4 – Page 2 – Spring 2019 -Digital Making @ the Illinois Makerlab

February 10, 2019

Week 4 – Learning from Observations and Reflections

This week, we learned from expert Mike from a startup named EarthSense, strengthened the connection in our team and started to conduct research and gather information. I have gained many meaning insights and am planning to investigate some areas to further my understanding.

In the class, we first had a session with Mike from EarthSense. I have always known the importance of applying users’ feedbacks into adjusting the design, yet it was different to see a rich example and hear the story behind it. Adjusting one area would affect the previous setting in other areas. Therefore, a perspective of system thinking would be very critical. When the designer knows all the possible impacts, the design can consider all factors and is configured in a way that meets all the requirement. As a business student who has some new product development experience, I kept wondering how to make the products to be successful and have more adopters if I were a part of the team. I recognized some crucial points were to understand the problem it was solving, the pinpoint about people’s adoption behavior and the need to design the introductory marketing, pricing, and packaging plan in a way that could lead the product to cross the tipping point. Hearing the design side of the product, I realized understanding the design side of the product gave me more ideas to brainstorm.

After the talk from Mike, we came up with our team name and designed the logo. Since our focus is design, Saloni saw an opportunity by checking synonyms of “design,” and we decided on Blueprint to be our team name. Then, the designing logo part was the hardest part. We brainstormed about possible configurations and implications associated with the word. As I drew possible designs, I came across the idea to combine B and P together since they both have a round part. However, when I pulled it on paper, it didn’t look good. At that time, my group member encouraged me to configure the design on the software to see the effect. After I did that, I found it actually looked better than what I expected. Learning from the failure in the scratch, I intentionally enlarged the side of P so that the letter P could be differentiated from the letter B. We all loved it and it became our logo. I asked a couple of my friends to guess the meaning of the logo after class, the fact that they got the implication right confirmed me that my design worked. This made me aware that it worth a try to further test the idea and follow the instinct. Next time, I should stick to the idea a little bit longer before I give up too quickly.

Scratch

Our Team Logo

After class, our team began our research by interviewing people who have more experiences than us. One key idea that I learned was the significance of equal accessibility. Previously, I was immersed with the concepts of accessibility and affordability, and now the idea of “equal” just made me contemplate more. The meaning of equality is not to provide the same resources to everyone. Rather, it is to provide resources to people in a way that everyone would be on the same level after the assistance. This would mean that we would need to give more opportunities to some people who started at a lower level. Knowing the difference in resources that people begin with can lead to a better design that will enable everyone to be on the same level.

Huan Wu

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/

February 10, 2019March 18, 2019

It’s not about how many times you fall, it’s about how many times you get back up

EarthSense, Inc.

EarthSense Educational Video

This week in class we had the opportunity to listen to a University of Illinois Alumni, Mike Hansen. Mike studied Industrial Design here at the University of Illinois and now currently works out of research park as a Freelance Designer for EarthSense, Inc. Mike began his talk going in-depth on what EarthSense does as a company. EarthSense is a “true start-up” with under 10 employees that work tirelessly to develop their machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics to assist farmers in gathering data to better understand their crops. EarthSense’s mission is to create an easier way for farmers to understand the health of their crops without having to bust their backs and rummage through the dirt to gather the information they need. After the background of the company, Mike told us more about his job as an industrial designer for these products that are always being developed and innovated. With a product that is on the frontier of innovation in this market, Mike is always making and altering aspects of the design to the robot. Since Mike does so much iteration with his designs he told us about the importance of his 3D printing skills. With 3D printing, Mike is able to conjure up ideas and create a physical product to test in fractions of the time for fractions of the price. Mike helped me really helped me understand not only the importance of iteration when developing a product but also being willing to fail often and fast.

Building a Brand

For the remainder of class Professor Vishal tasked our teams to come up with a team name and logo. My team and I really had some fun creating our brand. When trying to figure out the name for our company we tried to go with a name that related to fluidity and movement. After twenty or so minutes of deliberations, we decided on MOVI. MOVI is short for “moving” because beyond our one product we want our brand to represent motion, so we can help all with prosthetics move better. When thinking about our logo we decided to go with a triangle. The reason we wanted to do a triangle was that triangles are the strongest shape in the world. It is a symbol of strength and structure and when creating our products, we want our brand to represent fluidity and strength. After we created our name and logo we had our first opportunity to work with the 3D printers. It was a lot of fun designing our brand and seeing a physical copy of our idea no more than 30 minutes later.

Meeting with Jenna

In our meeting with Jenna, we were able to get a head start on gaining a user perspective on our product. Before we decided to move forward with our project we need to make sure this was a product she not only felt like she needed but also wanted. Our protective knee pad needs to have important specifications to fill the requirements of a useful product. We talked about the importance of compatibility, light-weight, easy attaching and detaching. Finally, to gauge interest in potential future consumers, we wanted to bring a customizability aspect into the product. Since we will be 3D printing our product, we had an idea of engraving tattoos and designs into the protective cover. Moving forward, we need to get a scan of Jenna’s leg to be able to get accurate measurements for our design. I am looking forward to our progress on our project and designs in this upcoming week.

Ryan Kane

My name is Ryan Kane, and I am a senior graduating in the spring of 2019 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Gies College of Business. I have a double major is both Supply Chain Management and Information Systems and Information Technology.

February 10, 2019February 10, 2019

Week 4 Reflection

After constructing a better research with our team, this week, we had an opportunity with Micheal Hansen from Earth Sense. Micheal showed us his story at his work. He didn’t just showed us a series of prototype models he created at EarthSense, but he focused on how he came to these conclusions. He told us how first hand research helped him to come to conclusions he never imagined to happen. He went out to the agriculture sights and interviewed users to collect data. And through his first hand experience, he told us how he went from this square block into a more slim down organic shaped vehicle called Terra Sentia. I really like how he told us to first hand experience and think broadly before we start narrowing down to one product.

Similar to Micheal’s story, we had to watch a video about the importance of analogous research. Analogous research is a research method where people use a disruptive and risky eureka moment to get inspired and design a product. Unlike other methods, analogous research does not have any usability test and it only depends on the vague similarity between the two topics. For an example, people who want to work on a beauty product will go experience in a lumber factory. After multiple of these experience, the group will collect the data and come to a conclusion. I feel like our team are in need for an analogous research.

This week, we used the 3d printer for the first time. We used a 3d modeling tool called the Tinkercad to create our group name, Movi. Our name was created after the word, movement. This is why we have a a triangle shaped in a shooting star that signifies movement. When we were creating our logo, we really liked the program, but we all agreed how the program lacked creating organic shapes. Our project, the knee pad, is an organic shape and I think the Tinkercad is a good start, but we need to learn a program that will be able to mold a more organic shape

So far, I thought our group were ready to create prototypes and start hand making our project. However, after this class and video, I think our team still needs to conduct more experiments. To do this, first we met our mentor Jenna on Friday. And hopefully we will get in contact with more people with prosthetic leg through her in the future. Also, I think our group should go ice skating to experience how it feels to fall on slippery ice. I feel like this will give us a eureka moment to extend our thoughts.

Jae Lee

February 10, 2019

Unearthing our Project Focus

This week started with the finalization of our project scope: addressing the difficulty of balance for Jenna, especially when she’s doing yoga. Our team definitely rallied around this idea and we’re very excited to work with her.

In class, we had the privilege of hearing from an employee of the start-up Earthsense. He explained how his company has overcome challenges from their first version to the version they are about to release. They 3D print some of their parts, and the number of iterations he had done for certain small sections of the robot were incredible! It was great to hear about his “failures” and his experience with design thinking. It was very reassuring to hear him speak about the prints he made that once in action did not meet the user’s requirements. I think it made the approach to designing for a user less intimidating, because all of the failures help add to the end success

Also, we got to print for the first time! After learning the basics of Tinkercad, our group met up to decide on a team name. Understanding that our real goal goes beyond just the yoga application, but truly targets Jenna’s balance, we decided on the name 3D-Bal (short for balance). We thought this encompassed our goal and was a fun, easy name to stick with through the semester. We created our logo, which shows the Bal “balancing” on top of a 3D sphere (see below).

Design of logo mid-print
Design of logo post-print, with supports

This was the first time I had been in the MakerLab, and the first time I had ever printed something that I helped design. It was a very cool process to see the ideas in your head come to life within minutes. I think that that is the true value of 3D printers – you can immediately bring your ideas to life to understand them better in the space you are going to use them. When an object is just a 2D sketch or on a computer, it is a lot more difficult to understand the object’s intricacies. However, when you can bring a quick prototype to life, you really understand how it plays in the space that it is in.

Looking to next week, we are going to go more in-depth on our research with Jenna and other stakeholders to better understand the opportunity we are looking at from their perspectives. Hopefully this lends itself to increased design potential for our group!

Samantha McClary

February 10, 2019February 10, 2019

Week 4: First Touch in 3D Printing in the Course

Inspiration to Ideation

Inspiration continues and shifts toward the ideation phase this week. Starting with a pre-class research plan, we developed the opportunity statement into a complete research plan. We spent a lot of time thinking about the various contacts we could reach to learn more about how to turn our idea of opportunity into a real product. Much more details and research is needed around the areas we have almost no experience in – the life of wearing a prosthetic leg and practicing yoga. We must first confirm that what we learned from Jenna in our first group interview was something actionable. Therefore, we decided to contact Jenna this week, but we just got in contact with her yesterday and had not yet asked her the questions we have in plan. After learning from Jenna, we would like to learn the restrictions in yoga that may prevent our target users from achieving the goal of reaching balance in yoga. Last week, I found a link about the organization that teaches yoga to people with prosthetic legs. If we can get into contact with this organization, I think our learning about yoga and prosthetic legs can be much deeper.

Learning from Failures

This week in class, a guest speaker, Mike Hansen, from EarthSense came to give a presentation on the ideation and creation process of their products. During the presentation, I found a few things that are exceptionally inspiring. He talked about the numerous failures of design models that he had for the camera cap. In this sense, I found that it is extremely important to rapidly try out the ideas in prototypes and not afraid of failures because every failure brings a new lesson learned and allows us to improve the product design. I also found it useful to allow early stage user feedback to improve on the product.

Early stage users of EarthSense product, different things that EarthSense can improve on

First 3D Printed Product – Team Logo

This week in class, we were asked to come up with a team name and logo. As inspired by our team’s opportunity statement, we decided to have a team name that represents a 3D product created for balance, so we named ourselves as 3D Bal, which Bal stands for balance.

3D Printing record: Halfway through printing the entire logo

We used tinkercad.com for the 3D design of the model and added lots of supports before cleaning. Looking at the logo being printed, it feels like a baby is coming to life. Even though this is not the first time I 3D printed an object, the feeling of excitement was still there.

3D Printed logo With Supports

After printing, I cleaned out most of the supports, but there are a few supports in the alphabets “B” and “a” that I was unable to clean out due to their sizes are too small. I am excited about our actual product design.

3D Printed Logo after cleaning out most supports

Yingyi Wu

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.

February 10, 2019

MOVIng Forward

Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

Our speaker this week was a designer from the agricultural technology start-up, EarthSense, based in Illinois’ Research Park. EarthSense has developed an autonomous, compact robot that assists farmers in collecting data from their crops on the ground level. Through their talk, we got a first-hand look into how 3D designing and printing is used by companies in the real world. EarthSense started by designing a proof-of-concept device and then tested it with a few early adopters. From user interviews and watching farmers interact with the device, they were able to pinpoint what features to improve on in their next iteration. The big thing I took away from their talk is how many iterations the designers go through in order to come up with the final product. Our speaker showed us a picture of what looked like almost a hundred discarded 3D prints of versions of a camera casing used on the robot. This part was complex because it had to only work in one specific direction so that users could not accidentally install the part upside down. Moving forward on our own project, I realize how important it will be to make many iterations of our design in order to ensure we have the best possible final copy.

Starting to Print

After the presentation from EarthSense, we got together with our teams to come up with a team name and designed a 3D printed logo. Our team decided to call ourselves MOVI to symbolize the enhanced movement we hope to give Jenna through the design of a less-bulky protective cover for her microprocessing knee. For our logo, we wanted a design that conveyed movement, but also seemed sturdy and protective. We decided to use shrinking letter sizes to give the appearance of movement and surrounded them with a triangle so that they looked protected,

Working with Jenna

Later in the week, we got a chance to sit down with our mentor Jenna and discuss our ideas with her. Since I missed the first class session, this was my first time meeting Jenna in person and seeing her prosthetic limb. We started by getting a better understanding of our design problem. Jenna currently has a prosthetic leg cover (pictured below) that she uses to protect her microprocessing knee. The cover is sturdy, but it is too bulky on the back side of her leg and is heavy. This limits her range of motion with her leg. Our idea was to design a lighter weight protective pad that Jenna could wear to protect her leg, while still maintainig her range of motion. When we pitched this idea to Jenna she seemed very excited and we started to brainstorm potential ways to approach our design. All in all, it was a great meeting and I am excited for our team to begin workshopping solutions.

Nathan Gaertner

I am a Senior majoring in Finance with a minor in the Hoeft Technology & Management Program.

February 10, 2019February 11, 2019

Fail Early and Fail Often

This week’s guest speaker was from EarthSense, which is a start-up on U of I’s Research Park, and he shared his process of designing a prototype. I was intrigued by his acceptance–and even welcoming–of failure. Personally, when I fail, I am very hard on myself and tend to give up. However, the presentation made me realize that failure is critical to the design process.

EarthSense presenting on the design process.

One piece of advice we were given is to “Fail Early, and Fail Often.” The sooner you fail, the quicker you can alter your product. The more often you fail, the better your product will be because with every failure, you can improve your product even more. I can relate to this because I am pursuing a career in Market Research. Thus, I have to connect with the consumer and understand their preferences and may have to alter products based on consumer feedback.

The second half of class this week was spent creating a logo for our teams. My team named ourselves Solestice, as we are creating a tread to attach to the bottom of shoes that facilitate walking on snow and ice. We 3D printed a logo, which you can see in the picture below.

In addition to class this week, my team conducted some secondary research to see what other products are on the market related to treads for ice and snow. I found an article that describes the Top 10 Best Traction Cleats for Snow and Ice. I realized that there are some products similar to what we wanted to create. However, to differentiate from these products, we will create treads that also have a soft sole in order to increase comfort when walking for prosthetic users. I am excited to start designing a prototype of of tread!

Emma Bradford

Hi there! I am a Senior studying Marketing and Information Systems/Information Technology. I chose to take this course in order to expand my creative and design thinking skills that I can apply to my future career. I am grateful that we are provided the opportunity to take this course as Business majors.

February 8, 2019February 8, 2019

Progress Doesn’t Always Mean Walking Forward

LESSONS FROM THE FIELDS.

This week, we were back at the Maker Lab solidifying our inspirations and ideas. We were able to confront a collective fear together: failure. Many of us had expressed fear of failure, and while I had not done so publicly, it was a thought that has always been floating around in the back of mind too. We had the incredible opportunity to talk to an UIUC alumnus, Mike Hansen, from EarthSense, a startup dedicated to using autonomy, software, and innovation to revolution agriculture data collection. Mike came in prepared with stories of failure after failure to share with us, and he showed us how failures stacked up into successes and solutions. He showed us how failures can be unintentional successes with the way that the camera guard he made only allowed the camera to be installed a single way, which later became a needed feature when considering different assemblers of the TerraSentia he designed. It was one thing to be told to “try again and again until you succeed,” but hearing Mike’s actual experiences helped make it click for me. I realized that it really was okay – and actually expected! – to have failures in the process of innovation.

Mike Hansen telling us about failures and different innovation mindsets.

TINKERING AROUND.

After, Mike’s talk, we split off into our groups to discuss a team name, the direction our product will go in, and a team logo. My team, previously Team 1, had a very difficult time coming up with a name, and cycled through various varieties of OnTread, Solestetic, other obscure words, etc. Yet, eventually, taking inspiration from a previously vetoed name, we settled on the name Solestice. Solestice is a portmanteau of the words ‘sole,’ referring to the bottom of a shoe, and ‘solstice,’ an astronomical phenomenon that occurs twice a year. Our hope for this project is to create an attachable tread for prosthetics users to use when walking on ice and other similarly slippery terrain. Afterwards, we created a logo which resembles two triangles stacked upon each other, slightly misaligned and familiarized ourselves with the Tinkercad program through modeling said logo and 3D printing it on one of the machines present in the Maker Lab.

MOVING.

As we wrapped up our team name, we discussed a plan to meet with our mentor Jenna, a prosthetic user, once again to make sure that the direction we take our product in is user-centered and truly something prosthetic users can and want to use. We will definitely take the new mindsets we have learned throughout each class – that of user-centered design and not viewing failure as a taboo – and apply it to our own research and development process!

AJ Poe

Salutations! I’m a sophomore studying accountancy who likes to create some art on the side (yes, I’m one of those photographer/poet/all around artist people). My passion is in advocating for equity, and I probably spend a little too much time on Hulu.

I am a part of Team Solestice with Trevor Sibby and Emma Bradford.

wwww.artemiskid.weebly.com

February 7, 2019

Making Things!

We finally got around to making things! And it happened fast. This week was focused on design methodologies and thinking about the design challenge specifically. On the surface, it appears that there are endless use cases of 3D printed things for wheelchairs. However, it is crucial to take the mechanics into account. Wheelchairs are currently constructed from a set list of components, which are typically some sort of metal, and most of the time, the wheelchairs already come assembled. This way the user is never truly able to understand all the components that make up his or her wheelchair, causing issues when it comes to maintenance and repair. Our initial idea of an IKEA styled wheelchair was unfortunately discarded due to the lack of feasibility. We do not possess the resources or ability to rebuild a wheelchair from the ground up in this fashion.

After some deliberation, we ultimately decided that it will be best to narrow in our focus on personalization of wheelchairs. Currently, most wheelchairs come quite standard and can only be customized through the purchase of accessories. We then thought about which user group to target and decided to target younger wheelchair users. Obviously, it can be quite difficult as a child in a wheelchair because of how many activities become more difficult or even impossible to partake in with your peers. Hence, we are now looking to 3D print wheelchair accessories catered towards kids. It will allow them to add individuality to their wheelchair and express themselves through a new medium.

Michal Cymbalisty