This week, we had the privilege of having class in the FabLab with their employees walking us through the lab and introducing us to some of the tools. I have actually been to the FabLab many times before for a project in an RSO on campus. However, I have always stuck to the machinery I needed for that project, and had no need to branch out. Even though I have walked past this variety of equipment before, I had never used a lot of it. It has definitely put the lab in a new light for me. Emilie, Duncan, and Brandon did a great job giving a plethora of examples of projects that they have worked on or that they have helped others work on in this space.
The space itself is very welcoming and I appreciate their commitment to community programs and being open to not just students. The university is a huge resource to the surrounding community, but a lot of times it is “roped-off” to non-university residents. The FabLab is a part of a network of FabLabs that are really democratizing the maker movement and making it accessible to everyone, not just those who spend thousands on equipment.
One interesting project that I had seen some articles about was wearables. 3D printing onto mesh-like fabrics to create wearable garments is a new-er “trend” but it yields many applications especially in the medical world. Having a 3D printed brace that perfectly forms to you and goes on like fabric would transform a lot of recovery programs.
The project they had us work on to introduce us to some of the tools was a motion-sense watch. Essentially, a prototype of something that could monitor someone’s arm movements, which could be applied to someone completing out-patient physical therapy. Being able to track these movements would yield more accurate data on how effective the treatment is with and without the proper physical therapy. This was a fun project to work on and we will be completing it this coming week.
At the end of class, we participated in a brainstorming activity. The teams were to sketch ideas for their opportunities given different constraints: Design for the elderly, for children, with $0, and with $1B. These constraints definitely help you think outside the box and think with more tact for different users!
Finally, Jenna visited class at the end so that we could talk to her about our sketches and what she thought would work best for her. We learned that she does not mind if it doesn’t resemble a foot at all – as long as it works! We also got some necessary measurements for our design which we will be able to use when we start modeling our prototype in Fusion360.
Hi Samantha! I enjoyed your reflection posts this week. I think it is really cool that you have prior experience at the Fab Lab and I think that experience will really help us in our group project. I like how you related the Fab Lab to both the community and the University. Finally, I also found it interesting that Jenna does not mind that our product may not resemble a foot as that does open our product to many different ideas.
Hi Samantha,
I think it is really interesting how you found out that Jenna doesn’t mind if the product does not resemble a foot at all. If I were designing a product, I probably would have assumed that she would want one that resembles a foot and spend a lot of time designing for it to happen. However, through this conversation that you had with her, she clearly told your team that aesthetics is not as important as function, allowing the team to focus on what is really necessary. I think it is so easy to make assumptions on what the users would want but it is often found to be not true, which is why it is very important for us to interview and get to know them. It seems like your team is getting to know Jenna well and what it is that she would like to see in the product that you are coming up with, but I would further recommend you to maybe conduct focus groups with multiple potential users to gauge what they want. I think the more the opinions and thoughts you can hear and gather, the better the result will be for you and your team. Good luck with the project!