This week we went to the Fab Lab!! It was super exciting because I really enjoy going to the fab lab, and have made several laptop stickers there. It’s always nice to go there because if you could define creativity by a building, the fab lab encompasses it. Everywhere you look you can get inspired by the many things created within the space.
We started off with a general tour, and then we split up into groups to learn different things. My group worked on learning Inkscape, which is a great program to design in. While we were designing a watch, we learned how to use different tools in the program. I had fun playing around with all the colors and shapes and made the image below.
After coming together, we had a quick paced brainstorming session with our team. It was cool because Mehmet lead us through an exercise where we looking at our How might we statements from the perspectives of different users. This includes designing for an older person versus a child. It was interesting how the user we were designing for inspired us to think more out of the box.
Originally to help a user see behind them, I had thought about a video camera attached to the top of the wheelchair facing back, and a phone app allowing the user to see what is going on. When thinking about designing for someone older, I though that maybe they won’t use technology so I thought of attaching a mirror to one of the arm chairs looking back. Then when he told us to design for kids we were thinking and conversing when he came by. He said “think of designing for your niece or something.”
That made me think of my young cousin and how little she is, so she might need an attachable arm that can go up and down and hold the mirror so it is more at her height. It was really cool to see how thinking about designing for a specific person really helped me come up with something. This is the design that my team decided to prototype this week, which is really exciting as well.
To the left is a pipe cleaner prototype of the model, with the cardboard piece acting as a placeholder for a mirror. We think the pipe cleaners show the flexibility of the design and how it can expand to a higher level as well as collapse all the way down. Ultimately we think this flexible attachment might be able to hold more that just a mirror as well.
We are meeting my friend Brandon who works in Beckwith later today, so I am excited to see what he has to say about our ideas.
Hey Saloni, really great job with this post. I think you did a great job explaining what you learned at the FabLab as well as the progress on your project. I really like your pipe cleaner prototyping. It really shows your product well and seems like a great material to work with when making a prototype. Nice Job!
Hi Saloni, I think you presented what you have learned in the Fab Lab this week very well in your post. I think your presentation on your group’s progress on the project is very well done. It might be my problem that I did not have a very good understanding of your group’s project. I was thinking that for someone who is old, they may not see things very well. In this case, it is very important to consider this fact as well. It may be better to make the attachable longer and closer to the user.