In week two, we met our mentors at DRES (Disability Resources and Educational Services). As I visited DRES and heard mentors’ stories, I was touched by many points.
The first thing that stood out to me was the mindset of this course. We called those people who were going to participate in our projects mentors instead of users. This seemed to be a small wording difference, but it implied different meanings: through the projects that we are going to work on for the semester, we are not working towards helping people who have needs or need our help; instead, we are learning from the experts who have more experiences than us. This is something that I have not thought about. Previous to this class, I have taken some marketing classes and a design thinking course, whenever we talked about the targets, we were using words such as users or customers. Although we talked about the importance of customization and strived for tailoring the ideas, products or services to the targets, we were using the mindset that those people need us to fulfill their unmet needs and wants. This made me ignore the fact that those people had more experiences than me in their lives. As I saw the athletes training, I realized that they were stronger and more perseverant than me, and what I am aiming to do should be learning from their experiences and coming up with something that can radically impact someone rather than some minor modifications that don’t matter much to people.
Another thing that moved me was the evolvement of the sports chair. In the room that athletes conducted training, I saw previous versions of sports chair hanging on the ceiling. I was surprised to see how the sports chair changed from very similar to the everyday chair to distinct from the everyday chair. Living in modern life, it seemed natural to me that what people used should be useful and excellent. Seeing all the sports chair reminded me that Rome was not built in one day; what we experienced today resulted from many people’s time and efforts. Just like the “iterate, iterate, and iterate” mindset in human-centered design, I should continually think of ways to improve the work to enhance people’s life. The sports chair also reminded me of the significance of “empathy,” another mindset of human-centered design. Adam, one mentor of our course, shared with us the story of how sports chair evolved throughout the years. In the beginning, the sports chair was designed by companies that didn’t consider the needs of the athletes. Thus, the sports chair had many issues that were not user-friendly. It was athletes who were using the chair pushed the design to be more friendly and useful. When I design in the future, I should always remember stepping in others’ shoes and empathizing with other people’s perspectives.
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/
I also learned a lot about empathy, as this is not something I have ever been formally taught as a Marketing and Information Systems major. I loved learning about the history of the racing chair–especially from Rob’s point of view. His resourcefulness that allowed him to create lighter, more affordable chairs was inspiring. I am so excited to see the way the different groups in our class utilize a similar way of thinking to find opportunities to make things that will impact people’s everyday lives.
Hi Huan!
After reading your reflection of our class on week 2, I found myself having similar takeaways from you. I agree that I found the values the course BADM 357 is designed around. I remember finding it especially motivating when I walked into the Illinois MakersLab the first day and seeing all the wonderful creations on display around the classroom. Not all of them are applicable as daily gadgets but artworks instead. Yet, they were encouraged to make the ideas into reality nonetheless and I found that particularly motivating. I was again inspired by the athletes at DRES building as you were as we visited them during class time. I look forward to design my product later in the semester and will remember to follow others footprints as you mentioned in your reflection.
I really like your perspective on the significance of mentors because it’s different from mine. I still believe that we are designing a product for “users.” It’s just that the mentors are not necessarily the users of the product. I think we call them mentors because like you mentioned, they are providing us with guidance, sharing knowledge and experience. Also, by calling them mentors, we are not limited to design a product for them. We are creating a product for users of our own choice. So I don’t think it’s wrong to call who we are designing a product for “users.”