This week, we had a fun and interactive session at Fab lab.
At the first half of the class, we were divided into two groups: one group learned laser cutting, and the other group worked with the circuit. Next week, the two groups are going to switch so that every student can study all the skills. I joined the circuit group for this week. Although I have some experience with the circuit in my high school, I haven’t touched it since my freshman year, so it was a relearning process for me. Previously, when I connected items, I always used soldering. This time, the process was less messy; we used electrical insulation paper instead. The output was pretty cool; when the orientation shifted between horizontal and vertical, the lightbulb would turn on and off.
In the second half of the session, we were broken into research groups and developed further with our ideation. Since we have come across three themes from the last class, we drew our ideas down visually in this week’s lesson. While we brainstormed, the TA instructed us to consider different situations and how our designs would be altered depending on the circumstances. I regarded this as a handy reflection tool. Before I thought about various users and various occasions, I was envisioning very generally, and this exercise helped me to think of extreme users and consider ways to make the ideas applicable to more users. For instance, for the idea of designing something to assist people in grabbing objects, I initially drew a ring for people’s middle finger to cross. After rethinking how seniors and children would interact with the design, I shifted the model to look like a glove so that it could accommodate people with less strength and they wouldn’t need much physical or mental power to control.
After the brainstorming, our group focused on working on one prototype: how to enable people to see what’s behind them. We thought of an object that could stick to the arms of the wheelchair so it could be stable, and then this object could be expanded and adjusted to different heights based on the users’ preferences. When users don’t need it, it could be folded easily to minimize the space it occupies. On top of the object, the users could attach mirrors, phones or tablets to it based on their preferences, and this could let them be able to see what’s behind them.
On Sunday, we had an interview with a PA at Beckwith and shared our ideas on different themes and our prototype. He gave us much feedback on how the topics that we discovered were impacting people’s lifes currently, how people were dealing with them, and how he perceived those ideas would apply to the students. We altered our design based on his comments. For instance, for the model to assist people in grabbing objects, he mentioned how some people don’t have strength in their fingers or the fingers may be shaped differently. Thus, we decided to make the glove only cover the palm part of the hand. Also, we realized that the traditional look of the glove might be hard for people to wear themselves. As a result, we designed it to be open at the side with the zipper.
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/
Hi Huan,
I like your creativity in your prototype. When I first started reading, I was wondering whether it was going to be a mirror or camera, etc. As I continued reading, I realized that the wheelchair user would have the opportunity to choose what they would like to use for this feature. I think one thing to keep in mind is the strength and size of the attachment, i.e. tablets are a lot bigger and heavier than mirror or phones.
Huan,
I was also in the electrical light circuit group for class last week. I am curious how you soldered in your freshmen year high school class! That sounds awesome.
As for your project, I think your take away from the brainstorm session was exactly what was intended. A huge part of the design process is to think of extreme users and consider ways of making ideas applicable to more users. Which is exactly what you took away! Your thought process is also very impressive, shifting the model to look more like gloves so that it could accommodate people with different levels of strength and mental power since we were to think about both seniors and young children.
Hi Huan,
I really like how creative your group got with your rapid prototyping! It’s reallt smart to use cheap materials. I like how you decided to use pipe cleaners as I always forget they are a good material to prototype with.
Hi Huan,
Your team got a lot done this week. I like how you guys kept your initial prototypes very simple and basic, by just utilizing things like paper and paper clips. It seems like the scope of your project has a lot of depth. It would be interesting to see how the finished product turns out.