The Process
Final Reflections
One of the focus of this project has been the continuous user involvement, at different stages of the research and design phases, with different methodologies of doing that.
Before moving to The Netherlands, I was a shy person. Always worried about what could people think about me, I used to be more an observer rather than a conversation starter. A designer should be always ready to observe, but also he or she should be ready to start an interaction looking for opinions and feedback from the world around him. The value of the continuous user involvement was important not only for the aim of the project but also for the definition of my personal identity. I like to think that with this project, and with this Master, not only my designer part has changed, but also my everyday attitude towards the world has changed. This is for me an important development, and it will be important for my future career as designer.
The amount of data that I have collected during this project was quite impressive, but by analyzing each step of the research with the appropriate method I felt more guided in this process. It has been a learning-by-doing process that I have appreciated. I have learned how to manage different kinds of data, from interviews to pictures taken by me and pictures taken by the participants, to feedback meeting had with different stakeholders.
By doing that I have felt the need create guidelines for myself for the translation of the data into values that could have been used in the conceptualization phase.
By a thorough analysis of my way of analyzing the data, I have created a set of topics structured to analyze the data gained in order to have a more organized and to the point method. I have created a card set meant to help me in the analysis of future interviews and to translate insights into values for the concept.
For the idea generation of the conceptualization phase, different techniques have been used. The card set has been used to connect insights and the insights have been translated into material explorations. The amount of data collected made the idea generation quite complex. Also, being alone, the analysis and the data extraction can become confusing and sometimes frustrating. Moreover, the topic was personal and quite abstract and extracting concepts has been a long process. But looking back at that moment, I am glad that I had the opportunity to feel confused about the direction to take. The analysis of the data gave me the opportunity to reflect upon the goal of the research at different stages and gave me the opportunity to be self-critical and never accept an idea until it was matching with the final goal and the users’ needs. Doing research alone I had to learn to never forget the aim of the research.
When I was experiencing this moment, I had feelings of confusion and frustration. But I have learned to look at design as a transformational process, where the responsibility of the designer is to make tangibles the qualities that will create this transformation.
Before thinking of the materiality of the final probe, I have designed the interaction. The interaction has been designed based on the roles extracted by the previous lo-fi probe test.
Concerning the shape, an initial shape exploration was made to look for a shape that had to result pure, neutral but also triggers the attention of the user. The starting idea was to have an object that could fit in someone’s hand, both for the size and both for the shape. The 3D was made with Rhino, and printed at the department of Industrial Design. The probe was printed with a white polymer and I did not change the color in order to give the idea of neutral aesthetics. The shape has been designed also based on the electronic components that I had to use to achieve the interaction considered.
The interesting thing about having the opportunity to design both the aesthetics of the object and both the electronics is that every decision taken by one factor would influence the other one. In my approach, I start envisioning what would be the aesthetics of it before thinking on the inside. This is because in my bachelor the focus was put on the external expression of the object rather than the internal functioning. But, by learning how to make use of electronics to create interactions, I had to change my perspective while designing. It is interesting to see that the internal part, the part not meant to be shown, has a crucial role in the definition of the aesthetics of the external part.