reflection

General Reflection

Overall, I have enjoyed this project, mainly the freedom and openendedness of the brief. From this I think that I was able to expand my design into more interesting forms and ideas,, conforming them to the specifications and criteria imposed at the beginning in my PDS. As well as this, the project brief encouraged me to consistently prototype, ending up with more protos than I would on other projects. As well as this, I’m very happy with the final prototype outcome. Although it was not made using the final materials or processes, I think that it gives a good representation of the general form and function of the product, and worked well in my video prototype.

Reflection on teaching and tutorials

I found the regular tutorials very helpful, especially meeting with the same group each time. It was nice to see the development of other peoples ideas, and I often used ideas that they brought to the table. The tutorial buddy system allowed me to focus on my presentation and verbal feedback, without having to take notes. This gave me good paperwork and allowed me to reflect on each tutorial. In future it might be helpful to have the same tutorial buddy at each session, so they would get to know your project in finer detail. Furthermore i greatly enjoyed the external tutorials, such as Ann Davidson’s tutorial on the business model canvas were great. It was a great way to gain first hand knowledge directly from industry experts taught in an engaging manner.

Documentation and workflow

On this project, I used a notebook to keep track, as well as keep a design journal as I was going along. I really engaged with this way of working as it added a sense of permanency to everything I wrote - meaning what I put down on paper should have been more clear and useful. I think I will continue this into future projects.

Improvements and thoughts for future projects

Prototyping • Creating many small prototypes was very effective, however I need to keep a better track of them (i,e. take more photos!). • Class collaboration was a great way to access quick feedback on my work. The use of a tally survey during my interim presentation gave me an instant answer to my question, and I could then proceed with the human interaction elements of my project. • In future, I should take the model to CAD sooner. This allows for a far easier time figuring out dimetions, and many components (e.g. rotary encoder & ESP32) are available to download highly accurate CAD models of. This would save me time measuring very small details, and

allow for more accurate initial prototypes (nothing fit in my first bottom housing print). Sketching and form development • Doing many rounds of form development was successful, as it allowed me time to think, iterating and developing new concepts. On the next project I need to use evaluation matrices in order to choose which forms to continue to work on. • Using lots of hand-drawn imagery looks good, however is not dimensionally accurate. Creating more CAD drawings allows far easier access to dimensions and fits when researching parts. GSA Resources • Towards the end of this project, I really noticed the lack of GSA resources available to me due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Particularly the electronics part of the workshop, the A3 scanners and the knowledge ot the technicians in both the Reid workshop as well as the casting workshop. This showed how much I relied on these resources them being available, and in future I need to plan in advance in case of other unforeseen problems that would limit my access to these facilities. • At the beginning of the project, I didn’t know the casting workshop was available to PDE students. In future projects I need to research and see what resources are available to help within GSA. An example of this could be the media library, which if it was open would have been a huge help in taking product photos and creating video-prototypes. Planning • Even though this was a long project, I still felt myself rushing a little at the end, and having to sacrifice either quality or quantity of work I produced. If I had better planned and set deadlines at the start of the project I might not have been in this mess. I started using monday.com in order to plan my work, however the free trial I had ended. In future I’ll use planning strategies such as GANTT charts to better manage my time and make sure I meet deadlines.

Final thoughts

I feel that I have improved greatly throughout this project and PDE3 as a whole. I have become more of a reflective learner, looking at problems in a method or prototype and creating variations and modifications in order to solve them more effectively. As well as this I have learnt to adapt to quickly changing situations and briefs, and still stick to deadlines whilst taking on extra work. This has helped improve my time management skills (well, created time management skills from nothing). Overall I have greatly enjoyed the entirety of PDE3, and it’s a shame that we cannot celebrate the end of the year in the traditional way due to the quarantine.