SPIDER DIAGRAM:

These spider diagrams represents what I feel at the end of week one and the beginning of week 2. Comparing how my feelings changed throughout the project.

week one  – PEACH

week two – BLUE

MIDWEEK BLOG (WEEK 2)

The whole group is on the second week of the project. Reflecting back on the first week that we had done, I feel that the whole group had done well and are completely up to date for all the things that we have to do for the project. With the start of the second week, are main goal is to continue working and finishing our research that would contribute towards the concept phases of our project. From Monday to Wednesday, the whole group had focus on creating personas, doing empathy mapping and thinking about the layout that we are going to be using for the portfolio that we are going to be submitting.

In doing the things above, I felt that the minds of the group members had been more open about the problem that we are tackling. It helps in narrowing down and simplifying this ‘wicked problem’ that we have. I found the whole process of role playing, and empathizing with the people that we are going to be designing the place for is quite fun and eye opening, looking at the world at a different perspective.

Overall, I felt positive about the things that the group had done so far this week and the goal for the rest of the week would remain the same. However, I feel that we are slightly behind schedule with the interviews and that it should be a large priority for the whole group.

To sum it all up, apart from some things that has to be done as soon as possible, I feel that we had another positive week. Empathizing with other people and the role playing thing that we had done was a key learning experience for me this week. Before, I did not really see the importance of these things, but now I realise that in doing these things, it would offer me to open my mind more by looking at the world in the view of other people and would enable me to create better design through universal design. 

END OF WEEK BLOG (week 1)

As I have previously mentioned on my midweek blog, the initial goal of the group was to find out more about each other and do some background information gathering about our brief of enhancing the experience of pedestrians across the Queen’s Street and Victoria Street Crossing. After my mid-week blog, the whole group had just continued working on our goal of getting more information about the project. The rest of the week had been a reasonably straightforward, without any major things that happened. The initial barrier of working with new group members is mostly gone and the whole group are able to work efficiently and contribute freely to each other without hesitation.

This week, I felt that the whole group had worked very efficiently to ensure that we do as much as we can for the group project. Everyone had contributed well and I am happy about the team work that had emerged within the 4 group members. The group members were willing to cover for each other when they have other commitments which show the good teamwork of the members.

The key learning point for this week still continues to be working effectively together as group members. This allowed us to ensure that the initial stages of our project would go well and we stay on top of everyone else. The whole group also went to the site itself to do some investigation and for me, it was also a good learning point to consider that nothing beats research in coming up with a good design. We as a group are initially stuck for ideas but I feel that after some good research and actually going to the site, we were able to think more clearly and freely about the situation.

Again, overall I believe that the group’s effort at the end of this week was again a good one. Everything about the project is going well so far and this week had been a good week for us overall.

Midweek Blog – 25/07/13

It is again the start of another semester and therefore another project. This time, the project is going to be collaboration between different groups that had been assigned by our lecturer. The project that we are doing deals with enhancing the experience of pedestrian crossing across the Queen’s street and Victoria Street crossing. However, before going into doing the actual project, the initial goal for the group during the first week was to find out more about each other and to do some background information gathering about the issue that we are going to be tackling. Considering that this would be the first time our group members will be working together, this can be a potential challenge for us and therefore a good understanding of each other would be very ideal.

For me, I feel that finding more about other team mates was a good experience. Not only that you get to know someone more in depth, but this also ensures that you know what they can do and not which I find important when working in a group scenario. It felt slightly awkward at the beginning, trying to adjust to the new group members but in the end, it felt natural and that everyone started communicating well and shared good inputs amongst each other.

The initial research that the group had done was also good. I felt that the group had great teamwork together, sharing the work load and doing what everyone had to do. We had a good plan of action for the week and we stuck on schedule

Overall, this week had gone well and I believe that the group had done everything that had to be done to ensure a smooth project. It was a key learning point for me the value and importance to work with other people will with respect and the importance of having a clearly thought out research plan to make for a successful week