Friday, April 29, 2011

The Deep dive

1. “From the buildings in which we live and work, to the cars we drive, or the knives and forks with which we eat, everything we use was designed to create some sort of marriage between _____form__________ and ____function_____________.”

 
2. The folks at IDEO state that they are not experts in any given area. But, they do claim to be experts on the ____Process of how to design stuff_________, which they apply to the innovation of consumer products.

 

 

 
3. After the team of designers is brought together, told the problem, and informed they have five days to “pull it off,” what phase of the design process do they immediately engage in?
  • Brainstorm
  • give useful comments.
  • Come up with ideas
4. Give two examples of what the team members did during this phase.

 
a. Give info and facts about the problem.
    
b.Brainstorm, and work as a team(teamwork)

 

 
5. List five rules-of-thumb that IDEO employees follow when they share ideas during the brainstorming phase:

 
a. One conversation at the time
 
b. Stay focused on topic
 
c. Encourage wild ideas

d. Defer judgement

e. Build on the ideas of others

 
6. Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?

  •  Because out of wild ideas, they come up with brilliant ideas.
  • And if there were only normal ideas, they wouldn't be able to do something cool or extraordinary.
 
7. After the brainstorming phase was over, the team narrowed down the hundreds of ideas by _____voting________ for those ideas that were not only “cool” but also ___Buildable______________ in a short period of time.

What phase of the design process is this called?
Enlightenment trial and error.

 

 

 
8. IDEO believes that the ideas and efforts of a ___Team         will always be more successful than the planning of a lone genius.

 

 
9. Once the ideas were narrowed down and divided into categories, the group was split into four smaller teams. What phase(s) of the design process was each of these groups responsible for?

  • Shopping
  • Safety
  • Checkout
  • Finding stuff you need

 
10. The leaders at IDEO believe that ___a playful_____________ behavior and a ___fun_________ environment are two important reasons why their employees are able to think quickly and creatively to produce innovative results.

 

 
11. Sometimes, people come up with great solutions that work by trying their ideas first, and asking for _____opinion____________ later.

 

 

 
12. Design is often a process of going too far and having to take a few steps back. What phase of the design process would the critique of the four mock-ups come under?

re-finding and communicating results

 
13. Upon critique of the four teams’ models, it was obvious that none of the teams had developed an optimum solution. However, the people at IDEO believe that it is important to ____fail_________ often in order to _____succeed________ sooner.

 

 
14. What percentage of the entire week’s time did it take to fabricate the final prototype?

 
1 day - 20%

 

 
15. Instead of showering his design team with a tremendous amount of praise, what did the boss require his employees to do with their new design?

 

 Improve on there design

 

 
16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?
  • human body
  • nature

 
Conclusion

 
1. What did you find to be the most impressive part of the team’s effort?

  •  Everyone worked as a team an had fun while doing it.
  • No one criticized ideas.
  • The final product looked cool was effective and very successfully.
2. What advantages are there to having a design team with members that have non-engineering backgrounds?
  • Crazier ideas.
  • Ideas engineer wouldn't come up with.
  • Provide more info. from each person from a different field.

 
3. There was a point in the process where a self-appointed group of adults stepped up, stopped the ideas, and redirected the group to break up into teams. Why was this done?
  • So they could get more ideas in a faster range of time.
4. At the end of the video, Dave Kelly states, “Look around. The only things that are not designed are the things we find in nature.” Can you think of anything that would contradict this statement?
  • No, because everything is done by thinking, even minor things. Only nature is not engineered.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Glider challenges

1) An image of your completed glider design.




2) Your Glider Challenge: Design Phase notes.

1) What's the challenge?
Make a glider that can fly farthest and have longer hang time than the others
2) Brainstorm solutions:
-What are the rules of brainstorming? (oxymoron)


  • Collect as many ideas as possible from all participants
  • All ideas are welcome no matter how silly or far out they seem
  • Be creative
  • The more ideas the best
  • Do not criticize or judge
-List your ideas
  • Make a plane not a glider.
  • Make it small.
  • Make it so it will have a lot of wing span. 
3) Specify:
-Criteria
  • Use only the provided material
    • 1 thick stick about 20 inches long.
    • 2 thin sticks about 38 inches long.
    • 1 medium stick about 40 in inches long.
    • 1 thin piece of paper. 
  • Only three days to build it
-Constraints (be specific about materials available)
  • Just a few pieces of wood
  • Some paper for the wings
  • Exacto knife
4) Develop Solutions:
-Sketch (with labels)











-Model in CAD

This is the rough draft of my team's plane.






 














4) Your Glider Challenge competition day results. How did your glider perform? What would you change if we competed again?
  • My glider preformed under expectations, but didn't do so bad.
    • It was second place in farthest distance.
    • It was second place in longest hang time.
  • If I could do it again I would:
    •  Make it a Glider instead of a normal plane.
    •  Add more weight to the front.