TECHNOLOGY AND REALIZATION
T&R was one of the areas of expertise I wanted to improve myself in, as this area of expertise fits in well with my vision and who I am as a designer. I already had some programming knowledge about HTML and CSS and I also knew the basic commands of Processing. But I wanted to learn more about programming and also how to incorporate programmed systems into circuits. My goal was to build and program a working circuit from scratch by the end of this first year. I wanted to do this by challenging myself to use the knowledge I from the courses I participated in to create a working system in project 1.
Through the Creative Electronics course, I took the initial step to achieve this goal. In this course, I improved my basic knowledge of Processing and learned new commands. In addition, I also learned to program in Arduino, which is very useful if you are going to build your own circuit, and with which I was able to program my own interactive game in my final assignment. (Figure 1. A preview of the game I made)
Then came the Creative Electronics course. This is the profession that, in my opinion, has helped me the most towards my goal. By building a new circuit every week and studying the theory well, I was eventually able to design and realize circuits myself. This is what I did with great pleasure in the final assignment. In this assignment, I build a self-watering plant from scratch (Figure 2), by building the circuit, programming the system, and 3D printing the plant pot. In the coming year, I want to get a little better at this, as I hadn't drawn everything well and sometimes there were some problems.
Finally, Project 1 confirmed to me that I have learned new skills, but also that there is still a lot to learn. For example, in the project, I was able to build a camera scan system with the knowledge I have acquired in recent courses. I also learned a new programming language, Python. (Figure 3. Some of my Python code) In the upcoming years, I want to learn more about this and hopefully eventually be able to make my own Python program.
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CREATIVITY AND AESTHETICS
C&A is the expertise area in which I already have the most knowledge and abilities. I drew a lot in my years before graduating, but I also did graphic design and taught myself how to use Blender, a 3D software. In summary, I've already been quite creative before my studies and have learnt a lot about C&A. Still, I feel there is a lot more I can learn about it. For example, I wanted to learn more about designing professional and artistic posters and reports, since as a designer you want to show your customers what you have made. The appearance of a report or poster, in my opinion, tells a lot about your abilities as a designer. I intended to accomplish this goal by taking on the graphic design part of the projects and C&A courses. What I also wanted to learn is explorative sketching. I'm quite good at drawing and sketching, but that's mainly drawing from images, and I'd like to learn how to put your ideas on paper in a communicative and professional manner. I intended to learn this by taking the elective Exploratory Sketching, with the final goal of creating a professional sketch of a personal project.
I certainly met my first aim by dedicating a significant amount of time to the visual design of our products, posters, and reports during courses such as From Idea to Design and Project 1. I learnt a lot about creating aesthetic and professional posters and reports, especially in Project 1, where I was titled "Creative Director". Figure 1 depicts one of these posters. What I still find challenging is communicating the goal of our project through the posters'/visuals' text. On the posters I've created thus far, I've just included our pitch and quote, but I believe there is much more to be gained from it. Communicating your goal is critical if you want to persuade your consumers, that’s why I'd like to learn more about it in the upcoming years.
My other goal was achieved thanks to the Exploratory Sketching course. Which was one of the most enjoyable courses I followed. I attended this course with great delight since I already had some abilities in the subject of drawing and wanted to learn more about it. I learnt a lot, and my final aim of creating a professional sketch of a personal project was definitely met. Figure 2 depicts this sketch. In the following years and projects, I hope to develop this talent even further so that, as a designer, I can visually communicate my ideas to my clients.
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USER AND SOCIETY
U&S was one of the areas of expertise in which I had only a little experience. I once conducted a survey in high school, but it didn't amount to much. Something that has taught me a bit more about U&S is that I once created a website for a client. This taught me how to work with a client, which was something I wanted to gain more experience with. I was also interested in learning how to do user research and how to incorporate the user and society into my analysis. Finally, I wanted to learn how to do user research when starting a project. I intended to accomplish this by employing a specific set of users in Project 1 during the early phase of the project.
Thinking about the impact on users and society, as well as integrating diverse types of users in research, is something I learned from both of the USE courses I took. These courses have provided me with an introduction to the field of User-Centered Design. This is an extremely important design method to understand as a designer because you are designing for the user and must base your ideas on what the client wants. The analysis I conducted with my group in the USE course Sustainability Challenge is available via the link at the bottom of the article.
When considering the user and society, ethics is also extremely important. I also learned a lot about this in both USE courses and included it in my analysis. However, I believe I can learn a lot more about User-Centered Design and ethics in the following year when following my USE Trajectory.
Unfortunately, I was unable to accomplish my goal of doing user research in Project 1. During the project, we focused less on the user and more on realizing our concept. In retrospect, I wish I had concentrated more on the user. As a result, I would like to achieve this goal in the following project, Project 2.
MATH, DATA AND COMPUTING
M,D&C was an expertise area in which I lacked experience and understanding, but I wasn't a total novice either. Of course, there is the obvious explanation that I took Mathematics in high school and so had prior understanding of math. However, I regard this area of skill as more about interpreting and using data through various tools and algorithms. Because of the computer science course in high school, I had worked with a database a few times, so I already had some experience interpreting and using data. However, I wanted to learn more about data and its application. For example, it seemed interesting to me to apply the skills and data I would acquire in my first year to a project.
Calculus and Applied Physics have, of course, brought me one step closer to my goal, as these courses teach you not just various helpful formulae, but also how to use data in an exploratory manner. These courses undoubtedly helped me during the remainder of the year in the area of M,D&C.
One of the most crucial courses for my development in this expertise area was Data Analytics. This course taught me a lot about databases, data editing, and utilizing, analyzing, and visualizing data (see the link to a poster I made about a data analysis ). This expertise will come in handy when I need to do research for a future project and I need to utilize the research data. This is my immediate next aim. Using and visualizing data in Project 2.
Finally, there is also Project 1, in which I used a trained AI database to make our final product/prototype work (See link to report Project 1). This has taught me a new method to work with data, and I believe it would be great to start working with data more in the subject of AI next year.
BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
B&E is an area of expertise in which I have no prior experience. I didn't study anything about business or entrepreneurship in high school, which is crucial if you want to promote your product as a designer. My long-term objective is to build a business based on one of my developed products, so learning more about this will be quite beneficial. As a result, I was keen to learn more about how to investigate market potential for a product you intend to market. But also how you determine how much a product will cost to manufacture and how much profit it will provide you afterward. Since I had no intention of choosing a B&E elective this year, I was hoping to learn more about this during Project 1.
Unfortunately, I was unable to contribute much to my goals during Project 1 since we mainly concentrated on marketing in the last stages of the project. What I did learn is how to create a Business Model Canvas and what factors to consider while marketing your product (Figure 1 shows the Business Model Canvas we created).
Unfortunately, I have not been able to develop myself much further in the expertise area of B&E. As a result, in the second year, I want to learn more about business and entrepreneurship, for example, by taking the Introduction to Business Design course. In my forthcoming projects, I'd like to focus more on the business side of things and grow my knowledge in this area.
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