S.A.G.E: Design Detail Presentations

Hi all, welcome back to our space!

Even though the semester was over, our work at the design factory did not slow down, but we went full speed ahead. With weekly meetings talking to professionals like Carol, talking to us about Planet Centric Design, and Adam sharing with us about Service Design, helped us add more components and features to C.A.R.L that we have not thought of before.

We’ve also made two more prototypes, one diegetic prototype and one UI customization screen prototype showing the possible interface that customers can use when using C.A.R.L. 

This leads to our latest milestone, the design detail presentations! Here we were coupled up in a call with team B&B who are dealing with the issue of food waste and are coming up with a possible flying restaurant that utilizes“ugly” produce that would be thrown away rather than be sold. It was refreshing to listen to the progress that other groups have made and their final projects, and of course to catch up since our trip to IdeaSquare. 

During our design detail presentation, we defined the problem space for our project, C.A.R.L. However, upon further reflection, we realized that it might be beneficial to incorporate some human workers for tasks that require more dexterity, such as crocheting or fine stitching, where the technology is not yet available. With the feedback and critique we received from those in the call, we discovered that C.A.R.L has many possibilities and could be adapted in various ways to be more accessible, appealing, and improved all-around.

We had a wonderful time sharing our design detail of C.A.R.L so far and receiving different views and feedback on our progress. Moving forward, we aim to make C.A.R.L more customer-oriented while also improving certain technical aspects to make it easier to use and maintain.

We also want to acknowledge that during the last two weeks, our teamwork has been put to the test and we think we did pretty well, despite being all in different countries.

Highlights:

Hnudee: I flew back to Thailand to visit my family for two weeks, but I still managed to tune in to the design detail presentations. It was great to see everyone again, and I especially appreciated the feedback we received. One suggestion was to turn C.A.R.L into its own store or create a mall with multiple C.A.R.Ls, this could make C.A.R.L more appealing and in a way revive the real-life shopping experience that is fading away due to online commerce. Another idea that I really liked could be especially helpful for families with small children, as hand-me-downs can be altered and changed out to keep up with the constant growth of children. This suggestion really warmed my heart. Below is a quick snapshot of a sunflower field with the sunset behind in a big park in my hometown. 

Kasjen: I was on holiday in Italy 🙂  (Here are some pictures below)  

Kathi: Representing my team during some of the meetings while my teammates were having their well-deserved vacation gave me a chance to come out of my shell and learn to talk more. It was exhausting at times but a great experience and really helped my self-confidence! In my down time, I also enjoyed my hobby of baking again, below are the cinnamon rolls I baked!

Next Steps: More protyping to find out other areas that we need to further explore as well as what else we can change to better accommodate the user experience.

With kind regards from overcast Mannheim,

Hnudee, Kasjen, and Kathi