Student memos 5-8

Memo 5

Alex Wilson
EDC-1
Junkyard Wars Memo

    My experience with the Junkyard Wars project was both educational and enjoyable. While I expected on the first day of class to be taking notes, instead we were immediately put on the spot to start collaborating about what we were to build. The first thing that I got out of this project was the aspect of teamwork. We named ourselves The AMAZEing Sloth Team, and by doing this we realized that we were working for the common goal of the team rather than just for ourselves. Everyone in the group took turns suggesting ideas, and rather than using just one idea, we built off of each other’s thoughts and combined everything together. Overall, our team was able to communicate ideas in a very effective and constructive manner.
    The next aspect that I learned was the difficulty of writing directions. While the model for the maze in our case was well understood within our group, it probably would seem very confusing to any other person who wanted to build it. For this reason, I really was able to understand the importance of being extremely clear and detailed while writing instructions, but at the same time I learned the importance of being concise. A bunch of simple command of a couple words is much easier to understand than a longer paragraph. Lastly, one aspect of the instructions that I failed to include is quantitative measurements. This was probably due to the short time span as well as the cheap materials used, but I did not mention any sort of measurement for where to place certain components of the model. In a real world situation, this would be crucial to constructing the model with much less confusion.
    While demonstrating the product on Tuesday, I really began to understand the importance of testing and retesting before submitting a model. Our bridge did well in the competition, but fell a little short of what I had expected from the model. Immediately after watching I thought of ways to fix it, but by that point it was too late to revise. Building off of this, better planning could have allowed us to test the model before the competition day. Overall, this project was a fun way to begin EDC, but it also taught me teamwork, communication, and planning skills that will definitely be useful throughout the rest of the course.

Memo 6

Junkyard Wars Memo
    Initially for Junkyard wars, each team was assigned a project to complete using a limited supply of materials. Each team was told that they were to first develop a design for the device and then to create user friendly instructions on how to construct the device. However, what the teams didn’t know was that they would trade instructions amongst themselves and would be required to build another team’s device. Although this was a little bit of a surprise to the teams, it was not unlike what might happen in a typical job setting.  Many times a project can change unexpectedly and it’s vital that you are prepared for such a change.
    Once the teams exchanged instructions, they were then told to revise the instructions given to them and construct the new device.  This part proved to be a little tricky for our team. We noticed that some of the instructions were a little vague and unclear.  We also saw that even when the instructions were followed exactly, the device did not work how we expected it to. We decided that it was necessary to meet outside of class to discuss how we could improve our device. Our particular device was a plane and we saw that it did not fly nearly as far as we would have liked. We then had to go back and slowly fix parts of the plane that we thought could use improvement. Some of these included adjusting the angle of the wings to capture the wind the best, adding weight to parts of the plane to stabilize it while in the air, and choosing features for the plane that will help it be as aerodynamic as possible. After many trials and error, as a team we decided on a model that seemed to work the best.  We then tested our plane in class with the new revised model and saw that it showed significant improvement from the previous model.
    From this project, we learned that when designing something many unexpected things may occur. One such occurrence was the exchange of instructions. When first writing the instructions for our device we wrote them in a way that we would understand because we assumed that we would be the ones constructing the model. However, we realized that many times the user is unknown so it is important to create simple, precise directions that can be used by any person regardless of their background knowledge. We also saw that when creating instructions there is no way to know exactly how the device will work without actually constructing it in the same conditions as intended in the instructions.  A device might work theoretically, but when exposed to certain conditions it might not work at all. That is why it is important to perform many trials before they are sent to the user. Also, through this project we were able to see how our particular team worked together.  We had four different people with four different ideas of how to improve the design.  We saw that it was important to take aspects of all of the different ideas and combine them into one rather than only choosing one person’s idea.     Working in a team helped bring different perspectives to the table and helped create a better model than may have been done by one person alone.

Memo 7

Memo for Junkyard Wars
What I’ve learnt from the project
Done by: Chua Jireh 
My first impression of the junkyard wars project was that it was going to be like any other high school project assignment. There was the usual team dynamics, brainstorming, conceptualization and implementation that most of us were familiar with. Then the surprise came when our projects were replaced with another, and we had to carry on from there. I think I was pretty disappointed that we did not get to test our painstakingly-conceived design, but was still excited by the new challenge. The intention really was to help us get used to the fact that often times product design does not start from scratch. By allowing us the opportunity to study a design already present, it meant that we could approach the problem with new perspectives and therefore come up with improvements and modifications that better solve the problem. 
Also, figuring out the original group’s instructions immediately brought to bear the need to be specific and detailed in our communication of ideas. What appears to be obvious to someone might not be to another. The group quickly learnt the lesson to specify measurements and highlight our intentions to the best of our ability, not assuming that an end user would know what we mean. Still, our instructions were not fully comprehensive enough for the end user (Professor Herrick) to throw the plane in a way we intended. That made me understand the importance of interacting with the user in the design process, which could really cut down the uncertainties and fulfill the task more efficiently and accurately.
Personally, I enjoyed the dynamics of working in the team. There were a few times when I suggested an improvement, another group member would dismiss it by saying, “No, I think that wouldn’t work”, without giving reasons. Instead of being defensive, I had to understand that the onus was on me to convince others about my idea. And so, I had to persuade them to allow me to test my idea before coming to a conclusion about what works. I believe this approach would be very helpful as we continue with our actual project, that we could allow opportunities for ideas to be freely expressed and tried out, of course with intentions and justifications stated.

Memo 8

Sara Thomas
10/1/08
EDC sec. 2

Junkyard Wars: The Design Process and Teamwork
    After completing the Junkyard Wars assignment with my team, I learned the design process is very spontaneous, a good team consists of people who are patient and innovative, and the instructions for a design must be very clear.  My team worked really well together because we each had good ideas that applied to our assignment, and no one was headstrong about their particular ideas.  Whenever anyone shared an idea, the rest of the group listened and took it into consideration.  Our final designs for both the bridge and the maze consisted of inputs from everyone in the group.  We also scheduled meetings outside of class, and each team member was on time, which is another component of a successful team.  If each individual of a team can listen to other’s ideas as well as form ideas of their own, the group is bound to work well together and be successful.  
    Our designs for Junkyard Wars changed frequently and randomly.  As soon as someone discovered a better way of building our design, another person would get an even better idea, which changed the design completely.  For example, our group decided that in order to keep our car in a straight path on our cardboard bridge, we would tape a straw to the top of the car and string fishing line through the straw.  That idea lead us to discover that our bridge could consist of only fishing line and 2 base structures where the string would be attached.  The plain string as a bridge is a more efficient bridge design because our goal was to create the longest bridge possible under 2 pounds.  Since fishing line hardly weighs anything, our bridge could be “infinitely long”; whereas if we used cardboard, we only had a limited amount, and the weight would add up.  The dramatic change of our bridge design taught me to consider every idea no matter how bizarre it may seem.  New ideas tend to lead to other new and improved ideas, which is the most important factor in design.
    Lastly, for a design to be successful and reproduced by others, the instructions on how to build the design must be very clear.  Once we switched from the maze to the bridge, we noticed the instructions the first bridge team wrote were a little hard to follow.  Adding sketches with every written step really benefits the instructions because it helps the user visualize the design.  We also learned that when writing instructions one must not assume the user can figure something out on their own.  The simplest task in the designer’s mind might not be so simple for the user.