I want to start this process book with a thank you to my group members. It seems like we just started working on this project, but this was one of the best groups I’ve worked in. I’m happy with our final presentation and how the overall concept came out.
This last week was putting the final touches on our project and delivering the finished presentation. I took a trip to the Bay area and used the BART where I realized how severe this issue is first-hand. I mapped out the restrooms and potential partners using Google Maps, and I was really excited by the result.
Once we put the final touches, I was pleased with our presentation. Overall this was an incredible experience, and I’m excited to continue with the program and see what else we can accomplish.
Now that we are winding down our first semester, I think it is a great time to reflect back how we got to this point. I was a bit skeptical of my group’s project during the ideation phase, and we spent a significant amount of time throwing out crazy ideas, but eventually, we honed in on a solution. It is exciting to see how the scope transformed from something as broad as restrooms to the focused project we have today. I feel like the communication has been excellent in my group all semester and it has only gotten better the last few weeks. I also think the level of self-sufficiency is much higher than the beginning of the semester. I am looking forward to helping the final presentation and providing any insights from the business model to create a solution.
After a long battle with a fever, I am finally feeling well enough to function again. This week was very interesting because a lot of the fresh concepts that we discussed were finally put together. I have never been a fan of actually developing business cases, but I thought that the Business Model Canvas made it very easy and efficient to organize the benefits for each participating party. I feel this would have been incredibly helpful for my past projects and I’m looking forward to using it for each of my upcoming projects at work. The conceptualize portion has been exciting because my group has done an excellent job of mocking up products and it’s cool to see everything coming together. I am excited that we are moving into our final presentations, but it is incredible to think we are done with our first semester. It has been fun, and I’m looking forward to next semester.
This week was very exciting and rewarding for all of us. After lots of discussions on what possible solutions can be, we finally landed on a comprehensive solution that provides commuters with more restrooms, digital solutions to find them, and an integrated system that leverages their current items as a key. Overall it was fascinating to get to this point, and I’m glad my team has done such a great job pushing through. I’m excited about our solution because it leverages a lot of things I have learned in the previous year from work and it is great to see them applied to an entirely different project.
Our solution is to establish a partnership with local businesses to provide access to restrooms to commuters within a reasonable time of their commute to the Downtown SF area. Partners will install card readers on their restroom doors and passengers will use their Clipper cards to gain access to the facilities during the business’ hours of operation.
Success Criteria: The solution should: - Not include building any new physical infrastructure. - Leverage existing facilities within a .5 mile radius. - Leverage existing technologies for access
I grouped my ideas into three major categories: - Digital solutions - Physical solutions within the BART stations - Partnership solutions
Our final solution takes the benefits of all of these options and creates a comprehensive experience that should provide commuters with accessibility to a restroom at any point before or after their commute.
Ideation has been one of the most fun parts of this entire projects. My group and I jumped into this project with many ideas on solutions before defining the problem and taking a step back has helped me reevaluate the situation. I enjoyed the brainstorm that we had the first few weeks when deciding issues and now that the problem has is defined I am excited to revisit the solutions with new insight.
The group brainstorming process mostly occurred during class this week which was very successful. Although I did not list many ideas, I was able to identify different types of solutions and provide more detail to each answer. After taking a few days off, the group met again to review the solutions, and we decided on an idea that excites me.
I’m looking forward to the next steps, but I can’t believe we only have four classes left for the semester…
This week was took an interesting twist after our problem didn’t seem to really be a problem. We had done some preliminary research but it still didn’t feel like enough so we decided to go back to the drawing board. This reminded me of the residential where we couldn’t come up with a real example of biomimicry and ended up mind mapping for hours until something finally clicked.
After doing research everything in the project became a lot clearer. I was able to break down my own problem definition into 5 key issues that cause the problem. It’s amazing how going back to the drawing board and doing more research can clarify the attributes of a problem.
Group communication was great this week, Slack did all the work for us and it really helped because this week was busy. Overall, just a great group dynamic and communication which is helping us get to the finish line.
Clean, safe and accessible restrooms are difficult to find while commuting in downtown San Francisco.
Group Problem Definition:
Downtown San Francisco does not provide commuters with access to clean, safe onsite restrooms and documented, accessible local restrooms when using the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.
My desk is a standing desk and has a white top. It has silver legs and black plastic markers to adjust the height. My desk has a water bottle and my computer equipment on it. My computer equipment is a 27” monitor and a laptop stand. My laptop stand is silver and has a hole in it to run my cables through to my laptop.
My desk is a standing desk but has a white top. It has silver legs, but they have a plastic marker to adjust the height. My desk has a water bottle, but also computer equipment. My computer is a 27” monitor, but also has a stand for my laptop. My laptop stand is silver but has a hole in it to run my cables through.
My laptop is a silver and has a white Apple logo. It can be left open or folded in half when I’m not using it. When I open it, it has a 15” screen and a black bezel. It has a unibody enclosure and 78 black keys. The keys have white letters and are illuminated.
My laptop is silver but has a white logo of an Apple. It is folded in half but can be opened to show the display and keyboard. It has a 15” screen but is surrounded by a black bezel. It has a unibody enclosure, but 78 holes for the keys. The keys are black but have white letters that can be illuminated.
My shoes have an upper, midsole and a sole. The upper is leather and stitched together with black thread. The leather is black and red. The midsole is made of foam and rubber. It is white and has a white thread along the center. The sole is made of rubber and is red.
My shoes have an upper, but also a midsole and sole. The upper is made of leather but held together with black thread. The leather is primarily black but also has red pieces. The midsole is made of rubber but also has foam. It is white, but also head white thread running through the center. The sole is made of rubber but is also colored red.
My glasses consist of a frame and lenses. The frame is made of plastic and also has metal hinges. The frame is black and has a silver logo on each temple. The frame has two holes and can be opened by unscrewing the hinges. The lenses of my glasses are made of glass and have a protective coating. They are clear and have a small scratch in front of my right eye.
My glasses have a frame, but also lenses. The frame is made of plastic, but include metal hinges. The frame is black but has silver logos on each temple. The frame is a single piece but has two holes to put the lenses in. The holes for the lenses are close but can be opened by unscrewing the hinges. The lenses are made of glass but have a protective coating. They are clear but have a small scratch in front of my right eye.
My backpack is blue and has red and white stripes on the lining. It has brown leather straps and silver buckles. It has a large space inside for my stuff and a slot for my laptop. There is a small pocket for pens and a space in front for my business cards. It can be heavy at times and keeps all my stuff out of my hands.
My backpack is blue but has red and white stripes on the lining. It has brown leather straps but silver buckles. It has a large space inside for my stuff, but a slot for my laptop. There is a small pocket for my pens, but an accessible space the in the front for my business cards. It can be heavy at times, but it keeps my stuff out of my hands.
The morphological analysis has been an exciting way to get an understanding of the project. I see myself looking more towards the solution before understanding the problem, so it has been a refreshing to understand everything before pushing through the ideation process.
I feel like I am relying on my previous projects and experiences to help me through the creative process, but I can add much more to what I had previously done. As I continue to go through the assignments, I have been taking some time to reflect on my previous work and how I can implement these processes and perspectives (😉 ) in real-world situations.
Slack is taking some getting used to, but I’m getting the hang of it. I missed a few conversations about this week because my notifications were not coming in, but I feel like I’m on the right page.
Overall, I’m excited about the direction the project is going, but I am ready to jump into the solution and start doing something fresh.
