Category: Spring 2018

Sp18 Solar Studios

ºººboxWaterººº reFrame

gea4

Blog post 2/24 Insights This past week, we continued to gain information about water consumption, this time focusing specifically on Rice’s own water usage. Allison conducted an excellent interview with Rice sustainability director Richard Johnson and compiled many insights for us to use as inspiration regarding specific water usage data at Rice, including that Rice uses a quarter of a billion gallons of water every year! Furthermore, Rice gets water through 3 different meters: domestic, irrigation, and emergency, and some of them have more narrowed down meters across campus, which could supply specific data for us to use in our … Continue reading ºººboxWaterººº reFrame

Sp18 Design Journal

Team Design Journal: REFRAME

Maheen Khizar

After a fruitful immerse phase, we sat down and synthesized the results of both our personal, 1-1 interviews with other studios as well as the survey we sent out to a variety of national projects. The first key insight we gained from this research was that studios have a problem with recruitment/retention, as many students lack a fundamental understanding about what DFA does, and many students who are part of the organization end up dropping quickly when the workload becomes too much. Secondly, it seems that DFA studios have problems recruiting community partners, as many partners do not know how … Continue reading Team Design Journal: REFRAME

Sp18 Writing Utensil

Team Writing Utensil: REFRAME

Nicole Mitchell

This week we focused on reframe! We worked to scope down our problem and problem space to a specific How Can We from our research insights. The key insights that will be driving our design process forward are: Speed can be acquired, but comfort and durability is essential to achieve that. The ability to put on and remove the device as well as change out the writing utensil in current solutions requires fine motor control that the users most likely do not have. Necessary to help users pick up and choose a writing utensil to work with. We came up … Continue reading Team Writing Utensil: REFRAME

Sp18 Hermann Park

Hermann Park : REFRAME

bu1

This week we finally had the opportunity to meet our community partner Hermann Park Conservancy! Although, we almost got lost on the way,  we were on time for our meeting. Julia McGowen, who is the Marketing and Communications Manager of Hermann Park Conservancy, introduced us to David Renninger, Director of Operations and Doreen Stoller, the President of Hermann Park Conservancy. During the meeting we were able to observe three different perspectives, but a unified definition of sustainability. HPC defined sustainability as balancing  health, social, economical and environmental benefits. They explained that the community has been part of keeping the park … Continue reading Hermann Park : REFRAME

Sp18 Writing Utensil

Team Writing Utensil: IMMERSE

jx13

We immersed ourselves in the problem places by doing individual online research for specific user groups and issues that may cause hand disabilities and writing difficulties. We decided that instead of focusing on specific hand disability user group to focus on the effect and how we can assist people with hand disabilities to write quicker and easier. We also got the opportunity to talk to a community partner Dr. Lee who is excited to work with us and offer us what resources he can. He has a very good engineering prospective to contribute to the solution of our problem. We … Continue reading Team Writing Utensil: IMMERSE

Sp18 Dish Drop

Dish Drop ReDesign: REFRAME Community Studio

mpm8

This is the last workshop in the UNDERSTAND phase of the design process. During this studio we will be synthesizing our key insights and deciding on how exactly we are going to narrow the problem before we build. The primary results of this studio should be creating a testable how can we statement. In other words, a question that identifies a user, behavior, and place with a measurable action associated with it. Further Research Key Insights Dish drop areas get emptied out very frequently during meal times as employees rotate to each dish disposal area. During this time, the cart … Continue reading Dish Drop ReDesign: REFRAME Community Studio

Sp18 Design Journal

Team Design Journal: IMMERSE

Maheen Khizar

For Immerse, we reached out to different studios and had them fill out a survey. We also all did phone interviews with studio leadership and asked them a series of questions about their studios. If we create a design journal that includes many DFA studios, all the studios are stakeholders (our super-stakeholders could be the studio leads).   “Design thinking is a principle of understanding human needs.” -Jason Charles   We realized that pain points of the studio come in many different flavors: Studios have problem with recruitment / retention People outside of DFA don’t know what DFA is / … Continue reading Team Design Journal: IMMERSE

Sp18 Montrose Center

Team Homemade Pride: IMMERSE

mht5

These past two weeks have flown by as we continue to learn more about our users and the complexity of their individual struggles to find acceptance and a lasting sense of community. By creating user personas and delving deep into research about rapid rehousing projects, every day we continue to be in awe of the resilience and courage of these people. In our weekly meeting, we were able to really get to the core of understanding the kind of rejection LGBTQIA+ kids face and the immense challenges they have to overcome both on the streets and in finding the love … Continue reading Team Homemade Pride: IMMERSE

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless: IMMERSE

Maddie Bowen

This week, our team delved into the Immerse phase. We gathered info from primary and secondary sources to build an idea of who our users are, their primary struggles, and their environment. We visited Kenneth, the Outreach Director of Star of Hope, a homelessness resource center and our community partner, to learn more about the daily needs of our users and the roadblocks they face in providing services. We synthesized this primary source and our secondary research to construct our user persona. Visiting Star of Hope: Star of Hope provides resources to move individuals from the street to stability in … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless: IMMERSE

Sp18 Hermann Park

Hermann Park : IMMERSE

bu1

  For this week, our team (Parks & Res!!)  attempted to IMMERSE in our project through two different means: Research about the park and making a site visit for interviews. We built a fancy template for on-site interviews, and in two different groups (Beril & David and Aitash, Viney & Kate) went out to Hermann park to not only interact with park-goers but the park itself. The Problem space we examined on that day was the park itself (obviously), but more specifically popular hubs such as the reflection pool, the pond, the outdoor theatre and so on. Early on in … Continue reading Hermann Park : IMMERSE

Sp18 Solar Studios

Team boxWater: IMMERSE

gea4

IMMERSE Art Visits Last week, we kicked off our immersion into installation art and water consumption with some exhibit visits. We went to the Contemporary Arts Museum in the museum district and saw Brooklyn-based artist Christopher Knowles’s In a Word and collaborators Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh’s photo series Dissent and Desire, which focused on the experience of LGBTQ+ people in India. We enjoyed the exhibitions, discussed them afterwards, what we liked and didn’t, ideas that pieces gave us. A key observation we made about people’s museum habits and behaviors: typically, a group will split up to look at the art as … Continue reading Team boxWater: IMMERSE

Sp18 Homelessness

Team Tools for the Homeless: IDENTIFY

Maddie Bowen

Team Tools for the Homeless had a great first week! We have identified two potential areas that we want to focus our research: Identification theft among homeless individuals Access to proper hygiene while homeless As a team, we have begun our research, paying close attention to some of the major implications of each problem space. Identification Theft… … makes it more difficult for homeless individuals to check-in to shelters … makes it more difficult for homeless individuals to apply for jobs … makes it more difficult for homeless individuals to receive public aid such as food stamps … leaves homeless … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless: IDENTIFY

Sp18 Dish Drop

Dish Drop ReDesign: IMMERSE Community Studio

mpm8

The second workshop in our Dish Drop Community Studio project is IMMERSE. Using the user stories from last week, we identified some potential problems and users. The congestion of the dish drop area can have some unexpected consequences, a student diner reported “one time during the shuffle of putting up plates at Siebel I dropped my phone in the trash, which was gross.” Another student noticed how an Housing & Dining Employee “got stuck trying to collect plates and dishes and clog the flow of dish droppers.” There were also several observations about the dish drop area, like “Liquid disposal … Continue reading Dish Drop ReDesign: IMMERSE Community Studio

Sp18 Chapstick

Chapstickers: IDENTIFY

jw69

This first week we focused on research and problem spaces.  Specifically, we found the two most common forms of arthritis – osteoarthritis and rheumatoid.  The former occurs when the cartilage between two bones wears away, resulting in bone-on-bone contact which can be extremely painful. The latter occurs when the body’s immune system attacks one’s own joint capsule lining which can also lead to pain.  With regards to different chapstick containers, there are many different kinds to consider. There is the classic cylindrical container that sports a pull-off cap, as well as one that is more of a tub in that, … Continue reading Chapstickers: IDENTIFY

Sp18 Montrose Center

Team Homemade Pride: IDENTIFY

mht5

Houston is a city in crisis. The aftereffects of Hurricane Harvey pushed thousands more people onto the streets with nowhere else to turn. Of these individuals, LGBT+ homeless youth face a unique array of challenges in their daily lives where discrimination, rejection, and harassment have undermined the ability for many to find any safe community to coexist peacefully. Trying to address the issues of establishing a sense of community and security in these individuals’ lives proposes us the unique challenge of first, identifying the underlying causes of this rejection and then empowering those at Hatch Youth to be actively involved … Continue reading Team Homemade Pride: IDENTIFY

Sp18 Design Journal

Team Design Journal:IDENTIFY

Maheen Khizar

Welcome to Team DFA Design Journal’s first update! As our team name implies, our project this semester will entail working on birthing a DFA Design Journal. Why? There is not yet a standardized way for DFA studios to share their projects (buzzwords: cross-communicate and cross-pollinate). Our users are DFAers and we assume their day-to-day involves DFA. By increasing reference to works that’s being done/has been done we have the potential to significantly impact their lives. We have found that our project differs from other typical Rice DFA projects, in that we kinda have our solution already. So our first pivot … Continue reading Team Design Journal:IDENTIFY

Sp18 Solar Studios

Team boxWater: IDENTIFY

gea4

Hi! We are team boxWater and we are working on an installation piece to visualize and empathize with our consumption for the Solar Studios on Rice University’s campus. The Solar Studios are a student and community art gallery housed in solar-powered shipping containers. In the past they have featured works from artists at Rice and in the community. Lina Dib, the Director of the Solar Studios, has tasked us with responding to the issues of water consumption and conservation, and sustainability in Houston. First, we’ll introduce ourselves. I am Greg, the author of this blog post and the team lead. … Continue reading Team boxWater: IDENTIFY

Sp18 Hermann Park

Hermann Park: IDENTIFY

bu1

Although we still haven’t decided on a team name yet, me (Beril Uzmen), David Moon, Viney Raghavan, Aitash Deepak and Kate Landry are very excited to work on this project concerning our neighbor Hermann Park. This will be Aitash and Viney’s first DFA project, we are very enthusiastic to teach them the design process and welcome them to DFA. Our goal as a team is to help communicate Hermann Park Conservancy sustainability and resilience practices to the park visitors and greater public. We also aim to raise awareness to  the significance of these sustainable practices in Hermann Park. We believe … Continue reading Hermann Park: IDENTIFY

Sp18 Writing Utensil

Writing Utensil: IDENTIFY

Nicole Mitchell

Meet the team! My name is Josie Garza and I am a freshman at Baker College. I am majoring in Computer Engineering. I am originally from San Antonio, Texas. I enjoy reading, theatre, art, and music. I am really excited to be on a design team this semester! Hi! I’m Nicole Mitchell and I’m a junior at Brown majoring in computer science and minoring in engineering design. I love hiking, running and skiing. This is my fourth semester with DFA and first time leading a project. I’m excited to get started! My name is Shane Digiovanna and I am a … Continue reading Writing Utensil: IDENTIFY

Sp18 Dish Drop

Dish Drop ReDesign: IDENTIFY Community Studio

mpm8

This is the kickoff of a series of events in which any Rice student attending can participate in designing for a new servery dish disposal area. All Rice students have experienced this problem and its frustrations. Now is the time to take our insights and learn how to apply the human-centered design process to this problem. We’ll be hosting 8 events and this is the first one to kick off the project! [Full Spring 2018 Schedule] During this session will define the problems spaces so we can dive deeper during research, IMMERSE. Spend some time looking at your prior knowledge … Continue reading Dish Drop ReDesign: IDENTIFY Community Studio