Team Tools for the Homeless / H2omeless: Build, Test, and Final Thoughts

Build: Our HCW statement was “How can we ensure homeless individuals in Houston’s tent camps have an easy way to carry their water to maintain good hygiene?”  We started off with 5 spaces where we could potentially build a prototype in: delivery services, refilling stations, waterless hygiene, information distribution and carrying methods.  After doing “axis” exercises, it was clear that the most feasible and realistic space would be carrying methods. Our prototype is a sturdy, yet extensible strap that will attach the half gallon milk cartons in two places to make the carrying of these full cartons easier.  A half … Continue reading Team Tools for the Homeless / H2omeless: Build, Test, and Final Thoughts

Team Homemade Pride: Test

Over the past two weeks, we tested at a GED class offered by Houston Center for Literacy as well as with a current underprivileged youth involved with the Salvation Army who is looking to start taking GED classes.   The questions that we asked at the testing sessions to the people taking/interested in taking the GED classes had to do with: their background, why they decided to take a GED class, how much they knew about the GED beforehand, and time commitments outside of studying. We also asked questions to the GED class teachers and asked them about: the knowledge … Continue reading Team Homemade Pride: Test

Team Design Journal: ITERATE + TEST 2

To recap, last week we tested our lo-fidelity 1.0 prototype. This prototype was used to test only the content of our design journal with two user groups – those with high familiarity with DFA and those with low familiarity with DFA. This is a snapshot of what lo-fi 1.0 looks like: Feedback on lo-fi 1.0: Our team consistently heard from both test groups that our text was too abstract and used a lot of inaccessible language. Resulting action: We went through our content and looked at the words that our test users said they had no context for — if we … Continue reading Team Design Journal: ITERATE + TEST 2

Team Design Journal: TEST

This week we completed the first phase of our testing process. We presented lo-fidelity prototypes of four different pieces to be included in the Design Journal: a project snapshot, an interview with community partner, an interview with a studio lead, and an interview with a team lead. This week we only tested content. To accomplish this, we printed out text without any fancy layout, just to see if people were able to digest the text. In general, there were some common observations across all pieces. Readers often commented that they were unfamiliar with some information crucial to understanding the design process … Continue reading Team Design Journal: TEST

Hermann Park: BUILD/TEST

  In the past few weeks, we had been working towards creating a  mascot for Hermann Park Conservancy. However, after meeting with the staff at Hermann Park, we were inspired by the stories they told us about their interactions with the park visitors. Learning about these genuine and unique stories, we decided to change the direction of the project. Instead of moving forward with designing a mascot, we decided to focus on finding a way to encourage people to interact with the gardeners, who are critical for the sustainability practices in Hermann Park. We believe increasing these types of interactions, … Continue reading Hermann Park: BUILD/TEST

Lend a Hand: BUILD/TEST

For the past few weeks we have been focusing on building our prototypes and are ready to begin our first round of testing! When designing this writing utensil we have kept our specific HCW statement in mind: How can we create a durable, comfortable, and modular device to assist users without the use of their fingers to write efficiently. Our current prototype consists of two sleeves with one sleeve that can be strapped on around the wrist with a pen attachment (pictured in blue) and another sleeve (pictured in pink) where the pens can be stored so that the user … Continue reading Lend a Hand: BUILD/TEST

WaterProof | BUILD/TEST

This week we started building and testing around our how can we statement: how can we help the Rice community become more aware of their water consumption through an installation art piece at the Solar Studios? Through our past phases of the design process we isolated the insight that our water footprint is much larger than the direct water consumption we are aware of. Though we may not be able to always see that water footprint, others can when it impacts the larger system. With this in mind, we plan to build an art instillation at the Solar Studios that … Continue reading WaterProof | BUILD/TEST

Chapstick: test

Test #1– 4/6/2018 This Friday, we visited Clarewood House Retirement Community. We were able to visit 3 of the senior citizens that we previously met during our first visit. We brought in three different chapsticks to test our prototypes, , HCW statements, and  measure of success. This second visit has allowed us to gain a better insights and reshape aspects of our project.   Test #1- Color Test     Previously, we were unsure whether poor eyesight inhibited their ability to operate the chapstick. We assumed that most struggled to a certain degree due to their eye ability. However, to … Continue reading Chapstick: test