Prototyping the “Patch Pals” idea really helped visualise what the brand would be like and getting feedback allowed our group to alter parts of the project and gave us ideas for having a website to sell the patches. Having actual characters along with the patches would help children with ADHD to connect with the product and make them more familiar with them. Here are some photos of the Patch Pals and feedback.
In our workshop on Friday I learnt that I dont think about the future enough. Having to fill out several sheets on where we see ourselves in ten years time.. not so easy! Ive always known I love nature as I keep going on about but I never thought about how I can make a difference to people with my work, so this workshop really helped me. Making a moodboard made me see my blog doesn’t entirely show who I am and what I love so I think Im going to have to get my lovely friend Apples to help me get my blog looking the way I want. I think the main point that came across in this workshop was that as I change as a person its ok for my brand to change as long as its honest so I can stop panicing on having a fixed plan for ten years time! But no doubt it will involve leaves!
For my second assignment, group 13 was given the brief “Mobile Medicine.” How can we improve the lives of people who have to take medicine everyday on the go? How can we make it more discreet for these people to take their medicine? Our group started with a brainstorming session. The list of different medicines and methods of taking these were endless. We wanted to make sure we were not just copying something that had already been designed to better the lives of people who are on medication. During the brainstorming our group came up with ideas like carrying medicine in jewellery for example having pills inside a ring or a watch. Clothing was also considered but these are not as permanent as a watch that you can keep on you at all times. Apps for phones would be useful for alarms and reminders and patches would be good for being discreet.
Our group then looked at a certain area in detail and when we met again we talked about what we thought would be interesting to look at together. Making a facebook group helped us log all our findings and discuss all through this week our thoughts. For me this was the turning point for our group as we had time to read each others findings and come to an agreement on patches being our focus point.
Today we came up with PatchPals and our “amazingly detailed” prototypes showed our ideas of patches for children who suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I designed Freddy..
PatchPals website would also include the option for kids to design their own patches by uploading their own photos. These could be ordered in bulk, and designs were created for birthdays, halloween etc to try make the idea of wearing patches fun and creative for children. Researching into ADHD allowed us to consider aspects like time and wear the medical patch should be worn. As the patch lasts 9 hours and then must be changed we thought of ideas like making the patches change colour when ready to change, vibrating or making a sound that kids would recognise.
I feel our group really got into the idea of helping better the lives of people who are on medication and I think PatchPals would really help children feel a lot less anxious about the medication patch and just let them be creative.
The Friday morning lecture opened my eyes to University and how there are so many resources to help me through my degree and hearing that students from Glasgow School of Art are jealous that we have blogs made me think about how useful they are. Lauren Currie made me aware of service design and how I can use my skills to help make other peoples lives better and to improve services we use everyday! In the Afternoon it really stood out how useful brainstorming is to see what services need improved, since nearly every group have had problems with the dreaded SAAS!
Its Friday and I was put into group 13, this was not good because I’m very superstitious! But minus that irrelevant comment I think the techniques taught today were very useful and I wish art college could be designed the way our group brainstormed it to be like. We were talking about having an animal yard and a garden to grow our own plants a cinema and all sorts, all of which would make a pretty awesome Art College!
One of my assignments was to make two mind maps on “The Tipping Point” a book about how little things can make a big difference. I found myself thinking about the themes in the book through my daily life, especially the law of the few so i chose to look at that chapter in more detail.
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In our lecture today i was inspired by Jo Montgomery; who has just launched a company called little riot. I was impressed that she had accomplished so much in the space of a year after graduating. I think the idea PillowTalk is an interesting way of interacting with loved ones.
She produced a really moving video, which you can see below…
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