Our initial idea was to create a headlamp that responded to touch, so that the user would be able to tap the light on and off while wearing it. We transitioned to a sound sensor because we thought it would be easier to generate that input, as the touch sensors can be finicky and we wanted the product to be easily usable. Putting the CPX in the headband went like we had hoped; we cut a hole in the headband and the CPX stays in place once on the user's head.
I found the fishbowl activity slightly strange to participate in. When I was in the fishbowl, I found myself engaging in much more meta-thought - trying to regulate what and how I was saying things and trying to analyze them from the perspective of an observer. This definitely impeded my ability to actually contribute interesting thoughts to the group since my attention was split between product design ideas and regulating my contributions. I think this was ultimately personally unproductive for generating ideas, but it was interesting to see how myself and others engaged in these discussions. In terms of giving and receiving feedback, I think it encouraged me to think more carefully about how I was framing ideas and suggestions since others were listening. It'll be good to use this knowledge going forward.
Having multiple perspectives necessitates placing genuine value on others' ideas and feelings in the collaborative process. This means allocating enough time to explore new ideas and being respectful and honest when giving feedback. I was assigned to a group last year for a final project. This group was unique to others I had been in previously; everyone seemed to feel very comfortable sharing ideas and feedback. At first, this felt tense as we navigated how to have respectful and productive conversations while honoring the group dynamic. I think it felt especially dicey to me because I was unused to working in groups where everyone shared opinions about others' ideas so openly. We soon developed strong communication skills, though, and ultimately worked really well as a group.
In a CS group final project, we were tasked with creating a simple video game. I was in charge of finding graphics for the game, which was themed around a germ infiltrating the immune system. I was finding it very hard to find existing open-source graphics, so I resorted to drawing most of them. They ended up looking a little messy and were hard to identify as the objects they were meant to represent. It also took a really long time to draw them by hand process the images to fit our game. If I had paused to seek other solutions, our team might have been able to find existing graphics or have been able to pivot to a slightly different theme. This would have been especially reasonable given that I had group members who I could consult. I was concerned that seeking suggestions would put too much work on them, who had plenty of other work to do. It can be hard to balance responsibilities in group work, but ultimately more communication in this situation would have helped everyone.