Our last assignment was actually a combination of our 2nd assignment and final assignment due to the time constraint of the module being held in a short semester. Therefore, the workload was certainly a huge load. This assignment was centred on wheelchair users. Thus, I was to conduct user research with them about the challenges faced in daily life, identify what they needed and match a product that had embedded systems in it, sketch multiple concept ideas, create a systems design diagram and user manual along with a final infographic.
The first part of the assignment was user research and need identification + matching. I decided to conduct my research through asking questions on online forums. Based on said research, I identified a few needs that wheelchair users had that I could come up with a product with. Namely, coming up with a remote control that could indicate to parking sensors that they were physically disabled even if it were temporarily and allow for more time for wheelchair users to cross pedestrian crossings.
To formulate and ideate my product, in this section, I sketched out and drew a few ideas that came to mind in order for the product to be executed well. I started out with a mind-map, simply blurting my ideas and coming up with anything I could. Then, I narrowed down the ideas I had and actually drew the first few drafts of the product with some of the ideas I had, seeing what worked and what didn't. Finally, after trying out some ideas and deciding what worked and what didn't, I created the ideal version of my product, putting together and drawing ideas that I knew worked from my previous sketches to create something I was satisfied with.
After generating my product and thinking about how it functioned, I had to create a system design diagram, something I had never done before to complement the product. It was probably the hardest part of this assignment as I barely had a clue on what to do, thus, I simply tried to follow the examples given by Mr Yusri in order to complete the task somewhat satisfactorily.
Next up is the user manual I designed for this product. I took inspiration from a user manual that I coincidentally had nearby, a user manual for my earphones. Based on that and other examples I researched on the internet, I tried to create a clear and concise user manual that showed how to take care of my remote.
This is the infographics design I came up with that I believed convey the key points of my product whilst keeping a simple colour scheme. As I look back, I do realise now a few aspects where my infographic could improve on, such as improved visual appeal along with most probably more information. I tried to follow Mr Yusri's previously given advice of making the text larger and easier to read which I believe I did accomplish. However, I have yet to find a good balance between conveying information with my infographics and keeping a good yet clear design that attracts viewers.
For this assignment, I received the mark 46.67/70. At first, I was a bit disappointed by the mark, especially as I was already having a bad day. However, gradually, I've come to become content with it. Looking back on my assignment after seeing the marks, I realise why exactly I was given these results. As it was my first time ever doing a lot of aspects in the assignment along with the time constraint that came with a short semester, my work so far is satisfactory however its definitely a long way from stellar in terms of depth, detail and design. As I progress along this degree, I will ensure I improve on all these areas in order to create something I'm fully happy and completely satisfied with that will also hopefully produce good results. Getting these results is definitely part of the learning process that will naturally happen as I continue to learn new things pertaining to the subject and industry as a whole, therefore, I will continue to persevere and work hard towards producing excellent work and excellent results!