8 - David Earle

The thing that 'playing the whole game' of HCI Design has taught me the most is flexibility. Working in a team has taught me to adjust to other peoples schedules and resolve organizational issues. It has also forced me to compromise -sometimes unwillingly- on my vision of how the design should be in order to incorporate other team members ideas and better design implementations. I have learned to approach each of these projects more and more methodically and with each passing week I focus more on the process and less on the solution. In our project 4, we focused on creating a helpful and compassionate smart-refrigerator. Having evaluated and tested our concept, we realized that it wasn't at all computer imaginative and would cost much more than it was worth. This led us to scrapping our concept almost completely, and in the re-design we opted to create a smartphone app which interfaced with the refrigerator and provided all the same options our listening and talking refrigerator had provided. Because I had put a substantial amount of thought into the first concept, it was difficult to completely scrap it, even after I had realized that the app was a cheaper and better option. Similarly, preparing for the exam taught me a number of ways of how not to draw the 'whole game', and I still have to continue to be willing to alter my current 'mental model' of how to do design if I want to improve. That is why I think flexibility is one of the most important skills for this class.