designbyreem

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Evaluation

Can’t believe we are at evaluation! Time has flown by so quickly -- it seems like just yesterday we were moving into the acceptance stage of the creative problem-solving process. In light of this convergent activity, we came together as a team to reflect on our implementation and identify where and how we could improve. Utilizing the Metrics and Rubrics technique, we developed a team evaluation rubric that we will use to evaluate our peers, as well as ourselves, for our final presentations. We established a rating system of 1-5 in order to give and gain quantitative > qualitative feedback, being easier to understand and compare. Using the Formative and Summative Evaluation method, we were able to evaluate our process at both a macro level, looking at it holistically, as well as on a micro level, assessing our deliverables. To perform a formative evaluation, we leveraged the rubric we created to openly discuss and identify our own gaps and areas of opportunity. We reflected on the seven stages of the creative problem-solving process and created assessments within our rubric that addressed these stages, categorizing them into 4 sections: The Problem, The Solution, The Deliverable, and Overall. To perform a summative evaluation, we focused on our final output and deliverable, our mobile app prototype that has been developed as of a result of this process. This evaluation was also driven by the user feedback we received during three virtual usability testing sessions we were able to host. User testing allowed us to leverage another method of outsourced Proposed Improvements, reiterating the fact that this is an iterative process. In addition to feedback that allowed us to adjust our designs to make our application more intuitive and user friendly, one question we received during testing was “what is this application about exactly and why would I use it as opposed to Google?” This highlighted an area for improvement that we have struggled with for a while along our creative problem-solving process. While we know what our application does, and what gaps and pain points it addresses, we need to do a better job of explaining it and ensuring that it is very apparent. This sheds light to a common stage we keep returning to during our discussions: defining. This evaluation has allowed us to refine how we define, explain, and present our solution. Additionally, we were able to evaluate and reflect on how we have been working together as a team. We considered how our time could have been better spent if we divided and conquered, doing more work individually in order to be more efficient, but we also agreed that working together most of the time, although this required meeting very often, allowed us to maximize what we could learn from one another. We each enjoyed taking part in the entire process as this enhanced our collaboration skills, kept everyone on the same page, and we believe resulted in better output that was consistently influenced by 5 different perspectives.

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Implementation continued

This week team Feldspar continued to iterate and refine our data-driven mobile application solution: a trusted aggregator of information, vital services, and local resources, on a centralized platform, that enriches low-income communities as a whole. Each user's experience is tailored to their needs, interests, profile, behavior, and environment. After a debriefing session where we discussed the feedback we received, we re-evaluated our direction and collectively worked on an ecosystem diagram to ensure we understood how our application works and the stakeholders involved. We decided it would be beneficial to both our partners and customers to break our implementation into two phases. In phase I we plan to deliver curated information using AI technology in order to build our user base and collect user data. In phase II we plan to leverage our growing user base and collected data to create partnerships that can provide additional resources and services to our users. Laying out our ecosystem helped identify our gaps and guide our iteration process. Based on design research in color and accessibility, we developed design guidelines that informed our high-fidelity wireframes. We took into account our senior and disabled users, designing with large sans serif fonts, buttons, and icons, as well as considered visual cognitive load. While we didn’t completely pivot, we revised the Information Architecture and navigation of our application. Our low-fidelity wireframes proposed three separate feeds, one with ‘all’ information, one focused on resources, and one for financial services. After re-evaluating our ecosystem and the overall user experience, we decided to create one single feed with a slide-in menu that allows users to filter by all (default), resources, financial, employment, lifestyle, events, or offers. We also have a just for you filter that curates a feed based on the user’s profile, data, and behavior. Additionally, we started thinking through how the AI technology behind our application works. We plan to use a Vision or Natural Language API and ML algorithms to scrub information and appropriately match it to our users. So, these are a couple of our successes this week, and while we decided to eliminate the resources and financial tabs, I believe this ‘failure’ has strengthened our brand and simplified the experience. We are still working through how to deliver our pitch, tell our story, and where our personas fit in best. We will continue iterating on our solution based on feedback and still plan to create a clickable prototype so we can do user testing.

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Prototyping

Team Feldspars revised problem statement: How might we leverage smart technology to provide services and information to low-income communities? While our initial proposed solutions helped get us where we are now, they became somewhat unrelated to our redefined problem statement, so we went through another team brainstorming session. Moving into selection, we used ‘Idea Potpourri’ and combined three new ideas as different features into one mobile solution. Considering logistics of implementation, we decided to propose a solution that could be delivered to low-income communities through cellular data, instead of developing a solution that would require providing modems and nodes for WiFi. Additionally, our user research shed light to the fact that many of our target users are smartphone dependent, meaning they own a smartphone but do not have access to broadband internet at home. While creating our Business Model Canvas, we also considered the various stakeholders involved, from local governments to large corporations. We wanted to select a solution that provided viable revenue streams and potential partnerships with companies that would allow us to generate a greater financial return than our costs. To summarize, since low-income populations are smartphone dependent, and the rise of 5G technology supports faster and more affordable data transmission through cellular networks, we are proposing a data-driven mobile application that provides information, resources, and financial services to low-income communities. Moving into implementation, we developed two proto-personas as a team that reflected our core audience. This helped us collectively write user journeys for each proto-persona, which helped guide and inform our user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design decisions. After writing these stories, we mocked up wireframes as a team on Miro. We walked through each UI and highlighted how our features behave, making sure to tell our story while simultaneously explaining how our proposed mobile solution would work. Keeping our users in mind, we wanted to ensure a simple UX, with easy navigation, and a consistent style of information delivery via feeds in all sections. Since we are visually communicating our idea through UIs, we plan to continue refining and reiterating our designs as we move from low to high fidelity wireframes. We plan to eventually create a clickable prototype so we can do some usability testing and improve accordingly.

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Ideation

After accepting, analyzing, and defining, we moved into ideation, but before doing so, we refined our problem statement again, however, this is still a work in progress :) How might we leverage smart city technologies to create inclusive cities that close the digital divide? After Team Feldspar aligned on this vision, we dove into another divergent process of research to get inspiration for creative solutions. We then met as a group to share our findings and embrace the ambiguity of this complex topic as a team. With different perspectives and discoveries, it was interesting to see how ideas began to connect and overlap. Yasmin helped direct the group to focus on resource allocation (such as employment, financial, internet, and housing), main contributors to the digital divide. As we debriefed and brainstormed on our Miro board, we began to see opportunities to combine and improve ideas, landing on three potential solutions. One of my favorite smart city technologies is Agent Based Modeling (ABM), a 3D model backed by live data that can test outcomes of different ‘agents’ and city interventions. It also allows for community involvement as citizens can be invited to play with the model and participate in a bottom-up decision-making process. I shared an article with the group that explains how ABM was used in Hamburg, Germany to find optimal housing locations for the influx of around 80,000 displaced refugees. This inspired Shane to explore how ABM could be used to address the affordable housing crisis in many cities across the US, with displacement being a top contributor to the digital divide. We all got excited about this idea and Karla shared current affordable housing incentives for developers that we could integrate into this solution as well. The next idea we brainstormed relates to Data Collection. How do we collect substantial and inclusive data that informs where resources should be allocated? One way is to incentivize companies to donate their data. For example, telecom company data can help us understand congestion and mobility issues, while credit card company data can shed light on debt, spending habits, and purchase locations. We can utilize big data to predict needs in low-income communities and to identify opportunities from employment skills matching to financial inclusion (Kim’s passion area). The final idea we landed on is Smart Products. Inspired by a COVID tracker Kim was wearing on vacation, we discussed the potential of wearable devices for data collection. We also explored utilizing public devices and furniture such as smart sensors, benches, or light poles that can collect data, provide broadband internet, and generate sustainable energy. In light of connecting ideas, or ‘forcing connections’, we saw how substantial data collection could inform ABM, as well as the potential to integrate Smart Products into the design and planning of affordable housing communities. I am excited to see which idea we decide to pursue, or if we end up combining two, or even all three!

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Defining (2/2)

While moving from a divergent phase of analysis to a convergent phase of defining can be challenging, there was a consensus and passion within Team Feldspar to focus on digital inclusion. This took our who and where to the community level, acknowledging that each neighborhood faces its own unique challenges and that our solution will need to address community-specific problems. We all had similar priorities, or whys, but worked as a group to find the best way to describe them. We wanted to address inclusion, equity, sustainability, and to enrich lives, deciding that these all fell under the umbrella of ‘enhancing quality of life.’ Since we all already accepted the topic of smart cities, our what stayed consistent in utilizing interconnected and interoperable smart city technology. We then outlined the 3 different ways we want to use these technologies: to identify problems, create awareness of the problems, and then to solve these problems. With that, together we massaged and crafted our team's problem statement: How might we responsibly leverage smart city technologies to identify opportunities for digital inclusion, create awareness on the digital divide, and solve community-specific challenges in order to enhance quality of life? My favorite keyword here is ‘responsibly’. Smart cities use technologies to gain insight from data. This data is then used to inform and improve cities. Digital inclusion ensures all individuals and groups are represented by this data, and can access and use these technologies. If digital inclusion is achieved, then smart cities can solve problems in communities that were once not part of this problem-solving smart system. If done responsibly, this will not only address diversity and inclusion, but also efficiency and sustainability.

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Defining (1/2)

After working through acceptance and analysis, Team Feldspar moved into defining. First, we came up with individual problem statements, then we discussed and compared our work to synthesize, refine, and create a holistic problem statement to use as our guiding light. When devising my individual problem statement, I started by thinking about who, where, what, and why. Who and where defines the audience and setting, and in light of making the extreme mainstream, I wanted to focus on residents of low-income, diverse, and remote (suburban) neighborhoods. These citizens face the greatest digital exclusions, and in these areas lay the largest digital divides. What is tackled by our topic, smart cities. I believe it is important to first look at smart city technology from a broad perspective, for now, allowing us to use a bottom-up approach, first identifying the issues, then working backward to pick the appropriate smart city technologies that can solve these challenges. The why, in my opinion, is the most important, and my whys are to ensure safety, inclusivity, sustainability, and equity in cities, while educating the public on these issues. Taking these w’s into consideration, I laid out variations of the problem statement: How might we leverage smart city technologies to inform city interventions and design safe, inclusive, and sustainable spaces/services in low-income/remote neighborhoods to promote equity in urban society? How might we leverage smart city technologies to educate society on urban inclusivity and sustainability?

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Smart City Analysis

So, what are we looking at here? This is a mind-map developed after accepting the challenge of exploring Inclusive and Sustainable Smart Cities in a post-pandemic world and moving into the analysis phase. First, we dove into discovery and research, then compared our findings to create a Morphological Analysis. To divide and conquer, we broke our topic down to explore the layers of a Smart City based on our interests. I looked through the lens of Technology, studying IoT devices and sensors, and data collection and privacy. Karla explored post-pandemic lifestyle changes and sustainability. Kim and Yasmin dove into inclusivity, with Kim focusing on digital inclusion and Yasmin on policy inclusion. Shane explored public policy and efficient municipal services in a Smart City, but how do all of these layers come together you ask? Human behavior affects how Smart Cities collect data and what type of data is being collected. This data needs to be protected, secured, and inclusive. In a Smart City, this data informs city interventions from governance and public policy, to the design and planning of cities and municipal services. These interventions need to be informed, inclusive, and sustainable. After discovery, we compared our findings, asked questions, and developed a Morphological Analysis. This technique is used during the creative problem-solving process to explore possible solutions and creative ideas within a complex topic. Using this tool, we were able to develop a grid analysis that combined our research and depicted a landscape of existing “solutions.” For my sub-topic in technology, I began research using educational resources from a Smart Cities course I had taken at the MIT Media Lab. The problems I explored related to effective data collection, gathering informed insights from this data, and ensuring that the data collected is protected and secured. There are many technologies that address these problems, such as the TerMITe sensors developed by the MIT Media Lab, that allow us to capture data on human behavior in physical spaces. Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) Simulations are used to study and predict the interactions of individuals and entities. ABM simulations allow us to analyze, assess, and experiment with different city interventions on a live 3D model, testing before implementing. This allows for citizens to play around with the model and participate in city planning, contributing to inclusive design. Open Algorithms (OPAL) is a non-profit socio-technological innovation that allows the private sector to collect data in a safe way. And lastly, the Helium device is the first decentralized peer-to-peer wireless network that allows IoT devices to transmit data to the internet in a secure and cost-effective way. Personally, I believe that it is important for Smart Cities to leverage innovation to solve problems, but cities need to ensure that the technology fades into the background and the focus is on the human experience. I am excited to continue exploring this topic with Team Feldspar to see how we can contribute to the creation of inclusive and sustainable environments! “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” – Jane Jacobs, urban activist.

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Challenge Accepted.

The first step in the creative problem-solving process is to accept the journey. This includes acquiring a go-getter mentality, assessing self-interest, visualizing success, remembering role models, and managing expectations. Self-starters are ambitious, like to start new things, and pursue more. I always had this go-getter mentality, however, I find that it’s accelerated by passion, which is directly related to self-interest, and if I find myself excited about a topic, I devote to the process. The topic my team Feldspar (Karla, Kim, Shane, Yasmin, and I) chose to explore is Inclusive and Sustainable Smart Cities in a post-pandemic world. By 2030, the UN projects that 1:3 people will live in cities, but city design, planning, municipal services, and public policy can’t keep up with rapid urbanization and technological development. This results in unsustainability, inefficiencies, exclusivity, and digital divides. The current pandemic and the shifts in our lifestyles, like work-from-home, will all play a role in what cities of the future will look like. I am very passionate about Smart Cities with my first love being Architecture. With a degree and work experience in the field, I have always been fascinated by cities and their design and planning. My second love and degree is Economics. I am intrigued by human behavior and the drivers and effects of production and consumption in our society. My third love is Technology; a field I recently started working in as a UI/UX Designer and why I am excited to accept this technological challenge. I am interested in how Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors can effectively be integrated in the built environment, to securely collect data and insight on how society behaves, to inform city interventions that enhance our quality of life. Personally, I will feel rewarded by challenging myself to look at a complex topic from a cross-disciplinary lens, as well as by putting myself in a situation to derive solutions that can impact our everyday lives. Picturing success depends on one’s definition of success. Success to me on a macro level, as cheesy as it sounds, is to take one step forward towards making the world a better place. On a micro level, success would be to develop a solution that leverages smart technologies to contribute to the creation of safe, inclusive, and sustainable spaces to live, work, and play. My role model has always been my father, an engineer, and an entrepreneur who taught me the power of education. He always reminds me that with hard work, integrity, perseverance, and a little bit of luck, you can achieve more than you ever dreamed of! I take this wisdom with me everywhere I go and always reflect on it during the acceptance phase. Last but definitely not least, managing expectations. Ideally, I would love to develop a tangible solution, however, considering time, resources, and the breadth/complexity of the topic, I believe a well-thought-out proposal with action-items is a realistic goal. I am excited for this journey with Team Feldspar and hope we can bring insight on how to make future cities efficient, inclusive, sustainable, and most importantly, people-centric.

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Exploring Creativity

"Creativity is intelligence having fun." -- Albert Einstein

So where can our minds best have fun? It is important to get to know yourself and understand what kind of space you need to be inspired, comfortable, happy, motivated, hardworking, and creative.

Imagine a space with floor to ceiling windows that allow abundant natural light to spill into a room with soft white and pastel-colored furniture. This place is clean, uncluttered, spacious, and energetic; following the basic principles of Feng Shui. There are round tables, fluffy couches, bean bags, blankets, a rocking chair, and a lot of space for activity. This space isn’t too small or claustrophobic, nor is it too large. It keeps a cozy, homey, and intimate size, with a perfect room temperature and a slight breeze. The carpet is warm and soft, while the light wood floor is bright and cool. Beautiful plants and flowers are found around the room, growing to the subtle tropical house music in the background. In the corner, there is a lemon-infused water dispenser and a coffee machine that makes iced coffees, chai lattes, and even matcha drinks. Next to it, a small table is lined with fresh fruit and homemade muffins. In the other corner, there are shelves filled with design books on architecture, urban planning, and digital product design. A glass door leads to a sunny green space and a glistening body of water just outside the room. Here you can walk, run, swim, do outdoor yoga, or just meditate.

This is my imagination of an ideal environment that would take my mind to its most creative place. However, finding the perfect place is not always possible or realistic. Understanding this imaginative space will help you discover which elements you can replicate and bring into your workspace, making it the best place it can be for your intelligence to have fun.

Taking a step back, it was interesting to see that my first instinct was to explore my creativity through an architectural lens. This leads to the fact that our knowledge base, and our mental library of visual precedents, is where our creative connections come from. I hope that learning more about other design disciplines, business, and technology will further expand my creative thinking. Combining a wider knowledge base with a comfortable environment that inspires and motivates me, will result in a better informed, clear, and ready mindset to unlock my full creative potential.

Creativity is to be: Adaptable, Actionable, Ambitious, Artistic, Attentive, Conversational, Collaborative, Challenging, Cultural, Diverse, Driven, Empathetic, Equitable, Explanatory, Exploratory, Fearless, Flexible, Hardworking, Helpful, Imaginative, Innovative, Inclusive, Inspired, Inventive, Knowledgeable, Motivated, Observant, Open, Optimistic, Persistent, Positive, Purposeful, Resilient, Resourceful, Supportive, Surprised, Trusting, Visionary.