Summary
Phase one has been somewhat of a journey. It started off in a relatively shaky way and is probably still shaky just now If I am honest. Phase 0 was not really what I expected and I had a lot to do in Phase 1 to make up for what I thought was a definite lagging behind. My original plan for the phase was shunned for a newer one that was to be more in depth. With that done I could get down to work. I took it my own direction which, unnervingly, was different to almost everyone else. But who likes to follow the crowd?
The main focus of my Phase 1 was more a hands on making things rather than going out straight away and doing too much research and somewhat backing yourself into a corner (at least that is how I saw it as). Model making was almost a daily occurrence. Taking sketches and turning them into something physical was a real draw, yet something that I have not always been strong at in the past.
What I Have Been Doing (Deepest Aspects)
The main focus for me in Phase 1 has been the model making and the going from paper to prototype. My work in progress video from December highlighted this massively. Whilst everyone else was making videos about their research, I was saving my research until later. The video showed a typical day of prototyping for me. Starting off with sketching and moving on to the model making and attempting to integrate early electronics into it..
The aesthetics of the project were also extremely important to me. I used up a lot of pages in a number of sketchbooks exploring the exterior design and a similar amount working out the details of how it is going to work and be put together. A piece of feedback that I got was that the product shouldn’t take up much room on the bedside table at all, and that is what I have been trying to achieve. Keeping the exterior minimal was also a requirement. This was so it would not be too visually stimulating for the bedroom where the user is trying to sleep. If they have some sort of visual simulation then they probably wouldn’t really get to sleep very easily. I have a strong image in my mind of how I would like the project to turn out and would be very disappointed if I did not get the outcome I was looking for.
A lot of time was spent figuring out how I wanted the project to work and what I wanted it to do. The original idea was that the project would only just light up when a message was received. Hence the title I gave it early on, the social lamp. But features have been added and an incentive was evidently added too in order to make younger people use it. This was a major upgrade to the project as it turned it from something that would work well (in my mind) into something that would not only work, but something that people would want to and really would use.
Critical Self-Assessment
So how did I really think I did?
If I am honest, it could very well be debatable. But this is me comparing my work to everyone else’s in the class. If I subtract myself from the general whirlpool of emotions that tends to go on in class, put my own feelings aside of general unknowing, anxiety and worry about every aspect of the project, I would have said I did well.
What did I think I did well? Probably the model making and visualising the project. I enjoyed doing the sketching and then translating it into a physical model, albeit not all of them turning out that well. I am constantly thinking about all the details that are in the project. How the phone messages are translated into the product doing something. How the USB cable has to be threaded through the product and the general packaging the electronics inside it.
My timekeeping was also quite good. There was minor slippage of the timetable that was set out at the start, but that was mainly due to the dissertation hand in and the fact I had to stop for a week or two just to let my mind rest about the project. By the end of this phase, the only thing that I didn’t really get to do properly was the electronics. I know how I want them to work. I roughly know what the code for them should be, but I just haven’t felt as though I have had the time to put them into action.
This leads me nicely onto the things that I think I probably did not do so well.
I am going to start off by saying that the research side of things could have gone better. I did quite a lot of secondary research, but as for primary research, it didn’t really take off until the latter half of the phase. In all fairness that was part of the plan, but I could have done better. Some redeeming parts of this statement are that I did manage to speak to a class of pupils at school a few weeks ago and they gave me some very valuable insights and feedback on my project as a whole and pointed me into a better direction.
Something else I am going to pick up on is the fact that I could have been more ambitious. I feel as though I am holding myself back and want to produce something safe and something that I know I can make and get to work successfully. Whilst I’ll openly admit that this is mostly my fault, I think that the fact I went from mid November until late January without speaking to a single member of staff about my project also played a part. I know this is a personal project, but when it is getting graded and confidence is needed to know that you are going in the right direction, it is obviously going to have a negative effect.
Overall that is my review of Phase 1. It had its high points and its low points but I think that this post has covered the more personal points of it and what I looked at most in the project. I’ll admit it isn’t the short review that was asked for, but I would rather be thorough and not really miss anything out. However if I have missed anything out then I will either add it into the post at a later date or I will add it into a post I will almost definitely do at the end of the year summarising the year. Either way, I can’t wait for phase 2 and the start of the end of my time at university.
Then its the big wide world…
