Final thoughts…
The video presentations today were all very well executed. I learned a lot from the other groups’ presentations as well as our own. The same goes for the feedback. Having the reviewers analyze our project and storyboard was great, but it was even more helpful and engaging to witness the feedback that other teams received. Likewise, the flow of ideas and design process that each individual team demonstrated was collectively advantageous for further projects.
Looking back on our team’s video presentation and the feedback we received, it is clear that our design process did not incorporate enough of the personal element. Seeing as our design must be extremely end-user compatible, it would have been advantageous to seek more RA patients for their thoughts, comments, and overall background experiences. This would have provided us with a better perspective before prototyping, and it would have allowed us to better replicate the type of technical device we envisioned. Seeing as the idea for the clinical need did originate from my girlfriend’s mother, an RA patient, it would have been a good idea to include her thoughts, personal story, biases, and personal experiences into our design process. Though an in-person interview would have been difficult due to distance, we should have at least arranged a phone call or Facetime call. Either way, we could have also to tried to poll and question patients from the RA clinic here at UVA.
So now what? Should our group move into Capstone with this project? If we choose to do so, we already have a lead start as Dr. Allen mentioned in class today. Essentially, the three of us are going to have to decide whether or not our idea is worth pursuing and whether a viable product lies at the end of the tunnel. It is going to be difficult to decide, but because we are all interested in the clinical need and we have all invested long hours into drafting needs statements, constructing prototypes, and collaborating on a video presentation, this project would transition favorably well into our Capstone plans. Personally, I enjoyed working alongside Trey and Tom and would definitely be interested in working with both of them in Capstone, either on this clinical need/device or on a similar area. Ultimately, I think our idea could foster strong promises.
Thank you
–Albert Schibani
BME Design 