Parting Thoughts
When I first started in this class I thought “how hard can it be to design something”, only to find out that I was looking at this all wrong. I was completely focused on the final design of a device, rather than trying to figure out the niche that the device needed to fill and the “need” that it had to fix. Going into the class I had the mind set of going straight from noticing an issue, to developing something that would fix the problem. As the class went on, I came to realize that the initial issue is usually not the problem but if you dig a bit deeper and interview some people, then you can figure out the bigger issue driving the smaller problems that you originally noticed. It may have taken me a few personal health projects to figure out what exactly the teachers were looking for, but I eventually got it. If I had any advice about the personal health projects, it is that the class was so focused on the process of design that during the early parts of the class the message that the students were supposed to actually invent some device to help with their partner’s goal, got lost in translation. I had originally thought that creating a method for my partner to follow would be the answer to the problem. While my method of having my partner log her calories for her calorie intake goal did work, it was not exactly what the teachers were looking for. In the end I felt that the class was very helpful and gave me great insight into the world of design. It turns out, while the class may have seemed relaxed and maybe even unorganized at times, it was actually artfully structured and designed that way for a purpose, to allow the students to connect the dots rather than telling them how to. Thank you all for a wonderful semester.
BME Design 