Peer-Graded Assignment – Reflection:

Challenge:   The challenge I encountered can be described as finding the target audience and the  need for developing a modular kitchen design for different sized offices. Specifically, as  a group project, I have worked on designing a modular kitchen for a wide range of office  environments. During this design process, one of the most important aspects of our  thinking was based on defining and understanding our target audience and clients. As a  group, we have visited several startups and companies around the area and conducted  interviews. After the interviews, the main challenge was to discuss and present our  findings from the interviews to our group members and define a shared problem space  for our selected audience.     Selection:   I selected the visualization tool for the challenge of defining a problem space for modular  kitchen design and selecting the target audience. Visualization is a tool that people can  use to define a tangible, concrete outcome of your findings. By using visualization, people  can visualize and create a common perspective in their minds about a specific problem.  Hence, I wanted to use this tool for my own challenge as I thought explaining and  visualizing our findings from the interviews would help us improve our common, design  perspective.     Application:   I applied the visualization tool in many different stages of the defined challenge. First, as  stated before, I have conducted many interviews with employees of different companies.  During these interviews, apart from asking about their specific needs in kitchens, I simply  handed them a small piece of paper and asked them to draw an ideal kitchen component  that they want to see in an office and how they would use such a component in their best  ability. Some examples of these kitchen components were drawers, coffee machines, or  a plate holder. By collecting visual samples from different interviewees, I was able to  define a problem space for my group members much easier.     Other than the interviewing process, I used visualization tool while I was presenting my  findings to my group members. Specifically, I created a flow-chart for different office sizes  and explained the flow of thinking of employees to the modular kitchen design problem.  The flow chart helped me explain the different needs for different office sizes and how  employees consider empty space as a very significant component.     Insight:   The main insight I gained from my approach was that, the use of words is not enough to  define a problem space among a group of people. By using visualization tool, I was able  to understand the employee’s problems better and I also created a schematic of  significant sketches of employees, which can also be counted as the visualization tool.  Finally, my flow-chart approach showed me that I can use visualization is a  communication tool for my colleagues very effectively.

Approach:   For next time, I would also ask my group members to use the visualization tool if possible  to understand their problems in a better way. Other than that, before the interviews, I  would also show some of my idea sketches to some employees and try to get some  feedback on my initial design thinking. I think using visualization more would definitely  lead to a better modular kitchen design.

