Eight Reflection

My project is finally complete, and I’m ready to show it off for the studio showcase. I have made many of the changes based on the deskcrits I received from my fellow students, and I thought of a few things on my own to change. After completing the project I can relate to this following quote about Ray’s design process from the article Footholds for Design by Shahaf Gal.

“Ray was using the computer as a medium for reflection, in which to explore the kind of surprises that Schon describes in Chapter 9. His conversation with the materials (even in this simulated medium) led to new insights and provided a way to test his specific design ideas”

Although Ray mainly used the computer as a tool to test his ideas about bridge design, it also “led to new insights” for him. I feel very strongly I could say the same about my design process. I used the computer and Flash as the medium for my reflection of the places I traveled to, and the people I meet along the way.

On the more technical side, learning to use Flash was a great learning experience for me. Like the quote says, “it provided a way to test his specific design ideas”. Before I even started on the project all I had was an idea for the project design, that’s it, nothing else. Through the use of my tools, I was able to turn my vision of that idea into a reality. Now it wasn’t 100% exactly like I planned it out to be, there were some changes made along the way. In fact, if I had a better knowledge of Flash I probably would added in some more features and tweaked a few minor things. But like most people who do design, I can say I am 90-95% pleased with the outcome of the project.

At the start of the semester I remember I couldn’t even come up with an idea for a project. I am very happy I thought of this idea, because I don’t think I could have gone through all the bumps and bruises of learning Flash if it weren’t for a project I actually liked working on.

Reference:
Gal, S. (1996). Footholds for design. In Winograd, T. (Ed.), Bringing Design to Software (pp. 215-227). New York: Addison-Wesley.