Week 3 Capstone

Week 3 was a lot more enjoyable than Week 2! Motivation came to me much easier, and my vision for my project has become a lot clearer as the last couple of weeks have passed. What I want to create and how it could work has been on my mind all week, and through mental visualisation, I feel like I’ve already gone through multiple prototypes and iterations of how my stud concept could function! To be distracted from life by a university assignment is not how a degree typically goes. In fact, it’s usually the other way around. However, working with my passions means that my excitement for what I want to create has forced my brain to be whizzing with ideas and iterations constantly!

For this reflection, I want to try out the CARL framework (mostly because I like the name). This framework starts with context. This week focused on creating a functional concept for the boot stud, as well as completing further research. I wanted to remove the anxiety I had, or at least lessen it, by understanding my idea better, and developing it to the point where there are a lot less grey areas around how it could work and what it will do. I also wanted to tidy up my work by make it more organised and easy to navigate.

In terms of the actions I took to achieve this, I researched further into the mechanics of pepper grinders and began 3D modelling a few prototypes to scale. I spent a lot of the week refining these models, with notable changes coming to the size of the stud, the way the mechanics function, the viability of said mechanics, and how this all comes together (which I’m still trying to figure out). Furthermore, I continued to develop my project through the use of Design 4 Conservation frameworks, completing personas and a reconnection ritual canvas to go along with the values, idea selection checklist, and conservation challenge I completed last week. I also put in a few more hours learning about seeds and what sort of spread I could use to benefit certain wildlife. Along with this, I correlated my workings so far into a presentation and used AI to generate some images that capture the essence of what I want my project to be. I organized my miro board into sections representing each phase of my design process, and sized them all into a4 frames, to both improve the navigation of the page as well as it’s aesthetic.

This resulted in what I felt to be a solid, productive working week. I achieved the majority of the goals I set for myself on my weekly planner, and got started on the other goals that I didn’t quite finish. I’m feeling a lot more confident and happy with what I’m creating, and think that I’m in a good place to stay on top of my work. However, there is always room for improvement, and I think I still could’ve done more this week to have achieved all of my goals, rather than just the majority.

I’ve learnt that setting myself up for success by ending the previous week on a high has resulted in a productive and rewarding week. I’ve also learnt that devoting time to organisation is incredibly important, as although I’ve always been fairly confident with my time management, my physical organisation (i.e. a miro board) is normally quite messy and a jumble of ideas thrown onto a page. By taking time to actually organise my board into a layout that is clear and concise I’m able to focus better on the task at hand, and not get sidetracked so easily. However, the challenge of ensuring my scope is accurate and achievable is still at hand, and I’m unsure how long it’ll take until I’m 100% sure of what I am capable of achieving. I hope that as I further develop my idea and prove to myself that it’s viable and functional, that this feeling of uncertainty will lessen as my confidence grows.