Patootie's Personal Preferences

After I joined the Women’s boxing club, I started having pains in my lower back for weeks.  Therefore, when I went home for Thanksgiving Break, my dad set me up to get a massage.  I was attracted to the service because my dad said the pain would hopefully disappear with the massage.  Also, I had heard about massages and how relaxing they are, so I was very excited to receive one.  When I arrived, I checked in and waited in the seating area.  The lady who was giving me the massage, Anna, asked if I had ever had one before.  When I responded no, she was said great, sat down next to me, and then began telling me what exactly she was going to be doing and why.  She explained the different medicines and products she was going to be using throughout the entire process.  I really thought this was a huge interaction between the two of us because when she started telling me the procedure about the massage, I began to feel comfortable about the entire situation because I knew exactly what was going to happen, which obviously made me feel much more comfortable. She was very welcoming and understanding of the fact that this was my first massage, and she did not make me feel awkward at all. I would definitely go back to get a massage from Anna.  She was extremely informative and understanding of my situation, while making me feel comfortable about the experience.  I would definitely recommend her to someone I knew because of her respect the effectiveness of the massage and for me.  She definitely made my back feel a million times better.  I really enjoyed the atmosphere and décor of the spa where I received my massage.  It is a very soothing atmosphere that helps you relax and forget your worries.  If I am having a massage, this is definitely the type of atmosphere I want to be in.  Also, all the people at the spa were extremely welcoming.  The man at the front desk was very helpful and asked me if there was anything that I needed, including a magazine or 

Often when I walk down the quad, I do not realize where I am or what is around me.  Many times, I am too busy or have too much on my mind to stop and think about the world I am seeing around me and its beauty.  This makes me sad; however, when I do look at things, I really take them in.  When people know where they are, they often tend to look for things that seem very familiar, and then finally what they are focused on.  After reading Roam’s chapter 4, I now know a little more on how to take in the world around me.  The first rule of how to look better is “collect everything we can to look at- the more the better (at least at first).”  This is relates to how in the beginning of our project, I took over two hundred pictures of people studying, so we have more evidence and information to look at and critique.  The second rule is to “have a place where we can lay out everything and really look at it all, side by side.”  Like the IDEO video, you can lay everything out even on a corkboard, so all the different possibilities are available.  This also helps with thinking of innovative and crazy ideas.  You can put the outlandish ideas on the board, too.  Third is “always define a basic coordinate system to give a clear orientation and position.” This allows people to stop and establish fundamental coordinates which are extremely important in observation. Lastly, one is supposed to “find ways to cut ruthlessly from everything our eyes bring in- we need to practice visual triage.”  People need to be able to cut the unnecessary information out and only use the good stuff.  We need to sort all the information that is not needed.  With a smaller amount of information, it will be easier to deal with and more likely to come up with innovative and crazy ideas.

After reading “Kenna’s Dilemma,” I was extremely shocked to find out that after all the hype about him he was not pursued.  The information given about Market Research and surveying people was very interesting and insightful.  In the article, it says that Market Research team sent Kenna’s tape to several different people, but there was not a  great response.  Dresner would read different plots and endings to people, and people would give their opinions about their likings towards these things.  Personally, I think it is more difficult in situations like Dresner’s to obtain more substantial and correct answers because when people are standing face to face with someone, they could be nervous and not give their true opinion.  The article aggress with this saying that “while people are very willing and very good at volunteering information explaining their actions, those explanations … aren’t necessarily correct.  The article says it is much more informational to just observe the way people act and what the environment that they are in.  This relates directly to class and our projects.  While figuring out what students needed for study space, we did multiple observations, but we never did a survey.  We took into account all the different locations where the students were located and how they studied in those locations.  From this information, we had an excellent grasp on information we needed, and we never used a survey.  Surveys can obviously be misleading, so one has to go about the right way of obtaining substantial information; therefore, it is extremely important to observe.

Most renown and successful companies are hesitant for change. These companies have a problem with ideaicide.  However, “In today’s business world, a company’s most important asses is still its ability to continually come up with new ideas.”   One must be able to convince the audience of an idea or story to be successful.  The most difficult part is convincing the audience of your idea because most likely the audience will be full of corporative executives that are not too open to the possibility of change in such a successful company.  Thinking about the corporate culture and understanding its ways are necessary for a successful pitch.  One must be extremely innovative to be able to convince the corporate people about what is in it for them and how it is going to benefit them.  This makes me think about our presentations for class.  Some people in class bashed the LaFortune Student Center in front of the Building Manager.  They were rude and used poor language, and personally, I believe that that is no way to get your point across and heard.  Why would someone want to help you if you are extremely mean and rude about the situation?  When my group spoke to the librarians in the library, we did it in a much different approach, and they were extremely interested in what we believed and had to say.  We told them why they should trust us, what we had to offer, and how we could help, and they had many questions for us on how to help. People need to be convinced of new innovative ideas that you have, but you must know the right way of going about it.  This idea of getting people to respect and like your ideas basically applies to many things in life.

After reading Amy Edmondson’s “The Mixed Effects of Inconsistency,” the subject of failure stuck with me the most.  I think it is because failure has always been a huge fear of most people and mine. A major part of experimenting is failure, but failure is inevitable because in experiments, one cannot just settle with the first outcome.  However, a decent amount of failures can be very beneficial. When people fail at a project, they have more knowledge about what not to do and can be more innovative to help find the correct way.  In the article, it comments about how pharmaceutical companies or automotive firms do experiments to test their products.  Companies like Eli Lilly have to do many different experiments on people and animals to be successful; however, failure in companies like these help the companies create the correct drugs.  Similarly, BMW has to test different cars, and their failed crash tests help to create the safest cars possible.  Using these failure attempts, these companies can the information to think of new innovative and creative ideas for the products to be successful.  This makes me think of my AP Chemistry class in high school because our teacher made us do each experiment three times because each experiment was never a guarantee success.  Even if we got the correct answer, we still had to do the experiment again to prove that the answer does not always come out the same.  Trial and error is an awesome way for experimenting.

Most people love problem solving because the end result is always rewarding.  Prototyping is problem solving.  There can be a problem with something old or something new; therefore, you always have the possibility of prototyping and making something better than it was.  This article also relates to the project that IDEO did with the shopping carts.  IDEO made different carts to figure out which parts of the different carts would be the best and most useful.  The fact that they created different carts was prototyping.  This process really allows one to be innovative because they can test out different possibilities.  Even a kid can prototype something, even if he realizes he is not doing it.  Prototyping does not just have to be for something serious or work related.  It can be for a sandcastle on the beach, where kids try several different buildings and trenches to find the best one possible. It makes me think that trying to make something better, no matter what it is, is prototyping.  The article makes an excellent point saying that when you attend a meeting, you should always have a prototype. Meetings with different prototypes can happen often to learn the most. This way, the team is able to get all the kinks and mistakes out fast and allows people to be extremely innovative, while not worrying about failing. Then, one can “shoot the bad ideas first,” meaning create a prototype and then tear it apart ripping all the bad ideas first!  This process allows someone to deny bad ideas, while getting crazy with other ideas.

Before I read Kelley’s chapter on brainstorming, I thought about what I did to brainstorm.  Personally, I think about the topic I am going to working on and write out all of its different features.  Then, I take the categories that I want to work with and make sub-categories.  Then, when I opened to chapter four, it started by saying “the problem with brainstorming is that everyone thinks they already do it.” I was shocked because they are probably right, and I am probably included in that someone!   After reading, I know I could most certainly do MORE.  There are seven different secrets that help one brainstorm.   My favorite secret was playful rules.  It reminded me greatly of the video we watched from IDEO, where all the people we throwing crazy ideas on sticky notes to put on the wall.  These ideas did not have any limits, and I really think that is an extremely important to throw out crazy ideas.  Even if they are unrealistic, there is no need for anyone to shoot them down or be negative about it because there is no need for a negative atmosphere. This really gives on the inspiration to be as crazy as possible with ideas when brainstorming because nothing is too outlandish. The best and most creative ideas come from people who have the ability to throw around ideas without negative feedback. There needs to be a positive atmosphere created in the room at all times or innovative and crazy ideas to occur.  This section of the chapter relates to the video when different teams put together a shopping cart with crazy ideas.  This project was beneficial because one could use ideas from all the shopping carts to create the perfect shopping cart.  All the other secrets like stretching your mind muscles and build and jump also allow individuals to think of innovative ideas!

Personally, I believe that play is extremely beneficial and has a major part of creativity.  When people are having fun, they are more wiling to finish work and accomplish it at a higher quality.  Nokia, Daimler-Chrysler and Alcatel are three major companies where they have really used innovation to help work with corporate executives.  “Serious play” has been installed in these companies to help the executives have fun and think on a different level.  They do activities like building structures out of Lego blocks.  This is an awesome idea to get juices flowing in one’s mind. When people play, it makes me realize that people are able to think about or create excellent innovative ideas.  Play can be manifested in three ways: games, humor, and joyfulness.  Games are extremely helpful because they “have become a tool for solving problems as well as a vehicle for self-expression and self-exploration.”  These games are excellent ways for individuals to express themselves and be creative about their identities.  Humor is highly influenced by the right hemisphere of the brain.  The right hemisphere “calls over for help from its companion hemisphere- which in this case resolves the incongruity by making sense of the comment in a new way.”  I never knew that the right hemisphere was what took comments and turned them into a different way!  Lastly, joyfulness is a major part of work because when people are joyful, happy, and laughing, it helps them reduce the amount of stress they have.  Companies should think of innovative ways to help employees laugh and have a good time, so they are able to finish their work and be happy about it.  The act of play also makes me think about how people have to enjoy the atmosphere that they work in to be productive and able to finish their work.  If they are miserable at work, there is little incentive to finish the work that needs to be done; however, if they are in a positive (ex. playful) atmosphere, they will want to finish their work.

As Tina Calabria says, “personas are archetypal users of an intranet or website that represent the needs of larger groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. They act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality design.”  Personas are beneficial in most circumstances; however, making personas will not guarantee success.  In the article, it says that personas alone will not ensure success.  This is a great point because what if you missed a persona or some important details.  Now, I know that I need to be able to think about my research and be able to rethink it in case I need to redesign the personas or change them. Needs and wants are different for each person, and this article really makes you stop to think and reevaluate the situation. To create or redesign a space, it is necessary to create personas to help use the space as best as possible to ensure the greatest outcome.  If we really figure out the user and his needs, then, our ability to help him will be much greater.  In class, we learned that for our projects, it was necessary to do research to figure out the different types of personas present in our areas of redesign.  This will allow us to group people into different categories and successful help their personas.  Truthfully, I believe that keeping a persona concise is very important. If they are constricted to a specific size, then, each persona then cannot be too long and extensive.  If it is too long, there can be too much confusion about a persona.  Personas allow people to categorize and describe people into different groups.

In class, we discussed that symphony is about relationships.  It is the collaboration of a lot of parts working together to achieve a goal.  The difficult part about symphony is that every part must be in complete harmony and unison to function as a whole.  All these parts can be completely different and diverse, but they all must work together to accomplish their goal of something new and extraordinary.  When working together to create something new, the different elements must focus and go beyond the teaching in textbooks. They must look for something special to set them apart from each other.  They must be willing to take chances, cross different lines and fail to create something new.

Also, the person in charge must have a very creative mind that enables himself to think about the big picture.  He is in charge of making sure that all the different parts know their jobs and responsibilities and how they are going to function and collaborate other parts of the symphony.