2021 Winter Project: Design Critique

Portfolio
1 Reframe
1.1 Reframe Design Artifact

1.2 Reframe Critique

The role that this artifact has played in the Design Process for the team and project is that it has
helped the group members have a sense of direction on the concept that is being worked on when it
comes to the programming that is being done. Typically, with so many possibilities and broad
requirements in project, it is easy to get lost when it comes to what needs to be done on such a topic.
Yet, this ideation board has been a guiding point for the group, it’s very small, but it dictates what the
group values in terms of significant factors to improve or work on when it comes to NTP. The decisions
that the group has made based on this artifact is the entire concept we’re going to carry out to complete
the project. This ideation board allowed the group to come to a concluding concept and start developing
our prototype for how to move forth with the project. The prototype consists of a combined execution
of the following ideas on the board excluding broadcast interaction and possible camera surveillance.
This ideation board has also allowed the group to understand the constraints and objectives of the
project. Ideating made the group unsure of certain constraints and goals, but this board allowed all
members to conclude and agree on the same set of goals and constraints. The goals being simplicity,
effectivity, and quality work. While the constraints are finishing within the time limit and having a solid
structure as the final product. These decisions are the right ones to make as they allow for quality work
to result from the decisions, as a result, these decisions and the thought put into them has improved
team chemistry and morale exceptionally. The fact that such a small board can allow the group to make
so many decisions and conclusions shows the usefulness and effectiveness of the board. Since the board
is so minimal, the group used it’s contents beyond expected, and there’s no other or better way that it
could have been used. The reason why it was used so well is because this artifact at first glance seems to
have so minimal to offer, yet it was basis of decisions the group were struggling with before. With this
board the group was able to have it as a starting point for our prototype, as the points were considered
when formulating how and what to create for NTP. If it were not for the board and the decisions we
made from using it, the group would not be at the point we are at right now.
2 Empathy
2.1 Empathy Design Artifact
2.2 Empathy Critique
The role that this artifact played in the Design Process of the team is that it is the brain behind the
entire program, this code allows the information needed to be displayed, such as the heat-map, the
Twitter scraper that acquires the data, and the connection of the data to a certain location with
Geocoding. Without this programming, the group’s project would not be where it is currently, the
backbone of the project involves programming that brings up the current level of the NTP information
search. The team requires a more efficient, simple, and user-friendly experience to top what NTP
already has, and the design of the program currently being made by the group is credited to the coding
behind it.

Through this artifact, the team has made three progress points, which can be considered the
most crucial to the group. The first progress that the group came to is that the code can implement a
scraper for social media that can acquire data and display it in a necessary manner, this scraper was
applied to the platform Twitter, allowing the group to filter the information accessed through the code.
Secondly, the group was able to allow for a new feature that is useful to the user, which is the input of
keywords and time duration for the user themselves. The user gets to decide what words they want in
their data search, for their own personal needs, and they also get to pick how long they want the
program to search for the information. Whether it is 10 hours or 2 days, the user decides when and how
long the information will be collected for. Finally, the team also made the progress point of the current
prototype, which is the program being currently developed. Through geocoding and scraper code, the
team has reached the point of combining ideas together for the final product, which has a map allowing
the user to see current data, put in a search to require more for themselves, and even have multiple
queries running at a time. Personally, the decisions made because of this artifact were the only decisions
that the group saw as fit for this project.

Overall, this artifact is the most crucial one to the group, no other part of the project would
matter if not for the code behind it. As the project with NTP is to improve their program, the only
approach that can be taken is programming, as the site itself is already coded to operate. Unlike other
groups and projects, this project is one that is not material based, but rather skill-based, with the only
outside sources needed being storage to put the code onto, and a website for it to be placed onto,
besides that, the most crucial component of this project is the coding itself.
3 Reflection
3.1 Question 1
In a SINGLE paragraph, describe what are you individually most proud of accomplishing (something you
did yourself) during the design process and why?

The biggest individual accomplishment accomplishment I had in this project was my on-the-spot
thinking and organization for the group. As last semester I was usually carried by the group in terms of
organization and thinking, the fact that this semester it was my time to show my development was a
good step. The reason why I am so proud of this accomplishment is because it shows my development
as someone working in groups, when I first came to university my teamwork skills were terrible, but
after these past two design semester, I have seen present progress in my collaboration, particularly my
thinking and organization. There are moments this semester where I believe the group would have not
been able to make decisions on how to follow through with work tasks such as reports without my
organization skills and thinking being implemented. I believe for assessments such as the Final Design
Report and our Iteration statements, I was a key member in the tasks and was able to influence group
members to collect themselves and organize their workflow.

3.2 Question 2
In a SINGLE paragraph, describe what was the biggest lesson you personally learned about completing
or following the design process from the winter project and what about the project taught you that
lesson?

The biggest lesson I learned from this semester’s project is that as a team member, I learned
how to implement other coursework into this course’s project. Using my programming skills from the
class I am taking this semester did the group justice when it comes to creating the NTP website. I believe
that as a group member I was able to connect the information from courses such as Business and
Programming to the NTP design project. What I took from business is the organization skills and time
management, I took these factors to disperse the workload in this course into segments that I would be
able to finish the project work with while discussing other matters with my group members. If it were
not for Business and Programming then I would not have been able to be as consistent and present with
my group as possible. Not to mention, this course strengthened my thinking and I believe another factor
of implementing other coursework into this project was how to think outside the box.