Macro UX: Week 1, Studio Takram

Brief: Design a set of pluriversal household objects

Team: Mengdie, Anshu, Keyi, Cristèle, Jennoir, Xiaole, Changlin, Anushka

Effective collaboration is key to achieving success in any project, and this was no exception during the first week of our design project. With a group of designers from diverse backgrounds, we decided to remain as a big group to enhance idea creation and collaboration. We found it useful to collaborate together to come up with common themes, interests, and prototype ideas that we wanted to explore based on our skillsets.

As all of us came from design backgrounds, and therefore that entailed that creative ideation would be highly fruitful. We began our brainstorming session by researching our partnership with Takram, a design firm that aims to reduce carbon emissions as side projects alongside their client work. Given that the brief was to be relevant to sustainability and our household habits, we decided to stick to this as a core foundational base for our ideas.

To kick off our brainstorming session, I suggested that we gather some cards and write down what each of us wanted to base our research on. This activity was particularly useful as it allowed us to identify common interests, such as our habits within our homes regarding water consumption and its impact on local communities, carbon emissions through practical daily activities such as overusing heating, and so on. This brainstorming activity based on interests brought great results as we were able to subdivide our big team into smaller focus groups to conduct research and gather relevant information to present to the bigger group.

The focus groups were able to delve deeper into their respective areas of interest and come up with more specific ideas and prototypes. For example, one group researched water consumption and how it affects local communities, while another group explored the carbon footprint of household amenities. We also had two groups focusing on sustainable options in regards to our food and how our food habits could be improved to reduce waste, while another focused on independent natural ecosystems and their functioning.

Once we had identified our common interests, we took a vote and separated into focus groups based on our preferences. Before embarking on our research, we made sure that each team was following a research method that would be beneficial to the entire group and inform our decision-making during the prototype development stage.

I was part of the water-consumption research group, and we utilized the AEIOU framework to analyze the various water amenities in our homes. We also used an artefact analysis to gain a better understanding of our habits and identify areas where we could make a valuable impact. By targeting these areas, we were able to generate ideas that had the potential to create meaningful change.