In the process of my major project I developed skills that I highly value due to their versatility in many contextual situations, and the importance it has within a project. That is the technical skill of Research and Workshop processes. While learning and practicing this skill I learned a couple of soft skills that pertain to this skill. Such as Design thinking. I feel like these skills are a very important part of the early process as they heavily dictate the flow and direction that you plan to take the project in. As researching gives you the information that one will use to deduce their prefered method of function in the process. That’s also why I think design thinking is important in this section as you require to have that critical mind that can accurately analyse the pros and cons with the information y0u’ve taken.

These skills are most abundantly seen in C2 and C4. I tried to be as thorough with my research process, as I understood that not doing that would leave me stranded and confused in later parts of the major project. Below is my C2 work where I looked at 3 existing battery tester products, that I have analysed. I also looked at 3 existing circuits that are used for battery testing. I will be looking at each ones function, input and the components of the circuit. Looking through these circuits would provide me with the understanding of what makes a suitable circuit. This information will also assist me in this processing of the circuit I use.

I also looked into some of the items that pertain to the function of my device (that being a battery tester).

After C2 I had an idea of how I wanted to approach my clients problems and the base technology and materials I had required. But in C4 I was required to pick out all the specific details and the means I would go by to manufacture my product. These details had to be researched with the same skills as mentioned before, as I had to use Design thinking and keep in mind its purpose. Throughout this process I found that pros and cons lists were a very effective method of documenting and organising the information I had collected. That’s why they are so prolifically seen.

In the process of my my major project, I learned and honed important skills in the communicative process. This happened in the earlier stages of the process, mainly criterion 1 & 2. I feel that this part of the whole process is vital to its function. As it dictates the flow and steps required for the rest of the project. I see it to be, that if this section was executed poorly there would be severe repercussions throughout the rest of the project, and in the long run conclude with the client being disappointed. This is why I greatly value the following skills I practiced: Communication, Client empathy and Collaboration as my soft skills and Data collection as my technical skill.

As you can see below, these first skills were seen in the very beginning of the whole project. In criterion 1; with the Consideration of Design need and the Client Consideration. In these sections I had to undergo extensive interviews with my client, in which I gained contextual evidence to my clients personal characteristics and her contextual situation, as I believed this would help me cater better to her specific needs. This is first where I practiced the soft skills. I required these in order to effectively complete the technical skill as I needed to collect the information attentively as be able to understand this information and accordingly sort it to each of the sections in which I refer to the information I had obtained.

These data collective skills would be further and more artisanally looked into in criterion 2 – as you can see below. In this criterion I further looked into the contextual evidence, then using communicative skills I tried to analyse how this information could be useful to me. You can see this below in the section of criterion 2 aptly named: Relevant Data.

Later in the section: Client Interview, as you would be able to deduce; I had documented one of these interviews I had with my client pertaining to the desired aesthetic and ergonometrics that she had desired or features she had thought would be important to have in the product. In this section I further employed my use of the data collective technical skill, and used the soft skill: client empathy, in order to evaluate this information in depth. So much so, that I had done an evaluation and listed the exact desires I had picked up. I then used this information and the research I had done earlier to corroborate a rough idea I had for the design of the product. I think this worked very well to set rough ideas in my mind and to communicate these ideas with my client also kept her aware in this process.

My major project course had encouraged me to develop many soft and technical skills in the process. But one of the most prolific skills was creativity. This core soft skill was seen in other skills such as: Design thinking and client empathy. This also cultivated important technical skills, that skill being 3D drawings and CAD design. This was mainly seen in my third criterion, in the section: exploration of design ideas.

The criterion required me to create and design 6 different and unique designs. These designs needed to be annotated and designed with function in mind. This further improved my sense of client empathy. As I had to keep in mind my clients wants and needs in order to best cater her desired function with the products design. The designs in question are displayed below:

The client had specified several different wants and needs making it pertinent to find many different designs to flesh out, that would succinctly satisfy those criteria that the client had set. Furthermore this designing employed isometric drawings as the main method of communication, this was very difficult for me at first because I lack an artistic nature. Yet over time I developed my confidence in drawing, as you can see in the last drawing there is a great difference in quality when compared to the first.

Secondly was my 3D designing in the CAD. The CADs below are by my creation in this project:

These designs paired with the isometric sketches really helped nurture my innovative and creative skills. As they helped me both mentally and physically visualize and plan designs in a 3D observable space. My client greatly appreciated these drawings, stating that “they were really helpful in making my decision for what I want” These mediums of communication were very effective in conveying my creative skills and overall was a great experience.

In the making of my final product I had developed both soft and technical skills such as prototyping, and in accordance; client empathy and problem solving. Because in the process of criterion 4; the planning for manufactruing stage, the design I had chosen in criterion 3 had many problems that I had to fix.

This is the original design I had in mind as I had tried to accomodate for most of my clients needs, but her most explicitly expressed want was to have an ergonomic, smooth product. Which I feel firstly displays empathy.

Yet whilst prototyping, some problems arised.To the right would display the progessional thinking and innovation I had to undergo. I had come under many problems. Firstly there was functionality problems shown in the first prototype as the design wasn’t able to stand up. Secondly  This hugely developed my adaptability as in prototyping I would take images and consult whether the prototype fitted the desired traits the client had wanted.

The photos above display the changes I had to make in order to comply by the clients wants. The second problem I had to face, was in the manufacturing stage was the immense difficulty of producing it. I had to then change both my method of production and proceedingly the actual design of the product. As you can see below, the CAD design displays the huge change I had to quickly adress. This shows client empathy, and developed my skills in adaptability