Today we met up outside of class time in the library to brain storm our target customer.
We thought about the following areas when thinking about the customer;
- working class? middle class?
- parents/carers? of disabled children? or not?
- style awareness?
- want to improve childs skills?
- no or little access to facilities
- age range? 2-5 6-10 etc.
- busy lifestyle
We then focused on a more specific customer:
Parent of a visually impaired 3 year old girl
- working class
- stay at home mother
- 2 other children
- 3 bedroom house
- husband in full time work
- has a part time carer?
- decorates own house
- shops online
- shops on a high street level
-what are parents/carers entitled to when having a visually impaired child?
We then began to think of how we could expand the idea to a larger range.
We decided on a range for working class (tesco?) and middle class (mothercare? john lewis?)
Within each range had products targeted towards boys and girls
Within each range had age appropriate products for the following ranges: 2-5, 6-10, 11-13
To make the products price appropriate they would need to have different elements.
Cheaper: magnetic?
Middle: Interactive?
From this we decided to look at different areas in the market for next friday:
ANDREA: What are carers entitled to?
CARA: Who sells it online?
AMY: What high street stores have interior ranges that our product could fit into?
ANNABELLE: What features could we have in our wallpaper?
Friday, 31 January 2014
30/01/14 - Business Basics
Today's session was all about the business side of designing and creating a new product. This area really interests me as I have always wanted to know more about marketing and designing for a customer. I am also really interested in trends and trend prediction and it was interesting to understand how trends come about..
Political
Economic
Sociological
Technological
Legal
Environmental
Trend prediction and customer based designing is something we touch on lightly but not in such detail so I really enjoyed learning more about this area and the variety of ways to go about looking into trend research that has already been undertaken
Trend Hub
Just Style
WGSN
Mintel Reports
Passport
Although trend prediction isn't vital for the project we are currently developing, I will definitely use this information in other areas of my course.
When discussing our project together as a group, it came to light that similar ideas were being developed by other groups. If this issue was to come about in a real life situation we would need to look into 'safe-guarding' our idea to have ownership of the work we have done.
After beginning to understand developing a customer profile, we decided we would discuss this further tomorrow when we meet up for an hour.
Political
Economic
Sociological
Technological
Legal
Environmental
Trend prediction and customer based designing is something we touch on lightly but not in such detail so I really enjoyed learning more about this area and the variety of ways to go about looking into trend research that has already been undertaken
Trend Hub
Just Style
WGSN
Mintel Reports
Passport
Although trend prediction isn't vital for the project we are currently developing, I will definitely use this information in other areas of my course.
When discussing our project together as a group, it came to light that similar ideas were being developed by other groups. If this issue was to come about in a real life situation we would need to look into 'safe-guarding' our idea to have ownership of the work we have done.
After beginning to understand developing a customer profile, we decided we would discuss this further tomorrow when we meet up for an hour.
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
28/01/14 - Brainstorming ideas
Today's session was used to brain storm ideas for the project.
To get a focus on the ideas, we first started off composing a consumer that our products would be for and thought of their needs and what they would be missing and then a solution to the problem.
An example of this is:
USER: parent of a disabled child
NEED: struggle to provide a suitable living space for their child to develop.
INSIGHT: affordable way to adapt their home to cater for their child's needs available on the high street
We thought about how we would be able to create something affordable, practical and appropriate for a variety of disabilities.
We then used post-it notes (see picture below) to brainstorm ideas.
To successfully brain storm we had to follow this:
- keep it going
- encourage ideas to build new ideas
- get everyone's contribution
- QUANTITY
- encourage wild ideas
- be visual
This way of creating ideas was really productive and helped develop current ideas without thinking too much into them. Visually seeing ideas develop and link to one another was useful and helped spark new and unusual ideas amongst us.
After brainstorming we all really liked the idea of creating sensory products for a disabled child's room but no one had a lot of strong knowledge of the various disabilities or the required environment that children would need to best develop.
We decided to go away and research into various disabilities and discover what they need day to day and would be beneficial to have in their homes.
I think that finding a strong character profile for our ideal consumer is the best idea so it really helps us to understand who we are designing for and will help us to target our research to one specific area.
We have also decided to book a room in the library for an hour outside of lecture time so we can really develop our ideas together.
To get a focus on the ideas, we first started off composing a consumer that our products would be for and thought of their needs and what they would be missing and then a solution to the problem.
An example of this is:
USER: parent of a disabled child
NEED: struggle to provide a suitable living space for their child to develop.
INSIGHT: affordable way to adapt their home to cater for their child's needs available on the high street
We thought about how we would be able to create something affordable, practical and appropriate for a variety of disabilities.
We then used post-it notes (see picture below) to brainstorm ideas.
To successfully brain storm we had to follow this:
- keep it going
- encourage ideas to build new ideas
- get everyone's contribution
- QUANTITY
- encourage wild ideas
- be visual
This way of creating ideas was really productive and helped develop current ideas without thinking too much into them. Visually seeing ideas develop and link to one another was useful and helped spark new and unusual ideas amongst us.
After brainstorming we all really liked the idea of creating sensory products for a disabled child's room but no one had a lot of strong knowledge of the various disabilities or the required environment that children would need to best develop.
We decided to go away and research into various disabilities and discover what they need day to day and would be beneficial to have in their homes.
I think that finding a strong character profile for our ideal consumer is the best idea so it really helps us to understand who we are designing for and will help us to target our research to one specific area.
We have also decided to book a room in the library for an hour outside of lecture time so we can really develop our ideas together.
Saturday, 25 January 2014
23/01/14 - Team Development using Belbin
Today's session focused on getting to know each others roles within the team using the Belbin questionnaire. The questionnaire is devised to find out what kind of role you play within a team. The Belbin method proposes 9 roles that each person can fit into . Each role plays a part in the larger collective of every member.
The 9 key roles are:
- Plant
- Resource Investigator
- Co-Ordinator
- Shaper
- Monitor/Evaluator
- Team Worker
- Implementer
- Completer/Finisher
- Specialist
Each key role fits into three broader areas; Thinking / People / Doing
Thinking
- Plant
- Monitor /Evaluator
- Specialist
People
- Co-Ordinator
- Team Worker
- Resource Investigator
Doing
- Completer/Finisher
- Implementer
- Team Worker
From this information we each completed the questionnaire to work out which role we all best fit into. The ideal situation was to have a member of the team in each of the broad areas. This worked successfully for our group as shown in the picture below we had a person which fit with each of the broader areas, although today we had Amy missing.
The questionnaire helped to understand each person's strengths and weaknesses and to give a general understanding of how the group dynamic will work and how each individual will work best.
We also used this session to discuss any research/ideas we had collected since Tuesday.
Andrea brought forward the idea of creating sensory rooms for autistic children. The idea was to create interior pieces that could be used in a variety of locations to help calm children.
We all felt positively about this idea and Annabelle had looked into themochromic inks which are inks that change colour when heated or cooled down. Combining these ideas we came up with an idea of creating interior pieces which could be bought in retail stores and could be put into the home.
Having done some trend research, I suggested looking at the trend 'FOCUS' when imagining and designing the wall/floor/furniture pieces. The trend fits well with the idea as the description of the trend is to 'create a sensory experience'. The trend has a lot of calming aspects which I think would work well with the environment we are trying to create.
From this session we have decided to go away and look further into the general field in which we want to design for. It is too early on in the project to condense our research down and have a specific focus. Also without having Amy in to contribute ideas, we didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves before discussing it as a whole group.
Grid which shows each member's strongest and weakest roles and which category they fall under
The 9 key roles are:
- Plant
- Resource Investigator
- Co-Ordinator
- Shaper
- Monitor/Evaluator
- Team Worker
- Implementer
- Completer/Finisher
- Specialist
Each key role fits into three broader areas; Thinking / People / Doing
Thinking
- Plant
- Monitor /Evaluator
- Specialist
People
- Co-Ordinator
- Team Worker
- Resource Investigator
Doing
- Completer/Finisher
- Implementer
- Team Worker
From this information we each completed the questionnaire to work out which role we all best fit into. The ideal situation was to have a member of the team in each of the broad areas. This worked successfully for our group as shown in the picture below we had a person which fit with each of the broader areas, although today we had Amy missing.
The questionnaire helped to understand each person's strengths and weaknesses and to give a general understanding of how the group dynamic will work and how each individual will work best.
We also used this session to discuss any research/ideas we had collected since Tuesday.
Andrea brought forward the idea of creating sensory rooms for autistic children. The idea was to create interior pieces that could be used in a variety of locations to help calm children.
We all felt positively about this idea and Annabelle had looked into themochromic inks which are inks that change colour when heated or cooled down. Combining these ideas we came up with an idea of creating interior pieces which could be bought in retail stores and could be put into the home.
Having done some trend research, I suggested looking at the trend 'FOCUS' when imagining and designing the wall/floor/furniture pieces. The trend fits well with the idea as the description of the trend is to 'create a sensory experience'. The trend has a lot of calming aspects which I think would work well with the environment we are trying to create.
From this session we have decided to go away and look further into the general field in which we want to design for. It is too early on in the project to condense our research down and have a specific focus. Also without having Amy in to contribute ideas, we didn't want to get too ahead of ourselves before discussing it as a whole group.
Grid which shows each member's strongest and weakest roles and which category they fall under
21/01/14 - Introduction to the module.
Today was the first session of the new module 'Global Fashion & Textile Sourcing'.
This module is all about developing an awareness of relevant industry sources and understanding the factors that impact the current practice of sourcing of fashion, textile and surface design products. We will also begin to understand the factors that may affect businesses in the future and how they will impact on careers within the industry.
This module is a group project in which we will come up with a concept for a possible product. With knowledge of a variety of fields, each group contains students from both the Textiles with Surface Design (TSD) course and the Fashion and Textile Buying Management (FTBM) course. This brings knowledge of both the business and the design sides.
Our group is made up of five of us, three from the TSD course and two from the FTBM course. This session was mainly focusing on getting to know each other and swapping contact information so that we can all communicate easily with one another throughout the duration of the project.
We discussed the elements of our courses that we were most interested in and what we were interested to bring into this project. We didn't want to commit to roles or tasks this early on in the project but talked through each role and put ourselves forward for the roles we were most interested in.
By the end of the session we loosely allocated the following roles to each person (but this doesn't mean they won't change!)
Aysha
- Managing Director (MD)
- Financial Director
Cara (Me)
- Operations Manager
- Sales & Marketing Manager
Annabelle
- Head of Design
- IT Manager
Andrea
- Head of Technology
- Human Resource Manager
Amy
- Head of Sourcing
- Merchandising/Logistics Manager
At the end of the session we decided to go away and think about the brief and come back for Thursday with a few ideas/possibly research to get the ball rolling for the new project.
This module is all about developing an awareness of relevant industry sources and understanding the factors that impact the current practice of sourcing of fashion, textile and surface design products. We will also begin to understand the factors that may affect businesses in the future and how they will impact on careers within the industry.
This module is a group project in which we will come up with a concept for a possible product. With knowledge of a variety of fields, each group contains students from both the Textiles with Surface Design (TSD) course and the Fashion and Textile Buying Management (FTBM) course. This brings knowledge of both the business and the design sides.
Our group is made up of five of us, three from the TSD course and two from the FTBM course. This session was mainly focusing on getting to know each other and swapping contact information so that we can all communicate easily with one another throughout the duration of the project.
We discussed the elements of our courses that we were most interested in and what we were interested to bring into this project. We didn't want to commit to roles or tasks this early on in the project but talked through each role and put ourselves forward for the roles we were most interested in.
By the end of the session we loosely allocated the following roles to each person (but this doesn't mean they won't change!)
Aysha
- Managing Director (MD)
- Financial Director
Cara (Me)
- Operations Manager
- Sales & Marketing Manager
Annabelle
- Head of Design
- IT Manager
Andrea
- Head of Technology
- Human Resource Manager
Amy
- Head of Sourcing
- Merchandising/Logistics Manager
At the end of the session we decided to go away and think about the brief and come back for Thursday with a few ideas/possibly research to get the ball rolling for the new project.
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