During the Student-Driven campus design project, we were tasked to create, alongside group members, a set of high-quality architecture plans and renderings for the design of our future Animas High School Campus.Our designs were created using the human-centered design process. This process helped us learn what our users valued, so we could create designs that not only met our needs, but the needs of our users. We gained this data through Empathy interviews, and observing in classrooms. After a long ideation and prototyping process, we were to create designs to share with people of the Animas community (our users) and gain their feedback. We gained this feedback at the all-school exhibition. After gaining feedback and refining, we came up with our final designs. These final designs were made into professional displayed and presented to the community of Animas, including the Board of Directors.
Human Centered design is a design process in which the designers learn and incorporate what their users value into their design. Before this project, I had never heard of this process, let alone ever practiced it in anything I had ever designed. In the past I have only ever designed things with the intention of meeting my needs, but I had never thought about the needs of my users. Learning the human centered design process was so important, because learning and implementing what your users value is the most influential way to design. After learning this process, I have grow. into a more empathetic person who is able to think about other’s needs before my own in everything I design.
I think I grew tremendously as a collaborator in this project. This project forced to me to come out of my comfort zone, and work with people I might not have ever worked with, and while there were some bumpy points in the road, I definitely think our work as a group was a success. I think one of the reasons my group was successful during this project, was because we knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses so well. We were also extremely good at effective communication about this. At the beginning of the project, we spent time reflecting on our strengths and weaknesses, and sharing what those were with the rest of the group. After doing this, we were able to help each other turn our weaknesses into strengths. For example, one of my weaknesses was not being able to advocate to my group members about what I felt needed to get completed by them, so I felt I wasn’t the only one carrying the weight. As the project went on, when my partners saw I was getting stressed, they helped me out by asking what I wanted them to complete. I completely grew into a more confident collaborator, and one that is able to advocate for herself, to get some help carrying the weight.
During this project, we were able to have a say into the future of our school, which is something I believe is extremely important and valuable. We as students, spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in a school. School is a place to be creative, and be the best students we can be, and we need to have a school facility that allows us to do these things. While this should be the case, most schools are not designed with this in mind. In The New York Times piece “Why Are Schools Designed Like Prisons?”, Allison Arieff writes “My high school, for example, had the dubious distinction of having been designed by the architect responsible for San Quentin. (The convicts got the better building.) Schools fulfill a practical function, to be sure, but shouldn’t they be designed to inspire?” I think the only way school designs are going to change for the better, is if students are the ones designing them. (or at least have a say in what the designs should be) This project was an amazing opportunity to do this, and design a school that meets the needs of our students and other users in the community of Animas High School.
Human Centered design is a design process in which the designers learn and incorporate what their users value into their design. Before this project, I had never heard of this process, let alone ever practiced it in anything I had ever designed. In the past I have only ever designed things with the intention of meeting my needs, but I had never thought about the needs of my users. Learning the human centered design process was so important, because learning and implementing what your users value is the most influential way to design. After learning this process, I have grow. into a more empathetic person who is able to think about other’s needs before my own in everything I design.
I think I grew tremendously as a collaborator in this project. This project forced to me to come out of my comfort zone, and work with people I might not have ever worked with, and while there were some bumpy points in the road, I definitely think our work as a group was a success. I think one of the reasons my group was successful during this project, was because we knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses so well. We were also extremely good at effective communication about this. At the beginning of the project, we spent time reflecting on our strengths and weaknesses, and sharing what those were with the rest of the group. After doing this, we were able to help each other turn our weaknesses into strengths. For example, one of my weaknesses was not being able to advocate to my group members about what I felt needed to get completed by them, so I felt I wasn’t the only one carrying the weight. As the project went on, when my partners saw I was getting stressed, they helped me out by asking what I wanted them to complete. I completely grew into a more confident collaborator, and one that is able to advocate for herself, to get some help carrying the weight.
During this project, we were able to have a say into the future of our school, which is something I believe is extremely important and valuable. We as students, spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in a school. School is a place to be creative, and be the best students we can be, and we need to have a school facility that allows us to do these things. While this should be the case, most schools are not designed with this in mind. In The New York Times piece “Why Are Schools Designed Like Prisons?”, Allison Arieff writes “My high school, for example, had the dubious distinction of having been designed by the architect responsible for San Quentin. (The convicts got the better building.) Schools fulfill a practical function, to be sure, but shouldn’t they be designed to inspire?” I think the only way school designs are going to change for the better, is if students are the ones designing them. (or at least have a say in what the designs should be) This project was an amazing opportunity to do this, and design a school that meets the needs of our students and other users in the community of Animas High School.