week 8 commentary

Our group met several times this week, each time with a different combination of people. We started the week by completing our affinity diagram; I felt like we would take a step forward at one meeting until a member who had missed that meeting came back with their own opinion, in which we would have to step backwards to undo and redo what I thought we had finished. The disagreement about seemingly minor issues on the affinity wall became frustrating to me to the point where another group member and I began working on other models to use our time more productively. Though it took longer than expected to finish the affinity diagram, I am now satisfied with the end result of the affinity wall's evolution.

We also completed most of our consolidation including the flow models, sequence models, and cultural models. I am pleased with our newest version of the consolidated flow model in which we shifted our center focus to the Web instead of on a student because it put all of our research in a different perspective. There was nothing too suprising about the consolidated sequence models or the consolidated cultural model. I also added a few physical models this week and we are currently trying to collect more data for artifact models.

Yesterday we met up to begin our visioning, which turned out to be a successful and efficient use of time. I think this is the part of the project that we have all been waiting for. After observing and interviewing other students, as well as being students ourselves, we have all these ideas inside that we have been anxious to put out as design visions and technologies. One idea would trigger another, and it was exciting to see the morale of our group brighten after having trudged through the affinity wall and consolidation challenges.

I think our group is aware of our time constraints and what needs to be done before the quarter ends. The next step is for us to work on our storyboarding and paper prototypes. Hopefully, the newly revitalized enthusiasm for this project will pull us through the final stretch of this project.