Week 1: Recap | June 16, 17, 18

Ongoing assignment: Compile at least 1-2 pages in your journal/blog on a weekly basis

For archival purposes I'll start off by mentioning that we're around 4 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and this is a condensed, 8-week version of 505 for the Summer 2020 session. From June 16 - August 6, we will be meeting every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6pm to 9:30pm through Zoom. 

TUESDAY | JUNE 16, 2020 | SESSION 1

We were given the assignment to create this blog prior to the first day of class. My first post includes a quick bio of who I am as a designer, what inspires and motivates me, some potential research topics I'm considering, and a few keywords and photos that describe me. Professor Gomes started the class by viewing each student's intro blog posts and letting us get to know each other and get familiar with Zoom as a learning and collaborative environment. He then introduced us to a variety of sources to explore for potential project topics. IDEO and Stanford's annual design challenges stuck out to me as incredible opportunities that I should take, whether in this class or as a personal project. We were given the assignments to review 3 past 505 student projects, and to draft 3 potential project topics of our own in preparation for the following week. 

WEDNESDAY | JUNE 17, 2020 | SESSION 2

For our second class meeting we separated into breakout rooms for a group activity that I've done before in his Spring class. One of my partners, Tyler, is also retaking this class to finish up his Spring project. Since we both have done this activity before, Professor Gomes added Alaina to the group and instructed Tyler and I to guide her through the process. 

"Designing for Living: Introduction to Design Thinking" is an activity taken from d.School, the Institute of Design at Stanford. The general takeaway is the importance of empathy and interviewing when designing a product. I've done this activity in a few other classes and it typically it requires you to be in person to interview your partner, and with an assortment of crafts and tools available for you to prototype a solution based on their needs. I'll be documenting and summarizing a recap of this activity in a separate post. 

THURSDAY | JUNE 18, 2020 | SESSION 3

June 18 was our graduation commencement for the Spring and Summer 2020 graduates. Me and a handful of other classmates were excused from this session to attend the live stream of speakers at the virtual ceremony. I wasn't in class this day, but those who attended commencement were given the assignment to draft up 3 potential project topics to present when we come back next week. 

For the last year or so I've been heavily involved an independent research project made possible by the Marcus Undergraduate Research Grant and Fellowship of 2019-2020. Last semester, Professor Gomes allowed me to use that same project for this class. Initially, I thought it would be best to continue with the same project so I didn't put much thought into other potential topics I would want to consider. One idea I had was inspired by all the social and political upheaval that we've been witnessing as a country in recent months. I proposed to explore either the topic of police brutality reform or political awareness regarding the upcoming election, with the idea to start a visual campaign to get the necessary information out there for those uninformed or unaware of potential barriers that could prevent them from having a voice or creating change within their local communities.