By: Justing Koga

As we are nearing the end of our Evaluate phase, I’m most proud of the work we’ve done as a team. I think chemistry is often overlooked when considering project success — one person has the ability to derail the momentum of a workflow. I’m so excited that going into our final week in OpenDesign+, my team is moving at full speed. 

During the Evaluate phase of the open design process, the most difficult part about our interview processes has been selling our idea. We are developing a “read the room” gauge for students and professors during the online learning setting (as well as a couple other community tools). Our problem has been that we lack a cohesive, easily digestible summary of our ideation process and of our solution. Going forward, we will have to experiment with different storytelling platforms to best be able to present our work. 

For me, the most memorable learnings from the Evaluate phase of open design have been more social than anything: how can I best present my ideas and thoughts without disrupting the general flow of the team’s ideation process? This question is especially difficult in the online setting, but I truly feel that something like our “read the room” gauge might allow group/class members to be more cognizant of the state of the room.