Blog Post B : Designers in team work

The caddie design project we accomplished for NSW Council was the first project we completed as a group. Our team charter was put together at the beginning of the project as a group. We put together a few points we agreed as a group, such as what we are expecting during meetings and understanding each member’s skills. Throughout the first project, I believe that there are a few things that we did well, along with many areas we need to improve for the next project.

A screen shot from our instructional video 

We went through trouble due to poor understanding of each member’s skill set and unexpectedly adding new team members. We did not have enough work to give to each of the team members and didn’t know what stage the group was at until they caught up.
In our case, the result of teamwork did not work out as well as we expected due to the miscommunication.
Bader and Jaegar from Pacific University school of Occupational Therapy states that “Quality communication means more than simply exchanging information. It means communicating with empathy in a way that encourages [people] to develop a willingness to hear another perspective, listen without interrupting and reach genuine understanding. Team members stated that though conflicts are unavoidable, they are more likely to be discussed than ignored. ” (Bader&Jaeger,2014)
This proves that for the next project, our group will work better if we can improve our communication. As half of the members prefer face-face meeting and the others prefer online communication, it is going to be a challenge for us, and we must overcome it together as a group.
Overall, the result was a product that we were all proud of, and some of us still use our caddie design at home. I think this is a great influence on ourselves towards the organic waste management.

 

Interdisciplinary Design

The interdisciplinary design is a process of developing design solution with others from different areas. This process allows each of the members that have different skills to approach from their professions to guide the group. The designers from various disciplines have skills using different research methods, design thinking and taking ideas into action to manage the organic waste.
The UI&UX Designer Yue Du states that “The two definitions of interdisciplinary design share the same basic meaning; they are about abandoning one single disciplinary approach and cooperating with other professions to solve problems. Design has the capability to change the world for the better, and when used appropriately it can be a more powerful tool than any single area such as technology, engineering or biology. Through interdisciplinary design, people can gain the capability to solve complex social problems. Consequently, interdisciplinary design is what happens when design thinking is applied to the multilateral society; it also embodies the interaction between people and the world.” (Du,2016)
This quote shows the importance of designers working together to solve complex problems. In this way, designers are the best equipped to deal with issues that cross disciplinary boundaries.

 
Importance of Design Thinking
Design thinking is a methodology that helps designers to attack the problem using sensible research methods to problem-solving no matter what the problem is. As Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO describes Design thinking as “methodology for innovation and enablement which helps with the generation of innovative solutions.” (Brown,2008)
This means that designers are taking an important role as the drivers of innovation and change in existing world systems. Design thinking will ultimately modify the way we see our problems, allowing us to find new solutions.

 

Reference:
Bader. C & Jaeger. M, 2014, What make an interdisciplinary team work? reviewed on 9th May, < http://commons.pacificu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=ipp&gt;
Brown, Tim. (2008) Design Thinking, harvest business review, viewed on 9th May < https://hbr.org/2008/06/design-thinking&gt;
Du. Y, 2016, What is Interdisciplinary Design? Viewed on 9th May <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-interdisciplinary-design-yue-du&gt;