100/400 Collaborative Project [One Dollar a Day]

            My group, for the 100 and 400 level collaborative design project, consisted of me, Andres, Derek and Danielle. During our fist day together, we decided on a concept of a non-profit deliverable that would be given to a person after he or she would donate to the cause. The cause we decided was based on an organization called ‘Plan’, which is sponsors children in underdeveloped countries by providing education, water supply, and health care. We based our project on the same sponsorship model, in our case on the concept of donating a “dollar a day”. 

            Overall, our group worked pretty well together. We did a good job of dividing the work into categories according to our specific strengths. For example, while Derek and I did most of the work on illustrator and computer based design, Andres and Danielle did more of the tactile hands-on work creating the box. Even though we each had our own parts of the product to work on, we were able to express our opinions and have some influence on every part of it. My contribution to the group was mainly the graphic design of the inside face of the box, color selection, info card creation and the 3d number 1 keychain.

            In terms of compatibility and division of labor, I thought our team was great. I was, along with my team, very excited about our idea and was determined to make a great project. But, when it came time to deliver the final product, I felt that our team fell short of its potential.  Looking back, I think making more prototypes of the physical box design would have been very beneficial. And I think our biggest error, which made our final design we presented look like just another prototype, was that our whole group wasn’t present for the final step of project. It was late, and we were all tired from working on the project all day, and we were assured that constructing the box would go smoothly. Unfortunately, at the critique the next morning, I was surprised with the look of our product and had to present something to the class I wasn’t proud of.  It was tough, but it was a good lesson for future projects.

            Even though we didn’t end up with a great project. I really enjoyed the collaborative and open-ended nature of the project, and learned a lot.