Reflective statement

     The money earning exercise; what are its outcomes?
       I basically understood how innovative ideas are used to earn money in a given time constrain. We had a small scale business experience and played as the small scale business people, invested money and gained most out of it.

     What other similar exercises can be created?
       Working with some one, gain experience and also get paid by them according to the quality of work we do so that we can experience a role of a worker.


     What kind of research tool is role play?
       Role play is a research tool where the researcher steps in to the shoes of the person he/her is doing research on and experiences his way of life and how he earns etc,.  

     What are its advantages over plain interviews.
         In Role play method we are in the shoes of the person we are interviewing so we experience his way of life and his work tactics which is a great piece of information during research.

    What is ergonomics?
        The relation between the person and his workspace also his tools.  Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability.


     How is it a research tool?
        Ergonomics helps us to understand the work space, it is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.

   What kind of user understanding does ergonomics provide?
        Helps in understanding the relation to the workspace, tools and the person and how the place is set or designed keeping the comfort of the person in mind.


     What is a scenario or persona, what are the advantages of creating them?
         While creating a scenario we actually imagine ourselves as the persona and think about the situations and how to deal with it, most of the scenarios are inspired from real life stories/information.

     What are the advantages of a matrix as a research tool?
        Matrix actually helps us compare our options, rank our needs accordingly and helps in making decisions easily. As a research tool it helps in selecting the most important and useful information from all the research information collected and help design a product accordingly.

      How can it also work as a design tool?
        Matrix is helpful during designing products. A matrix of customers needs can be made and this helps design a product better according the most ranked needs of the customer. 
         
      Give two examples of design interventions that you can do based on this  2 weeks of research.
        Based on the research we did we could make a documentation video or book on the information we collected.

Matrix for buying a MP3 player

		Philips		Apple		Creative
Budget	100	3	300	4	400	5	500
Sound Quality	90	4	360	3	270	5	450
Memory	80	4	320	3	240	4	320
Size	60	3	180	2	120	4	240
Features	70	2	140	3	210	3	210
			1300		1240		1720

DAY 2 Mapping Marasandra

The second day we mapped Marasandra. We divided ourselves in to two groups. We started making a rough map moving towards the small lake and marking the important houses or shops we came across and on the other hand the other group went in the opposite direction marking the houses and the house number's. At the end we had the rough map and we all came together to sit down and put the two maps together and made the map of Marasandra. We found it difficult to sketch the map keeping scale in mind. But we managed to sketch a map giving a at least some information about the area.
We also observed the activities of the people. The other day we had visited in the afternoon and today we visited in the morning and we noticed that the mornings were pleasant and quite. The women where busy with their household work and men were off to their work, not many children playing. It was really interesting o know how the space changes around the time. How the space changes in the morning, afternoon, evening and night and we actually did not notice this before and this is a very important piece of information in research.

Ex4- Research in Marasandra, DAY 1

We visited a village called Marasandra, a place. No information about the place we started to explore around the village. The first thing we noticed a man making pots. We observed his techniques and asked him about his life. He had started making pots from when he was a child and it was passed on to his children. Their house and their work place where the same.  The broken pots were used as base during the baking of pots.

We explored further to and saw his son making Ganesha Idols. He was making idols for the Gnanesh chaturti festival. The usually finish making 10 idols in 2 days and color them using natural colors. Further we noticed they also made idols using paper and also used grains to decorate the idols. The unused idols were again repaired and kept for sale.

                                            

 Further we saw a shop where they where making brass murtis and further on our way to the lake we saw a grape yard. We reached the lake where the potters remove the clay from. We observed around and noticed many fields.

Ex3 Creating a scenario and persona

Story of a vegetable vender.
My name is Jayalakshmi, I'm from Hassan, settled in Bangalore 15years back. My husband Srinivasan started a business of selling vegetables. He rented a shop for Rs.7000 per month. He used to get all his vegetables from city market and make a profit of Rs.20,000. per month. We had owned two fields in Hassan and my brother in law took care of the fields. As there where no shops around the area our business went on well for many years. I used to take tuitions for primary students and used to earn about Rs.5000 per month.  Our son's name Avinash now studies in 9th std.
We planned to buy a house in Fraser town as our business was going well and we had saved money. We applied a loan in SBI for 20 lacs having 8% interest of interest. Over a period of 5 years we had managed to pay our interest as were making good business.
Every thing was fine till last 3 years. In 2007 my husband started having kidney problems and had to be admitted to the hospital. He could not do his daily routines and needed help.
I started handling the business though i had very less knowledge about it but I had no other choice. Because of my lack of knowledge the business started going down and i also had to take care of my husband and my child. I had to juggle between all these three and so i stopped taking tuitions. With the hospital and medical bills to pay and also pay up my child's school fee it was impossible for us to pay the loan. We had not paid our loan for three months and we had received a notice from the bank. I went to the bank to request them for some help and they would not help. We sold  our land in Hassan and managed to pay back half of the loan. In 2009 my husband passed away leaving me alone with misery. Now I'm taking care of the business with some help from my son. We still have loan to pay back and trying to get help....