Exploratory Making

In quartile 2, my main focus was to improve my skills in the area of Creativity & Aesthetics. This is why I chose the elective Exploratory Making. In this course I learnt a lot about aesthetics and about expressing quality in form and interaction. Initially I was afraid that this would be my weakest area, as I consider myself to be good with technology, but not with the aesthetics of products. In From Idea to Design, I received the feedback that I should work on my InDesign skills. However, in the elective I did well and I realised I shouldn’t underestimate myself.

One of the biggest learning points for me was that thinking in form and thinking on paper are two different things, and that modelling ideas in the real world is an incredibly useful tool that can tell you other insights into your design than 2D sketches or 3D CAD models. I discovered this when building the light switch: although I was perfectly happy with my design on paper, I wasn’t happy with the result once I had created a particular rotating mechanism out of foam board. This insight has helped me in Project 1 as well to start prototyping early and frequently to better explore the problem space.