During last week's class we spent some time doing a creative tension exercise as a group and one of the topic was whether we believe in things by design or by coincidence. Because of the vagueness of the questions, it sparked some very interesting conversation.
Read MoreWe've finally kicked-off our studio project this week! After reading about design research methods for a while now it's time to practice them in real life.
We as a team spent about 1.5hr on our team agreement document. Though it might sound like a a total waste of time on something that's not as relevant, I found it extremely important. It not only set the rules for us to follow throughout the semester, alleviating problems caused by lack of communication, but also served as a team building activity for us. Within that 90 minutes, we all learned a lot about each other's background, interests, personalities and much much more.
Read MoreI started getting serious about my Halloween outfit after a few years of buying those cheaply made crap that everybody else is wearing, or the beautifully designed costumes but are overly-priced. Maybe it's in my blood that I always wanted to be different, or that I dislike to purchase ready-made costumes (just not cool enough), I began making my own costumes for Halloween.
Of course, all of the costumes I've made since then have been Disney characters :) The Emperor's New Groove is for sure one of the best movies Disney has ever produced, but there is not a lot of ready-made Kuzco costumes out there for people to purchase - BOOM BABY! Kuzco it is! It was probably the costume I'm most proud of among my other Halloween projects.
Read MoreI have been looking forward to this lecture by Soon Yu after hearing him talk about innovation within large corporations last year. This time he visited Parsons again to talk about his upcoming book Iconic Advantage. It was hands down one of the most inspirational and motivating lectures I've ever heard. I especially love the Disney magic band story he gave as an example to show how organizations create their signature moments (iconic advantage) using these steps:
1. Map the Journey (of the users or consumers) - forget about all the traditional research methodologies, the simplest approach is to go out and start talking to people.
2. Find Pivotal Moments
3. Create Signature (Pick one and make it really, really good)
4. Innovate the Benefit
Being a huge Disney fan myself, I resonate with this story a lot. It was as if I got a sneak peak of what it's like working for Disney to help create the magical moments at the happiest place on earth (which is also my dream).
Read MoreDuring the first 40 minutes or so of our studio class last week we did a quick warm up activity with a group of 2-3 people, and from the activity we identified the top 5 best practices for teamwork. We each shared our greatest teamwork experience from the past (of course, there were some horror stories throughout the conversation as well...), we settled down on the following five.
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