1. *Based on your life experience, skills and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like? 

A design process that is both uniquely ours and effective would look like first doing a thorough and deep research about the needs of the patients and making sure that they are culturally appropriate according to Philippine culture and then going to do fieldwork in the Philippines to do interviews of our stakeholders and making sure that we are fulfilling the appropriate needs and wants of the patients and healthcare staff that are involved in the process of birthing. Afterward, we will be coming back to create a business model for our product since the other birthing team in the Philippines will be creating the design for the birthing chairs this year. 

2. *Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them. 

Mothers

• Region of Country
• Social Class
• Health
• Religion
• Income

Healthcare Network

• Money
• Region of Country
• Partnerships
• Need for new birthing chairs
• Amount/number of staff in the hospital (under/overstaffed)

Doctors/ Physicians 

• Education Level
• Region of Country
• Skill
• Understanding of different cultures
• Teamwork

3. *Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model. 

Concept

• Help decrease maternal and infant mortality
• A durable and comfortable birthing table
• Affordable

Technology

• Technology/ product platform
• Technology is not usable in our product however infrastructure is
• Sizing ability (ability to change to different sizes for the mothers)

Usability

• Durability
• Comfortability
• Sizable (able to withhold mothers of different sizes and adjust accordingly)

Business Model

• Helps alleviate potential risks when women give birth
• The Philippines is a developing country so the birthing table will have to be an affordable cost
• A culturally appropriate birthing table design

4. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.

• I did not know a lot about the school system in Mexico and how grading was different. In Mexico they use a scale of 1-10. 1 being the lowest grade and a 10 being the highest grade you can receive. Apart from the grading system, the way that the grade levels are structured is also different in Mexico. There is one less year of high school but still four years of college.
• Another concept I was exposed to was the weather in Arizona. I always thought that the weather was warm and dry year round, but I was told that it snows a lot during the winter months in some parts. This was foreign to me because I always assumed that it remained hot during the year in order for the cacti and desert animals to stay alive.
• People who are of low income tend to stay low income due to a cycle that they either create themselves or society around them creates. Those families who are considered low income do not tend to save their money because they either do not know how to save or live they check to check and know what they need to spend their next check on in order to survive until the next check.