Blog Post 4

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

 

Our team comes from a  very right brain background – we contain three filmmakers and a marketing major. This conglomeration of thought is primarily creative and artistic, and occasionally unorganized. However, that means that we are a team that thinks big picture and figures out how to follow through to achieve our goals. We complement our strengths through our collaborative process and we communicate our plans so we know what each person is doing every step of the way. So, in terms of design process we would list out our steps as this:

  1. Brainstorm
  2. Research
  3. Organize
  4. Pitch
  5. Validation
  6. Design
  7. Delivery 

 

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

 

  1. The mothers of Sierra Leone
    1. Muslim or Christian 
    2. In need of medical care during and after pregnancy
    3. Subjugated gender of the country
    4. Reserved about talking to us
    5. Not accustomed to Western medicine 
  2. Makeni Midwifery School
    1. Improving healthcare in Sierra Leone through direct training
    2. Students work towards Nursing Association Certificate
    3. Graduates about 100 midwives per year
    4. Located in rural Sierra Leone
    5. Since 2010 the school has graduated almost 500 midwives
  3. Surgical School
    1. Trying to incorporate Western medicine 
    2. Improving healthcare in Sierra Leone
    3. Students work towards Surgical Assistant Community Health Officer certificate
    4. Students train to complete life saving surgeries
    5. After training the students go to regional hospitals where they can perform their own surgeries 
    6. Contributes to 25% of all surgeries in Sierra Leone.

 

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

 

We will validate our project by using a media impact evaluation model. 

 

We will first validate our project by determining how many people we reached, that is how many people viewed our film. For every person who has viewed our film or been exposed to it in some capacity, our documentary message gets distributed. When the stories we portray get distributed, people talk about our documentary and spread the word about the cause we are representing. 

 

Second, we will validate our project evaluating audience engagement. This evaluation is a continuation of the number of people we have reached. After people have been exposed to the film, we are looking for our audience to respond positively to our film. A positive response would be one of empathy and a need to take action. This would be shown through reposting our video on other networks, sharing our video link, and donating funds to the organizations we represent. 

 

Lastly, we will validate our project through its influence factor. A positive influence would show changes in the communities our film is shown in. For example, more women would apply to attend midwifery school. A positive influence would also exhibit changes in attitude towards the issue of maternal mortality. For instance, this could be Sierra Leoneans building a stronger trust with Western medicine.

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

Recently, I was out on a hike with a friend. As we were walking down the trail we began to talk about anything and everything – the changing weather, the differences between the coasts, and all of the strange mysteries on this planet. During our walk, he brought up something completely new to me – oceans in ur ocean. Apparently, there is a deep-sea phenomenon where brine lakes form under the ocean because they have higher salinity levels than the surrounding water. The brine lakes hold thousands of small creatures and fish dive into the lake to eat them. However, they must dart quickly because the lake is poisonous to them and can cause as much harm as it can sustain their livelihood. 

 

Another fun little tidbit of knowledge I learned recently was how Walmart has a monopoly on gas prices in Arkansas because they sell the cheapest gas. Apparently, they can afford to have a very low price because they are such a large entity. So, they undercharge and get the most customers, while their competitors cannot afford to lower their prices as drastically.

Another concept I have been introduced to recently is how to collect data. I have an internship with the Bethlehem School District, and I have been tasked with creating a method to collect data that can reinforce our claim regarding the lack of digital access within the community. I have always been interested in the process of education reform, but I have never realized that it required such a scientific approach. So, I am learning how to create a data collection structure in the community so we can gain a more accurate understanding of the problem. I have started this a week ago and my supervisor has been pushing me to consider every point of access – language, location, and target demographic. This is an entirely new experience in regards to policymaking, and I am learning a lot on the go.

 

 

One thought on “Blog Post 4

  1. Great work. I like how you connected your design process to team strengths – you could elaborate a bit on each step in the process as well. Your detailed info on how you will gather data in a variety of ways to validate is great too.

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