Exhibit Reflection

The exhibition went really well for team Twisted. Our channel on Discord had a steady and constant stream of visitors, peers and teaching staff who were keen to see our team's individual projects in action. Team Twisted had a very cohesive presenting style where we would pitch, demonstrate and then introduce the next team member who would then repeat this process. This cohesion was even commended by visitors. The team also received positive feedback regarding our design approaches and complementary projects which were clearly reflective of one unified domain. All team members were able to succinctly and accurately answer any questions the visitors asked as well as effectively exhibiting the work completed to date.

No real problems occurred during aside from a small mishap with my red colour pad which triggered unexpectedly late into the exhibit. I realised that this was because the single core wire which was leading into the Arduino had been knocked and was touching another exposed wire. I fixed this and it worked without error for the rest of the night. In future development, Mixed would utilise a printed circuit board (PCB) in order to add to the design's durability and robustness. Another small issue was that some visitors were unfamiliar with how to use Discord which occasionally made it difficult to demonstrate our projects.

It was a learning curve but very rewarding in the long run. DECO3850 has showcased some exceptional designs and it was brilliant to see these in action at the online exhibition.

Reflection on Reflections

I just went through and reflected on all of my journal posts since week 1. It was really interesting going back through this living documentary of my project development. Some things that are glaringly obvious in retrospect didn't even cross my mind in the moment.

I think out my ability to reflect fluctuated to a significant degree over the semester. I found it quite difficult to reflect on some very straight-forward processes (such as building the physical controller of Mixed). I think it was mostly an inability to separate myself from the work I had just done, then step back and reflect on what I have done and how it complements the overall design/ design process of my project. I often found myself projecting potentials into the future rather than critically reflecting on past events.

I think that if I had refined this skill and made more of a conscious effort to reflect, some of my roadblocks could have been minimised or mitigated altogther. More specifically, I think that if I was able to reflect more effectively, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble relating to the audio feedback. Reflection could have evaluated the significance of previous (unsuccessful) feedback forms, called for earlier user testing and settled upon a more appropriate feedback form well before the appraisals.

Nevertheless, I think reflection is a skill that is mastered with consistent practice. So, here's hoping that reflection is continued far beyond my designing endeavours