Collaborative Design

Summary

I believe that I work best when collaborating with others. Being able to bounce ideas around and learn from others' experiences is invaluable.

I particularly enjoy working on complex problems, spending time to fully understand the problem and the scope, before attempting to chip away at the problem with a series of different solution.

During the Interactive Media Group Project module we were assigned to groups consisting of 5 members. We were then given a brief to develop an interactive media installation for a public show case. The installation had to meet the following requirements

It must be possible to physically install in a public space.
It must be usable by members of the public with no instruction.
It must work without an operator present.
The group decided to meet following the initial presentation for the module, to decide the roles that each member would partake. We decided that I would be the project manager and the other roles included a technical lead, design lead, research lead and gameplay developer. We also decided that we would develop in an AGILE way, making sure to have a working version developed by the end of every week long sprint.

It took us a while to narrow down our choices and pick an idea that we wanted to go with. This was mainly due to the brief being so open that we had many ideas to choose from. We convened with lecturers and weighed up the potential issues we could see with any of the ideas, and came to the conclusion that we wanted to tackle the issue of texting and driving. As of 1st of March 2017, the fine for being caught texting and driving in the UK doubled to £200 with an accompanying 6 point licence penalty.

During the process, I took on the role of scrum leader which I found was very important to the success of the team. I basically acted as an umbrella, covering the team and making sure that they could get on with everything they needed to, with no distractions. I was the point of contact for the module convenor as well as external contacts. I would cater to the needs of all group members and throughout the process I made sure that everyone knew their roles and respective tasks.