Blog Entry 1

What have I learned in ICPD lessons from week 1 to 3:

• In week 1, we formed our groups and was given some time to bond with one another. I found it very fun and I am very exciting to work with my group members :D

• In week 2, I learned about the different classifications of chemical products. There are 4 types of chemical products. They are commodities, molecular-products, micro-structured products and chemical devices.

• In week 3, I learned about the product design stages. There are 4 stages in designing a product. Starting from identifying customer needs (Needs), establishing ideas (Ideas), refining ideas (Selection) and lastly, developing and planning project (Manufacture).

• Additionally, in week 3, I learned about the phrase "Pain point" in product design. My understanding of "Pain point" in product design is a specific problem with a product or service that frequently inconveniences or annoys customers. Personally, I have experience "Pain point" in a product design. Two years ago, I bought a wireless earpiece that was advertised as a earpiece that is suitable to be worn during exercises or an intense workout. However, when i wore the wireless earpiece for the first time during a run, it felt very loose and it even fell out while i was running. This made me feel scammed and angry at the company that produced this wireless earpiece.

• After understanding the phrase "Pain point" in product design, my team and I brainstormed on a chemical product. In the end, we decided to design a water filtration kit that uses materials that are easily found in Africa as our targetted customers are people living in Africa that do not have access to clean water.

Learning Reflection:

• I believe that Tuckerman's team formation model is useful and beneficial to us. This is because it forces us to work with different people that have different strengths, helping us to adapt to different working styles which will be useful in our future careers.

• I think that doing literature reviews are very important as it helps my team and I understand better on the chemical product we chose to design. This is because to a literature review requires us to research and read up on the chosen chemical product

• In Practical 1, I learned about reverse engineering and learned about the working principles of a coffee maker by using reverse engineering. The purpose of reverse-engineering is to find out how a product of system works. Reverse-engineering can be used to learn how something works and to recreate the product or to create a similar object with added enhancements.