This blogpost looks at the weekly challenge and reflection on the week. Click here to read a researched inquiry into AI and its role in UX.

This week on the masters we were introduced to creativity, machine learning and some ideation techniques to get our creative juices flowing and to start having fun with coming up with some ideas.

The week was a bit of a learning experience for me, and I have chosen to try a new (to me) reflective practice known as the four Fs which I was I came across here (cited in the University of Edinburgh 2023) to reflect over how the week went and what I can do in Week 3 for better results.

F1 - Facts

The material released on Learn covered various aspects of creativity, including computational creativity and machine learning. Off the back of this I decided to research AI more to understand it better as a topic and how it affects this industry I am getting to know and the wider world, this work resulted in this blog post: 2.1 Ai thoughts

I was also for the first time exposed to the reference material that would be discussed within the week in the ‘Introduction’ lesson on Learn, this led to me spending a long time doing all the reading.

Later on in the lessons we were given the challenge to use an ideation method on an existing artifact to change it into something new. I chose to use the mash up technique and combine ‘bikes’ with ‘queues’. You start by listing as many elements linked to the two experiences separately and then combine different elements to create new products/solutions. The result is below:

Bikes

• helmet
• lights
• exercise
• time saving
• eco friendly
• dangerous (other drivers - cyclist = vulnerable road user)
• noisy
• tiring
• kneepads
• hill challenges
• phone holders
• races

Queues

• long
• standing
• waiting
• boring
• playing / being on your phone
• sore feet
• talk to your neighbour
• listen to music / podcasts
• people watching
• irritating
• daydreaming

Kneepads + boring

• kneepads that tell jokes
• kneepads that give you a little shock when you don’t expect it to keep it spicy
• kneepads that are magnetic and you lock knees with strangers so you end up having unexpected conversations
• kneepads that force you to dance the macarena or to floss at unexpected intervals

Helmet + daydreaming

• helmet projects 3D holograms of what you’re daydreaming into the world around you
• helmet automatically plays mood appropriate music for your daydreams for a more immersive experience
• helmet has a little diamond that floats about your head (like on sims) when you’re daydreaming so people are aware of when you’re off in your own world