Minor Project | Cooling the Heat, Healing the Mind: Group 10

 FEILYCIA JOY KURNIAWAN / 0373400 

Minor Project / Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media 

Minor Project: Group 10 (CHHM) 

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INSTRUCTION

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PROCESS

Week 1-2

We were proposed the assignment guidelines of the assignments throughout this module and we also formed groups. Then were given the google sheets for the different projects to choose from. 

Topic chosen: 

Cooling the heat, Healing the mind 

Team members : 

Khansa Raudlatus Syahiidah As-Sajad (0374511) (team leader) - UI/UX 

Erin Samantha Fenner (0381696) - Graphic Design 

Feilycia Joy Kurniawan (0373400) - UI/UX 

Edlin Raihana Binti Mohamad Firdaus (0359096) - Digital Animation 

Brendan Fedya (0376283) - UI/UX 

Subhana Salim (0375936) - Entertainment Design

Project Brief Client: 

Clean Technology Impact Lab Client’s name: Dr Praveena Nair Sivasankaran (Praveena.Nair@taylors.edu.my) Cooling the Heat, Healing the Mind (CHHM).

Project Summary: 

The Cooling the Heat, Healing the Mind (CHHM) project addresses the growing challenge  of heat stress and mental wellbeing among outdoor workers. Rising global temperatures,  intensified by climate change, are creating unsafe working conditions and increasing  psychological strain.

The SDG goals it aligns with:

SDG 3 (Good Health & Wellbeing) 

SDG 6 (Clean Water & Sanitation) 

SDG 7 (Affordable & Clean Energy) 

SDG 8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth) 

SDG 13 (Climate Action) 

This project invites TDS students to integrate design with innovative solutions in order to come up with sustainable prototypes that could help tackle heat stress.

Week 3

Week 3 was the consultation with our client. We spent the week coming up with questions to ask the interviewer. Consultation was focused on explaining the project brief, expectations for the coming assignment and a Q and A session. This week we were assigned our "Task 1 : Project Proposal" which requires us to come up with innovative ideas which will be presented to the client by week 6.

Week 4

Week 4 we started working on the Figjam board for ideation, and mapping out our idea.

Then all of that was compiled into a docs.

Main design ideas we came up with are : 

1. Cooling Vest 
2. Portable Cooling Patch 
3. Cooling infrastructure on site 
4. Smart insulated water bottles 
5. Electrolyte Supplement 
6. Health App 
7. Cooling Hat/Sweatbands 
8. Promotional material on Instagram page 
9. Infographic poster with SDG alignment
10. Blueprint style poster of our proposed innovation

Then we began coming up with relevant user personas that fit the criteria of the project.

These were our inclusion and exclusion criteria:

Inclusion: 

• Expose to heat 3+ hours in a day 
• Have felt heat illnesses 
• Have been in the field for at least 1 year

Exclusion: 

• Spend daily in indoor areas 
• New worker / student 
• Spend less than an hour outside

Based on this we came up with suggestions for our target user profiles

Target Profile Ideas: 

Construction Workers 

Security Gardener 

Food Delivery Drivers 

Agriculture Students 

Tour Guide 

Outdoor Vendors 

Farmers

Week 5

After we have understood the eligible targeted audience for our project, we started discussing further on 2 profiles for our research. Initially, we can up with security guards as one of our targeted profile, however, as we tried asking them for interviews, we ended up with 1 rejection and another was due to language barrier. After this, we tries approaching a grab delivery driver, but we got rejected again as he was busy working. 

Thereafter, we consulted this to Miss Wong as we had a change of targeted audience then what we have told her previously. We told her the reason, and she approved, allowing us to continue working on our next step.

Finalized targeted audience:

Week 6

After all the consultation we did, week 6 was our first task submission where we had to submit a proposal of our project. to present an innovative concept that introduces unique solutions in relation to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, UNSDG / Client’s project for the intended target audience. 

• We were to conduct user research on our target audience from a human-centered perspective to understand their needs to form insights into their actual problem. The user research consists of interview, observation, or survey to further understand the problem space from the user’s perspective.

• Supported by empathy research with analysis reports on product or service functioning and effectiveness, technical advances and obstacles, aesthetics, and enjoyment of design.

• The needs you have identified via your target audience research must be met by the suggested solution. All of this data must be shown on a Figjam board (or any other team collaborative white board) and one or more slide presentations.

Required contents for project proposal:

1. Executive Summary

An overview or synopsis that explains the initiative and garners support. The "elevator pitch" is what it is. Explain to the customer why you are taking on this project, what the problem or difficulties are, how you plan to succeed, what success will look like, and how the UNSDGs will be handled.

2. Background

An overview of comparable initiatives in the market or globally. Set the scene and explain why it's time to start working on this project. Demonstrate to the client how previous projects did not live up to expectations.

3. Solving the Problem

Describe the issue you hope to resolve and the reasons you believe it's critical to do so. 

4. Design Thinking Phases

High-level user research and empathy studies were carried out using supporting resources such surveys, interviews, and observations. For the user personas, each student conducts at least one interview with the intended user.
Every interview must include an audio recording (if desired), a consent form, and an audio transcription.

5. Resources (if any)

Tell your client what you need to succeed, which may include funds, supplies, personnel, and 4IR-related technology. 4IR Technologies: (5G mobile networks, 3D printing, 4D or 5D printing, cutting-edge materials etc.). 

6. Budget & Timeline

Produce a schedule for all the deliverables, milestones that once achieved, will let you know that the project is on track.

During the interview part in our project, not all members got to interview 1 people due to the difference in schedules we all have. However, those who did not do the interview were given the task to transcribe the interviews that has been done.

Submitted Task 1 - Project Proposal:

PROTOTYPE STAGE

Week 10

In Week 10, we presented our second-phase presentation and recieved feedback from Dr.Wong and Dr.Praveena on how we could better focus our ideas for the next phase; prototyping.

We were advised to focus primarily on our wearable ideation; the cooling shirt, and only proceed with the application if there is a need for it. We also took notes on the other groups ideas and how they presented their slides.

Week 11

In class feedbacks  

This week's consultation mainly talked about the changes about our slides that we need to change.  Dr. Wong gave us feedback on the slides and how it supposed to be fixed such as: adding student information, client information, mention the design thinking process, highlight the most important "How Might We"s and other minor changes to the presentation slides. 

Product Progress

Before making the physical product, we bumped into some trouble picking the materials, as the exact materials we need are not available. So we did a group discussion and try to find a solution, we settled with bamboo mesh fabric as our alternative material. Bamboo mesh are very similar to the polyester mesh fabric and the difference are that is more lightweight and more cooling which are more beneficial for our project, but downside is it is less durable. 

Week 12

In class feedbacks 

During class, we showed Dr. Wong with our product's progress. The shirt itself is not done and it's still under progress. 

Additionally, we showed her our progress for our app. A few minor tweaks are needed like, changing the color palette, changing the layout, etc. 

Product Progress

We further talked about the final prototype and the changes we made. We had a discussion about the sensors and overall visual design. We came up with a mascot, branding, and mockups. 

TESTING/FINAL STAGE

Week 13

Brendan and Khansa continued working on improving the application interface while I worked on the advertising poster for our COOLTEEZ. We also started looking for testers for the prototype test.

 

Week 14

In this week, we focused on finding our testers to test our products. We managed to find four testers; 1 vendor and 3 students. Brendan, Edlin and Khansa did the user testing so Subhana, Feilycia and me transcribed the user testing audio. At the same time, we were working on improving and finalising our slides. This is one of the testers for our shirt that Khansa interviewed.

Week 15

The day before our final client presentation, we had a group meeting where we rehersed our entire presentation flow.

On the actual day, our presentation went smoothly and we received good feedback from the client. We were advised to go for more of a B2B model rather than a B2C model. We were told that this was a feasible idea and we could work with business like CIMB for projects like PPR (Projek Perumahan Rakyat). We recieved compliments on our presentation style and flow as well.

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LINKS

CLICK HERE for figjam link

Google drive link click here

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REFLECTION

Experience
This project was challenging but meaningful for me. Working with a real client made the work feel important because we were helping people who face heat problems. I was involved in interviewing users, transcribing interviews, designing parts of the project, and helping with other tasks when needed. Even though the timeline was tight, it felt rewarding to see our idea grow into something real.

Observation
I saw how important flexibility is in design work. Plans changed a few times, and we had to adjust our ideas and materials. I also noticed how teamwork made everything smoother, because each person focused on something they were good at. The feedback from our lecturers and client really guided us.

Finding
From this project, I learned that design thinking is not a straight path. It needs patience, research, and many changes. I also learned that good design must be practical, not just creative. This project helped me improve my communication skills, teamwork, and confidence in handling real problems. I feel proud of what I contributed.