Reﬂection - Visualisation 

 Challenge and selection 

 I was hired as an mechanical R&D engineer at a ﬁrm which was trying to work on solving trash crisis with local municipal corporation . After joining the position , I got to know I was the only one in the department of design and prototyping the whole thing . My engineering brain kicked in , I designed a domestic trash compactor and presented it to the board . Green - lighted , we proceeded to producing the samples and exhibited it at the local expo , but it was not selling . No one was interested . Price was n’t the issue , it was the design . We headed back to the lab to start from scratch , but this time , I wanted to design everything with customers in mind . Most of the customers are not engineers , point was not to take mechanical advice from them , it was to have a pleasing design . For that , we used the visualisation approach . 

 Application 

 Prior to designing the product again from scratch , we invited the ” potential ” customers for a focus group . Instead of showing the product right away , we performed a presentation about the product and what we are going for . Later in the session we handed them a paper with a bare naked design of the product . We provided them with colouring pens and asked them to modify it as though it is in their kitchen . The design had engineering constraints in place , but we asked them to change any and all the aspects that they desire , but none had changed anything in regards to the mechanisms but only the exterior designs . Knowing that the group was diverse in terms of social and economic status , each had their own take on the design . Some concentrated more on the colour of the product , some were into the jaggedness and curviness of the design , some also pointed out the diﬃculty in operating the machine . In the next phase , we segregated the designs and found out that , the customer design require- ments had some particular pattern . Some aspects were accepted and desired by many . We went forward with one design that had almost all the popular modiﬁcations . We arranged another fo- cus group , with diﬀerent people this time , and we presented the manufactured prototype . It was received well , group knew how to operate without instructions , the design was liked by everyone . When asked about any comments on the design and handful of changes were suggested , mostly were related to somethings that are post - manufacturing . During the next expo , we presented it again , and was very successful sales numbers . 

 Insight & Approach 

 What this whole encounter taught me , is that , verbally people understand everything slightly diﬀerent from each other . Engineering numbers and design may seem daunting to layperson . What pleases the stake holder is sometimes diﬀerent from what customers want . Visualisation approach streamlined so many things in the design process . Giving the focus group a bare minimum yet technically sound design and letting them draw their imagination on top of it , no matter how crude the picture is , it helped me in the process of designing and also in understanding what appeals and what does n’t . It goes beyond verbal explanation of what needs to be changed , it dives into the 

 core of the problem . I have been using this method ever since , even with the shareholders , fellow engineers and marketing department . The method is to give them a minimum picture and make it better visuals . This does n’t compromise the engineering aspect , but it streamlines the design and prototyping process really well . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reﬂection - Visualisation 

 Challenge and selection 

 I was hired as an mechanical R&D engineer at a ﬁrm which was trying to work on solving trash crisis with local municipal corporation . After joining the position , I got to know I was the only one in the department of design and prototyping the whole thing . My engineering brain kicked in , I designed a domestic trash compactor and presented it to the board . Green - lighted , we proceeded to producing the samples and exhibited it at the local expo , but it was not selling . No one was interested . Price was n’t the issue , it was the design . We headed back to the lab to start from scratch , but this time , I wanted to design everything with customers in mind . Most of the customers are not engineers , point was not to take mechanical advice from them , it was to have a pleasing design . For that , we used the visualisation approach . 

 Application 

 Prior to designing the product again from scratch , we invited the ” potential ” customers for a focus group . Instead of showing the product right away , we performed a presentation about the product and what we are going for . Later in the session we handed them a paper with a bare naked design of the product . We provided them with colouring pens and asked them to modify it as though it is in their kitchen . The design had engineering constraints in place , but we asked them to change any and all the aspects that they desire , but none had changed anything in regards to the mechanisms but only the exterior designs . Knowing that the group was diverse in terms of social and economic status , each had their own take on the design . Some concentrated more on the colour of the product , some were into the jaggedness and curviness of the design , some also pointed out the diﬃculty in operating the machine . In the next phase , we segregated the designs and found out that , the customer design require- ments had some particular pattern . Some aspects were accepted and desired by many . We went forward with one design that had almost all the popular modiﬁcations . We arranged another fo- cus group , with diﬀerent people this time , and we presented the manufactured prototype . It was received well , group knew how to operate without instructions , the design was liked by everyone . When asked about any comments on the design and handful of changes were suggested , mostly were related to somethings that are post - manufacturing . During the next expo , we presented it again , and was very successful sales numbers . 

 Insight & Approach 

 What this whole encounter taught me , is that , verbally people understand everything slightly diﬀerent from each other . Engineering numbers and design may seem daunting to layperson . What pleases the stake holder is sometimes diﬀerent from what customers want . Visualisation approach streamlined so many things in the design process . Giving the focus group a bare minimum yet technically sound design and letting them draw their imagination on top of it , no matter how crude the picture is , it helped me in the process of designing and also in understanding what appeals and what does n’t . It goes beyond verbal explanation of what needs to be changed , it dives into the 

 core of the problem . I have been using this method ever since , even with the shareholders , fellow engineers and marketing department . The method is to give them a minimum picture and make it better visuals . This does n’t compromise the engineering aspect , but it streamlines the design and prototyping process really well .
### Output: 