At the Make-O-Rama we shared with the students the Makey Makey and our remote controls. We allowed them to experience using the controls by completing different activities on the computer. When the students and teachers passed by, the game on the computer screen caught their attention and they came over. Some would also watch other students play with our remote controls and would be dumbfounded because it was something they had never seen before. They were confused as to how they were able to use the remotes to control the games, which made them more intrigued to find out what our purpose was. We were delighted to see that the younger students weren’t afraid to come up to us, ask us questions and test our product because ultimately that is what we wanted.
Our project at the beginning of the semester was similar to our final product, it had the same concept but the actual design was different. At first we planned to focus on creating a product that people would use with their feet, but thought to instead focus on using the arms since more people will be comfortable doing that. Our inspiration came from the Wii remote controls and the design of those, but after creating them and testing them, we concluded that it wasn’t very comfortable of compatible to people hands, especially if the person had pain in their joints. Then we decided to create the triangle and circular shaped remotes that would be better fitted to ones hand. If we had the opportunity to go back and start this project over again we would test our product with our targeted customers, who were children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. This would allow us to get feedback from them in order to change and improve our product if necessary.
The presentation skills was something we were able to develop during this project and we believe it will be helpful in our college career. The most challenging part of this project was the start, we had to do research on the Makey Makey because this was a new product we had never previously heard of or worked with. Another challenge we had was figuring out who the product was going to help, when we started researching their was a lot of disabilities that our product could help that’s when we decided to targeted to a specific disability that could also help people that had other physical disabilities in their hands.
Part of our project was to create an instructable to teach anybody how to make what we did, therefore we hope that our target audience and everybody from all over the world use the instructable to improve their lifestyles. The instructable was also created for our project to succeed outside the classroom walls and into other places that will benefit from it without having our research, hard work and product go to waste without achieving our main goal. We deserve a 94, because we went into this project not knowing which direction we hoped to go in, therefore we had to do research in order to be informed and create a successful product. Our construction didn’t occur until all our research was complete and it consisted of doing a lot of prototyping and testing. We also were able to successfully create an instructable to showcase our project and teach others on how it can be done.
StarPathDesign 
Hey guys,
I thought your project was really cool, I viewed it from afar because you had many people in your booth and we had the same shift. When I heard you guys were doing this project I was honestly impressed, I thought it was a cool idea and it served a really good purpose. I like how you targeted a specific disability and were able to develop ideas to accommodate to their needs even though you were not able to test it directly. Good job overall and it was cool to see your progress. – Jessica P. Salazar
I remember the day of the Make-o-Rama, I was sitting a cross from you, and the minute I saw playdo I came to your table wondering what’s all of this about. Teh most attractive thing about your design was the playdo, the different varieties of objects that you used, and the games. I was impressed by how you were able to connect objects to a computer and make it function as a keyboard. Hey maybe you could buy my keyboard pillow. I think the one missing thing you forgot to show the audience a poster explaining to whom was this made, and how will it help the customers. Also, is there any instructions for a person to set up this at home? But overall I was impressed by your work and the product that you designed.
-Yaqoob
I think that your product is amazing! When y’all first presented the product to the class, I was confused (like some of the middle schoolers) how you were able to control the games using the clay/dough material. Like Jessica said, I think that it’s really cool how y’all targeted people who suffer from juvenile arthritis. Before your project, I hadn’t realized that people suffer from juvenile arthritis, and I hadn’t thought of how people who do suffer from arthritis use or don’t use computers, remote controls, etc. I really love your product!
Eliza Martin
Great job guys! I honestly was really impressed with your project. I think that I got a little too excited to test out the makey makey because it was really cool, unfortunately it didn’t really wanna work with me the three times I tried it (it was the up button). But I was able to witness how great it worked with others, I think it was just me having bad luck. But I also agree with Jessica when she says that your project really served a good purpose and the disabilities you’re trying to help are awesome. overall, y’all did an amazing job and i’m wondering what you plan to do with your project in the future. -Claudia V.
I loved your project!! Everything about it was so cool. I think that this was a project that can actually be used in the future. It is such a great method to help any types of childeren with disabilities. I would never come up with the idea for a project like this. I really hope to see what you girls are planning to do with this in the future. Awesome job!!!
– Gabriela Ornelas
Your project was one of the most entertaining during the presentation phase. It’s definitely an issue that I’ve never heard of. Very innovative and user friendly if someone would want to make a product for their child. Thank you for making something that people could afford if their child had this problem or if it was an older person. It’s great you were able to complete the final product. I’m sure people who have looked at your instructable learned a lot. -Brittany
Dear Lorena and Maria,
I really liked your project and it was interesting to know more about your project whenever you presented to us in class the previous week or the week before that. Anyway, I would like to congratulate you both for all the hard work you both made in the process of creating such an amazing product. I honestly thought that it was an amazing idea to create a new product that would help out people with Arthritis, I would have never thought about that. I remember when you showed us in class how this product worked and explained to us how was it that you created that special playdoh in order for it to connect with the wires and the computer. I also thought that the playdoh you created was soft and it didn’t seem like it would be able to control the mouse from the computer but it was amazing to see this happen and fully work in person. I think that this product should definitely be considered to be continued and further developed because this might be a product that people would invest in because of the need for it. Overall, you both did an amazing job and I really enjoyed your product, your project was amazing.
– Jennifer Martinez