So far in our DAP project we have been able to learn more about our project and ourselves as a group. So far what we have learned about sewing and 3D printing has been very helpful to our prototype. Along with the several interviews our group collected. We shared what we learned and talked about how these things could possibly be put into our product.
Completion of sewing lesson with Mrs. Mauser.
Though we’ve only had a staggered group time to work on our prototype, it was good to see what each of us thought could be improved having in mind our customer interviews. It was important to remember that we were not the customer, we were trying to help the customer. We had to restart several times and there were some materials we didn’t have so we couldn’t put them into our actual prototype, like a type of elastic string, this would help a lot since we had a type of stretchy sleeve in mind. We found several materials that we thought would be helpful and good to have, some like spandex possibly. It was important to think about what we would be protecting if we decided a specific feature for the gear. We struggled in coming up with a plan we all agreed on and what could be realistic and effective.
Our second prototype, almost complete.
I personally have played roller derby and can say that the elbows are not really used during the game, only when falling it’s suggested to fall forward on your arms instead of backwards where you could break your tailbone, but there are some times were you have to use your arms like when whipping, it’s when a player is trying to get to the front of the pack so one of their team members assists and grabs their hand and pulls them from the back to the front with a lot of force and there could possibly and injury from that or from falling. A website helped me think about this, that just because you do not use a body part a lot during a game doesn’t mean it’s not possible to get it injured, info from StretchCoach.
We have struggled a bit but I think that we are going at a good pace, when there are things we talk about as a group we always end up building up on our peoject, if we tear it down a bit we build it higher, it can be a struggle to have many ideas that we want to be realistic but may not be possible. We have learned to listen to each other’s ideas more and helped with constructive criticism.
StarPathDesign 
I can totally agree with you that this process of making a prototype is trial and error, because its important and needed to meet all the customers needs but there’s also a limited amount of materials. I also really enjoyed how you incorporated your own knowledge and experience to how and why your device would be useful to roller derby girls.
-Mariana Monroy
The problems you’re facing are exactly what we have been stressed for in our team. We always think too much but seldom put the ideas into reality. Sometimes disagreements are inevitable. But we believe this is the process of building a successful product. Just like what you wrote down ” Every time we tear down a bit, we build it higher”I believe it will be not only an improvement in our academic skills but the skills of interaction and negotiation.
Shana F.
3/5/2016