The Launch Cycle

The Launch Cycle is a student friendly way of inspiring kids to use a step by step method of “Design Thinking“.  To fill you in a little more  Design Thinking is a method used by designers to solve complex problems, and find solutions and answers. For our Blue Sky Project we used the Launch Cycle to plan, reasurch, and prototype our products.  The launch cycle is made up of seven different steps, they all make up different motives of a successful project. The launch cycle is an acronym launch and its fairly easy to remember.

The L stands for Look, Listen, and Learn

The A stands for Ask Tons of Questions

The U stands for Understanding the Process or Problem

The N stands for Navigate Ideas

The C stands for Create a Prototype

The H stands for Highlight and Fix
Then, when it’s done, it’s ready to “launch”  or pitch to the world. This is technically the final step but it isn’t part of the acronym. We also made many journal entries to some up the whole project and each of them was baced around one step of the Launch Cycle.

My Designers Journal 

Journal entry 1 “look listen and learn”

For my blue sky project I am creating new technology that allows the elderly to function under the stress of weight. To put it simply I am making a multiple support bace arm brace. This technology is for the elderly because I know that they are probably the most effected by this issue. For example when an elderly person needs to carry a common item that is heavy and creates unwanted muscle strain this product will help them concur this problem. This challenge appeals to me because it ties in to a fantasy of mine, to have superhuman strength. I feel that other than extensive research, I will learn Physics, an definitely engineering along the way. For seniors heavy lifting is a problem they face daily. From getting groceries, to carrying their own personal items, my new technology will increase weight disruption across your body decreasing the actual strain on you muscles.

Journal entry 2 “ask tons of questions”

For this part of the cycle I was asked to ask tons of questions hence the title of the part of the cycle. This came fairly easy to me, and I was immediately surrounded by ideas. Part of our learning in this section was learning to create a how might we question. A how might we question is a way to frame a question, and a way to help brainstorm. Some good examples of how might we questions are, how might we make a car that is good for the environment, or how might we create a app based device to monitor your health. My how might we question was, How might we improve, seniors day to day life by creating a way to help carry common items.

Journal entry 3 “understand the proses or problem”

Once I figured out the problem I decided to research and understand it a little bit more. I realized that even common items like a bag of groceries can be heavy. This brought me to wondering and later researching what the most common upper body muscle used in every day lifting. Then I focused on how I would plan out my project. first off there were certain guidelines to fallow, I had to fallow the launch cycle and also had to create three prototypes. We also had to create a time line to loosely plan all of the major events.

Journal entry 4 “navigate ideas”

Now it was time to find an idea. After all the research, and questions I had done I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to create. One of the most promising ideas I had was one that basically insisting That I had to make some way of making a support system for the human body. This idea at the time did not seam very logical, it would not only require me to use my engineering skills, but also required my to learn physics and the human anatomy. In retrospect I understand why I felt that way, but I know now that this was not true. One problem that I faced early on was what muscle group I would bace my design on. For me to find out or answer this question I had to find a common item that was used by my target audience. This common item happened to be a bag of groceries.

Journal entry 5 “create a prototype”

Finally I started prototyping, the hard part about this part of the cycle its that it requires me to be creative. For the first model I decided to create a 3D model on an app called gravity sketch. For my fist prototype it was a bigger burden then I had expected. This prototype not only took an incredible amount of time but also a lot of creativity. One of the main problems I faced was one difficulty part of the app. Every time you wanted to create a new layer you had to move your model down to the drawing layer. This happened to be a problem I couldn’t solve because the only probable solution would be getting a new app, but with the time and effort I had already exerted it really wasn’t worth it.

Journal entry 6 “highlight and fix”

When I was very young revision was not taught to me. There would always be one copy, the final copy, the one you had to put the most effort on to. Sometimes I think this is better than doing multiple copies. I think the only reason for this is how it makes you work really hard. Though wen it comes to the blue sky project the more the merrier. After my first design I came up with a big problem the physics that I researched was different than the design and would not work this took me days to fix, and it not only was one of the hardest parts of the hole blue sky program but also happened to be one of the many revolutionary ideas I have had throughout the project.

Journal entry 7 “pitch to the world”

Finally we had finished our prototypes and taken the critique from our peers to made them even better. Here came the fun part presenting to an audience. Now I like presenting to an audience because I am a very hands on learner, plus I don’t have stage fright, and I’m definitely not shy. One aspect I like about this part of the cycle is that it is very open. We don’t have to follow any harsh guidelines or rules. The few guidelines that we have to fallow are fairly easy, for example one of the main guidelines for presenting our blue sky project is that it has to be in a group. Our teachers grouped us with people doing the around the same invention as you are doing. Thus making it easier and better to collaborate.  At the exhibition things got a little hectic.  For one my presentation happened to be a lot longer than I expected and more people came than I had planed. At timeI had at least six people at my table.  I think the highlight of the Blue Sky exhibition was one time when I was explaining my project and specifically the problem I focused on a senior happened to yell out “That’s so right” and later “He knows what he is talking about”, that really made me feel proud.