Yesterday, we had a terrible rainy day with phone alerts for flood. We thought that the chances to have a few people joining us on a Friday after work from 5:30 to 7:30 on such a rainy grey day was really low. But we had planned to meet for a Refinement pop up to support 3 ideas posted by members of the OpenIDEO NYC chapter which are now in the Refinement Phase in the Fall Prevention Challenge. So we went and we ended up being 15 people, all willing to help and share ideas. The atmosphere was informal and friendly and the feedback constructive, and we even had a surprise.
Here are the 3 ideas we reviewed:
Bettina's Walk Wise: https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/fall-prevention/refinement/walk-wise
Bettina would love to speak with a physical therapist and a landscape architect. She has some ideas on how to explain the idea visually but would love to work with someone who could help her do that.
Joy's Gait Going: https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/fall-prevention/refinement/gait-going-the-all-in-one-app-to-increase-independence-at-home
Joy is particularly looking to get feedback on UI/UX of the app and overall thoughts of the viability and scalability of it.
Rodney and Dawn' All Terrain Cane: https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/fall-prevention/refinement/a-new-all-terrain-cane
They would particularly need advice from an industrial designer on making sure that the design is balanced. Getting feedback on the business model might be also useful.
Despite the last minute nature of the event (we discussed the idea last weekend and finalized the date on Monday), we had a nice group of about 15 people joining us for this informal workshop. Bettina, Rodney and Dawn and Joy presented their ideas and, showed us their latest prototypes.
The group asked questions, made suggestions and all offered to help further. For example, Tuba and Manjunath will go soon with Bettina to do more user testing in a park suggested by Daniel. where we will mix brainstorming, user testing and prototyping. Dawn and Rodney made a call to collect old shoes as they want to use the soles for their next prototypes. At the end of the workshop, they already had 3 pairs! Joy ended up with some suggestions on how to present best the idea using an experience journey and / or a user-scenario, and all participants willing to provide further feedback on the next iteration of the user interface.
Bettina, Joy, Rodney and Dawn were all excited to be able to share their ideas and get live feedback. They were thankful for the group to come on a Friday late afternoon / early evening just for the sake of helping. This was the OpenIDEO goodness in action! :-)
Yesterday was not only an example of the collaborative culture of the OpenIDEO NYC Chapter but also a great example of the collaborative power of OpenIDEO and the OpenIDEO chapters. Imagine our surprise when 30 minutes into the workshop, two members of the OpenIDEO Lima Chapter, Madeleine Delgado and Freddy Shimabukuro joined us! They had just arrived in NY and are coming for the THINK Conference, a national conference organized by COOP Financial Services were some of the top ideas of the Financial Longevity Challenge will be presenting. Adhshi Patel, a DFA NYU member and a member of OpenIDEO NYC Chapter, who will also be presenting with his team at the THINK Conference was also there! Madeleine and Freddy will be presenting Friendly ATM Adhish and his team will be presenting Build Your Business (Originally Incubator Club).
Adhish (OpenIDEO NY Chapter and Design for America of NYU), Madeleine and Freddy (OpenIDEO Lima Chapter)
There are days like that, where you are glad you took the time to come out despite the rain and all the other events you could attend, or the things you have to do! And yesterday was one of these days!
Good luck to Bettina, Joy, Rodney and Dawn as they continue refining their ideas!
Congratulations again to Adhish, Madeleine and Freddy and their respective teams.