If you want to make a difference, you have to understand a lot about what you are trying to do. And even if you had a large surplus of cash lying around, you still can't just throw it at a situation as complicated as, say, West Africa and think it w...More

This week we learned about the market and build feasability of products and how to identify the level of each that a given product pretotype has based on a set basic questions. I enjoyed taking the pretotype for the medical device (in my case this w...More

This week made me realize that people love ignoring pressing issues. "Ignorance is bliss" is and probably always will be a main characteristic of the general public. Like The New Yorker article said, problems with tangible, immediate, outcomes are m...More

This week, we read an article from the New Yorker about ideas that were slow to catch on, versus those that gained traction easily, and what the differences were between these two types of ideas. I learned that ideas are sometimes slow to be accepte...More

I thought the lecture for this week was great. More specifically, the TED talk video that was included in the lecture really opened my eyes to the benefits of rapid development and iteration in human centered design. In essense, what I got from the...More

This week we learned about the concept of pretotyping and how it can be used to develop an early stage product or concept that can be improved upon with feedback from the users, once it has been given to them for testing. The pretotyping assignment...More

This week, we went back and once again looked at Human Centered Design. We learned about the study of humans, ethnography. Taking a critical scientific perspective at humans, while at the same time maintaining an empathic connection with the people...More

This week I learned how to use the HCD framework to analyze the needs of a person or organization, and provide insight about how and why they would have those needs. It was actually pretty fun creating anecdotes about made-up people (who were of cou...More

I found the content of this weeks lecture to be very interesting. Setting up the framework for good design is essential in developing practical solutions to the problems the world faces

I felt that Hear, Create, Deliver (HCD) was the most importan...More

This week was especially interesting, because I learned a lot about the actual differences in the medical technology between clinics in Africa and in the United States. Watching the videos really made me realize how much we as Americans take for gra...More

This week we learned about the importance and availability of medical devices both in the US and in third-world countries such as Africa. It was really interesting to learn how much more is spent on the average operating room in the United States ve...More

This week, I learned about health in West Africa, specifically, the lack of medical resources that many areas face throughout West Africa. While it did make me happy to learn that in general, there is a positive trend in the improvement of the state...More

This week made me kinda feel bad

Living in a developed, well-off country, you take for granted all the diseases you hear about as mythical things that in no way can affect you. I mean, no one really DIES from diseases anymore, right?

It was so in...More

This format of course is new for me. I've never had a course that's as flexible and "pick-up-as-you-go" as what this online course is offering. Pausing when you want, picking it back up when you feel more involved in learning, and the discussion boa...More

I have never taken an online course before, and so far I have to say that I have been enjoying the experience. The flexibility of the course is great, as I can pick when and where I want to listen to the lectures, do the homework, etc. I was a littl...More