Reflections:

Overall, we felt that we worked diligently and consistently as a group. We delegated tasks well and each person in the group brought relevant insights and skills through the process, from ideation to execution. 

The most difficult aspect of this project was troubleshooting the servos and their connection to the code and sensors. The sensors were quite responsive and consistent, but the servos burned out, overheated, and generally had a mind of their own. Also, soldering the connections to the sensors was difficult with the soldering irons we have access to in the studio. 

Thinking about our final project, we feel that the concept behind the project is strong, connecting a target group of people that are not usually considered by product designers: divorced couples, possibly with children. This group is also at significant risk for communication issues and emotional frustrations that, if not mitigated, may impact the children that they co-parent. In the ideation process, we deeply considered the emotions of the potential users and considered how our product could facilitate both good and bad communication. We considered a device to share feelings of many kinds, like happiness, frustration, love, anger, and gratitude, but we wanted to make sure that our device was not harmful to a relationship. We felt that gratitude could be conveyed and appreciated, even after a relationship has reached its end. 

We believe that with further iterations, the physical design of the device could be more dynamic, an object that inspires and encourages gratitude. We love the general desktop size of the device, but would consider a more formally interesting housing for future iterations.