As I read through the three process books I thought that my process is most closely related to Jane Dorn’s book. My sketchbook is often filled with my notes and small thumbnail sketches. I also think my process is most like Jane’s because of its conciseness in regards to documenting process before the start of the developmental sketches.

It was in GRDS 701 and 702 that rekindled my considerations of deepening the initial brainstorming and design process. I used concept maps and other ways of brainstorming ideas in my schoolwork but in my career I never thought or hard reason to use concept maps or other brainstorming activities. Documenting this part of the process was never a thought of importance to me.

Then I read April Biss’ process book and I was flabbergasted. She documented everything! I really thought I learned a lot from viewing this process. It seemed a bit lengthy and very different from Jane’s process I had viewer earlier. She showed her research materials, prototypes, websites and the final project. It was great narrative and great presentation of ideas and process however I think she could have made it even better she incorporated Jamie Turpin’s use of Table of Contents and color to connect the process into a cohesive and manageable grouping of information.

Grouping information is incredibly important for understanding and retention. In my Literary Research for Exploration A I read an article written by George Miller.

In his article he developed two theories for processing information and learning. I would like to focus on the first one which is “chunking” and the capacity of short term our memory. “Chunking is the idea that short-term memory could only hold 5-9 chunks of information (seven plus or minus two) where a chunk is any meaningful unit. A chunk could refer to digits, words, chess positions, or people’s faces. The concept of chunking and the limited capacity of short term memory became a basic element of all subsequent theories of memory.” http://www.lifecircles-inc.com/Learningtheories/IP/GAMiller.html

For this reason by adding a table of contents and breaking down the different parts of the process visually even more, I believe April Bliss could have made her already very successful process book even better.