Week of Nov 5

SUNDAY

Sunday I decided to restart with Project 3 (or at least, start from the beginning and put in order the work I was doing).

MONDAY

Monday was our first lecture and workshop with Johnny. I really enjoyed his feedback; I thought it was critical and constructive, but helpful. I left the tutorial feeling as though I had a better idea of how to refine my ideas. He also challenged me to not use “I like” or “I thought…” when discussing idea inspiration since it needs to based on the consumer we are designing for. Just because we like something does not mean it will be best for our consumer. Talking through this showed me that a shortcoming was not designing based solely on the research so going forward I was making a strong effort to expell my biases from what I was/wanted to design.

I was using a spread with grid layout typical of publishing design, so Johnny showed me how to better set it up for UX. I often like to challenge myself by taking on “more than I can chew” to see if i can do it. This reminded me that instead of taking on more and making it tolerable I could take on less and make it spectacular.

I started working out a persona to design from so that I was basing the decision on them, not my own desires/aesthetic choices. Later on that night I continued with Figma tutorials and unfortunately, water from the table smeared my notes.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning was the library research sources lecture. This was so helpful! I didn’t know about using # and * along with the AND etc words to deepen a search. This sent me down a rabbit hole where I was able to find a ton of information around sustainability and natural wine. (Via my photos you can tell I was confused on the date of the week). I took some time eating breakfast to freestyle brainstorm app/web ideas based on experiences I had in the past week. I think it’s incredibly useful to document every idea, even if barely formed. It can always be something you draw from or take further later on.

Our teams meeting introduced me to more UX design terms and furhter ideation on how to approach building apps and websites. During the day we had a lecture from Steve Watson of Stack Magazines.

Later on was the VC talk by Rathna Ramanathan — I found this talk incredibly inspiring. Her ideas around intercultural design and how that focuses the attention on “the reader, not the writer” reminded me of our duty as UX designers to design for the people, not the product or the self. The way we frame the world directly influences how we design. If we idolise celebrities, we are only going to design for elite subsections of society (which make up so little of the actual earth’s population). If we can instead hone in on the exact audience we are designing for and do research as if we are “taking trips into culture,” we can reach more people and influecne how society runs. “Who decides what is knowledge, and who decides who knowledge is for? We then frame this knowledge for others.” Recently I have been reading a book from the 2016 Istanbul design biennial. It asks “are we human?” and discusses how we believe that we are designing systems, when in fact we are designing systems that in turn redesign us. This talk touched on many subjects and facets of design I find not only interesting but increasingly important.

After the talk, reflections with classmates/friends, more figma work.

THURSDAY

Thursday I mainly spent in the UX studio working on project 3. It was (my first) critique with Rob and it felt encouraging to feel on track with my classmates. I recognised through seeing others work that I was focusing too heavily on the UI and aesthetic design — rather than having a fully built out wireframe for all aspects of the website, I had just made the home page and then started visual designing. I needed to do more that was on the barebones of the design framework. Otherwise, I got a book on Good Design and ideated from it / wrote on some of the projects that resonated with me.

FRIDAY

Friday was spent deep in designing project three, refining research and focusing on my consumer. I took breaks to read my novel (phew!) and drew up some inspiration for project 4 as well. I’m finding it difficult to narrow down my idea for project four with my own interest in sustainability, as well as finding something that is innovative and unique. I realised I needed to do more decision making into if I would enter a red or green (blue?) market. Working on project three continued into the weekend.