Kara
Looking back at the past 10 weeks I learned a lot about working in a group and the design process. I learned to how to keep the user at the center of every step and that it is ok to re-focus and change directions. If we had more time I would love to dive deeper into the pain points our users faced. I would change the way the information was communicated rather than reorganizing the resources.
Tim
Throughout these last 10 weeks I have learned a lot about the User Experience design process as well as working in a team environment. The one phrase that puts it all together is using a contemplative approach. This is when designing with and for a purpose is at the top of everything else. It’s a mentality that I will now have moving forward with all of my designs.
If we had more time, I would have loved to have more implementation of staff and students into our design process. I feel like we were stuck to the students we knew, instead of the whole HCDE community. I would have also shifted our focus from a reorganization of information, to changing the way the information if given to each individual student. We found that the relaying of information is one of the pain points, but as a time-restrained project it became difficult to work those solutions out.
Britnie
Looking back at the past 10 weeks I have learned a lot about the steps and methods in the design process. As well as the impact small decisions can make throughout the process, and how it can change the design process and outcome. I also learned the importance of advocating for our users and that we don’t necessarily need an app to fix problems or create design solutions. In our case with the amount of resources student’s already had and the different amount of applications, it was in our best interest to not create a new app. With that in mind, it reminded me of the importance of advocating for our users, and that as technology adapts and changes we shouldn’t leave behind users. If we had more time I would love to increase our user group to also help the program specifically faculty and advisors to find a way how they can incorporate the widget to make communication among students better.
Catherine
Designing a product from scratch is not a downstream development process. There is always something new from each iterative stab. With collaborative teamwork, I find my personal growth and change within the ten week, as a designer, a student, and a group member, extremely meaningful. I am thankful for my group members who are always supportive and proactive, and the instructor and classmates who provide great insight and feedback to our work. Something I find surprisingly valuable is the design critique, which has helped us improve our project and promote our reflective thinking as individuals. It is the fuel for design iterations which our group value a lot. We believe that our project can better address the user’s needs when we invite more feedback and critique during our research stage, so to become more confident in the direction we are moving forward.
