Reflection Journal -1

It was a wonderful HCId-2 class.
It’s rare to feel good after a 3-hour late-night class.

I just wish this continues. (But, I just wish my portfolio was reviewed too. Pretty amateurish, but I think it would get better as I get better.)

Initially, I had lot of misgivings about the sequel to Marty’s class: HCId2.

Typically, I would expect a right mix of theory and practice, individual and team-work, from this class. Looks like that’s the way it would be. I feel quite relieved.

Last semester, Marty said, just as you learn swimming by swimming, you learn design by designing. So, go… and design.

Now Eli says, at the end of this, you know if you like being a designer. I am scared!

Sounds like a nice climax to a one-year long discover-yourself motion-picture of an individual striving to know what he wants to do/design in life. ;)

Like everyone else, I want to do my capstone, applying HCI and design skills to the area/domain I really care for.

I don’t really specialize in anything, and that’s been my problem. I have always had this vague sense of doing some community-building, synergising beautiful narratives possible through traditional media like photography, movies etc. and taking advantage of the inherent stengths of new-media (like uncovering untold stories through blogs etc.).

I have also been doing some discussions with some of the journalism faculty. (Sandeep Junnarkar has been doing this site: http://www.livesinfocus.org/ which recently got reviewed by BBC, and is cool stuff.)

During today’s presentations, “The Museums of the Person” looks like a good playground to crystallize my ideas.
If this class is preparing me for the capstone at some conscious (or, sub-conscious?) level, I think I will learn a lot if I do this project.

Let me just hope for the best.

All three – Eli, Kevin, and Josh - have very good ‘visual’ and ‘community’ sensibilities. I hope I can learn good stuff from their experience, and get my knots un-entangled –as much as I can.