Reflection Journal-2

Okay, so I am blogging alright.
Resolutions make sense sometimes. :)

So, I was thinking of the last semester.

There were several obstacles - designer blocks, team blemishes, ego clashes, wasted hours, misunderstood problems, romantic ideas. All are tied to each other, and sometimes something as reliable as the Decider's protocol doesnt work. At the end of the semester, I was sure that if this is what being designerly means, I call it quits.

Given all the mistakes that happened, I encourage myself to take an analogy to swimming -
“What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning -- and some of them many times over -- what do you find? That you can swim? Well -- life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!”

Replace life/live with Design.

So, here's what I have learnt from my mistakes:

1) Collaboration is at the heart of interaction design.
2) Design process is as important as the Designs.
3) Design problems always have a context.
4) Creative insight, and analytical thinking.. always mix them in the right proportions.
5) Prototype ideas and user-test them EARLY.
6) Don’t re-invent the wheel, re-design the wheel, if you may.
7) Empathy with the user is not as obvious as we think it is.
8) Be interested in everything in life.

So, lets start swimming.

By the way, I got the project I wanted to work on: The Museum of the Person. I am happy.