First Year Review

Last academic year was a time for me to explore what truly motivated me as a student. A project I would like to highlight was my second CBL project, as it summarizes where I was in my development as a designer. For the project my group developed Pamora, a study companion that reminded the user to take breaks and drink water. Throughout the process I played a supporting role, constantly aiding others in their tasks and maintained all the background operations such as scheduling or collecting evidence. This was a role I found myself quite often throughout the year as it played to my strengths, but it is also a place for improvement. I find that I should be more active with taking the initiative within the design process, and push outside of my comfort zone. It’s not that I did not contribute, it is taking the lead on certain tasks to show that I am capable of doing so. If you always play the supporting role, then it is quite difficult to define what I am as an individual.

Demo day poster of Pamora.

Process of week two summary.

Goals

Going into the second year of my study, I propose the following goals that I wish to achieve within my PDP. In comparison these have slightly altered from those I proposed within my first academic year, as I believe they still need to be worked on. 

  • Last year I was focused on trying a more technical approach to design in order to further develop my hard skills. Though I still found that many of my designs relied on similar creation methodologies, and did not really explore more out of the box processes as they were out of my comfort zone. Hence this year I wanna try working with new materials, unique ideation techniques, and even different prototyping methods.

  • My second goal is one I also struggled with last year, as I am not the most confident individual, it hinders my ability to add personal touches to my designs. The main difference is that, back then I was more focused on the final outcome which put pressure on me to be more open then I was comfortable with. Hence this year, I wanna work alongside what drives me as a designer instead of creating personal artifacts.

  • My last goal focuses on the fundamental way designers improve each other, feedback. Due to the fact that I am quite a self contained individual, any form of constructive criticism is quite a stressful experience. Meaning I normally take the route of trying to solve any obstacle I may run into myself, instead of seeking guidance. I wanna change this, especially as it is crucial to improving any project I am currently working on.