Transcript for the personal case study video (GDO710):
Hello, my name is Didier. I am currently studying for a master’s degree in UX Design.
It’s been over two-decade since I left my last formal education. I was excited and, at the same time, nervous about the course.
My first module was Development Practice. I kept a personal reflective journal to capture my learnings, thoughts, and accomplishments of various challenging activities in this module.
I wanted to use this Personal Case Study video to summarize my accomplishments, learnings and define SMART goals to help me progress across the rest of my study.
The past twelve weeks have gone much quicker than I thought. We went through topics like creativity, rapid ideation, prototyping, time and project management, research, communities of practice, and the agile approach. We also went through two rapid ideation sessions.
The first rapid ideation was generated based on a surrealist Dixit card and a news article about “How has social media affected mental health during the pandemic”. I chose this article because, at the same time, I started to work on a start-up project – Socious to build a social marketplace to connect young professionals and campaign creators to tickle social impact projects. I thought this activity might help spark some insight into creating a healthier social network platform.
One of the goals for me to study this course was to learn and practice new methodology; I chose to use opposite thinking to generate some keywords and HMW statements. At this point, I did not yet have an idea of what problem I would be solving. Combining different ideation methods would give me insights into the next rapid ideation.
I picked the second rapid ideation topic, “COP-Out – mission to create an intervention that can be used to raise climate-related issues and provide a meaningful positive change from social grass-roots”. This topic is directly related to the Socious app. I used this opportunity to create a persona that could help me design new features in the future.
While studying in this module, I identified my time and project management weakness. The issue was directly related to many things happening at the same time. I have a full-time designer job and freelancing for the start-up on top of my study. I used Reading Week to finish the book “Getting things done” recommended by my manager. The author David Allen said that “Anyone with the need to be accountable to deal with more than what they can complete at the moment has the opportunities to do so more easily and elegantly than in mind.” I started to revisit my kanban boards to make necessary improvements based on the GTD methodology and set up some goals to help me get back on track.
The biggest mistake in the past twelve weeks was not following the rhythm with other students. Having behind schedule for a few weeks made me feel disconnected from other peers through weekly discussions. I hope to communicate with others to share and get feedback promptly. To do that, I need to work on my time management, set up a proper schedule devoted to the module, and keep track of my progress.
SMART Goal #1: Get the most out of my study by better project and time management
| Specific | Engage with other students promptly to share and receive peer feedback throughout the study |
| Measurable | Participate in discussions following each week’s schedule give-or-take no more than a week of delay |
| Achievable | Involve in peer discussion and share my thoughts with at least two other students |
| Relevant | Use the feedback and thoughts to include in my future reflective journal entries |
| Time-based | Have a better understanding and get the most out of the rest of my study |
During the later part of the module, I looked into how UX designers contribute to open-source communities and found that it’s not as easy and familiar as other technical contributions. I wonder if there are any solutions to the problem space so that it’s easier for UX professionals to be part of the open-source communities. I wanted to set up a stretch goal to work on this issue throughout the rest of my study.
SMART Goal #2: Investigate the problem space and barriers for UX contribution in the open-source communities
| Specific | Engage in the open-source communities to understand the barriers for UX designers |
| Measurable | Devote 1-hour per week to some open-source projects |
| Achievable | As a first person in the open-source communities, research and provide possible solutions to make the workflow easier |
| Relevant | Provide design solutions to improve current open-source platforms to make them more accommodating to UX professionals to contribute |
| Time-based | Utilize the upcoming modules and activities to continue on this mission |
Lastly, I am grateful for the placement in this course. This module helped me identify the challenges I needed to improve on to get the most out of the study. By setting up these SMART goals, I hope I will be able to stretch myself further in the upcoming assignments.
Thank you, and have a good day.