General Assembly's User Experience Design Immersive - Week 1

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I have officially made it through Week 1 at General Assembly's User Experience Design Immersive and am excited to provide an update!

 

Topics Covered this Week:

  • Giving & Receiving Feedback
  • User Research - Conducting User Interviews
  • Competitive and Comparative Analysis
  • Sketching User Experiences: Storyboards and User Interfaces
  • Presenting Designs

 

 

Deliverables Produced this Week:

  • Project 1!  Our first project was aimed at getting us into the mindset of a designer in just 3 days. We were asked to interview a fellow classmate to find a need that could be fulfilled with a mobile application, and then design a solution for the user.

 

 

Highlights:

 

Meeting New People

It was great to be in an environment with so many fellow students who share my interests and goals. There are 52 students in my cohort, but we are divided into 2 classes of 26 students.  I felt like I was meeting new people all week, but there are still so many people that I have yet to have a conversation with.

  • My mentor

    GA paired each student with a mentor who graduated from UXDi within the last year or so.  I met with my mentor for lunch on Thursday, and she was a great resource to discuss how to utilize time at UXDi, as well as prepare for a career search post-UXDi.

  • My buddy

    GA also paired us with a buddy from the other class.  This was a great way to create a connection with someone I may not have found the opportunity to chat with otherwise.

  • Pre-class time

    Due to some commuting restrictions, I get to class about 45 minutes early every day, which provides me with time to connect with other early arrivers.

  • Feedback opportunities

    For Project 1, our teachers set up a feedback session in which we gave and received feedback on our sketches from 5 students in the other class.  This was a great opportunity for feedback and meeting new people!

  • Happy Hour

    Every Friday, there is a happy hour at GA! Students, teachers, and other staff all attend!

 

Immediate Application of Lecture Material

On Wednesday morning, we were presented with an outline of Project 1.  Throughout the rest of the week, we would have lectures that were followed up with immediate application of what we learned.  This was a great way to reinforce what we learned, find our own takeaway lessons, and create material for our portfolios.  For example:

  • Lecture on User Research --> Go Interview your User!
  • Lecture on Sketching --> Now try it!

 

Great Instructors

I really enjoy learning from my instructors, Susan Wolfe and Ted Everson. They are both friendly, engaging, care about our progress, and are always there to ask for guidance.

 

Organization

The system at GA is very well organized, and I always know where to find the resource I am looking for. Google Drive stores all of our lecture slides and project submissions, and we can connect with fellow UXDi students through our Facebook group.

 

 

Lowlights:

Technical difficulties

Our instructors have been having some trouble with the projector/sound system. Not a big deal, but it has taken up a bit of class time.

 

Potential Career Finding Trouble?

My lunch conversation with my mentor mostly revolved around post-UXDi career searching.

My mentor's experience

She was actually hired for contract work by the startup company that she worked with on Project 5!  After finishing that project, she found a job that she loves at a company in San Francisco.

My mentor's warning

She believes that she was in the minority.  Many of her classmates are still looking for a full-time job. She did not feel that GA did a good job of continuing to help her classmates with their job search once they left the program.

GA's follow-up on this issue

I think that General Assembly is very aware that this is something that many students have been complaining about.  On Thursday, we had an introduction to their Outcomes program, and they have introduced some new resources and strategies in this iteration of their program.  We will be required to meet a list of requirements throughout the course and post-graduation that will aid in our job search. (More follow-up on this as I see how it unfolds.)

 

Favorite Maxims of the Week

As a class, each morning we put together some maxims that we learned the previous day.  Here are a few of my favorites from this week:

  • Design is messy.
  • Go out there and try things, don't just theorize.
  • You are not your user.  Don't assume you know your user's problems.
  • Sketches are quick & cheap.
  • Sketches are a communication tool.

 

 

Highlights from my Notes

 

Conducting User Research:

  • "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they'd have said faster horses." -Henry Ford
  • You are not your user, even if you match the target audience. You know too much.
  • User Research helps to align the team, save money, and should happen throughout the entire design process.
  • We need to know who our users are, what their habits are, where they're accessing form, when they are doing it, and how they are accessing it.
  • User research methods: user interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, card sorting, diary studies, data analysis, eye tracking, A/B and multivariate testing

Seeking (the right) Inspiration:

  • Use competitive/comparative analysis, heuristics analysis, LEMErS (Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Error Management, Satisfaction)

Sketching User Experience:

  • Sketching rapidly translates ideas into something tangible.
  • Sketching helps explore, refine, communicate visually, simplify the complex, and validate.
  • Describing a user experience should be like telling a story.

Presenting Your Design:

  • Know your audience.
  • Speak simply.
  • Tell a story.
  • Make next steps clear.

 

 

 

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