Reflection
on
Goals
Creativity and aesthetics
I learned that creativity and aesthetics don’t have to be just sketching or cardboard modelling, instead I learned how to direct creative tool-assisted processes to make a comfortable and cohesive design language.
The course explorative sketching and the product design process I went through during my internship have been somewhat of a reality check, I changed my vision accordingly and pivoted more towards media rather than product design. Media is an area that suits me more, it allows me to use tools like blender and adobe in creative ways and isn’t limited by my motoric skills. I work more on cohesive design language, something I started with during my B1, improved during my B2, mastered during my time on the PR committee and applied in a design-related context during my FBP.
User and society
A good user experience is a must for a project to be usable.
P1 and P2 were both very similar in the sense that the user experience was a very central point in the project scope. With P1 being about creating an intuitive planning tool, users were involved across multiple parts of the process. While P2 was about designing a seamless interaction for the elderly, with a very elaborate user test of about 7 elderly people where we visited their homes did interviews and observed their interaction with our products.
With my pivot being more towards media and game design, it becomes apparent how important those learning experiences were. And now I’m using this knowledge to enhance the users’ by designing interactions that make sense.
Math data and computing
Game development can be used to communicate complex solutions in a fun and intuitive way.
My first experience with game design (DFGP1) was not a good experience, and it left me with a feeling that I could do more with a game engine.
With that in mind, I used a game engine again during P3 and the results got a little better.
But during DFGP2 I finally got a grasp at what it means to really make something polished. Taking the role of “game dev” opened up my team to really spend time on visuals, characters and writing and the game ended up being very polished because of this.
Lastly, for my FBP, I wanted to really solidify my coding skills in C# and although I found out the hard way that it’s nearly impossible to get the same amount of polish on your own I did learn a lot about writing more durable coding by using solid principles and design patterns.
With those improved structures, it’s easy to apply the skills learned during data analytics and the database work I did during my internship to make a system smarter and involve user data, something I did as one of the main topics during my FBP.
Business and entrepreneurship
Although not completely neglected, business and entrepreneurship development has been something that really started taking off during my internship. While working on grant applications for different companies I had to work out full business plans, thinking of how many people were being hired, their product of choice and how to solidify their line. This in combination with working on a design thinking business strategy workshop that D2G was developing meant that I got a lot of real-world experience with business and entrepreneurship.
While working for the PR committee I also learned my interest in optimising processes, increasing the speed at which different parties communicate with each other with a visual request form for example.
This knowledge was applied during the design innovation method course, which then could be used to spearhead the business research behind my FBP.