guessgottachooseaname

[guessgottachooseaname]

thejourney

It is over and this has been nothing but the journey I needed.💥

A year ago I was lost, scared and insecure. I had decisions to make but I knew that I had to sacrifice my entire life and diverge into a different journey.

Today I am determined, excited and nervous for my new life in Berlin with my partner and my new career. Not everyone gets this opportunity, it wasn’t free  but I’m lucky to actually do this.

This week, our last week, we are finishing a group project with a client about A.I and mental health 🤯and I’m so stoked to do it next to @mafaldamfranco and @wannabeuxuidesigner, these girls are also making these two weeks fun and memorable.

Are we gonna succeed? I’m sure we are, this is it y’all! ☄️

baaaai

[guessgottachooseaname]

“If you look long enough into the void, the void begins to look back through you”

Quoting Nietzsche cuz these past two weeks have been as intense as this quote.

If you are familiar with the origin of the gifs on this post, then you probably know what the vibe is and how it’s been for me so far.

I got nothing negative to say because that’s just adding fuel to the fire but I gotta tell you that I’ve been entering a void I thought was closed a long time ago and I’ll escape from it, just give me some time.

My final project was about designing B2B Saas software by my own.

by 

my

own

aka

I entered that void.

The process?

Amazing

Messy

Fun

Anxious

The result?

decent work with a decent design report

The conclusion?

gotta keep on reflecting on my aspects of my life.

for now

bai

[guessgottachooseaname]

AYO U GOTTA STAND OUT

Yea yea, I'm totally yelling this at myself and knowing that authenticity is so hard to achieve. 

We get so lost trying to figure our "branding" or "personality" when we start writing a Case Study, and we realise that it ends up looking like the other thousands of case studies out there.

I struggle when writing because I have so much to say, but it's so hard to convert my thoughts into words without sounding too informal or illogical.

Now, y'all get ready for this next word vomit:

I realised with this Bootcamp that my brain wasn't as organised as I thought and that sometimes I just dive into these weird random thoughts (that randomly show up) and end up writing them on my notes app. When I see them, I just see a mix of random words that make sense to me but only to me and (yes, I love random and pointless thoughts and things sis). However, when I try to explain my random thoughts/ideas to someone, I see myself like I'm in a middle of a Dada performance, with people just staring at me, thinking wtf is this girl on?

Hang on, so is this about writing a case report?

Yes, ma'am, and also about avoiding going into this senseless spiral whirl. Yea, after reading this article, I realise that I don't have to commit to being someone else, perhaps embrace my personality a bit more.

Buuuuuut I still have to follow some guidelines and send my message to everyone and whys and the hows.

oh and shoutout if you’re a big Dada fan like me 🤡

[guessgottachooseaname]

WHERE YO HEAD AT

Week 6th has BEEN INCREDIBLY FAST WTF 🚀

We gotta create a B2B SaaS desktop site and sis this is intense as it sounds!

FYI here’s a link to explain what this is all about: https://www.mageplaza.com/blog/what-is-b2b-saas.html

I’m still processing all the data I collected and transfer all my sketches into digital wireframes and start some user flow for my two user personas OH! and start my design report....20 PAGES DESIGN REPORT...are u panicking? u may ask, and indeed I am ✌🏽

I felt like I was saying all of this out loud in one single sentence without breathing but that’s how my brain it’s functioning rn...like a machine in autopilot mode.

Let’s see what the outcome of this project will be y’all ⚡️

[guessgottachooseaname]

GOING INTO WEEK 6 LIKEEEEEEEEEEE

[guessgottachooseaname]

[guessgottachooseaname]

B2B SaaS what?

So I gotta admit that I had no idea what this was about...and I’m still getting the hang of it.

To put you in context a bit:

Saas is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts the applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet. The customers of SaaS mostly are businesses, not always be the end-users of the apps. 

For example: Google drive, Salesforce, Monday, etc.

B2B SaaS refers to companies who provide software (app, extension, add-ons) to other businesses as a service.

For example: Slack, Adobe, Microsoft, etc.

 After reading the RCI article along with the Contextual Inquiry video I now have much clearer idea of what I need to deliver in this final design project. 

So wth is a RCI? well to put in a simple way, it’s a method used to analyse the user’s desktop by doing a remote interview to the users who are using the software in order to gather some flaws or improve it by observing their behaviours while using the software.

We should interview two types of users:

the business analyst: user who is involved in customising or adding more features in within the software, this user has a more intimate relationship with the software.

the end user: users who carry out tasks using the software within a company.

One of the several advantages it has is that it’s done remotely and more people like developers and other professionals from the field can actually see the testing in action without having to come in person.

This is just great insight and such a useful way to know how to conduct interviews for this next project. 

But for now, I have a headache with all this new info I just learned. baaiii

[guessgottachooseaname]

COOOODDDDIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG

Well, reading the title, it's pretty clear what our project was about this week. Of course, it's about coding or at least the beginning of it!

Though this week wasn't as hectic as the previous one was, I gotta admit that the coding part was a challenge I did not expect to go through. I knew that it wasn't my forté. So, you are diving into design thinking along the research process so intensely, and on top of that, you add technical skills on Figma then you think that coding would be easy peasy since you just gotta a d d c o d e s and that's it! But no, ma'am.

It actually became more complex than that, and somehow, I'm kinda glad it did because it made me realise that we need to empathise with the whole team when working on a product and speak the same language, even though we use different terminologies. 

My colleague was just great support, and thanks to him, I was able to see my skills shine. I truly believe I can become what I have always wanted to be. ✨

[guessgottachooseaname]

[guessgottachooseaname]

FRIED RETINA

So week four is over and it has been the wildest one so far 👀

So creating an e-learning app from scratch using sketches, mid-fi and hi-fi prototypes was the reeeel challenge. I took an entire hour to make a screen on hi-fi (i’d even say more than 1hr) because FIGMA is still sth I’m processing and I had way too much pressure on myself (just like everyone i guess) 

I literally got migraines from staring at the screen and there was a moment where I thought I was gonna pass out of fatigue  no joke, I got a nice 6-7 hour sleep so idk why this was happening.

so the result? I can say that i’m content with it, nothing to be crazy about BUT I do have to admit that this is exactly the result I expect since I’m still learning. I don’t assume that I should be delivering perfect results so I’m slowly getting there and I have to admit that I’m proud to see my skills improving.

the goal? to stop messing around with tiny details and focus more on my main priorities. imma try my best. ✌🏽

[guessgottachooseaname]

10 MIN REDESIGN???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdS7fOS7bTk&ab_channel=LearnUIDesign

So whenever I thought of adding more information I found myself struggling because I was afraid to “saturate” the screen with it. After seeing this tutorial, a new “gate” of solutions have opened up.

The designer respected the color scheme of the app.The use of “dropdown menus” was the key factor of the redesign, all that information floating around in the beginning ended up inside making it look more “clean” for the user.

before

After

He also made changes of the typography, font margin size with boxes and transparency.

before

after

Adding a counter when tracking your workout was a pretty cool idea to motivate the user perform the task in a more visual way.

personal record screen

before

after

[guessgottachooseaname]

thoughtsssssssssssssssssssssssss

[guessgottachooseaname]

iOS JUNKIE

For the Week Four project, we have to develop an "e-Learning app" for Android and iOS. This project is quite challenging since I've never had another system other than iOS. So I decided to choose the user persona with an Android user as a challenge and to get some new input because I'm a devoted iOS user; though I'd be designing for both systems, I'll focus on Android this time.

Meet my persona: 

Her name is Sofia, she likes travelling and her goal is to cook food from different cultures.

As I mentioned, I had to investigate more about Android's user flow and its UI, so I got my hands on it to see what the differences were. Based on this and the articles mentioned, I will keep in mind the following points:

NAVIGATION BAR: Android placed its navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, making it more accessible for users.

TABS: Android design has more shadows to show hierarchy, whereas iOS is more "flat" looking. (iOS on the left, Android on the right)

TYPOGRAPHY: Android uses Roboto. To be more consistent with the UI I’ll keep this choice throughout the project. 

ACTION BUTTON:  Floating above the interface of an app, it promotes user action. And can only be used for positive actions (e.g. not for cancelling or removing actions) I will take as inspiration the user flow that Evernote has designed for it.

Gesture-Based Navigation: to simplify the user flows and make it more user-centered. I checked Android's flow on it, and they also have implemented it on their systems.

[guessgottachooseaname]

CONNECTING DOTS

WEEK THREE meant group project and also developing a HI-FI prototype for the first time.

This week’s been a technical challenge (personally) because I haven’t practised enough on FIGMA and also because I felt like I was learning way too slow, so I had to catch up asap.

After having a session about my progress, I realised that it was not only the ‘production’ or ‘technical’ part the one I had to work on but also my rational thoughts when connecting research and design and WHY I had to make those changes. This is something I’ve always struggled with. Seeing it so obvious and tangible makes me happy to know that I can have the opportunity to change it and thrive personally and professionally.

Our work had flaws, as a group, we were aware of the fact that we need to organise our ideas more and we also knew that our planning and timing was a key factor to avoid the mistakes we made. We all agreed that we need to work on this, especially after seeing the critiques and how we knew our points to improve were the things we didn’t put much attention to in the beginning.

The group I was assigned with made this week so fun and lit, I got to know these two girls even more and we worked in an open and tolerant environment. We were all equal when doing tasks, accepted critiques openly with no resentment and disagree and agree in such good vibes, everything just developed organically. Teamwork is not an easy thing to achieve but u gotta be tolerant and open and just keep nourishing that.

[guessgottachooseaname]

FINGERSPITZENGEFÜHL

“It is not the hand that makes the designer, it’s the eye. Learning to design is learning to see“

Now, this is the deal-breaker here. When doing my research about UXUI before joining the course, I had a vague idea of what this job might be about. It was probably something about researching (UX) and creating interfaces (UI) on a program, basically what I thought.

Wth changed?? The UX part has been a major discovery for me, I had no idea what it was going to involve, and it has brought tons of new learning and self-growth. 

So, let’s talk about the UI part. I haven’t done design in 2 years, and then I thought I’d be fine in that area....but nope! 

Learning to see sounds logical, but in fact, it isn’t! Because it’s so obvious we might think that it cannot be done, and to be honest, the only way to do it is by literally checking other designs for inspiration. Iterating that like crazy!

When checking those designs, we can also come to a point when having an opinion about designs that are “good” and “bad”. This is connected to having good taste, but I always thought that personal taste is too biased. So, how the hell do I know if I have good taste? well basically, if my design is functional and usable then I guess I’d be on the right path… and hopefully, after years of experience, I could even develop a “sixth sense” when spotting “good” and “bad” design, or how they call it in the field, a Fingerspitzengefühl skill.

[guessgottachooseaname]

let the week 3 being amiguis

[guessgottachooseaname]

ALIENATION

Wow... so the second week went by and I’m mentally exhausted and physically tired, but this is only the beginning so I gotta stay focused and know how to balance my life better. I barely have any social life and asking people to help me out with some surveys and interviews was reeeel challenge.

Week 2 meant working on an individual project with the objective of creating an app to track a habit or routine. I decided to work on a language app to help people make their learning easier because ain’t nobody got time to learn darling.

Must admit that I’m not fully content with the results, I tried to keep the prototype as simple as possible (along with my presentation) because I wanted everything to be focused on the usability rather than the interface but apparently nobody got it completely so I...failed...hard 💀My colleagues and teachers are dope tho and their support and comments are just what you need to hear as motivation.

I’ll def work on Figma skills and connecting my research to my ideas and hopefully I’ll get to the place I want to. I know I’m very harsh on myself but I’m very self-aware of my weakness and imma try hard to strengthen them.

Now, leaving all this negativity aside, I’m soooooo happy how this week turned out because I learned sooooo much and I’m dead ass ready for this new career change. I know that this is it and i’m gonna work my ass off to become the person i wanna be.

that’s it. bai