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Reflection
Alright, let’s just start with this because I always struggle starting these reflections. Let me start by looking back to the X2 program itself. My first meeting was with Paul about my chosen learning goals and how to work on them. At the time those learning goals were:
Learning how to extract the users needs for a product
Improving my English
Being less distracted
And yes. The goals themselves were way too generic and I didn’t really put enough time into them. At least not in the first two. So my second meeting with Frank was about the chosen goals and why they needed improvement. After a short conversation about things I could work on we came up with two new learning goals.
Being less distracted
Sharing my work online
Creating a new portfolio website
With these new learning goals I also covered different aspects of myself. Being less distracted relates to my attitude. Creating my portfolio relates to my skill and sharing work online relates to my personality.
Being less distracted
This is something I've been trying to work on for quite a while now. To be frank, while I do get distracted I still manage to finish my work and do quite well on my assignment. Yet I still think I can improve myself a lot if I’m less distracted.
I’ve noticed that getting distracted is quite similar to an addiction, I know it sounds odd but bear with me. I've heard that with addictions, one small trigger can get you back doing what makes you addicted. Smoking for example. When you’re bored at a party you might immediately grasp to a cigarette. Same goes for my distractions. When I’m working on a design and have to think about the right placement, that small timeframe is enough for my muscle memory to press CMD + T (new tab), Y (which Safari autocompletes to YouTube) and Enter. This takes about 2 seconds. So within those simple minutes I’m ending up on YouTube. Which obviously shows me interesting video’s right off the bat and so I’m lured back in.
The good thing is, I realize what is happening. So I can work on it. Which is easier said than done. Obviously I’ve just tried being strict to myself and telling me to close done YouTube and get back to work. But this has multiple disadvantages. For one, I don’t always listen to myself. So I still end up watching a couple of videos and secondly, if I do manage to immediately close done YouTube my flow is gone. Which isn’t efficient.
So we have the trigger: boredom / thinking about the work you’re doing
The action: CMD + T — Y — Enter
The result: Ending up at YouTube
So the solution which worked for me is quite direct. I’ve installed an app to my Mac (called: Focus) which just straight up blocks the websites I want blocked. In this case YouTube. This means I still experience the trigger and make the action. But this results is never popping up. Instead I tried motiving myself back to the work I’ve been doing by some harsh quotes:
Within the app I can either set a website to be permanently blocked or for X amount of minutes. Both of these options work because when you’re starting you always have good intentions to keep working for a couple of hours. After those hours I can access YouTube again.
Sharing my work online
This learn goals is something I’ve always struggled with. I see a lot of potential in sharing your work online. People can give feedback to your work (which if you’ve used Behance / Dribbble before is starting to become quite unique), become familiar with your work and get to know you and the work you’re doing. So they might offer you an assignment / job in the future. All good things.
On the other hand, I always make a too big of a deal of it. I want the shot to be perfect so I’m always putting way too much time into creating the shots. And let’s be honest, it will never be perfect. So this is something I’ve been trying to work on. Accepting the fact that nothing is perfect and just share my work.
Sharing my work online is splint into two mediums, Behance and Dribbble. Behance is mostly for finished and complete projects and Dribbble is mostly focused on single progress shots. Showing off parts of a project or a work in progress. When I started with X2 I’ve shared multiple shots on Dribbble from a personal project (Layers). So I was heading in the right direction. But looking back to my Dribbble page I see that my last post was May 16th. While I do have work left to share. So it’s something which comes and goes, can’t really explain why.
Creating a new portfolio website
This one is skill related. It has been a while since I’ve updated my portfolio and figured why not combine the two. I wanted to put some serious time into my portfolio and also use new techniques too improve myself.
I started off thinking about the goals of my portfolio. Which was tough enough. Compared to my previous portfolio, I wanted to make my new one more directed towards business and clients. While also being able to use the portfolio for intern applications.
The next step was figuring out which pages I needed and what purpose they had.
Homepage
Work
About
Contact
The homepage would serve as an introduction to the services I’m providing, app design, web design, web development and branding. And then the whole design stage started. I started making wireframes and created a fitting design for both desktop and mobile devices.
I started coding after the designs were finished. With coding also came the use of Lottie. A tool to easily create SVG animations with After Effects. This was used as the header animation you see when you open the homepage.
Curiosity & Openness
Throughout the whole X2 course I had some good conversations with Frank about my progress and goals. I always told him how things went and he could always give me some advice. And besides that we also had some regular conversations about general topics related to the field.
So I can’t really judge it for myself but I think we had a good communication and took each other serious.
Progress throughout the course
I’m originally a designer. But I also love to code. Yet I still picked the UX minor which isn’t my favorite field. So I choose the UX minor because I felt like I could gain the most out of it. If I would’ve picked the visual minor I figured I wouldn’t learn as much and I also don’t see myself code behind a desk all the time. So I picked the UX minor and could apply the learned methods to my design work.
To this day I’m still what my job is going to be because I don’t want to just design all the time but same goes for coding. So a combination of the two would be perfect.
One of my weaknesses I’ve written down was ‘staying motivated’. Yet one of my strengths is being ‘driven’. Throughout this minor I’ve managed to use my strength to improve my weakness. Since we’ve been designing delivery apps from the very beginning of the minor I lost a lot of motivation for the last assignment when they told us it would be another delivery app. Meanwhile I was about to start a new side project with a friend from the Webdev minor and we figured why not work on our side project as the last assignment instead of a delivery app. I for one knew I was a lot more motivated. And so after a couple of meeting with teachers from both minors we’ve managed to work on our own project as the last assignment. So to end it all, I’m definitely enjoying the minor and have learned enough from it. Now I have to get back to the project since our deadline is upcoming Thursday.
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Like / Dislike
Like
Things 3.0
A clean and handy app for writing down to-do tasks. What makes this special is the clean and minimal way it's presented. Without any unnecessary fuss.
Mac ID
Unlocks your Mac automatically when your iPhone is near.
Last pass
Stores all your passwords without the need to remember them each time. Great user experience.
ING
The IGN app has some great extra details which really improve the overall user experience. One of them is an option to directly transfer money to a bank account number you copied.
Apple
The experience of the Apple eco system. Meaning how multiple Apple devices work together and deliver one great combined experience.
Timer / Alarm clock
Ironically not all apps from Apple are consistent. Check out the position of the stop button on both the screens.
My Wallet
I can't direct check in with my OV card anymore because my wallet is to thick.
Tele2 app
It keeps logging you out after a certain time. Because of this I don’t even bother checking my monthly data anymore. Which is quite bad.
Invision Studio
A bit of a cheeky one, since Invision in still in beta. But it has some flaws which doesn’t really make the overall user experience that great.
OV9292
Something I have to use on a daily basis and it works. But it has it’s flaws and can be improved upon.
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USP
Values
Having fun
Flexibility
Teamwork
Strengths
Problem solver
Driven
Weaknesses
Discipline
Staying motivated
Interesting companies
Dept
UENO
Awkward
Superhero Cheesecake
Mollie
Framer
Achtung
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New learning goals
After my first meeting I wasn’t to sure about my last learning goals. So I sat down with Frank and we talking about possible new ones.
Being less distracted
Attitude related
How to work on this goal?
Good planning, taking enough time for the tasks and taking into account some extra delay.
Blocking the distractions, for example Youtube or Dumpert for a period
Creating my portfolio
Skill related
How to work on this goal?
Using Trello to plan all tasks so I’m creating a clear overview for myself.
I’m also going to be using new techniques like Lottie in my portfolio to keep growing and keep improving my skills
Sharing my work on Dribbble / Behance
Personality related
How to work on this goal?
Sharing my work on different mediums for exposure and making myself known. No one will hire you if they don’t know what work you’re doing.
Using dribbble for process shots and behance for finished projects.
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Progress
Aperto
Pro’s
· Creative work area, which inspires creativity. It’s not all cubes put together.
Con’s
· The UX designer who gave the presentation didn’t have any design skills, meaning he only works on the structure of products. While I also would like to make suggestions based on designs.
Personal Strengths
· Love working in a team.
Personal Weaknesses
· I can’t just only do one thing. I want to be involved in multiple processes.
Icon Incar
Pro’s
· Interesting subjects (dashboard design).
Con’s
· The projects take a long time, do they will become less interesting.
· Obvious one, it’s in Germany so I would’ve to move.
Personal Strengths
· I enjoy the beauty of cars.
· A lot of Photoshop knowledge (the program they are using).
Personal Weaknesses
· Trouble staying motivated for a long time.
Goal process
Learning how to extract the users needs for a product
- Related to the minor itself.
Improving my English
- Talked in English at home for 1 day a week
Being less distracted
- Made a schedule for my personal project
- Used a program to block distraction (websites)
Other goals
Finishing my portfolio (challenges)
- Both interesting for companies to hire an intern and for clients to hire a freelancer
- Clear description of the projects, what is interesting for the companies and clients to read and view
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Aperto
Their presentation was great. They gave a lot of insights on how they work there and how their process looks. It was fascinating to learn how they became an IBM company and what that did for them. In this case, having a lot of international clients and really being able to choose what you work on. Their location within Berlin itself is also beautiful to work at. Not really sure if that’s an advantage of being an IMB company or their own doing.
One thing I found odd was the fact that their interaction design had almost no experience with Sketch or Illustrator. So he wasn’t really making wireframes but from what I could tell he was working on a higher / bigger / more global level. So instead of wireframing where the information could be placed, he made sure what the information consists of and how it was structured.
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Icon Incar
This presentation was something else. The work they are doing at Icon Incar was quite unexpected for me. I never really thought about car dashboards besides the Tesla screens before. And definitely didn’t guess it would take around 3 years to design / build one.
It was interesting what prototyping tools they used (regular HTML), since a regular Principle / Invision prototype wouldn’t suffice. But that wasn’t the only unexpected tool. For the designs they all used Photosop. Which has lost quite a lot of users since the rise of all the user interface design tools (Sketch / XD / Invision Studio). They told us they couldn’t just easily switch over to another program and turn their whole work process upside down. Throughout the years they got used to Photoshop and got familiar with it.
This gave me that feeling that they were a bit behind the rest of the industry. Since Sketch isn’t a new kid on the block anymore. It exists for quite a while. But since they are working on a project for 3 years before it’s finished, you’re kinda 3 years behind.
I was also interested in the amount of freedom they had. Since you’re designing a dashboard, it’s important that you think about the placement. But those things are already defined before they start working on it. In the end it was great to get to see a different aspect of design.
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Berlin
Berlin was great. I got to know everyone who went on the trip and really enjoyed my time there. We went to the Eastside Gallery and checked out the Holocaust Monument. Which were both really impressive. And let’s be honest, it was mostly just have fun and bonding in cafés while drinking beer and wine. So I’m glad I went and would love to do it again sometime.
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Goals
Learning how to extract the users needs for a product
One of the reasons I took this minor. I’m a visual design originally but I see a lot of value in knowing both UX and UI design. And it’s always hard but really important to know who you’re designing for and what their needs are.
Improving my English
English is an important language within our field. So I love to get better at it. This minor is helping greatly with that. I also took an English course last year.
Being less distracted
A bit of a ‘less school’ related goal. I always feel like I can have more discipline. I can be more strict towards my own time and how I plan it. And it’s not that I’m not doing fine now, I finish everything and get proper grades. I still feel like I can do more with my time. I’m also working on my own side project at the moment and would like to finish it before I start working on my new portfolio. But after that there is plenty of project in my head to work on.
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