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[fergcux]

The last hurrah!

So begins the last week - it’s hard to believe we’re at the end of the process already. Feeling good and on top of things project wise whilst also feeling tired and ready for the bootcamp to be finished, although i won’t know what to do with myself and all the free time :) 

Looking forward to a positive week and finishing on a high! 

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Week 7

Another challenging week down! I felt happy with the work I completed over the last 2 weeks. I knew i would be up against it but I felt I kept on top of my workload and I was in a good position come Wednesday evening. Of course, there was room for improvement but I felt I learned a lot throughout this project. 

Looking forward to the last two weeks on the client project - I’m hoping my energy levels will remain high with the finishing line in sight.

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The home stretch!

Week 6 of 9 done and dusted. I kicked off my 2 week project where we have to design a B2B Saas based web app. Initially, i had planned to reach out to an old team as i identified a pain point in a process workflow. After some consideration, i decided to avoid this as i felt i’d be too bias in my approach and it wasn’t something i felt passionate about. I settled on a scheduling app for sporting organisations and got some really good feedback from my interview subjects. I felt on top of things throughout the week - let’s hope that continues! 

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Week of the pigeon!

An enjoyable week for sure. I’ll never look at a pigeon the same way again :). A different dynamic back working as a team. Individually we had similar characteristics but as a team I felt we worked really efficiently together and delivered a project we were all really proud of - well done guys! 

It was amazing to see the quality of deliverables presented by each team, a lot of great ideas and lots of hard work squashed into 4 days. 

The weeks really are flying by - hard to believe we enter week 6 now. The brief for the next 2 weeks seems challenging but looking forward to working on something meaningful. 

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Week 4 over and out

The weeks really are flying by now. We were given a lot of time this week to figure things out for ourselves (albeit with some daily guidance) - i enjoyed having this freedom and was happy that I kept to my own project plan throughout the week. 

While i was happy with how my prototype came out, i was frustrated that my presentation didn’t accurately reflect the messages i wanted to convey. The feedback called this out and hopefully i’ll learn from it. 

Almost at the mid-point now for the course - looking forward to week 5 and back into a team - should be fun.  

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Week 3 with Team Sky Fly!

Another week over and another interesting week for sure! This was a team project which was nice change having worked individually the week previously. I felt our team worked well together and never let things get on top of us. We delegated well, helped each other out and everyone brought different skills to the table. Personally, i felt i started to turn a corner with Figma which is great! 

Looking back on the week, it’s pretty amazing what we achieved in such a short amount of time, well done team! 

Week 4 coming up already, time is flying by! 

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Week 2 - Add a feature

Another week down. This was an enjoyable week as we got a first glimpse of what a day in the life of a UX designer would look like by adding a new feature to an existing app. This was a really interesting process and a hectic week overall! Was great to see again how much everyone achieved in such a short timeframe. I enjoyed working alone as i felt it gave me time to really figure out what i’m doing and what i wanted to achieve with the new feature. Looking forward to working with a team next week. 

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iOS vs Android - Design patterns and guidelines

Having been both an iOS and Android user in the past, i must admit, i was not aware there were so many obvious design differences between both platforms. See below a summary of 5 of the most interesting differences i noted: 

1. First up, Google and Apple have different design philosophies, Google using Material Design and Apple using Human Interface Design. To summarise, each have their own design patterns and guidelines that you should be aware of when designing an app - see below snaphot below of said guidelines for iOS. 

2. Hamburger menu on iOS and Android. Both OS’ use a hamburger menu (first time hearing that term!) to utilise space. Interesting that facebook ended up realising a new app Messenger to avoid it being hidden within a hamburger menu. It’s suggested that users are less inclined to use the hamburger menu and it has potential to hide key functionality. 

3. 3D Touch - used in iOS and is a great way of cutting out some actions within an app and minimising the time taken to complete a task. I feel iOS don’t put enough effort into promoting this feature and people are not aware how useful it could be. 

4. The nav bar is very different on both platforms. Swiping left to right on an iOS device will bring you to the previous page whereas it will switch tabs on an Android device. Im not sure which method I prefer... Also there’s a global nav bar which is always present on an android device which is not present in iOS. This contains the back functionality for Android.

5. Floating button. This acts as a signpost to users when navigating an app e.g. what button should i press next. I like this design feature as it’s a minimal way to provide an intuitive action to an app and makes it easier for the user to complete a task. 

Overall, i found it interesting to see how many design subtleties there are between each OS. It’s also evident how much effort each company puts into their design philosophies to ensure a good UX provided to the user. 

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One week down!

A long week and a short week all rolled into one (if that’s possible!). On reflection, a lot has happened after only 5 days. I was amazed to see how far some people came from a position of zero knowledge, that was very impressive to see. Personally, it was great to be integrated into the group and get to know everyone. I feel i’ve learned a lot in this short time and i enjoyed having the perspective of a web developer throughout the process. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next few weeks bring, particularly since we will now be focusing on the design specific aspects of the course. A good start to the bootcamp for sure. 

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First day of Ironhack

Enjoyed my first day of the bootcamp - was great to meet everyone and finally get started. Of course, i was the last one in line for the name game :) The campus seems like a great place to learn in a relaxed environment. Our teacher, Nevan, seems like a great guy and I’ll be excited to learn from him over the next nine weeks. 

[fergcux]

Hello!

Hello there! My name is Fergal and I’m originally from Dublin, Ireland. My educational and professional background is primarily in telecommunications where i’ve studied engineering and worked in product roles across this space. Having worked with numerous products with awful UX/UI, it became something that interested me greatly. However, with no experience or understanding of UX/UI, i felt i needed to dig deeper. More recently I worked in integration for a major bank - WFH together with the pandemic focused my mind and i realised it was time to start doing something i liked. So that’s why i’m here and where better place to study than Barcelona!

Looking forward to getting started.