Before this class, I did not feel confident calling myself a “Product Designer”. I’ve recently switched to Product Design in my junior year and have only done a few UX projects to get myself started. Before and during the quarter, I’ve also applied to 70+ UX internships, received a LOT of rejections, interviewed at around 9 companies, and then received rejections from these companies. There were times when I doubted my abilities as a designer, despite knowing that this is what I find the most joy and meaning doing. Before this class, I thought we were going to cover basic UX material that designers should learn to be industry-standard product designers. Little did I know that I’d be given the opportunity to explore so many different types of models and diagrams, conduct back-to-back user testing for iteration, and be exposed to a great number of meaningful discussions about design, tech, and ethics with a class of very amazing people.
Prior to this class, I only had a basic understanding of the design thinking process when approaching projects relating to UX. I was aware of and had some experience doing the common UX activities like interviews, user personas, competitive analyses, wireframing, prototyping, and user testing but never really dived deep into more of the specific exercises like system mapping, system path diagrams, and connection circles, which I thought were incredibly valuable and I feel I can confidently utilize for future projects. I was a psychology major before I was a Product Designer so I personally appreciate connection circles very much, especially when I realize that I can utilize them to connect behavior to emotion. It makes me feel intrigued that we can analyze the different kinds of emotion that arise when a certain behavior is enacted (or even the other way around). One experience that was quite surprising to me was when my teammates and I had a disagreement about the background color that we wanted to use for our app.
Working on this project got me thinking about what it means to be a good teammate and what it means to be a good team. In a lot of my classes, a good team means we get things done efficiently and produce great outcomes. However, the more I follow this pattern, the more I realize how meaningless that felt to me personally compared to having a team that actively supports, teaches, and listens to each other. In this way, I felt that my confidence and ability to navigate around working in a team setting grew a lot. In hindsight, I realized that at the beginning of the quarter, my team and I occasionally had a difficult time listening to each other’s viewpoints because we were all confident individuals with strong opinions about different matters. I myself included, there were times when we would immediately reject another team member’s opinion just because we have a different viewpoint. Throughout the quarter, however, I believe we all started to realize that our discussions are much more fruitful and interactive when we actively listen to each other first before inserting our own opinions. So, there were moments throughout the quarter where there was an opinion that I did not agree with, but I just allowed my teammates to keep talking through their opinion and visualized them in my mind with compassion. I may not always agree with their opinions, but it makes me understand where they’re coming from and this often creates a space for exploration and discussion rather than simply making immediate decisions.
In terms of ethical analysis, I personally really want to dive deeper into privacy. In my perfect world, my vision is that our app will provide a safe space for anyone to connect with others with similar goals of speech. However, due to the nature of our app being a matchmaking app, I believe extra steps are critical to ensure that users feel comfortable utilizing our app. The report button is of course useful in making sure that users who may pose a threat to others can be removed and banned from the app, but the more important thing is to prevent these types of users from even first joining our app and community.
In terms of well-being, I believe that our app pursues this goal in a positive way. As an international student who started using English as a day-to-day language around 6 years ago, I have a lot of personal experience with nonfluency in speech. When I first started speaking English as a day-to-day language, I was very insecure about the way I spoke, which resulted in an abundance of fillers, hedges, etc. This insecurity led to internalized stress that made me feel even worse about speaking English, especially in public. I am personally a believer that a better communicator is a more confident individual and a more confident individual is a mentally stronger person. So, by allowing more people like me to have access to free speech practice, I feel that this is something I find meaningful.
I used to think that UX and HCI are all about doing the right research and converting them into efficient screens but they’re really more than just that. We as designers can shift perception, provide greater accessibility to people, and change people’s behaviors and mindsets. We have a critically important role in creating a more inclusive space for all users in society. It’s not just designing beautiful screens, it’s designing a more accessible, inclusive, and compassionate society–and that is how this class has taught me to be a confident product designer who is proud to be who I am and what I do. Next time, when faced with a similar situation, whether it be in the industry, or when I start my own ventures, I will always push for greater accessibility and inclusivity in all of the products I am designing for, and I will be proud of myself as a product designer. Ultimately, while the journey is still far ahead, I can say with great confidence and a smile, that I am a Product Designer.
