Before this class, I already had some background from CS147, especially around ideation and prototyping, so I felt somewhat comfortable with the design process going in. But this class felt different because it was more focused on designing for a specific purpose, especially behavior change. That added a whole new layer for me because it wasn’t just about making something usable, but about actually influencing how people act and think, which made the work feel more meaningful and intentional.
One of my favorite parts of the class was drawing, not in terms of sketchnotes (i can’t say those were my favorite), but actually drawing out interfaces, screens, and flows – especially from the guest speaker that came and explained how when she draws, people actually listen and watch. Seeing something go from a rough idea to a more polished design and then into an actual working screen was really satisfying. It also helped that our team had a strong mix of people, with one designer and three engineers. Our designer was really experienced with Figma, and it was honestly really cool to see how quickly ideas could turn into high-fidelity designs. With tools like Claude and other AI tools, it felt almost seamless to go from a design idea to an actual implementation. We could iterate really fast by prompting and refining until it matched what we envisioned, which made the whole process feel very fluid.
I also feel like I gained a much deeper appreciation for design as a discipline. Before, I didn’t fully notice how small design choices can influence user behavior, but now I think about it all the time. Things like where a logout button is placed or how hard it is to cancel an account are intentional decisions that can either help or frustrate users. Even things like opting in versus opting out are not neutral choices. I’ve started noticing design decisions in everyday life too. For example, I used a Zipcar recently where the trunk only opened from a button in the front seat, and it felt like such bad design because my instinct is to go straight to the trunk. Moments like that make me realize how much good design aligns with natural user behavior.
Working on our project was also really interesting because of the intervention study component. I enjoyed talking to participants before, during, and after the study and hearing how their behaviors changed. It was especially cool to hear that some people continued using ideas like microlearning and habit stacking even after the study ended. It also made me reflect on my own habits, and I’ve actually started using anchoring and habit stacking in my own life. That connection between what we designed and real behavior change was probably one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.
Another activity I really liked was creating style tiles and moodboards. I hadn’t done those formally before, but I found them surprisingly fun and helpful for shaping the overall feel of the product. I also really liked the exercise where we imagined our app as a person and thought about how it would speak, greet users, or apologize. That gave our app a much stronger sense of personality and consistency, and it’s definitely something I would use again in future projects.
Now I think about design as something that is not just visual or functional, but deeply connected to human behavior, ethics, and everyday experiences. Next time I work on a project like this, I want to be even more intentional about considering different types of users and thinking through the long-term impact of the design choices I make, not just whether something “works,” but how it affects people.
