Writeup: Final Reflection
Before this class, I thought…
My expectations coming into this class were largely met by reality. I expected to come into a class focused on designing products centered around behavioral change, and learning the best ways to do that. I would say this class definitely did that, and I enjoyed learning about all the various ways to help develop good habits. I will say that before this class, I wasn’t very familiar with the full design process (other than CS147) and how to develop good habits. I’ll discuss below how I feel like I’ve grown during the class.
I did this work with these experiences…
As someone who has a passion for creating apps, I would definitely say that I will use several aspects from the class in the future when I inevitably decide to build another app, regardless of if it is centered around habit creation. While the design process isn’t my strong suit and seemed a bit tedious in the moment (doing things like the proto-personas and journey maps), I was really impressed when I found out later in the course through readings that these exact processes are used in the real world when creating products. I’m glad that I have a jump start on that and am now familiar with it. I also liked the methodology that went into creating our products throughout the course. We were challenged to think long and hard about our color choices, button layouts, themes, functionality of the app, etc. One of my favorite discussions we had was when we talked about a future possibility of something going wrong if many people had downloaded our app. It challenged me to think about ways to satisfy as many people as possible, and even if something went wrong, how we could approach solving it through pre-emptive decisions.
In terms of things that I think I’ll remember in the future, I always hear that people find it hard to remember specific facts and things, but they remember how something made them feel. I always felt welcomed into the classroom and my group was really awesome. I enjoyed getting to know them, the teaching team, and other students in the class as we learned how to instill good habits into products. While I’ve gotten better at the design process and I do think I’ll remember things like how we can develop better habits if they’re more convenient, if we habit stack, etc., I think I’ll most remember the fun environment of the class – which is a good thing!
Ethical Considerations…
For our product, the app switcher called BookBounce, we tried to make it as personable and customizable as possible while helping users develop good reading habits. For example, our settings allow users to indicate what kinds of books they like, how long they want their reading sessions to be, how difficult they want it to be if they try to access another app during the reading session, and it also shows users their personalized feedback and progress in a Spotify Wrapped inspired feature. Through this, we aimed to create an experience that adapts to different user needs while maintaining a balance between universality and personalization. Our default settings provide a smooth onboarding experience, but users can customize them to fit their reading preferences and challenges. We incorporated principles of Value Sensitive Design by emphasizing user agency through enabling users to set their own reading goals while receiving constructive feedback instead of punitive restrictions. Because of our features, I think our approach to the design supports a wide range of readers while respecting their unique ways of engaging with books.
Now I think this…
After taking this course, I would say that I have a much better understanding of how to approach designing and creating an app. Rather than just diving in and coding it (which is something I’ve done), it is important to take some time to reflect on what you’re creating and ensure that it will be received positively by others. This is definitely valuable to me, especially because I would say I’m not very great at the design process. This course has given me a bit more balance, which I appreciate!
Next time when faced with a similar situation I will…
As I mentioned above, there is a good chance I will want to build another app or be involved in a startup in some way, and next time I will take a bit more time to develop my team’s ideas and goals. I will know how to do user testing and design the prototypes in a way that (hopefully) is effective and successful while being ethical at the same time!
