Development

An overview of my development through expertise areas and my future goals

User & Society

I strive to be open-minded and inquisitive, always making a conscious effort to base my decisions in a thorough and evidence driven understanding of users’ needs and behaviour. Connecting and empathizing with users is something I find important when thinking about the use and interactions of my designs. Y1 development: • The Human centred design course introduced me to many new user and society related concepts like UX consideration, personas, user testing and validation and involving the user in the design process. These are concepts I have applied in all of following design projects, utilising user feedback and data to drive design decisions Y2 development: • Learnt about the rights of nature, regeneration, and circularity model for ecological design through my work in the Sustainability and design course. The rights of nature and regeneration models specifically introduced me to observation, sketching and nature rights as new perspectives of analysing the interactions with nature of my design within their ecological contexts. • I conducted live user tests with my P3 group to test the interest and feedback of our ‘ravr’ wearable light garment project during the conduct festival. Collecting user feedback was challenging in this environment but was necessary for the context of our project, and we were successful in collecting informative responses to areas of uncertainty we faced in the project.

Business & Entrepreanurship

Considering designs in the context of business and entrepreneurship has always interested me. I believe branding, pitching and entrepreneurial drive are key to captivating an audience for my products, and effectively communicating my vision as a designer. Y1 development: • Unfamiliar with demo days and marketing designs, I learnt pitching related skills in P1 to be able to communicate my designs goals, applications, and features more effectively in a convincing manner. Y2 development: • One method I have utilised in my recent projects has been to demonstrate ideas to assessors and teammates during the design phase through showing rather then just telling. By creating a simple physical demonstrator of ideas, people can provide more concrete feedback and support, leading to more effective design decisions. • Through the Sustainability and design course, I learnt about circular production models and methods in which they could be applied to existing business structures to reduce environmental impacts related to not just the use phase but also re-use and post-use phase of products lifecycles. This sustainability and business model stood out to me as an effective system for sustainable sourcing and disposal of materials which I aim to apply on an individual scale in my own work.

Upcoming Goals

• Develop my skills in the business & entrepreneurship exp area by joining or starting a student led club to gain experience with recruiting, budgeting and managing an organisation. • Develop my skills in the user & society exp area by doing more user testing, feedback and inquiry to support design decision with data. • Keep learning new fabrication techniques such as metal work/ machining and PCB design to be able to design more integrated and coherent systems.