Self Critique & Reflective Essay
- What is the audience/user take-away?
- My audience based on testing is predominately young women, I’ve found that many of the women I have tested with have related this project back to childhood, this has been helpful with creating an environment that is both open and relatable.
- Is the project doing what it needs to do?
- I think this project is doing something that was really unexpected, which is creating an environment that is easier for people to relate to. I’ve found that people have been opening up while participating in these workshops. Initially I thought the workshops might be challenging for people to relate to, and that testing participants would have more feedback for the book — through testing I’ve had the opposite experience.
- Where are its strengths and weaknesses. Be critical.
- Strengths: I think the biggest strength of this project is the ability to connect people from various backgrounds to conversations around youth. This is something really unexpected that came from my prototype that has brought me a lot of fulfillments
- Weaknesses: The materials of this project are extremely costly, and this can create a challenge for me since it’s very important to prototype as much as I possibly can. Another challenge is finding the time/space/participants to run these workshops outside of the time that we spend in class. While working a job outside of school I’ve found that these things are truly challenging.
- What might you do to overcome these obstacles?
- I think it’s going to require me to adjust the production calendar I have on my project, and to take a step outside of what’s going on to better plan what needs to happen. I need time after Spring Break to have a mental health day and to reset how I’m focusing on this project
Update your production calendar
- How have changes to the design impacted your schedule?
- As a designer I’ve felt too heavily attached to my version of success and how I feel that needs to look for this project. The research I’ve done and specifically the user testing has helped me to identify what components of my project are going to make the cut and which ones are not.
- What features have been pulled, modified or expanded?
- Pulled — The book has to be scrapped, it’s simply not helpful for workshop participants and serves more as a distraction and less helpful
- Modified & Expanded —The workshop materials need to be modified, it’s a challenge for people to engage with and research will need to be done so that I can identify — I’m also adding a website to my scope to document the pieces that people create
- Are you on schedule? If not, what changes need to happen?
- I need to make adjustments and to be break the bigger action items into smaller pieces so that I can be focused and diligent with one thing at a time versus getting overwhelmed
