I’ve now finished Playful interactions, I created micro-interactions for a food service website and also a VR Camera concept for my smart home project, I’m feeling good and proud of my projects, I felt I really pushed myself with these projects and I developed a lot more throughout the course, I enjoyed the creativity of the module as well, but It’s funny, this class was meant to be a fun, less stressful experience compared to the prison release project, But I was really stressed with this module, every week I found I had to do 10-15 things by Friday compared to the 5 things I did with the prison release project. I’d even say this was the harder module if the other one wasn’t a 3 month group project.

But aside from that, I had my ups and downs, I felt like I did so well with the micro-interactions project, I can’t think of a single negative thing about it, I think that is my favourite project. However… The smart home project I have some beef with, Firstly and this isn’t this courses or universities fault in general, but I had extreme burnout over Easter, I really had to push myself to work, I couldn’t leave my bed some days because I was so tired from my job, uni work, placement work etc. So I felt a lot of hatred towards my original UI for the smart home project, so I decided that I should take a week off from Uni work and relax which I found helped me with new ideas and inspiration. I think my burnout stemmed from not taking a break since September, Over the month off I had to do stuff for an interview for a Job I really wanted and didn’t get, all while I was in Florida, Champagne problems I’m aware but It did mess with my headspace and my self-belief. Which impacted the project.

Secondly, A.I, I didn’t use any and I kind of regret it, It would’ve made my life easier and possibly make my idea a lot better, I didn’t know how much A.I I could use, and to be fair I used a little to create a background for the calm app. But around week 10 I realised that most people were using A.I for the project and it just annoyed me a little, not because they were using A.I but because it was the Idea that mattered, not necessarily the prototype. But after doing my project, I’m glad I didn’t use any, for two reasons. 1. I wouldn’t of learned skills from Blender, Premiere Pro, Figma, and After Effects. 2. My Design would’ve looked like everyone else’s. One thing I picked up on during the feedback session was how similar many people’s projects were, They just put their Idea on Figma Make and called it a day, I live by Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal, and A.I is just copying, it isn’t original. Now I will say, Not everyone who used A.I had the same design, Some people created their prototypes first and then used A.I to push it further, which is how it should be used. So if there’s anything to take from this complaint, I learned more about pushing ideas with A.I, but I’m also aware that a foundation is needed to make those Ideas great.

But, I’m done complaining, What did I learn? I learned more about micro-interactions, It’s something I’ve always included in my prototype, but never thought about the UX of them, I felt through class, my own research and creating my own, I’ve learnt about how important they are to a good user experience. I learnt more about blender, I usually used online assets for it but everything was made by me, I think to improve I should learn more about lighting and materials. I learned more about future design, I’m always fascinated with future user interfaces in movies so I enjoyed having a chance to create my own, but if I had no restrictions, I would’ve probably followed a Cyberpunk 2077 or Blade Runner design for my project, Still, a cool thing to work on.

Now that I’ve finished 2nd year, which is wild. I’m going to take a break from design until my placement at Colorado Mesa University, by then I’ll refreshed and ready to study design. This summer I want to focus on different creative outlets like video editing, photography, clothing and maybe even some music. I’ve been designing posters, user interfaces, brands, products, DVD covers, zines, underwear (Yes it was a real brief for born and bred, and was also my first exhibition) for the last 4 Years and I want to broaden myself even more, I’ve always seen myself as a jack of all trades, master of none. And I really just want something that I can look back to and be like yeah, that was cool. So that will be in my third year notes, alongside my studies.

I look forward to spending a year abroad, developing my skills and freaking out over my dissertation!