Looking back at the year
For my last post on That’s Genius, I want to go back to my original goals back in the Project Proposal module – and see whether I reached my personal goals. Did I do everything I wanted to do? Did I learn the things I needed to learn?
Planning
When I started thinking about my year, I divided my time into four different categories. For Commercial Realization, which was an all-year thing for me, I did all the three projects I planned to do, plus a whole lot more, additional projects. ‘To be determined’ was supposed to be one or two more projects, which eventually became four more. I really have had a big focus on commercial practice and testing out my work.
For my Service Offering category (which really is Project Development) I worked on the UX Wireframe, Maintenance Report and Component Library first. The Product Experience Strategy followed later into the Commercial Realization module. I switched the Maintenance Report to the first task, since I wanted to have that done by December to send to my clients. This was an oversight in my planning, but luckily I was flexible enough and able to switch this relatively easy.
For Research Writing, the result can be found right here. Throughout the year I have written Blogposts on That’s Genius, about all the things I love doing. Including project case studies, industry software reviews, updates on my services, user experience research and much more.
Software Analysis however, has had a bit of a slower pace than I anticipated. Because I wanted to put the focus on improving my market position with my existing service and area, venturing to complete new techniques was not the smartest solution. While I have worked on my Adobe Creative skills, I have mostly filled this space with User Experience research. This has been able to feed into my new services, which arguably was much more beneficial to me.
Did I always follow my planning? No. Because the design industry doesn’t either. However, I have done everything I wanted to do and maximized my learning from the time I have been given. And for that, I would say I have succeeded in making the most use of my Graphics Communications course.
Presenting my Reflective Practice Viva
On the 13th of May 2021, I presented my findings and other outcomes of the academic year in my Viva-presentation on Teams. Relying on the information from my Commercial Practice document, which was translated into a 10-minute slide presentation including a Q&A afterwards.
The slides used to present my year reflection can be downloaded here.
The presentation has also been recorded as evidence for the External Examiner.