HCDE 451 Final Reflection đź’
Looking back on my work and learnings from HCDE 451 (User Experience Prototyping Techniques), here is my final reflection as my fall quarter wraps up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning
Despite being online this quarter with limited scope within the class, I came with an open mind going in. I’ll be honest I wasn’t quite excited to learn knowing this class would have been “more fun” in-person with other HCDE students, especially during my last year at UW. However, looking back now, I learned a lot and stretched my thinking outside my comfort zone.
I really enjoyed how each week was structured with a new prototyping technique. Although each week passed by quickly, this allowed me to rapidly prototype and stray from those polished designs I always strived for. Each week allowed me to think critically, problem-solve, and make quick revisions from peer & instructor feedback.
In particular, the week that stuck to me most was the voice interaction. I was really surprised I didn’t have the opportunity to explore the concept of voice user interface (VUI) before this class. I literally have Amazon Alexas and Google Homes laying all over my household and never considered how they were designed for their users?
After that week, I learned that VUI design is tough. Designing for all types of users can be difficult if some users like conversational dialogs versus straightforward dialogs (ex. question then answer). I was surprised to see the variety of dialogs from my classmates. Some were very detailed and conversational whereas others were straightforward and short-ended conversations.
That week stuck so much to me that I decided to continue VUI design into my winter quarter by taking Informatic’s special topic class on Designing Voice-First Information Systems. This course focuses more on learning how to create user requirements, user personas, user flows, content strategies, and taxonomies for voice-first systems. I’m super excited to continue this topic and build off what I learned from HCDE 451.
Accomplishments
Now looking back to my past 8 projects, I definitely had some strong and weak points. With every project and start of a new week, I was very thoughtful about my ideas and did my best to structure each project as something that would still be used after each assignment.
I definitely found the bodystorming & wearables week the most difficult in terms of creativity and catering to my own interests. I will even admit I wasn’t creative during the process and didn’t stretch my thinking further than I should have. If given the opportunity to do the project differently, I would explore movements and gestures further while exploring current existing products. I would also dig into how movements & gestures work while considering misuses and users with limited mobility.
In terms of my favorite project, it would have to be my video prototype and final project. I really enjoyed sewing for sure, but also making demo videos that demonstrated storytelling.
In terms of my final project, I thought the strong points were:
- The techniques used in terms of sewing, 3D analog modeling (IoT component) and video prototyping.
- The test process was well documented and I received a lot of important feedback that I later implemented.
- The demo video focused on storytelling rather than telling the audience about the process and product.
The weak points and areas for improvement include:
- Possibly creating another demo video explicitly explaining the design process separate from the video prototype. During the final showcase, I realized I was one of the only students who didn’t include any voiceover.
- With more time, I would love to add voice interaction with the activity tracker and mobile notifications. I believe this would further expand my final project and could have a future beyond this class.
Contributions
In terms of group efforts, the week of Wizard of Oz was:
- Kind of tedious for some students. COVID-19 has slightly isolated most students and the sound of a “team project” just didn’t sound so great.
- A great “forced” experiences regardless. Yes I might have even dreaded it in the beginning, but I learned so much working with other students I had no experience working with whatsoever.
The greatest benefit of working in teams was finding workarounds using Zoom, such as figuring out how could we fool our user that our prototype wasn’t quite coded and instead we had a “wizard” on the call responding. My team was admittedly nervous before joining the call.
However, we learned that the concept of Wizard of Oz was a great option to test prototypes that are not fully functional yet and still get feedback about the interaction. We also learned that error handling was super important to a user’s experience. If the user is confused or frustrated, having error handling scripts or prompts is crucial.
Zooming out more, my contributions to the class have taught me to be proactive and clear.
- To be ready to hit the ground running with brainstorming sessions. Any idea is not a bad or embarrassing idea. An idea that sounds ridiculous to me might be inspirational for others.
- To be ready to give feedback and critique to other students. I found the slides of feedback during breakout rooms beneficial to my learnings and reflection while doing my process blogs. I thought other students would also value my thoughts as well.
Overall, the feedback slides and small breakout rooms taught me to be a team player and contribute as much as I can despite having more individual projects. I not only grew as a lone student, but also as a team player.
Final Thoughts
As fall quarter concludes, this class was definitely a highlight of my fall classes. The students and instructor team dynamics really contributed to my overall experience. For any HCDE students reading this now, I highly recommend taking this course if you haven’t!
