the flaneur

In week 7 class, we did a workshop with our Basadur profile in class. When I got my result back, I was surprised to see I scored 25% at all quadrants.  Personally, I identify myself most with " Conceptualizer" , then " Implementer", then " Generator" and "Optimizer" last. The guest speaker suggested that usually the diagonal quadrants " Conceptualizer" and " implementer " tend to have conflicts with each other. However, I found it particularly interesting because I identify " Conceptualizer" as my dominant mode for problem-solving, while " implementer" second. At the class activity, I picked the " conceptualizer" group to join and I can identify myself with the conceptualizer peers. Here are some points that I definitely echo: - Visualize " Big Picture" - Can be detached - Care more quality vs quantity However, at the same time, I also identify with the " implementer"...

Prompt :  Reflect on how you work Think about ways that you can get to the core of what is the most important customer benefit How did your group come to agreement?  Was this hard? It was hard for group to come to agreement in Ideation Phase, particularly for a group of 7, because there are many ways to tackle the same problem through many different layers. 

" There are many ways to center a business. You can be competitor focused, you can be product focused.... ?   but customer-focus is most rewarding ... "  ----- Jeff Bezos, 2016 letter to shareholders " Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don't yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it, and I could give you ..... "  What Do I Think ? 

Stay open  Something I have learnt in Architecture School, particularly thesis If we are designing for innovations, not just a pure solution for a problem in front of eyes. Do not narrow down too fast  Important to open up design opportunities Keep ideas flowing during ideation stage  Ask questions that open up avenues , not narrow down...  " If you want to have good ideas, you must have a lot of ideas"  Do not get fixed on one idea too quickly and loose sight of others possibilities...  Not looking for local maximum, but global maximum.

In Week 3 in class, we were introduced a design approach. Think about Design Audience and come up with a Design Argument.  The suggested steps are as follows: (1) Pre-disposition (2) Observation (3) Insight (4) Concept (5) Implementation It was very helpful to help our team clarify thoughts.  We did this exercise together in class as a team. We made progress on our design argument:  Our group is interested in Seniors  with Food Insecurity.  (1) Some pre-dispositions:  - They are on fixed income - Not eating the right thing - Hard to be excited about eating because they are alone all the time (2) Some design concepts: - Financially :     Start young, how to educate future generate to plan for retirement and financial planning ? Could we help seniors to create value? Any sources of passive channels for additional income in which they can still contribute to society?  - Socially :  Could we pair up s...

HCDE 503  Wk 3: How do you deal with complex information? - make mind-maps - diagram out  - list out priority  - think about big picture - redefine the bigger goals, constraints and resources  - then narrow down scope 

UW x Microsoft Mentorship Program Kick-Off Event  Hosted by the Microsoft Cloud + AI team, there was a great panel discussion about career development. Six people from the team, including researcher, content designer, studio lead, data scientist, UX designer and produce, sat together to talk about what their roles, how they came into this position and their joy and challenges. Look at the notes I took and you can tell how engaged I am by their discussion. I was also paired up with a mentor, who is currently a website designer in the team and does branding & marketing work for 4 products. Her background was in graphic design, I am very excited to be mentored by her this year. We have decided to meet up monthly and I will come up with the structure of what we are going to discuss.  The panelists took turns to discuss about what they think is the quality to success.  Here is the list: - curiosity   ( agree)  - empathy  - no...

Research Phase : Sense-Making  In the HCDE 503 class, we were assigned to work on a group project called " Working Design Example" to help us test out the UX toolkit along the way. Our problem space is " Food Insecurity ". A lot of good tools were introduced each week. Here is a recap: Wk 1 - Affinity Mapping  We chip in ideas and findings from initial research through reading articles and internet. Then, as a class, we arranged these findings in relation to each other.  After that, we categorized them. Some of the categories include : poverty cycle, environmental factors, education. For our group, we are interested looking into issues of food insecurity through the lens of " neighborhood & infrastructure". Wk 3  [1] Mapping  As a team, we first mapped out the stakeholders in our ecology to help us identify what kind of players to research deeper into to identify problems and design opportunities. Who are these people w...

HCDE 503 :  Wk 3 Reflection  How do you generate new ideas?  How do you reflect on ideas? How do you come up with ideas?  Fo me, these are all great questions to think since I think I am at a point of feeling stagnant as an architectural designer. My four years of architectural practice, doing mainly production work, instead of design, has drained me out of my creativity and passion that I once had when I was in architectural school.  I am very glad I am taking this Design Practice class at the right moment when I am facing both a career choice and 30 years old crisis. It really helps me rethink about the word " career ".  It is not only a job, but a continual process of growth, reflection and refinement. It is about a craft that oneself have accumulated experience on for years and became expert at it. It is a kind of self-awareness and assertiveness of the value of her practice and know how to position oneself in the ever-changing socie...

Google Design Podcast https://design.google/library/google-doodle-illustration-design-interview/ Good resources to stretch design thinking and to reflect on design practice.  Once in a while, its good to remind oneself of my value as designer. 

Knowledge of Cognition Vs Regulation of Cognition " Knowledge of Cognition -The knowledge of the factors that influence one's own performance -Knowing different types of strategies to use for learning -Knowing what strategy to use for a specific learning situation Regulation of Cognition -Setting goals and planning Monitoring and controlling learning -Evaluating one's own regulation (assessing results and strategies used). " In HCDE 503 class, we are introduced to this concept of "Metacognition", think about what we are thinking, be able to step back and examine the way we learn, remember and think.  Here, I will write about my observations about two processes of cognition. For example, learning a new cooking recipe can involve both knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition. Take making a perfectly tasty onion soup as an example. It involves experimenting with a wide range of variables, from buying the right ingredients from ...