MHCI
A lesson in doing the thing
It’s been about a year since I received my acceptance letter from Carnegie Mellon University. I remember how excited and ecstatic I felt to be accepted into my number one choice of school for HCI. WHO, ME??? I kept emailing the advisor in the HCI department asking random questions about scheduling or transcripts just to make sure they didn’t make a mistake. Well, they didn’t make a mistake and I am here right now, just over half way through my program.
Life as an MHCI student is everything. Its exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating, hilarious, hard, and oh so incredible. I have experienced every high and low going through the program so far and have grown in ways that I never would have imagined before coming here.
First starting out, I felt star struck every moment of everyday. “Why are all of these famous people talking to me? They are so NICE!” It felt like I finally had access to resources, knowledge, tools, and networks that I never had before. It was like the wizard of oz finally pulled back the curtain and invited me in to see how everything worked. I was in heaven. I soaked it all in everyday, feeling unbelievable lucky to be in such an amazing place. It all seemed surreal, but very right to me, like it was where I was meant to be.
The classes and the professors during fall semester left me feeling challenged and excited about the subject matter and design as a whole. I opened my mind to let it all in and humbly stumbled through each project they threw my way. I did a lot of physical prototyping, increased my knowledge of typography and visual design, dove deep into persuasive game design, human factors, and building stuff using react and reactNative.
During spring semester, I am able to explore my interests more deeply with independent studies. I am working on a project exploring the barriers women face in regard to their sexual health, as well as working with Headspace to explore user behavior on the weekend. I am in love with the projects I’m working on and have been given so much freedom and space to use the methods and skills I learned during fall semester to explore and solve problems I care deeply about. The resources and support available on campus are incredible. Every time I ask a professor for help or guidance, they are so willing to hear about what I am doing and offer feedback and advice.
Another part of Spring semester has been the beginning of our capstone project. I am working with a client for 8 months exploring the areas of collaboration and creativity in digital spaces. This project has had many challenges. Group dynamics are sometimes hard to navigate and our problem space was so wide open when we started, it has been difficult to narrow down and choose a focus we all are interested in. I still feel lucky and star struck most days, but now with a little more realism sprinkled in. This program is HARD.
Hard seems like not enough of a word to describe the challenge of MHCI at CMU. It is all consuming and requires so much time and attention, way more than I had considered before beginning. Passion for the work or maybe just motivation for the possibilities to come after the program is over is probably what keeps me going. I love the work, I love design, sometimes this is all that’s left, and sometimes it isn’t even there and I just have to keep going. Now especially, the progress and changes I have seen in myself as a designer and as a human motivate me to continue trusting in the process and moving forward.
Now with five months to go, I am trying to re-energize myself to prepare for the work ahead. Summer semester will be full time capstone work along with some side projects I am excited about. I have been spending a significant amount of time refining my portfolio and have begun the process of job hunting.
