DTSI Reflection

I’ve come to realize something obvious now that wasn’t at the beginning of the semester: You cannot know the solution you try to design for others. When I write this sentence in the present, it even seems “silly” or maybe naive to me, that I thought some research and maybe a few interviews would be enough to design a suitable solution. Through my Master’s Degree, I learned a lot about how to get to the core of a problem, which is why I felt like I already knew how to identify a problem and create a solution. However, I guess I still had this way of thinking that I could try to put myself in someone else’s position and therefore know what they do, how they feel, and what solution must be right for them.

In many podcasts and readings, we saw that it is crucial to understand who will be affected by the decisions and to get to know them and understand what problems they struggle with. Perhaps this is why my first project ever kind of failed, where I wanted to help elderly people conquer the feeling of loneliness. I guess at that time we did not conduct enough interviews; we just thought that since we all have grandparents and we see how they live, we know what challenges they face. Except for this little project, all the others were more about students, which is probably why those did not necessarily fail, because I was one of many facing certain challenges and naturally I talked about these challenges with my friends.

This course, however, introduced me to a completely different challenge: designing solutions for migrants in Portugal. Coming from diverse backgrounds and having left their homelands for various reasons, these individuals presented an opportunity to apply and expand my understanding. It became clear that I couldn’t rely on simple research or superficial interviews, nor could I draw parallels with my own life experiences to uncover the challenges they faced.

I’ve learned that there are numerous methods beyond interviews and surveys to gain insights, such as role-playing, drawing, and crafting. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses, and part of the learning process is determining which is most effective in a given situation. I think the last few weeks have helped me to be more creative in trying to understand a problem, whereas until now I mostly conducted only surveys or interviews to find out more about the behavior of others.

For the future, I think I can try to find ways to evaluate something in a different way than the “classic” ones. I enjoyed this course a lot, also because I feel like I made a small impact. However, I do wish that there will be an opportunity for our prototype to be implemented in the world. That would mean that maybe 20 migrants, who would love to have a job in the hospitality sector, will find something, and in the future, maybe even more. This possibility makes the effort and the learning all the more rewarding.