Reflection 3: Stepping back

During this course I realised the importance of the design phase in creating solutions that are effective in solving complex problems. Helping our consultants was a challenge in a field where multidiciplinarity is essential, as creating a design that can be effective in the context of social integration and employment requires an understanding of complex factors and issues that link the human experience and the institutional framework of a foreign country, Portugal.

I feel that my biggest takeaway is that I was able to recognise how important it is to rely on direct and indirect sources in order to construct an operational literature oriented towards concrete steps in the context of project implementation. In particular, the workshop on prototyping was inspiring, as I realised that the testing phase is an integral part of ideation. In a way, I think the dog battle also represents well the interaction of the projects of my and the other groups, as in the perspective of a broader solution, the optimal result is achieved by the comparison of the different prototypes that result in a balance, or ecosystem, in which ideas find a moment of confrontation and balancing.

In terms of the impact this course has had on me, I think it has been very helpful to learn to reason graphically, as I believe it serves my intelligence to connect concepts and reasoning not only through word connections, but mainly through artefacts, symbols and material signs. I have recently started drawing my ideas and reasoning by trying to connect sketches of what my mind represents.

In the future, as I am doing now, I would like to continue to work in the start-up field, and I think that in this context the design phase is of critical importance. In particular, the ideation, prototyping and storytelling phases are steps that I will be able to approach with much more confidence and critical sense thanks to this course.