Reflection — Looking Back, Moving Forward and Beyond

Learning

By taking HCDE 451, I have developed the awareness of rapid prototyping. The word rapid prototyping used to be a buzzword that I had no idea what it meant; however, after taking this class, I knew that rapid prototyping was not only a set of methods to produce simulations of the actual product ideas, but also a mindset to put one’s design thoughts into concrete objects. Throughout the process, I especially enjoyed being pushed to the limits of creating something physical as I was thinking about my design. I felt that this really helped me in cultivating my mindset of design through prototyping.

Accomplishment

The accomplishment in this class was pretty obvious. Every week, we developed a prototype under some defined themes. Thus, at the end of each week, we would have a prototype as an accomplishment. For my final project, I used the idea of prototyping to dig into my passion of concept development. Because of this, I encouraged myself to learn adobe premiere and after effects in order to effectively communicate my concepts, Thus, learning new software like these were my accomplishments too!

Contribution

Overall, I served as a PM as well as the concept developer in the final project. Through collaborating with my peer, we were able to create prototypes that effectively communicate our ideas. In general, our collaboration was rather pleasing as we had compatible working style. However, at times it could still be challenging as we could find it hard to arrange meeting time. Luckily, my peer was a really communicative person, and thus we did not have any conflicts while working together.