In Review
I remember when I first learned about the IxDMA program at The University of Colorado. I was looking through the Daily Camera one morning in July when an article about the program caught my eye. As I read through it, I realized that the program was the newest iteration of BDW, a program I had always been interested in during my undergrad.
A couple of weeks past, and I went up to campus to meet with an old advertising professor. As we were talking about life and future steps, she brought up IxDMA, and told me I should get a hold of David, another old undergrad teacher, about joining the program.
The next week after getting in touch with David, I started sitting in on the program, trying to get an understanding of what BDW had evolved into, and whether or not it was going to be the right fit for me. At first I was a little bit apprehensive, I was joining the program a week late, and I was worried that it might put me in an adverse situation.
During this time, I was also considering going to portfolio school to be a copywriter. I had been researching different schools and trying to figure out what would work financially, while freelancing where I could.
I’ve always had trouble articulating what I envision as my dream job to other people, but I’ve always wanted to create experiences that seamlessly connect the digital to the physical. I just never really knew what jobs were out there to do that. But I was pretty sure that I could transition into a role like that after I got a job in an agency as a copywriter.
The next thing I knew, after three days of shadowing the classes, I was applying to the IxDMA program; still apprehensive about whether or not it would fit my needs. But then I was enrolled.
In the beginning, like most people, I had no real understanding of the difference between UX and UI. And when we focused primarily on user personas throughout the beginning of the program, I thought that UX and UI might not be for me. I was having trouble seeing how everything fit together underneath the user experience design umbrella.
Towards the end of this first semester, I started to realize that the job I had always desired was an all encompassing combination of UX and UI, called experience design. This idea helped me focus in on where I truly wanted to take this program.
Looking back on the first semester of the IxDMA masters program, I can say that I’ve learned a lot. But if I were to narrow it down to a single thing that I learned most, it would have to be that good isn’t good enough.
There were a lot of projects that we did throughout the semester where we got to a point in the process of developing out the idea, or design, and then decided for one reason or another that it was good enough. The problem is that this complacency was holding us back from being able to develop truly amazing products. Whether they are digital or physical, there were a number of circumstances throughout the semester where we decided that we had developed far enough for the specifications of the assignment.
More often than not this would happen when we were behind the barrel with a fast approaching deadline, and a number of other projects to work on. But that is no different than what most of us will more than likely have to deal with in the real world when we go out and get careers in the industry.
I think that as a class, we all had moments where we could have pushed our ideas and projects further. But I also think that there are a number of solutions we could use to approach this problem.
For one, I think that our work process could be improved by managing our time better, whether that’s through timeboxing, a project manager, or another form of time management; we could all use a little nudge when it’s time to move onto the next idea. On multiple occasions, it felt like we would lose track of time while focusing on minute details instead of truly getting to the crux of the problem.
Another thing that I think could help us develop our ideas out further is commitment. We all need to seriously commit to the development of multiple solutions. When one member of a group neglects their responsibilities, or decides that an idea is “good enough” it allows everyone else to settle in and become complacent.
Complacency is the enemy of a great product.
