Retrospective: Top Lessons Learned During First Semester at BDW

I’ve learned so much this semester, but the lessons below are the ones I think I’ll be drawing upon for the rest of my career.

Learning to Show My Work

Before arriving at BDW, I was a writer and editor. In that field, you only show your final, polished work. I love that it is important to show your work and your thought process in UX and design, but figuring out the best ways to show my work has been an adjustment (one I’m still working on — but I’m finally getting better at remembering to take photos of sketches and white boards).

Group Dynamics

Before kicking off a group project that will last for the duration of the program, Jesse Weaver spent some class time teaching us best practices for group work and giving us tips on how to communicate with each other and set goals and expectations. This information was so helpful in setting the tone for how our group would work. I wish that class had happened at the beginning of the semester!

Becoming More Comfortable with Uncertainty

When we began our year-long projects for RE: Studio, we had a very general problem space (UX of space) we were working in, and that was it. Before even identifying our problem statement, our group had to begin drafting a research plan, and that was terrifying for me. How do you plan for market research when you don’t know what your market is yet?

It ended up being a great lesson in exploring what we were passionate about to find a problem we could work on as a group. Having a really broad scope at the beginning allowed us to explore several options.

I’m Entering a Male-Dominated Field

This one was a bit of a wakeup call; I’ve always worked in industries where there were an equal number of women and men — sometimes my offices were even majority women. It was frustrating earlier this semester when all our guest speakers were men, but I’m glad for the experience. Since this wakeup call coincided with learning about design failures like a racist soap dispenser at the Marriott and Google’s deeply flawed auto-labeling system for photos, it’s really driven home the fact that a diverse team is crucial to design.