INFO 2670: Self-Reflection
Technological Tools for Information Designers and Beyond
I ❤ No Code
INFO 2670: Tools for Information Designers is a required course for my Information Design program, and based on hearing about the class from previous years students, I was unsure what to exactly expect. Past students gave very mixed reviews about this course due to its challenges surrounding the need to learn how to code and projects that required the building of an entire website from scratch. As someone with only beginner level coding experience, this was a BIG yikes for me and if I’m being honest, I was dreading it’s arrival all through Fall semester. This lead up made our first day of class with professor Hans that much better, as one of the first things discussed was how we would be exploring “NO-code” technological tools. Not only was I relieved to hear this, but also felt that this area of study would be much more relevant within the contemporary context of technological tools I as an information designer interact with daily. Through this course, I was introduced to new, exciting tools that solve issues on both a personal and professional level and are what I have come to value most about this course.
The structure for this class was intuitively organized, in that the weekly labs we had to accomplish in the first chunk prepared us for later projects where we could consider implementing them towards our own solutions. I made a point to try to engage within these activities as much as possible, as I recognized their real-life value should I need them within my own professional pursuits, such as starting my own business. These included the creation of a mailing list, building and processing of a Twitter bot, design of a problem-solving idea landing page, and the incorporation of machine learning when building AI powered web-based software. These are all areas of expertise I don’t think I would have had a chance to try in any of my other courses, nor would have known where to start on my own. Especially in regard to the AI machine learning task, this seemed so far out of touch with my own capabilities that I thought I would have to be a programmer or take a computer science course to learn how to do. As Professor Hans revealed to us, that is simply not true nowadays where just about anything you can think of, there is a technological tool to help even the least technological literate people.
Finally, Projects Worth More Than a Letter Grade
Both the individual research project and final group solution project came with their own rewarding experiences and challenges. Within the individual project, I chose to interview not only a fellow information designer, but also one who works in an industry I am highly interested in entering myself: UX/UI design. I think this was the project I felt most fully engaged, as my interview and topic choice was highly intentional, and I sought to get more from it than a successful letter grade. I truly wanted to gain knowledge to better my own understanding of this field and use it to my advantage when seeking out an upcoming summer internship. I Interviewed Aja Deren, who is the IDS president, a fourth year Information Design student, and a UX/UI designer who secured her position in the same year I am in now. This project presented the opportunity to tap into the types of technological tools that are used daily within this industry, and allowed me to understand the type of tools I should start to learn to prepare myself for internships.
The most challenging part of this course has by far been our final group project. My group and I chose to focus on a problem that has been relevant in our lives and everyone’s else, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: the effect of media bias on our limited exposure habits and filter bubbles that work to increase social and political polarization. This is a big world problem that six information design students have attempted to tackle. Through using considerations from our previous labs regarding technological tools, we tried to find an appropriate solution that may be effective in battling this persistent monster influencing us at every turn. When defining the problem and figuring out how to communicate our proposed solution, my group and I tried to keep in mind the things we have learned within this course. Specifically, Professor Hans’ workshop on storytelling helped us out at this stage as we remembered three key elements he said to keep in mind: 1) Know your audience and what they want, 2) Establish the stakes and why they should care, and 3) Make it personal as emotion makes people remember (Hans, 2022). This supported us not only within the construction of our design problem and solution, but also our final report and how we presented it to our peers later.
A Rewarding, Skill-Building Challenge
This final project challenged me to overcome steep learning curves, such as understanding how to use WordPress and respond to needs for very basic coding to accomplish certain customization of widgets and features. The development of our final solution meant a lot of long nights and battling against the limited features of free plugins to accomplish something that resembled our larger goals for this project (most of which couldn’t be accomplished due to time limitations and lack of coding experience). Now that we have finally crawled past the finish line for this project and the entirety of this course, I have to say the outcome of our final website product made it worth it. There are not a lot of courses I have had in my two years so far where I have worked from the very beginning of problem identification to final product development. I have made a lot of designs and prototypes with the goal of problem-solving, however what my group and I accomplished was the first stage of what could be a very real product in the future. This made it a uniquely rewarding experience!
This project and course equipped me with the knowledge on how I might utilize no-code, trial-period, and free-to-use tools available online should I one day choose to pursue my own business. Looking back at my perspectives on this before this course, and now after completion of it, I realized that the idea of entrepreneurial goals seemed daunting and completely out of my specialized set of skills. I now come out of these wielded with the experience and ability to put these technological tools to work, whether for myself, within my job, or to help out those close to me. Not only have I learned these skills, but I have also gained perspective on how others are able to do what they do. I no longer look at a product or business the same, I instead see all the different moving parts that come together to make it function. I am grateful for this added perspective that I will take with me in upcoming courses and into the professional world.
Thank you for the great semester, Professor Hans!
References
Hans, K. (2022). Week 5: Storytelling [PowerPoint slides]. Mount Royal University Blackboard. https://courseware.mymru.ca/
Novo, M. (2019, January 9). Adobe XD on mobile [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/x-HpilsdKEk
Rawpixel. (n.d.). Business startup plan [Photograph]. Envato Elements. https://elements.envato.com/business-startup-plan-marketing-ideas-PPPHJM2
