From Coursework to Community: YSYS and Google UX Design Scholars Reading Week
Say "Reading Week," and many are taken back to their uni days - long study sessions in the library broken up by bouts of socialising. For the YSYS community, however, Reading Week is about collaboration and constructive feedback. It's a week defined by our cohort's collective ambition and passion.
For YSYS UX Design scholars that chose to join the reading week in person, reading week was spent together at our partner, Le Wagon’s Shoreditch offices. Where the benefits included sought after, real life interaction.
There’s something about face-to-face…
As much as taking meetings in pyjamas, and working curled up on the sofa is fun, face-to-face interaction is unparalleled in lots of areas. Ryme, a YSYS Scholar and aspiring UX Designer transitioning from finance, puts this well, stating that it's vital “to meet people face to face, hear their stories, and ask questions." For her, the Reading Week became more than just a catch-up on the course; it was a motivator driven by a community spirit pushing her to work harder towards graduating.
Gloria's experience during the Reading Week echoed this sentiment. While she was grappling with tailoring her project for the visually impaired, it was the feedback from Deborah, YSYS’s founder, that steered her in the right direction, transforming her understanding of the user, and her project’s trajectory.
Community at our Core
The backbone of YSYS is its community. For our scholars and alumni alike, this was a major draw of the reading week.
One familiar face returning as an alumni is Felix, who’s building Kahana, a ‘Super App for Group Travel’ (think group holidays minus the stress). Felix took the opportunity to drop by the reading week to hold a user testing session for his app.
“It was essentially an observatory and usability session where I gave the test user some simple actions and watched them (attempt to) complete it, while interfering as little as possible.”
Having been a member for a few years, Felix’s experience is scattered with instances of invaluable feedback from the YSYS community. Spending time with our current cohort this reading week was no different.
“My team at Kahana has always built alongside our target audience… so at this point the feedback we’re looking for is on the smoothness of completing the customer journeys we’ve designed.”
With the end of the programme quickly nearing, this week highlighted the power of community, open minds and new forms of motivation. The countdown is on, and we hope our scholars continue to smash these modules and think outside of the box.
Intrigued by this programme and want to get involved in the YSYS community? Follow us on socials: LinkedIn, Twitter/X and Instagram, or sign up to our newsletter. We can’t wait to welcome you.
About the Google UX Design Scholarship, from YSYS
The partnership between YSYS and Google aims to support our scholars through the UX Design certificate with the tools, mentoring and resources they need to thrive. As we approach the finish line, with just four weeks remaining, our scholars have successfully studied a comprehensive syllabus, tackling key topics such as user testing, design prototypes, and wire-framing.
To help our scholars along, YSYS provides the cohort with professional mentors, regular office hours and opportunities for development with real-world companies and professionals. Designed with inclusivity at its core, the programme aims to act as a springboard for people from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds to enter the world of tech.
