| A customer journey is one way to take all the touch points of a service into account. It extends my current view on interaction design: focusing on a single interaction. | evidence/slideshow3/advice.jpg |
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| The repertory grid technique was another method with which I learned to create more depth in an interaction design process. | evidence/slideshow2/input1.jpg |
| With Ideating in Skills, I approached designing for interactions in a more abstract and experiential way. | evidence/slideshow6/sketching.jpg |
| Designing for peripheral interaction extends view on interaction design. I learned about the basics of designing for the periphery of attention. | evidence/slideshow11/attention0.jpg |
| From a service design perspective, performing research to the customer journey adds more contextual awareness in the process. | evidence/slideshow3/advice.jpg |
| With the personal construct theory as a foundation of my research, and the repertory grid analysis technique, I was able to perform more structured research. This way, I got more information out of the research. | evidence/slideshow2/input1.jpg |
| Performing trend research at the start of the semester, I got a better overview on the context I was designing for. | evidence/slideshow1/trend1-overview.jpg |
This semester, I extended my skills in interaction design, but I also broadened my experience with other fields of design, like peripheral interaction and service design. I came to realize that my version of interaction design is about designing the interaction with a single object. Service design involves many objects over the course of a customer journey. Adding peripheral interaction enriches the model of interaction design and bridges the gap with service design in my view on interaction design, by adding a way of interacting outside of the center of attention (periphery of attention). It’s where the project Service 2.0, reading the book “This is Service Design Thinking”, both the modules Designing for Peripheral Interaction and Ideating in Skills and web design come together. For Ideating in Skills, it meant exploring the interaction and the experience in a more experiential way, and for Designing for Peripheral Interaction it meant taking a more hands-on approach when exploring. Each of these activities extended the skillset of my most prominent field of interest.
Just like I experienced in my B31 internship, involving a couple of stakeholders and working in a team requires a certain professional level. Over the past semester, I regularly got feedback I am very serious and to-the-point. This semester, I experienced that I tried to raise the bar of the level of seriousness, teamwork efficiency as well as the level of being to-the-point and punctual in communication. As for Integrand, I was part of a team where I had to maintain a certain professional level in communication with the other members, being punctual and responsible for creating their corporate identity. For Red-n-Red it was about handling the clients and making sure they feel appreciated and taken seriously. Mostly for the module Designing for Peripheral Interaction I experienced that I wanted to push the teamwork to a higher standard. I needed to act as a team manager to make sure everything went as planned, due to differing opinions in the team. In many different ways, this introduces a certain professionalism in my semester.
The first semester of my Master has raised the bar for me on academic level, development towards expertise, critical thinking and my overall mindset. I took a more critical approach in writing my vision, identity and PDP. The choice of modules was not always relevant or consistent, but I am sure that I can make better choices based on my vision and identity now. The research semester stimulated me to get more out of various research approaches than I did before. The analysis yielded more information and input for designing. In addition, more data was collected and extracted, making the research results more useful than before. My definition of research changed. Research not only generates knowledge, it improves the alignment of the design process with the context, and adds more meaning to concepts. I realized this while generating input for designing a service in the Service 2.0 project. I performed trend research, context observations, I made customer journeys and confronted people with experience in financial advice with my concepts. These steps generated knowledge and increased awareness over the context. But it also shaped a design landscape as input for designing the concepts, as well as adding a meaning to the concepts.