Here is my critical reflection for everything that happened over week 3. I have chosen to follow a GIBBS methodology (cited in The University of Edinburgh 2023) which is new to me and I first came across here.
For more information on what I have done over week 3 please go here for some content overview and research and here for my tackling of the challenge activity.
This week we covered the topic of prototyping and rapid ideation. We were introduced to some prototyping tools and were set the challenge to prototype an existing artefact we find interesting, the point of this was to reverse engineer something to better understand how it’s put together in the first place. I used Adobe XD which is a new software to me to build a lofi prototype of creating a blend playlist on spotify.
I gave myself mini deadlines throughout the week which ensured that the topics and ensuing research I undertook occupied less of time than they did the previous week, this in turn gave me more time to complete the challenge with the attention I wanted to give it. I also had a 1:1 meeting with Carlos in which we discussed the research we should be doing in our own time.
The challenge itself was an exercise I had never done before and proved to be useful. At the end of the week I had both done more research into an area that interested me as well as learnt how to see more of the ‘whys’ behind ‘hows’ in something I interact with almost every day. I am still having a little bit of a hard time predicting how long the writing of the CRJ will take which leads me to have to work into my time off more than I would like to, however already considerably less than the previous week.
I felt that this week went a lot better than the previous one with regards to time and task management. However I am still a bit frustrated with how long I am taking writing my CRJ, it’s just a question of understanding that it won’t be as fast as I think it will and to allocate time accordingly.
I am also pleased that I was able to stay on topic a lot more this week, my research explorations this time didn’t go as far which enabled me to complete the task with the attention it required. That being said I am worried that I am still getting too sidetracked in the research. Talking with Carlos helped with this topic as he reassured me that research can take many forms and come from many sources, also to let my research be a way to ignite my curiosity but that the university wasn’t expecting any essays.
The challenge itself I think was a success as I was able to build what I had set out to do. I feel my confidence bolstered in being able to work with some new software and also enjoyed trying to figure out the considerations behind a spotify blend playlist. I was surprised by how helpful this exercise is for puzzling something out and I will keep this in mind for anything else I come across that I might be struggling to understand. I also enjoyed the challenge of creating something as basic as a lofi prototype as I am someone who can easily squirrel and sidetrack into details, this was especially challenging as I was working from a finished product (spotify) and had to stop myself from adding in details unless they were relevant.
I did get frustrated using Adobe XD as the program kept unexpectedly crashing and would interrupt my workflow.
What went well this week is that I was able to manage my time a lot better and not get too sidetracked at the beginning when I was doing some research surrounding rapid ideation and prototyping. I also believe my challenge went well, I was able to see new design decisions in my chosen artefact and explore them in detail with some research underpinning some of my explorations. Finally, my first real attempt at using Adobe XD I would count as a success, the prototype created is basic but I was able to make what I had set out to do and figure out a lot of the functionality.
What didn’t go so well is that my time management is still not where I want it to be and I am not yet setting aside enough time to write. What is also still taking up a lot of my time is all the research I have been doing on the side which eats up more time than maybe it should. This means that work creeps into my private time and can start a vicious cycle of being too tired to produce good quality work so I fall even further behind.