Navigation and Information Architecture
I have followed the GIBBS methodology to write this entry which you can read more about here.
A good week of work in which I was able to fully catch up on all the content - starting week 6 I will only have week 6 work to do and won’t be catching up on previous weeks’ project related challenges or content.
One of the challenges for this week was to do a card sorting exercise - this is something that I may come to in the future as there is a specific instance in my product this would be helpful (for account holders when they are adding their ingredients to their pantry) but it is not a central feature of the app which is what I have focused on figuring out this week. I choose to first validate my direction with the users with sketches.
Anchoring design decisions on the user thanks to user research, a central tenet of UX, proved itself the right decision several times this week as I worked through project tasks. This was my first proper experience of the UX rush and I welcomed it. Historically I have let myself get carried away with briefs but this time I have taken a step as a UX designer and managed to keep myself focused.
This has been an overwhelmingly positive week, not only have I greatly enjoyed the feeling of being a UX designer by relying on my user research to guide design decisions but the course content of information architecture was particularly enjoyable for me. It is an area of UX I’ve always been attracted to and it’s been great to get confirmation that I do actually enjoy the work in practice.
I am also quite proud of myself for identifying the moments in the week when I had to take a step back and re-centre myself with the user research to ideate/make decisions rather than running away wildly with the brief and just making what I want to make. I’m learning to let this professional practice of mine be more practical and my own personal creative practice be as unbounded as I need it to be.
As good as this week was it was a relief to finally get to the end of the workload and to know that next week being reading week I get a bit of a breather. I was quite tired throughout this week, even with my work and rest schedule and I hope to get a chance to catch my breath without the constant content stream.