Reflective Journaling: Week 2

One week down, six more to go! It is still amazing to me that I have already learned so much in such a short amount of time. I have really been enjoying reading and learning from the other students in the class and thoroughly enjoy how different students are reading the same readings that I am, but are applying and grasping onto different concepts than I am. I felt that this weeks readings were much more psychology focused which allowed me to have a refresher on the psychology classes I took in college while also getting a glimpse into the students with a psychology background's perspective into UX. It did take me a little longer to grasp onto this weeks readings, but the more I read and the more I told my mom, my best friend, and my co-workers about all of the things I have been learning this week, the more I was able to refresh my memory and further understand the material.

This will probably be a recurring theme throughout this class and throughout my studies, but I love the way I am able to directly apply what I am learning to the workplace. A fellow co-worker and I have been working on a presentation about information scent and user flows to present to the IT community at work. There have been more than a couple of occasions where I have gone to him to tell him how the reading we're doing for class relates to our presentation and how the Gestalt principles and all of the information we learned about perception and vision tie right into information scent and how the user finds what they're looking for. Being able to get so excited about what I am learning and how I am able to apply it has given me so much confidence and is reassuring me on my decision to pursue my masters.

This weeks reading and the writing assignment have opened my eyes and mind to good and bad design. While I have noticed good/bad design in the past, I feel I am much more hyper aware of what makes up a good/bad design and why one design is better than others. I definitely feel like I am looking at the world differently, more like a UX designer working their way into becoming a UX professional, one class and semester at a time!