Coming from London. The holidays from CIID brought ample opportunity to reflect on the past 6 months and think about what’s about to happen in the coming 5. The reflective period has led to a few conclusions. I’m going to put them here and wrap up with an assessment of what this means for my final project.

On my topic…
During my mid-term presentation I proposed to investigate three difference directions for the final project…Water, Ireland, and High-school Science Education. The first was the most exciting to me, but the most vague and challenging. Advice from my peers was to avoid the second. Advice from faculty was to pursue the third. The third was an afterthought, and is not particularly inspiring for me. I’d rather get paid to do that kind of work than spend my last opportunity to do a personal project within my own education on that kind of effort.

On my skillset…
Looking back over the past six months, the most difficult times for me were design discussions, times when concept was being batted around between myself and classmates and I stressed constantly over the possibility that we’d never get to the end of the spiraling conversation. Of course, we always did get to the end. The point however, is that I was always most comfortable when the building started, there ideas came more naturally and solutions discovered in code or in the workshop helped things along.

Reflections from the summer break…
During the break I’ve recognised that I’m still mostly a developer. For all the design education I’m receiving, there is no denying I continue to be far more comfortable building things and testing interactions using prototypes. Whatever happens from here on out should capitalise on that.

Nominating the three topics that I did was my way of covering my own back, I needed to bring options to the table so that I didn’t close any doors yet. I’m not good at choosing a context, this is a phenomenon that extends right back to my indecision to get into a thesis group during my final year at DCU. Given the quandry arising from my own ambitions, and the advice of faculty and peers mentioned earlier, the three options it seems, weren’t enough.

Time has been a ridiculous factor in almost everything we’ve done so far this year. I’m a fast worker, but engaging with a new context and working as “designer” as opposed to “developer” has been a difficult shift for me. Everything has been crippled by time constraints, considering the final project during the last six weeks has been no exception.

Almost all of these weeknotes so far have ended in the ambition to spend more time on the final project in the coming week. I won’t wrap these notes up that way. It never happens, outside of random thoughts before sleeping or on a bus or train during the day.

And so, the final project continues…
All of the above considered, from here I think I have a slightly adjusted perspective on the future of the project. I’m considering a complete change of tack. I will carefully consider my need I have to engage with the design as a prototyping project from the beginning. I don’t want to spend September, October and November in a pool of panic because I’m trying to play “designer”, wading deep into concepts I can’t tie down and wondering when I’ll get out. More to come.

Next week, service design takes over.