top of page
WEEK10:
SPRINT!
15/09/2024
REPORT
This week consisted of me delving into the implementation phase from 'The Field Guide to Human-Centred Design' using the 'Keep Iterating' method (IDEO.org, 2015; IDEO.org, 2024). This tool consists of iterating upon my solution continuously, even if I believe it is complete. Moreover, this includes soliciting feedback and building upon learning.
Building on last week's progress, I further iterated on my community, news, and jobs pages; to name one impactful change, my website's background colour changed from ivory to white. In addition, I created my mental health page to bring me closer to completing my prototype. The triangular design I had previously incorporated into my community page was scrapped because I believed it looked too gimmicky and out of place. Instead, this was replaced with a sleeker design that resembled modern social platforms such as 'Glassdoor'. In addition to this change, I completed the page's social function to showcase what communication with mentors would look like. The news page of my website took a drastic change. Most importantly, after implementing grid lines to all my pages, my images and text got much smaller and cleaner. In addition, this brought out a more consistent layout throughout my whole Figma prototype. Another change was that I removed the black boxes on the page because they were inconsistent with the brand's aesthetic. My jobs page received a slight alteration, mainly a readjustment of the font size of my texts, filter box, and search bar. I also decided to use less of IMPA's red throughout the page so that the colour had more visual impact when seen. I quickly created a mental health page and a landing page for 'What is an IMPA Rating?' to explain to users how employers are classified as DEI-supporting when listing their job offers.
Lastly, I created the poster for the exhibition. This meant creating mockups of my pages, a features and benefits graphic, an over-the-shoulder mockup, and a customer journey map for clarity.
Figure 1; Figure 2; Figure 3
Community Page Iteration; News Page Iteration ; Jobs Page Iteration
Figure 4
Mental Health Page - Whisper Room
Note. This page acts as an anonymous forum for users to share their thoughts without being worried about having their opinions/ideas linked to the other aspects of their lives.
Figure 5
Jobs Page - Impa Ratings
Note. This page indicates to new users how employers are rated when listing job offers on IMPA.
Figure 6
Exhibition Poster
Note. This figure displays the poster that I made for the exhibition.
RESPONDING
This week was very stressful. I felt behind compared to all my peers because I had not communicated with them consistently throughout this week. It led me to sprint with my iterations and lose much sleep. However, I am pleased with my outcome and did not expect such a change in quality. IMPA’s aesthetic took a considerable turn for the better and looked like an actual website compared to last week’s status.
I also felt okay about my poster, but I could have made it more aesthetically appealing if I had further iterated with the background gradient. Additionally, I was not happy with the outcome of my customer journey map because of the need for more hierarchy, indicating that each step had a chronology from left to right. I did not fix this issue due to time constraints and being exhausted.
RELATING
My rush in outputting quality work for design has been occurring throughout practice in the degree. Due to the subjectivity of the degree, it is much easier to lose track of time as there is a lack of right or wrong answers. In contrast, a more objective degree would allow a student to understand when they are complete in comparison easily. An experience that I can draw from is DES233, ‘Design for the Natural Environment’. This paper forced my team to take a drastic turn in aesthetics and report writing for our last assignment, as we did not prioritise the paper. I remember the dreadful feeling of failing the course. However, we were able to turn it around by committing to a sprint, which led us to score one of the highest grades in the course. The feeling of that experience mimics how I felt during this week’s progress.
REASONING
The most important aspect of this week was undergoing a design sprint to complete my poster in time for the upcoming exhibition. According to Backes (2023), design sprints can be beneficial if done correctly. Backes refers to a case study that showed that participants reported a 7x improvement in time savings when comparing design sprints to traditional methods. The next most relevant benefit is that the method fosters productivity; uninterrupted focus allows one to make significant and efficient progress. Based on my brief touch on Backes’ writing, design sprints are very beneficial and should not be seen as sloppy, which was my previous impression.
RECONSTRUCTING
Based on the previous reflection stages, I have learned that design sprints, while stressful, can lead to significant progress when done with focus and intent. I now realize that although my sprint this week caused exhaustion, the quality of my work improved drastically, especially with the final aesthetic of IMPA. As a next step, I will embrace the sprint methodology more strategically in the next few weeks. Additionally, I have learned that consistent communication with peers is essential in managing stress and staying on track. Next week, I will regularly check in with my peers to ensure that I maintain a steady pace and gain valuable perspective on where my progress should be relative to the course timeline. Lastly, I will continue building on the ‘Keep Iterating’ method by regularly seeking feedback and refining my design.
REFERENCES
Backes, M (2023). The ROI of a Design Sprint: Why It’s Worth the Time and Money. Medium.
https://medium.com/designsprints-studio/the-roi-of-design-sprintsthe-roi-of-design-sprintsthe-roi-of-a-design-sprint- why-its-worth-the-a8ed0d756df
IDEO.org. (2015). THE FIELD GUIDE TO HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN.
https://www.designkit.org/resources/1.html
IDEO.org. (2024). Keep Iterating. Design Kit. https://www.designkit.org/methods/get-visual.html
bottom of page