Lessons Learned From My First #Uxathon
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed or maybe a little underwhelmed after you’ve finally finished your bootcamp. No guidance, no structure -- and after weeks and for me specifically, six months, of working together with my classmates -- I was finally on my own. But one of the ways to keep the structure and my design skills intact was to continue to be involved in the design community. So I signed up for Pratt’s Annual Uxathon in collaboration with Brooklyn Product Design.
The Uxathon is a one day design challenge (so think week-long design sprints on steroids) where groups of designers would compete for a grand prize.
It sounded fun in theory but in reality, I was scared. Fear, thoughts of imposter syndrome and the pervasive pangs of self-doubt almost crippled me but instead, I decided to embrace it.
I realized that my fear of participating in the design challenge was actually my fear of failing.
I’ve learned early on in my career that listening closely to my fears will shed light on the deeper issues beneath the surface. I realized that my fear of participating in the design challenge was actually my fear of failing. But failure is a crucial part of the learning experience and I needed to get over that.
So besides embracing fear, here are a few other lessons that I learned from my first #uxathon.
Collaboration is key. As always, design challenges are a team effort so leave the egos at the door, keep an open mind and embrace the synergy that comes from positive collaboration.
Spend more time ideating: I wanted to work on the ideation phase of the design process and looking back, we decided on the first idea we thought of. Looking back, I would have pushed our team past our comfort zones in terms of thinking outside the box to lean more towards innovation rather than what’s already being done.
The delivery and quality of your presentation are just as important as your design solution: We were so caught up in creating wireframes and prototypes that we did not spend that much time on our presentation. Looking back, I would’ve spent more time creating a delightful presentation that would have wow’d the judges.