Overall, I found this mentorship super awesome! There was a lot of work and challenges to overcome (of course) but the payoff was definitely worth it and I am very proud of my project. I’m especially grateful to my mentor who thankfully responded back to my email very quickly and was a superb person and guidance all around. She consistently provided me with amazing insight not just from herself, but also from other working designers on her team. In addition, she was able to patiently and expertly answer any of the questions I had for her, whether it’d be about how she likes to work and what processes she uses to design to how her workplace operates.
Continue reading “Mentorship Phase 5”Mentorship Phase 4
For this phase, I mocked up the rest of the product design and was able to get feedback from my mentor. She made a lot of comments which I really appreciated and was even able to show my mid-fi wireframes to other people in the agency, including a developer. As such, I was able to implement her feedback as well as start thinking about the perspective from a developer and how to make elements more consistent so that it’s easier to build.
Continue reading “Mentorship Phase 4”Mentorship Phase 3
This week, I took my digital mid-fi wireframes and began designing the UI elements of the app. I took my mentor’s advice of creating moodboards for different parts of the UI elements, such as the button styles, menu style, and card styles. This process helped me out a lot as I usually have trouble deciding colours and dictating which elements should have colour and what they should look like while also keeping up with the UI trends.
Continue reading “Mentorship Phase 3”Mentorship Phase 2
During this second phase of the mentorship, my work mostly consisted of using the research to actually build the product. I started off by analyzing the interviews and listing requirements and features that would be needed for the function of the app. I created a user persona for my product to help me streamline the function/usability of the product but I made the mistake of diving right into designing lo-fi wireframes. When I met with my mentor, I realized that I lacked a direction for the app, an issue that would arise later in my development. As my mentor reminded me consistently, I had did not have that big of a time frame to create my project. By utilizing a user flow, I would be able to focus my time and energy into designing a high-quality prototype instead of random sets of screens that weren’t able to be touched on that much.
Continue reading “Mentorship Phase 2”Mentorship Phase 1
For this phase of the mentorship, I focussed on familiarizing myself with my mentor and creating a strong foundation for my project to rest on. Initially, I had a hard time choosing a project idea/concept to pursue. I didn’t really have any preference in mind, only that I wanted to create a digital product that could help people (versus a commercial motivation). One of my stronger ideas in the very first week involved helping people in quarantine with learning how to restructure and rearrange their homes so that they could have a better space to exercise in, as I know that space can be limited for many people. However, the idea was lofty and complicated and lacked a direction. Nor did I have a vision for what the solution would be. When I brought up these concerns with my mentor, she suggested talking to my classmates and peers about what challenges they face during the lockdown and start from there.
Continue reading “Mentorship Phase 1”