Our first session with the client, Aaron Blakemore (Principal Product Designer at Smiling Mind) went well. As a group, we prepared a list of key questions  beforehand, themed and then allocated them amongst ourselves. Hearing the client’s perspective – in particular the history of its evolution and key challenges faced was helpful to understand the context as not everything can be articulated in a brief. UX is the intersection of achieving business goals, meeting user needs – whilst being cognisant of constraints. Our meeting with Aaron helped to drive this point and his and his approachable style made us feel like a real stakeholder in this project.

The research phase was most interesting to me as it put us in direct contact with users. In this phase, we developed personas, user journey maps as well as conducted a competitive business landscape analysis. We were also introduced to the lean business canvas model.  I undertook a series of online and face-to-face interviews with both pregnant mothers-to-be and mothers with young kids. Consolidating the group’s interview responses meant we had a richer dataset to analyse and inform the design phase. Our mentor provided the perfect balance of being both supportive and also holding us accountable to meet the client brief. I especially appreciated the prompt response from our mentor and the availability of 1:1 consults within reason. As well, it was useful to hear Jason’s lived design experience with past clients which further contextualised some of the theory of UX learnt.

Synthesising data from the research phase, we were now in a position to consider the insights and opportunities and how we might design an appropriate solution. This was the fun part – ideating on potential solutions! (Digital) prototyping was the next step and for me, the most challenging part of the course as – unlike some of my counterparts on the course – I have had no prior experience in using any design or graphic tools. In this case, we used InVision. It was quite a learning curve but became easier the more I used the tool. I then did some usability testing using the prototypes and iterated based on their feedback.

Being one of the first few to present, I must admit I was somewhat nervous initially, however I had spent some time ahead going through mock presentations with friends so that I could anticipate questions. A 15-minute presentation meant that I had to be focussed. Overall, the feedback was good and I felt a major sense of accomplishment, having created a potential design solution to a real-world project from a zero base of knowledge! It was also fascinating to see and learn from my classmates who all had a different take on the reimagined app.

One key lesson learnt for me is that you don’t need a ‘perfect’ prototype to get user feedback. Another takeaway is being comfortable and appreciating an iterative approach to design solutioning – I recently secured a new role that involves the roll-out of an enterprise-wide CRM system which has required me to apply concepts learnt in this course and continue my UX journey.

Overall, I really enjoyed this learning experience. It was a highlight for 2020, considering the challenges of COVID-19. The live weekly classes, access to a mentor and employability scorecard report at the end were features that I found particularly valuable. If there are others like me – i.e. without a design background typically associated with UX, so hesitant but still curious to learn – I would highly recommend enrolling in the Upskiller UX program.