Choice of professional exploration topic
- Yang Qian
- Oct 13, 2018
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 14, 2018
I'm using Prototyping to explore how Smart Homes (or SaaS Industry) can help Couples in Long Distance Relationship with Communication Barrier.
When I was free-listing elements at the beginning of the professional exploration workshop, I recognized I really am curious, excited, and interested in MANY things. Below is the transcribed list of my very first pool:
PEOPLE
Designers
Programmers
Couples in long-distance relationship
Online shoppers
Cat owners(or slaves to cat 😼)
PROBLEMS
Information leak
Shyness
Environmental sustainability
Inefficient info delivery/Communication barrier
Managing anxiety on one's own
TECHNOLOGIES
Unmanned vehicle
Computer vision
Smart homes
Drones
Machine learning
INDUSTRIES
Payment
Food
SaaS
Crowd funding
Fashion
Manufacturing
METHODS
Data visualization
Prototyping
Sketching
Workshopping
Contextual research
I did my first screening according to my familiarity with the topic, level of difficulty in user research, and estimated workload regarding a side project, leaving myself with...
PEOPLE
Designers
Programmers
Couples in long-distance relationship
Online shoppers
PROBLEMS
Information leak
Shyness
Environmental sustainability
Inefficient info delivery/Communication barrier
TECHNOLOGIES
Unmanned vehicle
Computer vision
Smart homes
Drones
Machine learning
INDUSTRIES
Payment
Food
SaaS
METHODS
Data visualization
Prototyping
The second screening was based on Julie Zhuo's suggestion: Combine things that I really enjoy and can really help me practice my skills. (Plus the public secret: Will it look appealing in my portfolio?) Picking a No.1 in every row was hard, but after putting everything on the passion-practice coordinates, this was my final result for professional exploration:
"I'm using Prototyping to explore how Smart Homes in SaaS Industry can help Couples in Long-Distance Relationship with Communication Barrier."
I was reluctant to put any sticky note away, they were all full of possibilities! But the first two categories I decided on, PEOPLE and METHOD, played a crucial role in later decisions. Some of the elements just went weird with "Couples in long-distance relationship" and hard to "prototype".
Another issue I came across is that Smart Homes and SaaS somehow contradicts to each other. My plan is to pick one side after some initial research.
The whole workshop was a thrilling journey to explore my inner feelings towards all kinds of components in a design project: people, problem, technologies, industries, methods. I recognized myself both excited and nervous, sometimes even intimidated during the process -- there was a fear toward 'whether I could make this happen'. I'm curious about every item I wrote down but was not confident of my ability to develop a promising project around all of them, which was actually a common concern in many of my decision-making process. For a side project like this, I have the privilege to choose with my preferences, but I do hope I could rely less on 'feasibility' and go beyond my self-evaluation of capability.
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