Week 5: Reflection and Smart Goals

Our requirements for Week 5 is to engage in some open reflection. We can critically reflect upon past actions and experiences (on-action), the current situation we find ourselves (in-action) and finally we can reflect on the future (for-action).

Reflect on-action

Over the past two decades in the workplace, I have had a varied career in the creative industries. Most recently, I developed my skills as a fashion designer, working for both a large international brand as well as establishing a freelance practice. As a person with an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit I had been drawn to the emerging field of UX Design and the opportunities to take my career in a new direction. 

I felt that the global developments over the past 18 months have made people think more carefully about consumerism, often choosing customer journey and experience over price point. The online retail landscape is saturated, with ever increasing options available to consumers. The mood is changing and many consumers who want to avoid large e-commerce distribution companies such as Amazon have an ever-increasing number of alternatives to choose from. I feel this is a key time for smaller retailers to engage with UX Design to position themselves as a genuine and worthy alternative.

The pandemic also invoked a urgency for me to reconsider my future career ambitions. I began to notice fewer and fewer opportunities available as a fashion designer, and whilst I was in a position to apply for jobs on an international level, I did not have the confidence in the stability of the industry to pursue them further. I knew I needed to use this time, as many have, to explore new options.

Reflect in-action

The first half of this module has been quite an unsettled time for me and I have found it very difficult to dedicate as much time and focus as I had imagined I would. Initially, I found it a little difficult to get back into the learning mode, having spent so long out of education, carrying out modally tasks without having to think to hard (as I already had mastered what I needed to in order to carry out my job).

Weekly readings and challenge activities make for very bite sized pieces of work, so in theory this does make it a little easier to cope and the time does fly by. However, I suddenly had an unexpected amount of pressure added to me by my full time job, as well as some family members that were sick and subsequently passed away, this unfortunately allowed a few weeks to pass by, leading to a sense of mild panic that I now needed to find even more precious time to catch up.

I continued to attend weekly seminars (though I did feel a little behind at times). I found that whilst I was not up-to-date, it was incredibly useful and reassuring to still attend the seminars. I spoke more and more to fellow students and learned that I was not the only person who was struggling with the life/study balance.

Luckily reading week was upon me (how did this come around so fast) and I decided to also take a much deserved week off work. This allowed me to focus a lot more time onto my studies. I knew I could possibly skip a few challenge activities, but at such an early stage, this wasn’t a desirable option for me. I decided to do my best to get to a point where I didn’t have a backlog of work that needed doing, and to come up with a plan to allow myself more dedicated time in the future.

Reflect for-action

Moving forwards, I aim to dedicate specific time slots in the evenings to study. I will speak more to my fellow students and make an effort to join in as much discussion with them as possible outside of our study pods. I will remember what led me to this course and assure myself that I have the skills and ability to carry this out successfully. I will be more confident that whilst I am a newbie to UX, my varied knowledge and industry experience provides me with a solid foundation to build upon.

I will also prioritise my time more effectively. I tend to procrastinate when I feel somewhat overwhelmed in a task. For me, the best approach is to plan my tasks well, using relevant tools such as Kanban boards - to have a visual representation of the work ahead and make achievable goals.