My first ever HCDE course, HCDE 210, was my introduction to human-centered design thinking and was introduced to students as a “spring internship” rather than another course at UW. In many ways, I think HCDE 451 shares the same sentiments of feeling more of an “internship” rather than just a simple course, and I believe that relies heavily on the focus on iteration, critiques, and teamwork within the class.

I was exposed to a variety of prototyping techniques throughout the course. Some included techniques such as laser cutting, 3D printing, or model prototyping while others exposed me to techniques I would have never considered, such as Behavioral Prototyping or Fabric Prototyping. One of the biggest challenges throughout the course was to reframe my thinking to focus on learning the techniques to gather important data rather than aiming to perfect each technique to create an optimal prototype. For example, I came into the 3D printing assignment with the ideal solution in mind for my water bottle holder. I meticulously measured my car’s cup holder and aimed to create a perfect model prototype for the class and to use myself. This was my first time 3D printing, resulting in many unintended issues. For one, my solution was too big to print, so I created mini prints to test out. Feeling confident with the mini prints, I tried to print my model on a larger scale, in which the first print failed and the second printed incorrectly, resulting in a model with no hole to carry my water bottle. Similar to the cliche saying, “it’s not about the destination, it’s the journey that counts,” after this assignment, I realized that rather than focusing on the end deliverable of my projects, it is the iterations and design decisions that I make along the way that are important.

This class also proved how much I value critique, even if it means asking 1 more person their thoughts on a concept. Throughout each project, we were tasked with asking peers for their feedback on aspects of our designs. I learned that it was important to contextualize the feedback you are looking for and to cater it to the prototyping technique you had used. During model prototyping, we had to reframe from giving feedback on the visual aesthetics of our prototypes and rather focus on functionality and usability. While this idea of “withholding feedback” on certain components works well for students in HCDE, I am curious about how this may be translated into asking other non-designers for feedback.

We jumped straight into team-based assignments with the thermostat prototype and quickly I learned that this would be a reoccurring experience with future assignments. Throughout the team projects in the class, I try to be less of the “leader” of the team, because I find it more valuable to ensure everyone has equal input into the next steps of the project. Instead, I aimed to be the “organizer” of the team, in which I would set up project materials, and documents, and prepare any files to allow our teams to work together and get our ideas flowing. Navigating through each project this way was incredibly beneficial in gathering everyone’s voice is heard and their ideas were valued, which is essential for a class based on iterative learning! For example during the Behavioral Prototyping sessions, despite being unable to be present for all of our in-person testing, I suggested crafting the chatbot flows in a document rather than having us all brainstorm out loud, which resulted in our team being able to finish all components of the project together during class.

Overall, despite HCDE 451 being a class that exposed me to a lot of prototyping techniques, the broader learning and skills I developed in regard to teamwork and iterative learning were the most important ideas that I will carry throughout my remaining time at UW.