There are two things I really love about my new job: introducing students to new concepts that change how they think about the world and helping them make things.
As I’ve mentioned before, the second half of design classes is usually much different than the first half, because the first half is mostly about learning new concepts, while the second half is about applying them. My students across all my three classes are now in the “applying” stage and it’s so exciting watching ideas take shape: in pitch decks and physical prototypes and on whiteboards and in spreadsheets. It’s a real studio feel, and it’s what I loved about working at places like Smart Design.
Service Design students are busy making a new service innovation to help a small business. Interaction Design Fundamental students are prototyping semi-autonomous two-wheeled vehicles. And Designing AI Products and Services are coming up with new applications for Natural Language Processing (NLPs).
It’s hard to believe there are only four classes left in Fall semester. This semester has been a whirlwind grind but it feels like most of the students are learning and growing and isn’t that the whole point?