1 - Starting small

I like to say that I like languages, writing and hark similar to that, but I always have trouble trying to keep a logbook. I attribute this to my OCD tendencies as a child, since I could never write a diary beyond a day or two, because I never liked it when my handwriting messed up on coloured paper - and that is any paper that makes the correction liquid stand out. Even travel diaries get dropped off after a day or two because of the same reason. It appears I never have a drive to keep a written journal, electronically or otherwise, but I want to take small steps to get there, somehow. So here's the 2016 new and improved version - a post a week, one step at a time! 

My first week of the new year saw my final week of internship at the digital agency, where I was the UX baby. It was mostly all about wireframing a mobile site for an already established desktop site, which very honestly could be improved upon. When I did my sketches for the mobile site, I took away several components which I found irrelevant to the on-the-go user, but eventually all the components surfaced back when I went through them with the team. It was frustrating to me that mobile-wise unnecessary elements were kept - they led to much more scrolling and more consumption of data. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to continue on the project since my final semester at the uni is about to start, but if I had to say what my takeaway from the week was, it is this - UX is not only about user needs, but also business goals.

On my last day, the team brought me out for lunch and halfway through, they got out a present wrapped with printed wireframes I had done weeks before. And I got a bluetooth keyboard!!!! I can say with 90% confidence that this is my favourite present ever, which sits close behind whatever my parents have given me and the Snoopy hamper I got for Christmas that one time. Shortly before my internship ended my keyboard keys of O and 9 had given out, and with still a semester to go it was going to be an extreme pain to continue writing essays with an on-screen keyboard, so I was really really pleased with the gift.

I remember writing in a post weeks ago that I want to quit my narrative style and to adopt a more structured and organized way of writing a blog, but it looks like it's not working out. Frankly, I don't know how this blog is going to play out this year - I'm no longer in CS3216 but back in my Arts Faculty and I don't think I'm going to be writing about design or marketing anytime soon, but it'll be interesting to see how the year unwraps - much like my gift I'm very carefully unwrapping. Also, by keeping on track with writing, it helps with my writing as well. One other thing I should stop doing is going off to somewhere irrelevant and try to pull it back to relevance - like the unwrapping of gifts and years.