UX Portfolio
This course represents the first time that I was explicitly asked to be critical towards the academic work that I was presented with, which was a bit scary, to be honest. I felt outside of my comfort zone and outside of my league to criticize - and therewith also somehow judge - published academic work: something that I look up towards, because it is an accomplishment that I currently consider to be far outside of my reach. But sometimes, people first need to be pushed outside of their comfort zone to be able to develop and grow, because developing and growing sometimes means dismissing what you thought you already knew. This experience has made me more inclined to retain a critical mindset when processing academic work, not to judge or criticize someone else's work, but to allow myself to grow as an academic designer.

Even though I deemed the process of developing a UX Portfolio fairly straightforward - by paying attention in the lectures, reading the assigned literature, reflecting on that literature and creating a visual summary for more accessible reference - I did however struggle a lot with attaining to the maximum page restriction (four pages) of the deliverable. I had to force myself to be super critical towards my work by being very strict on what could be considered relevant and what needed to be deemed irrelevant. Even though I feel satisfied for succeeding eventually, it does bring to light my everlasting deficiency to keep my work concise and clear.

UX Challenge
I can admit that delivering this challenge was rather chaotic. The UX concept that we were asked to deliver needed to be extensive, needed to be delivered within a fairly short amount of time and needed to be delivered whilst collaborating in a group of six people. Even though I again feel satisfied with the result that we were able to present, I do however feel rather frustrated and disappointed that again - referring to collaborating within a fairly large group of people - the whole appeared to be lesser than the sum of its parts, instead of the whole being presumed greater than the sum of its parts.
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UX Manifesto
Even though the position that Else and I tried to communicate through our Manifesto was groundbreaking for me personally, I do understand the feedback that this position can be considered 'dated'. Where we address the lack of sight and understanding in 'traditional HCD' and advocate for 'modern HCD methods' that consider aspects beyond the user, it can be argued  that this proposition is similar to the shift from UCD (User Centered Design), where the user is indeed considered the central concern and as leading in all design decisions, to HCD (Human Centered Design) in general, where the user is viewed as not only a user, but also as a human: a flawed being that might not always be consciously aware of what it wants, what it needs and why it needs it.

However, even though this proposition might indeed be deemed 'dated', this insight was groundbreaking for me personally, as stated before. My preliminary training at the Applied University for Communication- and Multimedia Design had 'raised' me with the idea that User Centered Design is the only appropriate approach for design. Before attending this course and positioning myself within views on UX, I couldn't clearly recognize the difference between UCD and HCD. I wasn't even aware of this difference, hence the reason for this insight being called 'groundbreaking' in this reflection. It has reformed my vision on design in general and my attitude towards UX design in particular, as I can consider myself a true advocate for HCD from this point on.