My learning experience
‍As a student with a previous education that focuses mainly on user-centered design, the course From Idea to Design started off a bit strangely. I felt ill at ease to work on a design project without initially determining a specific target group and a target group research-plan, since that is what I have been doing the past four years, for almost every design process. When being introduced to the RTDP-model [1], I did of course recognize the user-centered design part of the design process as the ‘validating quality’ aspect, but the difference is that it is not expected from me to start the design process from this particular section and keep the focus on it throughout the process.

Even though part of me kept feeling uncomfortable throughout the course, I now have learned that it is not only possible to go through a design process without putting all the focus on user-centered design, but that it also can be even quite interesting to walk a different road when progressing towards a result. What this course has brought me, is that I feel like I am more open-minded and more inclined to try a different approach and walk a different road when going through a design process.

I am glad to say that the above is something that I can add as a new addition to my knowledge as a designer, since I initially didn’t think that this course would teach me something new, to be completely honest.

For my future projects, I want to let go of focussing on user-centered design and try to constantly shift focus between envisioning, analyzing, doing and involving others [1].

Group process
I would be lying when I would say that this course has taught me some more ‘tangible’ aspects of designing. I already knew how to ideate, I already knew the basics of lay-out and style and working with software like Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Premiere pro is already part of my skill-set, since I have been doing no different for the past four years. It would be strange for me to have learned from other students concerning these aspects, because - if I am may say so - I was the more experienced one in this particular process. Instead, my fellow students were able to learn from me, which was a different experience for me. Being the more experienced student within a group project, automatically gave me a very strong feeling of responsibility. Although it feels very good to be able to actually teach a fellow student something that they will remember and that they will use from that moment on, it also resulted in a task division that was out of balance, in my personal opinion.

I have learned that I don’t have to assign every task that I feel responsible for to myself: I needed to put trust into my fellow group members, so that we could deliver a result as an actual group.