It is hard to believe it is already the final week. Reflecting back on the last seven weeks I have learned so much about UX including all of the various facets that fall under this umbrella term. Some of the ideas I will take with me include the Jesse James Garrett elements of UX model; UX vs. UI; habituation; the concept of minimizing friction in UX; workflow; and endless resources. While I am familiar with many of the ideas surrounding color theory, I enjoyed watching the lynda.com videos on the children’s illustrator and RISD professor, Mary Jane Begin. After watching the videos, I ended up reviewing her online portfolio and felt inspired by all of her incredible work—both teaching and creating art. Similar to me, she also works teaches art to children (I have an MA in art education and teach art during the summers). I am excited by all of the incredible designers/researchers/teachers I have found over this last semester and am now following through social media.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have accepted an adjunct position to teach two sections of Interactive Design at Edinboro University in the Spring. This past week I looked through the Safari online catalog of ebooks through KSU to locate strong sources for web design. I was blown away by all of the books on UX that we have access to! While I looked through about a dozen books, one of the books that really stood out to me was The Best Interface is No Interface, by Golden Krishna. One of the ideas presented in the book was one that I also felt—that there are far too many apps out there. When I first decided to embark on the idea of a mindfulness-based breathing application, many mentioned creating an app. However, I did not want to design another app that would require people to be disrupted and have something else to do. Personally speaking, I have many apps on my phone that I never use. It is imperative that I meet people where they are. After this last week, I have realized that I do not want to use reminders as a means to help people breathe. I do not want this to be another distraction, but rather an intentional tool. Rather that using notifications, I want to create a tool that people can choose in the moment to quickly use. However, rather than pulling out another tool, it needs to have a presence on the screen so the user does not forget it is there. I am getting closer….pressing onward!