One of the things I love most about blogs is that they are always here for you. No matter how long you’re gone, you can always come home to your blog. And that’s what I’m doing.
I’m sure I’m not alone in having had a tough time the last several months. There was a Sunday where I found myself looking at my calendar and thinking, “I really, really, really don’t want to go to work tomorrow.” To be sure, I’ve had some bumps along the road, but this felt really different. I felt like I really hated my job. So I did something a little different: I hired a career coach! We’re working through some really great questions about what I need to thrive, regardless of my current job, and how I can better see myself through the rough days. I also got an amazing opportunity to actually be an instructional technologist in a role focused on developing scalable applications in the learning space. So I’m optimistic about where I’m headed and the skills I’ll be gaining to be a better advocate for myself.
In the meantime, I am slowly (really slowly) getting back into the groove of doing side projects for my own learning and bettering my craft. My first project is to go back to the drawing board on the UX + LX app.
The Redesign Effort
Strangely, I’ve been really doubting my design chops lately. I’ve been having trouble picking a color palette that works or even designing interfaces that I like. So I decided to purchase a good looking course on UX design and Adobe XD (it’s still early days, but I figured others might be curious) and I’m following the steps in order. I wrote a short design brief about the application. And now I’m on to the step of wireframing out the app.
Wireframing
I’m hoping to finish the wireframes by the end of next week, but this is where I am so far:
One of the things taking this step has forced me to think about is what kinds of pages I want to create. It made me realize that I want to do a better job of incorporating feedback into the app as well as providing an opportunity for the community to submit ideas about lessons. So there will be some nice new pages in the refresh.
New Lessons
One of the parts I have appreciated about my time so far the past year and a half is that I’ve had the opportunity to do a number of really scrappy user research studies. They weren’t perfect, but they’ve been some of the most interesting parts of my job. So I hope to channel some of that experience into actionable insights for other LXDs.
And Of Course User Testing
I also think it’s important to practice what we’re talking about in the app. So I’m going to try and gather up some testers for the wireframe and then for the high-fidelity prototype. And I’m looking forward to seeing what happens!