I think this graph is an extremely common format amongst most pieces of literature. Every checkpoint such as setting the stage, tension, climax, and ending is carefully thought out and placed there to make up a complete story. This order makes sense because if any of these points were earlier or later then it wouldn't make much sense to the reader and would leave them confused.

Personally, I use this format whenever I'm writing essays as well as it gives me a clear format to work with and allows me to think how my story will play out. I've also seen some authors think about how their story will play out backwards. This means thinking about the conclusion and conflict beforehand before setting the stage in order to bring some shock or unexpected twists.

I definitely agree with this statement the author made. I think the design choices we make need to come from the groups of people that actually use a specific product or technology and that we must be more inclusive when making design choices to ensure anyone can use them. I think the people who make these choices (mostly politicians and law makers) don't fully think about this.

I agree with the author on this point. I think by only selecting one persona, not only are you limiting yourself to diverse perspectives on your design, you can also be bias when constructing your solution because it fits your idea of who the audience will be. Creating multiple personas forces you to think about the multiple use cases of your solution and can ultimately lead to a better product.

I agree with the statement the author made. I think usability tests are a great way to test out your prototype with a small group of a real-world audience. By testing out your design earlier, you can catch low-level mistakes more easily and implement fixes at the beginning of your design process rather than later. Additionally, I think it's possible to achieve large goals in a low-level design depending on your overall goal. For example, if your goal. is to make navigating through a web page easier than a competitor, a low level prototype can be constructed that has the same functionality, but not aesthetics.

This paragraph highlights the importance of recognizing bias in user experience. I think default settings are a great feature to have according to certain metadata like location and it's a good way to get started in an application, but there should also be a clear option where the user can select and change their own preferences. This option needs to be readily available and easy to find if designers choose to have default settings.

I think creating prototype is a very fundamental aspect behind any design process. It doesn't necessary have to relate to visual design either, it can also be creating drafts of writing. The point of prototyping is to go through many iterations while acquiring knowledges throughout each milestone. This new learnings will ultimately lead to your final solution.

I definitely agree with the author's point that crafting relevant questions for user interviews is an important skill. This is something we practiced in class when we learned about the do's and don't of writing questions. Such as not writing yes/ no questions and questions that are obviously bias. Writing good questions for user interviews can ultimately determine the rest of your research and solution going forward. Poorly formatted questions can results in inaccurate results as well.

I agree with the author on this point. When it comes to any type of research, your decision of choosing either qualitative and/or quantitative data can be entirely dependent on the use case. For example, when it comes to UI/UX design, it might be better to choose qualitative data as this represents real user emotion and experience captured through words. For quantitative data, we might use when we want to measure patterns or trends. Best used in research papers or scenarios that require crunching numbers in order to arrive to an answer.

I agree with the author on this perspective of giving criticism. I think its important to acknowledge both the positive and negative aspects of what's being evaluated since the person you're critiquing could feel demotivated. It's important to choose your words wisely, but also stick to being honest since this will result in better change, I often stick to the "hamburger" rule as well whenever I'm providing feedback as I tend to feel more motivated when I'm given a similar format of feedback.

I think its common for new designers to come up with cool solutions to problems, but there is not much initial thinking on who it would help. I agree with the author that the first important step is to analyze the problem, then generate ideas. The solution doesn't have to come immediately, but once you've identified your audience and painpoints, then it becomes easier to generate ideas..

I found this paragraph in Chapter 1 really interesting because the author suggests we should look at design, and situations in general, in a different lens. Too often we focus on what's the most obvious target and work backwards from there, but it can also be beneficial to first consider multiple perspectives and determine other stakeholders in the process. Having a different lens when viewing design choices can allow you to make better decisions and more aware of the user. I think what the author is suggesting overall is that we should not be hyper fixate on particular group.

This is a very good point. I think creating scenarios will help you kickstart the design process and brainstorming in general. Even though it might not be fully accurate, you can get a rough idea of what to expect. It will also help you account for flaws and edge cases which might not be fully noticeable down the line. I'll be creating scenarios for my design process as it will help me plan better.

I like this point a lot. I think often people try to come up with solutions that appeal to the masses, which is a good thing, but it's very hard to execute. Like the author said, you'd have to be very clever. But I agree it's better to focus on smaller audiences first to try and solve a specific problem.

I agree with this point! Failure is part of the learning process and whenever I'm studying or doing practice problems, I often learn better by working through my errors so the next time I'm more prepared. Additionally, taking an easy path when doing design can also have cons such as not considering all user painpoints..