“This is the first time and the only time that you can focus on a project that you love and put your passion on in your all school year.” One graduate student told me. It’s a rare opportunity that you can think about who you want to be or what do you want to do in the future.

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So who I want to be in the future? This question also came up to me when I was interviewing companies for internships last year. After this summer, I read some articles on medium and listened to some podcasts about UX and product design. Then I started to realize that I hope my designs or creations can help people solving their problems. I hope with my support, they won’t feel in pain or stress out, I always believe that as long as there is a problem, designers are here to help.

In order to help people better, the first step is understanding their problem. The more I understand the problem, the easier for me to develop the solution. So design research plays a very important role throughout the design process. Design research not only drives the design strategy but also bring empathy.

After understanding the problem, develop a functional and straightforward solution is the next step. Came up an idea is not that hard, but design a whole product, no matter it’s digital or physical, it is not an easy task.And these are the two skills I hope I can improve on in my senior year.

How to measure success? In a company, they would look at data. But since it’s my senior thesis, I just hope that I would enjoy every step and every moment. I would be able to connect with my people (target users).

Since I am collaborating with a startup, I am not sure about how the collaboration would be like. Each party might have different expectations, but as long as we make it clear, it should be a great collaboration experience. I am very looking forward to working with them.