Mephistodance

It is said that time flies when you spend it well. And this is true for me. The penultimate week of my UX / UI bootcamp ends and I already see the finish line of this fantastic experience close to me.

The last moments are the most difficult ones: tiredness is felt and you can't give up.

As a last project we have been assigned a real client with whom we must deal and coordinate. The project is complex, the dashboard that @mnuels and I have to redesign is vast and difficult to understand. I had several moments of despair but my workmate was able to pick me up and transmit his always good energy.

The end of the race is near. The last test will not see us defeated.

Like Andromeda and Pegasus from Saint Seiya, we climb the steps to face the last golden knight placed in defense of the Great Temple of Athene.

Behind us all the tests already passed are our best weapons.

The hardness of this week was proportional to the reward obtained.

The last individual project was really challenging: hard work, many hours spent on Figma, and the prospect of presenting everything to a specially invited professional in the sector.

I arrived at the fateful day with bated breath and my hand still clicking on my final prototype.

The presentation went well and I received good feedbacks. But the greatest reappearance was the satisfaction of having accomplished. I felt proud of myself.

Now we are at the last final test ... two weeks to prepare a project for a client together with my classmate @mnuels.

Manuel was the first person I met during this bootcamp, I feel like the circle has found its closure. I am very happy to make this last effort with him. Now that I see the end of this experience I feel a little like the protagonist of that fantastic, unsurpassed video game for PS3: JOURNEY.

I see the top of the mountain and the secret it contains. A journey made of wonderful things and difficult moments behind me.

The meaning is in the journey traveled.

I arrived earlier this week already quite tired.

This is probably normal: we are almost at the end of the bootcamp and all the work done so far weighs a little.

This week and for the next the challenge is big: a solo project of a dashboard, to be presented to a real client. I felt a bit lost, I wasn't able to take the correct path right away. Since the project does not excite me very much, my internal saboteur immediately took the opportunity, making me waste a lot of time by procrastinating.

The week ended with a certain state of anxiety about all the things still to be done and defined but ...

...as usual my classmates managed to completely change things: they organized a virtual surprise for my birthday that really warmed my heart. All those messages, drawings, videos and gifs left for me on that Miro board made me understand how much he managed to communicate so much about me and how much it was received.

Thanks again Manuel, Clara, Meri, Sara D & Sara M, Gisele, Masha, Mabel, Marina, Mario, John, Dani, Miquel and Sabrina!

You have changed the mood of my week! ❣️

I just finished reading this text, Remote Contextual Inquiry: A Technique to Improve Enterprise Software, which allowed me to know the details of this interesting form of research.

This investigation technique allows us to study the behaviors and habits of software users in their context. This operation allows us to obtain important data such as personal customization, possible errors or pain points.

The advantages of carrying out this "remote" search are many and very well detailed in the article. I mention only a few such as savings on travel or time.

But the technique gives me some perplexity. The request to be able to log in and record the user's screen could generate a lot of resistance. Users are generally jealous of their working privacy and may not agree to this type of operation. Furthermore, knowing that one is registered could generate a sort of "performance anxiety" and thus distort the quality of the data collected.

Like a wave.

Time goes by like a wave, and I'm here 4 weeks from the end of this bootcamp. As always, new challenges open up as old ones close.

This past week I went back to work in a group, with my two colleagues @saradaryanani​ and @waterproofsara​. The project we carried out was complex: redesigning a web that talks about HIV can be a difficult challenge to overcome.

But, like a wave, our team harmonized. Everyone brought their knowledge and their strength: we have learned to be organized, to optimize time and to be present in supporting each other.  @saradaryanani​ zodiac sign is the sign of Cancer, which is the symbol of pure supporting and unconditional love. @waterproofsara​ and I both born under the sign of Pisces, the cosmic gateway to the transcendence of the soul through creativity. All three belong to the Water Signs of the Zodiac wheel. So we let ourselves be carried away by the current of our fluid harmony, resonant in water: new ideas were born and developed, new suggestions, new opportunities. Like a wave. Like a wave that rises in power and size before crashing against the coast, spraying a blanket of fresh and regenerating salt water over the world.

I have already finished half the journey of this Bootcamp and things have changed a lot since I started.

I feel more skilled, more confident, calmer. The new daily challenges as long as they are complex do not scare me and instead excite me. They are a testing ground for applying everything you have learned and realizing if you are able to master it.

When you merge with your training and surrender to it, you realize that everything flows more smoothly and fatigue shapes your desire.

Returning to work on an individual project has given me the opportunity to confront myself again. The result was satisfactory, also thanks to the support and presence of my classmates.

New challenges await us before this is all over in just over a month. I wonder sometimes, what will I do with all my time once I have recovered it. I hope to continue to use it productively as I am doing now and keep investing in the growth of myself.

 I just finished watching this  video Iterative UI Design. The central theme seems to be taken for granted:

 GOOD DESIGN IS NOT EASY

 It is a matra that we designers know well but it would be the case that our customers also learned it by heart.

Very often in the working world it is difficult to make people understand how much intellectual and research work exists behind something apparently simple.

 In fact, simplicity (understood as immediacy and clarity) is something extremely complex (allow me the jarring juxtaposition) and which requires work, time and dedication.

The questions you have to answer to do a good design are:

What are we making?

Who is it for?

Does it work?

Did we get it right?

and there are no shortcuts provided by obvious answers.

Certainly the task of making our work worthwhile is the task of us designers, no one will take your defense. Prepare your arsenal then, assert your voice. When some customer will tell you things like "well but this is obvious" or "oh well but this is simple anyone could do it" be ready to demonstrate the reality of things, which is often the opposite of what most people commonly think.

Reveal what is not seen.

Everyone knows that there is a great watershed in the world of apps: the two operating systems Android and IOS. Ahat not everyone knows is that the same app can suffer substantial design variations in one system or another. 

The design of an app must respect the rules marked by the two operating systems: for Android it is Material Design and for IOS it is Human Interface Guidelines.

The e-learning app that I will have to design next week will have to be designed for the two operating systems, so I will have to keep in mind that:

1. Navigation patterns

There’s a universal navigation bar at the bottom of Android devices. Using the back button in the navigation bar is an easy way to go back to the previous screen or step.

The Apple design approach is  different because there’s no global navigation bar. Internal screens should have a native navigation bar with a back button in the top left corner. Also ios includes a left-to-right swiping gesture in applications to go to the previous screen.

2. In-app navigation patterns

Android uses burger menus, which unfolding from the left side of the screen allow you to organize information into tabs and lists.

Apple instead, recommended putting global navigation in a tab bar located at the bottom of the app screen.

3. Button styles

In Android the buttons are flat and raised, and generally all uppercase. In IOS button text is on title case.

In Android we also find the characteristic floating button represents the primary action in an application. In Apple we found the call to action button with similar function and located in the center of the tab bar.

4. Typography differences

In Android the standard typeface is Roboto. In IOS is San Francisco.

5. Microinteractions

Animations are something that particularly grabs the user's attention. For this reason, both platforms make use of it, however they discourage excessive and unmotivated use.

In IOS the animations respect the laws of physics and always feel "natural".

In Android transitions are an important element in the overall interaction with an interface. They help users orient themselves by expressing the app’s hierarchy.

And the third week of bootcamp is gone too.

Just as day after day everything becomes a bigger challenge so I feel more confident and capable. The fatigue is great but the reward is just as great.

Going back to work as a group was nice; being able to go back to sharing a goal, tackling tasks together, supporting each other even when you are tired and maybe a little frustrated. Tinder for friends .... but who has ever believed it? Yet we have been able to transform it into reality.

I am almost halfway there, there are still many obstacles to overcome and new challenges in which to triumph. But looking back I already see the ones I was able to overcome and this gives me courage and energy. 

There was a time not far off when I had nothing to do and it was killing me. Now I barely have the time for press the washing machine button and yet I feel my soul regenerated.

As in that beautiful 80's anime "The Knights of the Zodiac", I find my Seventh Sense in the strenuous race between the 12 houses, before the sundial extinguishes its last fire. 

Here below Shaka of Virgo, golden knight guardian of the Sixth House, representing the Overcoming and the Rebirth.

I found this old work, a fan art I drew for the release of Rise of the Tomb Raider.

I've always loved the Tomb Raider saga and its protagonist Lara Croft.

Reading the article Learning to See proposed as lesson material allowed me to retrace the lessons learned during my specialization in cinema.

It is common opinion (common in the sense of ordinary) to define cinema or in general the recorded images of reality not only as a document of it but also as its replacement. As cinema faithfully reproduces reality thanks to its photographic nature, we tend to think that it is the true reality. But cinema, like the other arts, are not.  Cinema is a representation of reality, an expression of the creative act behind it. 

The act of framing as the act of seeing are never neutral acts. They are always selective operations that bring into play factors of a cultural, intellectual and psychological nature.

The act of looking must therefore be trained. To reveal all possible levels of knowledge of a given object. The trained look is the one that manages to "disassemble" an object and recognize its parts and the criteria with which they are assembled.

It's a bit like in “The Matrix” where there are people who live unaware of the virtual world they are part of. On the other hand, there are "awakened" people who can see the code that is under the surface of things, being able to understand and modify it.

The second week of UX / UI Bootcamp closes and things get serious. Not because before they weren't, but because there is so much work to do now, in many ways.

The first individual assignet really put me to the test. Creating a habits app is much more complex than you can imagine: the process that is the basis of a simple user flow involves an extended investigation phase, which uses tools and techniques that must be learned quickly and this time, alone. In the meantime, there are also lessons to follow. The time to devote to this course is immense and I found myself doing 3 in the morning on projects as I had not done since my PhD.

The knowledge learned during this week is precious and wise. The effort pays off. Sometimes I would have liked to have a little more time to better prepare projects and presentations, but time management is also a test.

I'm still only at the beginning but I already know that the path will be exciting and challenging. I am channeling my inner Lara Croft ready for exciting new discoveries. I leave you a drawing below, I drew it long ago, but it is very much the moment. A new Croft adventure...

One of the practices in which I have to train more is that of giving and receiving feedbacks. Not because I am a touchy person or not very used to express my opinion (in fact I would say that the opposite is true), but because there is a precise and structured practice that is used in the professional world that I did not know at all. 

I understand the intention that is at the basis of the Crits structured in this way: respect for the sensitivity and work of others, however, always trying to bring one's opinion in a positive way.

I must confess that the experience did not seem very comfortable to me: channeling opinions into a precise pattern is something that does not go well with my nature. In the university environment that I attended for years, the relationship between colleagues is structured on fiery debate and controversy. The best ideas and theories come from passionate confrontation, which can sometimes be rough.

It's in my nature to value a good dialectical fight to the death ... in the end you always survive and your level grows like in a well-made RPG.

I felt a bit like Elle Driver without a sword.

But I promise to improve.

The first week of the UX / UI bootcamp at Ironhack is gone ... and I'm still alive.  When some former students warned me that those 9 weeks would be Ironhack only, I didn't give it much thought. Naaaa I thought, you are pussies I will be able to do everything very well and also find the time to play Final Fantasy VII Remake on my PS4. Wrong. No kidding, the week was really intense and full of emotional ups and downs. There have been times when I have been prey to a thousand doubts: maybe this course is not for me, maybe I'm not fast enough to keep up, my English is terrible? (YES) Am I too old for this? I almost gave in to my internal saboteur and I was almost ready to throw in the towel . Finally gotten through the week and now I am flooded with a pleasant feeling of satisfaction and euphoria. 

I cannot be sure that my doubts will not return but I am sure that I have learned many important things in these days as they have never happened to me (not even at university).  It's only the first week but I feel like a RuPaul Drag Race contestant who survived her first “lip sync for your life”. I'm safe and ready to slay another day. :* (kisses in gay)

My first bootcamp day is gone and I learned a very important thing:

DO NOT SCHEDULE AMAZON DELIVERIES DURING LESSONS. Just when I had to make my presentation to the group in my lame English, the amazon courier grabbed my intercom without mercy. In the end I survived anyway and that's what matters. I was very anxious this morning and my head was full of doubts and internal saboteurs but all these tensions were diluted during the day. My classmates are all very nice and interesting and I already see them as important allies in this little (big) battle. Don’t get me wrong, the course is intense and demanding but also very exciting. The hours have flown by and I can't believe it's already dinner time. As Scarlett O'hara once said: “Tomorrow is another day”...

One of the tasks assigned during the UX / UI bootcamp I am about to start (tomorrow!) At Ironhack Barcelona is to write a short introduction of me here on Tumblr.  Generally I don't really like describing myself in words (I always find it very difficult) especially I don't like writing about me. But it's a task so... go for it! My name is Marco, I'm Italian from Rome but I live in Barcelona from many years. I am a graphic designer and illustrator but this is only part of the story. In the past (I'm an old bitch) when I lived in Italy I studied cinema and I also got a PhD in film studies. But in those years (I won't dare to say which ones ...) life in Rome was starting to hold me tight and so I decided to embark (literally) for a new life in Barcelona, where I had done an Erasmus. So I turned my passion for cinema into a passion for drawing and I started my career as a graphic designer. Over the years I have noticed how UX / UI has become more and more important in the digital design industry and so I decided to transform myself again and... here I am at Ironhack, ready (I hope so) to start this intense but exciting bootcamp.

I like video games, nature, travels, the sea when it's winter, carbohydrates and all the ways to burn them. One part of my heart is made by Sailor Moon and the other one by Saint Seiya. I am ready to walk the yellow brick road to the end, the value of the journey is not in the finish line but in the road traveled. See you in class!