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REFLECTIONS
As I began to think about different ideas that I wanted to do for my EDGE project, I knew that I wanted it to be something to do with a form of Graphic design. My original plan for my EDGE project was going to be finding a summer internship in Graphic Design. I did in fact get an internship, and I went and loved it, but I had another opportunity come to me. One day while at church a member of my congregation came up to me and told me about a design opportunity that they had for me. This design job would be creating a website and App for a towing company. I knew then that I wanted to do this for my EDGE project. This motivated me for EDGE because I knew it was something that I wanted more knowledge in. I felt that I was not very good with web design and I tool this as an opportunity to challenge myself and gain a better understanding of the web and how to design for the web. This project helped me complete that goal. I knew it would help me have an overall understanding of User Interface design.
Completing this project had its ups and downs. There were certain steps I had to take that weren’t appealing to me, but then there were certain steps I took that were very appealing to me. To complete this project there were many many many meetings with my “client.” We would meet and discuss what he wanted, and then I would take those comments and considerations and go design the different aspects of the app that we had talked about in the previous meetings. We would then have another meeting where we would go over the designs and make-needed changes. This process continued until the app and website were completed and ready for a developer to begin working on them. The part of the process that I enjoyed was the actual designing of the website and app. I was able to be in my own world and create something that I enjoyed and was able to bring it to life. The part of the process that I didn’t enjoy was I had to go back and make simple small changes. I understood why the changes needed to be made; I just wanted to be able to create something new every single day.
As I started this project I had a few goals I wanted to achieve. The most important goal was to improve my web design skills. I feel like a achieved this goal. After my final design I was very impressed with the work I had done. As I compared my earlier web design projects to this new one I was able to see tremendous growth. Another goal I wanted to achieve was getting to know the adobe products more fully. I was designing in these programs, so naturally I became more advanced in them. As I continued designing and finished the project, I was very pleased with how it turned out. The outcome for my project was a completed design of an app and website.
I was able to gain some new skills as I worked on this project. I was able to learn how to communicate with a client. Through my meetings with my client, I was able to get a better understanding of what it would be like to design for someone other than myself. This really helped me understand how life as a designer would be after I finished my schooling. I was also able to gain new skills in working with adobe products and in designing for the web.
I think that SUU decided to have an experimental learning requirement, because it can help us see what life can be like after college. This project really helped me gain experience in the career path that I wanted to take. I think this is the biggest reason SUU as a program like this. So we as students can get a better understanding of how we can apply our education to a career. The EDGE program can mean a lot of different things to people who are graduating soon. For me it meant that I would have experience that was designed around a felid of study that I wanted to go into. This program gave me the opportunity to find a way to learn outside of the classroom, and experience life outside of college. Thanks to this project was able to achieve something I never before though I would do. It really did give me Education that was designed to give me Experience.