Carson’s Initial Concepts

Idea #1 – Mental Health & Wellness App: Ethical Design

Weeks ago I originally had the idea to develop a theoretical mental health app in the structure of a UX case study. Sure, there are countless apps out there and a simple search on the App Store will give you dozens of well-designed intuitive apps that will probably end up being what you’re looking for. 

However, a common theme I find is that these apps just do too much. Frankly I don’t use any of these apps because really they can be too overwhelming. And at the end of the day, you’re really just spending more time on your phone by using them. I thought that if I want to design an app of this nature, I want it to be simplistic without extra-noise and gimmicks. Ultimately, I would want it to be something I would wanna use.

This brings me to about a week ago on Zoom in Kuiphoff’s Product Design class where he brought up Netflix’s ‘The Social Dilemma’ and told us to go watch it because of how thought-provoking it is. So I did just that and woah, I can tell you it really exceeded my expectations. Let’s just say, it is both fascinating and scary to hear former designers at big companies talk about the current state of the industry. I’ll get into that in a little bit.

This brought into view my acknowledgement of ethical and “humane” design and its utmost importance for a functioning society. People cannot function in a healthy manner without design ethics. I don’t think that’s hyperbole in any regard either considering how apps are designed now to maximize your screen time with unheralded consequences attached. With a range of emotions sifting through my head after watching, I realized overarching concepts in the documentary applied to what I wanted in the health & wellness app I had been brainstorming. Basically, a health / self-care phone application designed to keep you off your… phone? Sounds counterintiuive and maybe a little dumb, but the goal is to aim for something with an almost bare-bones interface that cuts right to the point and provides quick and easy material, while also limiting screen-time. Thus, the in-app functions would be limited and confined to certain activities. It’s also worth noting that with the release of iOS 14, Apple users have more customization ability with widgets which is also something I thought of confining this “app” into.

Although I have not fully flushed out this idea, I would probably break the project up into parts that seemingly resemble what follows:

Problem & Context

Research

Ideation

Prototyping

Testing

Revising

Final Design

Since I would also be treating this as a UX case study, the scope, target audience, and outcomes/lessons would also be included as a part of the overall design process. Ultimately, this is something completely grounded in what corresponds to my career aspirations, while also providing me the opportunity to go out of my comfort zone. It combines a lot of my passions in design, writing, and prototyping into one project. Besides, a lot of what I would need to do for this project I will still have to learn and develop skills for. At least that is that point, anyway. 

Freshman year in IMM 140, I wrote a blog post about dark UX in the industry and how designers were using tricks to deceive users into subscriptions, guilt them into becoming paying customers, and etc. Well, now I’m a senior writing about a thesis idea revolving around many of those same principles. Maybe it’s just meant to be haha. I don’t know, man. But it also makes me look at the design industry and how moral reasoning is quickly diminishing. I don’t want to be a designer who is unethical and feeds into these trends. But I do think there’s some hope. The algorithms keeping people drawn to their phones like zombies are to blame, as well as the data being collected to curate even better algorithms. This project obviously can’t solve the world’s design issues, but it can be an explorative step in the right direction, right?

Idea #2 – Online Design Courses

Fun fact: I actually considered switching my major from IMM to STEM education my freshman year. I ended up not doing it, which was the right decision because I don’t think teaching is for me. Though this idea revolves around teaching. Let’s put it this way, I don’t want to take up teaching as a profession, but I do think there is something satisfying about teaching people particular things.

There are multiple websites out there where you can create your own online courses and actually make money off them by gaining a subscription base. I think it would be really cool because it is one thing to possess certain skills, but to teach them to other people is a whole other challenge. I mean there is a reason you have to go to school in order to be a teacher, and it’s definitely not for everyone. But with zoom classes happening on a national level now, I thought about how I could do it myself with pre-recorded videos of my own.

To be completely honest, I don’t know what these courses would be or how I’d go about it. Still though, it is intriguing to conceptualize and figure out how courses could be structured in an engaging but organized way. If anything, I also see this as a good way of branding myself as a designer and sharing insights with others. Additionally it could be seen as something I look at doing down the road in my career when I’ve actually become more established and have learned a lot more compared to where I am at currently. 

Idea #3 – Designing a Game

This is completely out there because for one I don’t really play video games much at all. Also, I’m weak and inexperienced when it comes to coding anything so I think this fits the bill for the third prompt. 

Regardless of these factors, I really think making my own game, whether it be for PC, mobile, or console, would be really cool. There are so many components and complexities to games that make them such an interesting art form. Everything from the character design, to the gameplay, to the music. Developers who can churn out these products and can have so much success is something I find really impressive. I particularly find it impressive when games are developed and have such a wide audience where it ends up appealing to so many different people. Nevertheless, I really have little to no experience designing games and I also believe developing something on that scale is very unrealistic for the time being.