Pursuing User-Experience Design

Let's get a bit of background. Where did you grow up and what were your main interests?

I mostly grew up in Ottawa, but also lived in Montreal for six years, during which I attended a French immersion school. Both of my parents graduated from University of Waterloo. My father studied electrical engineering; my mother studied nursing in a joint program with Laurier. My mother is now the executive director of a non-profit nursing organization, and my dad is now the operations director at the National Research Council.

I had many interests growing up, including working with robots, studying languages, music (including piano and clarinet), volleyball (playing and coaching), and community organizing.

How did you decide to join KI when you entered the university?

I started out in mechatronics engineering and completed two years of study here at the University of Waterloo. The course content was rigorous and exciting, but I found the schedule overwhelming and too restrictive. For example, in my last term in engineering, I took five high level math courses and one elective. Classes often started at 8:30 in the morning and I even had an evening class that ended at 10pm. I wanted to connect the content I was learning and understand it in greater depth--but the pace was too fast and the professors somewhat inaccessible. I did gain a lot from my two Co-op terms and from my engineering studies--but I realized I needed to make a change.

I used two terms to do some breadth requirements for KI and figure out if it was right for me. I loved the mix of KI approach to teaching and learning, and the flexibility of the program made it possible for me to combine my engineering background with psychology. A smaller, more personal program was also beneficial--I developed close friendships and was able to discuss ideas further with my professors.

Which class have you found most valuable so far? Why?

All of the KI classes are valuable and connections amongst the core courses encourage students to revisit major themes and learn in greater depth. One experience that I found especially memorable, though, was the year-long Museum Course.

I did miss one important component: the field trip to Copenhagen. The pandemic meant my cohort’s trip was cancelled, and when I had a second opportunity two years later, I was already traveling there to work with a Danish company for an internship, so the timing just didn't work. I will just describe aspects of the Museum Course that I did complete.

The Museum Course is a major component of the third year of KI. Collaborative teams of five or six students develop a concept based on United Nations sustainability goals, research the topic in depth and then design and construct a 250 sq foot exhibit. Here's an excerpt from my teams' Vision  Statement and an image from our exhibit.

Many of the products we rely on in our day-to-day lives have been designed to have one, short life. This is a concept we have termed a “Single-Use Society.” Through our exhibit, visitors will explore the ways in which the fast fashion industry and the tech industry have designed products with these intentionally short lifespans. This planned obsolescence has made it more difficult for the average person to make environmentally conscious purchasing decisions....Visitors will leave our exhibit with an understanding of some tangible ways this single-use mentality affects our planet, and their own role in perpetuating this ideology.

Students fill out a very extensive survey describing their strengths, weakness, and preferences as collaborators, and then are assigned to teams. I was grouped with people I hadn't worked with before, but we meshed well personally and in terms of our disciplinary strengths. Students with major interests in Geology, Law, Art, Kinesiology were on my team. It was a small enough group to require reliable contributions from everyone and big enough to provide a good range of skills.

Torunn did a great job as project manager, and since I didn't take on this role, I could focus more on research, programming and woodworking. I expanded my  skills with programming and woodworking and contributed a lot to the ideation process, which further confirmed my desire to pursue a career in user experience design.

I guess it is inevitable that problems will arise anytime a team tackles a new project. One small chore that turned into a major headache for us was the painting of foam letters we included in our design. They needed four coats of paint to really look good (which was time-consuming in itself) and the drying time added another complication. Now, I really consider the effort that goes into something and compare it to the desired outcome. We could have had a nice set of letters that were unpainted wood or even printed the text in different colours on paper and still been satisfied with the result. While we were happy with the painted foam letters, that time could have been used for other endeavours, and this is an important consideration in such a large project.

The final project was presented in the St. Jerome’s gymnasium and was seen by over 600 people. My parents even drove six hours from Ottawa to see it. I am really proud of our exhibit and of our collaboration, and I reference the project often in describing my KI degree. Given my interest in user experience design, the museum project has been a great portfolio piece for me.

There seems to be a strong sense of community within KI. Can you describe some of the activities that help to build this?

Bearing in mind that the majority of my degree was online, the amount of group work really helped me get to know everyone. I learned as much from other students as I learned from the professors. And the professors were also very accessible. Small class sizes encourage interaction with professors and in-depth work on course content.

What advice might you give to students entering or considering KI?

• You don’t need to know exactly what you want to do when you enter the program. You have lots of time to figure it out. Lots of people take double majors or multiple minors or an extra year. This is my fifth year and, while I’m feeling ready to leave school, I’m still loving the classes I’m taking this semester, two of which are INTEG courses.

• KI is great for people  who are unsure if they can handle a full university course load. There are a lot of alternate options, and you never have to take a full five courses a term to keep up with your cohort.

• Connect with students at any level who share your interests. There is a lot of melding between cohorts, so even though I’m in my fifth year, I’m close friends with other fifth years, fourth years, third years… even some first years. You can learn from everyone!

This interview is part of a project conducted by Dr. Mary Stewart during her two-month fellowship at the University of Waterloo in the fall of 2022. Thank you to Dr. Stewart for her work in highlighting the transdisciplinary nature of the KI program and its community members, and to Fulbright Canada for making this opportunity possible.