This HCI course is really speaking to me for some reason. I am by no means an adept designer (as you can see by my pt.1 post) but the design concepts and 'why worry about design' make a lot of sense. In Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, the most striking thing about his account of Steve Jobs was his innate ability/instinct to determine what will be a good design as seen by human beings (customers nonetheless). I feel like it is a very simple thing to strive towards because there ARE examples of great designs (e.g. iPhone, Tesla, NetFlix website, Google) and so it is also very easy to kind of 'brush off' to the side.
Side note: CS is my second degree and I've noticed that the difference between doing something that you enjoy and doing something for the sake of doing it is that when you truly enjoy yourself, you don't feel like it's work. Yes, sometimes there will be times where things get frustrating - like when your home work assignment is to reverse a linked list - but you still grind it out because you know you can do it, and you're curious about how exactly to do it correctly. I also find that I'm constantly reading up on different things in the news or finding videos to watch on YT which can expand my own knowledge-base. But in one word, when I'm doing this, it's fun. You all have been witness to that euphoria or state of "Flow" when you don't even notice time, you're just enjoying yourself. It's neither boring nor overly challenging. It's just right. You're at your (current) optimal ability in this state.
I really hope the background image comes across properly...
And fonts and colors and palettes and flowers and chariots and mallets and bridges and shallots and horses and ballots and Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, and brown paper packages tied up with strings, just like these lyrics these are my top things...
I don't own rights to this song. Please don't sue. If anything, sue Ariana Grande