Last night I went to toast Laika, the first dog in space with the brilliant people at BERG. Old Street definitely has an interesting crowd and I’m glad I’m here, even if living in Shoreditch was pure chance. Apart from the occasional outing, I’m not really living the life of a stereotypical student and waking up in a pile of sick every day. I’m actually working quite hard. The pace of the course intensified in the last few weeks, which goes towards explaining the paucity of updates.

Next week is reading week. Translation: next week is a week of no lectures and no labs. Just catching up on papers and core texts. UCLIC places great emphasis on reading, and we have been instructed to learn how to read fast and to always have something on the go. I have two pieces of coursework to do for Physical Ergonomics and Usability Evaluation Methods, so I suspect my reading will focus on that. I’m also working on a project for Design Practice, which is going to focus on tempting commuters to modify their routines.

I’m enjoying the course. It is really making me think about design from the perspective of the user. I’ve been aware of user-centred design for a while, as it’s something I learned about as an undergraduate; but I think user-centred text design is a bit different from three-dimensional products, services, and systems. Physical ergonomics in particular forces you to focus on the user in detail, as the user has got to be able to comfortably turn a handle, push a door, and walk through the door frame. Not just a single user, but the widest possible range of users. You can’t really get deeper into user-centred design than anthropometry and ergonomics.

So, the study of people and physical things is changing the way I think about software. I’m learning tonnes! But I also have a growing awareness of: a) how much I don’t know; b) the pitfalls of academic tunnel-vision. I’m reminded of Jorge Cham’s graph (PhD Comics):