Zoe Zamayeri former student at Changemakers Educations Experience Designer course
It was quite a journey. In High School, I studied aesthetics and animation. I was very interested in working with this later. Later on, I discovered the school Future Games, but I didn’t want to work with what game design had to offer. It was through them that I found out about Changemaker Educations, and later on, I saw an ad about the Experience Designer course. After I had browsed through the course syllabus and what it offered, I was determined to get enrolled in it. It seemed like a good mixture between the gaming industry, IT, and UX ways. That’s why I chose to apply. While going through the admissions process I answered a lot of questions and got to a final interview. Once I met the course leader everything felt right and very exciting. As a person, I am creative but also interested in the social aspect of things. For example, how we humans think when interacting with a product. I feel like UX is the perfect mix of creativity, exploring, solution thinking, and creating but also putting your solutions to the test with real users. This is where the Experience Designer course felt like the perfect match for me and my needs. I didn’t know much about the UX design world before, but I knew that this would be a good bet for me.
I got an internship at a start-up company called G-Loot. They focus on esports. When the internship was over I got employed. The school and course helped me get this job through all the new skills I learned there and through the internship.
”The school and course helped me get this job through all the new skills I learned there and through the internship”
I am still at G-Loot in Stockholm. As I mentioned earlier, they are in the industry of e-sports, and their mission is to make e-sports available for everyone. They develop two different platforms for e-sport players, intending to make these platforms, containing possibilities for tournaments, statistics, and team play available for everyone.
Having to work with real-life stakeholders and companies. We worked for 3 months in a group with a specific stakeholder. We had to think up the project, find a stakeholder, interview them, make a prototype, deliver the case study, and so on. Just like in real life. All of this helped me understand and learn how the whole UX/UI process works in real life. That is, to create something from an initial idea to mockup to delivery. That was the best part of this course! Another important part we learned from the course was the actual collaboration part with all the different people in the group, team building, etc.
”We worked for 3 months in a group with a specific stakeholder. We had to think up the project, find a stake-holder, interview them, make a prototype, deliver the case study, and so on. Just like in real life.”
The first or second day after we started, we had a teacher training us in team building. Like, how do we deal with different situations such as if you are feeling angry or annoyed with somebody on your team? How do we express that in the best way, so that the person doesn’t take it the wrong way with the project’s best in mind? But, still working through the tensions there might be in the group.
I really liked the mindset that the school taught us. One was for example: “always be learning”. There are new things out there to learn every day. We were constantly told to keep up with the industry as it is always evolving. So that’s one of my biggest takeaways from the course, to make sure to learn something new every day. So, in my everyday life that might mean that I’m less afraid to ask. I will always be asking my colleagues, “what do you mean with this” “how do you do this?”.
I was clear with my colleagues from the start that I needed and wanted their feedback. In my new workplace, this worked really well, since it is a part of the company culture to never be scared to ask and that there are no stupid questions.
”I felt like the school was the perfect environment for experimenting and learning by doing. It allowed me to do and learn all of this, without the fear of failing.”
I felt like the school was the perfect environment for experimenting and learning by doing. It allowed me to do and learn all of this, without the fear of failing. The school provided me with this safe space for trying out all these different roles and projects. Once I was the project lead, and at another point, I was the UX designer, another time the UI. We were encouraged to test all of these different roles
Before going to Changemaker Educations I was always scared of speaking in front of other people and in public. After my time at Changemaker Educations, I’m not anymore. I got lots of great feedback about things to think about to get over this stage fright. Today at my work people will give me really good feedback from my presentations. I’m still learning but I’m getting better all the time. I guess that’s what you call confidence, confidence in my work and in how I speak.
The course is a full-time 2-year post-secondary vocational training (YH-utbildning) which grants a Higher Vocational Education Diploma upon completion (yrkeshögskoleexmen).
It consists of 400 YH credits, is on-site, and can be undertaken at either Changemaker Educations Stockholm or Karlstad educational centers. The applications for the course open between February-May and, and the course starts in early September.
With a diploma in Experience Design from Changemaker Educations, you can work in the following roles: Experience Designer, Interaction Designer, UX Designer, User Researcher, Gamification Designer, and Planner.
There are still a few spots open to students on the Karlstad course for fall 2021. Hurry up and grab the opportunity to graduate as a qualified Experience Designer by summer 2023!
Read more about the course here.
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Josefine Westman är Hotel Manager på Arctic Retreat, en turistanläggning som ligger vackert belägen i Råneå Älvdal.
