It’s finally coming to an end (Okay LetterstoAmanda.com will continue but at least now we are free to work on our own timeline). What a journey it has been. I’m thankful that I followed my gut feeling to go with 4 modules this semester instead of 5.

This semester has been crazy. I have totally neglected two of my modules which are theory based and I’ll be mugging like mad for the next 3 weeks to catch up on an entire semester worth of content for these two modules.
Let’s talk about CS3216 for now. At the beginning of this semester, I noted down three main goals that I wish to achieve.

1. LEARN:
   To refresh his knowledge of the languages he knows (PHP, SQL) and to be updated of the latest languages by learning them on the go (HTML5, CSS, Mobile Computing, etc)
2. NETWORK:
   To meet and learn from like-minded people who are equally as passionate, if not more, on creating something extra ordinary
3. PROCESS:
   To embrace the process of learning in CS3216; he always believe what matters is not what you learn, but the process of learning it that makes you a better person

Okay obviously as you can see, I was trying to be creative and all, writing in a third person POV. But apparently that effort only lasted for one entry. Nevertheless, as the famous saying goes, 礼轻情意重 (it is the thought that counts).

I’m glad to say that I’ve achieved every single goal I’ve set. I’ve brushed up my knowledge on web programming languages and picked up a few tricks here and there. I’ve also managed to meet and worked with some tremendously talented people and I truly admire their passion, determination and conviction in their respective projects.

But most importantly, why I took CS3216 was just to go through the process. I strongly believe that you will learn the most from the process itself rather than what you have at the end goal. And indeed I’ve learnt a lot and the things I’ve learnt came from the most unexpected sources.

Surprisingly, I’ve learnt more things from the Facebook group than the classes itself; especially from the videos and articles shared by everyone in the group. But let’s not discredit the classes. I particularly like the sharing sessions by the experienced entrepreneurs. Their stories are admirable and insightful.

A great skill I’ve learnt during the process of taking this module is how to pitch your product. When our team was working on LetterstoAmanda.com, many asked us what we were up to and I will just say ‘oh, we building a website where you can write to each other anonymously..’ and bla bla bla and at the end of it they will be like.. ‘oh, you mean like <insert website name here>’. From a creator point of view, it is truly frustrating when you really think your idea is fantastic but others keep linking your site to already existing websites. In my head it’s like okay they don’t get it but we have to somehow make them get it.

So I was with Eugene and Yao Long at uTown and I was lamenting to them about how everyone else is not getting it, and we need to find a way to pitch our idea better.

Then brilliant Eugene started telling me about this video that he has watched many times and he really thinks I should watch it. It was late in the night and I started looking for the video and Yao Long was like telling me I should be doing the coding and not watching video but I was tired and I couldn’t be bothered so I went ahead and watched it. Here’s the link for those who are interested: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

5 minutes into the video and I was totally hooked. I took out my diary and jot down what I felt was important. Mid way through the video my brain was beaming with ideas and I just skipped through the rest of the video. I then started scribbling down whatever I can think of.

The scribble above eventually became the foundation of how we pitch LetterstoAmanda.com.

This is a perfect example of learning through the process. It is not in the curriculum but it is one of the most useful things I’ve learnt in this course.

I’ve also learn about the importance of team dynamics. I have the great fortune of working with two incredibly talented individuals for my final project. Their patience and tolerance are incredible and it is also great that we are on the same wave length. That is key; to have the same common end goal and work really damn hard towards it.

I had a blast taking CS3216. It wasn’t thattttt bad but then again I neglected two other modules and my friends from Business School always make a bet with me that I’ll be at the same sitting spot in COM1 when they come back 5 hours later (and they always win).

Okay so it turns out that I’m one of those few that has not been religiously updating the blog. Don’t get me wrong, I am, a firm believer on the importance of reflections.

Allow me to share a real-life story. During one of the Youth Expedition Project (YEP) trip, a team from one of the JCs in Singapore was traveling through one of the cities in India. As their van crawled through the busy traffic, they were swarmed with kids (many without limbs), begging for donations. One of the girl in the team was so traumatized by the experience that she couldn’t stop crying the entire day.

The next day, the girl was totally back to her normal self again, laughing, having fun and making a fool of herself. Did she learn anything from her encounter the previous day? Probably not. She would have, if proper reflection session was done on the night itself.

I believe reflections need to be guided. There needs to be clear direction on what you should be reflecting about. Take for example the above scenario. If left on her own, there are simply too many things that are running through her mind. Someone should have sat with her, talked to her about what she felt, why she felt that way, and how and what she can do about it.

Every journey in life is an experience. Whether you’ll learn from that experience is a totally different matter.

“Get Help” app needs some help. Let’s first revisit the core function of the app:

To make it super easy and fun to discover people from within and outside the user’s Facebook network to help them with their needs and funky endevours

Here’s a list of problems with the user interface in and interaction design in my opinion and how it can be resolved:

1. The first page (Home Page) has way too much information and clutter. For a first time user, once they’ve added the application, they will be overwhelmed with so much information. They’d not have an idea what the application is about and there’s so many options for him to choose from. A better first page would be a short description of what the app is about, followed by the bar “I need help with..”. Once they filled up the box and clicked on “call for help!” button then we display the other options that are available in a step by step basis. So in total there will be 3 steps: 1) What they need help with » 2) The details (deadline, etc) » 3) Who they want to ask
2. The top navigation doesn’t make sense. “Overview” will be one of the most clicked navigation link but yet it is not even a button. It’s just a hyperlink text. Perhaps we it should be one of the tabs like badges, profile, etc.
3. The ‘fun part’ of the app is not there. There’s nothing really engaging about the app. Perhaps instead of having a ‘Stats’ page, rename it to ‘Champions’. Instead of just having numbers, make the page more interactive where people can live chat with each other and tag/post photos and videos coz one of the core goals of the apps is to meet and discover people.
4. Currently, the overview page lists down ALL the needs. It’d be better to group the needs into different categories instead of listing all at once. Say for example, I’m can help with Photoshop software, I can just go to Photoshop category and help all those that are in need of photoshop related problems.
5. The color scheme is dull and RED. If we want it to be more fun, more colors needs to be added in. Red color also is not a good color for the buttons as it seems very intimidating. 

I must say, the session earlier by Milton from VSee was really pretty insightful. There were a lot of things said and discussed that I felt I could relate to in so many levels.

Recently, my partner in the overseas community project that I’m leading asked me a simple question:

“Do you think we are leading the team well so far?”

I paused. I hesitated.

“I think we are.”

And then I thought to myself. I think? How would you know if you’re leading the team well?

Leadership is a tricky thing. Should you be an authoritarian figure and fight for your stand or should you be a people person and always strive to achieve a mutual ground? The simple answer is to have both but the truth is, it’s not that simple. Like what Prof Ben mentioned, something has to give.

The part that I particularly liked about Milton’s talk is when he highlighted the importance of saying ‘no’ and giving negative feedbacks to the team. I have always considered that my achilles heel. I’ve even been labelled ‘non-confrontational’. Is it really a bad thing? Well deep down I know it is but sometimes it’s just so hard to balance between fighting for what you think is right, and turning someone down, hurting them in the process. (of course people will say, well you can turn someone down without hurting them. easier said than done.)

Another interesting point is the issue of entrepreneurship. My ultimate goal has always been to set up a social enterprise of my own. I want to be successful and success to me is valued at how much I’m worth in the eyes of the society and community. At the end of the day, it is not the rich that gets remembered. It is the teachers or the caregivers. The people who saves lives. The people who makes a difference in someones life, one way or another. I want to be that person, not for the glory or for the name, but for the simple fact that when the day comes when I lie on my deathbed, I can proudly say that I did something in my life, I did it good, and I did good.

Having designed my own storybook before for a visual comm module, I know how ridiculously tedious it is to create one from scratch. It was really interesting to have learnt that there’s an app to do just that.

I think the most important issue brought up by the presenting team about Pekay’s Little Author is about how the theme of the app does not match with the target user of Facebook. A suggestion put up by the team was to redesign the app to be more sophisticated to target parents/teachers since FB users are older than 13 years old. I disagree.

In my opinion, the way to go is actually to redesign the User Interface (UI) to make it intuitive for all users especially for kids. As much as we want teachers and parents to be involved in the app, I believe the best approach is to leave the kids to explore the app on their own. Although the age requirement for FB is 13, a recent research carried out by The London School of Economics shows that one in five of British children aged 9-12 has a FB profile. In another report, there is as many as 5 million FB users below the age of 11. And I’m pretty sure most of us can relate to it: when we were in primary school, we fake our birth year to create an account in an online game (e.g Neopets).

Kids are getting more and more IT savvy. I think it’d be interesting to discuss if we should reduce the minimum age of 13, to maybe… 9? My take of course is that we should reduce the minimum age (kids now are cheating about their age anyways in order to by pass the system). With the minimum age reduced, it will then leave the door open for developers to create educational related games targeted as this age group. Education should start early and a Facebook approach will make education way interesting.

Okay issues aside, I think the presenters did well. I like the colors of the power point slide. Points were articulated clearly and it’s good that the team compared between the iPad version and the FB version instead of doing just one.

Projecting on the screen that is. It was an interesting start to a mod. To have many past year students sharing with us their experience and how much they enjoyed suffered taking the mod, says a lot. I hope I’ll be one of the many that will come back in the future, and give a talk. But before all that, let’s do the walk yeah?

After the show and tell project, it was interesting to see how everyone started forming groups. It was scary at first I have to admit with the constant thought of “what if I don’t have a group and end up with all the rejects”. But then I realised I was just being silly. Everyone in the mod is here for a reason. No one will be crazy enough to take a level 3 UE and not just any other level 3, but CS3216, the godlike mod and plan to slack their way. So yup, I made my way home with some newly made friends, without a group, but without a hint of worry too.

Grouping is a tricky thing. Back in Poly, I started forming my FYP group like a whole semester before FYP started, poaching the best people to be in my team. We got our A’s in the end but on hindsight, did I really enjoy the process? Not really.

And now as I write, I’m conducting interviews to recruit team members for my Trees n Trunks (YEP) project. The response has been overwhelming with 155 people showing interest to be part of the project. But we are only taking in 18 people. It’s crazy. We have like super capable individuals applying for the project and we have people with no experience but are so eager to learn. So do you take in someone who can contribute a lot to the project or do you take in someone whom you think can learn so much from the trip and be a better person. The simple answer is a mix of both, but what is the right mix? How many extroverts to get and how many introverts? And personality > capability?

Whatever it is, I’ll make it work.

And so it begins. With an already heavy burden on his shoulders (another story for another day), he sets off walking on the unmarked path, knowing damn well the many thorns and uphill climbs that lies ahead. Every step a struggle. So what does he hope to learn from this journey?

Having went through the Polytechnic system, he believes the best way to learn something is to be forced to do it through assignments and deadlines. Technology is fast evolving. The last time he did a web related project, nested tables was the in thing (and that wasn’t really very long ago). Being partially OCD, he would nest every single content he could to ensure everything displayed neatly. But what exactly are his expectations and goals in terms of learning outcome? 

1. LEARN:
   To refresh his knowledge of the languages he knows (PHP, SQL) and to be updated of the latest languages by learning them on the go (HTML5, CSS, Mobile Computing, etc)
2. NETWORK:
   To meet and learn from like-minded people who are equally as passionate, if not more, on creating something extra ordinary
3. PROCESS:
   To embrace the process of learning in CS3216; he always believe what matters is not what you learn, but the process of learning it that makes you a better person

Let the journey begin!

p.s. Okay after spending hours tweaking the CSS of this theme to make it look neater, I just realized there’s no comment function. Urgh. But give me some time and I’ll figure out how to bring it in.

edit: yes commenting function is up! <3 google.