The Project and Thesis course commenced on 12 September 2023, and we were introduced to the course structure, the project team and had our queries answered for our thesis next year. It was a refreshing experience to understand the expectations of the course from Markku, Sirkku, Pauliina and Jussi. Furthermore, we had the chance to hear from our Seniors on their experiences when working on the Project and Thesis course and their clients. The next session of the Project and Thesis course was to meet the clients of the different projects and hear from them about what they are looking for. Prior to meeting the clients, we had the chance to read through the project topics and had a rough understanding of the projects and the clients.
During the project session, we had the session remotely and everyone could join the breakout rooms separately to check in with the clients on their plans and goals for the project. The clients shared with us their companies, goals and what they would like to see from the project. It was definitely a rewarding exchange of conversation with the clients. As my past work experience was in UX research in the banking and logistics industry, after thinking about my interests, I still feel that my interest lies in UX research, but I would like to practice UX research in another industry, probably in entertainment and media as I do not have prior exposure to that industry. With that in mind, I joined two breakout rooms which were Yle and Second Theatre as Yle is a news broadcasting company in Finland and Second Theatre is an up and rising startup which is looking at digitalizing theatres and plays in the digital form.
After interacting with the clients, I took the time to reflect on the conversation and research on my interest for the project and see how it might be a fit. The next session, we had another sharing by Demola on their project scope and their goals on the project. Sirkku and Markku also took the time to address any doubts or queries that we had regarding our projects and interests. In addition, Sirkku told to sit in groups and write down with a pen on a piece of paper on our motivation and interests for each of the projects that we had chosen. There were a lot of discussions and sharing among the group members on our interests, past experiences and reasons and motivation for choosing a certain client. After writing down our motivation and interest, we went to the front of the classroom to present and share our motivation and interests. It was certainly refreshing to see and hear about the different experiences and motivations of everyone.