Reflection on the first project

Reflection on the first project, SEDSCI, working on the Resilient Ageing brief with Age UK Lambeth.
By Team 5: Angela Tam; Jie Meng; Cassie Dai; Mingyu Li

There were many moments and periods of learning within the past four months. We were thrown into the deep end, through “learning by doing,” and while it was not always easy, it was rewarding. We waded through the darkness, desperately clinging to our newly acquired service design tools like a faulty flashlight, sometimes coming out triumphant, sometimes feeling utterly lost

We pushed ourselves to speak to strangers on the street, and pretty much anyone who would talk to us. We learned to ask beautiful questions in order to listen deeply. We learned to hold co-design sessions, and to assess activities by prototyping and iterating (sometimes at the co-design session itself!) Some co-designs were successes, some were less so, each time gaining a new understanding of what tools work for what types of settings

We gained understandings of different service design tools and methodologies, and went from being afraid of them, to embracing them. We learned how to take on an immense and broad project brief by breaking it up into rounds of research, insights, questioning and testing—a continuous rinse and repeat—until we were finally able to whittle it down into something actionable.

Finally, we embraced entering into a slice of life that we didn’t think about too often in our day to day lives as younger people, and gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of ageing. Diving into the brief and research challenged the age narratives that are pushed upon us in a society that constantly rewards youth, and it allowed us to take a breath of reflection and slow down—a reminder that we are not in a race towards a finish line, and it can be graceful to take our time.