General Assembly runs courses on topics like web development, user experience design, and product management. I helped to teach their User Experience Design Immersive (UXDI) course. It's a full-time ten-week deep-dive into the user experience design process from start to finish.

Day-to-day, I mentored the students on human-centred design processes as they worked on their hands-on projects. I also worked with General Assembly staff to plan activities and adapt classroom content for the days ahead.

I also delievered some of the course material. I gave a number of talks on wireframing, prototyping, and visual design tools. We covered the pros and cons of tools like Omnigraffle, Axure, Sketch, Photoshop and Illustrator, and more.

Week six of the course focuses entirely on front-end web development. I led these lessons, drawing on my technical experience. I wrapped up the week with a talk on interacting with developers—super important for designers in the real world.

Finally, towards the end of the course I gave some lighter talks on emerging technologies and UX, and gamification in user interfaces.

General Assembly students come from all backgrounds. I met developers, architects, shoe designers, students straight out of university, and people with 20 years of work experience. It was fun to share my passion for software design with them whilst learning from their unique perspectives.