I’m so beyond grateful my parents kept this! - My first ever platform idea and user flow design concept (circa 11 years old). After surviving so many moves, dusty garages, and almost being thrown in the trash, I found the banged-up poster board featuring my first real passion project at a time I needed to most.
When I was younger, I had a hard time articulating what UI/UX design even was, and it’s been fascinating seeing how much it’s expanded over the last decade as a result of so many new hardware and software tools. It’s almost like 11-year-old me intuitively knew exactly what I’d end up pursuing as a career, even though I didn’t know it at the time. I think I gravitated towards it because I knew internet technology encapsulated a near infinite amount of mediums, which seemed like the most ripe for learning as many skills possible or whatever I found interesting (both visually and strategically).
I think, as professionals, we sometimes forget how much we can learn from childhood innocence, imagination, and blind creativity… often prioritizing making decisions based on market analyses, competition, and rigid logic. Finding this dinosaur sent a flood of core memories back to my mind and reminded me of skills I’ve been subconsciously and consciously nurturing for a large portion of my life. It makes me feel proud to know that I entered the world of digital product design from a place of pure curiosity.
Who needs Figma when you have a printer, markers, and poster board? Maybe there are pros to such an analog approach to design. The 1st-Gen iPhone screens, hysterical logo attempt, barely legible handwriting, and the exposing of all my middle school friends’ names on the screens make this pre-Instagram platform idea bittersweetly adorable. Looking back, I feel like it was a totally different kid who made it.
To all the parents and future parents, keep your kids’ passion projects because you never know when they’ll need some reinspiration and motivation once they enter the workforce. They can be great reminders of optimism and that you’ve always been capable. Shoutout to Henry Ebarb II / Eightfold Technology / Open Road for giving me incredible outlets to grow in this vast tech space and opportunities to work on distinguished web and app projects. Kid me would be pretty stoked to know it.
#product #design #webdevelopment #internet #technology #girlworld
