As my time with part 6 of the Google UX Course comes to a close, I wanted to mention a few things I've learned and other things I haven't done as well on.
For starters, I've learned that a design system is important, as well as team work. For instance, my project consisted of building a responsive mockup of an hotel site. Without a design system, I painfully put together 5-7 screens within a couple of hours based on the existing low-fidelity wireframe I had as the basis. The design turned out pretty nice due to the images and font hierarchy, but still, those couple of hours were painful. Worst part is, the screens were basic and simplistic, no real depth to them.
I also skipped on the UX research (usability studies, etc.), and while I don't regret it, I do see and understand the value and importance of those audits/studies/interviews. (I did do usability studies and audits, but not consistently.)
Personally, I work better with a team, even if it's just one other person. The course doesn't offer this, so trying to come up with a valid design with valid UX principles that will translate into a usable product is a little more difficult than I had planned. That's not to say I couldn't do it, as my designs were realistic, but what I did in just a few hours should've been done over a few weeks to months. I rushed the course because I'm trying to get it done within a month.
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