Finding the Intersection of Design and Development

This semester brought significant changes that fundamentally shifted how I see myself and my path forward. Starting a new job as a mobile app developer, creating the Pockets app, and the overall transformation of my approach to both studies and myself - it all connected into sustainable and healthy growth. I feel like I'm finding my direction at the intersection of design and development, and for the first time in my entire studies, I'm able to be authentically myself,

Finding the Intersection of Design and Development

At the beginning of my studies, I was dealing with fundamental questions: am I in the right place? Do I want to do UX or development? What do they even consider design here? I was trying to figure out where I fit in and what my unique contribution could be. This semester, however, things dramatically turned around. I realized where I have something to offer and where my limits are. I stopped trying to conform and instead took my authentic niche - development, tech, and a specific mindset - as my contribution to the whole community. Most importantly, I started being kinder to myself, stopped overextending, and began working strategically with my time and energy, with my well-being and health in first place. Before, it was probably in last place. I also changed the way I approach my studies. Instead of trying to engage everywhere, I shifted to a more passive but much deeper approach - I explore materials more, seek out topics and dive into them on my own axis. I'm finding my own perspectives, which I find more beneficial both personally and collectively than forcing myself to catch up on one source of truth. In previous semesters, I focused heavily on outputs. Now I focus more on process and progress, and not only is it more beneficial and enjoyable, but the final outputs also come together better and I'm naturally more confident. With starting my new job as a frontend mobile app developer, my work activities connected with my study goals. I feel great in development, but I'm also involved in UX activities in freelance. When these mindsets connected, it created a beautiful natural, healthy, and sustainable continuous growth both professionally and academically, for which I don't need to push everything around me just to achieve some external validation.

Progress on My Semester Goals

This semester I set two main educational goals: AI-enabled native development in Swift and exploring AIxHuman interactions, specifically the transformation of UIs in digital products through AI. Both of these goals came together in my main personal project - the Pockets app.

1. AI-enabled Native Development in Swift: With the help of Claude Code, I developed a native macOS application called Pockets, which is connected to the OpenAI API with GPT Vision for analyzing uploaded files. I consider this goal significantly fulfilled. Exploring Swift and native development has, thanks to the result - a functional application - significantly helped me advance in my development career. Moreover, I'm incredibly fulfilled by solo indie product development in the fusion of design and development. Solo execution of such a complex project gave me a lot. I went through many iterations, technical limitations, non-functional things, debug sessions, and I enjoy all of it. I'm part of the Build in Public community, where there are many product designers or developers, where I observe - just like with my project - how AI is fusing the design and development process.

2. Exploring AIxHuman Interactions: Pockets is also my exploration of interest in interactions between AI and humans - specifically in the context of changing User Interfaces with regard to AI. It's a UI that doesn't scream "AI features," but in the background helps the user with productivity and categorization. It's a productivity tool that shows how AI can be integrated into an interface in a way that's useful but not disruptive. In a few days, the application will be in TestFlight and I'll significantly expand the tester base. Big challenges still await me - security, final code review, finalizing the backend architecture for connecting the mobile application that will be created next semester. Users during testing say they like the app, and this interest pushes me to keep working on it.

Reflections on My Courses

This semester's courses were a challenging but perfectly curated mix that directly supported my professional and personal growth.

AI004 Blok AI Expertů (Block of AI Experts)

✨ Inspiring, Diverse, Practical

Interesting topics from speakers - we explored various topics around AI from vibe coding through media to avatars and education. I most enjoyed Anna Bohoněk's lecture on AI and Avatars - she built the entire lecture on fuck-ups and was brilliantly engaging. I was also intrigued by Daria Hvížďalová's lecture on AI and education. I learned how media interprets the topic of "getting dumber" with AI in their own way. I'm very grateful for the explanation of the heavily mediatized study from MIT Media Lab, which examined brain activity when using AI/Google/just your own brain. The original conclusions that we're getting dumber with AI weren't entirely accurate. Long story short - the study is preliminary, has a small sample, and cannot be generalized to all AI tools, with the authors explicitly stating that it doesn't mean "LLMs make you dumb."

cjva2p Online anglický jazyk pro akademické účely II (Online English for Academic Purposes II)

✨ Structured, Challenging, Returning

Nicely crafted course. I've fallen out of active communication in English - besides traveling and occasional work activities in English, I've recently communicated less in spoken form in larger structures. I'm glad the course challenged me to speak more formal English. In elementary and high school, English was one of my favorite subjects and I even went to English competitions, so it was a nice moment to return. For the final presentation, I chose research on "The filter bubble effect in machine learning driven service personalization," which nicely connects digital service design and my interest in AI and machine learning. I learned about new frameworks that enable personalization on top of existing recommender models and reduce the filter bubble effect in service personalization.

DESB31 Praxe III (Practice III)

✨ Realization-focused, Complex, Product-driven

I'm thrilled with the entire process around Pockets - the app was created as an exploration of interaction design, native Swift development, AI-enabled development, AIxHuman interactions, and connecting services with AI. The project resulted in a functional product that users during testing say they like, and this interest pushes me to keep working on the app. In a few days, the application will be in TestFlight and I'll significantly expand the tester base. Big challenges still await me - security, final code review, finalizing the backend architecture for connecting the mobile application that will be created next semester. This course is a perfect bridge between academia and professional life - the freedom to choose my project allows me to create work that's relevant to my career.

DESB23 Kvalitativní výzkum pro design služeb (Qualitative Research for Service Design)

✨ Intensive, Eye-opening, Collaborative

This was a huge surprise! I had no idea how incredibly time-consuming and difficult qualitative research is. My respect for researchers has grown immensely. Working on a large team project, I conducted in-depth interviews, transcribed, tagged, analyzed, and synthesized data. I couldn't have done it without my team. It was a very valuable, humbling, and eye-opening experience.

DESB33 Digitální přístupnost (Digital Accessibility)

✨ Flexible, Applicable, Eye-opening

Great subject. I like the flexibility in completion options - I chose completion via an article. I did research on Apple Developer accessible materials for inclusive practices when developing for Apple platforms. Thanks to the course, I immediately implemented some into the Pockets app. I'm glad the course emphasizes the importance of accessible digital services. People often forget about it during development, but after this course, I have accessibility much higher in my priorities.

DESB34 Interakční design (Interaction Design)

✨ Fundamental, Overwhelming, Incomplete

A very important and comprehensive course that I consider one of the most fundamental for working in UX. At the beginning of the course, I started working on the Pockets app, and together with the new job, I couldn't keep up with the course as I needed to. The Pockets app also picked up momentum that I didn't anticipate, and I fell behind in the course, which led to my final case study on Pockets not meeting the requirements. I feel my gaps in the process are too large to adjust the project/case study this semester. I'd rather retake the course next year and do it properly.

DESB35 Komunikace v týmu (Team Communication)

✨ Practical, Timely, Safe

Although the course had a few organizational misalignments at the beginning, I'm very grateful for it. Parallel to starting my new job, I was exploring communication techniques with the course, and at work, for example, I opened the topic of communication with psychological safety. The timing of this course was perfect - learning about team communication right when I'm joining a new team was very valuable. I could apply some concepts almost immediately.

DESB42 Designové experimenty (Design Experiments)

✨ Creative, Fun, Actionable

Great and fun course! Again, I worked with the Pockets app and designed a testing experiment, thanks to which I have lots of actionable insights for the application. Many of them are already implemented. I liked that the course combines theoretical knowledge about experiments with the possibility to immediately apply them to your own project. The experiment results gave me a concrete direction for where to take the app next.

DESB81 Figma: Od návrhu po prototyp (Figma: From Design to Prototype)

✨ Connecting, Professional, Important

Unfortunately, with work, I couldn't make time to meet for online sessions, but I consider the course essential for UX. Good work with Figma connects design and development, and I see it firsthand at work in development.

Conclusion and Next Steps

I'm incredibly satisfied with how this semester developed. I found my place at the intersection of design and development, I started being kinder to myself, and overall I managed to create a sustainable growth model that doesn't rely on overextending myself, but on authentically following what makes sense to me. The Pockets app is proof that my direction works - connecting study goals (AI-enabled Swift development, AIxHuman interactions) with practical output (a functional product that people want to use) is exactly what I was looking for. However, not everything went smoothly. My failure to complete Interaction Design serves as an important lesson about prioritization. While I'm proud of what I accomplished with Pockets, I need to be more mindful of where my focus goes. It's easy to get swept up in the excitement of a project and lose sight of other commitments. I need to watch the direction of my focus more carefully to ensure I don't miss the train on fundamental courses that deserve my full attention. This is a balance I'm still learning to strike - between diving deep into passion projects and maintaining awareness of my broader academic commitments.Moving forward, my priorities are clear:

1. Complete and launch Pockets: TestFlight beta, security review, code cleanup, mobile version preparation

2. Retake DESB34: Interaction design deserves my full attention, I want to go through the course properly

3. Deepen Swift/native development: Continue building expertise in iOS/macOS development

4. Explore AIxHuman interactions further: Apply insights from Pockets to other projects

5. Maintain a healthy approach: Keep kindness to myself, strategic time management, and focus on progress over perfection