During this project I got the work on my pre-set goals as well as unexpected learning opportunities.

Despite my pre-set goals, I realized that open-ended co-creation was not the best fit for this project, which already had a defined direction from the proposal. It stimulated me to adjust and combine co-creation methods to be more directed. Working with children provided an extra challenge as they are less forgiving when a session is ill structured, they will truly only return what you bring in. Altogether, I feel like I got to build a solid foundation for co-creation which I would be keen to further explore, perhaps earlier on in the process and with new knowledge better suited to children.

Although I intended to use the RTD process to make my process more academic I found that it was more useful to me as a way to make sense of the design process, decide on future steps. Throughout the process I would reflect on what types of design activities I had done and which were lacking to guide direction. Towards the end, when the design activities were more clearly laid out I used it less. I hope that this project has given me the foundation to guide my activities in a similar manner without actively reminding myself to use the RTD framework. A skill that I could keep using throughout my future career.

An unexpected outcome is how this project has supported my to change how I work with stakeholders. In the past I often took a role of pleasing a stakeholder, but as I kept up relations with varying stakeholders throughout the project I learned to communicate my own position and ideas more confidently. I believe it made the conversations more inspiring for both me and the stakeholder. This shift has changed how I see my role as a designer in collaborative context and will help me in my future work to get stakeholders on board without compromising my values.

Finally, I would like to reflect on my personal growth throughout the complete master's and how this manifested in this project. Towards the end of a project I would always be unsatisfied with my work, resulting in bad collaboration (see project 1), or simply a negative association with the project. Due to a stressful FMP proposal, this project had already started with a negative association. However, unlike previous projects, it got better as the project aligned more and more with who I am as a designer. Despite the many ways the project could be better, I respect it as a manifestation of my current skills and interests. I still have lots of room to grow, for instance what do I do when a project doesn’t as closely align with my interest? However, the past two year have shown me that continued effort does promote growth so I trust that I will continue to grow.