The selection of the project to be worked on takes place at a very early stage, where the learners are not yet aware of the next steps to be taken in this course in relation to the project, so they may choose an inappropriate project. This is a problem because not all Sharpen prompts are projects for which all the steps that are then required during the course can be completed. In addition, Sharpen's promts are not diverse enough, and the same promts are often repeated. I think that the projects in Sharpen should not be repeated, should always be different and there should be a Back button with which the user can go back to the prompts he has already seen. But above all, it should be explained briefly at least about everything that will be done in the course in connection with this project, so that the student can choose the right project.

Though I've been designing and developing interactive media for a long time, I wanted to see if I actually would qualify for the many UX-related positions I see out there. I do. Many of the concepts and processes taught in this course were rehashes of things we've always done in creating digital user environments – it's just that they are no codified and taught specifically in courses like this, and at Universities. I wasn't crazy about the peer review process, having used this in college-level courses I've taught in composition and communication, and find that it's simply a skillset that most people have developed (critiquing other people's work and providing constructive feedback). Overall, very good module.

I believe that the course itself is essential and helps students like me to develop UX skills. However, I think there should be smoother way in selecting portfolios. For example, there should only be like 3 portfolio selection and each portfolio can have an exemplar, so that we can validate if we are on a right track. Additionally, some portfolio will have a challenge on the competetive audits, just like mine, it's client management app, and I have to go over and see what competitors are there for me and mostly will need some payment to actually see the app. If we can do a simulation type of competitors for each of the portfolio selection, that will be really great. Thanks!

This course is very useful. Hands on experience is great. I have a suggestion about the assignment on week 5 of this course that grading may be broken down into more points. For example, Competitive Audit Report has 2 points of each items. In fact, some peers don't do well to get 2 but may get 1.5. As for Competitive Audit, there are total 2 scores for Rating those comparison items. In fact, some peers don't do even half or more than half a little bit. In summary, I think the task or question that need lots of work or input to be done may have score more than 2 to give chance for reflecting performance better.

Interesting introduction into starting to learn more on practical ways to empathize with users, through personas, user journeys, problem statement etc. However, the reading part of the course is where I particularly struggle with. I normally take double the time to read through the information. As I want to get the most of the course, I go through the additional articles that are optional. It would be good idea to mention how long the additional reading could take (mention on the approximate time in the vertical task toolbar).

The course content was useful but the last part peer reviews for imaginary competitors felt like a far-fetched idea. It took too long to get everything together and then peer reviews were a disappointment. The peers who are reviewing don’t bother to leave any comment/feedback Or they themselves do not have any idea about what is right or wrong. I felt the last assignment was very tedious and I would have benefited from a proper instructor review on this one.  Crazy8 exercize was fun and nicely explained.

Great course. I learned a lot of new things, although I have been designing on my own for a long time and studied to be a graphic designer. Really a lot of useful information. Thanks to the teacher and all those who made this course. Everything is clear and accessible. The only thing I really didn't like was that important course assignments are graded by peers who have no experience in UX design. I think that professionals should evaluate assignments so that it is objective.

Overall, the course is great. I like how deeply you dive into every section, getting detailed information. The only doubtful method for me is the peer-grading system. I am here to learn from the professionals in this field and although I understand what is the main point to learn works of other students, but on the other hand, it's extremely wrong that someone who has much lower knowledge than me at this point of the course, would grade my assignments and submissions.

The instructor was very easy to listen to and engaging, it's obvious she's a great asset to Google's Research Team! The only thing that was distracting in the videos is the monitor and back of the laptop. I would recommend positioning the instructors like you do with Shabi and others, so that they're the focus. She finally did use the monitor in 1 part of the course. Michaels' set up was the same, and I don't believe he used the monitor at all.

I wasn't really clear with what should I do ideation about. For example, if I still don't have an app, but just have an idea of making one, then should I do crazy 8 about 8 solutions that include an app, solutions we as ux dizajners have influence, or just solutions for problem users have with similar apps. I think in the end that I concluded it's the last. But It wasn't so clearly explained in the videos (at least for my opinion).

This course provides a lot of necessary protein in your entree. I found it however, to be slightly boring and dragging from all the Assignments. I still think it teaches a lot of core principles when approaching the early stages of a product/project when it comes to UX Design so, use this course wisely!

Lots of other readings can be found here and may be more helpful than just the course itself. Take advantage of this :)

This course has been a great experience for my UX journey. It has proven constructively difficult at times whilst offer entertaining and supportive guidance during times of ease. I do wish that the course elaborated on the Crazy 8's topic. For a commonly used skill set that is rather difficult to master due to inherent time restraints, I would have hope to see more exercises and interactive examples of the Crazy 8's.

Very interesting for someone coming to this field cold. A big step up from the first course, though -- I skated through that but put in hours of work in this course! Four stars because I wish there was some mechanism to interact with an instructor. Peer grading is useful most of the time, but I would love to get expert feedback now and then, and/or attend a live seminar and have the opportunity to post questions.

The course material is great, and it's setting me up to make a portfolio quite nicely! Unfortunately, the peer-reviewed assignments are not so great, since the rubric requirements are generally vague and peers don't tend to give in-depth feedback very often. The course layout is also changing up a bit right now as well, and I don't know if that's a consistent thing, but it's a bit disorienting.

+ Really fun and interesting practical activities.

+ Provided a great introduction on critical tools for empathising, defining and ideating.

- I feel I need clearer signs of when to update the case study slide deck.

- Completing two competitive audits + reports was quite overwhelming, especially when we have to download so many apps to compare against CoffeeHouse and our portfolio company.

This course was really good! It provided a solid foundation for the beginning of the Design Thinking Framework. The instructor and guest speakers were all personable and knowledgable. My only request is that there would be additional coverage on how to form a problem statement and more detail regarding the "Define" stage. Overall, definitely worth taking to understand the framework.

Slightly overlong feeling/tedious, though I came to believe it was on purpose. This section did require more in-depth exploration, and I enjoyed the assignments. I give 4 stars due to "Psychology" being an "optional" section, when I feel that in order to properly empathize equitably with users, UX Designers should have a more thorough understanding of the foundations of psychology.

Great course! Valuable information and practice in regards to Competitive Audit, but definitely takes more time than alotted and might be best suited for team work or broken down into smaller parts. Having to search for relevant websites also took some time. And honestly not sure how to answer some questions like, how do the competitors rate themselves (very subjective).

Course 2

This course was helpful. It does become a bit convoluted with the varying practice exercises instead of focusing in on our main project. Peer reviews to determine our grades are somewhat frustrating as we are all learning together and grades are given without feedback, which makes improving or changing our product difficult by having to guess what was wrong.

This course contained very important information, especially in week 3 and week 4 where we were learning about defining user problems and conducting competitive audits. Also, it isn't possible to change the theme you choose for your portfolio, and for me, it's a big problem. Because the competitors for the mobile app for the online menu are truly outstanding.

Very well laid out, especially if you are a beginner. The additional resources assist if you having trouble figuring out what the assignments require of you. Great facilitator and reference material. Prepare for the volume of content - while uncomplicated, you need a level of concentration to get through all of it. With that said, this is a research module.

The end of some sections usually don't lead to what was promised in the last few seconds of the video. For example, "and that is the end of empathy mapping. Next, we will see how you can use these maps to create personas." The next video or section doesn't even lead to personas. It isn't annoying at first, but it happening frequently is the problem.

This course is little challenging for beginner/ introvert like myself. Conducting interviews, creating persona, writing user story, creating problem statement all these were new to me. But once I've finished this course, a feeling of accomplishment was felt. Great learning curve personally! Thank you Google for creating this course.

The course content was fantastic. It's really thorough and I really learn a lot. But I had trouble when the course was updated when I had just completed my last assignment. I had to resubmit all my assignments and re-do a test and wait 10 days for a peer review, during this time my financial aid expired, causing more difficulty.

There were a lot of concepts covered in this course and it would have been good to break them down into more weeks. I found myself getting fatigued by the long list of things to cover each week. I'd also like to see the subject's "prompt" option being more used, rather than just using the example provided for some of the tasks.