Finally started munching on those roasted cashew nuts that I bought from the supermarket yesterday. Again, I am really thankful for the recent SG60 vouchers. I got out of the house earlier than my usual timing today because home just feels like a place with a lot of stressors right now. It’s not about who, but rather the what. The environment itself reminds me that I still have all of these responsibilities and commitments and I haven’t been able to fully meet. And I’m trying my best not to think negatively about myself. After all, I know that I am doing my best. But yeah, there are days when I still can’t help but wonder, have I really done my best today, so far, this week?? Yes, I do experience plenty of self-doubts as of late. Constantly second-guessing myself.

But in those brief moments of control and peace, I know in my heart that I have already done the best that I could under the circumstances. The rest is simply beyond my control right now.

Making the Most of My “In-Between” Period

Over the past few days, I have been behaving like a busy bee 🐝, even though I don’t actually have anything concrete on my agenda yet. This is genuinely just my own way of keeping my ADHD mind 🧠 occupied and focused on something meaningful so that it doesn’t wander off into all the other random thoughts 💭. Frankly, it has been a really nice distraction. So far, I have already managed to complete my version 1.0 Satori UI showcase page. And I’m actually quite pleased with how it turned out.

From MVP ➡️ Live Mock-up ➡️ Interactive Showcase App

So, here’s where my head’s at this morning. With the Satori UI Showcase Page done, I’m looking for my next distraction. Something to do that would also be both purposeful and have value. And I remembered my recent final school project. I had the opportunity to turn one of my MVP project ideas 💡 into a simulated, fictitious white-label digital solution. Thanks to my school project, I had the opportunity to build a story/narrative around this project idea. Now, I want to take things a step further.

I want to turn this live mock-up into an actual interactive showcase app. No, it won’t be a full application because that would take months, if not an entire year to actually build. Like, yeah, a real world digital solution like that can take up to a year and requires a team of people working together to make it happen. For now, what I am aiming for is a snapshot. A portion of the dashboard that is actually working with live data input and can be edited and manipulated. An actual live demo.

Portfolio Crafting from a UX Engineer’s Perspective

Whenever I think about what it means for me to call myself a “UX Engineer”, I think about craftsman, carpenters (curious, do we still call them that in today’s context??). I think about people that actually take the time to study a design, blueprint, and then they would take a block of wood and slowly start slicing them, and craving into them. But more than just that, it is also about the process that they go through to help design and build some of the most comfortable, beautiful-looking and pricest furniture on the planet. And in many cases, most cases in fact, they usually only make a few of these at a time. It’s limited-edition and expensive for a reason.

That is precisely what a UX engineer is when you try to summarize everything that we do and who we are down into a single statement: We are the craftsman of the digital world. A designer might have the idea, a software architect might have the blueprints, but we, we are the ones that can take all of that and start turning it into something real. Something truly valuable.

That is what I want to do with every single one of my showcase projects as well as the actual projects that I take on for my freelance clients. It’s about helping them to turn their ideas and visions into something valuable. Something that they will love and enjoy using, seeing, browsing.

I’m choosing to use this next part of my lull period to start turning AceIt!, into an interactive showcase demo app. And in the meantime, whatever could happen, or might happen, I am going to surrender all of that into God’s hands. I will trust that He is in control. That He alone knows what is best for me. I can’t control when I might find my next gig or client. But instead of looking back one day and wishing I had done something with my time now, I rather choose to actually do something about it.

I want to be able to look back towards this time in my life and actually say, “Hey, I did something meaningful with it. I learned something new. I tried something. And it was worth it!”