Weeknote 1

Written By Callum Laird

In summary

Emoji of the week: 🧀

3 words to summarise the week: Heatpumps, socialising and squeaking

Number of steps: 71,823

Average hours of sleep: 8hrs 41min

A series of sketches, printed out and scattered on a mid-colour wood desk, with a grey pen lying on top. The sketches show a frame of an iPhone with low-fidelity sketches on top of a service to 'register your emotional support goose'

Inputs

  • Listened to soooooo many episodes of The Hidden 20%, which seems to be one of my new favourite podcasts to listen to in the background

  • Enjoyed some of Deacon Blue’s classic songs . Sad to hear that James Prime, keyboard player in the band, is in hospital and unwell

  • Started eating rye bread again, forgot how much I liked it

  • Did some informal reading around design in government post-spending review

Outputs

  • Got tix to see Amy Macdonald in a few weeks at her album launch show in town, excited for that!

  • Had a lovely catchup with an old colleague and had an informal sharing session where I talked them through wire framing and prototyping, it was really lovely to catch up. We built some interactive paper prototypes using pen, paper and Marvel to make them interactive and then crafted some high-fidelity prototypes using the GOV.UK Design System and Figma. You can have a nosey at our ‘service’ prototype: register your emotional support goose

Sidequests

  • I used to do weeknotes in my last role but never shared them publicly. I’m determined to keep this up and share the good and the bad in the open. Now I’ve said that online, I have to keep my promise

  • I applied for the Design Lives Here scheme, which is a new initiative by UNESCO City of Design Dundee to help raise awareness of Dundee’s City of Design designation. Anyway, I found out on Thursday that I was successful, which was a lovely surprise! Note to self - need to write my bio and send it in to them

  • I got a new tumble dryer, a Samsung Heat Pump one to be precise. I now know far too much about heat pumps and how they work. Another bit of useless knowledge to add to the collection!

Bugs

  • Must’ve been in a rush one morning and found that I left my yoghurt in the pantry rather than the fridge :(

  • It’s now been over a week since I finished my last role at HM Revenue & Customs’ Valuation Office Agency, starting to really miss the team I was working with

Callum Laird
Previous

Weeknote 2