Disclaimer: This is my personal journal and includes rough notes from my PhD journey. Some thoughts may be incomplete or not thoroughly researched. Please do not consider any content in my monthly notes to be definitive or final. If you have insights on any subjects I discuss or would like to start a conversation on a topic, please do get in touch!
As I start the empirical part of my study, I’ve decided to take a leaf out of Rachel Wood’s online book of weeknotes and create my own series of PhD journey updates. Weeknotes serve as a reflective tool to document progress, challenges, and key learnings throughout the research process. But weekly updates give me anxiety, so I’ve decided to do a monthly version. This is my first #monthnote, providing a broader reflection on the progress I’ve made in October.
This is a work in progress, so the format will likely change. Over the next few months, I’ll experiment with the structure and what I include. This month, I’ll update you on what I’ve been reading and writing, the events I’ve participated in, and any contributions I’ve made. I’ll also give some insight into how the PhD journey is personally going for me—the type of perspective I would have loved before embarking on this journey.
In the spirit of transparency, I should mention that this first post is slightly longer than a month because I started journalling on 27th September—so you’ll get a bonus four days in this first one!!
What I’m reading
I usually have a few books started and read them at the same time. I don’t like restricting myself to one book because it makes me feel pressured to finish it quickly. Instead, I keep a few books lying around the house and pick up whichever I feel like reading. Harry Potter is one of those series I return to on a continuous loop whenever I need something to pull me out of a reading rut.
Books I hope to finish soon:
We solve murders by Richard Osman.
I loved Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, so I had to pick up this first book of his new series. I do miss Elizabeth from the earlier books, but it’s not a bad read. If you enjoy crime fiction with British humour, this is a great, light choice.
Design is a Job: the Necessary second version by Mike Monteiro.
I got the new edition of this and really enjoyed it. It’s a valuable resource for anyone entering a design career and for seasoned designers who appreciate Monteiro’s no-nonsense perspective on working in commercial design.
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World by Parmy Olson.
This was recommended to me by my supervisor as it covers the ethical AI dilemma—touching on individual, organisational, and regulatory dimensions that I plan to explore in my own study. This book recounts the race between Sam Altman (OpenAI: ChatGPT) and Demis Hassabis (DeepMind: Bard), showing how an initial quest to solve humanity’s challenges has evolved into a race to be the first to develop mass-market AI.
Papers I am in the process of writing up in Obsidian:
Resistant and Remediating Design by Dr John R Knight
Articles or blog posts I enjoyed:
The end of work: which jobs will survive the AI revolution – the Guardian
Queering design systems thinking – Jovo design
Reclaiming Narratives: The paradox of the camera as a tool for representation and agency by Folasayo Olalere
What I’ve written
To improve my note-taking and writing, I’ve started a PhD journal. Over the past few years, I’ve tried different writing challenges that have helped me make writing more of a habit. I haven’t been writing for long, as I used to think it wasn’t for me. Being bilingual, I can speak two languages fluently, but I’ve never been strong with grammar in either. I used to believe my only talent was artistic, so I avoided writing. However, I’ve always wanted to pursue a PhD, and I knew I would need to work on my writing. So, a few years before starting my PhD, I began writing thought leadership pieces for work. I gradually improved, seeing writing as a muscle I needed to train. Eventually, I stopped worrying about others’ opinions and simply wrote because I wanted to. Since starting my PhD, I’ve been journaling regularly and now aim to write at least a diary page each day.
A couple of years ago, I discovered a book on note-taking inspired by the Zettlekasten method—a system used by researchers since the 16th century. I’ve adapted this method for my own note-taking, treating it like a "second brain." I use an app called Obsidian, where I’ve created a vault for all my notes and reflections. Below is a graph view of the notes I’ve made this year. The tagging feature helps create a network of ideas that I can later combine into articles, blog posts, or essays.
I also watched a video on the benefits of writing mini-essays, which suggested that summarising and reflecting on topics in a concise format is an effective way to retain knowledge. I've written about ten mini-essays on a range of topics that interest me, from design and ethics to personal reflections and insights from my readings. These essays allow me to organise my thoughts more clearly and make connections between ideas. While I may not publish all of them, I plan to share a few on my blog to contribute to ongoing conversations and potentially spark feedback that can refine my thinking.
I’ve also started the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge. Here’s a link to my blogpost explaining my approach.
What I watched
The Good Place: I’m not a huge fan of comedy and even less so of series, as I don’t like committing to months or years to reach the ending. However, I decided to give The Good Place a try because of its exploration of philosophical questions about what is ‘good’ versus ‘bad.’ One of the main characters, Chidi, is a moral philosopher who tries to teach ethics to the main character. In an engaging way, Chidi walks the audience through different philosophical approaches to morality and ethics. I even found a useful reading list for those interested in exploring each moral philosophy further.
I also picked up a book called The Forking Trolley, which uses The Good Place to discuss thought experiments like the trolley problem. I plan to write a separate mini-essay or blog post on how thought experiments can be used as a method to make products and services more ethical.
Events I took part in (or didn’t but really wanted to!)
“Dark Patterns” in technology practices: challenges and opportunities – Colin Gray, one of the main scholars I reference in my thesis, recently shared his thoughts on current definitions of dark patterns (also known as "deceptive patterns"). Colin has been researching dark patterns as part of his work on design ethics for the past seven years, sharing examples and findings that shed light on this area.
Nine minds: narrating neurodivergent experience – Daniel Tammet.
An Evening with Yuval Noah Harari – I will be writing-up this talk for an OU blog this week, so watch out for the link on my LinkedIn.
Initiatives and Contributions that I’m excited about
The Taiwan Hackathon - For the last few months, I’ve been working with a multidisciplinary team of PhD researchers to develop a platform that uses soil data to recommend the most sustainable crops for farmers. We have advanced to the next stage!
ARC Universities Initiative - Since April this year, I have served as the Open University representative for 2024 for the ARC Universities Group, promoting research, skills, and innovation to support the region. I have contributed to the cohort through insightful discussions, two blog posts, and fireside chats in the lead-up to the Summit on 5th November 2024.
GAABS Decision-making survey - I assisted with designing and promoting a survey that is part of a broader initiative to highlight science-based decision-making practices in the workplace.
Some thoughts on how the PhD journey is going
This is something I wish someone else had written for me to read before starting this journey. When I was considering a PhD, I couldn’t find information about what it looks like for a full-time practising designer pursuing a part-time PhD in Design within the Engineering and Innovation faculty of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). While there is plenty of information on how to “do” a PhD, there aren’t many stories relevant to my specific field and situation. It’s difficult to generalise since each PhD journey is unique.
I remember when my son told me that he was afraid that if he held off on his PhD idea, someone else would write it. I told him not to worry. In research, context and positionality are crucial to the outcomes. I could take someone’s idea, but because I would build the research method differently, speak to different participants, and conduct the research at a different time, my findings would still differ. This is not to say that research cannot be replicated; the purpose of writing in minute detail is to enable others to reproduce your work and verify the results.
The reality is that if I weren’t on this specific journey, walking hand in hand with my own experiences, I would likely focus on something different or pose a slightly different question, leading to different findings. It’s actually good to have research to compare against; someone may have explored a similar topic using a different method or conducted research that is entirely different but employs an interesting methodology. All of this can be relevant.
Because we’re not walking hand in hand, a PhD journey can be very lonely. I don’t have anyone in my family with a PhD, so I don’t have anyone to consult or talk to. One of the things that makes this journey easier is having a study buddy. Rachel (who I mentioned before when discussing "borrowing" her #weeknotes idea) has been part of my journey from the start. We found each other within a couple of months of starting our PhDs and have had weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, catch-ups since then.
Rachel is focusing on a topic that is very different from mine. However, learning about her approach and comparing it to my own has accelerated my learning compared to if I were on my own. Having someone who understands your struggles and whom you can bounce ideas around is immeasurably helpful. It’s also great to have someone to vent to about the administrative tasks that accompany doing a PhD.
Useful links
Sketchplanations by Jono Hey. I love how complex ideas are simplified visually. By signing up for the newsletter, you’ll receive a weekly email with a sketch and additional insights on each concept.
If you have taken the time to read this post, thank you. If you have any feedback, do not hesitate to reach out—feedback is a gift. I want my monthly updates to serve not only as a form of journaling but also to give readers insight into the life of a design practitioner who has made questionable life choices and decided to contribute to the wall of knowledge by working on a PhD in their spare time. If there is anything you find interesting and would like to know more about, let me know. This series is an experiment, and I am happy to add more to any sections or write a separate post.
November writing progress: 2407/50000
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