Client: BrainStation
Founded in Toronto in 2012, BrainStation a progressive educational institution that assists professionals develop digital skill sets. In March 2014 they expanded out to other cities including Waterloo, New York, and Vancouver.
Project Brief
When BrainStation first came to Vancouver, they sought me out to take on the role of Lead User Experience Educator. I had already been searching for an opportunity to contributes to the design community by mentoring younger designers, and BrainStation was the perfect way to give back. I have now held the position of lead instructor for three consecutive cohorts.
The course takes place over 12 weeks and covers a broad range of topics, e.g.:
- Design Thinking
- User and Market Research
- Experience Mapping
- Information Architecture
- Interaction Design
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
- Usability
- Critique
“Sean is friendly and responsive. He is genuine and wants to help
us learn.
”
Process
My first task with BrainStation was to design a two hour Introduction to User Experience workshop that was accessible to a broad audience. Originally designed as a 24-30 person workshop, I’ve now administered it to workshops with over 70 attendees.
The course syllabus is setup at a high-level and meant to be supplemented with an educator’s personal experience and examples. Early on during my first cohort, I realized that the initial curriculum provided by Toronto didn’t quite suit the needs of Vancouver students. The majority of my students came from smaller product companies, agencies, or startups, and the order and content of the curriculum needed to reflect this. Educators in Toronto saw the changing need for this and have since taken on many of my suggestions and integrated them into the base curriculum.
I’ve discovered a true love of teaching while with BrainStation. Working with students and seeing them learn and grow has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. I’ve also learned a lot about education, presenting, and thinking on my feet, all of which have helped me in my work with clients.
“Sean is awesome. He’s an excellent speaker and very thorough when providing feedback. He’s patient, and you can tell he really listens when you’re talking. He always has a comment or critical feedback on our work.”
Results
BrainStation periodically requested students to supply feedback on the course to date and educators. My average student feedback rating is 4.8/5.
“Sean’s passion toward user experience design is infectious. I had the great fortune of having Sean as one of my UX Design educators at BrainStation. He made every design concept seem easier to understand just because he was able to translate it with examples from his experience. He has a wealth of knowledge in the UX design as well as business expertise, which positions Sean as a must have instructor if you want to develop skills as a designer.
Sean is a creative thinker that understands both the strategic, and the creative side of product design. He is not only a great teacher but also valuable mentor and a friend to have meaningful conversations with.”
“BrainStation was just starting in Vancouver and at the same time I took on the new role as GM. The first class I took to better understand our products was UX with Sean. His knowledge in UX blew my mind and showed me how the UX industry is a specialty skill that takes a lot of work to perfect. He’s a classroom master and is able to navigate and translate our 10 week course to the students as a mentor and coach. BrainStation YVR is extremely happy to have him as one of our Educators!”