This past week I hot a major milestone in my final course, as well as my final academic project. I finished all of the mandatory functionality for the mobile app that my team set at the outset of the course. By some standards the mobile app is a complete product, fully functional and capable of performing all of the tasks required of it. By my standards it is far from finished though, requiring significantly more attention to design, style and cross-platform testing. While there are apps I use that are full of excellent features but lacking in aesthetics and usability, I want to push this project to be better, and more well-rounded. I’ve never settled for good enough, because I am a perfectionist and I always poor myself into any endeavor I embark upon.

My team has refined our list of stretch goals regarding optional functionality that we now have the time to incorporate. They have been hard at work getting the website security and authentication running, and I will begin adding quality of life and usability features to the mobile app. I have enlisted my wife and daughter as usability testers to try to uncover features or UI design choices that excite users, so they want to use the app, not just because they have to. I even dug up my notes and prior assignments from my Usability course to help with this process.

All that said, I can’t help but feel like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Although there is still significant work to be done on this project, the heavy lifting is over, and the end is in sight. Everything that I’ve worked for these last 2 years is coming to fruition. In a mere month I will have completed my final course and graduate, with a degree that means more than just completion of an academic program. It means opportunity and hope for me and the family that depends upon me to provide them a life they deserve.