Fail, A Good Thing

A couple notes to self:

When practicing interaction design, one must extensively produce rationales behind every aspect of the prototype. This includes, in part, deep creation of personas, complete with pictures and an outline of all their hobbies, passions, and beliefs - the works. That way, if and when there are road blocks, it's always possible to check back with the persona to receive valuable feedback regarding any questionable features in your design.

Usability tests are vital. More often than not, these are found to be more advantageous than any perfected creationist process or professionals' 2 cents. The users are the experts here. Conduct broadly and note all forms of feedback. Adjust, refine, and repeat.

Finally, one of the most important take away points is understanding the necessity of documentation. Simply because a design makes sense to you on paper, it merely resembles a series of scribbles to another colleague, project manager, or creative lead. Though it may seem quite obvious, you must always keep track of your thought process whenever and wherever possible. So, when it comes time for feedback, it will be in the form of edifying critiques about your design, not questions regarding its puzzling direction.