First-year design student struggling to find a 'real' problem to work on — how do you discover problems worth solving?
I'm a first-year B.Des student and I've been trying to find a solid UX problem to work on for my college design project not a redesign of an existing app, but an actual problem rooted in real user frustration or an underserved need.
The issue is, every time I come up with something, it either feels too vague ("people waste time"), too niche to be relatable, or already solved a hundred times over. I've tried:
- Observing everyday friction points around me
- Going through Reddit threads of complaints
- Thinking about communities I'm part of (students, small-town users in India, etc.)
But I always hit a wall when trying to validate whether the problem is *actually* worth designing for.
For those of you who've been through this — how did you find the problem that led to your best portfolio work? Was it through structured research, personal experience, or just stumbling into it?
Would love to hear how you approach problem discovery, especially early in your career. Any frameworks, habits, or mindset shifts that helped?
Thanks in advance 🙏