Website Design

09.10.15

I researched effective website designs and found which ones would appeal to the audience I'm targeting. One design I found was for the Rhythm and Vines website.

http://www.rhythmandvines.co.nz/

The design is really clean and effective and proven to work. I also found it far easier to navigate because of its simplicity.

This helped me a lot as I'm unfamiliar with how to design websites effectively. It advanced my project because I was able to better visualize how my site could look and I could take notes on things that were effective and those that weren't.

Design Collateral

08.10.15

I created some promotional material around the website to reach the target audience and gain interest.

Experimenting with different methods of promotion helped me to realize which would be most effective. It also helped me to view how the proposal would be interacted and engaged with by getting a perspective from someone within the age bracket telling me what methods they would identify with. As well as what promotions would work I also considered the location of them and how to best reach people by using public and private spaces.

Logo Design

02.10.15

I began to redesign the logo after deciding that my website would be called 'Loop'. I wanted the logo to reflect the idea of circles of friends crossing over to create new groups but it also had to be dynamic and appeal to the target audience.

After various hand drawn thumbnails I started to design some logo options digitally. When showing the designs to my peers I was reassured by their feedback that the logo I preferred was the strongest out of them. This helped me to advance the project as it became easier to form a visual style once I had decided on the base logo design.

         

Prototyping - Test - Iterate

25-26.9.2015

I presented some visual designs of my proposal for testing and critique from peers.

The critique I received was valuable as it helped me to gain some more outside perspective on how the initial stages of my execution were looking. My project was advanced because the critique helped me to see that the design was lacking an overall visual style and that I had started to get caught up in the finer details rather than focusing on the general look I wanted to achieve.

Journey Map - Big Idea

18.9.2015

Class time was spent reviewing the feedback gained from the different tests that I'd run with other students and creating a journey map before, during and after my proposal based around what the target audience would be doing, thinking and feeling. I then tried to clarify the big idea that I was addressing.

After discussing this with tutors and peers I was reassured that my project was going in the right direction and that the general idea I had was promising, the discussions advanced my project because it helped me to see that my big idea needed to be resolved further to help me determine what exactly I want to achieve to begin creating something more definitive.

Prototype Test

17.9.2015

During the week leading up to class we had prepared materials that we needed to run more tests. After last weeks feedback I had spent my time trying to create something that wasn't in the form of a website but still tested how audiences would respond to the idea of cheaper event tickets being offered.

I arranged an area for students to physically sign up for events that were offering various deals. My goal was to test how the price of an event as well as how many people were already attending would affect their decisions and the way they interacted with both the area and each other.

I found that regardless of cost or savings offered, people were more concerned with how many friends would be attending each event and in particular who they were. This advanced my project because I could shift from offering discounts and cheap deals, to promoting events around the social benefits they bring

Exchange

11.9.2015

We had another exchange moment with students from other disciplines. I shared my ideas with Rata who is studying textiles and Yoshi from fashion design.

It was interesting seeing how their projects had progressed from our last exchange and although we were undertaking the idea of wellbeing in different ways I found it useful to present and get feedback from students who were unfamiliar with the VCD briefs.

When presenting them with my current ideas they had questions around how I planned to execute them. We also discussed what would give the audience incentive to take part. By having students who were less familiar with the VCD brief it helped to advance my project because they were able to critique it without existing knowledge of what I was trying to achieve, having an objective point of view gave me insights into what audiences would be interested in or want out of various social events around the way that they were organised or promoted.

Prototyping

11.9.2015

We did a prototyping exercise in order to test hunches that we had around how we were approaching our issue.

I based my test around an app or website that I was proposing: to encourage youth to partake in events with friends in order to feel confident and meet new people without the experience being based around alcohol consumption.

When testing this I gained some helpful insights from other students. The prototype was too complicated and needed to be something more direct and simple to get their attention. By having some fresh eyes it showed me that there was potentially better ways to approach my solution that weren't strictly app or website based ideas.

Point of View Statement

10.9.2015

In groups we presented our point of view statements to one another as well as some of our ideas based on insights we had gathered through research.

I had gained some interesting insights through my research and by presenting was able to get feedback on what was more valuable. When discussing my initial ideas around these insights the feedback helped me to realize that the issue could be targeted before it takes place. My peers used 'the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff' analogy which helped me to advance my project by gaining a better understanding of how I could approach the issue in a more positive way.

Pimp My Idea

21.8.2015

We presented a point of view statement to smaller groups including potential solutions we had created during the prototyping exercise. We then swapped work and considered how we could improve each others current ideas.

By having a fresh perspective on the ideas we received some good feedback on how they could be pushed into something stronger and more definitive, this helped me to see the value in exchanging and critiquing each others work. 

Rapid Prototyping

21.8.2015

In class I worked alongside a group of 3 that are undertaking a similar brief around binge drinking. We did a rapid prototyping exercise to come up with a range of ideas in a short amount of time.

I found it helpful to brainstorm the topic with other students and after the exercise we had found a lot of different ways in which we could approach the issue.

New Brief

14.8.2015

I had narrowed down which brief I might use to 2 options, 'Sugar Coated' - around the consumption and effects of sugar, and 'Wasted' - looking at informing youth about the effects of binge drinking. In class we determined who was taking on new briefs and created new teams.

My project was advanced after some discussion with other students who were changing their brief 'Sugar Coated' seemed to be a popular choice which inclined me to do the 'Wasted' brief. I also decided to work individually for the next part of the paper.

Hand-In

13.8.2015

We completed our project for hand-in and spent the class looking through various briefs submitted by the different streams.

I was interested in taking on another brief so noted down some of the ones that interested me from other students, these included:

'NZ sure to rise'
'Esc.'
'Wasted'
'Sugar Coated'
& 'We call bullshit'

These gave me a variety of options to consider and being able to physically flip through other briefs helped me to decide what I might want to work on for the remainder of the semester.

Mock-up 2

7.8.2015

I managed to progress the assignment to a stage where all information and visuals were included. We used a similar critiquing exercise to gain additional feedback on our mock-ups and our feedback received was mostly in regard to layout of images and type, whereas the content itself was working well.

It was valuable to get feedback on different potential ways of laying out the pages as well as people telling us what areas they had struggled to read or decipher, or what parts of the project weren't as strong.

This helped us to determine that our visual system needed some improvements and the text needed more hierarchy. We also discussed adding a few additional images to strengthen some of the information.

Mock-up (Client Page)

Mock-up 1

6.8.2015

We interpreted and critiqued each others full scale mock-ups in class by writing notes on each others work. The notes that we received were valuable as they pointed out that some of our statistics needed re-enforcing or weren't specific enough to the other content but that generally our visual elements were quite strong. By reviewing others work I was able to see different ways of presenting data and information and use it to reflect back on my own project.

Clarifying The 8 Points

31.7.2015

We reviewed each of our 8 points to clarify what needed to be communicated throughout the brief. By trying to look at our progress objectively and read it as if it were a brief we had been given, we were able to make a short statement for each point that summarized what we wanted to communicate. We also began matching some of our gathered statistics to each point.

This advanced the project because by bringing the information together we were able to read our content in full. It also helped us to form a clearer idea of the visual style we wanted to use to match what was being communicated.

Word Lists

30.7.2015

We brainstormed lists of words and sketched thumbnails that came to mind when focusing on different points of our project.

Using both tangible and intangible ideas we created lists with a range of thoughts around our audience and issue before considering how we could effectively link them using visual imagery.

After reading several journal articles around student procrastination I was able to generate a range of words that had associations to the idea which gave us a solid base to begin creating visuals around the different points. I found it useful to consider linking the tangible with the intangible ideas using juxtaposition. We also agreed on using illustrations within our projects rather than photographs to create a clear and cohesive style more easily.

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=8681f567-91cb-4f78-a403-5e4c5399fa33%40sessionmgr110&hid=127&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=84303932&db=pbh

http://ejournals.ebsco.com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/Direct.asp?AccessToken=954J5IM8X4JUKP5XIRRU5XDEIXXJ8II451&Show=Object

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/science/article/pii/S0191886914000701

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/time_use/TimeUseSurvey_HOTP2009-10.aspx

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/Households/nzgss_HOTP2014/Commentary.aspx

8 Spreads Further Critique

30.7.2015

We had printed 8 x A3 spreads with a combination of text and image and had groups from another stream respond and interpret our current progress.

The other groups generally thought that our concept was strong and interesting but required more statistics and evidence to support the idea. We discussed narrowing the area to the use of social media and the idea of encouraging people to work proactively rather than to simply stop procrastinating.

The feedback that we both received and gave to other groups helped to identify which of the spreads needed improvement and after looking at some of the other students projects I felt that I was able to better understand what was required for the next stage of development.

EX-CHANGE

24.7.2015

We met within groups from different disciplines across third year to collaborate on and discuss our assignments.

We introduced ourselves and each shared a brief outline of our interpretation of the assignment and how we were responding to it within our courses.

The exchange helped me to better understand my own project by verbally communicating it to students who were unfamiliar with our specific brief. It also gave me insight as to how the different disciplines were handling and interpreting their assignments in relation to their chosen field. I found the critique valuable coming from people that have different skill sets to myself and who I hadn't had the chance to work with before.

Sharing Our Concept

24.7.2015

We shared our progress with other pairs and critiqued each others work.

During the critiques we realised that our client point could include the tertiary provider as well as employers and people running workshops. We also discussed the idea of getting instant gratification from procrastination and how it can revolve around making and breaking routines.

This helped us to look at the project from a wider perspective giving more areas of research for us to investigate around our topic.

8 Points

24.7.2015

I found some general statistics on procrastination and the effect that it can have on people, then sourced images that reflected the 8 points that we had discussed in class - Issue, Background, Audience/s, Audience needs, Client, Client motivation, Desired action & Barriers.

I found out more on the extent of procrastination and how widely affected students are by it. The images I sourced gave me some good initial visuals that surround the idea

Forming Groups

23.7.2015

We identified overlaps of chosen topics and paired up accordingly.

My area of interest didn't specifically overlap with other students' so I paired up with Linus who was interested in student procrastination. We agreed to center our project on time management and the effect it has on student well-being.

We were able to define our focus area and began to plan out how to approach the idea for the first assignment.

Chosen Topics

23.7.2015

We presented topics of interest to different groups in class and reflected on the different approaches being taken.

After some general research into well-being I began looking into different topics such as commuting to work and community health but landed on a journal article around student debt at the Christchurch School of Medicine and how that affected the performance of graduates in the workforce.

http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/11760239

It was useful to talk about this with my peers and get different perspectives on my topic as well as gain insights into some of the areas of well-being that they were interested in.
  

Lifehack Workshop

17.7.2015

We discussed and brainstormed different factors of well-being, both positive and negative.

We wrote down an audience (students), a transition (starting uni) and an area of well-being (healthy eating) onto post-it notes and discussed our different results within small groups, before coming together as a class and mind mapping our post-its across the whiteboard into relevant categories.

I identified with several of the results that were discussed particularly the idea of student debt which was brought up by a classmate during our brainstorm.

Lifehack Workshop

17.7.2015

We ran through different exercises around our personal identities and well-being within the student group (superhero exercise & well-being scale).

These exercises helped us to situate ourselves in terms of our strengths, weaknesses and personal well-being in comparison to the wider student group.

This helped to advance the project because we were able to reflect on the well-being of ourselves and our peers as well as highlight our personal strengths and weaknesses.