01/09/2022 - 01/12/2022 / Week 1 - Week 14
Ngu Kah Shin / 0347666
Minor Project/ B' in Creative Media / Taylor's Design School
Week 1: Introduction
1.1 Class Lecture
As the first Minor Project class, Mr Mike briefed us through the
module structure and gave us a few tips and tricks to ease through
the semester as this is a group-based work, collaborating with
Computing school and EAP (Business) school.
Fig 1.1 Mr Mike in class
Tip #1
Choose a topic you are passionate about. This is a 3 months long
work and you will be working with different people with different
skills. It is important to keep yourself motivated and interested to
produce quality work on time.
Choose right group members. Only 2 specializations per group. As a
group, we must discuss respectfully, treat ideas and opinions with
equal weight and only defend with facts and data. And there will be
free riders. The earlier we go to Mr Mike, the earlier the problem
would be solved.
Tip #3
Choose a capable group leader who can lead the team. A leader will
be , obviously, leading the group and making sure everyone gets
their work done on time so the submission of Final Assessment is of
quality and not late. (Assessment hurdle: failing Final Assessment
will result in failing the module.)
Fig 1.2 Project Briefing slides by Mr Mike
1.2 Supplementary info
Read:
Week 2: Introduction
2.1 Class Lecture
Today, Mr Mike explained the designing process, which has been made easy by
Design thinking. Jobs like Chief design officer or Chief design innovator
didn't exist back then. Now, however, companies now welcome designers into
their management team because only a designer who understands design thinking
is crucial in marketing products/services effectively. A designer simply comes
up with an innovative solution to solve a problem. A designer does not
necessarily overlap with art or anything that has to deal with visual
aesthetics.
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Fig 1.1 Design Thinking model example
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IBM Design Thinking is a scalable framework to help teams understand and
deliver continuously. The Loop is a continuous cycle of observing,
reflecting, and making. Many other big companies also have their own set of
design thinking framework, like Google!
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Fig 1.2 Google's Design Sprint
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Fig 1.3, 1.4 Design thinking models
Case study: Embrace Infant warmer
Embrace is a
low-cost infant incubator for use in the developing world. Mr Mike used
this as an example of how a group of 4 students from Stanford Univeristy
who turned a class assignment into a real-life product by using Design
Thinking.
Fig 1.5 Google's Design Sprint
Week 3-6: Discovery
3.1 Contextual Research
Everyone in the group had a different topic to research about and I
studied on the GogoKids mobile app. Here are all my findings compiled on
Miro:
The categories found were:
- Verification to prove legitimacy (safety)
- Super-app features for attending/organizing
- Discussion space
- to-parents marketing
- Review & ranking
- Budget plan/ Budgeting activities
- Event kind (fun/educational/etc.)
3.3 Interview
My teammates JiaSheng and Tressa were allocated to interview to collect
consumer data.
Here
are their answers. From there, I led my team to create user personas
during class, and then we added them to our Miro board.
3.4 Problem Statement & How Might We?
By focusing on the target users, their needs and a found insight, we came up
with a problem statement:
Homeschool parents K-12
need
support to organise and curate learning or fun activities for their
kids
because
finding compatible peers is very difficult.
From there, we came up with different How Might We statements to help us in
our next step: Start designing!! We sought Mr.see Mike's help quite a bit at
this stage because we were all rather confused.
To make matters worse, we found out what Mr Damien from Futureverse
(Industry partner) were trying to solve was really different from what we
understood. We initially thought that we are designing an app dedicated to
parents and kids to find activities that are fun and educational. What Mr.
Damien really wanted was a mobile app for parents to plan activities and
other parents can look for said activities and have their kids join
them.
But we were able to pick up our pace and continued building on our proposal
which was due on Week 7. I created the user flow of our app and found
prototype samples that can translate to our app design.
We also tried to come up with the branding direction. For the logo, Jia Sheng
and I tried sketching on my iPad and this is a time-lapse of it. In the end,
everyone agreed on this design. We weren't exactly satisfied, but we had to
have something for the proposal presentation.
Week 7: First proposal
Week 8-14: Progressing...
As you scroll down, you might discover a few different sets of logos
and posters of very different brandings. This is because our team went
through several rounds of a complete overhaul of the branding direction.
Initial branding direction:
There were many reasons why we changed our branding direction.Mr Mike suggested further developing the best direction further and ensuring that the elements are rationalized to connect with the brand’s values and personality. Graphic design peers should be more involved in this part of the design process- we also weren't communicating well as a group. The choice of illustration art style was also not rationalized and seems like it was by impromptu preferential choice. Advised to rationalize the choice and ensure that the chosen art style could sustain the other brand’s communication and personality expressions throughout all media.
With very little time left, we had to come up with another branding direction. Once again, I brought up my initial idea to my group mates about how the app should look fun and easy for less tech-savvy parents to use. Below here is a timelapse of my sketches to help develop the logo. Toward the end, other members joined in and provided their viewpoints on how the logo could be improved. 4 hours of work condensed into 30 seconds. Kinda crazy!
Something to note- the brand mascot? I came up with it. Let me have my moment! The team loved it and we eventually went with it. I rationalized my idea with the fact the mascot could be like an assistant in planning the activities, which is the whole gist of the direction of the app. My group mate- Jia Sheng, suggested calling it Pal. Playplan's Pal! HOW CUTE
The thick strokes are also a representation of doodling with pencils, something people use when they plan events on paper. This also creates a more friendly approach, attracting all kinds of users- parents to kids. Thick strokes are bold and impressionable. My team agreed with the direction and we worked together, mixing all the design potions- POOF!
Here is our second design direction!
Week 15: Final Presentation!
Alas, we have come to the finishing line. The presentation went smoothly, and we were commended of our work from Mr Mike, Mr Damien and many others. I am satisfied with the outcome, and we hope you enjoy it too!
Figma mobile prototype:
Figma website prototype:
Week 1:
In the first class, Mr Mike briefed us on the module structure and
gave us a few tips and tricks to ease through the semester as this
is a group-based work, collaborating with the Computing school and
EAP (Business) school. Mr Mike also gave us a few tips- 1. Choose a
topic you are passionate about. 2. Choose the right group members 3.
Choose a capable group leader who is capable of leading the team.
Generally, I felt pretty anxious having to work with people I have
never worked with before, but we immediately divided tasks among
ourselves to do some research on the topic. I was assigned to
research a mobile app called Gogokids.
Week 2:
Today, Mr Mike explained the designing process, which has been
made easy by Design thinking. Jobs like Chief design officer or
Chief design innovator didn't exist back then. Now, however,
companies now welcome designers into their management team
because only a designer who understands design thinking is
crucial in marketing products/services effectively. A designer
simply comes up with an innovative solution to solve a problem.
A designer does not necessarily overlap with art or anything
that has to deal with visual aesthetics. This class nudged me to
deeply consider what it takes to be a good designer. It is not
easy but definitely fulfilling when the problem is solved. This
week, we did some research on user personas- what kind of users
will be using our app. I combed through several groups on
Facebook and found that a lot of people don’t put their personal
information up there, which made our user persona research thing
rather difficult. We probably have to move on to online
questionnaires, or interviews.
Since our leader has made the first draft of the questionnaire, we
immediately began blasting out surveys to our user groups. In
total, I was able to contribute the most responses, with about
41%. This survey thing is really tiring because our target users
are generally older, like parents who are less tech-savvy. I had
to really bend my back over them to make sure they did the survey
to completion.
Week 4:
After using up my patience from working with parents to do the
survey, we were told by Mr Damien that our vision of the project.
We all felt very demotivated but decided to persevere because we
don’t want to fail. LOL. Despite our hardwork from the past month,
it was not all in vain, as some of the survey results (results
from parents who homeschool their kids) )could be reused.
Week 5:
Today, we had a consultation again. During the online group
meeting held on Tuesday evening, we were informed by our group
leader that the person-in-charge of our project from Futureverse
has a vision that's parent-to-parent communication instead of
parent-to-facilitator (what we have been focusing on for our
survey for demographic analysis). With this information updated
to Mr Mike, he suggested we find 3 interviewees who are parents
of homeschooled kids. This would have to be done very soon and
we are nearing week 6 already. Our team and I had a discussion
about how we can move forward and we continued updating our Miro
Board (ideas, problem statement, etc.) and came up with the
questions for the interviews.
Week 6:
Today, two of our groupmates couldn’t make it to class so I
helped lead the rest to create the 4 user personas. With the
user personas, we also settled the problem statement (on miro).
The problem statement was voted in favor by the majority. We
were also able to finish up the How Might We’s in class. Mr.
Mike suggested that we start drafting up the proposal which
should be done by end of week 7. I felt rather stressed out
because we still don't have a brand direction at this point- how
are we to make the proposal? Mr Mike also suggested to start
allocating people to research the design solutions.
Week 7:
To prepare for the proposal, I came up with the user task flow, and
researched sample designs that translate our ideas visually, since
we haven’t started designing the wireframe and whatnot. I like
making user task flow. When it’s completed after hours of
researching and using up my brain juice, I feel like I have solved a
major problem. It feels really satisfying! I also provided
assistance with anything lacking in the proposal presentation.
Week 8:
Prior to the presentation, we were all over the place. Everyone was
really stressed out but I think the proposal presentation went OK.
Everyone did fairly well, given the time and preparation we had.
After the proposal presentation to Mr Mike and Mr Damien, we
compiled the remaining files and submitted them. With the proposal
out of the way, this means that we can finally start to actually
design our app because we can now see a concrete, shiny goal at the
end of the finishing line. We know what to do now.
Week 9:
After getting the green light from Mr Damien on our proposal
presentation last week, we continued working on our project. We had
a consultation with Mr Mike in class which was really insightful. He
gave us a clear direction of what assets are to be created to
promote our app. This mostly applies to our Graphic Design peers, as
they will be the ones creating the posters and social media posts,
etc. Mr Mike also introduced Gantt Chart to us. It seems like a
really effective tool to keep everyone on track.
Week 10:
This week was extra stressful. Whatever we have been working on
seemed to be redundant because Mr Mike wasn’t positive about our art
direction. After hearing his feedback, I do agree that our branding
at this point was kinda wack. At this point, I felt like the whole
group was really demotivated but we had to keep our spirits up in
order to finish this project on time.
Week 11:
Really, I don’t think there’s anyone to blame. I think we as a group
failed to communicate effectively, hence the fallback on our
project. So, Jia Sheng, if you’re reading this as well, I am sorry
too. With other modules and freelance projects at hand, it was no
surprise everyone felt stressed out. It is easy to point fingers but
this week made me feel as if I have not contributed as much. If
there were another chance of working on this, I would have been more
verbal about my opinion and acted as the mediator of the group,
making sure everyone’s voice is heard. There should have been more
active discussions.
Week 12:
I’d say about 80% of the initial designs had to be scrapped. We had
a meeting in a cafe, which I felt was really needed. We never really
had a physical discussion other than the ones held in class. This
felt refreshing like our groupmates were actually communicating and
dare I say, bonding this time. We were able to solidify our branding
direction. I am confident to say that I contributed a good amount
because I stuck with what I told myself to do last week- to make
sure everyone’s voices were heard. I asked everyone for their
opinion from time to time to make sure we all agreed on whatever we
were designing at that point. This session felt productive. I think
we’re off to something good.
Week 13:
With a solid branding direction, I was able to start designing on
Figma. I did as much as I could, but I think my progress is still
not fast enough as we are running out of time. However, we did have
a hiccup after consulting Mr Mike. Our leader informed us that Mr
Mike was still unsure about the colors but I was hesitant to change
the brand direction because it didn’t make sense with the timeline.
They all agreed in the end. I hope I didn’t come off as pushy, but
at this point all my peers were tired. We could either continue with
what we all agreed on or take the risk of redesigning, which will
push back our progress again. The graphic design peers seemed to
like our current branding very much, and I trust them with
branding.
Week 14:
This week really just passed us all by. I approached JiaSheng on
some of the UI/UX parts because his method of designing is really
different from what I have encountered before. Even the methods
used in my internship workplace are easier to understand than
JiaSheng’s method! He was patient when explaining to me, but I was
really just short on time, having to juggle between uni work and
internship. I have mad respect for him. Thanks for working on the
UI/UX part when I couldn’t.
Week 15:
This week, I wasn’t able to contribute much since my internship has
started already. I still managed to squeeze in one user testing
session, which used up my work hours, but let’s keep this between you,
me, and this doc. To be really frank, I’m just glad this is over.
Everyone gave their best and we are all burnt out. We did not have a
proper rehearsal before the final presentation but I believe we still
did good (despite my mistakes during the presentation. Mr Mike’s frown
during the mishap will be forever stamped in my mind). I’m thankful to
my groupmates for pouring their heart and soul into this. Mr Mike has
also been a really great lecturer, his consultations never failed to
help us progress. Thank you Mr Mike, and, thank you to my team.
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