On Friday, we had our final crit for the 'how to...' group brief. We each had to stand up in groups and present our idea's in a powerpoint and verbal format. Unfortunately I was quite ill and had to leave the session early, I managed to see half of the groups and unfortunately was unable to present mine. Here is a self-evaluation of how I feel the project went;
Self Evaluation
- What problem did you identify?
'How to make a Paper airplane'. Initially we decided to aim this at children looking at an activity pack which then branched our idea's further to a board game or science 'investigation pack'. However, after our interim crit with Amber and Jo they decided we needed to focus on a different target audience looking more at paper planes and their function directly. Therefore we decided to think of a paper airplane as a physical object and look at it's uses. We decided the paper airplane is essentially a 'mesenger' and this branched us to our final idea to create an iPhone or smart phone app which will appeal to an older target audience. This would be a 'fun' app which allows you to personalise and design card which will then physical fold on screen into a paper airplane and sent to the person of your choice. We went down a route of 'air mail' and used a consistent design throughout the app.
- What evidence did you find to support your decisions?
We took a lot of research into the physical folding of planes and how they appear visually, experimenting both hands on as well as collected research from the internet and video based sources. We also looked at interesting facts about Paper airplanes to see what could influence our ideas and when Lisa came up with this messenger app idea we then conducted research into smart phone apps, how they physically appear, the content of them, their simplicity etc.
- What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take?
I conducted a questionnaire for research and as a group we also collected research from online sources as well as watched video's on YouTube that gave us demonstrations on how to use paper airplanes. We also created mock up miniature airplanes and larger forms too as well as a mock-up game board for one of our earlier idea's to see how the size would physically suit in a typical household.
- (categorise your research using terms primary, secondary, quantitative and qualitative)
In last weeks session with Fred we focused more heavily on research and understanding qualitative and quantitative data. We had to choose 10 facts to categorise under this criteria before defining tasks for each member of the group. Here are our 10 facts which have been categorised before deciding who does what task.
Here is some photographs of the sheets produced on the day categorising data in this way;
- What methods of research did you find useful and why?
I personally found the video's really useful as well as the physical mock-up versions of our designs as this allowed the group to visualise our work physically, and expand on our idea's decided whether this was suitable or unsuccessful as a design and a product. I also found the interesting facts about Paper airplanes really useful for example; how similar they are to real planes in many ways looking at their relationship with gravity etc and also unusual facts about the world record for the longest flight and so on.
- How did these inform your response to your problem?
The video's really informed our response as it allowed us to demonstrate each stage visually in the construction of the plane on the app. We also experimented and attempted to create a small video clip or motion graphic of the plane physically folding however this was very difficult to conduct and resolve with a professional looking outcome. Our research into 'air mail' and looking at other examples of paper airplane designs was really useful and allowed us to create a basic repetitive layout for our app design which was effective as it appeared on every slide of the presentation as well as every page layout of the app itself.
- What methods did you encounter as problematic?
Coming up with an original and effective idea was probably one of our most difficult challenges, we really struggled to retreat away from the target audience; children. However once we had managed to do this coming up with our App solution I feel our idea became much stronger and we managed to work better as a group. Another problematic factor was the construction of the motion graphics. As none of us were confident in any of the Adobe programmes suitable for created a motion graphics or video we decided to use an online source called 'make a gif' this worked however, because we didn't have a large enough source of photographs it became very distorted in appearance and we decided to leave it out of the presentation and final App design at this stage. However, this would be something to work on in the future.
- How did you overcome this?
We each brainstormed many idea's and came us with a body of design sheets for us the experiment with idea's and solutions more visually online. We then decided as a group what solutions worked best and which ones were less effective. We decided that the App was something new, unusual and unique which hadn't been produced before and had a lot of room for exploration and development so decided to go with this as our final solution. Not all group member were 100% agreed at first, however we were rapidly running out of time for the brief, a decision had to be made and with each of us being off ill at some point during the two week brief we had little to work with. Therefore we had to go off majority vote and who was present at the time. Our second major problem we came across was the video, unfortunately we ran out of time and were unable to resolve this. There is a small 'make a gif' file on my Design Practice blog, which if you click on to enlarge shows the format of the App and how the process would appear on screen. This is easier to visualise and is something similar to what we had hoped to design for the construction of each plane format. This is certainly something we can work on and develop before the final Module submission.
- What research could you have carried put that would have proved more useful?
I feel that a questionnaire directed more at our target audience to see if the App would appeal to people would have been more useful and more direct research relating to our brief. I also think that a stronger body of research especially Primary research would have been more effective so expanding the number of experiments we did with mock-ups of the game and miniature paper airplane designs. I also feel that more research or a bigger quantity of research into App design would have been more useful however, because our idea was generated so late in the design process we were unfortunately unable to spend quite as long research as what would have been useful in developing our App and making it stronger both visually and in terms of how it works and is programmed.
5 things...
Here is a list of 5 things I have learnt about the design process over the last 2 weeks;
- You never have quite enough research into each specific idea
- It's important to communicate, however sometimes a decision just has to be made and this can involve going a head with things that not everyone feels 100% about
- Teamwork and communication is key if an idea is to be successful and effective
- Consistency throughout a design is much more effective and gives a product identity
- It is important to have 3 key stages in the design process and keep going back and re-doing the same process throughout the entire time; research, produce, evaluate.
Here is a list of 5 things that I would do differently next time;
- Create more consistency throughout the design process; although I tried to do this effective I feel this could have been refined and improved to make it better
- I would have conducted more research into App designs and specifically the relationship between my target audience and smart phones and Apps.
- I would have used my time to learn how to create a motion graphic appear visually aesthetic as I feel this would have been one of the highlight elements of the design had it been created successfully.
- I would have spent less time trying to come up with different idea's and more time focusing and developing one specific idea.
- I would have created a flow chart to show the process of the App allowing my audience on friday to visually see each stage and how it works, I also feel this would have helped me produce each design if my time limit had been extended and I'd had more time.
