Tuesday 11 December 2012

Evaluation OUGD301 Design Practice 3

This module has been extremely challenging both time management wise and also handling unforeseen problems.  I had set myself the target of focusing on Dissertation every Sunday and over reading week, which I have achieved, however I believe this has been to the detriment of the Design Practice on this module.

At the stage where I should have had my eye on what four briefs I was going to focus on, I was desperately trying to get 500 leaflets screen printed for The Loft Space.  I have already discussed the  ramifications of this on this post http://l-whitaker1013-dp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-loft-space-client-disappointment.html so I wont dwell on this here.

What I learnt from experience is:
  • Don't propose ambitious ideas which are not fully tested first . The Loft Space did not have a print budget so I thought a cheap solution to this was to screen print the leaflets. Although I had been reasonably successful at Screen printing before I had not tried anything like this before.
  • Don't offer to do something just to please your client.  I should have just offered to design the leaflets and let Janet source her own printing.  Her budget is not my problem.
  • Screen printing is best used for limited edition/special effects rather than high volume runs.
To get over the disappointment I felt after this experience I threw myself into the Circus and Typo briefs which was a positive way forward.  I did not however revisit my beautiful Excel Spreadsheet Project plan and revise it...EVER again throughout the module.  From a project management point of view this was not the best way forward as was to proved when I had five days to Module hand in and I had only just started the fourth brief, brief 2 What make a good App design.

My Time management, something which is normally a strength has been atrocious on this module.  As well as what happened with the Loft Space and the Dissertation, another reason for this was the three main briefs Circus, Typo and The Loft Space were very research and content heavy.  This was deliberate on my part as I love really getting under the skin of a subject before I start concept developing.  Going forward I need to find a better balance with my process so that I have time to make my Design outcomes are as strong as the initial ground work.

On a more positive note I have developed and honed a range of skills including:
  • Screen printing
  • A simple way to create 'Spot varnish' using foiling and a heat press.
  • Type and layout skills including my understanding of Typeface choices, combinations and best practises. For example I have a better grasp of what to do abut widows, hyphenation and hierarchy.
  • In design skills - Becoming more efficient and consistent with approach. Paragraph Styles, Booklet design and printing, General grid and layout skills, managing images for print and screen, formatting paragraphs i.e. managing hyphenation, using features such as slug area and attributes such as overprint.
  • Illustrator skills - more confident with vectoring and pen tool
  • Photoshop skills - Using Filters such as Vanishing Point to create perspective,  experimented with different layer styles and blending options such as colour burn and multiply, drop shadow and bevel and emboss,  Correct resizing of images between RGB and CMYK
  • Continuing to develop  Dreamweaver and Web design skills
  • To check and re-check work after each change.  Spell check, proof reads, check consistent use of Typeface - all so vital when trying to achieve a high standard of Type and Layout.
My crafting skills still leave something to be desired but that was due to not using College facilities such as Vernon Street due to Time constraints.

One area which I am aware I did not fully exploit on each brief was I did not push the range or consider methods of distribution as much as I should have done.  I was deliberately focused on developing certain aspects of each brief i.e. Type and Layout in Typo and Circus rather than expanding the potential of what each could bring.

Going forward to FMP I plan to be more outcome focused and have less content heavy briefs.  
Although I did not use Digital as much as planned, I still have a real interest exploring how I can incorporate Design for Screen into my practice leading up to FMP.








OUGD301 Presentation Boards

Brief One The Loft Space

Brief Two What makes a good App

Brief Three Typo 12

Brief Four ISTD Circus

OUGD301 Module Submission




OUGD301 Design Research



The Circus app development

As time is short I am going to use the content from the Circus brief to propose an app design idea.  Potential to submit with ISTD brief.  I am also going to focus designing for iOS and a mobile platform rather than a ipad screen.  Ideally I would ensure the design is suitable for both size screens.  I do think in a museum people will be more likely to use the App from a Mobile phone.

My app idea in one sentence:

Circus Experience:  Getting the most out of your Circus Experience.

Will include Introduction, maps, booking, details of each experience,  Exhibit details ie history of costumes.  Interactive features whilst at the Museum.  Interactive feature share your Circus Experience.

From my research I should produce to communicate my idea and content to a developer:

1. a flow map
2. A series of wireframes
3. A series of storyboards




Mock ups in iPhone 5:










Monday 10 December 2012

Typo Product shots

More product shots from same Photo shoot for Typo:



The Loft Space Digital leaflets

The Loft Space has a Facebook Community page and Green Fusions also has a Twitter account so this makes sharing the Calendars and leaflets digitally possible.  Issuu documents are a great way to share information on Facebook, twitter, Pintest etc.  With this in mind I have modified and published all The Loft Space leaflets on Issuu as follows:


Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Christmas
General Loft Space promotion

The Loft Space photos

Some product shots for The Loft Space:



Circus product photos

I arranged to get my photos shot with a Photographer friend.  Unfortunately as his studio lights are so bright I still had to tweak the mid tone levels and brightness in Photoshop however they are much better than anything I could do alone.




Saturday 8 December 2012

Digital research/ Web and Apps Wireframes



How to design Content maps for websites

How to design better Apps

1. Wireframe Your App
When we talk about an app’s design, we’re talking about two main components. These two components are user experience (UX) design and user interface (UI) design.
Experience design is all about the goals of the app, such as which features to include, and how the user will accomplish those goals. The user interface design is what that experience looks like visually. That includes the colors, textures, and fonts used to craft the visual style of the app.

 2. Use Finger-Sized Tap Targets This is the biggest thing you can do to improve the usability of your app: Increase the tappable area for every button. You’re designing for fingers and thumbs, not mouse cursors (which have a higher pointing accuracy). Apple recommends a minimum of 44x44px for any element the user is expected to interact with.
Now this doesn’t mean that the button needs to visually look that big. The tappable area can extend beyond the visual size of the button. This will help users avoid the frustration of trying multiple times to tap an element. Just be careful if you have several buttons close to each other. Make sure that your extra tappable area doesn’t overlap with other buttons.

3. Have Only One Primary Goal Per Screen When you’re designing a screen in your app, focus on the primary goal you want the user to accomplish. For example, in the email list screen in iPhone’s Mail app, the user’s primary goal is to read emails. Though there’s a secondary action for composing an email, the button is off in the corner and not emphasized.

4. Avoid Default Button Styles The default style for UIButtons on the iPhone is one of my biggest design pet peeves. Almost all of the default elements included with iOS look good. Then there is the default button.

5. Add Extra Views When There’s a Lot of Information Moving into a new view (either through a push or modal transition) is very easy for the user. So if you find yourself trying to add too much information to a single view, then just add another view.

The Benefits of wire framing your design

Free templates 

Tips for wireframing


Research assesses that Companies need mobile enabled websites