CV – caragreene_CV

Cover Letter- caragreene_Coverletter

Invoice – Invoice

Proposal – proposal

Pitch – Save the World

Portfolio link – https://blogs.ulster.ac.uk/caragreene/ 

Elements Project – https://www.figma.com/file/fq7sguUEKv4HVuBEOxANyH/E-book

Portfolio Link – https://cara-greene.webflow.io/

Overall I really enjoyed creating this e-book/comic book. I faced lots of challenges and learned lots of things with this project. I think I got to put into practise everything I learned in the lectures and got to relay my skills in a different way compared to the portfolio project in the first semester.

What did I learn/take from this project;

• I learned the importance of usability and how to test products
• I learned that design differs when designing for kids and I had to learn how to do that
• I got to write my first story/comic story which I have never done before, this was fun and something I enjoyed because it was a new skill I got to explore
• I learned the importance of placement and type, for example text had to be bigger for kids to read etc.
• I also got to learn how necessary it was to have group crits where people got to look at my work and help me make it better
• I learned how to make a prototype on Figma

Challenges

• Prototyping – I experienced some problems with prototyping on Figma, sometimes it did not work for me and this was frustrating but I got it working in the end, exploring new parts of software can be tricky but it just took practise
• Target audience – I also found it hard to write for kids, and alter my wording and approach because I am not use to this. I normally design for my age or above so thinking about kids and how they use devices was something new for me and tricky to get the hang of
• Design – I found the design process for this project a little tricky because i felt it was never done, there was always something else to fix or change, the alter from book to comic style left me a bit flustered but in the end I think it turned out well, even though I think there is areas I could improve on.

Overall I really liked lots about this project and felt the challenges only made me a better designer, I loved creating the illustrations and sketching them out. I also loved putting it all together and transforming my story into a fun book for kids to read. I also enjoyed the aspect of changing it to a comic book because this allowed me to research and explore a whole new world that I have not seen before. I got to look into usability and test out my own book and that was fun to see but most of all I had a great time exploring creating a digital product that can be used.

Overall this semesters project on the portfolio was really fun and I am really happy with how it turned out, I got a placement place which I am very happy with and feel my portfolio helped with that. I enjoyed many things and learned lots along the way.

Main take aways and things I have learned from this project:

•  From making my own portfolio I have learned how to talk about myself in a positive way
• I have learned how to write about my work which is a very skilfull thing to do, to write about it in a way that people who aren’t designers can understand
• I now know the importance of the process and how imperative it is that it is explained well
• I also learned lots of other skills like how to use user stories and user research to get inside the head of the user to ensure my portfolio could be the best it could be
• I have also learned all about inclusive design and designing for everybody because of the talk I went to see for UX Belfast – this made me very aware of what I added to my portfolio and how I catered for all
• I learned how to use webflow – something I have never used before

Challenges

I felt I faced many challenges through making my portfolio and still feel I will continue to fix them,

• Spacing – I really struggled with having text boxes to close or not enough padding, I really struggled with letting my images and text breathe. So this is something I still need to fix when it comes to my portfolio and can always practise
• Images – I also struggled with image placement, I always had them too close to each other or too small, I needed to be more confident and have big images take up the screen
• Text Size – I also had issues with having my text too small, I needed to remember that my portfolio should be inclusive and not everybody can read what I can read

Overall I really enjoyed using webflow and building my own website, I loved adding in parts of my brand and seeing what I could salvage from my old website. Some of my favourite parts of the semester was when we took part in class critiques, this is something I found really helpful because it gave me a chance to see what my class thought of my work and what they would do to improve it. I think it was great for feedback and getting a range of ideas on how I could take my portfolio to the next step. I also really liked writing case studies, my Travel App case study is my favourite one I have done and I feel like writing is one of my strong points, this lead me to really loving completing my case studies because I got to focus on that. Finally I really enjoyed exploring my own work and writing about it for others, I love the end result and am really glad with how my idea came to life.

 

To test this product I got a source who is 10 years old and who I asked to take part in this testing process. I wanted to test on the age group and I was lucky enough to find someone to participate, he was very helpful and aided me in my research and the bettering of my product.

Why test?

• Every digital product should be tested
• I know the product, others do not, it is a good way to see how others use it in a new way from me
• It makes my research reliable and sound
• To discover what problems there is and what needs worked on
• It is interesting to see how the target audience reacts to the product

My findings

From watching him use and read my e-book I discovered alot of things, I was weary at first because I thought he wouldn’t be interested but I was wrong. The user loved my book and I got some great feedback from him, for example:

• He used the buttons provided in the correct way and navigated very easily through the short book
• He commented on the comic book layout and said it was like a book and comic in one
• He read the book easily and did not ask me what any words meant
• He commented on the superheroes saying they look like something from disney

What problems did I discover?

• He read it very quickly, this made me think that the book was too short or i added too many panels per page. This made me question how stimulating the book actually is and perhaps my target audience should be a younger age group
• He tried to click the end page to see if anything would happen – This made me think I should add something else to it like a button that take you back to the start or to another page that contains a blurb or list of contents
• The prototype would not go back for him so I need to fix that

Reflection

Overall this was a very successful test for me and my product, i found out more than I thought I would on this subject and through watching the user use my book I got to know the user more and what they need from this. I was also pleased watching someone use my work and see it actually work for somebody else was uplifiting. There is great point to user testing and I am glad I done it.

I made the changes that were discussed in the group crit with Kyle, and have been developing on from the comic book idea, the image below are some screenshots of my work and how I have been creating on Figma.

The link to the final product is – here

PDF version –E-book

As seen above I have been experimenting with panels, bigger speech bubbles and larger texts. I think this works and makes for an interesting read.

What works?

• Speech bubbles, it brightens up the pages and makes for a fun read for the kids
• The large text in areas, it make it interesting and makes it easy to read for those who have poor sight
• The mix match of panels is fun and is different on each page, this reflects the comic book idea and would keep the attention of the children

What doesn’t work/ needs work?

• Text and font size – I always struggle with this and I am aware I need more practise on this subject. I feel like in some areas, the text does not look right in the speech bubbles and reads funny. This needs work
• Background detail – although I added detail to most backgrounds, I still feel areas need some work and some more added flare to make it more interesting

Reflection

Overall I really liked changing this book to more of a comic and feel like although changes could be made I think this turned out well and I cant wait to see people reactions when they read it. My favourite part was coming up with characters and giving them powers, writing books is something I can see myself doing, so this was great practice for the future. I loved it.

Kyle asked us to complete a presentation for both projects, the presentation is 10 minutes long – 5 minutes on each project, and this is to practise talking about my process and work, and also to show him everything I have been doing in in the past 12 weeks.  This was week 12.

My presentation can be accessed here – Cara Greene-2

I made my presentation  on Google slides because for me, it is the easiest to navigate, include images and send to others. With lectures from both Kyle and Daniel on ‘Pitching’ I felt really prepared walking into the presentation and speaking out loud about my work.

What did I include?

• The process for both projects – Portfolio and The elements project
• A sneak peak at the research I have been doing on these projects
• Images of lots of my work and development
• An introduction slide on what I would be discussing
• Reflections on both projects

When designing the presentation Kyle said it should be designed with influence from your brand – my brand is red and white and I felt like adding red to every slide was quite jarring so I kept the design white – this was simple and sleek in my opinion. I also tried to keep text out of my presentation, because I wanted the images to speak for themselves and me do all the talking. I talked about what i struggled with/challenges throughout, what I still need to work on and how the process helped me get to my end result.

I loved talking about the projects, even though it was a little scary at first because I love both of them and it is easy to talk about what you love or what you are interested in. I felt that the process of making this presentation really helped me in my work actually, it helped me know what I have done and what I still have left to do, it also made me realise what I have to blog about and how much research I have done. It helped me group together in my mind the process from start to finish for each project which I was unaware of before, making it easier for me now to complete all of my work.

Was it helpful?

I think this task, although daunting was really helpful for the following reasons:

• It gave me some practise on public speaking and it was not that scary because it was just to Kyle
• It got me talking about my own work in a positive and constructive way
• It gave me the opportunity to look at all of the work I have done and see what needs to be done or changed
• It was fun to create a slide show of all of my work this year as now there is a place were I can look at it all in a presentation format to show others
• It was helpful to see my process and how I work as a designer

As discussed my plan now is to change the layout of the e-book to more of a comic book theme, I have began to do this to put into my presentation for IXD301 for Kyle. Below are the images of the pages I have began to edit and change, this is still a work in progress as I really feel they are not done yet, but this is what I have been experimenting with.

Developed pages

What works?

• I feel the speech bubbles and intro block ‘then’ really work, the white really brightens up the pages
• I also think the large text in areas work for example ‘NOOO’ in bold and larger lettering works well and stands out
• I like the middle page layout with the panels, I feel this relates to comic books more and is fun to read

What does not work?

• The black lining for the panels on some pages doesn’t work, some panels are too large and it does not really look like a comic book
• The text in some ares is still to squished and it is hard to read
• The spacing is wrong in some areas – there is too much or too little
• There is too much text in one speech bubble at times – this does not work
• It still feels unfinished

Reflection 

So the next step for me is to keep experimenting with this comic layout style, I am not happy yet and feel there is still lots to do but I am glad I have made some progress with this approach. I am going to continue working on Figma to try and complete this e-book/comic and also test it out for research and to see if it has been successful. I like the development stages of this process because I like the process of saying what works and what doesn’t, I feel I am a very self aware designer and am not afraid to admit when something isn’t right or finished. This is something I feel is not complete and I can create a better layout for.

Today was a great help because Kyle took us individually for some feedback and overall update on how we are finding the project. The rest of the day was used to continue with work and keep moving forward with the project. I think that it was really useful to have the day to work on my project and feel I made a lot of progress.

My feedback

 

I showed Kyle my work and feel like the feedback he gave me was really helpful. He gave me some tips and ideas and it was great to get his point of view on my progress so far.

What he liked:

• The overall idea, he noted that it was interesting and something different.
• The illustrations of the people/ superheroes. Kyle likes the style and said it reminded him of a certain style of cartoon that he then showed me and one I will research further.
• The way I incorporated the elements into superpowers.
• My development sketches and story board pages. He said this was great development.

What needs worked on:

• Adding in my plot and story to the pages.
• The backgrounds on each page needs worked on, I need to add more colour or detail.
• Moving my pages over to figma to create a working prototype to show for next weeks crit.

These words of advice were really helpful and I am going to ensure to do all Kyle suggested. Kyle also gave me some tips, he said that I should look t over kids books for 8 year olds instead of younger age groups because I have a bigger story to put onto the pages. This was great advice and I will be doing this. I am struggling the most with deciding how long the story should and how much words I should put onto each page.

Comments from the class

The image above is a snapshot from the class’s thoughts on my work. This was very helpful and a great insight into what they liked and what they think I could change. I really appreciated and loved the feedback and will take it on board.

What they liked:

• The idea of an e-book, someone said it was a cool idea
• The characters were so cute
• They loved the illustration
• They thought it would be really appealing to kids

What they think I could work on:

• Create a comic layout
• Add speech bubbles
• Add buttons so the kids can scroll back and forwards
• Add some colour to the background not he first two pages

Why was this feedback session helpful?

• It was great to catch up with Kyle and show him how I am getting on with the project.
• It was good to get his opinion on my work and see what he thought I could improve on.
• It was nice to hear he liked my work and thought it was an interesting idea.
• I feel more confident with my idea and persecution of it now and feel I am ready to make the final changes and complete my e-book.

I made this Ipad prototype on Figma, this was to show during the week 11 feedback session and I enjoyed the process because Figma made it easy to link the pages together but I did come into a few issues.

The link for the prototype is – here

Below are some snapshots I took as I was scrolling through,

What problems did I have?

• I had trouble creating one flow. There was always a second one made half way through the pages so I had to spend some time on fixing that.
• I also had some trouble in the preview because I haven’t added the buttons yet so I thought it was tricky trying to move forward and back, I didn’t know where to click.
• I have problems placing the user flow buttons on the pages, some buttons moved to the top or bottom instead of in the middle.

What needs work?

• The layout feels unfinished
• Usability – there is no buttons so that needs work and to be completed
• Backgrounds on all pages need editing
• Usability on prototype – I am unable to click back on the iPad prototype, this needs fixing because readers need to be able to click back pages
• Overall design – It feels unfinished or something is missing