Elements Project – https://www.figma.com/file/fq7sguUEKv4HVuBEOxANyH/E-book
Portfolio Link – https://cara-greene.webflow.io/
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;
Challenges
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:
Challenges
I felt I faced many challenges through making my portfolio and still feel I will continue to fix them,
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?
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:
What problems did I discover?
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?
What doesn’t work/ needs work?
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?
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:
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?
What does not work?
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:
What needs worked on:
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:
What they think I could work on:
Why was this feedback session helpful?
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?
What needs work?
After the feedback I got back from Kyle and the class I have decided to transform my e-book into an e-comic! I think this idea will work well and I think it will work better for kids. It will still have the e-book layout and it will read like one on a screen. I started by doing some research into the big comic book companies to see what their layout looks like. I did this because I have never read comics before so I am very unfamiliar with the layout so this was great
Marvel Comics
I was surprised to see the layout of these comic books. I wasn’t aware that there were various shapes of squares and rectangles, and how the page is very busy and there is lots going on. I like the separated sections, it makes for an interesting read but also makes it easier to read. I like the addition of speech bubbles and the meanwhile… parts. This comic books are so well known and loved for generations and I can see why people enjoy reading them, there is an equal balance of text and illustrations, making me want to flick to the next page.
Who are marvel?
Marvel Comics has been the top dog in comic book publishing recently, because of its well-received high-profile movies, strong sales, and popular characters. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has helped bring in new readers and has kept the spotlight on superheroes as a medium.
DC Comics
I wanted to look at another high contender when it comes to comic books so I then found out that 2nd to marvel is DC comics. I researched some images to see how the layout differed to Marvel and got what I wanted to know. The layout to me isn’t as clear and easily read as the marvel ones, its a little more chaotic but perhaps that is just he darker tones that is throwing me off. I think it is a really cool layout but I am unsure if I want my e-book to be so bold and out there. This appears t one for a much older age and looks quite intense.
Who are DC Comics?
Alongside Marvel, DC Comics is the other of the “Big Two” comic book publishers. It has a bevy of characters with near godlike powers that were some of the first that comics had to offer. Its trinity—Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—are some of the most well-known and iconic superheroes out there today, making their first cinematic appearance together in 2015.
Dark Horse comics
I found when researching another comic brand that the style does continue to stay similar however there are changes in each one, making them unique. I think that this one in particular is more panels going across which is easy to read, however the varying layers add depth but can be quite confusing was an on-looker. I think that this approach of background and foreground panels will not work for me and I don’t think I will be using this idea. But, I really enjoyed looking into this brand of comics and reading some snippets.
Who are Dark Horse comics?
Dark Horse first became known for its licensed properties: “Star Wars,” “Aliens,” “Predator,” and others. Since then it has become well known for its creator-owned series: “Hellboy,” “The Goon,” “Sin City,” “Groo,” “The Umbrella Academy,” and more.
Why was this helpful?
What is my next step?
The next step for me is to begin to look at my e-book and start fixing the layout to make it look like a comic book, this means I have to chop up the pages and add panelling. I am glad I looked into so many comic series because I have a wider knowledge base and feel more adventurous now. I am going to do this on Figma and then put my prototype into an ipad screen to see how it works/reads.