CV – caragreene_CV

Cover Letter- caragreene_Coverletter

Invoice – Invoice

Proposal – proposal

Pitch – Save the World

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

This week was the presenting of the pitch. I have been preparing for this pitch for weeks now and I think that it went well. We had to present to our group for 5 minutes, this wasn’t long but it felt like longer as it was a bit scary getting started. It was great we were in groups because I got to see others ideas and how creative each idea was, I like group presentations like this because I feel it makes me a better designer by being exposed to other young and creative people. Everyones idea was unique and very interesting.

Save the World – My pitch

Feedback

Daniel and … gave me some tips and advice on my idea once I had finished with my presentation, this was helpful because they both know so much about pitching ideas so it was great to get feedback from the both of them. Some things they mentioned that would of improved my idea were,

• I could have focused in on one aspect – for example, planting trees instead of selecting lots of different routes. … mentioned that he thought I should have led my pitch in a community app that plants trees together instead of something so vast. This made sense to me because I too felt there were too many elements to my app.
• I should have went into depth on the market, and research. Daniel said that my user research was interesting and I should have talked about that more.

What did I learn from pitching?

1. How to try and sell a product
2. How to speak confidently infront of a group and two investors
3. How to really think of a unique product that would benefit the planet and people
4. How to encourage the nerves and turn them into excitement

Reflection

I felt I was happy with the way I presented and how I spoke and didn’t need any cards to help me but I agreed with Daniel that I could have went into more detail on the market and zoomed into a specific idea instead of having lots of different ones. I feel that public speaking was a great way to end the semester and is great practise for when we go out into placements because I will need to be speaking in group situations like that every week. Creating a pitch was difficult because I felt I had so many ideas, it was hard for me to be specific,  but it was a great learning experience and a bit of fun.

For this semester Daniel asked us to create a CV and cover letter. I have now completed these and feel like they are finally done to my standard, I wanted them to be clean, crisp and have a little bit of personality in there.

The final CV – caragreene_CV

The final Coverletter – caragreene_Coverletter

 

 

Reflection

I am really happy with how both of these have turned out and feel they have worked, since I now have a placement. Daniel was a great teacher and his advice really helped me make my CV and coverletter the best they could be. My favourite part was watching how they came together and how by adding my brand really brought them to life. I am really happy with my progress and the things I have learned about the workplace will stay with me forever. I now have the skills to create a good cover letter and cv which I need for out in the real world.

For the presentation now in week 12 I have finished designing it and finished with modifications and am ready to pitch. I feel like my design for my pitch represents my thought process well and the vibe of my idea well. The clean and fresh notion of a greener planet.

The pdf of my presentation can be accessed here – Save the World

I decided to open up with a eye-catching statement like save the world because I want the audience to immediately know what this is about. I think my pitch will be successful and my screens will be pleasant for the viewers to look at. I am happy with how this turned out and feel really pleased with my progress.

Reflection

Overall I think that the process of creating and coming up with a pitch was difficult at first but overall I feel like it was a great opportunity to experiment with idea generation and practising for speaking out loud and trying to sell a product. This is something I have never done and think that it will go well. I really enjoyed making an app, it is one of my favourite things to do in this course so it was fun to explore that this semester. Overall I learned a lot from Daniel and feel his tips and help have made me a more confident speaker and designer.

Now it is time to write about my final proposal outcome. I feel like I have developed this design well and have made important changes throughout the way. I kept to my initial instinct of keeping it minimal and simple for that sleek and modern website vibe that I love so much and have came into some challenges along the way

The final Proposal can be accessed here – proposal

Invoice can be accessed here – Invoice

 

Reflection

I found it hard to understand the terminology of this project and even more so putting it into my own words and using my name in the middle of it all but I got there in the end. I wanted my proposal to be a sleek and modern and ultimately be easy to read and digest as a reader. I didn’t want to overwhelm the reader but I wanted all of the relevant information to be on it. I feel I have overcome challenges and learned some great new things with this project and I am glad with the outcome.

I wanted to breakdown all of the content I am going to include in my pitch. I used procreate to break it up into sections.

There are some main element I must include these are:

• My app concept (Mockups)
• User research
• Competitor analysis
• Facts and stats
• The problem/ solution
• Target Market
• User personas

These are the topics I hope to hit in my pitch because to me they are the ones that are the most important and make sense to include. I want to keep the pitch captivating and hopefully interesting and I feel if I include these topics I will do that. The next step for me was making the pitch. I did this on google slides and below are some screenshots of how some of the slides turned out.

What works?

• The white background – it is simple and not too distracting. It doesn’t take away from the information or images
• The illustrations – I created most of the illustrations for this pitch, I did this on Illustrator and Figma. I felt it was a fun side project to create the app and the added illustrations i used in the pitch. It showed my skills and also it is something I love to do. I think the blues and greens really reflected the theme nicely
• The layout of text – I like how there is text on the left and images on the right, it is easy to follow and it wont confuse the viewers
• The app screens – I really like how the screens came together and think that my love for the idea really came across in the making of the app

Reflection

I really enjoyed working on this pitch and feel like the user research and competitor analysis was really helpful and great ixd practise as a designer it was great to put into practise all of my skills. I feel like there are things I could add like more market research etc but overall I really liked my product idea and the concept, I think wishing and planning for a better world can’t be a bad thing. I think it showed my personality and the type of person I am as regards helping the planet and wanting others to do the same.

For this app I sketched out some ideas for layout on my ipad and got straight to work on the elements. I wanted to go into as much detail as I could on the topic of climate change and try to execute my ideas well.

Wireframes 

Starting point/Development

The image above is were I started off at the beginning of the design process. I experimented with blues and whites and a bolder text but I felt it wasn’t working so I decided to try again.

 

The images below are the screens

Homescreen

 

Info screen

 

Activities screen

 

 

Planting a tree screen

 

Rewards screen

 

 

What did I include?

•  A Homescreen
• A screen on who is global hero?
• A Rewards screen
• One screen focusing on one aspect of the tasks – Tree planting

What works?

• The colour scheme – I really like the way I incorporated lots of greens to relate to the ‘green’ idea of trying to combat climate change. I think the app design is cohesive and really goes well all together.
• The illustration – I think that my illustrations work really well in the design and really stand out especially the earth. I think the brand really stands out. I also like the images I found and used to show locations for tree planting I think they work well in the app.
• The usability – I think the layout is really nice on the app and is easy to use. I wanted to go for a simple design that every can use.

What needs work?

• Maybe I need to work a little more on the buttons and ensure they are all align and can be easily located
• Text – I struggle with text and feel like sometimes the text i use is too big or small for the screen
• Idea – I think I could work on the idea a bit more and really simplify it more or cut down on tasks as there may be too much going on in areas, too busy.

Reflection

Overall I really liked designing and working on this app and I loved my idea, I do feel there is elements I could change or fix but I really liked the journey. I think that it is important to be self aware in this work and I am aware that I could improve some areas before the pitch. I think that lots of my app came together well and feel it would be a great way for young people to be involved in a carbon cutting community with one another. I am happy with the outcome and can’t wait to put it in my pitch.

For the pitch I wanted to work on the brand a lot. I wanted to audience to believe in my pitch as much as I did and to really envision the brand as I did. So working on the brand allowed me to do this, it also allowed me to put into practise all of the brand work I did last year with Daniel.

Who is Global Hero?

Global Hero is an app that allows the user to learn all about climate change, it gives users a place where they can earn rewards for completing earth saving tasks, for example, Planting Trees around the world or conserve water. The more points you earn for everyday activities the more you can redeem and spend in selected shops.

Why is this a good idea?

Aim

To encourage people to help save the planet while we still can. I wanted to create an app that was needed, easy to use and also had benefits that would actually give people the motivation to go green.

The Brand

Name

Logo

 

Together

Slogan

Typeface

Colour Palette

Reflection

I really liked making this brand, figuring out the aim, the logo, the catchy slogan. I think the elements work well and I think they will come together in the app nicely. I can see this app being a real one and the brand makes that happen. I also love the animated earth I think it makes the idea of climate change a little less scary if there is a face on earth. I learned a lot from doing this, for example, I shouldn’t give up, as I was working or starting out nothing was going right or working but I kept going until I found the perfect type and colour scheme etc.

For more research for my pitch idea ‘Global Hero’ I wanted to do some competitor analysis on what is out there currently for climate change apps or even websites that encompass my ideas like tree donations etc. I was surprised with my findings and am glad I did this as it opened my eyes to the possibilities that aren’t out there but could be for society.

The Website

Tree Nation

I found there was many websites that offered donations for tree building and or charity to help donate to climate change. This was a relief and also I got lots of inspiration from a particular website, this website is called.. and it is a company were the user will select where they want to plant the tree, how many trees they plant and then pay for it. I thought this was a great idea and something I want to include in my own app.

 

The App

The only app I could currently find on the app store regarding climate change was a solar app that was made my university students in America. This app isn’t about how to help stop but is more of a global insight into how hot the earth is getting, the user can look up their country and see how hot it is getting were they live.  Although this is an interesting concept it is not what I want my app to be but it was interesting to see how little apps there are out there regarding climate change, this shows me there is a gap in the market for one.

What did I find out from this research?

• There is a gap in the market for an informative climate change app for young people
• There isn’t much out there as regards apps on climate change
• There are multiple charities out there contributing to stopping climate change
• Planting trees is a popular trend people are taking part in to help do their bit for the planet

Reflection

Overall I feel that I learned alot from looking into the few apps and websites that revolved around climate change. I think it opened my eyes to what is currently out there on the market and has given me inspiration as to what I could include in my own product. I feel I could design an app that includes some elements that current organisations offer like planting trees but I can improve the idea and add more. I am excited to see where this goes and what I can accomplish.

I wanted to look into the pitch by youtube for when they were pitching the idea of it, Daniel showed us in class and I wanted to take a closer look myself at the individual slides they used. I thought this was good inspiration and research for my own pitch and great insight into what such a huge pitch looked like back then.

Content

• Company purpose
• Problem
• Solution
• Market Size
• Competition
• Product Development
• Sales Distribution
• Team
• Metrics

I was surprised to see that there was not that many slides and that the content on each slide was limited. This was a shock but I understood because:

• The pitch was easy to follow
• Got to the point
• Hit the major and most important points
• Informative

The slides that most intrigued me were market size, competition and metrics. These are things I have not looked at yet for my own pitch and I think that those are the sections I need to look at.

Market size 

This pitch talked about how digital recording technology is cheap enough to mass produce for the first time. They also mentioned how it is now integrated into existing consumer products. Basically meaning the market is there some a site like Youtube because it will be available for everyone now. The slide also mentioned how broadband in households which makes the internet available for videos. Proving there is a big market for this.

Competition 

I was interested to see what youtube had to say about the then current competition at the time when this was launching. In the pitch they listed that their competitors were Our media.org, Open media Network, Google video, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Putfile. I have not heard of most of these things and it was really insightful to see what was popular back then for video access. I plan to do competitor research into my pitch and really see what is out there in regards climate change apps.

Metrics 

I was unaware of what metrics were but it made sense when reading this pitch, it was when it was released and how well it is already doing in the market, as it is surpassing all existing competition. I feel I will not include this in my Pitch because my product will not be being released it is just pitching the idea but it was interesting to see this in the youtube pitch and see when it was released etc.

 

Overall thoughts on the Pitch

There was a lot of text in this pitch, well more text than images than I thought there would be. But it made up for it because the text wasn’t too long or too boring. It was easy to follow and it was straight to the point. It was really informative and interesting because I had never seen this before. I feel I learned a lot of what to put in my pitch now and to always get to the point and only put in relevant information.