IXD302

When designing my Product or Application, its important I consider my target audience as these will be the main users in my project. It’s necessary to understand that my audience my have a range of abilities which I cater for. I will make my design as user friendly and clear as possible,

I done some research and found an article guide on the BBC Website called “How to design for children” guide which I feel will be useful when designing my elements project for IXD301 and pitching my product idea in IXD302.

In this section it specially covers their 7 basic principles to help create a great digital experience for children according to their own research. As designer I will try considering these 7 points to make my product successful.

1. Give Positive Feedback and create moments of Joy- Basically, try make their experience using the app as fun as possible and encourage achievements.
2. Be Visual, reduce text– Keep the design simple, less text more images and Icons.
3. Make the goal immediately clear- I will make it clear for them to understand the aim
4. Be heard– example being audio which improves the user experience and adds accessibility feature
5. Animate with personality– Bring the animation to life. this will be entertaining for the kids
6. Craft a character led experience– Kids love characters. If possible, include one in my design.
7. Forgiving design– make the interactions simple but efficient, don’t let the child to become frustrated.

Reflection

I enjoyed looking at this article as give me a better understanding of what I need to consider when designing for young children. These principles on BBC site may be updated overtime as children and technology evolve. I felt this article was very helpful and will hopefully help me to design good user experiences for children especially when creating my elements project.

In Todays lecture we covered the topic of proof of content and user research. Frist thing to ask yourself most importantly is:

Does your idea need to exist. Design a Swot Analysis to outline the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and Threats of my idea.

Ask other people if it needs to exist. Pitch the concept to your audience. Get your users to complete:

• Survey/Questionnaires
• Forum Responses/Competitor Reviews
• Published Data

What you can is invest the problem and establish Facts.

Simple ask Questions

Daniel then spoke about the difference of Qualitative Vs Quantitative

What is Qualitative        What is Quantitative 

• Unstructured                  Structured
• Subjective                      Objective
• Immeasurable                Measurable
• Insights/Theories            Test/Theories

The timeline of Qualitative and Quantitative

Qualitative <—————————————————->Quantitative

Anybody can do research. It can quick and cheap

Basic Steps for user research

1. Define Primary User Groups- Create a list of attributes that will help you define different users.
2. Pick techniques for Involving Users
3. Conduct Research
4. Validate Definitions and Analyse Research
5. Generate User Requirements
6. Interviews and Observation
7. Online Surveys- Examples of being Survey Monkey

Remember

We are dealing with people- People are not data points.

Card Sorting

Triangulation- Affinity Diagram and Prioritising features

Things possibly to include in my pitch:

• User Persona’s
• Empathy Map

Today’s Task

Do a Swot Analysis for your product idea.

Daniel reminded us next week that class will be online and the week after that in Week 12 is the product pitch which will be the lecture hall. So I need to start my presentation this week. I will look at examples for inspiration.

I felt it was good to aware of this with some of this points applying to me. I thought was interesting and I helped me gain more knowledge about this topic. I will take away a few things today which I feel are useful.

Today we were given a break from being in the studio and instead we had class online. We started today with a Placement  Catalyst Talk from Siofra Forsr. She spoke about Co-founders program which is a unique entrepreneurship program for students that helps you form a team. It will take place evenings during the week.

The deadline to apply is the 30th of November. So I have I don’t have much time to apply.

People who can apply for this entrepreneurship is someone with:

• an idea for a product/service and want to add to my team
• individual skills and experience to a startup company
• a pre-formed team

Interviews will take place next month

There’s a Hot house weekend at 28-29 where you pitch your idea.

Why Apply for Co-founders?

• Networking Opportunities
• Training
• Develop a start-up
• Win one of the ten £10k grants
• Skills

There will be mentor there to guide you through things when you sign up.

To apply for co-founders Go onto Www.co-founders.com and fill in the Application.

Daniel said he’ll hold tutorials on Monday if we want to talk through our Applications.

I definitely think it will be a good opportunity to apply for the Co-founders program as it will give a lot of options and help me build my skills and confidence.

Todays lecture was all about presenting a pitch to our class and what is necessary to help us pitch our product in Week 12. Daniel started asking 3 volunteers from the audience to stand up in front of the class and preceded to ask them a number of questions. The volunteers would went up were Leonie, Lauren and Rachel. Just as expected they were quite nervous and shy as they were the centre of attention. The reason Daniel done this was type of thing was because we would have to stand up when delivering a presentation.

Some tips that will help us when presenting our pitch:

1. Practice the Pitch
2. Use eye contact
3. Make sure the audience is sitting close and are engaged
4. Stick to your time limit
5. Use pictures over words
6. Use plain English and keep it simple
7. Include Slides as a visual que
8. Make short notes and know what you are talking about
9. Only use one Typeface throughout the presentation. No Crazy Fonts!
10. Use subtle transitions
11. Include Short videos/GIFS- sparingly
12. Don’t use too much text instead Use bullet points
13. Don’t use too many Slides
14. Plan out the content on Paper. Work out what you want to say
15. Most Importantly Check Spelling and Content

Set Up slides

When setting up our slides make sure the slide radio is 16:9. It should be 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720. It’s important to use a grid when laying out images. All the slides and content should be kept consistent. When creating a slideshow use a template and adapt it.

Content

Content can be one of 2 Approach

Approach 1: Lay out what you intend to cover.

Approach 2: Get to the point. This will engage people from the start

Hand out supporting Materials. The best time to do this is at the end of class so it doesn’t take away from your presentation.

Use Rhetoric methods in your presentation

Be prepare for your pitch. Make sure it’s all set up and you have PDF as a backup

Investor Pitch- What should be included?:

• Outline your vision
• you problems
• Explain the solution
• Who will use this product
• Whos the team
• What your are asking.

The most important things to remember is that:

• practice make perfect
• Keep it interesting

He also ensured at the end of any presentation to end it on a positive note, summarise your notes, possibly leave them with a Quote or Image which will leave a last effect on the audience and make it memorable.

Reflection

Today’s lecture has give me more encouragement about my pitch. I now know what things I have to do in order to make my pitch successful and achieve the best outcome. I will refer back to this lecture when writing up my slides and practicing my pitch as his advice was very helpful. I now feel slightly less nervous about presenting my idea in a few weeks. I hope by listening to talk today it will greatly help me in week 12 in delivering my product pitch.

For this week I will continue working on coming up with a business product and start writing out my content on paper which I will include in my presentation. When happy I will create my slide deck.

The brief is to research proposal and design a website and brand which will present Hill Street in Belfast.  I would specifically like to look at the history, heritage, businesses, tourism, culture, and community of the area when writing up my proposal.

I looked at Titanic Quarter for inspiration as the website for Hill street will be similar. Titanic Quarter website is simple and easy to understand and read. It is very user friendly and makes it easy to navigate to each page. The use of the brand at the top is nice. The illustration represents the titanic. I like the images and colour of the website.

The home page has a list of current News and Events happening in and around the Titanic Quarter in Belfast. In the footer it has contact information and links to social media platforms. Your then could click live section which shows number of eateries, restaurants cafes you can eat when in the Titanic Quarter.  This will the same Hill street with it’s popular bars and restaurants. The work section is all about jobs, companies, and places to work within the Titanic Quarter.

Visit has a list of landmark places to visit while in the Titanic Quarter Area. Stay is where you can find places to stay for residents and tourist. The development is basically the development of the Titanic Quarter.

This website provides the users with a lot of information on the Titanic Quarter. In my purpose I will mention about the content used in my own website.

At the end of our lecture, Daniel give us a task to write mockup emails on specific subject areas. Below you can see my attempt at writing mockups emails I wrote.

1 To manager keeping them up to date on a project progression (use 301 work)

Subject: Project Update

Hi John, 

i just want to let you know that project for 301 is going well, still have a bit of work to do. I will let you know when its completed and will send it on to you.

2 To client requesting content that is a past due and necessary to progress.

Subject: Request Content

Dear client, 

Will you be able to please send me the content as soon as possible, so I can work on the next phrase of the project.

3 To a client who has requested information or files from you months/years after the job.

4 Sending a link over to a manager/client to review work in progress

5. Asking for clarification on something you didn’t understand from a team member

6 To request and arrange a meeting.

From the critic and feedback I received from Daniel, I made changes to my Cv and Cover Letter.

I redesigned my CV and Cover letter using Adobe Indesign as it was appropriate and made it more professional. It shows off to employers my design skills.

Frist thing I went to print and choose the A4 document as it was appropriate. Then I clicked on layout then margins and Columns to use as guideline for content. I felt this was good way to help me structure my work and keep it professional.

When I added in my content and made sure I kept the typeface, sizing and alignment consistent. I used Bold font were necessary to emphasise the section and information. I took out the hobbies and interests as well as some irrelevant content. I decided to add in a bit about skills which I thought would be important.

I wanted to keep my overall design and layout simple but effective. I didn’t want my design to take away from my overall content. I made sure to use white space were necessary as it helped make it appealing.

Reflection

I am happy with how my CV and Cover letter looked in the end result. It definitely is a huge improvement from my original ones on word. I hope this will interest and attract any potential employers who may look to hire me as I’m currently on a look out for placement jobs for next year.

Here is Images of both Documents

Below I have attached both Documents.

Cover Letter-FinTrU

SeanDowney-CVupdated

This weeks talk was on Idea Generation which in favour help us prepare us to to pitch out ideas for a digital product. This pitch will happen in week 12.

Examples of product could be a:

• Web site
• Native Application
• Web Apps
• eBook
• Printed Book
• Cards
• Physical System
• Packaging System
• Game (app, board game)
• Connected product
• or literally anything…

Daniel explained the importance of taking risks and don’t be afraid to fail. Its important to try out ideas. It’s easier to simplify and dumb down an idea than it is to make a boring are exciting.

Daniel then spoke about the 9 generations methods that we could use to help us come up with range of ideas. These are the following:

• Mind mapping
• Brainstorming ideas
• Visual Thinking
• Sketching out
• Making connections
• Worst Way/ Unintended Consequences
• Ask What if…? or How might we..?
• Inspiration
• Osborn Checklist

After our lecture we went to the studio, were we sat in groups to help and tried out of these methods. Our group choose the making connections system. As a group we tried coming up with ideas for a digital product. This allowed us to be as creative and innovated as possible. The categories we randomly got were GPS, Health, Documentary and Under 10. We came up with a couple of ideas but it was difficult at the start to come with many ideas.

Ideas

1. A GPS App that documents the health of under 10.
2. A wearable product that connect to an app and monitors under 10’s health. There is a button to press incase of an emergency.
3. The App can show locations of the nearest GP, doctors, chemist to help with their health.
4. Another idea is parents can track their kids location as well as their health and documents if they are sick.

Reflection

I thought this lecture was beneficial. I learned about a lot of different methods to help generate ideas. I will try use some of these methods to help me generate ideas for my own product which I will eventually pitch. Also I need to willing to take chances, as some of the best ideas may be crazy and weird but may interest others.

For this week I am going to try to brainstorm/ minds map and sketch a couple of ideas for my digital product.

Today Daniel has a break from given the lecture instead we got a lecture from a guest speaker Ronan McKinless. He spoke about the different jobs roles in the industry and types of places/environments to work as well as his very own experience. During his presentation he talked about the difference between UL vs UX Designer, working in large and Small Companies, start up company’s and full time and part time work and freelance work.

Later on we had an opportunity to ask him questions and he provided us with valid and reasonable answers. I also enjoyed his wisdom and advice he give us through his own experience which was very helpful. This was good because in give me an indication and better understanding of the type of work environment and job role I would be interested in.

This week we looked at the Business of Design. Daniel asked us this week to write a proposal for a website and brand to represent Hill street in Belfast. We could look at similar sites in Belfast for inspiration. When designing this Proposal I will look into the history of this area and the local heritage. At end we must include a timeline and pricing. This will be a formal document in PDF format.

He then briefly went through a recap what a proposal was and what should be included in one. We had some knowledge of the proposal from the research we done last week.

Daniel then went on to talk about internships, graduates and professional designers. He give a brief breakdown of what are expected pay should range from. We deserve pay for any work. The most important thing when working on a project is time management. For example Notion is a tracking board which could be used to track your work. Also Harvest is a site I can use to help manage time.

After break we went to studio. I had a one-to-one tutorial with Daniel as I missed mine on Friday. This is were he give a honest critique on my CV and Cover letter. I found this very helpful and glad I got an opportunity to speak with him.

To reflect I felt today’s class as very useful and was worth attending. I felt I had a better understanding were I am in terms of my work and what I need to change as well as learning about the business of design.