I wanted to explore making my proposal more detailed or just to add subtle touches to make the document more interesting and exciting to read. Although I would like my typeface to do all the talking it was fun to experiment with design in this part of the process.

Trying out the line addition

Before

 

After

These are not exported yet so the margin lines and text boxes are still showing, I need to research how to export singular pages on indesign. I took some snapshots of my trying out the line and I am still unsure if it needs it. I am going to add it for that added detail, I think the reader needs some definition from the title and the content. I also think the under line will add to the black and white theme without being too in your face, for example , like if I added big black boxes or black backgrounds. It would be too much.

Reflection

I liked taking part in some minimal trial and error with this part of the process with the proposal and feel like although it was a subtle change it was an important decision to make as a designer. I am excited to make the changes to each page now and then discuss my final outcome.

I started by looking at typography. Typography is the main element for this proposal so I want it to be perfect and something that really represents the Hillstreet website well.

Typography 

After looking into a few of my favourite fonts I decided that my favourite and the one that will look the best in the proposal is the Helvetica Neue Light version. I will look into other Helveticas to see if the light is the best one or not or most fitting one for the proposal.

Why Helvetica Neue?

• It is clean
• It is modern
• It is easily read
• It looks sophisticated
• It is not too loud or in your face
• It is everything I want in a font

The Design

Below are some screenshots I took of the process of making this proposal. I tried a few different layouts and feel like the one I settled with works the best. It is clean and align but I will play about with it some more to see if it is really what I want.

Opinions

• I think the font looks really nice and ties in the minimal aspect I was looking for at the beginning of the project
• I think the text size works nicely and is easily read which is good
• I think the content spacing could be looked at to ensure the text is not too squished
• I like the white space element, I think it makes the document look professional
• I feel the content pages lack though, something is missing so I am going to start to think about adding in lines or some detail to see if it improves the finished outcome

Daniel asked us to complete a swot task for us to get to know our strengths and weaknesses for pitches. I thought this was a great idea to way up to weigh up the idea and see what needs work and if the idea will be successful or not. I made mine on procreate because I thought it would look nice and give me some freedom with colour. It is seen below.

Reflection

I got a lot out of this as a creator, it made me sit down and think about what my pitch/app is for and how it will be received by the audience. I think that this was a great task to complete and fun to try and decipher the problems with my idea and the good things about it. I am now aware of the threats and can look to the opportunities for inspiration on how to make my product better.

What do I want my proposal to be?

I asked myself this question and then began to mind map ideas. The main thing I want for this proposal is a new lease of life for Hillstreet. I want the old brick era to be gone and a new modern era to begin for the street. The image below is what I came up with – buzz words for my proposal to help me discover the direction I want it to go.

The words that stuck out to me were:

• Minimal
• Sleek
• Modern
• Clean

These are what I want the new and improved Hillstreet website to be. I think that it is important to stay up to trend and with the times so I feel like with a proposal and then a website that encompasses all of these things. The next step was sketching out some ideas on what I think the design should or could look like. I think that it is important to sketch before you begin a project because you should never go straight into the design.

Overall I think the sketches turned out nice, I made them on procreate and think that the minimal look will come across in this design well. I think that I just need to focus on finding the correct type and then it will really come together. I want the main focus of this proposal to be on the typeface used so I must find the perfect one.

The theme

I have decided that for my theme I want a sleek, minimal and clean look. I want this proposal to be professional looking and look as if it is a real document that a street would use to try and make a website. I plan on the website being black and white and that is the theme for my proposal too.

Next step..

I plan to experiment with minimalistic design and lines. I will do this on indesign I think because it will give me a professional edge. I liked making my cv and coverletter on there because I found that it caters well for text heavy content. The next step is to start designing it and putting in all of my content.

 

Brief reminder – To design a proposal for a job which is to design a website and brand for Hillstreet in Belfast.

Since there is no actual website for this street in Belfast, Daniel gave us some tips that we should look into other local websites around Belfast for example, the Titanic Quarter and the Cathedral Quarter. So this is exactly what I did and with some other examples I found too.

Titanic Quarter

I found out lots of information when I went onto the titanic quarter Belfast website. They had a lot within this and I will get into my findings now.

The Brand

I noticed the brand straight away when I clicked on the website, the icon is an illustrated titanic, this was fitting and very relevant to the titanic quarter itself. As, that is what it is named after. I think the overall brand works well with the website and the colours used throughout, the font also blends nicely and matches the boldness and thickness of the titanic. The icon is repeated throughout the website so it feels very cohesive, like the website is revolving around it, this makes sense because without the titanic there would not be a quarter.

Imagery

I also noted the lovely images throughout, since this is an area people visit, outdoors, there is a lot of imagery of every building there is to see. I noticed how the images were full width and show off the area very well. They are very professional images and add to the website immensely. I think that the imagery makes the website what it is, it informs the people what the buildings look like and what the titanic quarter has to offer.

Contact Information

 

This websites filled with contact information on every page, on every footer and even the nav. This makes the website very accessible and very easy to find phone numbers and email addresses of the places they want to visit. I think this is a great feature because the users don’t have to search through the whole website if they are just looking to book a hotel or visit the titanic building.

Events

 

I also noticed how this website holds al of the upcoming and current events of the Titanic Quarter, this is a helpful feature and perhaps one I could include in my proposal for the street in Belfast called Hillstreet. The designer of this website had to go get access to this information so he/she could include it in the website. This is good research for me because I get to see what sort of content I need for my own proposal.

The Design

 

 

The design is a big part of this website and is very cohesive throughout, it is one of the elements that I really wanted to look into because of the proposal I am designing. The colour scheme is white, black and yellow, which symbolises the Titanic. This is cohesive with the brand and it really reflects the core of the Quarter. There is a lot of white space throughout this website which I like because it lets the images and content shine. I also like the hints of beige that are used as a background section sometimes, this is a nice change from the white but still subtle. It also makes it easy to read for the users. I like the blocks of colour on some pages to break up the white space, the yellow and black backgrounds really tie in the brand and overall design.

What did I learn from this website review?

• That for a design proposal the titanic quarter needed to supply the designer with a lot of content, for example, the events, contact information, images, everything that they offer basically
• That the brand has to be cohesive with the entire website – it needs to flow
• This website is modern and fresh
• It is easy to read, navigate through and it doesn’t give too much away for example, there wasn’t all of content about the titanic building – encouraging the users to go find out for themselves
• I got a feel for what local websites are including in regards to information and content
• I got a feel for the current style and trends of local websites

Reflection

In doing this research on one of the websites in Belfast that needed a design proposal for, I learned lots of things. I am now more aware of what current websites in the area look like, and what they include. This has given me great scope for my own proposal idea and what I would need to include in mine. For example, I would need to include permission from businesses to include images of their shops or restaurants etc and their contact information etc. There is a lot to think about and include but I am glad I researched this website so now I know better.

Todays lecture was all about the actual pitch and presenting it. I was eager to hear the tips Daniel had because pitching and presenting is something I haven’t done in a long time. The first this Daniel asked for was some volunteers who he made stand up in front of the class. He asked them a series of questions like, how they are feeling – to which they replied nervous, and feels formal because its a lecture hall. He asked them why they are standing – and the answer was to command the room. It is much more professional to stand up in a lecture hall, or presenting.

Body language 

Daniel then went into the importance of body language when presenting and having a commanding presence. He said that standing up straight, shoulders back is very important also. As, it commands the attention o the whole room and people will want to listen to what you have to say.

What would help when presenting ?

• Standing in the space, getting familiar with the space your are presenting in.
• Eye contact – conscience of where eyes are looking, to make everyone feel included. Look in various directions.
• Sitting closer to the speaker – a more intimate experience. speaker will speak better, not have to shout.
• Stick to your time limit – to go over it is disrespectful to other speakers going after you. Practise before, to help stick to the time limit.
• Use picture over words – grab the audiences attention more than words does.
• Use plain English – best way to speak to the audience, they may not know the same things as you. be succinct!

Why use slides?

• Visual queues
• What you are saying should make sense without the slides they are just an aid/reference/help get through the presentation
• Helps to remember lots of content

Tools –

It doesn’t matter, Daniel uses pdfs for his slides.

Keep it simple

Warnings

• Only use 1 typeface
• No crazy fonts
• Use subtle transitions
• short videos or GIFs – use sparingly
• Never too much text
• Use bullet points for text
• Don’t use hundred of slides
• Check spelling and content

Setup of slides

Daniel then told us how big the presentation slides should be:

16:9 – widescreen

1920 x 1080

1280 x 720

He also talked about templates, he said that templates usually depend on confidence level, good for starting out.

Content 

Approach 1: Lay out what you intend to cover

or

Approach 2: Get to the point. Gives the presentation energy, engagement.

Handing out supporting materials. Give them out at the end to not distract people from the presentation.

Rhetoric devices to use:

• repetition
• rhetorical questions
• metaphor
• alliteration
• humour
• personal anecdotes

Be prepared

• Cables
• Connectors
• Clicker
• PDF Backup
• Be prepared

Investor pitch – What to include

• Vision
• Problem
• Solution
• Market
• Team
• The ask

He ended with a few nice notions of ‘Practice makes perfect’ and ‘Keep it interesting’, this was helpful and reassuring to hear him say that the more you practise the less scary it will be. He also encouraged us to end our presentations on a nice and positive note that will be remembered by our audience.

Reflection

I think this lecture really helped me not be so nervous about the pitch in a few weeks because. Daniel said that as long as you are passionate and positive about selling your idea then you will be fine. After all I am just trying to sell my idea to my classmates nd convince them it is a good one. I learned a lot from this lecture and I feel more prepared for my upcoming pitch because he showed some good examples at the end. I also learned what not to do as the list of warnings will be. very helpful when I am creating this pitch on a slide deck. I think the thing I am most excited for is to try and sell my idea to others because that is something I ahem never done before, I have only ever explained my ideas. It will be interesting to see how others do this too and their own presentation skills. Over all these tips and advice from Daniel has made me calm about starting the pitch.

 

Today was very helpful in terms of giving me great inspiration on how to come up with ideas. Most of today’s lecture was on idea generation and how we should begin the next part of this module – The Pitch!

Daniel told us that in four weeks we are going got have to pitch a Digital idea product to a group of people. This sounded scary at first but Daniel reassured us, and told us that it would be fun. He said that the product can be anything you want! This means we can be as creative and crazy as we want with our ideas, and he iterated that we should not be afraid to fail. These are some examples he gave:

• Website
• ebook
• printed book
• Cards
• Game for App
• Connect product

I was excited when I heard this because I feel that this is a very free and creative project for me, the scope is so wide and the examples he gave were so vast that it will be difficult to narrow down ideas. Daniel said that the pitch will be a big part of the project also, how will I be able to narrate my idea and try to sell it to others. This is something new for me, as I have never pitched a concept before to anyone.

Daniel then went through 9 idea generations methods that we could use. He said that these are the best ones out there to come up with a range of ideas. I took down all 9 and am eager to try them all out on various projects. The 9 idea generation methods were:

1. Mindmapping
2. Brainstorming
3. Visual Thinking
4. Skating
5. Connections and Association
6. Worst Way
7. What if..? How might we?..
8. Inspiration
9. Osborn Checklist – Scamper

The next part of the day consisted of us going back to the studio in groups and try out these methods, this was fun. My group used the connections and association method, this is where we were resisted with topics and we had to create a digital product from these restrictions. I really enjoyed this method because it kind of narrowed the scope down without being too restrictive, because we still got to come up with some crazy ideas. We used a mind map for one concept and post-it notes brainstorm for the other. Daniel encouraged us to combine the methods, so that is what we did! The images below are our brainstorming and mind-mapping outcomes,

Idea review – Daniel liked the mind-map idea because he could easily see the process and our thought journey. He also said that we should have grouped together the post-it note ideas to create an actual concept or idea as an end result. We took this on board and we have decided to keep working on it individually.

What did I learn from this activity?

• How to brain storm as a group
• How to combine idea methodolgies
• How to talk about my process through mind-maps
• Mind-mapping and brainstorming idea generations
• How restrictions can actually help create ideas

What did I learn from the lecture?

• I learned that it is ok to have crazy ideas because it is easier to dumb down a crazy idea than it is to make a boring idea interesting. (this was great advise from Daniel)
• I learned how many different ways there are to come up with ideas
• I learned how the best ideas are usually funny or the craziest concepts that seem unbelievable at first
• I was encouraged to not be scared of failure and to be proud of my ideas

 

Today Daniel introduced us to the pitch project that we have to complete in the next few weeks. This was exciting to hear because it would be a nice change from working on my proposal and cv etc.

The project Brief: To create a digital product and pitch the idea to the class.

He got straight to the point and told us that we would deign anything we wanted, from an e-book, to an actual book, to an app. He said that the possibilities were endless. This was what I wanted to hear because it would be so fun to create anything I wanted and come up with some crazy ideas. During this class he also talked about idea generation and then we tried some out, this was great help because I am going to be doing lots of these now starting this project to generate my best ideas.

What am I exciting for?

• The opportunity to come up with crazy ideas because there are limited restrictions
• The chance to practise my speaking infant of an audience, since this is a pitch I will be trying to get my group to buy my product
• To play around with various ideas and concepts, eg app ideas.
• To get to experience that pitching and presenting environment

What am I nervous about?

• Trying to sell my product, I have not done this before, so this is the part I am most nervous about. Speaking positively about my project and trying to convince others they need it.
• Coming up with a unique and needed concept that is current and others would be interested in.

I think this project sounds so fun and I cant await to get started and get to generating some ideas I am having. I like that the scope is wide for this project because it really gives me freedom with my ideas.

What is next?

1. Brainstorm ideas
2. Mind-map my favourites
3. Select a final idea and begin

I felt I did not have enough examples of proposals in my research, and felt that I needed more variety. So I took to google and tried to find blogposts or even images that showed me some more design proposal examples. This was extremely helpful and I found a lot of kinds of proposals.

Why look at examples?

• To give me ideas and inspiration for the proposal writing task
• To examine their layouts
• To discover any patterns that reoccur in each proposal
• To get inspiration for a possible colour scheme

I put together all of the examples I found and create a board on figma (As seen below), this allowed me to put them all together in a space where I could look at and filter through each one. I created a semi mood-board type image to help me. I also think that this gave me a chance to compare them side by side which was very helpful, as. I found a few similarities in all examples.

 

 

What were the common finds?

• Each proposal has a cohesive colours scheme on each page
• There was a title page on the front with a bigger design
• There was always a range of shapes throughout the pages used within then design, for example : circles etc.
• Some were illustrative
• Images were used throughout – either digital or photography

What is my favourite design I found?

My favourite was the orange and blue one, that explored a web development proposal , I felt this had the most flare and unique design. I also liked the colour combination because most examples I looked it just stuck to white and then a selected colour. I think the combination as fun. I also liked how the orange banners came across the top of some of the pages. I also liked the navy touches but I think the black pages could be replaced with the navy instead so it is a bit more cohesive.

What do I have to do next?

• I must research about the street I am writing the proposal for and discover the vibe, so I can relate this back to the design
• Begin writing the content for the proposal
• Break the content into groups so it will be easier to digest

Daniel advised that we read a particular chapter in the book ‘A Project Guide to UX Design’ by Ross Unger, this was to get us aware of what a proposal is, he didn’t mention much about what the chapter was about or what we would fin out, he left that up to us. I am always glad to hear book recommendations because reading is something I love to do. The chapter Daniel wanted us to focus on was chapter 3 – so that is were I looked first.

Chapter 3 – Proposals for consultants and freelancers.

‘A guide for those in the business who also mange their own business.’

The first part of the chapter was about the importance of proposals and why they are needed. I read that they are essential to protect your business and yourself from financial and legal troubles. I was surprised at how much the word protection was used throughout this chapter but it was encouraging to hear because it is nice to know that such a document can exist. Then I read that how you should make sure you spend time composing an agreement because sometimes a well written proposal and a poorly written one is the difference between getting the job or not.

The book also said that the biggest challenge in wiring the proposal is writing your very first one because there are core elements that are common in every proposal. But the first one can be daunting to write and normally people have no clue where to start.

Then I noted down that you should always write a proposal. ALWAYS.

Unger said that sometimes you could be tempted to skip this part but you should always write one. Before one starts to work they should take time to define their professional relationship and rules of engagement with every client. No matter how good the connection was at the beginning. I was shocked to read that when a proposal is written up that there is less likely of fights between parties because promises can always be broken on both sides. There could be with held content needed from the client or funding could be stopped, the possibilities are endless.

The last thing I noted down that caught my attention was that well written proposals provide clients with a sense of stability and protection. This was a n ice way to end the first part of this chapter and then the next part of the chapter was all about the core components, the authors listed out every core component that should be included in every proposal and then went into more detail on each one.

Core Components

• Title Page
• Scope of Work
• Revision History
• Assumptions
• Project Overview
• Deliverables
• Project Approach
• Ownership and Rights
• Additional costs and fees
• Payment Schedule
• Project Pricing
• Acknowledgement and Sign-Off

It was really helpful to see all of the components listed within the book and is a great help to someone like me who has never seen a proposal before. I understand most of them but I thought I would write about a few that I wasn’t aware of and had no idea what they meant. The authors did a deep dive into each one and it was very interesting reading every one, this made me really comprehend the importance of a proposal, through finding out what each section entailed.

Assumptions

In reading this section I was weary because I did not know what they meant by assumptions. But an assumption in this context is used to spell out what is needed from a client to ensure success. It really means ‘exceptions’ but assumptions is just a more polite phrasing. This then made sense to me when I read this. In general the assumptions are an exception of resources and assets as well as timely (prompt and immediate) access to both of these.

There was then an example of an assumptions section of a proposal, this was extremely helpful because it helped me visual it in real life. I then understood completely why this is needed.

Ownership and Rights 

This was another section I wasn’t quite sure on because I have never needed to know about copyrighting etc. But this was explained well also. I noted that the majority of work  will fall into two categories-

• Work for hire
• Licensed work.

When I read this I was still pretty lost because I was unsure of these definitions. Work for hire is the when the work is under copyright to the party who pays for the work. It is owned by the client whereas Licensed work enables you to retain the copyright of the work but grant other parties the right to copy or distribute it. I read that time and having experience will help determine which one you choose.

This was helpful and enlightening, I have never had to think about any of this before and it was a bit scary to read about because copyrights and fees sound so serious, but that is the reality of freelancing and proposals.

Pricing 

This is another area that I wanted to write about because it is where I learned the most. I have no experience in selling my skills when it comes to UX design so I would have no idea how to price and this part of the book really helped me understand the steps to take. They included lots of tips on how to start, it was said that you should firstly, estimate how long you think it will take you to do the job, time for revisions and estimate a time for project management. Then determine an hourly billing rate and calculate it all out.

I was not aware of how to do this but then I read on and they gave me some tips, for example research what others are charging because it is important to know for comparisons. I also noted down a list of organisations and websites that preform salary and contractor rate surveys. I also noted down an important note ‘Remember: You can always lower your rate, it is always harder to ask clients for more once they have seen the numbers on the page’. I thought this was great advice and a note I will be following.

This section also included an example of a project estimate. This helped me visualise what mine could possibly look like. It was also helpful to see the language used, as I would not be familiar with business lingo.

Reflection

Overall I really liked reading this chapter and found it extremely helpful. Going into this I had no real knowledge on this topic oc proposals but now for reading about all of the components and really taking in the examples given, I feel much more prepared to make a start on the project Daniel set on writing out own proposal soon. I will be sure to go back an dread the rest of this book as it was very well written and easy to digest as a young designer starting out.