Week 11: Intelectual Property This week Daniel did a presentation on intellectual property. Daniel covered everything from what intellectual property was how long it lasts are you can protect your own work and how far you can push to use of other peoples intellectual property. Research: This week I looked at websites and programs that helped your workflow within Webflow which is an online website development application. Some of them had very nice websites themselves alongside offering products that help to create great websites as well. Extended attributes This is an addon for Webflow that helps you create better design, clearer and quicker. This is made by a big independent web design company that like to share their tools with the community. It allows you to create effects animations and so much more using attribute tags. Webflow University Webflow university is great! it has loads of useful documentation on anything you want to do and can do in web flow. I used this a lot so far and I think I will be using it a lot more as I begin to polish up my website. I looked at quite a few videos and pages on parallax animations and just […]

Week 10: Proof of Concept This week Daniel give us a presentation on how to flash other ideas through the use of Myanmar chooser personas research and other general planning and wireframing. The aim of this week’s lecture was to help us understand how to manage and plan an idea into being a feasible project and something that can be presented. Daniel shooters five basic steps to flashing other ideas the first one is defining your primary users the second one is picking techniques for involving music such as branding what platforms it will be on and how they will access it. Following this, you’re meant to research into those groups through surveys and previously carried out research and studies. Safar as invalidating definitions and analysing the research trying to work out how this will affect what you’re creating and understanding what you’ll have to take into consideration when designing and further planning here are you. Then finally the face is generating Rueter user requirements this can be done through user personas working out what your target audience needs the product to do and then already trying to create a solution to the problem. What I Learnt: This week was […]

Week 10: Proof of Concept This week Daniel did a presentation on how to flesh out our ideas creating user personas mind maps and research to help inform our choices and to better our presentation in doing so. I created some user personas for my product during the class however when it comes to the presentation I’m not sure it’s something that I will show just because we have limited time. Following this, I continued working on my presentation using the same style as I had previously and inserting some of my new research into the film industry and the gap in the market. I also added some competitor research where I looked at other apps that do the same thing and how my new app will compare to the existing apps. For things such as the use of personas I just added in a couple of bullet points to which I would elaborate further whenever on speaking about it. I think this is a better alternative than having a full slide of user personas with a lot of text as this will distract the viewers and throw me off a bit. As you can see when I created the […]

Art of The Pitch: This week we looked at the art of the investor page and how we can replicate this. Daniel shoulders pictures from Airbnb Amazon YouTube for inspiration which allowed us to have a look at what we are expected to do and what works well within a pitch. I found this interesting as I have seen a pitch before was very similar to a presentation however there was more the intent of pushing a motive rather than just telling random information. I think one of the key differences is that there is a lot of emphasis on the product that you are selling and a lot of false optimism. Daniels presentation mainly focused on the presentation of the pitch. There was a lot of emphasis on how to present the presentation and how to maintain eye contact and interest in what you’re saying. I think a lot of this has to do with nerves and it’s deafly something that everyone experiences Daniel then went on to talk about how to deal with his nerves her place yourself on a stage and engage an audience. What I Learnt: In general, I’m pretty confident and I enjoy talking to […]

Week 9 Tasks: This week we had to continue to develop our pitches. Find out facts get images clear everything ready for the creation of the pitch deck. This week I began to throw everything into a Sigma file chat me organise all my thoughts. Not only did I do this but I also sketched out some small ideas of what I wanted to say on Post-it notes. Are usually do this to help me understand the general narrative of what I’m going to say including saying such as rhetorical questions and anecdotes. I also went and find a set of illustrations that I thought matched my style that I would put throughout the presentation and help make it more interesting. https://www.opendoodles.com/

Week 8: Briefing and Idea Generation: Unfortunately, I was stuck in my room with covid for this lecture so I just had to watch it online. This week we were given another reminder to update our blogs and keep up to date with our work before the lecture. we went through 9 ways for creating our idea for our next project which was a product pitch. The one that was new to me was the osborn checklist which id never heard of before and luckily daniel went into a lot more detail about it. I think the 2 most interesting points within the osborn checklist are the: Adapt Rearrange I kind of imagined large corporations doing with with their product to make it better or when they are adding new features and could picture how well going through these steps would help generate a more throughout and fleshed out idea.   What I learnt: today was very interesting and something id like to learn more about. I always wanted to create and start my own business. The osborn checklist was very interesting and the sequence in which you go through it and all the small steps really help you thing […]

Week 7: Design Talk This week we Ronan in who is an experienced UX/Web designer who gave us a talk about what he does and hopes he got there. During this, he talked about the education path he went on and the work experience he did and how that affected where he is now. In the end, we got to ask questions about anything we found interesting such as what he thinks of certain types of design companies and what he would advise learning or looking into. I found this very interesting as it’s always great to hear someone’s experience of what you’re going to go through and any tips he would give. He also talked about programs he would advise learning such as after-effects and blender/3ds but also how to pick what you like doing and what works well at the moment. Website of the week: Swirl gallery is a website dedicated to displaying and showing off NFT’s . The website shows off a lot of technical skill, with a lot of animations and moving parts. Not only does it look great but it’s very easy to navigate. On their homepage the blue enter button is well the first […]

This week’s Task was to keep working on our design proposals For the design proposal, I decided to use the same layout as my CV to keep it clean and consistent. Using this I began to work on my proposal working through each step one at a time: The UX Design book we were shown really helped with the development of this document as they had a lot of things that could be adapted and taken into our new Document. I thought it was important to keep the pages empty and clear sectioning things off into groups to help navigation. In regards to the invoice, I already had a template I had from working with companies creating videos however it didn’t match who I was and was also poorly laid out. After looking at what was required I redesigned it: Doing this I used the same header style along with similar font and font size and kept the tables however this time I kept them centred. Final Proposal and invoice: Proposal Invoice

Week 6: The Bussiness of Design This week daniel covered what’s in a proposal and how we should organise it and go about creating our own proposal for the design brief. He split it all up into 9 sections each of which was covered in the chapter of the book we read How to structure a proposal 1.Proposal Cover The cover of your proposal is the first thing that the sales lead will see, so it needs to make a good impression. It doesn’t have to include too much but it must be well-designed. The proposal cover should include information such as: Name of the project Any project reference numbers Name of the client and contact to whom you’re submitting Name of your company and contact info Date proposal was submitted 2.Proposal Summary A proposal summary acts as an introduction, allowing readers to quickly get familiar with your proposal by outlining what’s to come. It gives you an opportunity to sell your proposed solution and explain why the prospective client should choose you over the competition. The executive summary in a proposal must be persuasive and focused on the benefits of your company/product/service, rather than descriptive and focused on the […]

This week Daniel wanted us to keep up to date with our blogs and research alongside researching stuff for the new project this includes What Hill Street is and more on Design Proposals. I completed updating my blogs and the new research for the brief is over on my recap and research page.

Week 5: Cv Crit This week daniel walked us through how he would have a CV set up. and how he uses InDesign to layout his text and format it for print. Personally, I used Pages as I’ve got some familiarity with it but in the future, I probably would use InDesign. During this he showed us how to: Line things up Add text Create lines Shortcuts Place things We were shown a book to read that will help us understand the next project about project proposals. The book will help us cover intellectual properties pricing and time management when outlining all the work. Following this, we had a big tutorial session where daniel gave us feedback individually on our CV’s. This took ages and probably would have been better planned. I sat in the list halfway but each session took a lot longer than originally planned so by about 3pm I had to leave to go training and couldn’t wait any longer. What I Learnt: In general, today was meant to be a lot about the group crit but it was poorly organised to the point of running past 5pm. I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t go but […]

This week’s task was to read a book called “A Project Guide to UX Design” https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nv-J5vUr61q-jFgqMd9eHsYXukFFpa-N/view The book “a project guide to UX design” was a book recommended by Daniel for us to read for the following week. This book covers the topic of creating a proposal and all the documentation behind it. It was a great resource for showing examples of how to create your own proposal and how to safeguard yourself against anything that might go wrong. I was surprised by how easy this book made it to understand the difficult and sometimes overwhelming process of outlining your workflow and the documentation that goes behind it. Daniel told us that this book would help us understand what was happening in the next week and I can confirm it helped a lo a lot of what Daniel said was previously mentioned was in the book. From understanding how to list requirements & assumptions from the client while also maintaining a professional stance alongside working out pricing time management, and general job-related tasks.

Week 4 Task: Interview Questions This week’s Task was to research potential questions that you might receive in an interview and write out some answers that you might give to those questions. I have this work displayed on the  Research and Recap post for week 4.

Week 4: Interview Skills Today we coved interview skills, what to talk about how to answer questions and what questions we should expect. Talking about yourself can be an awkward and hard skill to learn.   Never Done = Willing to learn Challenge Convention = Push the boundaries Impact Together = Be a team player Bring You = Personality (enthusiasm) Be an Advocate = User-centred approach We talked about how you should always answer a question and then back it up with some form of evidence to prove that you are who you say you are. This means if they ask you if you would fit in well with a team you should explain why and possibly a time you’ve worked well with another team. daniel then mentioned a design task which I didn’t think was a thing in the design work for job applications, I know these from when I was more code orientated as these are quite common to see your practices and thinking. This is a useful link to use when completing a design task for an application. https://uxplanet.org/how-to-ace-the-design-task-to-get-an-interview-951ae91ca7c2   You should also always bring hard copies of sketchbooks and backup material to help show your process, no […]

Week 3 Tasks: this week we covered etiquette within a studio, this included interacting with other designers and colleagues along with clients. During the day daniel held a workshop with breakout groups where we practised a meeting. This weeks task relates to this but covers all online communication through email. This week I also finished off my CV. I had my family proofread it along with some of my friends before I used it to send it off. In general, I am pretty happy with the outcome of my CV I feel like it reflects me perfectly and shows all my skills to employers. Now all I have to do is send it off to companies and hopefully, they respond and off from a placement. Leander-Cover Page Leander CV Extra: Research: We also had to continue researching design companies alongside any further information related to today’s lecture this can be found in my research and recap blog.

Week 3: Creative Entrepreneurship: Studio Etiquette I was unfortunately not in the country for this lecture however luckily the lectures are recorded for anyone who is not present due to covid or other circumstances so I was able to watch the content again. Today we covered Studio Etiquette, this included how to behave within a studio while working with others and how to handle yourself around clients whether that be in person or online through a zoom call. I don’t think any of these were new to me as I have worked in shared spaces with other people before. We then took a look at how to handle yourself in emails and phone calls, this followed a similar direction to the others. The class was split up into break out rooms where they had to speak over a number of topics and assume a selection of roles. This included a notetaker, chairman, and other general parties. I thought this would be quite interesting and looking back on the lecture notes I wish I was there for this.I think one of the key things to learn from this is to always communicate with each other and no question is too stupid […]

Creative Entrepreneurship:   Today we started by looking at the Belfast UX slack group and what people had to say about interviews and applying for jobs. This was useful to see and a group I am already part of. We then had a look at CV’s What is it? A concise, formal document that summarises your education, skills and experience. It should be easily read and referenced and explain who you are. What should it include? Contact Details A Short Bio Skills Work Experience Education Awards and Additional Info References Keep it short. CVs should be as concise as possible. Use simple sentences. They are for conveying information as quickly and efficiently as possible. So, only relevant & vital info. Your CV will likely be about a page or no more than two sides of an A4. Workshop 20 Questions You will each select a random post-it with a job title on it. Keep this secret. Your colleagues in the group must find out what you do in 20 questions or less without asking outright what you do. You only get one go at guessing the job title. No cheating. What I Learnt: Today we learnt a lot about what […]

Tasks: Start writing your CVs and covering letters. Pick a job or company from last weeks research to get you started. Also, consider ways in which you will stand out or your delivery method. Get LinkedIn and any other social platforms up to date.   Start writing CV/Cover letter: I started writing my cover letter and used a similar style to the one daniel showed us. I kept everything within a table which helped the spacing and organisation. I still have to add sections on previous work experience, additional information and references. These will follow the same format as the other sections. I have to work on formatting the document as to when it is converted to a pdf my qualifications smoosh together. This is probably because I am using pages and it is my first time using the software. LinkedIn: I have updated my linked in, which did not take long as I had updated everything at the end of last year.

  This week’s tasks consisted of researching designers around the world alongside local designers. Tasks: Find three examples of local companies that you admire. Find three examples of international design that you believe are world-leading and produce exceptional work.   Us folk Us folk is s local illustration and design company made up of loads of amazing and talented illustrators and designers. They are currently one of the biggest illustration and design companies in Belfast and continually grow and expand their capabilities within the market. They are a collection of freelance creators that support each other and now occupy the same space making illustration, design and UX a professional and tangible long-term job. Pentagram Pentagram is one of the world-leading design companies specializing in branding. Their work ranges from digital branding to interactive real-world art installations. Their work ethos is something to admire and the transparency with their work and the attention to detail by the designers is amazing. As a company, it prides itself in its designers and never waits to show off who did what project.

Lecture Recap: This was the first session of IXD302 with Daniel Philpot, this session was more of an overview of what we will be covering in the following weeks and easing us into the course. We covered course content in creative entrepreneurship which is the title of this module where we will be creating a CV and cover letter alongside an Invoice in the latter weeks. We then began by covering some simple techniques and ideas that would help us find a placement and be successful in applying for one. We then went into a workshop where we had to write down everything we would look for in a potential employer and how this would affect our decisions when picking an employer. What I learnt:   This week was more of a warmup to the following weeks however I think the most important thing I took away from this was to be confident in who I am, don’t be afraid to ask questions andput myself out there if I want to stand any chance of getting a placement in a design company. Website of the Week: https://finale21.ch/en/projekte Finale 21 is a german website created to display the work of final […]