IXD302

CV and Cover Letter

SeanDowney-CVupdated

Cover Letter

Proposal & Invoice

Hill street Belfast proposal

Invoice

Presentation Pitch

Product Pitch (1)

Before starting my product pitch. I drew out a mind map to help me come up with different ideas.

From using my best ideas I wrote down a sentence explaining what product would be.

Once I decided on my final product idea I made some sketches which would help me with my pitch. Below I drew images of a rough schedule/social story and few pitch ideas which represented a Mask, Injection/Needle, Temperate Gun, Guidelines, Pull out comic Book and Vaccine Card.

Hill Street is a street full of rich and interesting history. Yet there is no site for it. Before I started creating my proposal, I wanted to find out about the history of this famous street and it’s building. It was important I had some knowledge before starting off.

Research

The Street

From the blackboxbelfast.com “Hill Street, a narrow-cobbled street running from Waring Street to Talbot Street, was first depicted on the 1757 map of Belfast as an entry running off Waring Street, the entry was originally known as Pott-House Lane due to the presence of a pottery shop along the street.”

Buildings

The warehouse which is now home to the art and entertainment venue the Black Box was originally owned by Bass, who were an English Brewers. They occupied the site up to mid-20^th century. During that time the warehouse had survived heavy bombardment of the Belfast Docklands during the 1941 Blitz.

One of Belfast oldest buildings in Hill Street is now home to the Dirty Onion and Yardbird has vast 300 year old history. It was originally a warehouse which traded things from fish and tea to tinned shop and whisky, etc.

Other places of mention include:

• The Thirsty Goat

• 44 Hill Street

Murals

This street is also well known for its icon murals. This mural is named “The Duel of Belfast, Dance by Candlelight” by Conor Harrington. It offers some stark perspective on the Troubles and political turmoil the world over.

Human Centered Design

Human Centered Design is a creative approach to Problem Solving which is commonly used in UX design. Human Centered Design is a process which is based around people you’re designing for and eventually coming up with a valid solution which meets the needs of users.  It’s important the design you create is catered to the specific needs to meet their requirements. It’s important to come up with ideas which they will embrace. Human-centered is about basically building a repour with your audience and importantly sharing what you’ve created, then getting your ideas out in the world with them.

Its also important to consider:

• How you think?
• What you do with it?

Human Centered Design is broken down into 3 main phases:

1. Inspiration- This is where you be bold and creative as possible trusting the process and listen to your target audience and become invested in their lives and therefore start to evolve your design once you fully understand their needs.
2. Ideation- In this phase you its important to come up with a lot of different ideas no matter how crazy or innovated. Then refine your ideas by getting rid of bad and making improvements to the good. During this phase you will learn, grow, and test your ideas. Building a simple prototype and allowing yourself to receive feedback and advice with your target audience so you know how you can improve. Keeping testing your protype you’re your happy.
3. Implementation- During the implementation phase you will start to bring your idea to life by working with others to help improve your idea until you are happy. The eventually to share your idea with others in the community which is the main goal from the start. You know it’s a successful from your target audience.

By following these steps you’re on to a winner.

Just remember with a human centered design, everyone will benefit from it.

Reflection

I felt this was an interesting article to read and it give me a better understanding to human centered designs. I thought it was very insightful and the video was on the webpage was very engaging and eye catching. It’s important with anything I design now and within in the future, that I do my best to base it around the needs of my users as they will be main audience. I would recommend UX designers and student look at this site in order to help them learn about what human centered design and how they could use it to better their design process.

For my Proposal project I was asked to create an invoice document. As I’ve never created an Invoice before I researched online examples of invoices. Below I have attached my own example invoice as a PDF document.

Invoice

In this document I have included:

• Company Details
• Client Details
• Due Date
• Payment break down
• signature

Reflection

On reflection I’m uncertain to weather to include just the deposit and final payment or the deposit, 4 weekly payment and final payment. I’m interested in learning what my class mates have suggested.

I have been requested for this project to write and design a PDF proposal document. This proposal will include the expectations and deliverables needed to create a website and brand which presented Hill Street in Belfast. Before starting my proposal it was important I carried out research on how to write a proposal, so I had a better understanding when creating my own what type of things I may mention.

Proposal

Below you can access my Proposal by clicking the link.

Hill street Belfast proposal

When creating my proposal I wanted to make sure I had a clear layout from the beginning. I wanted to make sure the content I included in each section was understandable and so the client know what was specifically happening in each step of process.

At the beginning of the proposal I included a Title page with brief details of the heading, subtitle, company, author and date.

In the beginning of the document I included a table of contents so they knew clearly were each section was and Version history so the client knows how many times it’s been edited or changed.

The following section included:

• A project overview-which was a brief description of the project I would be working on.
• The project approach- this is where I explained to the client how I plan on completing this project.
• The Scope of work- in this section I identified the roles of both the client and the company.
• Assumptions- What the client can expect upon competition of project.
• Deliverables- in this section I clearly stated to the client what work they could expect to see each week.
• Ownership/rights- The type of contact and who it’s owned by
• Additional Free/Costs- included information about any additional costs.
• Project Pricing and Payment Schedule- Stated when payments should be made and the overall cost of the project
• Acknowledgment and sign off – agreement between designer and client in order for me to start the project.

Reflection 

It took time to undertake this project but I felt I made great effort completing this project. I made sure I kept the text and headings consistent in each section to make it look professional. I felt it was an interesting challenge as I haven’t had much previous experience creating a proposal. I feel now a lot more knowledgeable and aware of how to design a proposal. Therefore I feel I’ll be more confident in creating my own in the future. When doing any future freelance work a proposal may be a good tool when communicating to my client in  written form what I am going to do in order to achieve the required outcome.

Improvements

As a future UX designer I will take time to design an unique front cover for any design proposal I write which will represent my brand colours I write. Also when I gain more experience I may decide to charge more for my services.

During week 10 as part of Generation idea for our product, we were asking to complete Swot Analysis and Empathy Map. The purpose of the Swot Analysis was to identify our Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of our product. It allows you to know what is good and what things aren’t so good and what should be improved.

The Empathy Map states the users attitudes and behaviours. This allows me to understand the users needs. The purpose of the Empathy Map is find out what the user says, thinks, does and feels.

I want to make my project user-centered, so its important I benefit my users needs. I think it will remove bias and prevent me from assuming what my user needs.

I will be referring to the research I have done so far to create my empathy map. This empathy map is based on my product I am pitching, therefore I know what my users want.

Before designing my CV and Cover letter in Adobe indesign, I made sketches of how I wanted my content to be laid out and structured appropriately. This will help me to neatly design and put my work in columns. By doing these sketches it will make it easy for people to view and read the content clearly. Once I felt happy with the sketches, I began to then design the Cv and Cover letter on indesign.

On Friday I presented my product to Daniel and Ronan as well as Cormac, Sarah and Orlagh who were in my group. I was the 2nd person to do my much. I must admit when I stood up to my presentation I felt a bit nervous but as Daniel said at the end it was normal and it will take to become more confident. I was very keen to pitch my original idea to everyone. I felt pleased how it went and I think everyone enjoyed my presentation and idea to be honest.

At the end I was asked some questions which showed their interest. I received some encouraging feedback from Daniel and Ronan which was nice. I think I done well for my first presentation but hopefully I can improve upon my presenting skills over time and feel more confident and clear. I feel the more I practice and do presentations the better I’ll become.

Once I finished mine I got an opportunity to listen to the rest of them.  At the end we voted who the best was. Personally I felt Sarah’s idea was really strong and deserved winner.

Below I attached my presentation as a PDF document. You can click on the link to view it.

Product Pitch (1)

This weeks lecture Topic was on “Intellectual Property” and how to protect our work. Daniel said there is further information on the Gov.uk website.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual Property is original work that anyone creates themselves. E.g a product, brand name, documents. They can also retain rights of particular product if they have bought rights.

Copyright

Copyright is an automatic right and arises whenever an individual or business creates a piece of work. It’s important the work is original and shows a level of skill.

Examples of Copyright:

• Literacy
• Dramatic
• Musical
• Artistic
• Typographical
• Sound Recording
• Film
• Software

Copyright length will be in place from date of publication and last number of years or once a the original author or creator dies.

Patent

A lengthy and extensive process that grants the Patent holder the right.

TM/Trademark

Trademark is Similar to copyright it prevents individuals using your work. You doesn’t need to register a trademark to receive protection. Registered trademarks are renewed every 10 years. Goods are listed in classes 1 to 34. Whereas services are listed in classes 35 to 45.

R stands for Registered Trademarks

Examples: Head & Shoulders, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Nike

NDA

An NDA is a contract through which various parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement.

Types:

• Unliteral (Common one)
• Mutual
• Multilateral

Tips

• Anyone how is not willing to sign a contract walk away from people.
• Make sure nothing is hidden in small print

At the end he spoke about Investment and Ownership.

When starting up a company it is first started, it’s 100% owned by the company’s founders. Once your business expands you’ll have to give some percentage of ownership. Only expect funding when you need it.

Reflection

After todays lecture I felt I am now more aware of Intellectual Property and how I can use them when producing my designs. This will be important for any future projects.