OUGD505: Design Practice 2 - Module Evaluation

OUGD505: Design Practice 2 - Final Thoughts

This module has been one of the most exciting and stressful of all. I have enjoyed the creative freedom but not enjoyed the timing of the deadlines and briefs. I think that this year the deadlines have been poorly placed - I understand that all of the modules need to be quite long in order for the quantity of work to be produced but I think that having 4 deadlines in 4 weeks is a poor choice. The 505 module started off brilliantly for me, I chose a great topic to look into and produce design work for but since Easter with other deadlines the project took a back seat, which is not something I wanted to do. I think that had I just had this brief to focus on at once the quantity of work that I would have produced would have been great but unfortunately it is not.

I wanted this brief to be solely focused on web and this is not something that happened. When I spoke to Lorraine about my work she said that a website would not be enough - though I was disappointed I do agree with his. I am unhappy that I have to spend time coming up with printed materials as my interests lie within digital design. I hope that in the future I can work out a way to simply work on a web brief then my web design skills can continue to improve.

I am very happy with the outcome of this module, I have learnt alot about my self and my design practice and I now feel confident to enter the third year.

Aims for the future:

• Continue to develop crafting skills
• Work on web briefs
• Look into usability in ALOT of detail
• Continue to use commercial printers
• Manage my time more efficiently

OUGD503: Responisive - Collaborative Practice (evaluation)

The collaborative practice aspect of this module has been an eye-opener and also a learning curve. I found it very difficult to find a partner at the beginning because I did not want to work with a friend due to personal interests and also the fact that I do not want to fall out with friends. I knew that I wanted to work on a web brief so I had to find someone in the class who wanted to do the same. As the selection of partners happened over a 2 week reading week it was very poorly timed as many people had to ask people over facebook and text. Due to this it happened that most people ended up working with their friends as it was an easy option. I asked many people who I knew from the 504 module enjoyed web design but all of them were working together.

When I finally found Adam was interested in web design and he wanted to work with me it was a feeling of relief. I had already looked at some of the competition briefs and identified a few that would lean towards a web resolution. Adam had also done the same and when we came together we decided to work on Redrow (YCN). We chose this brief because we thought it was the most detailed and gave us the creative freedom. As we began to brainstorm I came up with some concepts and Adam agreed with me on most of them. The final concept was a collaborative effort though it stemmed from one of my initial ideas. Adam knew that he was not as interested in UI and UX, which I am. I took the lead with layout and grid whilst Adam turned his attention to designing artwork for out website. We decided to create an illustration that detailed the three stages that a site goes through, in order to see this we visited a Redrow site at Steeton. Adam has photography skills which was very helpful on this day as he was able to gather primary research and also model his illustration on an actual site in production. Adam's illustrations were amazing and really pulled together the information that I had come up with. Though we might not have each spent the same amount of time on the project this was not to say that we did not produce the same amount of work. My input into the project was mainly preparation and organisation of files and also information. I was able to design the logos for each job which was something I enjoyed and also I put together the format of the website.

When it came to putting our proposal together Adam was more skilled on the software to do this, I took a more supervisory role in this aspect of the brief giving my opinion as Adam worked. This part of the brief was the most time consuming and it seemed that Adam started to loose interest in the brief. I do not think that this was necessarily his choice but the illustrations seemed to take so much time that he was beginning to resent the brief because of it. The last week before submission was a struggle as we were not agreeing on certain aspects of the design. In the end we had to come to a compromise and we did produce something that fit in with the current branding of the Redrow website.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this brief and I would be happy to work with Adam in the future. We now hope to win the brief as it is one of our favourite pieces of design we have both created. The time and effort that we put into the brief is reflected in our response and we hope that the judges can appreciate this.

OUGD505: Design Practice 2 - Studio Brief 1 (Development crit)

Today we had a development crit for the work we have produced so far for OUGD505. We were asked to bring along mock ups of the work we had produced and also nets for packaging. The main aim of this session was to firstly check where everyone was up to and improve on any issues such as typos but it was also meant to help us with our crafting skills.

My crafting skills are ok but could definitely be improved. I have chosen the Oscars as my main research topic, the branding for the Oscars is very high end which should be reflected in my work. By choosing this topic I have set myself the challenge to improve on my finishing skills and also my final presentation. 

For the crit I presented my Oscars research boards, nets for the packaging and also page layouts. 

Oscars design boards:

Layout opportunities:

Nets for packaging

Feedback I recieved:

I found the format of the crit very successful as it gave us the option to talk through out work before someone wrote anonymous feedback. I think that in the future we should have crits like this as it allows people to gain some idea into our concepts

OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Web Final Crit

Today we had our final crit for web. It was done in the same format as the print crit which I think has positives and negatives. We had to leave the studio for one hour to allow the other group to crit our work. Last week I was very disappointed to receive only 2 forms of feedback but this week I had 5 different sheets. I presented my 5 design boards and left my laptop out for people to have a look and use my website.

 Design boards -

My Site so far:

Homepage

History page

Inspiration page

Submit page

Resources page

We were asked to leave some questions which we wanted feedback on for our site. I asked:

- How do you add a scroll bar?
- Do you think it would be better to use illustrations rather than photos?
- Do you think there is too much negative space?

The feedback I received:

1.

• Sorry, not sure how to add a scroll bar
• On the history page the photos fit nicely and create an easy way to view the content, however on the inspiration page they look out of place.
• As for negative space the only page I see being a problem is the inspiration page. This is because it doesn't fit the grid and creates inconsistency in the website. 

2.

• Sorry, same problem with the scroll bar.
• I think if it was prodomonently for children on the website then yes use illustrations. Because children will be on the history page then yes use them on there. It makes the page less serious and more playful for them. It is maybe a bit too formal. You could have information on the image when the mouse is moved over it. 
• I think the links and history page should have the same layout for consistency. Maybe use the images as the links?

3.

• Sorry, having the same problem
• Photos most effective for the history page as they add authenticity but illustrations would be better for the inspiration page as the photos look more randomly selected on this page.
• An alternative background could benefit the site or consider an illustration with low contrast/opacity - however don't loose sight of the target audience - keep it simple

4.

• Sorry I'm not sure about scroll bars try online tutorials
• For the history page I think the images and text work really well together. However, the first trains paragraph is too long for the page
• Depending on your skills and time I think photos would be best to keep consistency throughout you design. 
• Considering the target audience is for teachers to show to children I think it is a bit broad. Are they primary or secondary school children? I think once you identify this then your design will follow.
• I also think that when all your content is put in you can judge whether there is too much negative space. I think the homepage could do with some more images to make it engaging. 

5.

• The more content you have you will get a scroll bar - could add padding-bottom to text box so it doesnt reach end of page, mess around with container heights, margins etc, W3SCHOOLS is good for tutorials.
• Photos are good so keep them - would probably use just photos to keep it consistent
• Think history is the best page for use of space - maybe try make each side on rest of pages equal to each other in terms of space used.
• I would also make the nav links change colour/underlined when you're on that page so user know what page they're on.

Overall I think the crit was fine. There were some comments made within my feedback which were confusing and it was clear that the person had not read my design boards clearly. Other than that I found it very helpful and I have some changes to make which will improve my site before submission.