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+ What was your biggest learning that you took from this paper.

The biggest thing that i learnt from this paper was user testing and empathy


+ What aspect of your project are you most happy with.

I am most happy with the cohesiveness of my work and also the fact that i opened my mind up to new ways of thinking in regards to design

+ What would you do differently.

If i was to do this differently i would have not worked so hard on silly things.. like a vector map that i didn't even use + scaled model wasn't really necessary

9 October

Today i had a critique with Mark before i sent away my files. I changed my name from PERCEPTION, WELLINGTON to .Perception because this seems a lot more calming and appropriate to my concept. He also raised some valid points in regards to my installation. How do i want people to feel afterwards, what do i want people to take away from this?

I finished up my brochure and posters and sent them away

8 October

Today i discussed my direction with Lee and Tristam, and it seems as though i am on track and just need to keep refining on details. The only struggle i have been having has been visualising my installation. I spent most of the night trying to draw a scaled drawing and playing on sketch up. I feel as though these approaches are not working exactly how i want.

I also spent most of the night tweaking my posters and brochure as i need to send them away to M/K Press in Christchurch tomorrow morning in order to have them on time for hand in.

2 Friday

Today in class i simply kept working on my project and started to develop a design style. I felt before it looked a bit too twee so i have removed the serif typeface and replaced it with a more contemporary-feel sans serif. I have plans to send away my stuff to a risograph printing place to achieve the colour and effect that i'm after

1 october

Today in class we had an interim. First we had small critiques, this was useful in that i could get some thorough feedback. However, unfortunately i did not have enough to show to really utilise this time. I had only my animation and some music + my journey map - not enough to get proper in depth feedback.

What i found most useful was seeing the whole year group's work, this is because i could see how other classes are going and see if i'm up to speed. I found overall that there was a lack of design but heaps of conceptual research. This was kind of scary to me because this included myself. I realised pretty quickly that i should be stuck into the design stage right now.

Friday 25 September

Today in class i talked to various people so i will note them down and discuss what each of them had to say:

Sam Rye (Life hack) - Sam suggested that i build a model to scale, i like this idea because it's moving through to a more tangible approach. I definitely feel like i will take on this advice

Unknown 4th year student - Suggested that i relook at my target audience, would a business man/woman really want to use this?. I need to either revise my target audience or my actual idea

Exchange group - Recommended that i look at No Lights No Lycra, an event held in Newtown where participants dance in a pitch black room to relieve stress.

Also prints potentially hung from bulldog clips with a light underneath will create an atmospheric effect.

Look at Mark Rothko

Tristam - Meditative, virtual reality approach

Transitory space

Could be word of mouth

Go back to journey map and POV

COLOUR THEORY! ENHANCE THIS IDEA - put strong value on colour

A way to experience colour theory








From all the feedback i have received today i feel like i'm in a good stead to continue on my project. I am realising that i need to prototype a lot more before i start resolving!

24 September

Today in class we did an exercise involving us to quickly ideate revolving around a problem. Our problem was that a mum can not afford to pay for food for her child, she was also sick of convincing people that she was poor. We had 30 minutes to arrive at a conclusion/solution. Our idea was to create a card almost like a snapper so that she could simply present it to receive discounts on food. These cards could potentially already have credit on them as well.

We then continued with our own work. I got a bit lost within my research however once i had a chat with Mark, my ideas began to clear up. I am now settling on an installation with audio. It will be tactile and relaxing and placed in Midland Park- where all the business men/women go for their lunch break. I am currently compiling my visual material (risk prints + printmaking works) and building my installation on sketch up. I realise that i will need to visit my site in order to get the scale right.


– What is the role of design in creating change for social good?

I think that design has the potential to make peoples lives easier through creative thinking and research, create compelling narratives & provoke important questions and critical thinking– What are the key elements of designing real change for humans?


empathy

– I like that...

We are learning to design for a purpose and dealing will real issues in doing so (wellbeing)

– I wish that...

There was more focus on the aesthetics/graphic design(or other majors) in design thinking rather than the process. I believe that the final outcome is most important as it is key to "creating change for social good" in regards to design. It's all very well if the process is good but the user is not going to know/care. I find that most of the 'design thinking' outcomes contain lots of infographics etc which i don't find personally compelling or intriguing/interesting. I would like to see more beautifully crafted graphic design.

– I will...

make sure that i prioritise the process as it is crucial to the brief but make it my own mission to create aesthetically pleasing design to compel my target audience.

18th september

Today in class we prototyped further. I hopped over to the class beside me to gather some more feedback. It seems as though my project is being defined as more of a "Fine Arts assignment" this to me seems slightly confusing. I have chosen to keep this in the back of my head but i do not think i will let it impact on my process at this point. as long as i keep to the tools offered in class i shouldn't veer off.

Considering i feel quite confused, i am going to put this assignment down for the next couple of days

17th September

*Late to class, missed out on lecture*

Today in class we learnt about journey mapping, this is a concept that i am unfamiliar with because i did not take Brand Communications or Experience Design. I found myself quite confused, and feel as though i may need to work through it quite slowly. I then moved over to the next class to gain feedback on my idea from Donald, Tristam and Jason. It was nice to get a variety of perspectives on my response and it was incredibly helpful. I realised that i need to hone in on my target audience a lot more, and remember that it is mostly about the user experience. I also learnt some new fun ways of prototyping - like putting a box over people's heads to immerse fully. I the moved back to discuss with Lee and was happy to hear that i can work with print as long as it becomes this experience.

11th September

Today Tim Parkin did a talk about Prototyping and i found it incredibly useful in clearing up some of the grey areas in my head. I particularly resonated with "show don't tell". As i believe this to be a great way to gather a response for user-centred design.

At the moment my idea is to create an immersive experience through audio and visual material allowing the viewer(participant) to become transported from their stressful urban environment to another place.

My prototype consisted of an audio of beach noises teamed with imagery of tropical fish (cheesy at this point but just a prototype). However, the majority of my user's felt instantly calm and relaxed (this is annotated and reflected upon in detail in my workbook). However the user that helped me the most was the one who had doubts.. He believed that it was contrived, this is because he felt like he was supposed to feel a certain way but he didn't. This was the most helpful part of my day.

My exchange group really enjoyed my idea and agreed with me in that it needs to be more abstract.

10th september

Today we had presentations in the pit from Phoebe, Mark & Lee on Design thinking provocations. I found it particularly useful to see examples (the water project) as it helped me to better understand the concept of design thinking and how it can be applied in such a simple way - and by doing so makes peoples lives so much easier + can promote healthy choices. I find that i am still trying to grasp user-centered design however and i may need to do further research to better understand what it means + how i can incorporate it into my project.

We then went over the IDEO method cards in class. I'm very interested in the behavioural card as i believe that i want to evoke an emotive response from my project.

12 August

Today Nick and i unfortunately encountered some problems with printing. Because of the fact that no printing bureaus would print on our stock, we had to try at Massey through the bypass tray set to lightweight. This worked out fine yesterday, as we managed to print our whole draft on our stock however today it just kept jamming. We decided on a plan B - simply try some different paper

7 August

Today we left class halfway to look into printing bureaus and how we can tackle the paperstock. It turns out that none in central Wellington will print on newsprint. This means that we will have to put the paper through the bypass tray at Uni. Our plan for binding is to just attach bulldog clips to the spine to hold all the paper together.

I then attended my exchange and got some great feedback, it was mostly positive however so not a lot to go on

6 August

Today in class we critiqued each others work.

Our responses/feedback was quite interesting.. People seemed to really like our paper stock choice and our photography style(very amateur). However a lot of people struggled to understand what Biophilia is, which is problematic. We decided to combat this issue by making it clearer in our spreads - dumbing it down a bit.

We have also planned to take a trip to the Botanic Gardens to get some more photos, particularly of nature

Friday 31st July

Today in class Nick and i spent the majority of the lesson looking at photography books in the library and looking up photography blogs online. This was to get an idea of what style we want to go for.

We are at a slight disadvantage due to the fact that the visual brief has to be black and white. This means that we have to find a way to make nature look good/positive without colour which is a hard task. We are also afraid of "cliche nature photography".

So far we like the look of more soft photography as opposed to

Thursday 30th July

Today in class we had a lecture from Jason O'Hara on photography for design. This was useful due to our interest in using photography for our visual brief.

We then made quick mockups of potential rhetoric and metaphor we could incorporate into our visual briefs. We drew one box with geometrical shapes inside it, to represent urbanisation and connotations of the man-made. Underneath we drew swirly organic shapes. This is very very rough, however Nick and i both came to the mutual decision that our Visual brief will incorporate this contrast(sharp vs organic) through photography.

24 July

Today we gathered the information we had and started to look at each others specific ideas. The common thread in our research being spatial awareness and environmental psychology.

We then separated into our exchange. Everyone had very interesting topics within their disciplines, especially Elise studying textiles. Her brief was to redesign the interiors of the Ronald McDonald house, this was due to its current depressing vibe created through its terrible interiors. We arranged to keep in contact due to our similar ideas.

23 July

Today in class we sorted ourselves into groups. Nick and i decided to work together due to our mutual interest in environments and atmospheres.

We began to arrange tasks for each other - such as researching readings and articles on the matter.

17th July

Today in class we had another session with our peers discussing our well-being.

We were then introduced to the 8 points and asked to go away and start researching an area of well-being that we were interested in. An idea that resonated with me instantly was spatial awareness and atmosphere, and how this can effect and affect your mood.

16th July

Today we were introduced to the brief and learnt about Lifehack- the client.

The overall theme is Well-Being and we are asked as designers to research into ways that we can encourage people to adopt healthy habits, in order to promote well-being.

We then went to our streams to talk in small groups about what makes us feel good and what makes us feel bad. This exercise intended to help us understand all the parts that contribute to our general well-being and also understand where everyone stands on this topic.