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This is the final illustration of the Experience Map. The analogy is one of comparing a track meet event as a racecourse with the runner having to jump over hurdles on the track. The hurdles represent the three semesters of completed courses to be able to cross the finish line, i.e. graduate. The silhouettes shown are of the runner experiencing the itemized listings of feeling, doing and thinking that can be seen on the infield of the track. The runner, shown with drops of perspiration (from stress and anxiety falling on the track) represents my experience over the last 12 months of courses taken at Full Sail University as I focused on crossing the finish line. This degree program at Full Sail University, although hard work, ultimately proved to be an excellent choice as I reflect on the high quality of the Professors, the outstanding support from the University and the knowledge I have acquired during the past 12 months.

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Professional Practice Course Three Takeaways

This course, Professional Practice, was our last opportunity to reflect on the knowledge we had absorbed during the past year in the journey we have now completed with an emphasis on standards and ethics that should be followed in our lives as they unfold going forward. One of the interesting elements of the individual courses is how each approached the general learning topic of media design that required the use of our graphic design skills and research abilities as critical elements of expository writing on a wide variety of topics. In conclusion, my learning experience has been wide-ranging and invaluable for a successful career in media and graphic design.

Three Takeaways

A.  The topic of ethics and moral reasoning in professional practice as they apply to   the practice of Media Design proved to be an illuminating subject for further research. AIGA published a guide to the behavioral standards expected of their organization’s members titled Design Business and Ethics, which was a compilation of earlier research done by various AIGA members now formatted into a single booklet. This was the first time I had ever seen compilation of these topics that are still relevant today. 

AIGA represents an authority on professionalism within the design disciplines. Its mission includes educating designers, clients and the public about ethical standards and practices governing design “The AIGA Design Business and Ethics series was created to establish consistent professional standards” (AIGA, 2009). This resource was coupled with a wonderful book, Media Ethics… (Christians, 2012) which took many of the issues raised by AIGA and extended those further into the realm of the real world faced by designers in all specialty areas falling under the umbrella of design. By using examples of cases that have occurred in the public arena the chapters in the book show how boundaries based on ethics and morals actually do provide guidelines for the way a design firm should behave in the marketplace. The real challenge in this area is that in a competitive environment, it could be foolish to assume that because you and your firm are behaving responsibly and ethically, that your competitors will also be following the same rulebook. It is common knowledge that the last statement is not likely to be true.

B. The construction of an Experience Map was the other major project for this last course in the degree program.  This was completely new to me and thus it became a real learning experience.  The concept is fairly simple and that is to identify all of the positive and negative feelings one experiences while spending twelve months with twelve different courses all related to media and graphic design.  By recognizing what you were thinking, doing and feeling during each of twelve courses, those summaries were then grouped into three semester brackets and moved to the illustration that was created to show or suggest the peaks and valleys or highs and lows you experienced during this time.

C.  As a critical element in the creation of the Experience Map, it was necessary to identify and summarize the contribution each course made to the feeling, doing and thinking summaries to be presented on a semester basis on the map.  This required not only summarizing these issues on a course by course basis but then I had to edit the four months of courses in each semester into an allocated space on the Experience  Map illustration.  The final result occurred after about 10 iterations of the lists on the infield of the racecourse. Based on the challenge I was facing, I decided to get away from the use of the mountain that is a logical venue for a demonstration of these three emotions and their effect on my performance by using an illustration of the running track which does offer the start of the journey (in this case, race) and the end, which becomes graduation.  I also considered using a ski lift with the individual gondola cars representing the courses I took but that was discarded once I started putting it together using the ups and downs of a typical ski lift.  Another concept I discarded in favor of the running course was a railroad leaving the station and arriving (graduation) at another.  The last idea was that of a hot air balloon but I couldn’t work out the individual course demonstration as occurred in other formats as previously outlined earlier.  The racecourse ended up using hurdles representing the three semesters of courses and those became the obstacles I had to overcome (jump over) to be able to finish the race.  By placing the runner as a silhouette at different points on the track, it was possible to show feeling, doing, and thinking represented by using the sweat droplets coming off the runner (me) at each track position. I added the Full Sail University entrance to personalize the illustration. I believe the end result does serve the purpose of an Experience Map.

References

AIGA, (2009). AIGA Design Business and Ethics. Retrieved 2017, January 17

       from http://www.aiga.org/design-business-and-ethics

Christians, C. (2012). Media Ethics, 9th Edition. Routledge, 20150717. 

       VitalBook file.

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One of the early concepts for the Experience Map. 

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Initial sketches of ideas considered for the Experience Map including a railroad journey, hotair balloons, and a racetrack of some sort. The racetrack was the eventual choice for the project.

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This image is a summary of the three Semesters and their associated descriptions of feeling, doing, and thinking elements as a first step in planning the Experience Map.

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This is the screenshot of all of the individual pieces incorporated into the WIX thesis website recently completed. The individual project images are listed under the header at the top that shows the four DLO’s (Degree Learning Outcomes-one in each box) used to categorize the purpose of each design included in the website. This represents approximately 11 months of my work in the pursuit of a Master of Fine Arts degree. This thesis is a very useful element to include with my portfolio as it shows the tremendous range of my design abilities.

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Three Takeaways and Why They are Important to Me as a Media Designer.

Takeaway One:

One important takeaway from just having completed the assembly and production of my thesis, is the importance of preparing the presentation materials so they are easily incorporated into the website or other delivery mechanism. As Kathryn Best states; “It will then become easier to plan or stage your presentation in a step-by-step manner, and describe or explain the thinking behind each step” (Best. K. p.145). The other element that was valuable to me as a novice media designer was what Best suggests and that was to address “the way the design functions and the appeal or qualities that align the design solution with the client’s brand or mission” (Best, K., p.145). Probably the most significant lesson from Kathryn Best’s book that should be remembered is to be aware of the knowledge (or lack of) your audience might have and the need to create the presentation accordingly.

Takeaway Two:

As I read the book, Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations, (Sykes, Malik & West), my first reaction was what a great compendium for those whose livelihoods depend on writing this would be especially true if it was used faithfully. One of the great hurdles I had to overcome when researching and developing the material for these projects was how to thin out the information I had located and then to share it as part of a story within the confines of the project assignment. The earlier referenced book was extremely helpful in being able to stay focused on the endgame of each project. The entire premise of the information that was shown in the thesis was that the elements are presented in the form of visual stories each one in a different format than the others. As the authors state: “The visual story looks simple, and in its simplicity, it is powerful. Clear simple messages are easy to consume, use, and follow. But clarity and simplicity are not easy to produce on demand. (Sykes, et al. 2012). The book also describes a system referred to as CAST (Content, Audience, Story, and Tell), an acronym for guiding the development of a visual story map. These guides are very helpful in making sure all the bases have been covered when writing visual stories.

Takeaway Three:

Research is undoubtedly another critical element when it comes to creating visual design stories to present a cohesive narrative that address the main objective of writing in the first place. Thanks to the massive amount of information that is accessible through the Internet, unless you have a clear well-defined single issue needed to create your visual story, it is very easy to get sidelined chasing down related issues that look interesting when the listings are first seen but turn out to be dead ends or even worse of no use at all. It would be worthwhile to keep the words of Edward De Bono as quoted by Kathryn Best in mind: ‘Thinking does not have to take place in words. Nor are concepts limited by the availability of words to describe them. Thinking can take place in images and feelings, which are quite definite but too amorphous to be expressed in words” (Best, p. 143). This is a great explanation of the rationale for design stories.

References

Best, K. (2006). Design Management. Retrieved 2016, December 13 from http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9782940439782

Sykes, M., Malik, A. & West, M. (2012).  Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations. Retrieved 2016, December 17 from http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/communications/presentations/9781118423998

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Measuring Design Effectiveness

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Colored Logo for the Nostalgic Sixties concert: This is the same design but now shows how colors were used to enhance the impact of the elephant. Note the lipstick and eye makeup which are themed to the bright colors common to the 1960′.

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Logo for Nostalgic Sixties: This is the new logo for the website for the benefit concert themed as the Nostalgic Sixties. This captures the purse of the event with a basic black and white design which will then turn into a colored version. The elephant holds a LP record with its trunk to emphasize the time period before CD’s arrived.

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The mood board captures the important design elements that are used to create the pages of the new website for the Nostalgic Sixties. This is benefit dinner concert to raise money to make sure the elephants in the Elephant Sanctuary are cared for with food, space to roam in and companionship within a herd.

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