butteryhauntedvoid

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Evaluation

From testing and creating a Fantasy Museum App I’ve learnt many techniques, which have been used to help develop my ideas and designs. I used my new found knowledge on design fundamentals to enhance my design skills. For example, my research on colour theory taught me that increasing and decreasing the saturation results in either more pigment or a tint/lighter shade of the colour. From this piece of information I was then able to find a colour palette that I liked and then increase and decrease the saturation of the colours to achieve the most desired look. From my research on shapes, I learnt that geometric shapes are what most people think of when thinking of a shape. Because of this I decided to try to incorporate more geometric shapes into my ideas and designs so that users would would like the design of the app more. I used my research on The Natural History Museum to help develop my museum map. I noticed that The Natural History Museum used different colours to divide their collections and rooms and so I thought it would be a good idea to use this technique to make understanding the layout of the museum easier, as well as clearer.

Academic challenges I faced during this project included, balancing my workload with my personal responsibilities and understanding the content. This project required a lot of theory work, such as research and analysis, as well as practical work, which included creating a lot of design content and visiting a museum. Because of this, balancing the workload with my job, family issues, and other assignments, was very difficult. To overcome this challenge I created a timetable that included my rota for work, dedicated a certain amount of time to each assignment and the personal time I needed for myself. I tried to make sure that the time was divided evenly, so that I wouldn’t be too overworked to concentrate on the things I needed to do. To make completing this assignment easier I also divided it into sections and completed everything task by task. Understanding the content of the assignment itself was a slight struggle for me. At times I would stray away from what the brief was asking of me, for example I’d create more stress and work for myself by thinking about how I’d actually create and program the app even though the assignment focuses on the design of the app rather than the physicality of it. To overcome this challenge I re-read the brief multiple times, compared my work to the requirements of the assignment and had one of my fellow peers take a look at my work.

Overall I would say I tested and created a successful Fantasy Museum App. The app followed all of the specification because it had a minimum of 10 pages, contained a splash page with an original logo and title, had a map to guide visitors around a physical space and contained at least 80% of my own work. I wanted the interface of the app to have a dark, space colour theme, but also use bright colours. Because of this I decided to use a black background on each page to represent the dark space theme and used bright colours such as orange, pink and green for the icons and buttons, which then represented the contents within the universe. Doing all of this then increased the overall aesthetic of my museum app and displayed a consistent design style. I think the actual idea of creating a museum on the Universe was quite original and quite unique because from my research I found that there aren’t many museums like that that exist. From my Fantasy Museum App you can see that it follows a simple yet effective design to help users find what they’re looking for, make navigation easier and still be aesthetically pleasing. The fantasy museum app also includes most of the features of a real museum app, such as a page displaying the map of the museum, an about page, a contact page and several pages dedicated to the content within the museum.

If I were to further develop and work on the fantasy museum I would think of and create more rooms to make the museum more interesting. I think the splash page of the app could be developed further because it looks quite plain and empty. I could do this by adding imagery or by including fun-facts about the Universe to pop up on the bottom of the page whilst the user waits to be taken to the home page. I would add more forms of interactivity to each page within the app, such as audio or links, just to show that the fantasy app would engage users. I’d also collect more research materials from a variety of museums to gain inspiration and to help make the fantasy museum app appear even more real. For example, I could create a brochure of the museum that could be viewed on the app.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Final Designs

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Development of Fantasy Museum App Prototype

My fantasy museum app is based on the Universe and the contents within it. I originally planned to base the museum on either chocolate and the history behind it or to base it on the development of gaming consoles over time. Even though I am passionate about chocolate and gaming consoles, I wasn’t quite sure how I’d develop and design a fantasy museum from those subjects so I decided to ditch both ideas. I then thought about another topic/subject that I’m fond of and decided I wanted the museum to be science related. Knowing that the Science Museum is something that already exists and is such a big attraction in London, I decided to be a little more specific and focus on a subject within science. I think having the museum based on the Universe is fairly unique because from research I have found that there aren’t many museums like that that exist. I’m also very interested in the Universe and think that it would be good to share knowledge on it and allow people to learn about the place they live in.

Interface Design

My interface design is fairly simple but effective. The navigation is in the form of scrolling and zooming in and out using the touchscreen capabilities of handheld devices. I gained inspiration from the apple watch, which follows a similar method of navigation.

The circles are the different pages within the app. The user can click on the circles to access these. If the user zooms in then they can move the circles around. They can also change the way they navigate through the app by holding their finger on a circle, which then causes the circle to fill the screen and arrows to appear so that they press those to navigate around.

I used my research on colour theory, line and shape to assist in the design of my interface. I wanted my interface to have a dark, space colour theme, but I also wanted to use some bright colours to represent the contents, within the universe, that brightens space. Because of this I decided to combine the two ideas. I used a black background to represent the dark space theme and used bright colours such as orange, pink and green for the circles which represented the contents within the universe. I found a colour palette that I liked and then I increased and decreased the hue and saturation of the circles to achieve the most desired colour. I chose to use a geometric shape to represent my pages because I knew that they were the most recognized by people. Overall I think that my design ideas for the interface were fairly good because I carefully considered what elements would be featured in the design. Through further development, I may decide to make my circles look like planets so that it further represents the what the museum is about. I will also be using icons as well as text for the page layout.

Here is a mock up of one of my pages, which will be further developed when making my final designs.

Logo and Icon Design

I initially came up with two names for the the fantasy museum and they were, ‘The Universe Museum’ and ‘The museum of Space and Time’. I wasn’t sure which name I wanted to use so I asked my fellow peers which they preferred, however this proved to be inconclusive as both museum names had an even amount of votes. Because of this I decided to take both names into development for the logo. Using Adobe Illustrator I typed the names on an empty canvas as began playing around with the font.

After playing with the different fonts and styles, I decided to change the name of the museum to ‘The Infinite Museum’. This is because I felt infinite was a good word to describe the universe and that the name sounds a lot better and shorter. I then made the decision to use the initials of the museum name for the logo and icon because I felt as if ‘tim’ would be easy to remember by people and it would allow me to make more creative decisions. Using the full name of the museum for the logo, seemed like it would be too much and wouldn’t be as eye catching as ‘tim’. However users will see the full name of the museum on the landing page of the app.

Using my research on typography to carefully decide on the best font for my logo and icon, I chose to use the font, proxima nova bold, because it has a bold and elegant look that I thought would be most suitable for my app. I wanted the logo to be colourful but to still be within the space theme, so I decided to place multiple layers of the shortened museum name on top of each other to create the idea of a star shooting off. I then used the same colour palette from my interface design to colour each layer, increasing and decreasing the hue and saturation to achieve the desired colours. Using the same colour palette as the one from my interface design ensured a more consistent and unified style.

Once I’d finished the logo, I started working on the icon. I wanted to use the logo in the icon design because I felt as if it would increase brand recognition and would make the design style more consistent. I placed the logo on a black background to highlight the logo and to keep within the space theme. From my research on shapes, I then decided to add a star because I knew that geometric shapes were the most recognized and thought of by people and I thought that the star shape would convey the slight space theme a bit better than just a black background.

Creating  A Map

The Infinite Museum is a one level only museum. It’s fairly small and consists of 9 different rooms, a toilet, a cafe and two fire exits, which is also the entrance and and exit of the museum. I created my map in Adobe Illustrator, using my research on line and shape to create the actual map itself. I used the same colour palette from my interface, logo and icon designs to ensure all my designs had the same style and to create a sense of unity. I used the pen tool, to create my icons, which from shape research I know are also known as abstract shapes. I carefully thought about the size of the rooms because I wanted them to depict the amount of information in it. For example room 6 is smaller than the others because in comparison to other key topics, the Moon is a little less significant and so therefore its room has less content than the others. From my museum research I thought it would be a good idea to divide the rooms by colour because The Natural History Museum’s map also did this and I think that it makes the understanding the layout of the museum easier, as well as clearer.The layout of the museum is rectangular, this is because I want visitors to visit the rooms in order and so that the flow of people can be controlled/encouraged to walk in one direction. Overall I think the map is clear and easy to read, which then makes navigating around the museum much easier.  

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Research into interface/app design

An example of a good interface design is the Iphone X interface. This is because it has a nice, clean layout and is easy for the user to navigate. The design includes icons and labels which help the user identify and solve their needs and adds to the aesthetics of the interface. The apps are all the same size visually, which increases the unity and balance of the overall the design. The interface literally consumes the whole phone screen, making it clearer to see everything. There is a consistent style used throughout the interface. The font is the same, the image/icons are the same size and the layout of how the apps are displayed is consistent because they’re all level and have the same/even amount of space between them. It avoids placing interactive controls at the very bottom of the screen and in corners.

An example of a bad interface design is the black belt tv website. There is no clear navigation, which means the user can’t identify and solve their needs in reasonable time. The colour theme for the website is extremely contrasting, they don’t go together well to complete a unified feel. This then makes the user want to leave the site. The text and colour of the font used isn’t the same throughout the interface, which then makes it looks messy and unprofessional. The layout of the interface, as a whole, doesn’t fit together visually, making it harder to find the focal point of the design.

Amazon is one of the best online retailers to exist today. They have a variety of features and UI elements to make the browsing and buying process easy and simple for their users. One feature that allows Amazon to stand out amongst the rest is their 1-click ordering system. Once a user has input their payment and delivery information, Amazon remembers it and allows them to purchase other things with just one click. The 1-click ordering system makes the buying experience much better and easier by speeding up the process and satisfying their users needs as quickly and efficiently as possible. The feature also decreases the chances of cart abandonment.

Dropbox is a good example of responsive design. The font colour changes to accommodate the background colour and the images change orientation when transitioning from desktop to handheld devices. On desktop devices, users are directed to more content by a tiny arrow. However on the handheld devices, the arrow is absent because it is assumed that users will instinctively scroll, due to the touchscreen capabilities the handheld devices have. The signup form is visible on desktop devices, but is hidden behind a call-to-action button on handheld devices because the space is limited.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Museum Research

Natural History Museum

The main purpose of a museum is to collect objects and materials of cultural, religious, scientific and historical importance, preserve and research them and present them to the public for the purpose of education and enjoyment. The first ever British public museum to exist was The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, which opened on 24 May 1683. It was the world's first university art museum.

I visited the Natural History Museum in London. The Natural History Museum exhibits a wide range of specimens from different parts of history.

The natural history museum divides their 80 millions items within five main collections, these include botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology, zoology. Botany is the science of plants, entomology is the scientific study of insects, mineralogy is the scientific study of minerals, palaeontology is the study of fossils to gain information on the history of life on earth and the structure of rocks and zoology is the biological study of the animal kingdom.

The botanical collection within the museum has an estimated six million specimens of bryophytes, ferns, seed plants and slime moulds from around the world.The collection spans from the 17th century to the present and includes a number of historically important collections from Sir Hans Sloane, Sir Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin.

The Entomology collection within the museum is the oldest and most important entomology collection in the world with over 34 million insects and arachnids. Gathered over 300 years.

The museums Zoology collection has over 29 million animal specimens, which were gathered over 250 years from around the world.

The museums Palaeontology collection is globally important due to the geographic, stratigraphic and historical coverage of the seven million vertebrate, invertebrate and plant fossils that it has.

The museums Mineralogy collection includes collections of 500,000 rocks, gems minerals and 5,000 meteorites.

Within the natural history museum the five main collections are spread out across the whole museum and divided up by coloured zones, such as the green zone, red zone and blue zone etc. Each of the zones lead off from one another so as you walk through one zone and approach the end of it you also begin walking through a new one.

There’s a lot more to do at the museum than walk around and browse the different collections. The museum has multiple cafes and restaurants, it hosts a variety of events  and has different forms of interactions to keep you entertained and to increase your knowledge. One of the forms of interactions includes an earthquake simulator.

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Design Fundamentals

Colour Theory

Primary colours are colours that cannot be created through the mixing of other colours, this is because they are colours in their own right. Red, yellow and Blue are three primary colours

Secondary colours are colours that have been created by mixing primary colours together. For example, blue and red mixed together creates purple.

Tertiary colours are colours that have been created by mixing either a primary colour and a secondary colour or by mixing two secondary colours. When naming tertiary colours the primary and secondary colour names are joined together by a dash with the primary always being the first colour. For example, red and orange creates red-orange.

Colour harmonies/colour chords are basic techniques for creating colour schemes. For example, the complementary colour scheme. The complementary colour scheme are colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel and considered to be complementary to each other (example: red and green).

Another example of colour harmonies/colour chords is the Analogous colour scheme. Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They usually match well and create peaceful and comfortable designs.

RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. RGB should be used when dealing with anything involving the web. For example creating a website with Adobe Dreamweaver or designing a digital magazine with a software like InDesign. RGB is used every time you use the computer because computer monitors give off coloured light known as RGB.

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (In the printing press days when plates were being used the black plate was typically call the “key” plate because it carried the important key information relating to the artistic detail.). CMYK is used for printing material. This is because the colours printed will appear differently if printed in RGB. For example, if you were to edit a picture using photoshop and intended to print it off then you would have to work in CMYK conditions.

Hue is colour in it’s pure form ( colour without tint or shade, such as an added white black or grey pigment). A hue is an element of the colour wheel. For example, yellow is yellow, blue is blue etc.

Saturation is typically the depth of the pigment. More saturation means more pigment. Less saturation results to a tint or lighter shade of the colour. For example, if you decrease the saturation of the colour red, then the colour will begin to move into a lighter shade which would be pink. Luminosity is another term used for Saturation.

Value is essentially the darkness of the pigment. Less value results in a darker colour. If you take a colour and remove all hue, you are left with value - basically grey scale. Brightness is another name used for value. For example if you have the the colour orange and increase the value, the colour orange will begin to move into the yellow areas.

Colour is a very important aspect within design because it can sway the way someone thinks, it can cause reactions and change people’s moods and actions. The colours you use within design need to have meaning so it can express its true purpose. Because of this I will be carefully considering what colours I will use for my design.

Typography

Helvetica is the most commonly used typeface in The Western World, and almost certainly the most widely used sans serif. It was developed by Max Miedinger in 1957 with Eduard Hoffman. There are dozens of variations and numerous typefaces have been based on it. when computers first got developed they could only use a pixelated typography dure to primitive screen technology.

There are more than 150,000 typefaces available. This is because people are making new typefaces everyday.

Typography represents a mode/code in its own right, which interacts with other modes. Social codes within typeface are how people, who are creative, will often choose an intricate font. Social code is deconstructing the typeface to decipher what type of person is using it.

In typography, kerning (less commonly mortising) is the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Leading refers to the distance between the baselines of successive lines of type. Letter-spacing, usually called tracking by typographers, refers to a consistent degree of increase (or sometimes decrease) of space between letters to affect density in a line or block of text.

Typography is very important within design as it can change the look and feel of the design as a whole, as well as affect how someone reacts to the text they’re reading. I will be carefully considering what font I use, so that I can ensure that it fits within my design style.

Image Formats

The five most common image formats and types for the web and computer graphics include: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP,  and TIFF.

JPEG files are one of the most popular image formats used on the web. JPEG files are lossy, meaning information is lost when the original image is saved as a JPEG file. JPEG files discard a lot of the information in order to keep the image file size small, this then also decreases the quality of the image.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a lossless image format specifically designed for the web. It is similar to the GIF format, as it is also restricted to the 8 bit palette and is saved with a maximum of 256 colours . However PNG formats save the colour information more efficiently and support an 8 bit transparency.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is another popular image format. Its image size is quite small in comparison to other image compression types, which then makes it one of the more desirable image formats on the internet. GIF’s are restricted to the 8 bit palette, meaning it only has 256 colours. GIF is widely used for animation effects and is great for images with restricted colours.

BMP (also known as The Windows Bitmap or raster or paint images) files are image files within the Microsoft Windows operating system. BMP files are large and uncompressed meaning that the images have a very high quality, rich in colour and are compatible in all Windows OS and programs. BMP files are made up of millions of pixels, if you resize the image to make it smaller or larger, you are making the individual pixels larger and making the shapes look indistinct. BMP files are not ‘web friendly’ due to the fact that they’re oversized, they’re also not compatible in all platforms, nor do they scale well.

TIFF is an image format that gained recognition within the graphic design, photography and publishing industry. It’s also very popular among Apple users.TIFF can be either lossy or lossless and it has a very high quality image format, with all colour and data information stored. Due to the large file size, TIFF image formats have a long transfer and slow loading time and consume a large amount of disk space.

Grid Systems

A grid system is a structure that uses a two-dimensional framework to align and lay out design elements. Grids enable you to build a solid structure and form into your designs. It is important to make sure that your designs have a good user journey and user experience. Having a solid grid system will ensure this because it creates familiarity and consistency within the designs.

Grid systems allow you to design in proportions so that you can balance all of the different elements that may be in your design. They should be flexible so that you can manipulate it to your needs when designing the different parts of your work. When using grid systems in your design you should: set an overlay of your grid onto your design, create some guides to help you, aim to work with constraints and restrictions and you should pay attention to your spacing.

Visual Hierarchy

Visual hierarchy influences the order in which a person perceives what they see. The order is created by the arrangement of elements in the design. To create a visual hierarchy you will need to organize and prioritize your content by working with all your design tools, such as colour, typography, spacing and other basic design principles. The most important function

of a visual hierarchy is to help establish a focal point, giving users/viewers an indication on where to start navigating your design and showing them where the most important information is. There are multiple ways you can control the visual hierarchy, such as using size to enhance or reduce visibility, giving your layout balance, flow and focus using spacing, or using colour to strategically highlight important information or imagery etc.

Line

Lines provide emphasis and define a shape. Just like colour, typography and imagery, lines can be used to convey moods and emotions. A line connects one point to another point. Lines  can be thick, thin, long, short, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, solid, dotted, dashed, straight or curved. There’s an endless variety. Each of the different ways lines can be perceived as can convey a different meaning. For example thick lines can convey a different message than thin lines. Thick lines convey strength and give emphasis to elements, they are bold and create a statement, whereas thin lines are delicate and convey an elegant quality.

Lines can be combined to form shapes. Lines can be made up of type or any shape placed one after the other. A series of lines creates a pattern, which can also convey meaning. There are several types of lines that are defined by their use. Contour Lines are used to define edges, dividing lines are used to divide space, decoration lines are used to enhance an element or object and gesture lines used to capture form and movement.

Shape

Shapes have an endless variety of characteristics, with each shape conveying a different message to your audience.They can be open, closed, angular, round, big, small, free-form or geometric and ordered. Shapes can be defined by their colour or by the combination of lines that make up their edges.

The same way that simple shapes can be combined to create complex shapes, complex shapes can be abstracted to make simple shapes.

The different characteristics of a shape can influence and portray different moods and meanings. Altering the characteristics of a shape can change how we perceive that shape and in turn, how we think about a design.

Shapes can be used to organise information, convey moods, emotions and different ideas, create movement, texture and depth and to lead the viewer’s eye from one design element to the next.

There are three basic types of shapes. Geometric shapes are what most people think of when thinking of a shape. Geometric shapes such as circles, squares or triangles, are made up of regular patterns that are easy to recognise/remember. Organic shapes are uneven and have more curves. They typically represent shapes found in nature such as trees, clouds and rocks and they usually tend to be fairly comforting. Abstract shapes have a recognizable form, but are not real. They’re the stylized version of organic shapes. For example, Icons are abstract shapes used to represent ideas and concepts.

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Lego Serious Play

During week 8 of Ideation and creative problem solving we focused on lego serious play. The lego serious play methodology is an ‘innovative, experimental process designed to enhance innovation and business performance.’ In the session we discussed how in today’s culture play is not taken seriously and is overlooked as a way to help solve problems. Generally, people don’t use their hands and mind together as a problem solving method. We were taught that ‘play’ is an emphasis on freedom and learnt about it’s other qualities, such as the fact that it’s voluntary, limited in time and space, draws on fantasy and creative imagination and is exploratory. There are two different types of play, they are children’s play and adults’ play. Children’s play may not have an objective other than the actual act of playing whereas adults’ play is targeted at specific outcomes. The use of lego introduces the act of thinking with your hands, which gives you that hand-mind connection, which is essentially ‘learning-by-making’.

During the session we were given multiple tasks to carry out using the lego provided. The first task involved building a model of a duck using only 7 pieces. We then had to remove 3 pieces and explain how the model still represented a duck. The second task was to create a creature and to then change the model to become a metaphor for how we feel on Monday mornings. The third task we were told we could build anything we wanted. We then had to explain how it represent genetic engineering and then how it represented marriage. The fourth task involved us building a metaphor of our relationship with coding. The last task involved getting into pairs and building a metaphor of how to succeed as a student at University.

I think that lego serious play is very effective because the limitations of the lego causes us to be more creative,  it teaches you how to think through your hands and helps people understand each other better. I’d use lego serious play outside of class to help build a shared vision and to help my creative thinking flourish for new ideas. Lego serious play is also very enjoyable and increases creative problem solving.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Improv for Spontaneity

During week 6 of Ideation and creative problem solving we had an improv lesson with Anamaria Ciucanu, which focused on spontaneity. We played a variety of games that were linked to the various terms within improv, such as priming, divergent thinking and acceptance.

The first game we played focused on getting ourselves out of our heads. It aimed to make us let go of critical self-judgement and to instead enter a state of flow, which would then allow our creativity to flourish. The game was called Bunny-bunny, and involved naming one of our other peers and placing her hands above our heads like bunny ears and calling out “bunny, bunny”, the person that it has been said to then has to do the same thing to another peer. This improv exercise is connected to Keith Johnstone’s idea of “Happy fail”, which eradicates fear and lets the mind create freely.

The second game was focused on priming, which is linked to divergent/lateral thinking. It was a free word association game, which involved naming an object, naming the previous object and naming what the object was not whilst clapping our hands on our legs and chanting.

The third game focused on divergent thinking which was linked to lateral thinking. It was a free word association game that involved a person bringing a problem, a second person bringing an object and a third person linking the problem and object together and explaining how the object fixes the problem.

The fourth game focused on convergent thinking and involved us telling one word at a time stories in pairs. This allowed us to have a “group mind” which would enable collaboration.

The fifth game focused on acceptance. It was aimed to teach us to accept other people's ideas without judgement and to build on it. The game involved offering presents to each other and reacting to it, and included three line scenes which would paint the scene and character.

The sixth game focused on committing, aiming to teach us that you have to commit to the rules or choice of a scene or game. We played the alphabet game, which involved creating a scene in pairs, with the dialogue following the alphabet, for example person A would start the scene by saying something beginning with the letter ‘A’ and person B would respond but would ensure that the first word of their response began with the letter ‘B’.

The last game focused on C.O.R.E (character objective relationship environment).  The game was linked to the themes of narrative, storytelling and game design. The game involved creating a game/story that included a hero, his sidekick, a nemesis and his assistant, scene and character painting, creating scenes with all the characters, where problems arise and are solved.

Doing an improv session for this weeks seminar was very effective as it taught use different collaboration techniques and how to build on other’s ideas, which will come in very handy when working with others on a group projects. Spontaneity is about thinking on your feet and doing things on impulse, which I think all the games made us do, it helps creativity and ideas flow.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Creativity and the Unconscious

During week 5 of Ideation and creative problem solving we focused on creativity and the unconscious. First we looked at what the unconscious actually is and the different definitions it has. The unconscious can be defined as your brain being active whilst your body is inactive.

In the session we completed an activity that would bring out the creativity from our subconscious. We were told to pick a letter, then to pick a word beginning with that letter, then to write a list of words that are associated in our mind with the word we’d chosen.

After that we had to choose two words from our list of words and write a one-paragraph story connecting them to an event in our life. We then had to continue the story for another paragraph, but include elements of things we’ve learned about life from any field of knowledge (e.g. science, geography, psychology etc.) and then had to write another paragraph including our own wisdom and thoughts. We then added a non-sequitur to end of our story.

My story

When I was watching the discovery channel, the tiger was really protective over it’s cubs. Humans and animals are more alike than we think, they take care of each other and protect one another too. It reminds me of a time my dad ran out in front of a car for me and my mum. The car was speeding, was certainly doing over 30mph, in a 20 mph zone. The law says to stick to the speeding limits. His braking distance could have been decreased if his speed was lower. There are people in the world that are reckless and dangerous. It’s good to be aware of them and to watch out for them. However it’s nice to know that someone whether it’s a family member or stranger, is willing to protect other instinctively/subconsciously. I think bikes shouldn’t be ridden in London, it’s  death wish.

After writing our stories we had to use what we’d written in the preceding steps to write a poem, using any of the standard tools of poetry, such as  metaphors, similes, rhymes, rhythm, symbolism etc.

My Poem

We watch animals protect each other the way we protect our own. A near tragic memory, prevented by dad, that cannot be thrown like a stone. Driving over the speed limit is illegal, as well as talking on the phone, all things that make me groan. Some people are reckless and like to create a danger zone But luckily there is someone who will subconsciously protect and won’t hesitate to throw away their throne. Riding a bike in London, is like meth, all leads to sudden death.

I think the activity worked really well at bringing out our creativity from our subconscious. It allows you to break down and compress the stages of creativity which then allow you to expand on small things. I will use this technique in the future for my creative work because it puts thought in the subconscious so that when I begin the work I can pull pull it from there.

After completing the exercise we discussed dreams and how they’re notable for creating creative work. We then began another activity, which involved listening to a dream our partner has had and writing down its 2 or 3 most prominent features. After that we had to design a game that could incorporate those features.

My partner, Sim, had a dream about a man chasing her through a field with a gun. From this I created a game where the player’s character is in a field-like maze which they have to escape before an evil man finds and shoots you. Different paths in the game, may have weapons that can be used against the shooter.

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Lateral Thinking

During week 4 of Ideation and creative problem solving we focused on Lateral Thinking. Lateral Thinking is the creative approach to solving problems, usually involving the viewing of the problem through a new and unusual perspective. During the session we discussed the different perceptions of lateral thinking, for example we watched a video of John Cleese talking about creativity and referring to lateral thinking as “open mode” vs “closed mode”. We discussed JP guildford and the meaning of divergent thinking and convergent thinking and how it is linked to lateral thinking. Divergent thinking refers to the process of producing many unique solutions to solve a problem whereas convergent thinking refers to a more systematic and logical approach to solve a problem. Unlike convergent thinking, divergent thinking is spontaneous and free-flowing. We talked about Edward De Bono, a physician, psychologist, philosopher, author, inventor and consultant, who formulated the term lateral thinking. We followed different lateral thinking techniques by Edward De Bono, such as  alternatives, challenging assumptions, po-provocative and random input. We were given certain tasks to complete to increase lateral thinking.

We first focused on alternatives and we were asked “how many ways can a square be divided into 4 equal parts?” and were told to think of five or more ways.

Collectively as a class we came up with seven ways to divide the square into 4 equal parts. Thinking of more than 4 ways to divide the box was a good approach at practicing lateral thinking because typically a logical or “convergent” person would only think of the easiest and simplest way to divide it, which would then only produce 4 different ways to divide the box.

We were then asked to give ten explanations on what was happening in a series of photos. No answer was wrong as long as it explained the photo. For example the person in the photo could be running from the police or completing a parkour workout.

We then focused on challenging assumptions, being asked “why does a chair have 4 legs?” and “how did the pear get into the bottle?” and coming up with ideas such as, the chair breaking if it didn’t have four legs and that the pear being planted in the bottle and growing inside of it.After that we focused on po - provocative, being asked “What might be the value of an upside down umbrella?”

I enjoyed learning and using lateral thinking in this session because it allowed us to solve problems creatively and to think of ideas that aren’t immediately obvious rather than using a traditional step-by-step logic to solve the problems. This session also proved that you can take a creative approach to anything. Outside of class I’d use it to tackle problems that require me to look deeper into things.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Design Thinking

During week 3 of Ideation and creative problem solving we focused on Design Thinking. We discussed and learnt about David Kelley, the founder of the design firm, IDEO and the founder of Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, also known as the D.School. During class we read and watched David Kelley’s recent speeches about creative confidence, which teach you on how to build your creative confidence.

We completed an hour exercise that focused on the re-design of the gift giving experience. The main objective of the exercise was to interview a friend about their most recent gift giving experience, discover the problems they faced and to design a solution to fix these problems, which would then change their gift - giving experience as a whole.

The exercise was timed, with each of us being given 4 minutes for each section, which then  forced us to quickly identify the problem and produce a solution. The first section of the exercise was the interview, which was used as a way to start gaining empathy. Sim (my peer) and I interviewed each other twice, with the first interview being used to gain an insight into each other’s gift giving experience and the second interview being used dig deeper and find out more information. The second section of the exercise focused on reframing the problem, which included finding out Sim’s needs from the gift giving experience and defining the problems she faced and why she had faced them. The third section of the exercise included sketching 5 radical ways to meet Sim’s needs and to capture feedback on the solutions I’ve produced. This then led to the fourth section, where I had to reflect on the feedback given to me by Sim and further develop my solutions or generate a new one. I then developed my solution further and gained feedback from Sim.

Sim’s needs from her gift giving experiences was that she wanted to show a loved one that they’re appreciated. However she thought that gifts didn’t have to be given all the time to show this. To solve her problem, I came up with was a pack of cards that suggest things you can do to show love and appreciation everyday. For example, Sim picks a card that says she should hug her partner.

The exercise was used to give us a full cycle through the design thinking process, which includes the five steps, Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. I think that Design thinking is very effective and definitely helped with the class exercise because it allowed us to think creatively and to be able to break down the design process into smaller and easier steps which then assisted us in not only having a better design outcome but also increasing the chances of meeting the users needs and giving them a better experience. Design thinking is a solid way to approach the process of designing however it can be used for things outside of this field, such as in business or social contexts.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Bitsy Game - Toilet Rush

Created by Adam Le Doux and published January 16th 2017, Bitsy is a browser tool used for making small, narrative games. The tool provides you with a lot of basic items, such as wall tiles and character sprites, just to get started on a small game. Bitsy has become a useful tool for creating emotional and exciting games by many different individuals.

Here is an example of a compelling bitsy game

https://supiket.itch.io/tusanhomichi

This game is very beautiful, it follows a story about a monster hawk and a little field mouse. It combines good art and animation, whilst also telling a story page by page.

The idea of Toilet Rush is to find an empty toilet as soon as possible. I developed the idea whilst researching and playing other bitsy games. I found that I mostly enjoyed one room games and games with a good narrative. Toilet Rush includes two rooms, the men's room and ladies Room and uses sprites to communicate with the user. I created different tiles to create the environments of toilets and created different colour palettes for the game. The challenges faced creating the game included managing the amount of sprites I had to create to output different messages to the player.

Toilet Rush has a slightly funny narrative compared to other narrative games, so I thought that made it quite unique. If I were to develop the game further I’d add more interactivity by trying to incorporate more items for the player to collect or by adding more endings so that the player can actually lose or win the game. Feedback from my peers commented on how the narrative was unique and how it interested them and that the different messages from the sprite amused them. They also suggested that I could make the game a bit more complex by having more than one ending.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Typography in Motion

The earliest examples of animated typography was in 1899 in the advertising work of George Melies. Early feature films used temporal typography, however this was largely static text, which appeared sequentially. It wasn’t until the 1960s when opening titles began to feature typography that was truly kinetic. One of the first feature films to extensively use kinetic typography was Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest in 1959. The film had animated text, which included credits that "flew" on-screen and then finally faded out into the film.

Using Adobe After Effects, I produced a short lyric video for the song; Shape of you By Ed Sheeran. The song is surrounded by the theme of love and has a fairly fast pace which also carries a soft undertone. Because of this I decided to use a soft and light colour scheme for the video, as well a clear, soft but bold font. I created assets, such as the love heart and magnets in Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool. Some of the assets were used to signify some of the words in the song lyrics. I keyframed different transformations of the text and assets to get my desired animation. The most challenging part of of producing the video was timing the animation of the lyrics and the music together.

A compelling feature of the video would be the smooth transitions and the different ways the lyrics and illustrations appear. If I were to develop this video further, I’d slow down the first line of lyrics and separate the words a bit more, so that it appears more clear rather than rushed. Feedback from my peers included; good transitions of the text and a good theme choice, in reference to the song. I was also told that the first set of lyrics needed to appear a bit slower so it could be read better.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Gestalt Design

Gestalt is a form of psychology that focuses on subconscious behaviours. Our minds cope with the visual confusion of our everyday world by banding objects into groups in order to simplify how it is viewed. Applying the Gestalt theory to design creates unity within a piece. The stronger the relationship between elements on a page, the better the way it is perceived. There are 5 different design principles that derive from the Gestalt theory, these are: proximity, similarity, continuity, closure and figure/ground.

Here is a piece of design that uses the principle of figure/ground. What appears to be a simple design of a shape that slightly conveys a lamp, can actually be perceived as something a bit more complex or with another meaning. If you look carefully two faces can be seen within the design.

I chose to redesign the company logo for Toni and Guy hairdressing. I began by thinking of things associated with hairdressing that could be implemented into the design. This led to the idea of using a comb and a pair of scissors to replace the I in Toni and the Y in Guy. To create this, I used the pen tool and manipulation techniques in Adobe Illustrator. I thought the original design didn’t stand out enough, so for this reason I replaced the original font with a more bold and sharp one, called Nova. The design also uses the principles of closure and similarity by having the O and U both split in the middle. The use of the two bold lines connected to the words but separating the two, adds a sense of continuation.

The most compelling feature of this design is the simplicity of it. Only simple features, such as lines were used and manipulated to create it. I the task was to be undertaken again I would manipulate the colourisation of the design to make it a bit more exciting. From peer feedback I have found that others think the design is very striking considering the use of such simple lines, and that the context behind it is very clear. I was also told that the comb and scissor illustrations could be incorporated into the letters a bit more, so that you can still clearly define and see that it is supposed to be an I and a Y.

[butteryhauntedvoid]

Selective Colourisation

Colourisation is the process of adding colour to black and white, sepia or other monochrome images. It was originally used for cinematography acting as a special effect, to modernise black and white films, or to restore colour films. The earliest Edison films were some of the earliest examples of colourisation.

Currently selective colourisation is also used to bring life to an image or to demonstrate the importance of something or to act simply as an artistic  effect.

This artefact demonstrates selective colorisation. It uses a black and white candid image of civilians during the World war, with one civilian, a little girl being colourised. The effect of this is very strong because it makes audiences realise how innocent people’s lives, especially children’s,  were disrupted and affected by the war.

I chose to colorise an image that relates to the context of time. The image includes a pocket watch on a bed of coins and sand, which I believed, if colorised in a certain way, would be able to signify the difference between time and money, even though they are the same. Money is something that comes and goes and can be earned back, time does the same thing but cannot be earned back, once it’s gone, it’s gone. To signify this I decided to colourise everything in the image apart from the pocket watch, which was left black and white. Black is usually associated with negativity, where as white is usually associated with positivity, so I thought leaving the clock black and white would portray time as good and bad.

A challenge I faced during the production was the fact that I wanted to use realistic colours for the coins and the sand, so I created new layers for each the sand and coins in Adobe Photoshop, found images of them and used the eyedropper tool to get the exact colours. Colouring each coin and making sure to use different colours was quite time constraining. Once I had painted the coins and sand, I played with the hue, saturation and lightness until I found my desired effect.

I think the most successful features of my piece is how realistic the colours of the coins look. I don’t think you’d be able to tell that the image was previously black and white and then colourised because it does look like someone took a picture of some coins without adding any effects.

If I were to undertake this task again I would attempt to make the black and white of the clock a bit more bold to increase the contrast between the colour of it and the sand and coins.

I gained peer feedback so that I could find out what others found most compelling about my work and what improvements it could use. Most people commented on the realism of the coins, with one person commenting “The colour used on the coins are incredibly realistic but subtle, the balancing and use of colour are very accurate”.  Improvements suggest for my work included colouring the individual sand grains as the sand was a little too dark and close in colour to the copper coins.