Week 4 outside of class

This is my persona for my app. It is of a mother who has an average white collar job and values time spent with her family. My app would appeal to her because it would allow her to efficiently plan quality time with her daughter with ease. It  would also allow her to see all of the different options that she has to choose from when planning an activity.

Week 5 outside of class

This is a screen shot of my vectorized app icon! I was trying to make it seem like it was fun and for kids, but also clean enough to appeal to parents. I also wanted the idea of parent/child to be apparent in the design. I tried to accomplish this with the 2 clouds and adding a small balloon on the arm of the small 't'.

I had originally created my persona in vector so this is a repost of last week's homework. 

These are my 2 vector brand matrix's.

So I did the iconstrike test and applied it to my iphone and the icon that I designed didnt work as well as I had planned. My 'timeout' icon is the in the 3rd row to the very right. You lose alot of detail and it is not legible when it is so small. Also, my gradients need more contrast. I will play around with it and try to enlarge the type. If that doesnt work I think that I will simplify the design into being just the 't' with the balloon.

Week 5b

Week 5a

Week 4b

In class this week we talked about the design conference for a brief period at the beginning of class. We pretty much finalized the content for the content creation group and I spend about a half an hour working on an introduction for Aaron Chu. The next part of class was focused on our branding matrix's. We looked at a few of our classmates examples for the matrix. We also spent a good amount of time critiquing the new release of ios7 operating system which came out during our class period. Personally, I did not like the aesthetics of the new ios7. The icons seemed too cartoonish and took away from the apple brand. It seemed less sophisticated. We also watched the 7 minute video introducing ios7 on the apple website. It was AWESOME.

Branding Matrix

Unfortunately, these images are backwards because I used Photobooth to capture them. These are my branding matrix's for my app ideation. The first one is comparing apps that have a heavy use of gps locator vs. no gps locator and common vs. uncommon amongst other apps in the competing industry. My second one is comparing whether the app is personal vs. impersonal to the user and also whether the design of the app is minimal vs. busy. 

Elevator Pitch

For parents who have children to entertain, (product name- still havent come up with it) is a lifestyle/entertainment app that shows you what is going on in your local area for different age groups. Unlike 'A Day's Outing', this product informs parents of small local happenings (ex. St. Jude's luncheon at Long's Park) in their local area and larger attractions (ex. Dutch wonderland), including price range and age appropriateness.

Week 3b

On Wednesday this week we split into our conference groups again. The content creation group took pictures of all of our classmates with silly props and disguises. We also redefined the theme of the conference to be 'masters of design' to play off of 'masters of disguise'. I created introductions for each of the designs speakers and also assisted in redeveloping the conference schedule. Other than that, we had another lecture on our app project and broke off into groups to further discuss and define our concepts with classmates.

Week 3 outside of class

I finished making 3 different personas for the Content Creation assignment between our Monday and Wednesday classes. I did one persona as a student, one as a professor, and one as a professional in the design field. It was my first time doing personas and I found them to be a really fun and creative way to develop an audience.

Over the weekend, I spent time developing my elevator pitch for my app design and also answering the tribal questions assigned for homework.

Week 3a

This week in class we split into our groups and went over our progress for the Graphic and Interactive Design Conference. The content creation group was in pretty good shape. We had our site map laid out, the written content for the site, and the grant proposal done. I got some feedback from the group on where to go with our personas (which I have finished for class on Wednesday) and Professor Pannafino gave me a UX book that really helped clarify the whole idea of personas for me. We also had a mock registration over at Mccomsey. It was a good experience and really helped us address potential problems as a class and come up with solutions for the problems.

We spent the second half of class brainstorming ideas for our app project. We split into groups and presented ideas for problems that we encounter in life. We then brainstormed ways to come up with solutions for these problems. My group had a lot of really fun ideas. It was nice to get creative and think outside of the box. I learned from the activity that I need to think of the idea first and stop restraining myself. I kept jumping forward and thinking of solving my problem in app terms and it was overcomplicating my problem.

Mobile App brainstorm

Our homework for over the weekend was to brainstorm ideas and concepts for our app assignment. I found myself referring back to the first day of class when we had Brian Miller give a speech to us over skype. He talked about coming up with concepts that we are passionate about. I really related to his app idea for creating a healthier lifestyle for himself and his family. Like him, I am very much absorbed in my family and creating a good lifestyle/environment for my children. As I was thinking about problems that reoccur in my life I couldn't help but think about 1. time management and 2. what to do with the free time that I do have to spend with my children.

My first concept is simply about managing time. I am extremely busy between work, school, and raising 2 very small kids (a 1 and 3 year old), along with the duties that come with being a responsible self sufficient adult. I always find myself not having enough time to get all of my chores and errands done while allowing enough free time to enjoy my little kiddos. I feel like having an app that the user could plug their daily schedule into that then configures time slots within that schedule to tend to other obligations and responsibilities could be very useful. It would be somewhat of a calender but would do some of the planning for you. You could tell it how many times you like to go grocery shopping per week, when your bills are due, good time slots for enjoying the park or playtime with your children, what your chores are (laundry, dishes, cleaning, organizing), even what TV shows you like to watch and it could come up time slots around your set schedule to do all of the things you need to do to maintain your life.

My second concept came from the same idea that I never know what do when I have free time with my kids. When is there an event at longs park? When is barnes and noble having a toddler story time? When and where are there fireworks? What special thing is happening at first friday this month? I think that having an app that would monitor things to do in your local area would be extremely fun. I could wake up on Tuesday, ready to spend the day with my kids and wonder what there is to do. I could check my app and plug in the age appropriate for the event that I am looking for. I could even enter in my price range and figure out what there is to do from there. Maybe if i'm looking to spend any amount of money I could go to Dutch Wonderland. If I entered in that I would like to find something to do that is free it would suggest I go to Lititz Park and watch the free children's movie that is playing this evening. It could even go as far as suggesting coupons for things that are happening in our local area. All I know, is that if I could wake up, open an app and get an overview of what there is to do on any given day for young children (or even adults if i'm looking to have a date night) and the price ranges that these things are in, my life would be much easier and much more fun!

Week 2b

We did not have class on Monday this week due to the holiday so I am posting this as class 2b. We spent the first part of class talking about the graphic and interactive design conference that we are planning and our roles as teams in this planning process. I am part of a the creation content team. We split into our groups and delegated roles in order to come up with the content for the conference. I was assigned the duty of defining primary, secondary, and tertiary personas for the content to be created for. I am not familiar with making personas but it seems like a fun task. I read the small excerpt about it in Professor Pannafino's book and I plan on looking up examples online and getting some help from other team members who have defined these personas before.

The second half of class was devoted to a lecture on different types of apps. It was very helpful in defining the differences in each type of app and the pros and cons associated with them.

Mobile First: Part 1

Mobile First: Part 1 was a very interesting read. When thinking about designing for smaller screens I had always focuses on the constraints and had always viewed those constraints as being a negative aspect of mobile design. I didn't realize that the constraints were actually a positive thing because they made you focus entirely on the most important functions of the app/mobile website so that the user had the most efficient experience possible. I really liked the first chapter of the book as well because it broke down the differences between a mobile app versus a mobile web solution. It made me realize that developing a responsive website is key to ensuring a positive mobile web experience for the majority of mobile users. I also really enjoyed the breakdown of mobile usage according to time of day. It really showed how different mobile usage is as opposed to desktop/laptop computer usage. All in all, the 3 chapters got me excited about designing for smaller screens and I am eager to learn more about web design this semester!

Week 1b

Unfortunately, I had a prior obligation this week and wasn't able to make it to class today. I got our assignments and an overview of the lecture from a couple of different class mates. I was told that we are creating an design conference that focuses on educating people about interactive web design. I am part of the 'creative conference group' and was supposed to come up with an intro. paragraph that summarizes what the conference is about. After a little research, I came up with this over the weekend and shared it with the rest of my group.

"Imagine a website. Words that are very readable, images that are engaging, buttons that are easy to navigate. Simple, functional, and engaging. Now imagine this website on your smart phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. How do the words change in size and spacing so that you can read it on any screen? how do the images shift so that they are still a functional part of the web page? How do the buttons change so that they are easy to use as you navigate a site? And lastly, who makes all of the decisions to design a multi-functional website that the user can experience with ease? Web design is more than just stagnant composition of text, imagery, and buttons. In today’s world, people expect a website to be exciting and interactive. They expect navigation to be smooth and easy, their goals to be met with immediate satisfaction, and of course, the process to be fun and stimulating! As designers, it is our responsibility to brainstorm, problem solve, and create this multifunctional and multifaceted experience for each and every user."