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Final Questions

17.10.15

What was your biggest learning that you took from this paper?

I really enjoyed learning and getting inspired by the lectures held at the start of class, I thought that they were really valuable and helped us think about different ways of approaching a problem. Also learning that designers don't just make things look good but that they also make huge changes in society through designing for others. Entire experiences can be designed to make life easier.

What aspect of your project are you most happy with?

I’m so happy that we worked so well as a group and managed to achieve everything that we wanted to achieve and more. Our initial ideas grew substantially to become a project that we are all very proud of. To be more specific, I’m really proud of how the cookbook turned out as I really wanted it be be a proper cookbook from the start. After writing it all out and taking photos together, its turned into a really good book.

What would you do differently?

I’m really happy with how everything has turned out, however I would have liked to spend a little more time on the details of our different touch-points. I managed to spend some time on the cookbook editing, but some more refinement would have made it better.

#reflection

Writing the presentation

15.10.15

Today we wrote and practised our presentation in class. We were initially struggling to narrow all the information down so that it would be under five minutes, but after changing some slides we managed to get there in the end. From here we are all done until hand in tomorrow.

Think Place questions

13.10.15

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

Design is really important in creating change for social good because the way that designers think and come to a solution is crucial in improving lifestyles and providing opportunities that were not previously thought of. The majority of the time, design is concerned with people, and therefore should be taken seriously when it comes to creating change for social good.

What are the key elements of designing real change for humans?

One of the most important elements of designing for other people is to understand the person that you are designing for. Looking at not only what they want, but also what they need. To really understand the person you are designing for, you have to create a better connection with them and relate to them on a personal level. Working together with people that are non-designers also benefits the designer to understand different viewpoints and opinions.

Another important element is to think outside the box. Look at what has been done before to provide a solution to the problem and analyse what worked and what didn’t. Test out new solutions with people to make sure that your idea would be effective and make change.

I like that… Design isn’t just making things look good. Design is about understanding people and problems and coming up with solutions to these problems that will make life easier/better for others.

I wish that… Although this is becoming a lot better, I wish that design would be taken more seriously, and things such as budgets and the opinions of a few wouldn’t get in the way of design that would benefit many.

I will… Be more open-minded about taking on board the opinions of others, particularly non-designers.

#thinkplace

Photographing for dossier

12.10.15

Today we met up and took photos of our various touch-points to put in our dossier. We wanted the photos to make each aspect look really good, and experimenting with putting the items in context. We also took photos of Block 12 for our promotional wall stickers. Overall we are really happy with how the photos have come out.

In the afternoon we finalised our dossier completely and arranged the new photos so that the viewer could clearly see the different touch-points. The student could encounter the different touch-points in any order and at different times to other students so we made it clear in the dossier that the journey is not necessarily a fixed thing. We also managed to get the slides for our presentation done.

From here we need to write what we are going to say in our presentation and practice it so that we are within the time frame and everything is clear and succinct.

Dossier development

11.10.15

Today Sarah and I met up to print the recipe card and finalise our dossier. It was still a work in progress in terms of what we were saying and the overall layout. We started by printing to out, reading through it and fixing all the text that needed to be improved. We want to pitch our idea as best we can, so we didn't want to leave out any key points or the logistics of how it would all come together. We then spent some time focussing on the layout and making sure everything flowed and that we were using good type rules.

Now that we are happy with how its looking, we are going to show Molly to get some final input on it. Tomorrow we are going to photograph all of our components separately and within context so that the audience can get a better understanding of how everything relates. We also need to start on our presentation, which should be easy as we will be using information from our dossier.

#develop

Exchange moment

09.10.15

I couldn't meet up with my exchange group last week because I had an appointment, so instead I met up with one of them today. She was working on her collection for fashion and was entering the final stages of constructing her garments. Its a really busy time for the fashion students at the moment so we just had a quick catch up to see how each other was doing. She had chosen all of her materials that she wanted to use, and is now focussing on the details of sewing and piecing everything together. She thinks she is on the right track with making everything on time, it will just be whether she can pitch her idea well enough.

When I showed her our project she was really impressed. She thought that the colour scheme was working really well and wasn't too feminine or masculine. She thought that the cookbook was looking very finished and everything made sense and was laid out nicely. She thought that the bag definitely needed more colour other than the logo, so we are going to add our tagline to the back of it. The rest of the touch-points made sense and connected nicely, and the whole thing is finally coming together.

From here I am going to take her feedback and talk to the group about exactly what we can put on the bag and how we can take our project to the next level.

#ex-change #test

Friday Class

09.10.15

Today in class we mostly focussed on finalising our touch-points and getting the cookbook up to a standard that we are happy with. We made a map to highlight exactly what the touch-points are so that it is clear what we are doing for our project. This also helped us to ensure that it is all cohesive. We talked to the teachers for some feedback, which was great because it made us really develop our stall. Initially, our stall only had a logo as the main imagery, but in order to get people interested, we needed to add something extra. Therefore we added the phrase ‘Can’t cook?’ to the top of the stall as a way to get students to come and check it out, especially if the question applies to them.

#prototype

Thursday Afternoon

08.10.15

After class today we met up again and worked on our various touch-points. We tried to improve our recipe cards some more by adding the pattern and making them as cohesive with everything else as possible. We also worked on the dossier some more. I really enjoy focussing on the details so I went through the cookbook and made sure the type was completely up to scratch and tried to get rid of any orphans, widows and bad rags. I also found that making some parts of the text bold made readability and understanding so much clearer and easier. We plan on finalising the cookbook in class tomorrow so that we can get it printed and bound as early as possible.

#prototype

Thursday Class

08.10.15

Today in class we combined all the work we had done individually and made sure that everything was looking cohesive. Our cookbook is almost finished, apart from some minor detailing such as checking kerning and rags. We have tested to see what the bag will look like printed on, and will print on the real version this weekend. The stall has been mocked up again to match the colours and style of the rest of our work; we have also decided to change the location from the Pyramid to outside on the grass - it would be a much more public space and students would be more aware of it. The website and social media aspects are looking really good, we just made sure that they were all connecting and refined.

We got some really useful feedback from Mark and Lee on how we could make improvements. Mark suggested we really concentrate on making sure everything is cohesive as possible, that every touch point has the logo, pattern and colour scheme on it somewhere. This is so that people can make the connection between everything. He also suggested we develop the bag more to add colour and potentially make it more personalised. We definitely want to add some colour and include the painterly text that we have been using, but we don't really want to make it personalised, because personalisation is part of our other touch points. We seem to be on the right track with everything, mostly focussing on the minor details from this point on.

#empathy #ideate #prototype

This week

06.10.15

This week we have been concentrating on different things for our project, planning on coming together on Thursday and combining everything. I’ve been working on finalising the website, so I’ve included more sections and touch points that would make the website better. There is a section where students can put forward their own recipes to contribute to DIY Dinners and competitions to be won. There are also links to DIY Dinners social media pages and more information on the recipe of the week.

#prototype

Sunday Meet Up

04.10.15

Today we met up as a group and spent the day getting as much done as possible. We were all focussing on different tasks and swapping around occasionally so that we were all busy and achieving things. Our book is looking really good, we did some more hand drawn doodles to put on the introduction pages and around the recipes and its all coming together nicely.

Sarah made a start on the dossier, placing some imagery and text that we have already written into it so that we have something to work from. I made a start on the website and the recipe cards that we want to put into the food bag. They are just drafts, but we are really happy with how they are looking. Molly focussed on the cookbook layout, making sure everything is where it needs to be and experimenting with text and hierarchy.

From this point we need feedback on how its all coming together and if the design is consistent across all our touch points. We are confident that we are on the right track, but it would be helpful to see how we could improve our work further.

#ideate #prototype

Friday Class

02.10.15

Today in class we really focussed on getting as much done for the cookbook as possible. At the moment this is the most time-consuming task and we want to get it done as soon as possible so that we can focus on detailing and paying attention to other aspects of our project.

After class Sarah and I went to Moore Wilsons to look at their cookbook collection for inspiration. We want our introduction pages to be really dynamic and interesting because they are very text based at the moment. We couldn't really find any good examples of dynamic introduction pages in the cookbooks we looked at because they were all full of big paragraphs. We will just have to make up our own ideas for that section.

#ideate

Hand drawn details

01.10.15

This afternoon we spent a good amount of time making hand painted and drawn detailing for the cookbook. We want the headings to be painted, scanned in and then colour added to it for a rough, more fun effect. We also created more pen doodles to have in and around the recipes and introduction pages. We are really happy with how these have turned out and are excited about using them all in the book.

#ideate #prototype

Thursday Class

01.10.15

Today in class we presented our developed idea to other people in the class and in another stream. We received some really good feedback, such as perhaps putting the stall in other areas like Victoria University or in halls of residence. This way more students would have access to the food bags and there would be more awareness of the benefits of healthy eating. Another suggestion was to make the food bag an online option for students who might not have time to leave the house.

We then laid our work out on the table and went around the other streams leaving comments on other peoples work while we got feedback on ours. Some of the feedback was helpful, but with others we felt as though they hadn't read any of the content or had a good enough look at our work because some of the comments didn't make sense. It seemed as though they expected that this is what our final work would look like rather than seeing it as a work in progress.

From this feedback, we have made a plan of where to go from here - we want to incorporate more hand drawn aspects into our cookbook and think about some extra components that we might add to our design like a website or a Facebook page.

#ideate #prototype #test

Cookbook photoshoot

27.09.15

We dedicated today to getting all of the photos done for the cookbook. We organised in advance what each person needed to bring, but we also go stuff from the supermarket to cook while we were taking photos. It worked out well because the food we were cooking was for a cheap student cookbook, therefore we didn't have to get loads of expensive ingredients and the recipes weren't hard to make. We were originally going to use a plain white background for the photos but at the last minute decided to experiment with fabrics and textures in the background, acting as a table cloth. These looked way better and made the food look bright and fun. Overall it was a tiring day but we are all so satisfied that we got it out of the way so that we can concentrate on designing the book.

#prototype #create

Friday Class

25.09.15

Today in class we got loads of great feedback from Mark and Lee, as well as talking to a fourth year about our project. We have found that it is really important to make our explanation of the journey and our ‘Big Idea’ really clear, so that the audience can understand the reasoning behind our design decisions.

Mark and Lee both recommended to only make one or two pages of the cookbook and do them well, rather than create the whole book, however the group agrees that if we can get the design nailed quite early, then it would be a great challenge to complete the whole book. There is the option of doing the food bag online only, rather than having the stall, but we still have to discuss whether we want to do that or not. The fourth year student was really into the connection with home and the opportunity for the parents to put their own recipes into the book. We are considering putting a pocket into the back of the book so that parents can print out/write up recipes of home favourites.

Overall, the class was great because we got some useful feedback that we are definitely going to take on board in our project

#ideate #test

Thursday Class

24.09.15

Today in class we visualised the experience journey map using imagery and post it notes to describe the feelings at each stage of the journey. This gave us a better understanding of what the user would be experiencing at each part and how we could focus on the issues that were raised. For example, a student who had realised that they miss the comfort of home is always excited about a care package and home cooking. The cookbook is something that a parent would send to their son or daughter while they are away so that they can make some food that reminds them of home. We have also been developing some branding ideas and I’ve been finalising the text for the cookbook.

#define #ideate

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