My Research Blog

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Links to my Submissions

Below are links to my submissions for IXD104/DES107

Travel App - Musee Search Final

Travel App Tag/Progress

Infographic - LGBT+ Within the US Final

Infographic Tag/Progress

Research blog

[sarasresearchblog]

Master Apprentice 3

For some reason tumblr decided to delete my master apprentice 3. So here it is reposted.

The original:

My version:

The master apprentice was quite easy to do and it brought insight on how to create a pie chart for my infographic.

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This is my final submission for my infographic. I centered it around the LGBT+ community within the US. While creating this project, I tried to incorporate different sexuality flags within the infographic as possible. Of course, I used the iconic rainbow flag but the background colors are the transexual flag, as well I added the lesbian flag, bisexual flag and transgender flag.

Here are the articles I ended up using to pull my research from:

5 key findings about LGBT Americans

A Survey of LGBT Americans

Support steady for same-sex marriage and acceptance of homosexuality

Most Americans now say learning their child is gay wouldn’t upset them

I recreated many of the charts that were within the articles but added my own personal touch to them.

Here you can find my dropbox link to download my final version of my infographic.

Linked below are the two master apprentices we were asked to complete:

Master Apprentice 3

Master Apprentice 4

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Above is my final submission for my travel, Musee Search. This app is to help make finding museums in an area much easier and convenient to the museum fan. All one has to do is type in the city you are visiting and it will bring up the popular museums in the area, whether they are art, history, science or something in between. Musee Search will pop them up for you! You also have the ability to rate the museum and check in as well.

Here is a link to a working prototype so you can see some of the functions displayed in the app.

The Keyboard in the prototype was used from this kit available for free online http://mercury.io/blog/free-ios-9-3-iphone-ui-kit-for-illustrator-and-sketch .

Linked below are the master apprentices we were asked to do for our Travel App:

Master Apprentice 1

Master Apprentice 2

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Week 12 - Group Critique

Below is a dropbox link to download my finished infographic for group critique.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jdr3mg32dwbm9ob/Infographic1.png?dl=0

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Week 11 - Progress

This week we were instructed to continue working on our infographic and start to make it complete for week 12 group critique. We went over a few different videos, to help us understand how data and information can be displayed simply through graphs and pie charts but still be interesting to look at.

On top of that, this past week I have been working on my infographic more which shows different aspects of the LGBTQ+ population within the US. Attached below are the sections I have created thus far for my project.

I have been using noun project to help inspire me for icons and symbols I can easily use for my infographic.

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Week 10 - Infographic inspiration

Continuing on with my inspiration research, I found these next few infographics via dribbble. The first surrounding the from what it looks like a family tree and it’s presented in a way that it looks like a book. I enjoy the 3D element of this design and really love the color scheme as well. I’m not sure if i’m a big fan of the full horizontal approach where 2 pieces of the information are presented to us. It almost feels like too much to look at? But overall, it’s a solid design.

The second infographic I found, surrounds guns in the US - for example house easy they are to obtain there. The way this infographic flows is closer to how I want to lay mine out as well - of course with a different subject matter. I feel this infographic gives the highlights of the most important information, and helps bring a better understanding to the gun issues within the US.

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Week 10 - Master Apprentice Four

This week we were asked to recreate from a selection of graphs we were given. The top is the original image I chose to recreate.

The second image is my recreation of it.

I’m not quite sure why it’s much smaller than the original when I tried to size it the same. I suppose that’s something to keep an eye out for my own infographic in the future.

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Week 10 - Infographic design research

Just a few images I found through dribbble to help me decide how I want my infographic to be structured. I enjoy how people can create multiple different ways to show simple information!

The above image is a very detailed way to show graphs - though personally it feels almost too busy and the information is so small compared to everything it gets lost.

I enjoy how this takes the timeline at a different angle. It’s very clear on what they’re tryin to showcase and the differing colors help show the different countries.

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Week 9 - Infographics data research

I have slowly been compiling research on the populations subject I wish to do for the remainder of the semester. I have decided to look closely in regards to factors of the LGBTQ+ community/population inside the US. It took me a long time to actually find a significant amount of data in order to create my infographic. Below are links to each article on the data I will pull from to create an infographic regarding the LGBTQ+ community within the US.

Articles:

5 key findings about LGBT Americans

Support steady for same-sex marriage and acceptance of homosexuality

As Congress considers action again, 21% of LGBT adults say they faced workplace discrimination

Among LGBT Americans, bisexuals stand out when it comes to identity, acceptance

Half of unmarried LGBT Americans say they would like to wed

2013 Survey of LGBT Adults

Survey offers complex portrait of LGBT Americans

Most Americans now say learning their child is gay wouldn’t upset them

Americans are still divided on why people are gay

Four-in-Ten Americans Have Close Friends or Relatives Who are Gay

5 facts about same-sex marriage

5. Homosexuality, gender and religion

Though I might not use every single article and piece of research I found through these resources, I feel they give me a solid foundation to start my infographic on. In order to give a rough idea of what kind of sections I want, I wrote down a few ideas to try and clear out some of the clutter. As this process continues, it’s possible I will change some of these ideas but it’s better to have a base to start off on.

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Week 9 - more graph inspiration

I found these graphs via dribbble and I really love the first one and how it’s more 3D while other graphs and charts are usually more flat.

It’s a different approach to showing the highs and lows of the data and it makes it more visually interesting.

I also love this one as well for the use of color and it’s simplicity which makes it much easier to read.

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Week 7/8/9 - Graph inspiration

Week 7 was compromised of my progress of creating a better and more solid Travel App submission. Throughout week 8 I did some basic research on infographics and some ideas of what I wanted to do. But had no real ideas of what I wanted to do yet.

Week 9, we were instructed more on research and ideas of what we could do for our infographics.

Along with my research on specifics in population (which I am actually having difficulty deciding what I wish to do). I tried to gain some insight on designs others have done statistics and data and have posted them on dribble. I found the first one to be a typical design when it comes to showing others data in a visual form.

This is very clean cut and easy to understand but I don’t find it all that visual stimulating. The second I like more than the first as it brings more color as you can see.

But the downfall of this design is that I feel as if it’s a lot in just one image. Which makes me aware of how much I should think about putting into my own design as well.

I really enjoy the design for this graph. The colors all work perfectly together and I feel as if it’s not overwhelmingly busy like the second image I found through dribbble.

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Presented are the four screens I created for my app Musee Search. I’ve gone through many different drafts, and though I feel like it’s close to finish - I still have some tweaking to do. If you look at my past posts, you can see that I went through many different color variations of the app and I finally feel happy with the color scheme I have chosen. At this point, I’m a bit unsure if the city illustration on my “Search for a City” screen truly works with the rest of the app since it’s so detailed and the rest of the city illustrations are more simple. I’m open to ideas on that because I am pretty stumped! 

I am also unsure if the Splash screen is truly reaching it’s full potential, I would like some input on what I could add to it because it feels like it’s missing something. Overall, I feel as this project has come together better than expected and I hope to improve it either further from the critique.

(I got the iPhone 6 template from this website for free https://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates/iphone-6-psd-vector-mockup )

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Week 5/6 - Screen Progress

Though they are still not too my liking, I wanted to show the progress I’ve made with my 3 main screens for Musey Search.

The third screen out of all them is still in need of some work. I feel as if there is still space I can fill. On top of these screens, I still need to create my splash screen - but until I am satisfied with a logo design I can’t truly work on that.

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Week 5/6 - App logo

Taking a break from my screens. I decided to try figure out a logo for my app as well as a name. I looked through dribbble for inspiration and some ideas on how other designers designed app logos.

I quite enjoyed the bitmoji branding, as it shows in a simple way what the apps purpose is.

And I liked these icon designs by other dribbble designers - but they didn’t appear to be for anything specific.

I knew I wanted it to be a more illustrated design than a simple icon with the first letter of the apps name. But before I worked on design ideas, I tried to think of some names for my travel app.

Here is the list of what I’ve come up with so far:

1. Musey City (Actually suggested by Kyle)

2. Musey

3. Museum Search

4. Musey Search

5. Musey Info

At the moment I leaning towards Musey Search and with that idea in mind I drew up a few simple logo designs in my sketch book.

I liked the top and bottom icons - so I pulled open illustrator and started quickly designing each logo.

At this moment, I’m not entirely sure which logo I prefer more and if I’m completely sold on either ones color scheme. So for now I’m leaving that part of the process separate and I’m going to focus on my screens once again.

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Week 5 - Progress

Throughout this week I have been working on different illustrations and screens for my app. I wanted to take a moment and show a few things that are unfinished but I’m working a great deal on to perfect and get ready for the final version of my travel app.

First being this cityscape I worked all of Sunday and Monday on. It’s been a real challenge especially with proportions, and making them look correct (that’s always been my weakest point when it comes to drawing/illustrating buildings).

 I decided to cut down some of the skyline and focus on a smaller portion of it.

I’ve finished the fine detail but I’m doing two versions of the skyline. One colored and one just black and white. I’m not sure which one I enjoy more, but at the moment i’m leaning towards the colored version over the black and white.

I also took photos of my progress with my third screen. I’m not happy with how this looks in the photo, so I tried to add something more to it. Kyle said to try and add more color to it because it’s looking a little flat (which I agreed), and so that’s what I did. 

I feel like it’s getting there, but I’m not sure if I’m quite happy with the colors I chose to contrast against the light blue. So I tried using a light green instead and this is something I’m happier with.

I feel like it gives the right amount of contrast without being too much and stops the screen from looking too flat.

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Week 4 - City Scape

This past week we’ve been discussing illustrating cityscapes. Our master apprentice was to recreate at least one of these images.

I recreated the entire cityscape of London - which was fairly easy to do in illustrator. I also recreated some smaller buildings from the second image, which were Notre Dame, Big Ben and the Parthenon.

As I do assignments like this, creating my own cityscapes has started to become much easier. Withs skills and knowledge I learned from doing the master apprentice exercise I was able to created a cityscape for my home city Pittsburgh.

I chose to leave the actual city all black in the background, because Pittsburgh is known more the its bridges than the actual cityscape. I decided to really show off this asset by showing off one of the yellow bridges that takes you into the city.