Final Major Project: Evaluation

I feel that my Final Major Project has been a success, I completed all my briefs to a standard I am happy with and I believe I got the most out of the time I had. I have developed a greater understanding of interaction design and improved on my design practice since the start of this module through the five briefs I have completed as well as my design context publication.

The three main briefs all involved proposing an interaction design supported by promotional material and other deliverables. My Quick Reader project allowed me to explore creating an app that improved a user’s reading experience. Creating an experience is something I wanted to explore though my fmp and I feel this brief helped to realise this. If I had more time I would have liked to create a demo video to show the concept in motion; but I think the ‘narrative’ designs I created for the website mock-up did address this.

The Cat Trails app allowed me explore creating a promotional video and also proposing an app that interacted with another device. This project also involved creating some fun character illustrations to be used on the app designs and promotion pieces. The idea of combining my illustration with interaction design is something I wanted to attempt in this module; I believe that I did a good job of this and that the final product benefited from it. I really wanted to create a motion piece for one of my briefs and I’m glad I pulled it off for this one, though if I had more time I would have produced a more in-depth demo reel for the app.

My NHS Therapy project also involved both creating an overall experience for the user though the proposal of a service. This brief tackled the subject of clinical depression and hitting certain emotive qualities was key. I created a smile-inducing doctor character for the app design and promotional material and kept everything in an upbeat visual style. I really enjoyed creating something with the aim of delighting the user rather than just performing a task, I’d say the emotive element was key for this project.

Creating my context publication was another great experience to have had, as I actually produced a functioning iPad book using iBook author. The production of a fully functional app is something I aimed to do in the module from the start, although I would have liked to produce something alongside a developer for one of my other briefs.

My other two briefs were the surveyor website and DFGA yearbook and I feel that I leant quite a lot from them even if I consider them the less influential projects. I managed to propose some digital aspects to the yearbook and even though I didn’t end up coding the surveyor website (due to time constraints) I did develop a better understanding of design for web.

I would have very much liked more time to produce a more detailed video for one of my briefs and to have also done a collaboration with a developer, if I could go back I would have given myself more time for these two things. Overall I think that I addressed many key elements that I had highlighted on my statement of intent through my final major project and I have learnt a great deal, expanding my skills as an interactive designer.

Quick Reader Final Boards

Here are the final boards for my Quick Reader app, I'll be printing these as one of my three main projects.

Quick Reader Board Sketches

Some initial ideas for my Quick Reader app boards:



BLYK Icon & iTunes Mockups

I designed this app icon using elements from the main app design:


Here it is on a mockup of my app on the iTunes store. I will also show this icon at different sizes and on an iPhone home screen on my final boards.

Website Design

This is the promotional website design for my Quick Reader app, it uses the logo, annotated screenshots, a link to the app store, the narrative graphics I created to explain the app and finally a link to Twitter so that users can subscribe to updates and share news of the app to their friends.



Website Development

These are some initial ideas for my Quick Reader promotional website:






Final Crit

Here is the final feedback I received:



Action Plan:
  • Tidy up blog.
  • Consider printed material.
  • Annotate boards.
  • Finish context publication

Photos for Final Boards

Here are some sketches I drew out of photographs I could take of mobile devices to use on my final boards. I would use these photographs to show my app screens in context.






Here are the photographs I took for my final boards, I will need to edit my favourites in Photoshop and add my app designs to them.

Crit 3 - Feedback & Action

Here is the feedback I received:





Action Plan:

  • More visual development needed for some briefs.
  • Movie forward with context publication, blog more content.
  • Code the surveyor website.
  • Start working on presentation boards, try not to make them repetitive.
  • First presentation board for each brief should be able to communicate the overall concept of the brief.
  • Video demos would work well for some of the apps, especially for context publication.
  • Expand range of deliverable for the Pet Trails app.
  • Perhaps include an explanation of RSS feeds for the Quick Reader app.

Interim Evaluation & Tutorial

Here is a scan of the feedback form from my latest tutorial with Lorenzo:




The general target for the next week or so is to finish off my current briefs so that I can progress on to a final couple of projects for my fmp. Below I will explain in more detail how each project is going but overall I realise that I need to start seriously thinking about how I will present my development and final digital designs for submission and my portfolio. Two ideas we discussed were development boards shown as either an issu document or an iBook on an iPad. As far as my final products are concerned I feel that a mixture of promotional videos and in-context photographs will work well to communicate them to an audience.

My blog in general is going relatively well, but I need to catch-up on the context side of things as I seem to have neglected it. Both my context publication content and brief research sections need to be updated with bookmarked content over the next few days. I also need to show a wider variety of experimentation in my practical work from now onwards as I have become set on a slightly narrow with some of my briefs. I may also need to re-title some of my briefs as the development of several has changed the subject slightly.

Surveyor Website

I am happy with the direction this brief has taken although I am still unsure whether I need to actually code the final website design or not for submission, I think it will depend on the time available towards the end of the module. The next stage for this brief will be to extend the brand/logo over to business cards and other stationary for the client, although this will most likely be limited to mockups due to the digital focus of the brief.

DFGA Yearbook

This brief is almost complete and should be going to print over the next couple of weeks. The only parts left for this project is work with my team to complete the final designs and then design some presentation boards showing my involvement with the project.

YCN: BLYK Messages

This brief has gone well so far and I am now working towards developing some promotional graphics for the app concept. I will be putting together a website and mocking up several other designs such as the app icon, store page and online advertisements. The presentation of the final app screens will be of particular importance for showing how the app would fit into everyday life.

Pet Tracker

The main problem I have encountered with this brief is making as personable as possible. The strength of the concept is that people love their pets and the playful nature of this relationship. The next stage for this brief will be to update my designs to me more fun and 'game' like so that they will connect with the target audience better. After doing this I plan to put together a promotional video mixing live-action footage of my own cats with animated app-screens to explain the concept of the app. 

D&AD Microsoft

This is another brief that needs to be pushed in a more emotional direction. The current designs are much too clinical and lack emotive consideration, something that is of critical importance to the subject matter of depression. To do this I want to develop my app into a 'personal therapist' with an on-screen character that guides the user through their treatment in a much more personable way. One idea is to use a retro pixel-art visual identity as found on old videogames and the more recently a contemporary resurgence of the style, although this needs further experimentation/research. After finishing the final app-screen design I'll need to look at promotional advertisements and how to the explain the app functionality and how it will benefit the target audience.

Context Publication

There is plenty of blogging that I need to catch-up with for this brief and I also need to find some more primary research sources such as interviewees and library research. Alongside completing the content research, I need to experiment and develop my publication design for submission. My current plan is to use the free iBooks author tool to create an iPad eBook. I talked with Lorenzo about organising an iPad with my publication on for examination, which I was glad to hear should be doable. Over the next week I have to test out my design ideas and try producing a small section of functioning iBook to test on one of the college iPads.

BLYK: Narrative Design

Here is my design showing the narrative of my app, what it does for the user and why they should use the app. This design will be used on the website and other advertising material to communicate the concept of my app to potential users in a clear and concise manner.


BLYK: Revised Digital Mockups

Here are the revised digital mockups of my Quicker Reader app. I have added a book-cover texture to my designs that are used as a background for the two main screens and as a titlebar at the top of the main settings and content screens.

I have also lightened the settings screen so that it more closely matches the content screen, since those two pages would be the metaphorical 'inside' pages of the app, like the main body and index of a book.

BLYK - Direction

After thinking about the target audience for my Quick Reader app I have decided to move towards a less general audience. Previously I was focused on making an app that everybody would want to use everyday, but I think the functionality my app has caters for a more specific audience.

The audience I want to aim my app at now is the avid blog reader, someone who follows the rss feeds for many different blogs but doesn't have time to read all the content that arrives in their feed readers. My app allows them to read a narrower and more relevant selection of articles from these feeds without feeling like they are missing out on any important content.

The original reason for my app was to provide that feeling of completion when reading printed material to the seemingly infinite experience of reading on the web, and I feel that blog enthusiasts would benefit the most from this.

BLYK - Wireframes 2

Here are the second round of wireframes for the BLYK Quick Reader app, these notes and ideas should help inform my next round of changes to the digital designs.




BLYK Promotion Ideas

Expanding on my narrative ideas I have looked at some promotion methods for my Quick Reader app.




BLYK - Narrative Ideas

Here are some notes about how I could communicate my Quick Reader app's functionality to the key audience:


BLYK - Brand Ideas

Here are some brand ideas for my Quicker Reader app, I want to expand on my original designs and give them more personality:



Crit 2 Boards & Feedback

Here are the boards I had for the second feedback crit:

A4 Brief Summaries:



A3 Progress Boards:




Here is the feedback I received for course-mates:

  • Ideas have been thought through well but I need to show more development & visual experimentation.
  • I can explore the Handyman website more throughly and look at different colours and logo ideas.
  • More development is needed for the Pet Trails app design and also need to look at how the app would be advertised & marketed.
  • I should look at how the NHS therapy app could be explained and advertised/delivered to patients.
  • With the reading app I need to look at the types of content that people will want to access.

 Some additional comments from my tutorial with Si Scott:

  • He thinks I should experiment with more illustration and stimulating graphics to see if I can make the apps more engaging for the audience.
  • An example of this is that the Pet Trails app could change its theme depending on species of pet the own has.

Action Plan:

  • Research the marketing and advertising of apps and other software.
  • Look at how I could expand my briefs to cover how the apps would be promoted and explained to their audiences.
  • Experiment with and expand the visual development of my app designs to try and make them more engaging for their intended audiences.

BLYK Digital Mockups

Here are some of the initial digital designs for my BLYK quick reader app:

Progress Tutorial

Here are the main points from my tutorial with Lorenzo that concern my design practice briefs:

  • I need to look at the deliverables for my briefs and how I will present them for submission.
  • One possibility is to produce a narrative to show my proposals in context, showing the viewer what the interface does in a visual manner.
  • A direction I could take is looking into producing animated demos of my proposals to communicate the concepts and visuals.
  • This secondary element to my design process is similar to how websites for apps communicate their products in a clear and concise manner, aiming to persuade people into downloading them.
  • I need to start producing digital mockups of my proposals as soon as possible to show during the crits later this week.
  • This direction means a look at not just how the app will work and look, but also how it will communicated and marketed to potential audiences.
  • These changes should help give my designs the human element that they are currently lacking in.

We also discussed these issues with my design context publication:

  • My design context need to be restructured to follow the processes behind interface design, to tell the story behind creating these designs.
  • I need to relate interface design to people and how it works within people's lives.
  • One idea is to initially focus on what functions interface design can perform for people, how people relate to these designs, how this relationship influences the delivery of the interface and then break them down into usability, emotive design and other elements.

Action Plan:

  • Start producing the digital mockups of my app proposals, looking at different visual elements to help them relate to the audience.
  • Start looking at the different methods used to promote and communicate applications to their potential users.
  • Begin sketching out possible narratives for explaining and promoting my apps, looking how to describe their essence to people.
  • Work out a new structure for my design context publication, discuss it with Lorenzo and then start producing it.

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