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.

Design Context PDF

Here is a PDF version of my final context publication. Although it gives a basic ideas of what the final app is, none of the interactive elements work so please make sure you look through the app to get the full experience and see all the images & videos.

Final Publication File

I have exported my final iBooks file and will take it in to the DFGA office to copy it to an iPad this morning so that I can submit it with my main boards. I tested the book out on my own iPad, here is a shot of the final file in my iTunes library:


Context Publication Organisation

Here are some lists I've been making of what content is going into my final publication:




Bookmarks for my Context Publication

Here are some screen-caps of the bookmarks I've been keeping for when I'm deciding what to include in my final publication:



DFGA - Final Boards

Here are the final boards that I will be submitting for the DFGA yearbook brief:

DFGA - Board Sketches

These are my initial ideas for my 5 DFGA boards, these will be submitted as a PDF as it isn't one of my main three briefs:


DFGA - Book Proof Photos

We got the proofs in the DFGA yearbook and I took a few photos to possibly use on my final boards. The colours came out strange on a couple of them so I'll have to re-touch the ones I plan to use in Photoshop.





DFGA - Image Touch-Up

A quick job was to tidy up this picture of an SLR camera for one of the filler pages. I removed the tape that was covering top top part of the camera:




DFGA - Cover Submission Development

Here are the final designs for the yearbook cover. I had to add a spine, some more information on the front and the college logo on the back to adhere to the brand guidelines we were given.



Cat Trails - Final Boards

Here are the final boards that I will be submitting for the Cat Trails brief:

Cat Trails - Board Sketches

These are the initial sketches for my Cat Trails final boards, I'll be submitting these as  printed boards because it is one of my three main projects.



Cat Trails - Collar Mockup

I found an image of a GPS collar online and added this logo to it in Photoshop:



Here is the final mockup of the collar that I will use on my final boards:


Cat Trails - Website

Here is the website design for my Cat Trails brief, it would use the promotional video I created alongside some annotated screenshots to explain the app to the user. There are also links to an online store so that they can buy a collar for their cat and a link to the app store so they can download the app.


Here is a mockup on an iMac for my final boards:


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