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.
Design Context PDF
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:
Context Publication - iBook Test
Here are some development shots of my iBook test design, the first step was to pick a template:
I found a template that fit the colour-scheme idea I had explored in my initial sketches:
The next step was to test a video I had put up on my context blog:
To add it to my iBook I had to download it and then convert it using Quicktime:
Here is some more shots of the design process/video conversion:
Once I finished my test publication I tested it using the 'preview' tool:
Here is the iBook screen-shotted on my iPad:
Once tested, I published my book and copied it to my iPad as an iBook:
iBooks Author Tutorials
Here are a few videos and introducing iBooks Author and also some that explain how the convert video content into the right format:
http://www.mequoda.com/articles/online-publishing/two-things-you-need-to-know-about-using-audio-video-in-ibooks/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3675922?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3677693?start=0&tstart=0
Context Publication: iPad Ideas and Sketches
As I stated in my interim evaluation, I will be aiming to produce my context publication as an iPad iBook. The reason for this is that it suits my practice as well as the content I want to include, as I have quite a lot of video-based material.
I will be using the relatively new iBooks Author application to product my interactive publication. I spoke to Lorenzo about if it would be possible to arrange a college iPad to have my digital publication installed and he said that should be fine as long as I test it all before-hand.
Here are some of my initial ideas for how my iBook could look/display content:
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.
App Promotional Website Context
Here are some screenshots of app promotional websites that are informing my own designs, my favourite is the iA website because of it's clean simplicity:
Context Publication - Restructure Ideas
Here are some notes on how to re-structure my context publication to tell more of a story about the things that inform my design practice.
And this is the structure I finished on, although this will probably develop over time and I might add some sub-categories once I collect more content.
Angry Birds - Space Animation
The Angry Birds francise is hugely popular, but a less-known fact is that it was basically a copy of various other flash games found around the internet. The developers of Angry Birds basically created a brand around their game with an accompanying storyline and combined this with excellent customer support that listens to their users and updates the game accordingly.
The animated video above is an example of this story, that is created alongside the games they release. This particular video is an introduction their new version of the game 'Angry Birds Space' and will even be broadcast on the popular children's TV channel Nickelodeon (very, very smart move!). I think that this kind of brand identity/narrative can be invaluable towards the success of an app, especially in the crowded and continuously expanding virtual app marketplace.
Rechner - Gestural Touch Calculator
The Rechner app for iPhone is a simple calculator where the operations are chosen using touch gestures. I think that although it won't make much difference to the speed of using the calculator it would be more enjoyable and 'tactile' for the user.
I also like their simple visuals for explaining the different gestures available, I need to start looking at more visual ways to communicate the functionality of my own app designs:
Flipboard is an excellent mobile app that aggregates content from many different sources including rss feeds, social networks and also special feeds curated by the Flipboard team. The result is a 'personal magazine' of content that is always personally relevant to the user.
I think my BLYK app will combine the idea of personally relevant information with the idea of delivering bitesize amounts of reading content. I aim to propose a system that delivers highly relevant and consumable content on a daily basis, allowing the user to control the amount and length of the information presented.
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.
Google Webfonts
I'm going to use the Google Webfonts service to use custom typography on my website design for the surveyor brief. The service lets you embed fonts from a huge catalogue into your css code, allowing you to use fonts that aren't usually available by default.
Since the service is free a lot of the fonts are of poor quality, but I found an excellent article titled 'Google Webfonts that Don't Suck' on Sacha Greif's blog that talks about some of the better ones the offer:
Here are some of the fonts I found on the service that could be used on my surveyor website:
Surveyor - Website Research
I have been looking at a lot of existing website for handymen/surveyors and also some good examples of well structured websites. Here is a document, this first half being relevant to the subject of my project and the second showing websites that have excellent structural designs, something I want to incorporate into my own web design.
Sputnik8: Windows UI Concept
This is doing the rounds on design blog at the moment and quite rightly so! I think it's a vast improvement on the current Window's UI but keeps to a traditional 'window-based' desktop experience.
The latest official designs coming from Microsoft for Windows 8 has radically changed to a 'titled' experience design to fit in with their mobile UI, something that I don't quite agree with since they are very different interactive experiences. Here is a Windows 8 video released last year by Microsoft:
I very much prefer Sputnik8's direction with his Windows concept, there is more information about his designs over on The Verge's forum and there is plenty of interesting feedback from the community too. I have tagged this under my surveyor brief because portions of the aesthetic and use of whitespace is something I'd like to implement in my website design for the client.
Guiding Light: Indoor Navigation Assistance
Guiding light makes use of new position-detection technology for use inside large buildings. It makes use of distortions in the Earth's magnetic field that are created by the building itself. The app/product then projects real-time way-finding graphics and information that will be useful to the user.
There are lots of possibilites for this technology and I can't wait to see where it is heading, it may even be possible for me to use this technology in my work in the near future.
Bear 71: iPad Documentary
A new experimental 'iPad Documentary' about the relationship between nature, mankind and technology, told through an interactive app and live events. It's good to see people pushing the boundaries of these mediums, something that I want to do with some of my own projects.
Tiny Story: Design Narrative
A short film about the fundamental aspects of narrative in design. A bit more of a write-up about the film can be found over here.