Harris McFie

22/04/2019

Reflective Essay (Final Module)

The Nature Disconnect was one of the most fun modules where I could see all my skills come into place, however that only seemed to be the case for Digital Interaction personally. The beginning weeks were confusing, and I caught on too late with what was going on. However, nearer the end I was able to see how the whole thing was coming together and could then create boards that met the requirements of the first few weeks. I was proud of the outcomes such as the PowerPoint presentation and eventually the four boards I did yet I felt they could have been done better. Nonetheless, I was still pleased with them and thought my graphic skills had come on a little from plain white box-like designs.

Moving on quickly though, I enjoyed the second part of the module where we were split into our own disciplines. Although I didn’t take forward my initial Digital Interaction idea, the brief was very precise with time management help and I was comfortable with being able to start from the beginning.

Having a clear brief with the end deliverables presented right at the start really helped as I was able to know what I was working towards, instead of questioning if what I was doing was going to benefit me later, or towards my final deliverables. Even when knowing what I had to do at the end, the brief was still open and allowed our group to expand into many other variations of what was expected so it was not hindering our creativity and instead of blinding us to disperse, we were able to do that without the messy uncertainty.

Thankfully, this was the key moment I needed in the year where I knew my discipline choice was the correct one. Especially for this project and each altered brief, I was a lot more passionate and creative in what I could do with my task and therefore felt I produced, what I feel, was some of the best work I had done all year.

Although I had such an expansive idea, talking it through my mentor (Laura), I was really able to zone in at what area I wanted to target and this also hit the brief right on the bullseye, as it revolved around exactly what I fell our products were to achieve: connecting more people with nature.

One of my favourite parts of the design process is the visual language board and how the product/idea is branded. I feel it is such a necessity because it is the first judgement barrier that people put your idea through when they look at it, if it doesn’t hit the right target market, there won’t be one. Having the right balance in colours, typeface etc, was something I felt a lot more comfortable doing as I have learnt a lot over the past year.

When creating my visual language board, I had learnt from all my previous mistakes and created a simple but effective poster. One thing I had learnt was I needed to do much more extensive planning than just jumping straight into it like I previously had done and build up slowly using grids, outlines and setting up of typefaces and themes beforehand. I had never used Adobe InDesign before joining university and feel my learning curve had been very extreme, so I am now very comfortable creating a variety of visual displays.

For my storyboard, I was learning Adobe Photoshop for the first time teaching myself and being taught things such as: how to upload sketches and use a variety of editing tools on them like adding colour, changing saturation and scales, brushing over rough areas, cropping out un-needed things and a lot more that I just wouldn’t believe I would be capable of doing when I first joined. It was the most time-consuming task surprisingly but now that I know how to upload and edit properly, I will be able to carry out the task a lot quicker in the future.

The Experience Prototype was another additional thing I had no experience doing too, so the final weeks were very much a first for everything apart from the design ‘laws’ that have been taught to me over the past year. I was quite comfortable with it early on, seeing the many benefits straight away as to why people used it to cut down time consuming tasks and the tools that add an extra professional look. Although it took a lot of time, it was very fun to test the possibilities and I was learning all the way through.

To conclude, if I was asked to carry out the same brief in the amount of time I had, I would have never been able to complete it making it look anywhere near as good. Although I was aware that I was improving throughout the year, this was where I noticed the main difference, where I was able to take each learning point from every module and demonstrate it within my finished project, which I am very proud of. Every bit of the course has attributed to my knowledge attained over the academic year. Having the deliverables all set up in the exhibition, I am certain I have taken my work up a level and there is a clear improvement in my abilities that I only hope to improve greatly in the next few years.

22/04/201922/04/2019

Final Outcome

Storyboard:

Here are the final outcomes that appeared in my exhibition display, any areas missed previously in the other blogs have been described below:

Visual Language Board:

Concept Summary Board:

For the concept board, I left it simple and used the darkening of the background only at the top to create an easily readable 100-word concept summary, as if it was a pop up, therefore, making people look at that first before moving down. Below, I had the background easily visible showing the first stage of the app where the person takes a photo of an area, while imagining the possibilities of it (the planks being replaced along with the rope swing). The image is briefly described at the end of the description so works well with giving the viewer a good enough understanding.

Exhibition Display Slides:

For my exhibition display, I wanted to keep it minimalist and use size to drag in readers to certain points of the display:

On the easel, I had the concept summary board which would attract the most attention due to its height.
Behind the concept board, I placed the visual language board behind as if showing the details in behind the visuals and individuals would hopefully notice this after they had seen the first board and could look further for extra information.
I placed the story board flat alongside my sketchbook and placed flower pots (ideally in one of the utopic colours: light blue) so that the display balanced out vertically with the propped-up board on the other side of the display.
Finally, I left my laptop open with the app ready for people to interact with.

Skechbook Tour:

I found the editing harder than normal as i encountered problems which I didn’t know how they had appeared or how to fix them so it was a challenge along with all the program not responding too. Nonetheless, I feel I created a short and cute video that still gives a good view of what my sketchbook is like for this project.

To acces the video, click on the link below:

https://vimeo.com/331708016

The video can also be found by searching my profile: Harris McFie, on Vimeo as the privacy is set to public.

22/04/2019

Development of Chosen Concept

To continue my development, the visual language board I created allowed me to zone in on typefaces and colour themes. This is an essential part of branding as it gives the whole product an identity and a reoccurring template so that the whole app and any spin offs (a physical product) can be identified as one group/product.

Afterwards, I concentrated on the process of how an individual could go from taking a photo, all the way through to getting a following and funding to make the idea a possibility. I researched into various visual editors or 3D construction tools (like google SketchUp), however through my own experience, I found that it requires many hours to build up skills to illustrate something clearly. Upon briefly moving onto creating my app home screen, I came across the parallax effect which creates depth and through that as a simple method, anybody would be able to highlight what the different layers in their image were (closer and further away). Therefore, individuals could place down their drawing, put it behind objects to create depth, rotate, resize, skew and other tools to make their drawing or premade object into their photo of an area.

To offer further support, I created an area of the app where the user could research laws and receive help from local, or worldwide professionals willing to lend their help for free. This is essential as it is a daunting part of a process that scares away many people as it is too much work and sometimes hard to understand. When working with land this is crucial because of different laws laid out to protect areas etc.

Finally, the app had to be attractive to people who wanted to support people and projects even if they didn’t own one of their own. I conducted a small bit of research into how people prefer to find things in their area and google maps helped as it showed distance and gave a strong idea of how many things were in an area. I took this and thought people could discover pins on a map that had a key, indicating what each area represented: park, campsite etc.

For profiles, I took from many other social media formats and had the individuals profile picture and a small description about themselves as well as having a follower count. The ability to get followers could encourage people to get their name out there if they work on a lot of projects that could show a display of their skill as well as the positive effects that they have worked for a charitable project. As well as this, ‘money raised’ and the ‘number of projects’ they’ve carried out are good clear indicators as to what they have achieved on the app.

22/04/2019

Initial Ideas and Concepts

The aim of this stage was to continue with our chosen discipline for next year hence mine being Digital Interaction Design. However, I realised my idea was crossing over with what somebody else was doing so I changed as I felt I was able to carry forward another idea that I had.

Before coming up with the name and a precise area of focus, I wanted to create an app that allowed individuals of any age to be able to take a photo of an area and propose an idea that could be crowdfunded, similar to Kickstarter but with much more emphasis on community.

Firstly, I slowly refined upon what I wanted to specifically target which is described in my 100-word concept summary:

‘’The product and/or app allows any person with any design ability or skill, to visualise how they would like to create a social space that interacts with nature and the outdoors.

After using simple and easy to understand software to create their proposal, the individual or group can share the idea for funding and support.

This could rally communities to re-invigorate run down, or un-used areas and get interest from people all over the world.

Just like making a rope swing or den in the woods, any person of any age can make their social space a possibility.’’

To follow up, I wanted to create a theme and logo that tailored for who I was wanting to hit with my target market, which was everyone, so I had to create a good balance and not aim more towards one area (children for example), and make it too ‘childish’ so that adults were put off it but also vice versa.

In my visual language board, the balance is described in detail.

For my story board, I wanted it to not be sleek and have a more friendly appearance so that it could show the ease of how you could still show what you wanted to propose if the drawings were clear enough. I used a simple black sharpie to draw out the visual pieces then used photoshop to make them clear and add colour so that it looked sleeker and appeal to adults a bit more, while also highlighting key areas I wanted people viewing to see.

22/04/201922/04/2019

Inspiration and Research

Warm-Up Project

To give us a basic understanding about what companies are already having a similar approach, we were to make a quick presentation on four companies or groups have taken it upon themselves to cut down on their own environmental impact, or help out our environment through adding positive additions to the world such as trees or removing negative objects such as bottles.

After we had a more solid concept of what we had to create, ideas that we were already beginning to build up would contribute towards the four board we had to create.

Inspiration and Personal Manifesto Board:

My Manifesto board consisted of three areas which I identified within the photos I had taken on our trip to Tentsmuir. I already had a good variety from my presentation when it came to what other people were doing so, I decided not to re-use them within my board. Un-suspecting to me, I was subconsciously interested within perspective and imagining what could be done with unique and interesting areas I had found within with wildlife conservation park. This therefore led to my final project but that is for further on in my blog.

Product Design Board:

For the product design board, we were instructed that we had to create a product that consisted of one or more found objects from our trip to Tentsmuir. I didn’t have a firm idea on what I wanted to create, there were three lighting pieces which experimented with different forms of lighting: a small lap projecting from a cone, a mood light consisting of a hollow plastic piece on a rock then a more luminescent strip that winds through the cracks in the bark. My favourite is the small pot as it looks quite rustic or quaint: consisting of a pebble, wire, a smashed bottle head and popsicle sticks.

Interior Design Board:

In the Interior task, we had to create a mobile structure intertwined with nature. I returned to my first board (Personal Inspiration) and concentrated on perspective and how a structure could channel someone’s line of sign or block out external factors that prevent you appreciating an individual line of sight or sense. I experimented with how lighting would spread or disperse but also how structures could intertwine or take shape from nature on every scale.

Digital Interaction Design Board:

For the Digital Interaction Board, we were instructed that a camera had to be involved, so this could also include audio if people wanted to expand into that area such as me.

The idea was that people within the city or their stressed, filled lives could escape and use an app to transport them to a peaceful area and let them focus on a specific, calming aspect. By entering into a 360-degree image, the user could move around and focus into what they wanted to listen into: looking up at the trees from a camera placed in a forest and have a receive live audio of just the leaves rustling.

03/12/201810/01/2019

Picture, Symbol, Icon – Article

The Brief…

As individuals, we have to design a double-page spread showing the first two pages of a selected article. There must also be the same article that has been adapted to fit onto a portrait iPad screen.

I chose to go for the gaming article: https://bit.ly/2DyV9RH

Our first task was to analyse a double-page spread article like the one we were about to design, i found this simple one from Sonos that was different because of it’s odd column layout. I noticed that the middle column of text was not alligned with the main image on the next page and after learning more about layout, found that the left page consists of 7 columns. This is discreet at the text is cntre alligned across two columns each.

There are also allignment lines that are horizontal across the whole page so nothing is slightly out of place.The background image on the right has been changed to black and white so that one colour is only on the page along with black and white.The image on the left is partially bled off the page as it only goes off the top and side edges.The right page only consists of three columns but all the text is still centre alligned. The text is all the same typeface but is increased in size and made bold or all caps to draw more attention.

I first started with this image as I had played the game mentioned in the article and found that it was the most appropriate referance for what the author was trying to get at. However I flipped the image so that the slope leads your eyes from left to right as you go across the page. The image is visually stricking so I wanted to maintain as much of it as possible.

Click on the images to enlarge to full screen.

I was experimenting with how i could split up the page, because the flow went from top left to bottom right, I put the title first and it would lead down to the text. I copied the colour in the text from the cloak so it blended in better than black. Next i added a faded box around the text so it stood out clearer but none of the background would be lost.

I realised i needed more text on the page so I expanded the text box to the top of the page, I made the right page three columns and the textbox would have a width of two with a column for the background. Because the game was not mentioned, i added in the title discreetly so it didn’t take up too much attention but was still important hence the large size and only a text outline. Finally i made the title bold so that it was clearer and the authors text in white so it was distinguished as a subtitle.

This is the final piece, i created a lot more whitespace which added more strength to the whole piece. I did this by making the background image a partial bleed instead of a full bleed. In the text there is a drop capital to drag the readers attention to the start of the article and a pull quote to entice them and inform the reader of a main topic.

There was a problem with the processing as I switched over onto using my laptop instead of the media lab computers and encountered a lot of problems such as the font’s not existing etc. I made a small screenshot of where the pull quote would exist.

The line is in the white textbox is alligned perfectly at the centre along with the cloacked person in the image.

For the iPad layout, it was difficult to stick to a similar format so I changed the whitespace to cut horizontally across the image instead and use that to split up the page. In the top of the image, I added the title and scaled it to a correct size. I did the same for the other pieces of text that aren’t part of the main body of text.

Unfortunately, I also had a problem with the whole article being a little pixelated when i transferred it across to my laptop so apologies.

Finally, I removed the parting line as I couldn’t find a use for it when converting over to the new format.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this task as I have wanted to expand my abilities to make things look more professional and less amateur. The progams such as InDesign and Photoshop also took me on a steep learning curve but I feel i have a good understanding of the program now and I am able to carry out what I have as an idea in my head. They are both massive programs so I know I still have a lot more to learn!

02/12/201821/04/2019

Picture, Symbol, Icon – Signs

The Brief…

In groups of three, we were to research and create a signage intervention in DJCAD. We had to make and install physical signage and/or objects that will effect the behaviour of people in a chosen space. It must be installed in DJCAD and be on display for 1-2 hours while we descreetly take observations.

Initial Ideas

We wanted to come up with something original and didn’t want to go for a signage that merely instructed or prompted a corresponding action – e.g. “look up”, as there would be minimal significant experience to be gained from that, for either us, or the participant.

Our first idea consisted of how we could create a sign that would change a persons path by phychologically pushing them towards a less practical decision. For example in DJCAD, along the walkway, eveyone we observed walks mainly through the double doors as it is closer and larger than the single door adjacent and to the right. Both of them lead into the same room and are only two metres apart. If however there was a sign stating that both were open, it may make the individual stop and question why the signs were there. While the signs would provide no additional information, it may draw the participant in to read it incase, it is to state one of the doors is closed for example.

Typically, above signage text there is an icon/graphic that reinforces the message in the text. If we change this to try to subtly influence behaviour, will it work as intended. For example, if there were two identical arrows pointing towards both of the doors it would correspond with the text as expected, yet if one arrow was larger than the other, the information is still true but would a larger arrow to the right descreetly make people walk through the smaller, more inconvenient door?

That was our first psychological idea, but we wanted to make something that would be significantly more interactive for people. As we sat in the green seating area, we joked that it would make a good ball pit. From that, we developed it into question as to whether different signage could influence if people woul play in the ball pit or not. For example, would individuals be more likely to interact if the sign dared them to do so, or would a simple sign saying: have fun – enjoy the ball pit, as a statement work better?

Development

We went with the ball pit idea and headed off to argos after doing some poor research of how many balls we could actually obtain, so for £12 we bought ourself 300 balls which we soon discover was no where near enough and that my calculation of about 2000 was actually needed to completely fill the lower square, not even the top! We tried to raise £72 to purchase another 1800 balls and create this amazing idea, it fell short of support surprisingly…

Instead we decided to use the balls as an individual vote in a poll system so we would use signs to ask the question then they could take balls out of the bag and vote. They could pick three so it would force them to have a prefered one instead of one in each but the pits would fill up quicker and having it look like there were more responses would make more people participate.

The two different polls we put up were one which was personal opinion and no right answer (cough cough Queen), so there was Queen against The Beetles. The second poll was what they believed was correct. The sign asked which had a larger surface area between Russian and Pluto.

The activity got a lot of people involved and talking, plus just having a bit more colour in the area made it nicer to sit around and occasionally throw a ball at a friend too.

The white taped lines in the seat and the divide would be alligned with the sign so that it was simple to understand. We made the signs large so that they would gain attention and the big bag of balls also made people stop and figuire out what it was part of. In the second set of seats it wasn’t a black wall unfortunately so it had to block a poster.

Results

The way we recorded the results is instead of counting all the balls, we just did which one each person prefered to go for and counted it as one vote, for example, whether a person went for two in one or all three in one option, it would just count as one for that answer.

Queen scored 16 in comparisson to The Beatles score of 9 (unlucky Jason and Andrew), however the release of Bohemian Rhapsody in the cinema has brought a new craze about Queen so we should have probably changed the two bands to make it fairer.

Russia was believed to have a larger surface area as it got 13 votes compared to Pluto’s 6. The correct answer is Russia and is a good pub quiz question to keep in your head!

The main thing is a wide range of people got involved from every year of students, to lecturers including Andrew and Jason (thank you), as well as builders and some other people. People identified we were scoring the answers after they had interacted with the sign and had talks with us about Queen or The Beatles and which surface area was actually larger so the day was good fun.

02/12/201830/04/2019

Picture, Symbol, Icon – Vinyl Cover

The Brief…

We were presented with 9 records that have been recognised for having defined and popolarised entire genres of music, the subcultures, fashion and visual languages associated with them.

The list was as follows:

So What – Miles David (modal jazz) 1956

Do the reggay – Toots and the Maytals (reggae) 1968

New Rose – The Damned (punk) 1976

Music for Airports (1/1) – Brian Eno (Ambient) 1978

Rapper’s Delight – Sugarhill Gang (hip hop) 1980

Bela Lugosi’s Dead – Bauhaus (goth) 1982

Strings of Life – Rhythim is Rythim (techno) 1986

The Pleasure Principle – Janet Jackson (r&b) 1986

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana (grunge) 1991

We had to design a front cover of one of the chosen pieces.

Oblique Strategies

I chose ‘Music for Airports’ as I was also intersted in the oblique strategies cards that were a side task only for the ambient vinyl. Brian Eno (the creator of my album) and Peter Schmidt published the oblique strategies in 1975. They are a card-based method for prompting creativity, part of “Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas”.

Throughout the process I drew three cards which were:

You don’t have to be ashamed of using your own ideas, (this was a confidence booster that encouraged me to not hold back on my ideas, and anyway, if it was a bad idea, I could blame this card!).

Don’t be afraid of clichés, (this was helpful as clichés can nevertheless be a deeply held view or something that has genuine relevance.. So in the case of making an album cover, if a cliche image brought across the intended feeling, this would want fine, as that visual display would convey what will be heard on the vinyl).

Tape your mouth, (this was a rather interesting one if I took it literally as people would be looking at me rather weirdly in the studio if they did not know the context, so I didn’t use tape but didn’t speak to others while working on the cover. Not only did I actually crack on and get work done, I couldn’t ask others for advice which had both positive and negative effects. As a positive, I had to trust my ideas. This was affirmation of the previous two cards as well. Then as a negative, I couldn’t receive any advice in the moment on how I could look at something differently or perhaps receive positive feedback on my thought process.

Visual Research Board

When I first listened to the song it instantly reminded me of the opening scene from the movie “Hector and the Search for Happiness”. The music compositions were similar, both very dreamy, visualized also in the movie as the main character is dreaming and flying a biplane through the clouds. I also thought the plane linked back to the airports in the title.

My aim for my album cover was to create a simpler dreamy scene conveying peace and relaxation, as well as being quite minimalistic with colour.

While looking at album covers (left side of the board), I wanted to take two things from what I had found. The first being that the serif handwriting font was soft and I would take something similar to that. The second being that the origami made the album stand out and there is something soothing about a shape or objects being crafted from paper so its light and clear. In further exploration of origami for inspiration, I discovered a range of different clouds and went for the ones with the origami boat in the image. I also decided to have a base or an image that partially bleeds off so that there isn’t blue bordering the whole cover.

I drew up a small draft to have a rough idea of what i was doing…

Final Design

So the cover was now looking sharp. I drew the images then cut and stuck them onto the blue paper background. It also allowed me to move things around and see how the page would balance out. I tried to split the page into thirds so the mountain range was the bottom third, and the top cloud would be in the top third so it’s the only thing that takes away from the dotted path and isn’t too distracting but in nevertheless leads the eye through the composition.

The dotted lines were to show a path of the plane but I decided to put the title at the end of the path as the dots already lead the individuals eyes to this main and only bit of text information.

I only used a grey pen to do all the colouring for simplicity and the blue background is the only other colour. I was going to have the writing in orange as it is the contrasting colour to blue for impact but I decided to stick with white as it looks smooth and was truer to my concept of peace and simplicity. The dotted line to leading to the text felt sufficiently to draw the eye.

Conclusion

I am happy with the outcome. I found that the oblique strategies cards were very useful through the whole process. I think I achieved what the first two cards promoted as I didn’t shy away from producing what could be considered a cliché scene for a dreaming/ambient setting yet, the ideas on execution were my own and I trusted them. The only fault I have with the final cover is that it could be executed a little better technically in areas such as cutting out the album title as it looks scruffy. Other than that I love the origami effect and the all round neatness of the other images on the cover. I’m thinking about adding a small airport to the mountain side to further connect to the album title but I don’t want to spoil the serenity and simplicity of the current image.

05/11/201830/04/2019

Ways of Seeing

Over the past three weeks, we have recieved multiple tasks that have stretched my ability in a variety of ways. I’ve been challenged a lot because this module is orientated around sketching, which is something I’m comfortable with in only a few areas such as sketching still objects, however, I’ve been challenged to stray from my comfort zone.

First Task

We were randomly assigned into groups of four, and after making our sketchbooks, we were instucted to fold our A3 paper into halves to then draw on each side. Without looking down at the paper, we (the class) had to draw the person opposite us using a red coloured sharpie. To say the least, it was truly aweful which was no surprise, but next we had to draw the same person, over the same drawing using a green sharpie and then finally one last time with a blue sharpie. And to add to all the stress, each time we had roughly 30 seconds which hightened the panic in the room.

Evaluation

The use of space isn’t too great and the drawing could be a lot larger. Because there was less space to cover, there were fewer margins for extreme errors where the three pen drawing don’t allign at all. However, when I tried to go larger (far left image/nightmare one) it did not work out as my hand had to move off the page which made me lose my bearings. I also found that the sketches where the person wasn’t facing straight were a lot easier because there was no symmetry which made it a lot harder for an unknown reason.

The second task was the same process but instead of A4 it is A3 which was harder for me as I now had to draw even larger. I was beginning to get the hang of it, since I had tips of making sure my hand stayed in one place each time and just remembered how far to reach/stretch out to get the far parts of the drawing.

Second Task

The second task we were allowed to look down at the page, so the drawing was at least alligned this time. We had to use a pen (I stuck to using a sharpie but just black this time) and draw a more detailed portrait of a person this time while carrying out an interview and jotting down a few notes about the person. For fergus, once again it was easier to draw him since i was facing him from an angle which I’ve discovered is my strong point. Portraits of people are the weakest part of my drawing as I struggle with spotting definitive lines in a live portrait, and I prefer something thats a lot clearer and distinguished. For sophie, we had to include electronics so I places two LED’s where her earings would be and made two simple series circuis using wire and a battery. I tried to use a thinner pen for some detailed shadowing but it didn’t work out as well.

Third Task

Our third task was in a group, we were to experiment with the conductive ink provided and try to create a working circuit. There were a lot of dificulties even with laying down an even amount on the paper and it did get quite messy. When using the ink to connect a battery to a bulb, there were not many effective results. Eventually we figured out the ink had to be completely dry and because of its very high resistance, the path drawn could not be long. To get the bulb to light up the smallest bit, four batteries were needed to be stacked so to conclude, the ink was not that effective.

Fourth Task

I had to create another portrait but this time much more detailed and make sure is provides a visual display of their personality but with layers.

The way I planned this worked out very nicely as I edited the image of Nathan, then sketched out the main lighting outlines to create the non-layered version. Next the alterations I did were the chef hat (as he wanted to become a chef at one point and wanted to open up a cafe in retirement), the joker smile (because he is very dark and satirical with his jokes and humour), the small quotes from real incidents that have happened at drum chappel (that is where he grew up), and finally the ripped news articles represent what Nathan aspires to be: a fututre designer, comes back to help Drumchapel, then retire to run his cafe.

Fith Task

This task was set over the reading week. We had to create ten pieces of A3 drawings which was two a day during the week days. One of the drawings on the day had to consist of a item or visual image that respresented that day or was a key part of your memory (pictures in the left column). The other drawing had to represent your day-to-day movements, so your actions either as a map, or something that showed one stage of your day going onto the next. (pictures on the right column).

The task was a lot of fun as there was not a lot of pressure on how long you had to spend on a piece so some days where I did not have a lot of time, I could do a rough drawing but still be creative such as the navigating onto the trampoline, doing a little flip, then back off.

Day 1 – Travelling

The first piece to show my journey on the first day was a simple normal map that showed the specific details of where i went but only the beggining and end sections. This was I only had three journeys that day but over a long distance and I couldn’t create a detailed map of all the way from Dundee to the west of Glasgow.

They are both still orientated to facing north and the circles are roughly where they should be in Scotland. For example the Dundee circle is north east of the Glagow one which is roughly the direction of travel.

I only used a pencil as I like simple sketches that don’t worry about too much colour and I didn’t have anything else available at the time.

Day 1 – View of the Tay Bridge from Broughty Ferry

Once again a pencil was all I had at the time but I could quickly sketch out the image roughly, then I lated used a photo to add in the detail later.

The drawing has a two vanishing points to the right, one in the distance with the bridge and the other being the pavement, but both go to the same point despite being miles away.

Day 2 – Navigating the skies

This was a small fun one to do of my friends back garden. We didn’t do much that day as I arrived late, but other than catching up I went out onto the trampoline for one little flip.

I thought of this as I wanted to show a 3D map that wasn’t from a birds high view and from a normal perspective as if my movement was tracked from the ground and only over a short distance.

I had my pens but not a lot of time, so I drew the main objects in a simplistic way so that a rough image of the garden was given.

Day 2 – Arriving to see my old friend

This image always has a strong presence in my memory as it was a house that I’d constantly be at playing Lego with my friend and spending a lot of my days there, so walking down the driveway is one of my favourite things. The majority of this is from memory but i went outside every now and then to check i did something correctly.

I wanted to keep it simple and only include the detailed brickwork instead of individually drawing out each normal brick on the house.

Day 3 – Navigating the designer outlet

I originally was going to create a heat map that spelt out shopping as i went around the shops, but I wanted to make it more artistic and represent how so many people would come from locally and far away to this one centre.

The dots are the paths of me, and other people coming towards the buildings are just a simple 2D view from above like a floor plan. This is one of my favourites as it has a lot of geometric shapes and how the word fits perfectly into the floor plan.

Day 3 – A successful days shopping

I decided to visualise my hand holding the range of different coloured bags that I had.

I used my pens so I could make it look vibrant and a lot more simple to contrast my detailed pencil sketches i had done previously.

Day 4 – Travelling home on a gloomy day

I was drawing in the car and collaborated a few visually interesting things that i had seen, the sky was dark so there were a lot of sillhouetes in the distance that were made simple to draw.

The main colours I noticed were the blur of red lights ahead of us and the yellow lights coming towards us as there was not much other colour that stood out around.

To point out, I accidentally drew two memories/images for one day so the next day will consist of two pieces of navigation.

Day 4 – Packed and ready to head ‘home’

It was late when i got back so i decided to do another quick sketch of the pile of luggage that I had to drag back to dundee the next day.

All the bags had different shapes so I thought it would be interesting to draw.

Day 5 – Tiredness in correlation with distance

I decided to draw a detailed outline of scotland this time and not show too much detail.

This time though, I played with the general direction as if it was a map and related two main things on my day: how tired I was by the time i got to dundee in correlation with how much distance I had to travel.

I outlined my drawing in pen to make the map look even sharper and then went over with a rough brush of blue pen to represent scotland.

Day 5 – How i travelled home

The sketch showed the different steps in how I made it back to Dundee. The images were generic modes of transport and not the exact thing i took to get back.

I used the same stensil like style to show a side profile of each one then an arrow to make it seem like it was passing through the page back and forth.

Sixth Task

Our sixth task was to create a CV for ourselves in the form of a journey or timeline.

Throughout the journey of my life, I never knew what exactly I wanted to become, and I never had my life planned for the next few steps so i took it one thing at a time. This was my inspiration for the flip map as only one thing is discovered at a time and you can’t see ahead until you move along to that point then you can look back at what you have discovered and achieved. I also like the theme of a journey map with icons or scenery representing something such as the bridges being me moving over onto a new school or university (big pond metaphor).

Seventh Task

The final task was that we had to combine an arduino circuit into a flatpack model made out of paper and construct a storyboard for our character.

My inspiration was that i struggle to get out of bed in the morning, but i have a lovely peace of mind when i press the snooze button, so i decided to create my two expressions and ended up making up this incredibly cute and happy fellow. He gets incredibly angry however…

The arduino programming was very challenging as I had never done it but i managed to get a good grasp of it and convert a few of the things I’ve learnt into a program that has two buttons which makes the RGB led turn red (for angry) and green (for happy).

So this is the wee angry guy and he does not look happy whatsoever! Thankfully. if you turn his head around the other way and press the green light button he will be happy and glowing again.

The bed is made using origami and is a simple 20x20cm sheet then the cover is a rectangle folded for the angles on the covers.

Link for Sketchbook Tour:

05/10/201830/04/2019

Navigating Experience

Design Brief

With the two weeks provided, my partner Danny and I had to develop and design a fun experience for a user to playfully navigate a location.

There were many options we thought about as a pair, as to how navigating is now way too clear with the likes of google maps at our constant disposal, sitting in our pockets all the time. However, we agreed one of two main things: directions were now too precise, and a user will constantly take the same mundane route to work or a certain location every time because it is the fastest route. And secondly, the majority of the users looking down at their phones miss some experiences or sights that they would’ve noticed if they kept their head up.

Initial Concept 1 – Dot Compass

The dot compass was designed as a fun device that would only consitst of easy to understand, light up buttons on a hexagonal device. To begin with, it would link to an app; we didn’t create the app, however we would use it to help the user select their start and end location then the device would do the rest.

The first display (pink highlited) is the path you want to choose, so the first green icon will appear and if they wanted the shortest direct route, they would move from dot-to-dot straight through the middle four.

But each time they reached a location or checkpoint, the compass would let them choose another three options (yellow dots) and the user could select if they wanted to veer further away or closer to their location. Highlighted in blue, the lights would change to an arrow and would guide you like a compass towards the location you chose, and once you reached your checkpoint or final destination, it would reverse back to choosing the next point (pink display) and so on. To clarify, there are not two sets of buttons or two devices, but the pink and blue references would be to which ‘screen’ would be displaying.

We made a blue foam model to get a feel of how ergonomic it would be, such as, testing the size of the buttons, how comfotable it sits in the hand and what scale would be the most suitable for practicality (such as putting it in your pocket) and actually seeing and pressing the buttons with ease.

Initial Concept 2 – Third Person Directions (Bit of a laugh)

The third person directions was a small design where the user would wear a visual headset that would connect to a camera or a drone behind them. This would make it feel like they are walking in third person, and could recieve 3D visual directions like a video game.

Initial Concept 3 – Press-Nav (Our continued concept)

Press-Nav is an attachment that clips onto each strap of the rucksack and creates pressure to indicate where the user should turn.

Our design was inspired by how the tank commander would tell the driver to turn by kicking them on the shoulders. And through this inspiration, we would make the user feel an amount of pressure through each shoulder to guide them either left or right. This could be done through an elevated piece pushing out but we decided to stick to an increase in air pressure as that would be the most comfy and ergonomic.

Development

We thought about further features such as how the rucksack attachment would wrap around and concluded that hoops and loops (velcro stuff) would be the most suitable as it could connect at multiple distances. The sides of the attachment would also be elastic to extend the range of adjustment since rucksacks will vary in width and size.

We tried our method of directing to the extent that I was blindfolded and my partner was able to guide me quite distinctly through tight spaces. This worked so well as I would turn right for as long as there was pressure on my right shoulder etc and would walk straight when there was no pressure at all.

Final model and CAD Rendering

We created a stuffed fabric prototype (full of pillow stuff) as our final model which would attach nicely onto my rucksack. One was needed as the attachments would be identical.

Part of our way through the week we were introduced to the Rhino CAD software. To me the program seemed a lot different and went about a different approach to what I was used to so I struggled to carry out advanced things. For this reason, I decided to stick to AutoDesk Inventor as my ability is a lot better and I was able to create a scale model with a lot more ease and detail.

Below is a few angles of the CAD design that was created:

Presentation

Our presentation went well as both my partner and I were comfortable at speaking in front of a large group of people and we managed to get across all our key points within the allocated two minutes. We also created two A3 sheets: the first was more of a visual display, and the second was to show more of our design process.

Conclusion

I think as a pair, my partner and I worked well as we both had strenghs in different areas, and so took on different tasks within the project, yet we were communicating well and made sure we were on the same wavelength so to speak. The rucksack/Press-Nav idea is something that I wouldn’t have normally created and gone for but I am pleased with how we both contributed to the ideas we both had and developed the product from different thinking perspectives. Personally, my thought process board was a lot better than my visual display one so I will need to develop how I display a single idea in a more visually appealing way.