MINOR PROJECT
Ibrahim Fazal Ahmad / 0337423
Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylors University
INSTRUCTIONS
Task 1 // Propose an innovative project proposal as a group.
We were briefed on our Minor Project details by our lecturer Mr Mike. It will be a project that involves us working together with students of another degree such as Business or Computing for example. We were then given a presentation upon the different groups that we can choose to work with. Here is the presentation we were shown:
I decided to join the "Extrash" group as their idea seemed to be the most interesting to me. My groupmates are Kyra, Jonathan, Farissa, Hanbo, and Min Feng. We have students from each specialisation with two in Entertainment and Digital Animation, while only one in UI/UX and Graphic Design.
WEEK 2:
Introduction to Design Thinking
During this week we were given a lecture by Mr Mike about Design Thinking.
Design Thinking is a process in which design concepts are created which user centric ideation. The aim is to focus on the users and their experiences when developing the product/design. It allows for a design that solves user problems. Design Thinking is divided into 5 phases:
- Empathy
- Define
- Ideation
- Prototyping
- Testing
We were given an example being "The Embrace Infant Warmer", we were asked to answer three questions:
- Who's the target audience?
- What's the target audience's needs?
- What is the solution?
We were then asked to do some contextual research on our product being Extrash. In our groups we had to research the general idea and aspects of Extrash to find more information, such as competitors and other important information on recycling. We also created some questions for our insight interview that we will later use in our surveys.
Consultation Notes:
Next course of action:
WEEK 3:
After completing our contextual studies, we gathered all the information among our different members and created a summary of our research. We also have gained a new member!! Cerene has now joined our Extrash team after the Sugoi group had to be dissolved due to... very obvious reasons. But it's always great to have another helping hand on the team! Right off the bat she already seems super organised and proactive so I am very excited to work with her.
Figure 1.0: Miro Board Compilation of Contextual Research
We also then created our User Personas and did Competitive Analysis. I worked on creating the persona of a university student (I think I'm pretty experienced in that regard!). I wanted to create someone that was a good representative of someone around my age in university but not shackled to their homes because of covid. Therefore I create a busy and carefree persona who doesn't have much time on their hands and aims for recycling to be easy and quick.
Figure 1.1: Competive Analysis
Figure 1.2: User Personas
After the first round of consultation with Mr Mike, we had a few errors that needed to ammend in our user personas. Along with the fact we felt that the personas didn't include an age group that we would've expected (middle aged people). With this information we edited our personas into the final version shown below.
Consultation Notes:
Industry/business side only wants to see key features / unique pages, computing may require the full flow for their capstone project. Push for the XD prototype for completion of user flows
Feedback from business team on content creation is premature ; wait till we complete our design thinking/user journey map
Put a percentage on the user personas
Work on a competitor analysis if business team has not done so & start creating user personas
Confirm features with computer/business teams and then begin user journey map encompassing everything from the marketing to the app itself(DONE ON FRIDAY)
Confirm user persona & interview questions by monday (DONE)
List people to invite to send questionnaire to
Next Course of Action
Work on a competitor analysis if business team has not done so & start creating user personas
Confirm features with computer/business teams and then begin user journey map encompassing everything from the marketing to the app itself(DONE ON FRIDAY)
Confirm user persona & interview questions by monday (DONE)
List people to invite to send questionnaire to
WEEK 4:
For this week, we moved onto finding participants for our survey. We need to find groups of people that fit into our user personas to answer our survey to get a more accurate idea on how they feel. This is apart of the empathising phase in design thinking where we are actively trying to understand our audience before the creation of anything. We had a google form that was conducted in English, along with some interviews done by Cerene and Hanbo which were then translated from Mandarin to English.
Figure 1.x: Interview by Cerene & Hanbo
Figure 1.x: Survey data organised
Consultation Notes:
Good question design regarding the specific colours that associate with the recycle items
Ensure the questions designed for either questionnaire survey and interview are “layman” enough to confirm the non-professional participants could easily understand the survey questions.
Exclude the question regarding the preferable app features design as it is too early to ask this kind of question in this current stage. It’s better to ask this question after having the rough creation of a prototype.
The overall questions design was quite complete.
Next Course of Action
To complete the refinement for questions design and get approval from Mr Mike to start distributing the research questions / collecting research data.
To complete the list of people to invite to send questionnaire to & send it out
Summarise data and complete insight discovery
WEEK 5:
During this week we had to complete our insight statements, problem statements, and how might we's. Beginning with the insight statement, we need to finalise it before moving onto the other two obstacles. We were also told to start preparing for our design proposal (finally!!) to which we were all very excited about. We created a pinterest board to brainstorm some styles and other things.
Consultation Notes:
(Monday)
We need to rephrase the insight statement using plain sentences and also make it more specific.
After finalizing the insight discovery, we can proceed to complete the problem statement and “How might we” statement.
So far the problem statement is fine
(Friday)
Next Course of Action
Finalize the insight discovery (DONE)
Confirm the problem statement with Mr Mike (DONE)
Provide a cluster of sticky notes design solutions regarding the ExTrash App service to “answer” the “How Might We...” statements. (To be done by W5 Friday)
Start the design brainstorm research (by W6 Monday)
Complete design proposal & moodboard (by W6 Friday)
REFLECTION:
Week 1: Working together with a different degree on a project simultaneously sounds rather challenging but interesting for sure. Being able to combine different strengths we have to create a project together will hopefully have a secure end product. Also, the VR Classroom that we had attempted for a short while was also quite new, it seems a bit awkward to use as of now. But as with everything we'll get used to it! Entertainment is a very niche specialization! I've noticed most proposals need a variety of skills from the other three specialisations. Though it can be a little difficult it allows us to be more versatile as a designer and artist. Design Thinking was mentioned by Mr Mike and we've actually touched upon this topic in SIP (Social Innovation).
Week 2: I realised how organised other people can work. As a design student we do have a sense of organisation in our work but we tend to work very loose and focus more on the final deadline. Working with the business team received a Gaant char from their end and it was very well organised. Showing weekly progress and what will be achieved. Entertainment is a very niche specialization! I've noticed most proposals need a variety of skills from the other three specialisations. Though it can be a little difficult it allows us to be more versatile as a designer and artist. Design Thinking was mentioned by Mr Mike and we've actually touched upon this topic in SIP (Social Innovation).
Week 3: This week we created the personas and did competitive analysises for three competitors. I worked on the persona of a university student. It was a little unfamiliar but simple enough for me to pick up quickly. I realised creating the personas that I really had to analyse and understand who my userbase would be and what they would like and dislike about the app. The personas should be accurate to the area the product/app is being released in. If the app is being released in Malaysia, the personas personalities, occupations, locations, etc. should all be inclusive of what it is like to live in Malaysia.
Personas are used by many companies as a way of understanding their audience better. It is a vital element in Design Thinking, which is to design and solve problems with our userbase as the main priority.
Week 4: This week we worked on the survey to get more data and see whether our personas and ideas were accurate. It was interesting seeing the different types of people who are apart of the community in Malaysia who actually already recycle. We received feedback to make it more simple and easy to understand for a complete foreigner to the topic. I realise that when you're more well versed in a topic the questions you ask can end up being more complicated than needed be and you don't even realise this. As to you, the question is easy to understand with no further thought. But to a complete newbie it may be very confusing. We found out that there are a significant amount of people in the older age brackets that are also interested in the Extrash application. We also found out many people already do recycle and those who don't can be classed into those who find it inconvenient or inaccesible. Showing room for Extrash to grow and help people in Malaysia.
Week 5: This week we have finalised our insight statement and completed our “how might we” and problem statements. We must also ask business their plans on the business model for Extrash, especially about how recyclables will be dealt with by the drivers. We did not have much to show as we still haven’t begun creating much due to us still being in our research phase.
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