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This is the last post in my first semester in MACD. I will do a reflective report using DIEP approach. Apart from this report, I have completed five projects and six blogs this semester. I was planning to choose two projects to discuss thoroughly. However, I found that each one I gave had a significant impact. So I will review all of them, but focusing on the last one together with the first two projects.
The first project was the Journey Map, a map of my journey to MACD. We had not learnt a lot at this point and I completed the project using almost all of my previous knowledge. I went through my sketchbook and found my mind map and research about myself, which showed that although I hadn’t yet learned a formal design approach, I was already using some methods to make my work complete. I saw a lot of really cool work from my classmates that day and got to know them through their work and also introduced myself through my own map. Some of those students still remember me as a girl who could write code and loved games. The main subject of my map is a cute kitten, representing me who likes cats, but it has a cyberpunk style because I have some cool hobbies and experiences. I hadn’t met my tutor Andy at that time, and Jackie was the tutor for this project. I remembered that she said she was curious how my work could be both cool and cute at the same time. I was encouraged by that and it inspired my style further. If I had more time, I would like to make this project a series with the theme ” THE MAP OF ME”, which would have different looking kittens and collages, because I am a diverse me.
If the first project had the biggest impact on me in terms of style, the second project USER GROUP taught me the 5C model that I used the most during the semester and provided me with an experience of teamwork. We have worked in groups of six to complete a survey about cyclists in Winchester. One of the most impressive aspects of the 5C model for me was the Comprehend. While doing the persona and empathy map, I was mindfully aware of the feelings of the user group. In the MBTI personality test invented by the psychologist Carl Jung, I am the personality type with the highest empathy capacity out of sixteen personalities. So I am very good at getting to grips with the users’ pain points when making user models. Teamwork was another focus of the project, especially in the Collect session of the 5C, where I did a lot of research with my teammates. I found we were able to play different roles in the team, such as organizer, coordinator and so on. Before that I was a person who was very afraid of team work. But this experience has changed my mind. I made a lot of friends because of this, which is really valuable for a lonely international student. Anyway, good teamwork can make a big difference. I realized that I was suitable to assist the organizer and identify weaknesses. This experience has improved my understanding and perception of myself, which will help me a lot in my future career in teamwork.
Project 3 focuses on presenting ideas in a hand drawn way. I have always enjoyed this paper and pencil based work, like choosing a paper book rather than a kindle. my shortcoming in this project was not being able to fulfill my whole drawing, always tending to make the picture delicate, resulting in a picture with very little content visually. Besides working on my drawing, I also opened up my thoughts. The difference between studying abroad and studying or working in China is that I can focus more on the process and am allowed to be wildly creative without worrying about whether it is achievable or suitable for commercial use. I feel more like an artist. As the course progressed, I became more adapted to the program and the learning environment, because my brain became more active as I had the courage to do so. The most immediate impact was seen in projects 4 and 5. Let’s start with Project 4, a project that focuses on user testing. We tested other people’s work and gave it to others to test as well. More of the session and my work can be found in Blog 6 and Project 4 page. One of the novelties was Tiffany’s weather ball, which emits different colors of light to represent the predicted weather. This weather ball is like a Chinese lantern with many blades. I had a sudden thought that if each blade could emit a different color of light, then one ball could display the weather forecast for many future hours. I shared this idea with Tiffany, the designer of the weather ball. And Haoyu, who was testing it with me, also thought it was a great idea. I think this idea maximizes the usability of each blade of the weather ball.If I understand correctly, it should be its hidden usability, like in the first diagram in my Blog 3.
The last project was to do a complete app design, all work is done by myself. So far no one has seen my app except my testers, and I have not received any professional evaluation. I don’t really know if I have done a good job, but I still like it and enjoy the process of its birth. This is the first time I use Adobe XD, a software making interactive mockups. I felt a sense of accomplishment using its strong function to make animation. It made me unable to resist using a lot of smooth functioning animations to enhance the emotional design of the app. The animation can be seen in my introduction video. But the possible drawback is that I may have despised the static UI design. Since I have been looking at my own work for too long, it formed aesthetic fatigue and I cannot tell if it is visually impressive or not. I think this is normal for designers. What I need to do is to appreciate more excellent works, practice more to improve my aesthetic intuition, and get a higher level of aesthetics in my subconscious. This way I can avoid the boring designs brought by aesthetic fatigue.
Other than that, I have some thoughts about XD. It must be recognized that it is smart. Users do not need to write any scripts, just strictly name the components that they want to move according to the trajectory and they will get fluent animations. But I have encountered some problems. My undergraduate study experience about software engineering made me cannot help thinking from a programmer’s perspective. So when I design the flow of the app, I will consider many possible bugs in the process. I hope that each page arriving from different paths will return according to the original path. However, in XD prototyping, when the return button of panel A is designed to return to other panels B or C, it cannot figure out which panel to return according to the way it from. A component, i.e. the return key, can only return to one panel, B, through one kind of trigger such as click. If it wants to return to C, it can only use other triggers such as drag, as click is no longer available. This means that during testing, once page A is reached, the previous record is lost. At this point, clicking the return key can only return to B as set before, even if the user reaches A from page C. If users want to go back to C, they must drag the return key. Obviously this is not in line with the user’s habits and logic. I came up with a solution for this problem by making an A’ when designing the flow, so that the A reached from C is its stand-in. In this way A’ can be clicked back to C independent of A. But the disadvantage of this solution is that if there are other flows following A, they must all be copied together. This is acceptable if it is a linear process with an ending. If it is a very complex non-linear process, it will cause more confusion. I haven’t found a solution to this problem yet. If I have more time I will continue to explore to find out if this is a lack of functionality in XD or if there is a solution that I have not found yet.
This report will be over soon. I suddenly flash back to the beginning of the semester when our teacher introduced the content of the course. I thought this 1500-word paper was a big monster at that time. But now, rather than defeating this big monster, I realize it is my friend. I no longer see this assignment as a task; I now find it a great helper to sort out my thoughts. There is an old Chinese saying that learning without thought is labor lost, thought without learning is perilous. I hope I can always study and reflect in the new semester.