I feel acutely aware that my mindset recently has been down on myself. I'm feeling better this week but still struggling in some areas. I'll be going over each task that I did this week in order.
Volunteering
This week I talked to a new resident as my usual friend was off at dinner. We talked about his family, his experiences working and travelling, and I encouraged him to write a book about his experiences. I learned that he was good friends with the lady I usually talk to. I had a good time and forgot to ask any questions relevant to my project.
Brand Guideline Feedback
I got some feedback mainly from two peers about my brand guideline brainstorming done in Week 5. This was on my colour palettes, my logo concepts, and my font choices. I would consider these peers good at graphic design and so I trust their insights. Here is the summarised feedback:
My palettes have too many colours. It was recommended to have three different colour groups per palette.
It is recommended to use Adobe Colour to find more palettes.
The palette with the best reception received it for the peachy soft tones, the blues, and the greys.
Research shows that older people respond well to blue colours.
Many of my logo designs didn't get a good reception.
Mixed reviews about my font choices.
From here I'm interested in developing a final logo and so have added the task 'Final Logo' to Week 8. I've decided to work with the palette and font with the best reception and iron out the kinks in testing. You can see the palette I chose below in Figure 1. Apologies for the low resolution, it was snipped directly from the website so I could use the hex codes.
Figure 1. Four colours taken from a colour analysis of the Pico website. From Great looking websites with a calm colour palette, by Be Theme Blog, 2023 (https://muffingroup.com/blog/calm-color-palette/).
The feedback that I got was critical, and I assume that it's because I'm good friends with these peers and so they didn't hold anything back. I'm glad for it. The purpose of this mini session was to give me more confidence in my graphic design direction as I've previously noted that I find this area difficult. It has taught me that things like colour and font are subjective to the viewer, as I heard phrases like 'as a young person, I don't like this', as well as experiencing one peer loving the font Verdana and the other hating it. I also note how many designs out there for older adults have what can be considered garish design, purely because high contrast, large objects, and large font comes with the domain. Because of this I believe I should design closer to accessibility standards and consider the bias that young age has on my design on future feedback. Commentary on my visual design choices opens up these insights for me; so I'd like to continue regular feedback through my logo design.
UX/UI Guideline
I collected all the pieces of my demographic accessibility research and put them into a list. This will help when doing testing and the final design of my app.
Interface
Provide accurate training on the features of the app through animated/video tutorial
Minimise/remove option trees
Large objects over small ones
No inappropriate sound effects
Memorable design features
Easy error recovery
Reduce rapid reactions
Design
Increased colour contrast, 70% recommended (7:1)
Sans Serif or Simple Serif font
Not too thin/thick font
12-14 point minimum size for font (preferably 16px)
Go for big, bold, and unmistakably clear
Accessibility
Ask for user feedback to calibrate the device (eg. font size)
Adapt the rate of words per minute (text-to-speech)
I wanted this task to be the closer of my research and streamline my UX design. It acts as a stand-in for interaction with my demographic and was interesting to conduct from a psychology perspective. I assume that with these rules in mind I can create an app that is designed for older adults. In the future a full co-design approach would be ideal.
Prototype
In my previous blog, under the assumption that following a Youtube tutorial would be straightforward, I believed that prototyping in React was doable with discipline. However, I failed to state the assumption that I would not have other things to do during the week. I also failed to plan for the fact that the previous weeks my motivation was through the floor, and assumed that I would be able to change that by planning. I got through about 30 minutes of a 6 hour video series. I didn't understand any things I was doing, and just wanted to complete it. I got stuck trying to input data into a user database and couldn't resolve my issue. I had other tasks and social events that I prioritised over this work. I was naive about how much work developing an app of this caliber would be, physically and mentally.
However, in class on Thursday, it was made clear to myself and the rest of the class that this project does not expect a developed solution. This is incredible news. After some reflection, I believe that the reason why I couldn't do my initial route was because neither half of my degree prepared me to produce a full app. All my projects in design I was documenting, planning, and learning design tools. In computer science, we were learning theory and practicing coding in pieces but I'd never tried to create something complete in my own time. I believed that I could make something whole with grit and effort but I fell to the risk that I was trying to avoid at the start. The one that I also fell to in my summer project and in my computer science capstone. It's not for a lack of planning and motivation which I had originally identified. It's because in all these projects I tried really hard to learn and work within something new that I'd never used before (i.e. C++, OpenGL, 3D cellular automata, React) and the mental stress of the timeframe and the work tore me apart. Then, in the latter half of each of these projects, I pivoted to an approach that I understood better (i.e. Unity, p5.js, and for this project, Figma) and they all ended up working infinitely better for my project and my mindset. It could be poor planning, it could also be that this struggle is a necessary part of the process so I can understand what I need for the second sprint. In the future I'd like to allow myself some time and grace to explore this path, and/or scruntinise my prototype methods to ensure I'm picking the best option for my skill.
I'm willing to put my all into a theoretical approach rather than a practical one, and I'm confident as I know what to do. My next steps for Week 8 are to create a use case storyboard and to work on a Figma prototype. Here are some future tasks that will support this new route and project submission:
Video script
Positionality
Photoshopped use-case images
Game research
Fine-tune Inworld AI
Lots of testing and refining of prototype
I intend to create a an incredibly high-fidelity Figma prototype that allows the user to feel like they are using my app. I'd like almost every tappable button to have an interaction behind it. I assume that this will require a lot of time spent on the project, but not as much of a learning-curve as a full-stack app. For this week to meet my 'Working Prototype' milestone, I'd like to at least get the three main screens set up in Figma (Chat, Games, and Profile). I believe in myself and believe that this is the best path for my project.
References
Ślusarczyk, A. (2023, June 14). Great looking websites with a calm color palette. Be Theme Blog. https://muffingroup.com/blog/calm-color-palette/