We started this lesson with a Critique of our one-week smartwatch app and then the brief for Autonomous Vehicles.
Reflection - During the critique it was fascinating to see how others created their smartwatch app, everyone had very different approaches to the concept and layouts. I found when looking at others that the ones I preferred over others were the more simple designs with a limited colour palette. Someone that stood out was Lucys with her Migraine app, it was so effective and the two colours she used (green which she explained is meant to soothe the pain) work incredibly well. I took away from her work that making it as simple as possible often creates a more effective design.
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVLYhwozs=/
My feedback was positive, everyone liked my mascot and concept. The area that I was advised about was the layout. While everyone loved my mascot he takes up a lot of space not allowing for a lot of breathing room and creating no real visual hierarchy as a result. I agree with this as he does reflect my concept well but takes away from the actual information, so with the design.
I chose to remove him from the 3 screens that held traveling information but left him on the alerts page as still to reinforce the reassuring energy of the app. I also created an onboarding screen to reinforce this further. When making those changes I reworked the hierarchy creating a more balanced screen that is more user-friendly.
We received the brief for autonomous vehicles, which is to create a screen-based interface that allows interactions with the vehicle. This project feels very large and overwhelming, as it's so broad I didn't know where to start. We completed an exercise in class which was the sailboat exercise to understand the goals, what is pushing you to that goal, and the barriers.
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVLXr3ciw=/?share_link_id=624955974170
We then took everything everyone was brought up and sectioned them. We all know something about autonomous vehicles but this exercise showed everyone different understandings. It is really interesting to see all the different subjects and how often each subject was brought up by people. I found this exercise useful and has helped me have a better understanding of what I can do with autonomous vehicles.
This week we had David Henderson and Daniel Young visit us from DHD Design. This talk was informative and helpful. They talk with us about the career opportunities they offer and all the opportunities they offer for networking, presenting, and listening to talks.
They talked about the way they have their design studio set up and the environment they are offering designers to grow in. It was interesting to hear about both of their personal development that have led them to where they are today. Daniel was especially engaging as his journey from student, to placement to a job in COVID times which was an incredibly disrupted time, especially for his placement year.
I found this talk helpful as they discussed the way they work and the opportunities. It has helped me understand design studios better, and how even if things get disrupted you can still find your footing.