Stephanie's Blog

The Last Hand Ins

stephanie — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:40:42 +0000

100 words summary –
Poetry in Motion and is about letting school students be more involved with poetry and building importing team working skills. The teacher would select a poem for the class which they would read. In groups they would be assigned a so many lines the teacher has chosen and they will create a video based on what that part of the poem is conveying to them. They would then submit this video to the teacher on the app. After the teacher has got them all they will play the videos back to the class and discuss the poem together. It will also create many interpretations of the poem especially if you played back the videos simultaneously.

Here is my essay that I wrote that is about my reflections on Poetry in Motion app based on the Research, Designing and Prototyping stages – StephaniePost_Essay_SocialMobileApps

This is the one good image I created –

And here is the video I made that showcases the app –

New Creative Business Idea

stephanie — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:49:04 +0000

My first day of the Easter Holidays was a productive one as I had an amazing idea for a business that I know I would love to do. It would be selling hand painted items like clothing or other interesting things like headphones and skateboard decks. I have always loved customising such things and since I have a passion for it and I believe there is a fantastic market for this I am going to continue going forward with this idea. I have since come up with logo ideas, developing the style I wish to promote etc and I am pretty excited about this. Yes, I am a Digital Interaction Design student but whats the fun with just sticking to what you know? I feel I am a good drawer/painter as it is but if I practice every day and try out various materials to see what works best is a good starting point.

I’m Sorry to see my Waffle Shop close down before its even begun but this new better idea suits me. Here is photos of my recently re-completed Nesta Workshops based on my custom painted business.

App Complete

stephanie — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:38:31 +0000

My creation of the app “Poetry in Motion” is now finished. There were a lot of positives to this brief such as understanding poetry better, learning more xcode, designing for users and branding were all key for me in this brief. I really enjoyed this project and with the little time I had I think I did well and this process has been very beneficial to my studies.

Here is the final pdf that sums up everything – Presentation

Xcode – The Good and The Bad

stephanie — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:08:45 +0000

Last week I started prototyping the Poetry in Motion app. I decided to work with xcode since I used this last year when making an iPhone Application and it worked quite well. What I love about xcode is its interface since its like Dreamweaver it allows us to work with code and a friendly section that allows us to design without to much coding knowledge. It also has a strong online presence so if you get stuck on some code there is a good chance someone as posted the solution online. Here is screenshots of a couple of pages I have made so far:

However I have not used this software in over a year so remembering things is tricky. I am having problems with getting buttons to work and change the page on the app. Thats what I am going to be tackling this week and creating some user content to show what it would look like if used by a student. This is the last week so its a busy times ahead but its also exciting to see what I can do in this short space of time.

Feedback & Updating

stephanie — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 21:15:56 +0000

Today I received crucial feedback from Ewan about my poetry in motion iPad app. After our meeting I now understand that I need to re-work the structure of the app since right now its confusing especially for when teachers are using it. I have decided to add a sign in page where teachers and students can enter the app, however I will be prototyping the just students section. Here is an updated wireframe of the app:

I did receive positive feedback for the idea, the menu slide and the branding of the app so I am happy to hear that. I have been playing around with the fonts of the app so getting a positive response on my current branding was a plus. I will continue to work on each page of the app but for now I will leave you with an image of the splash screen.

Recap on Work so far

stephanie — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:30:04 +0000

Assignment 1 (FIND) – Assignment 1

Updated App Concept – poetry in motion app concept v.3

Assignment 2 (DRAW) – poetry in motion app concept Sketches

Visualising the App

stephanie — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:35:37 +0000

The past week was all about the visualisation of the app through sketches and wireframing. This was initially a challenging task but once I got going the ideas started flowing. To start of I briefly sketched my first idea:

However I changed my idea to this so the content was far more easier for me to mock up since I don’t know a group of children to film recording a poem but filming the creation of a collage is much better:

Then I started to create interface sketches and designing interactions through a paper prototyping. I printed out an image of an iPad and used this to help focus my ideas. Here is a video I made of the process which I thought was very helpful in letting me see how the app would actually work and flow:

Nesta Workshops

stephanie — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:18:33 +0000

Last week I took part in the first of four Nesta workshops. They are based on the Nesta Creative Enterprise Toolkit which is about teaching creative individuals enterprise skills for starting our own businesses. I have always been interested in starting my own business but a have one major problem, once I have an idea I always end up getting put off it either by getting a newer idea or just thinking this will never work.

So for this workshop I was trying to sell myself as an interaction designer & creative solutionist so this would be my business. I found it extremely difficult to pin down one idea relevant to my course of study Digital Interaction Design so thats why I decided to just go with a broad branding of myself. Here is a couple of the worksheets I completed based on my values and my business idea:

However I heard that people in the class were not just focusing there business on there chosen course of study there was a range of business ideas from soft play areas to cake shops. Now I had a major idea after learning this. I have always loved companies like Krispy Kreme, Millies Cookies and Mr Pretzel. These are food stores that specialise in snacks like doughnuts or cookies and brand themselves incredibly well. Food stores like these have become really popular thanks to social media where there seems to be a craze about taking photos of delicious deserts/food and stores are getting a lot of free promotion from fans from this. However I have not seen a specific store for waffles (apart from the little stall outside John Lewis in London) and I see a market for this store. I believe jumping on the bandwagon with Waffles is a great idea (who doesn’t like a hot waffle with Nutella?). Here is my updated workshop sheet based on my Waffle business:

Reviewing & Updating Concept

stephanie — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:20:56 +0000

After further feedback on my app concept I have decided to create a hybrid of both previous concepts. It is called Poetry in Motion and is about letting school students be more involved with poetry and building importing team working skills. To start off the teacher would select a poem for the class which they would read. In groups they would be assigned a stanza or how many lines the teacher has chosen and they will create a video based on what that part of the line is conveying to them. They would then submit this video to the teacher on the app. After the teacher has got them all they will play the videos back to the class and discuss the poem together. It will also create many interpretations of the poem especially if you played back the videos simultaneously without referring to the poem to see what new ideas arise.

Click the link to view a pdf of my concept >>> poetry in motion app concept v.2

App Concepts

stephanie — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:33:49 +0000

Today was presentation and hand in day which went down well. It was interesting to hear what others in the class have came up with, some really great stuff. I will start off by telling both my app concepts then will tell you which one I have decided to prototype.

App Concept 1 – PoemSwap
This app is designed to allow students between 12-18 to engage and become creative with poetry. From my personal experience and from asking my brother who is currently at school we both agree that there teachings are very repetitive and tedious. The PoemSwap app will let users read the poem Garden of Love by Helena Nelson, which is about a gardener who seeks control/power over his garden by letting things live or die. This poem expresses much emotion and ideas which will form the base for the students marginalia. With the marginalia they will then write a poem based on their interpretation from the poem. Once this is done they will then be able to share/swap it with other students which gives them another poem they can do the same over and over again. The creativity will be a continuous flow and the students will be able to read and understand emotions better.

App Concept 1 – Poetry Mic
This app is designed to allow poets to perform there own poems in any way either through song, dance, act or just the classic speech. Through thoroughly research I found that a lot of poets are hesitant to read or perform there poems out loud. This is a shame since poetry is originally an oral language not textual. One person mentioned that after performing there poems the understood the art more and gained more self-confidence. Poets will film there performances and share it with the other poets in this group. Experienced users will also be included in this app where they will give poets advice, encouragement and help etc. The performance poetry community will grow with new fresh talent thanks to Poetry Mic.

And the winning app that I will begin to prototype is…PoemSwap!

I will be updating my concept and will post later on my new ideas for this app, plus initial sketches of interactions and user interfaces.