MINOR PROJECT - REFLECTION



Alicia Lee Hui Min (0331719)

Advanced Interactive Design 

Proposal




25/08/19 (Week 1)
In the first class, we were introduced to social enterprise, as well as Earthship. Since our minor project is based on self sustainable homes such as an Earthship, we were also given a task to present on this topic in class. My group presented on social enterprise.


Presentation slides of social enterprise





Earthship

An Earthship is a brand of passive solar, made out of natural and upcycled materials. It was founded by Michael Reynolds.
  • Reuse, Recycle, Reduce
  • Maximize usage of materials
  • Low impact construction
  • Use materials around the environment to reduce cost
6 Principles
  • Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling.
  • Solar & Wind Electricity.
  • Contained Sewage Treatment.
  • Building with Natural & Recycled Materials.
  • Water Harvesting.
  • Food Production.

We were also introduced to Mr Ruben Cortes which is one of the founders of the organisation Build For Tomorrow. 



In our second class, Mr Ruben Cortes came and presented to us about Earthship and the environmental issues at hand. He also briefed us on the project which was to come up with something that is able to raise awareness and educate people about Earthships. In a nutshell, we needed to create a proposal brief to pitch to Earthship. 

This was a group project, so we split into our groups. My group members consist of Me, Megan,Jessica, Adele and JQ. Once we had our groups, we started to come up with possible design outcomes and also researched more on Earthships and how they are currently promoted.   

Link of the contents shared with us: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1auHPHbf84whHugUJ68CnOjf7p_aFbcMk



Progress Slides





02/08/19 & 04/09/19 (Week 2)

This week, we continued to work on our target audience as well as some possible design concepts.

Progress Slides






09/09/19 & 11/09/19 (Week 3)
This week, we started to search up on possible visual references for the final outcome.

Progress Slides




16/09/19 & 18/09/19 (Week 4)

This week, we visited a sustainable home that uses of the concepts from Earthship, in a way it's a self sustainable home. It's known as the Planter Box House which is located in Bangsar.


Progress Slides for (Site Visit)




23/09/19 & 25/09/19 (Week 5)

After the site visit, we worked on our game concept which was confirmed to be our final design outcome. We started by searching up existing games as example and also did some brainstorming together as to how we can create a good game concept to not just bring awareness to the brand but also cause people to act on it.


Progress Slides




30/09/19 & 02/10/19 (Week 6)

This week, we tried to come up with strategy ideas for our concepts, and we also started on our game flow and worked on the learning outcomes for each concept that is present in the game. We also worked on our survey to help collect data to help back up the idea.


Progress Slides




We also tested out our game flow by writing each part of the game on a sticky note and  tested it on somel of our friends. We also pasted up the game flow on a whiteboard and created a flowchart so as to have a better visualisation of how the game would flow.





07/10/19 & 09/10/19 (Week 7)

This week, we worked on our event features like the workshops.

Progress Slides




Initial Art Direction




Initial Gameplay





Currently, our game concept and event does not linked. So, we had a brainstorming session and wrote everything down on the board to try to connect the dots and ensure that everything is linked together.









14/10/19 & 16/10/19 (Week 8)
This week, we were had a clearer direction as to how everything should be done and from there we continued to worked on the event workshop planning, art direction and gameplay.


Progress Slides (Event Planning)




Updated Art Direction




Updated Gameplay





21/10/19 & 23/10/19 (Week 9)

This week, mr Mike sent us a timeline template that we could use to track our progress and ensure that everything is following the timeline so that we won't be behind. Jessica our group leader helped to set up the timeline to ensure that we are on track.


Timeline to track progress




Website content planning




Game content planning





28/10/19 & 30/10/19 (Week 10)

This week, we continued to work on the visuals for both the game and website, as well as the event applications.

Initial Illustrations




Initial Website Design




Initial Event Applications





04/11/19 - 13/11/19 (Week 12)
Throughout the weeks, we each individually continued to work on our designs for each of the concepts.

18/11/19 (Week 13)

This week, we presented for the mock presentation and received feedback from Mr Mike on how to further improve the presentation.


20/11/19 (Week 13)

After receiving feedback , we spent the rest of the week focusing on making the necessary changes.

25/11/19 (Week 14)

This week, we tried to finalise what we needed to do in preparation for the final presentation on Wednesday.

Final Game Illustrations





Final Website Design





27/11/19 (Week 14)

This week is the presentation to the clients and also submission day.

FULL Presentation Slides (w/ Animation & Sound)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sz26e6lKkjf5KCHb_nQ8YazuyVc7QL-h/view?usp=sharing

Presentation Slides (Static: NO Animation & Sound)









F E E D B A C K


25/08/19 & 28/08/19 (Week 1)

The target audience needs to be clear, and justification as to why we are targeting them. This would aid us on deciding what we plan to raise awareness about Earthship.  We also need to keep in mind that the core message of the campaign we are proposing. Besides that, we should conduct more research on the Earthships around the world to have a better understanding and how it's being promoted to the public.


02/08/19 & 04/09/19 (Week 2)

For the Google Docs that was provided, the first few sections are suppose to guide us to develop a project brief. We could also use bullet points to list out the points instead of writing it in a paragraph. Some sections also needed to be tweaked and further elaborated.  Our target audience which are children should have a clearer age range. The current ideas aren't confirmed until the section of empathy is done later on.

09/09/19 & 11/09/19 (Week 3)

For the interviews we planned to carry out, Mr Mike mentioned that our questions should be non-bias so iand also too much information on Earthship shouldn't be given out to the interviewee as it could cause a bias response. As for our target audience, our secondary target should be parents instead of teenagers as the game would be filtered through the parents. The data collected from the interview can help guide us with the final outcome of our designs.

16/09/19 & 18/09/19 (Week 4)

This week, we visited a sustainable home known as the Planter Box House in Bangsar. It isn't an Earthship but it implements the concepts of it. A house tour was given to us, and we documented the whole trip as they provided us with useful information. In a nutshell, we understood that a sustainable can be easily achieved if we can take small steps towards it.

23/09/19 & 25/09/19 (Week 5)
The secondary target audience which are the parents is necessary as they are the role models for their children, and also because they would be the one that download the app. To have the connection with the parents, Mr Mike suggested us to have an event. Both initial ideas of game and website should also have a way a connecting to the event. These concepts will also link back to Build For Tomorrow.

30/09/19 & 02/10/19 (Week 6)

In our timeline, we should be specific on what sort of promotion we will be doing instead of just building hype.  As for our event, we need to clarify the features the event offers in order to attract people to come and join. For the game, each part needs to be justified and it can be done by having a flowchart to explain the game concept. We could also make use of the data we collected from the site visit and implement it in our concepts. Mr Mike also mentioned that having an event is important, as children would not be motivated to take action just by playing the game itself.

07/10/19 & 09/10/19 (Week 7)

This week, Mr Mike advised us to narrow down the crafts we want to include in our event, and have picture references and the materials needed. Besides that, we need to look into what concepts we can take from the planter box house into the workshops or into the game. Furthermore, things that studied from the workshop can be shown in the game plus the game flow also should be explored in the workshop like we could put the recipe into the game. In the end, the goal is that we want parents to feel that this is beneficial in education for their kids. Hence why the game and the event needs to be linked with one another.

14/10/19 & 16/10/19 (Week 8)

After showing Mr Mike our illustrations so far, he advised us to move on quicker to avoid falling back. Also, we need to make sure all our designs have consistency based on our proposed art direction. For the event, we need to make sure it all ties back to Earthship and Build For Tomorrow. This could be done through having a mock-up of a sustainable house that makes use of the concepts. To make sure we're on track, Mr Mike also shared with us a timeline template. In class on Wednesday, samples of presentation slides were also shown to us as a reference for our future presentation.

21/10/19 & 23/10/19 (Week 9)

No feedback received.

28/10/19 & 30/10/19 (Week 10)

No feedback received.

04/11/19 & 06/11/19 (Week 11)

No feedback received.

11/11/19 & 13/11/19 (Week 12)

Mr Mike left a note in our Google Docs that said "The presentation should begin with the user journey that maps the entire awareness/promo campaign. The flow of the presentation should be engaging and as close as possible to the actual experience from the users perspective. Present this journey for the 18th Nov mock presentation. After the user journey, present the objectives, aims, design rationale, campaign timeline etc."

Besides that, we could add music and sound effects to our game to further enhance the animation. We should also do the presentation offline (PowerPoint) to avoid any issues with loading the visuals and gifs on Google Slides during the presentation.

18/11/19 & 20/11/19 (Week 13) - Mock Presentation

After the presentation, Mr Mike said that our project flow is there. In terms of the journey map, he mentioned that it is good to include it. For the target audience, it is better to show real life pictures and highlight the main keywords to avoid it being boring and cluttered with heavy text. Our survey results can be presented one per page, then leading on to the summary. For the website design, more photos and highlighted keywords should be applied. As for the gameplay, the process and the flow of the game should be more clear and elaborated.


27/11/19 (Week 14) - 
Submission & Presentation Day

P A N E L  F E E D B A C K

Mr Ruben Cortes:

He mentioned that we missed out on solar energy and natural air cooling. In terms of the characters designs, we were reminded to not forget the insects and not just only mammals. Overall, the design and concept is very relevant to the targeted audience.
Mr Lionel Teh:
He gave a suggestion of making our designs more local based since we are Malaysian designers. As for the gameplay, he suggested that we could actually have characters that guide the users through the game, and each character could represent and Earthship feature.

Mr Darren Leong: 
It would we good if we had a narrative that is able to connect with the characters and the features. We could also place the progression on learning about sustainability. Since games often include achievements, it would be good to have theses progressions as the learning development.

Mr Seamus James: 
We could include Malaysia's iconic animals such as a tapir. We should also slow down the slides during the presentation.




R E F L E C T I O N


25/08/19 & 28/08/19 (Week 1)

After listening to the presentation by Ruben Cortes, we definitely had a better understanding of our environment and what would happen to it if we as humans do not take action to help save it from being a disaster. With the idea of Earthships, we believe that it is a really smart concept as it is essentially a house made of recycled materials with many various benefits to going along with it. However, it is also sad that this is not widely known among people which could possibly be due to the lack of awareness about it. We were amazed at his passion towards helping our environment through the idea of building Earthships, and in return, we feel that it would be great if we could successfully help to come up with a campaign of some sort that is targeted to raise awareness to not only the public but also sponsorships. Therefore, there would be more recognition of it. Initially, we did feel a little lost as to what we are doing in this project and what we could do but after the consultation, we did have a better and brief idea of where we are heading towards, and we aim to work as a team and further discuss on this project.

02/08/19 & 04/09/19 (Week 2)
From our consultation with Mr Mike, we have gotten quite the feedback on what we have previously written from defining the challenges. We have to keep in mind that our responses should act as a client’s expectation of a project brief, which is why we needed to tweak our responses, making them sound clear and straight to the point. Our previous responses were mostly internal based which needed to be tweaked. So far, we have come to the stage of understanding the concept of earthships a lot better after some research and preparing our set of slides. It can be said that all members have come to agree with the ideation of digital-based designs such as ones that are book-based. An animated e-book was our initial idea targeted towards children and animated infographics, targeted towards teens and young adults. We have come to the conclusion that anything interactive could have the power to attract our target audience compared to static outcomes. The fact that children, teens and young adults are technologically inclined to their iPhones and iPads, the idea of including animations would be rather better for their viewing pleasure as a lot of information could be delivered in a fun concept which could be digested quickly by our target audience. 


09/09/19 & 11/09/19 (Week 3)
From our consultation with Mr Mike, we got feedback on how to carry out the interview and also how the questions should be structured whereby it would be unbiased. Our secondary target audience should be adults instead of teenagers as our design outcome is for children and would be filtered through the parents thus being more relevant. As for the design outcome,  the final outcome might change after we collect our data and we also decided to look into the game idea. So we as a team downloaded a few educational apps that are catered towards children and tested them out to have a better grasp of what we can do.  

16/09/19 & 18/09/19 (Week 4)

The owner of the house gave a talk about how dire the state of the Earth is. There are lesser and lesser insects around even in this tropical country. We really need to take action now before it is too late. Houses nowadays are built in such a way that we only live in 25% of the spaces, which he says seems pointless. A sustainable living house has big empty spaces so that the inhabitants has space for social interaction.


23/09/19 & 25/09/19 (Week 5)

After the two classes for this week, we realized that Mr Mike kept on mentioning what we lacked in out project which is to create a strong connection between the parents and idea of the game,website and the event. Besides that, we also need to beware of the track of our project as we need to complete our empathy as well.


30/09/19 & 02/10/19 (Week 6)

After this week’s consultation, we realised the importance of having a connection/link between our ideation of the game concept, website and an event. Also, we decided that our event will be turned into a series of workshops relating back to the concept of sustainable living through the idea of Earthships. We also decided that it would be better if we conducted another survey to collect the parent’s views on their preferences towards workshops. In the end, Mr Mike made us realise that producing a game alone wouldn’t be strong enough for people to take action hence why he expects us to come up with an event concept to support the game.


07/10/19 & 09/10/19 (Week 7)

Based on our consultation with Mr Mike, what we understood was the fact that with our visual references, we had to be specific as possible when it comes to our art direction. In our slides, we had several different styles which needed to be broken down to one specific style. We’re aiming towards having a similar reference style to ‘Sago mini’. As for our gameflow, we needed to make a couple changes here and there to our storyline as we had to make our game link to our workshops so that kids could get familiarised once they join the workshops as they get to play the game in real life. 


14/10/19 & 16/10/19 (Week 8)
This week, we realised that we needed to speed up on our progress, starting with the illustrations. We also needed to remind ourselves on the main purpose of this project, which is to spread awareness and educate about the concept of Earthship and link it back to Build For Tomorrow. Hence why we need to think about having a mock-up house at our event to “wrap it all together”.

21/10/19 & 23/10/19 (Week 9)

This week, we realised that the perspective of our illustrations aren’t consistent so that needed to be adjusted. 

28/10/19 & 30/10/19 (Week 10)

So far, we are on track on our progress. We also needed to make sure that all the colours and style are consistent.

04/11/19 & 06/11/19 (Week 11)

In this week, we split tasks to work on the animations of our design concepts.


11/11/19 & 13/11/19 (Week 12)

There will be a mock presentation in the upcoming week, hence we needed to compile everything neatly in a set of slides to present to the class. 


18/11/19 & 20/11/19 (Week 13)

It’s nearing the end of this module. So far the group has been on track with what needs to be done which is good. For now it’s just the minor changes and some additional content to add into our slides.


25/11/19 & 27/11/19 (Week 14)

At the end of it all, we were satisfied with what we managed to come up with, and we were glad we managed to get everything we wanted to complete before the deadline. After the presentation, we also got to hear comments from others about our work.

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