week 3

1. What was in your plan for this week?

My Plan was to create the main idea for the microsite which i did along my research of new media which was another plan, which focused on the xbox and the psp, however the psp layout was incorporated intot he ps3 when it was released also so that counts too.

Also for this week I planned to break down the main idea into a few concepts to which i could develope from, ie different layouts slight design changes. Also I planned to look at focusing it around the psp design which I think a great design in itself but moreso for a microsite as its advertisment purposes and interactivity qualitys are integrable.

I also had a plan to design my menu buttons, in flash. I looked at rounded edges mostly as that is what the design trend is leaning towards and in slightly different terms, from a slightly rounded square to a circle. I termed these reounded edges and illustrator design buttons which litter the web 'squishys' or 'chewyys' as they look gd enough to eat, illustion of 3 dimensions, wonderful colour, they are like sweets.

In my menu button design sketches i also looked at icon design and background design of them they varied from small shines, to cog icons, happy faces to a film strip. This leads nicely on to my other plan to intergrate a level of ingenuity to it for example : having the home page...homeless ( home button less) or having the donate button a happy smile icon, as no one likes to click on the give cash away button.

Also I liked the idea of having psp like buttons, audio, video, web etc but instead of what you would originally get you would get a page with info listing hte homelessness linked to those design areas, therfore interactive with the design class of america by appealing to their specific design classes.

Now to briskly move on I also planned to finalise my find raising idea, which turned out to be a download, yes a download of either a news article ( like the big issue) or a video, of possibly my flash animation, or a magazine. the choices remain at those three atm but the idea is near enough solid, free downloads in which for every download a company would donate a small amount of cash to the charity therfore reliving the burdon of whipping out their cards to that company.

Fortunatly at this stage I dont need to prove that any such company would do such a thing, I just need to come up with an idea that sounds as if it would work :)

I also planned to intake my classes ( like always) however this week proved different front he usual ball bouncing in flash or the kind helpful hint in css, no. This time we learned hw to make proper forms in CSS a vastly helpful tool for my download page indeed and also how to make buttons in flash, my ideas formulated. I had planned hereafter to make my menu in flash like the psp menu with interactive menus that swoosh and bounce when pressed etc.

Moving onto the less design and more pragmatic terms, I detailed the functional and non functional requirments of this project, detailed in my red logbook page 42-43( i should really reference page numbers more). I also planned to detail my action plan and timescale in which i would do this project, these are inserted into my creative solutions sketchbook, the binded flip pad.

I also panned to detail considerations ie, weaknesses and threats of my plan to make this microsite and also a visual of the deadlines which proved more helpful to me than the handout at college as it has the empty weeks of when you do work, from this i saw that all the dates bunched up at the end adn was able to plan accordingly for the development stage, I have only just covered evaluation on suggecting the dreamweaver code checker, a human resouurce for useablity and powerpoint for the presentation, also word for the written.

To top it off I planned for the weekend slot of my graded unit to design some more alt considerations of ideas that could be used in any case of the main not being attainable, I wish to do more, though i cannot overstretch myself as i have other considerations to attend to.

2. What did you actually do this week?

This week went according to plan roughly, but in these terms how i set myself the goals, i achieved all of them.

3. If there are any differences between items 1 & 2, please explain why.

Not much really wen tdifferent this week, IF i could change it I would have probably added more research into colour schemes but for me that helps when you use the programs as I have very limited control with 8 coloured pencils on white paper.

So I will leave that to developement and pulling it from my research and I have put a few notes down as to the colour and usefulness, but some considerations are just common knowledge, to put everything down with the aid of research would take far longer than the time alotted.

I would also like to have made my bullet points in my creative solutions sketchbook bigger as they are small and filled with tiny fills of colour which would be hard to see for somepeople I might have to admit, a small consieration that should be added next time.

4. What worked well this week?


When It came to finally designing my solution to the microsite I felt myself beign drawn in to the theory of design and the way things should be layed out as Ive detailed in question 1. I also got into writting and styling that writting better in my solutions sketchbook than my red logbook and I have to admit again that the spaces between each idea is a great planning achievment ( the universal ruler width ).

The coloured pencils again worked great in lightening ( colouring) my design up a bit in the sketchbooks.




5. What did not work so well this week?

I tried some photoshop brushes out on a sketch of mine to test my capabilties, needless to say i need to lern the ful extent of how to use them as well as al the other tools to get the ful beinifit from them, considering this is my first task planned in my action plan ( design the background) i need to practise more before the game begins.


6. What have you learned this week?


I have learned more about self reflection i would have to say, no more beign said and also about sketchbooks, the layout of them and each little thing to add to them to make them good. I also learned more about CSS and Flash, but i already mentioned those, but just incase you don't read all the questions.


7. Describe all the items that have been added to your portfolio this week.


Page on PSP layouts/design with criticism, also my Action plan, my timescale, my consideratons, functional and non functional requirements, the main creative solutions and some more alternatives.


8. Do you have any other comments to make?

None to much at this stage except to ask myself a few more questions which i will ponder 'Can I afford to keep studying here?', 'Will Realtime worlds hire me at the end of this colege year?', 'Will I ever get a part time job?' and 'Have I wasted 3 years studying audio as there is no jobs available?' I hope I can answer them in time and with a smile on my face.'


If you, anyone, would like some visuals of my planned please just ask and I will see if I can part with some of it.