I had my head in the game this week.
The first big thing that I did was the box prototype. We had all the contents needed for the box, so it was just a matter of making the outside look good. I initially tried painting it and realised that I didn’t have enough paint for the whole box. I came to the conclusion that I should just Photoshop the shit out of it. Thankfully, due to Visual Communication, I know how to do this and knew that it would be pretty easy. Me and my partner took photos of the box outside on the grass since we thought it would be pleasing to the eye. We snapped these photos:
After this, I made the prototype webpage. I used the palette that I decided on last week and made a moodboard of dating (matchmaking) and subscription box websites to use for reference. I also made a cute little image to go with the theme of the website of two little creatures giving each other a letter.
I put a lot of thought into the text on the page especially since a lot of the accessibility research I’ve done emphasised the need for clear language and clear communication. I also put a lot of thought into the fonts for the same reason. The primary font is Amaranth, a Sans Serif font, which is well-spaced and clear to read. I feel it makes a good body text. The title font is Looking Flowers, which has a slightly hand-written look to it but is still really clear. I think it makes a good title text because it’s cute and simple.
While doing this, I realised I needed to have a name for the penpal kit other than PPK. I brainstormed and came up with Diverse Pals & Pens. It’s a little bit long, but overall I’m happy with it and I can’t continue putting too much thought into the name when there are so many other things to do.
After this, I wrote the questionnaire after looking at some articles on dating website questionnaires. I realised the only things I would need to match up penpals are common interests, general age groups, and gender preferences. With that in mind, I wrote the questions, including what information the users need to input into the website, what would be required to match them to potential penpals, and what would be required for their penpal kit. See these questions below:
When writing these questions, I also wrote out some interview questions and got a user to answer them. These are questions about penpalling and its benefits. You can see these questions and answers below:
I collected all this information into a document and headed to class late. Thankfully, I had enough time left in class to get some feedback from Carolyn and my peers. Overall, it was a good response and it seems like I’ve done a bit more work than some 3–4-person groups. I’m kinda chuffed about it hehe. Carolyn recommended bringing a physical prototype for the presentation. Initially, I was planning on using my extension to the fullest extent for this assignment. However, I realised I’m too proud of the product to not present it in front of the class. Guess it’s crunch time 😊
The last thing I did this week was the logo for Diverse Pals & Pens. It took some visual brainstorming (see below). I wanted to incorporate a letter into the logo and maybe one of the bunny heads, since those seem to be motifs of DP&P, especially the letter. If the letter isn’t in the logo, people won’t know what the company is about. I may go back in Illustrator and make a vector version of this logo so it’s a bit more clean and can be used more easily. I feel like this logo could be better, but again, I’m not going to push myself on elements like this when there are other things I need to work on… for example, the storyboard.
The storyboard is of the user experience and I have thumbnailed it (see below). I like using little critter characters 😊
Cute video of the week! How I’m going to be acting after I submit this assignment :)))
-Ollie
