Typesetting and Presentation #2

Aidan Nolan - Process and Production - 19/10/2016

In this session, we had to choose different briefs which we had to design some posters for it. We also looked at some examples of typographic designs created by other designers.

We had to combine what we looked at in the previous session like how to choose type and how to use it to define a word into this session. It's a development from the previous session.

There were different types of briefs, I had to choose 3 briefs and create 3 posters from it. Each brief provides information of what they are looking for, it also contains hints in it of the target audience and how to approach it and it is up to me to see those hints and act upon it to help me create the designs.

Before I started designing, I had to think of ideas of how I could design the posters which meant me looking at different posters on the internet for inspiration. The most important thing my posters had to have was a meaning behind everything, if something has a meaning behind it, it makes it better.

This brief below was called 'Acoustic Night'. I looked at it and the information I gathered from it was it has been running for 10 years so clearly it's quite successful for it to run that long. It wants to attract a more student audience.

They play different types of music genres, not just one type and it has a laid back mood to it and it is an open mic format.

The key information that I gathered from this is that it's quite laid back so I thought of creating something minimal to represent that and it doesn't just play one type of music so I thought to display that by including different types of instruments or music icons so the viewer would know that.

This is what I have designed....

Above is the first design that I created. The rules were not to use images so I decided to turn the letters into a design if I wanted some type of visual design which I did, I turned the 'A' into the David Bowie iconic icon and turned the 'u' into the Rolling Stones icon. I did that to represent that the acoustic night plays different types of music.

I wanted to include some type of guitar look to represent the acoustic feel so I did that by using straight lines and created something that looks slightly like the strings of a guitar but not in an obvious way.

I included the information of the where and when the acoustic night was at the bottom which I had to include, this was stated in the brief. I used the straight line from the guitar design to direct the viewer's eye to the information.

The font I used for the words 'Acoustic Night' and the text at the bottom was 'Myriad Pro Regular', I thought it was simple and straight forward just like the information about the acoustic night.

Below is the second design that I have created for this brief.

For this one, I decided to focus more on the typography and not include any visual designs so all of the focus will be on the text. I tried to create a modern look to it because the brief stated that it wanted to attract a student led audience, I tried to do this by placing the text at different places, at different angles and different fonts.

I used this font for the words 'Acoustic Night' because I thought the 'o' looked like the middle of a guitar which went well with my guitar design.

I used 'PT Mono Regular' for the rest of the information. I used this font because the text was information about the event so I wanted something that stated the message because it was important that the font was easy to read but it also has a 'cool' look to it which goes well with the theme of the event.

I still kept the guitar design though because I thought it worked in the previous poster.

At first, I wasn't convinced in placing the text at different places and angles because I thought the viewer would find it hard to read it but after creating it, I don't think the audience will find it difficult to read the information on the poster but then again, that's just my opinion.

The next brief was called 'Interpret'. 

This brief was about me choosing a designer and create a poster that represented their work by creating something that was similar but my own version of it.

I chose this designer because he designed the typeface of the Holland team at the 2014 World Cup, they were used on their jerseys and it's a typeface that I have always been a fan of but never knew who designed but now I do. I was excited to created my own version of it.

I had to find or create my own version of the typeface he used for his work. A typeface that relates to this designer.

I had to include the designer's name, uppercase and lowercase of the letters and the numbers which I didn't, as you can see below, I decided to just include the design's name but did include the uppercase.

Wim Crouwel

Willem Crouwel or also known as Wim Crouwel is a Dutch graphic designer, type designer and typographer.

The typeface he used for this is called 'Case Crouwel' which is based on the Dutch typographer's Gridnik typeface that was originally designed in 1974.

The main features of this typeface are thick straight lines and chamfered corners. I thought if I wanted the similar look, those were the features I wanted mine to have as well. From there, I had a starting point of how I wanted my typeface to look.

Below are some of his work.

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/09/wim-crouwel-designs-typeface-for-holland-fifa-world-cup-2014-kit/

I wanted to create a poster as a tribute to him, I wanted to celebrate his work on the Dutch national team and his typeface so I thought of creating a poster in a Dutch style and since he designed the typeface on the Dutch jerseys, it was only fair to include a jersey on the poster. This is what I came up with.

The typeface used for this was the closest typeface I could find and think of that was similar to Wim Crouwel's work, the only difference is the corners of the letters and the thin lines inside were only used for the numbers by Wim Crouwel but I decided to use it for the letters as well because I like the look of it.

At first, I had the idea of placing his name and a number on the jersey with this typeface, after experimenting with it, I didn't like the look of it, it wasn't until I played around with it and decided to enlarge his name and have his name as the main focal point so I made it big and bold in front of a jersey since he's the main reason for this poster, which is what I designed below.

The first image is the draft design I created, I wasn't happy with it because I felt like something was missing, I eventually had a great idea, since I divided his name into three sections, I could use the Dutch colours for his name since there are exactly three colours on the flag.

The next brief is called 'Craft Beer Expo 2017'. The Huddersfield Craft Beer Expo 2017 is taking place for the first time next year. It features the best independent brewers from all over the UK. This event wants to attract beer lovers from the north of the country. They want to look cool, friendly and fresh.

What I got from the brief was that they are looking for a cool, fresh and modern poster so I thought of doing something funny or some sort of pun as a way to connect with the viewer because overall, it does sound like it's a fun event where people can enjoy themselves and I want to convey that.

One thing that I felt like I had to do was to include some sort of reference to beer so the viewer knows what it is about and will attract the right audience.

Above is the first poster I have designed for this brief. The idea behind this poster was to attract the beer lovers immeditaly, I thought to myself, how would I do that? I decided to enlarge the word 'beer' and have lines to direct the viewer to the word, I tried to make it feel like something exciting was going on.

The typeface for the word 'beer' is 'Showcard Gothic Regular', I used that because I wanted a 'fun' and bold typeface to catch the viewer's eye.

The text underneath, I wrote 'now that I got your attention' because it's making it feel like the poster is talking directly to the viewer, it feels personal. Again with the typeface, I wanted something playful and fun which is why I went for 'Kristen ITC Regular'.

I went with the colour yellow for the background to represent the colour of beer, it would be something the viewer would feel familiar with.

I didn't include any information with it because I felt like there was still time for the event because it's in 2017, this poster is just a way to warn the viewers that there's a beer event soon.

For this one, I went with a funny theme to it, something the viewer can look at and laugh, it instantly connects with the viewer which is what I want to do. I went for as minimal as I can because I want all of the information to be on the text.

The font I used for the first poster was 'District Pro Book' which created this stairs look on each line, that created space for me to include the words 'Wet Paint' and created a white space around it so everything feels balanced and not compacted.

The font used for the second poster was 'Acumin Pro Regular', this created more space for me on the page because it only took half of the page unlike the other font which meant I could include the wet paint part and the information underneath.

Technology and Education

I decided to look at technology and how it is used in education as there are worries from the parents. I wanted to see if it benefits children or not. Since we live in a world where kids are bound to use technology and will at some point be used in classes more often whether the parents like it or not.

I already came across the first link below earlier but I decided to use it again as it has some information regarding education...

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/resources/multitasking/technology.pdf

PBS talks about how we are only a click away from any information that we require. The beauty of using technology is that it's quick but easy as well to find information, that is useful if we don't have a lot of time to waste looking through books for answers, we can simply use the web. The only problem is, by using technology more, we may neglect other resources like books and films to find our information, also, using the web for information could be risky as some information could be inaccurate and outdated.

I also used the link below to find information about technology and education..

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/11/5-reasons-technology-should-be-allowed-classroom

This link also talks about how we can use the web to find information to help with our education, but also, it looks at how valuable it is to use technology as there are many careers that uses and required technology and knowing how to use it could come to your advantage. Learning how to use it in class could benefit them and they would be able to use it outside the class as well.

Another thing they have looked at which could be useful for students is how you can use technology to be organized. You can save and keep any vital information you have found or any notes that will be written and everything could be placed in files instead of actually keeping physical files which could be annoying to carry on and to organize.

 The last thing is how kids are more used to using screens that they might benefit from reading and learning from a screen instead of books. They might lose their attention more whilst reading something in person than reading something off a screen.

They could use apps like Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with the news or what is going on with the world which could be useful to know,

Why do we use technology?

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/resources/multitasking/technology.pdf

I was researching why we use technology and I came across this PDF above which I thought was helpful. It gave me some examples of why we use technology.

We may use technology because we are one click away from everything, for example, if we wanted to find some piece of information, instead of going to the library and spending ages to find the right book, we can easily just go on the internet and find the information within 2 minutes. I think that's a good and a bad thing. It's good because we save time by finding information very quickly and effectively but it could be bad because we neglect other information resources like books and films and it could makes us lazy as we don't even have to move from our chairs to find the information.

Other examples of using technology is that it's very entertaining. There's always a new video or game that can be played on the internet. It's also a great way to interact with other people to maintain friendships but to create new ones as well, it's great that we can talk to strangers online and become friends but the negative of it is that we don't do it enough in person or we don't interact enough with the people around us like family and friends.

I came across another site that I thought was helpful, this was more of a question and an answer type where anyone can give their own opinion to it so it was interesting to see what people thought of this matter.

https://www.reference.com/technology/need-technology-526e06d31bcbcc87#

The question was "why do we need technology?", this was different to my question but equally imprtant because I wanted to know why we needed technology to give me an idea of why we use technology.

The part that caught my attention was that technology can provide a safe and comfort environment for human beings, I think this opinion is true in some ways and I can give my own opinion to it because there are people who do feel safe when using technology, for example, talking to people because they are behind a screen and not face to face so they feel more comfortable in saying stuff, another example is those people who may not have a lot of friends so they use technology as a way to replace that because they can get lost in the technology world and forget about their worries for a while.

Final Design #2

These are images of the prototype that I have created by hand. I'm showing the front and back of it, as well as the inside and what it looks like with the story strip inside it.

This is just a prototype that I am presenting as an example, it's not the final product which is why it is not in great condition, I still think there's alot of work that can go into it.

This was created out of  480 gsm paper because I wanted something strong that didn't bend easily when I was making it and doesn't lose its shape when holding it.

The size of it was inspired by my own phone, Sony Xperia M4, only because it was the only physical phone I had on me that I could draw around.

The back of the product can be taken off, the reason behind that is the story strip can be placed inside the product easier and better than if the back was attached.

Final Design

I have gone with this design because I think it's a fun design, something I feel the young viewer would enjoy to explore.

I think my target audience would feel comfortable with this design because they are so used to holding phones in their hand, this would be something that they would enjoy holding because it comes naturally to them.

I have created a final design page with information about the product. I tried to include as much information as I can and tried to keep it as simple as possible so it would be easy for my viewers to understand how the design works.

I have included information like environmental issues, features etc because I have created it in a way that I'm going to present it to someone, for example, someone who is going to invest in it and I feel having those information is key.

Design Brief Sketches

After writing out my design brief, I have worked out what I'm going to do. My next step was to sketch out some designs that I could do to display my narrative. My idea was to create something that relates to technology because I feel like that would attract my viewer's attention since they are so used to using technology.

I thought of creating the narratives as a booklet in different shapes like an emoji or a text message. I thought of an emoji because they are popular at the moment, they are used a lot so the viewer would recognize them easily. I thought of a text message to represent me giving them a message like I'm stating a message and I want them to read it.

The other sketch is doing the narrative in a shape of a phone, I think I prefer that idea more than the other two because I'm trying to send a message that the viewers spend too much time on the phone so what better way to display my narrative as a phone, it feels like I'm taking the piss. What I like is that it would fit perfectly in a hand so it would feel natural to them and it would give them a sense of being on the phone without actually being on the phone which I feel like they will be more interested in it.

Cybernetic Self - Week 4

18/10/2016 - Lecture

This was a quick seminar. Basically we are in that stage of our project where we have to finalise our ideas.

We have to create a five page PDF which will contain any vital information relating to my project and that PDF will be shown in assessment. It's a small PDF which will mean I have to select what information I will include that best displays and explains my final idea.


Print v Digital

Assessment Preparation (1a) - Seminar #4

Seminar - 21/10/2016

This seminar was revisiting some of the things that has been said in the previous seminars. I think this seminar has helped me because I was still unsure of what I was doing but now I have an idea of what to do and how to set out my presentation after getting feedback.

I have a formative assessment soon and it will be a 5 minute presentation which I will set it out like this and in this particular order...

1 slide - Title, URL, name and course.
2-7 - Background research
1 slide - Main research question
1 slide - Reference and bibliography

We had to bring in our draft presentation that we produced to get feedback from. This is what I have produced so far...

The feedback I got was useful. My title is too broad, I could narrow it more and explain what I mean by effects because it could mean culture wise or social wise and I need to find a better way to explain 'technology devices' as it could be anything like past devices or present, I could change it to contemporary devices which I feel is a better explanation.

I got told to look at people relating to this subject like Marshall McLuhan, I should look at including images to my presentation but avoid including video, I should include any definitions, have specific terminologies and case studies like age groups so that I have a range of different research and knowledge to my presentation. It would make my presentation interesting instead of having just text of what I'm looking at and what I'm going to say.

Another piece of advice to maybe get rid of the 'aim' slide just for now because it's not that important for my formative assessment. I could keep the 'research/questions' slide but maybe change it slightly because I should only have one slide for the main research question, having lots of research questions could confuse the viewer.

I could look at pre-internet and maybe compare it to how it is now, this could emphasize my message of the effects technology has on young viewers but focus more on the dangers of it because that's what I feel the audience wants to know more than anything.

I feel like this seminar has helped me give an understanding of what I should do for my formative assessment. I have a clear idea of how to set out my presentation and what to include.

Design Problem/Brief

In response to my previous blog titled 'My next step - Feedback', where I spoke about what I will do next in my project after receiving feedback. I came up with creating a campaign with the narratives I have created to get kids to use less technology, from there, I have created a design problem and a brief in response to it.

I think creating a design brief will help me so I know what the problem is and made it clear for my viewers as well. I have stated my aim, how I will achieve my aim, target audience etc, I tried to think of every piece of information that I could think of to help me as much as possible. I am writing it out like I am presenting it to someone.

Cybernetic Self Development: Zine

I chose a narrative which I have developed further. I re-designed it on Illustrator which I will then compare it with the zine and see which style I prefer better for my final design.

This is the first draft of my narrative on Illustrator. I have created this by going over the zine on Illustrator by using the 'pen tool' and filling it in with colours.

I wanted to make it colourful and bold which is why I have used bold colours and used different primary colours together. I made it colourful because strong colours attract the attention of young viewers.

Since the look of the design is playful and loose, I wanted to use a typeface/font to represent that, the problem was I couldn't find any that satisfied me, in the end, I decided to create my own. I basically used the 'brush tool' on Illustrator and wrote the words free hand to give it that loose and 'wacky' look.

I gave it a title, 'interaction', so the viewer knows what it is about. I also included a little saying at the end as a way of me giving the reader a message, I'm trying to state something. I made it rhythm because when something rhythms, it's easier to remember.

My first opinion of it is that the black lines around each object and the writing is too thick and black, makes everything feel heavy so I could decrease the thickness slightly.

The colours of the characters, especially the character with the green top, kind of makes the characters fade into the background which isn't what I want, I want them to stand out so to solve that, I could change the colours of the background, make it lighter and make the characters darker.

This is my second draft of the narrative...

As you can see, I have made the background lighter and changed the colour of the top of the character on the right so he stands out more.

I have decreased the thickness of the lines which I feel has improved the design. I think the words can be seen better because I reduced the thickness of it.

Placement

18/10/2016 - Lecture

The first part of the seminar was about placement. Linda Whiteley came in to do a talk and to give us some key information about placement.

It started off with some basic information that we have to know about placement. It's 48 weeks and I can start from June 2017 to September 2018 which would give me 16 months to complete the placement, more than the 48 weeks so I would have a decent amount of time to complete it. Another great thing is that I don't have to do all 48 weeks at one place, I can do some weeks at one place and other weeks at a different place but as long as I complete the 48 weeks, it is fine.

Another piece of information is that placement year is optional, I don't have to do it if I don't want to and instead, I can finish my final year but in my case, I want to do placement year, it's something that I think would improve me as a designer.

I must be recorded with the placement unit, that is because it will tell the university that I am actually doing placement and going to it so I can be recorded down so the company and the university can confirm that I am doing it. At the end of placement, I must do a report/presentation, about 1500 - 2000 words long and the final result will just be a pass or fail but if I do fail, that does not affect my degree, if I do pass though, there will be a label on my degree saying 'sandwich'.

Why should I do placement?

- Experience - It will help me in my final year at university because I have gained experience so I would know what to do to pass and I can put what I have learned into my university work. It will help me find a graduate job because I would have the experience so I would know what goes on in the industry and I would be more experienced than those who didn't go on placement.

- Self discovery/motivation - I can do whatever I want.

- Possibly of higher degree classification - It will help my grade.

- Work can be fun

Things to consider....

- I would have to pay £500* in the placement year - I can pay through Student Finance.

- What type of placement? There's a thing called EPY (Enterprise Placement Year) where I can create my own business and there will be people who can help me with that.

- Who would I like to work for? - Will it be short term or full year?

- How will I manager my money? I can still apply for Student Finance but I won't get as much as I do if I'm at university and not at placement.

My Next Step - Feedback

After I received my feedback from Tracy, I decided to evaluate my idea and think of what I can do next to develop the current idea I have. This is what I have came up with, I came up with various solutions of what I can do next.

When I received my feedback from Tracy, I immediately thought of creating three different narratives of the stories I have came up with but create a past and future one so I would have the same story so how technology has affected us but one would be staged in the past, present and future so it looks at the difference between them, I thought it was a nice idea but it didn't really answer the question, 'what am I trying to do? What is the point in what I'm doing?', it states a message but that's about it, I wanted my idea to be more than just stating a message.

Another solution I came up with was to create a campaign, initially, it was to get more people to become active but I thought it was too open, I had to narrow it down, I then thought of trying to get young viewers more connected with their inner child instead of them being obsessed over technology because they could become the people in the stories I made in the future. I could achieve it by getting them to make more stuff just like when I was little for prizes which would attract the attention of the young viewers, I'm still trying to think of stuff they could do which doesn't involve technology.

I like the idea of creating a campaign to get kids to use less technology because I have researched the effects it has on their social skills and development skills as they grow up and it could make them less social or their attention span could decrease even more.

For this to be successful, I will have to ask myself, Who is my target audience? be more specific with that, What is my aim? How am I going to achieve my aim? Those are questions that are important for me to answer. 

After Effects Week 1

12/10/2016 - Process and Production - Sara Nesteruk

For the first After Effects session of the year, we looked at how we can combine different coloured backgrounds and create a fading effect so one colour fading into another. We also looked at how we can edit shapes so change the way they look but also how to create different effects with them.

We started off looking at some exampleson Vimeo of the typeof work others have done relating to what we are doing today and kind of use it as an inspiration or even just something cool to watch. A way to tell us the dfferent effects we can create.

30 motion tests in 30 seconds from Steffen K on Vimeo.

Spherikal from Ion on Vimeo.

We started off creating someshapes for our video, I created mine on Illustrator because it was easier for me to manipulate them. I created a decent amount of shapes because I wanted my video to be interesting with lots of things happening instead of having just one shape.

After uploading my shapes on After Effects, first thing was to create a fading background, this was done by creating 2/3 solids of different colours with the one I wanted placed at the bottom of them all.

To create the 'blinding' background, you go to 'effect', 'transition' then 'venetian blinds', from there, I just edited some options to what I wanted it to look so I changed the transition, completion, direction, width, feather and so on. These are some examples of what the effect looks like.

The first effect that we experimented with was the 'wiggle', this makes the shape have a wiggle effect around the outside of the shape. This was done by creating a new composition, creating any shape I wanted (this was just for experimentation, it's not the shape I will use for my final video), I went to 'add'then 'wiggle paths' then 'path 1', from there, I edited the size, detail, wiggles/second etc. I like this effect because I think it would look cool if it had music playing in the background and the shape moving according to the music. 

This is an image of what the effect did to the shape of my shape.

The next experimentation was morphing the shape, so as it plays, the shape would change and form another shape. This was created by creating a new composition and shape, going to 'pen tool', pick a point and edit the shape in any wayand use the key frames to determine it how much you want it to move and for how long.

This was a nice effect because you can turn a shape into another shape but I prefer the other effect, I think it's a cooler effect to play with and to look at.

For every shape in my final video, I used the 'wiggle' effect for the blue thin circle and purple circle except the triangle, which I used the 'zig zag' effect. To make the blue thin circle and purple circle different, I edited it in different ways like different speed, direction etc because I didn't want both of them to move the same way otherwise it would have felt like they were grouped together.

I got rid of the blue box because I used the morph technique for it but when I combined every shape together and played the video, I didn't like how the blue box looked, it felt out of place and it was distracting.

I learned something new in this session which is always good and useful. Below is the final video that I created in the session.

Geometry, form and use of colour. from Daniel Boscarino on Vimeo.

Amount of time the young viewers spend on devices - Research

For my research, I wanted to find out how much young viewers spend on devices to get an idea of the statistics behind it.

I came across this article that the BBC wrote which I think is very useful because not only it tells us how many hours children spend on the screen but it also compares it to how it used to be about 20 years ago. This is great because I'm trying to emphasize how technology has changed us, how we evolved with it and this article is a good example.

Reference

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32067158

Wakefield, J.W. (2015). Children spend six hours or more a day on screens. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32067158.

It says that in 1999, children aged 5 to 16 would spend an average of three hours in front a screen compared to 2015, where children would spend an average of 6 and a half hours in front of the screen. When it says screen, it represents TV, gaming consoles, mobile, tablet or computer.

I have designed a diagram to emphasize the difference between 1999 and 2015. This is on average the amount time spent in front of a screen in 1999 and 2015.

The teenage girls spent about 3 and a half hours in front of a screen in 1999 but in 2015, the time increased and it is reported that they now spend around seven and a half hours on average.

It is the same for young children as well, the time has increased but not that much, in 1999, they would spend on average two and a half hours but in 2015, it only increased by two hours. I do think the time will keep increasing though for the young children.

What is the reason behind the increase?

- We live in a world where we are surrounded by technology, more so than ever and there's an increase of devices since 1999 so it's hard for someone to not have at least one device since it's everywhere and affordable. 

Back in the day, magazines were the ways for a child to connect with the media but now, they can connect with the media in so many ways, more interesting than reading a magazine.

The article says that the internet gives the children more freedom in exploring their own interests, more so than the magazines did.

In conclusion, young viewers are spending their time behind a screen more than they did in the past but who can blame them, there weren't many devices back in the day and they weren't as affordable as they are now so it's easy to get sucked into using a technology device because there are so many options to choose from. Nowadays, technology will always beat a book or a magazine because it's more interesting, it requires less thought because unlike reading, you don't have to visualize what you are seeing and using technology is the easy way to communicate without any effort.

The effects technology has on the social skills of young viewers - Research

Reference

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/children-texting-technology-social-skills_n_1137570.html

Bindley, K.B. (2011). When children text all day, what happens to their social skills?. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/children-texting-technology-social-skills_n_1137570.html.


I came across this article by the Huffington Post which looks at the effects technology has on the social skills of young kids. There's a question that caught my eye which I thought was interesting to think about, "Will they be able to hold their own in conversation?" I thought this was interesting because we spend so much time communicating online but how does it affect our social skills in person or does it affect it at all?

The article states that many of us don't exercise our face to face socialization muscles as much as we did in the past, this could affect those who has to talk to strangers they have never spoke to before, would they know how to interact properly? Well, Melissa Ortega who is a child psychologist believes that "they don't know how to handle conflict face to face because so many things happen through some sort of technology." Conversation needs practice and kids who are dependent on technology will struggle to interact. Another thing that could affect them is to initiate conversations, since they are not used to it, they wouldn't know how to start a conversation.

Another part that I found interesting was the difference between speaking to someone on a device to speaking to them in person and the difference is big, for example, it's easier to read someone in person because you get to see their face, how they move, their eye contact and the pauses between the interaction which then you have to respond on your feet right away, it's more powerful and it stimulates the brain more than speaking to someone behind a screen, from that, you get to learn facial expressions and what to say, this is what is lacking when speaking to someone on a device.

Let's forget for a second on how kids are using technology and focus on why they are using it. Kids are using technology to soothe and entertain themselves, they have nothing to do at times so they turn their attention to technology instead of using their imagination to entertain themselves which what kids used to do in the past, that could have an impact on their creativity.

Research - Autopoiesis

Autopoiesis was one of the keys words given to me in this project so I decided to research it further because it's the one that really interests me because it's about self identity and how we created an identity using technology.

Below is a video where Paul Pangaro talks about cybernetics but also explains what autopoiesis is. This was helpful to me because it gave me a clear idea of what it is.

02:45 and onwards is the part where he specifically talks about autopoiesis.


Foundational principles of cybernetics from paul pangaro on Vimeo.

He talks about self-making, "I can make myself", he says that in biology, every living aspects of ourselves contributes into making us and all of the processes of what's going on makes who we are an the result of that is we have created an identity of ourselves that other people see. We have that idea we think we are autonomous but we still depend on each other because that's how we learn and we use what we learn to create our autonomous persona, that leads to having to socialize to learn from each other to be our identity. Everything combined equals to our culture, the way we interact and behave and how through language, we can exist in other people's lives.

It can be confusing at times but basically, when we socialize in person or online, we create our own identity each time, this is where technology comes in because most of us socialize online and it's how we learn from others and how it affects us as human beings. How we depend on socializing to learn is the same as how we depend on technology to learn aswell, to create our own identity. We can become one.

The Research Question - Seminar #3

14/10/2016 - Seminar

In this week's seminar, our focus was to come up with questions that I will use to help me with my research and my presentation. I think it would be useful to keep in mind the why, what and how questions.

Having a question is important because it will summarise everything I am doing and what I will talk about, it's the spinal core of the research so I can start to research about it and it will be a guide for me if I ever get stuck.

To come up with a question, I will need a research subject so what I'm going to do and a research title, shorter version of my research subject, usually created by taking out key words from the subject and finding a way to combine them together, from there, a background and literature review will be conducted and finally, I have to come up with different research questions that I have to explore to help me narrow down my subject.

Generating research questions is important because it talks about my research subject, reveals how I will investigate my research subject by using different approaches like why, how etc. It narrows down my investigation and by narrowing it down, it will help me give me a clear idea what I'm doing because at the moment, my subject is quite open.

My research subject

I want to explore how technology has affected us but mostly, how devices affects the development and growth of a young person.

My research title

The effects devices have on young viewers, what does the future hold for them?

This research title is just a work in progress, I feel like this title is too open or too long. I will be changing it as I get more into it.

For the final part, we got into pairs and we had to discuss our subject and from there, the other person had to give us useful research questions that I can look at to help me. I still have to come up with a title and I hope the questions that I will explore will help me come up with an effective title.

The questions/research I can look at that my partner recommended were....
- Most used technology device?
- Age groups? I could look at how young the viewers are then connect it to what devices thy use the most.
- How am I going to convey this? What is my purpose, am I trying to create awareness, if so, how will I convey it?
- The dangers of it - Social skills, education.
- Different aspects of technology/devices - Social media, gaming etc.

I received useful advice from my partner because the questions/research that I got given were very diverse so I can look at them all and help me decide what I'm interested in and what to take out but also, I can create connection between them.

By doing this activity, it has helped me because now I have an idea of where to start researching and what to research.

I think I will try and explore every advice I was given and document them on my blog.

Market Data - Market Research

10/10/2016 - Lecture

In this lecture, we're looking at the market data and market research in the industry. This part is important because I can use market research to help me think of ideas to design.

We started talking about the market research.

We use market research to gather information about the consumer so we are aware of what they need and want. There are two types of market research, the primary data and the secondary data. As we all know, any type of secondary research involves us using the internet or books to find the information we need but primary data is where we find our own research, there are two types relating to primary data, quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative 

Quantitative research is us asking a lot of questions and using the clipboard to gather those information. There are three types of quantitative research, geographic, psychographic and socio-economic.

- Geographic - This data looks at how and where you live.  It looks at that because it could give us a clue of the things you will buy.  

- Psychographic - This data looks at the way you think. It looks at what interests you have, what your passion or hobby is, from that, it would give us an idea of what you would be interested in buying because what you buy could revolve around your hobby or interest.

- Socio-economic - This data looks at your class and financial ability. This could look at how economic activities could affect and influence what you buy.

The pros of quantitative research is that it has a lot of detail because it contains a lot of information, it looks at the different aspects of the consumer, how that person thinks and lives and from that, it could narrow their market to specific consumers, this makes the information very clear and easy to understand. The negative of it is that the method is complex and hard which comes at a cost, it could vary around £150,000. It would be even hard to do if there are any time restraints. 

Qualitative

Qualitative data is information about qualities and the information is something that can't be measured. This involves having an interview and a focus group, having to talk to people who are in the know about an issue that needs to be understood.

Unlike quantitative, qualitative's method is easier and cheaper because all it involves is preparing and arranging a meeting which is something that can be easily done and quite quick at times. The cons of it is that there is no statistical validation, the information given can't be measured like I said before, it's all opinion so there isn't much evidence to it and it's only a success if the discussions are controlled in the right way.

Market Segmentation

We moved onto 'Market Segmentation'. It's a marketing strategy that involves dividing the target market of existing and potential customers and combining the ones who have the same interests, characteristics and common needs.

This can be broken down to different ways, it can be done by age, sex, social class, geography, hobby/interests and so on. This will help you determine what type of customer you are designing for and how you will design it. The objective is to design something that matches the expectation of the consumers.

Below is an example of explaining what market segmentation....

Take books as an example, there are two types, fiction and non-fiction which then splits into different genres, furthermore, it splits into age groups and specific types of different narrative. By doing this, it narrows down the target audience and who you are designing for but also shows that there are different types, it doesn't just stop at genres as an example.

To have a successful market segmentation, you have to make it measurable and identifiable but also, it have to be accessible. It has to be substantial because you have to make a profit and generate a decent amount of money in otherwise it's a waste of money if you think the advertisement will work then a large amount of money can be put in to pay for everything. Finally, it has to have a meaning, it must connect with the target audience, if not, there will be no profit coming in, it has to relate to people who you think will buy into your design.

This lecture was useful because it showed that when it comes to research, there is a wide range of different things I have to look at and I have learned some of the terminologies in this lecture. I also looked at the pros and cons of each so that if I'm at that stage where I have to research and gather information, I would know which would be the most effective one for me at that time depending on time, cost etc.