Week 1 - Research and Initial Ideas
For our first week of the final year project, there was plenty of information to take in about the new brief. Below are my notes from the initial launch slides;
These notes summarise various quotes and considerations we need to be thinking about. For example we need to prepare business cards and covering letters ahead of moving into work and how these should be presented. I find making these notes incredibly helpful in keeping me grounded throughout a projects and offering me a foundation to return to if I ever find I lose my way throughout developing an idea. It also helps me to write these things down at the beginning of a project to help move my studies into a more formal proposition as oppose to design work I may have been doing over the summer for example.
I also looked into some creative techniques that were suggested to us and have noted these down for future use, including using the 6 Creative Thinking Hats and the Lotus Blossom System;
Following the initial launch slides we discussed ideas to start the project. We did this through categorising into basic reactions, e.g. what makes us laugh, what makes us cry etc. Below is a brainstorm I made surrounding these ideas (using alpha.nodenogg.in).
Following this exercise I chose to mind map out a few ideas to start to understand which concepts I could take forward in the project.
Reflecting on my first brainstorms I think there are some really exciting ideas here. I'm particularly interested in phrasing and language, as we use this on a daily basis but never really consider its origins. Its also a fluid concept where language is changing and developing constantly so its an exciting concept to explore. I think coping mechanisms would be difficult to look into as its a lot of qualitative data - different people have different experiences and ways of dealing with emotions so its a hard subject to pin down. Communication is less exciting as an idea as it is a daily action. Of course, it varies across different scenarios but ultimately we are all familiar with how it works and I'd like to have more of a visual focus on the subjects I choose going forward.
Following on from my brainstorms, I then devised myself an action plan for the next week. It's already clear that this year will be intense regarding the work that needs to be done and the quality of this work so I really want to keep on top of my lectures, noting down key information to refer to in the future and to keep my work blogs updated as and when these things happen so that I can clearly communicate what I have learnt and how this will impact my work.
Over the next week I am keen to establish a strong foundation for our ideas presentation which I can clean up in the day or two before. This will allow me to develop my key ideas and still soak up as much information and experience as possible before pitching these concepts. It also allows my ideas to sit for a while which I personally find really helpful as I tend to pick up on various things in my everyday life which act as inspiration so I can get the most out of my work.
I would also like to implement some of the design thinking techniques I looked at above to get a better understanding of my own workflow. I don't like to set strict times for my work as I believe my mindset has a very strong impact on the quality of my work, however, I'm hoping to do a reasonable amount of consistent work most days to keep my mind active and efficient when considering this project.