Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Design Mechanics visit

I learnt to design for the client, not yourself. CVs sent to prospective employers should be followed up with a phone call, as this shows enthusiasm. Dave Pannell believed the portfolio should include commercial pieces of work. Web and print pieces are needed to show a range of abilities.

Technical skills form part of the requirements, and a willingness to learn. Finding information clients helps create designs which they like. Getting them to commit to work reduces the chances of a redesign later. Print and web design are valued equally in the industry.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Back on track

After being back at college after what felt like a 5 minute break over the summer, the course continues at an unabated pace. I found that the first week was the most difficult, as there were new and confusing assignments, and a lot of anxiety over the summer assignment. As we had not been in contact with each other all that much, it was always hard to know if you were on track with the tasks which needed to be completed.

As I had volunteered to come in with the Craigs and talk to the first years, I had to start doing some work before we returned to college. I had to collate the information each of us wanted to put onto each slide, and assemble a simple template to put the content in to. I realised that all we had to put together were the things we wish we had done at the start of the first year. We even produced a handout with lots of useful links, as well as our email addresses if they wanted to get in contact with us.

The actual presentation itself went really well, and I was surprised at the amount of questions the first year students have to ask. I think I should do more of these types of events if the opportunity arises.

In the first week we looked at some of the basic CSS functions. I found this rather hard to understand what they meant without seeing them in action. I have always known that I need to see how things work and experiment with them before I can feel comfortable with using them. As the weeks have progressed I have got back into using the CSS, even after doing the summer assignment.

The team project has already thrown up a lot of challenges. The assigning of roles was very hard, especially in our team where there are 3 very capable people. I did think seriously about becoming the Project Manager, but we decided that Scott had the experience to make the most of this position in the team. I then became the designer, and Chris was best suited out of us to become the developer.

As there were 2 clients and 3 teams, we had to pitch to Steve so that he could decide which teams got these projects. This meant a presentation had to be constructed, and as designer a lot of this was down to me. I spent most of my self study time creating the presentation, which was a lot of work to do in the first week. Our team did manage to get it finished, and did earn us one of the projects. This was to create a site for the College’s sports team.

As part of this year’s ‘goals’ I have to provide some a course related article, as well as a tutorial. I can easily accommodate for both of these, by providing a link to the Boagworld podcast, available at
http://www.boagworld.com/ . This podcast provides a wealth of information, and literally everything which we do on the course is mention somewhere on the 90+ episodes of the podcast. I would recommend looking at this in itunes, as you can see a description of what is in each show, and then you can download ones which are appropriate to whatever we are covering at the time. I believe that the episode 91 edition may prove helpful in the future, as it has a section on ‘Dealing with the clients from hell’ which will probably happen to all of us one of these days.

On the show there have been some really eye opening sections, such as show 86 where a recording of a screen reader is played. This exposes how difficult it is on a lot of sites for people with impaired vision, and sounds totally unfathomable. I believe that designing to suit the needs of others should be incorporated into the design process, which will be happening in our team project this year.


All in all I feel that this year has got off to a reasonable start, and I now feel a lot more organised and capable of sitting down in self study time and doing more work. The summer assignment helped alot with this, as I only had myself to rely on to get the work completed to a good standard. Hopefully when I do my next evaluative blog, I will have finished the Box Clever assignment.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Soft Skills

Personal Development Planning
This is a skill which I have been using over the last year of the course. On several occasions I identified that certain parts needed improvement (e.g. time planning, sketchpad work). I then formed an action plan on how to improve these skills, and then evaluated my progress at the end of the allotted time. In the industry, this is an essential skill, as I may have to learn new languages or new techniques to improve my skills. Now that I know how to form a suitable plan and set goals, I am capable of doing this comfortably.

Attending Lectures
I have always made an issue of being punctual and on time for lectures and tutorials. I find that this gives a good impression, and allows you some time to prepare to take notes and get in the correct frame of mind for learning. This will be important when I get a job, as there will be many meetings with clients or other members of staff who may have to rely on me being there on time and being prepared.

Lectures
In lectures I have developed my listening skills, and have taken more notes than I did before coming onto the course. I also highlight important parts which I know I will have to refer to later, for example references for essays which I may note down. This preparation will be useful in the design industry, as meeting with clients will mean that I would have to record many specific facts, and not recording them could cause problems. This is something I always try to avoid, as it gives an unprofessional impression.

Oral Presentations
This is one area which I have found hard to do on the course. I usually find myself feeling nervous before hand, even when I know there is nothing to get nervous about. I believe that I have improved my skills in this area, and this is down to me being more prepared before hand. I find that this gives me an extra confidence boost, and now I must concentrate on improving my verbal delivery. Again, this skill will be helpful when presenting ideas to potential clients, as well as being able to do the end of year presentation.

Write Essays
As I have an academic history of writing essays, I found that this was one of the easier parts of the course for me. I have improved how I plan out these essays now, which has made them even easier. This usually involves using a bullet pointed list to set out what points I need to make, and linking them to the references which I collect during research. This ability to plan ahead and bring a project together will be valuable to potential employers, as this is a progressive and professional way to put together large tasks.

Maths & Statistics
On the course I have used maths and statistics to analyse which browsers are most used, as well as putting data into bar charts and pie charts to illustrate certain points. This ability to analyse will help with my own development, as well as when finding out information which will be used in a project.

Observations
During my time at college I have collected and analysed many pieces of both web and print design. These observations have vastly improved my ability to design, and I feel that I have gained a greater attention to detail. This is an essential skill to have to be able to do professional work, as small mistakes can detract from the quality of the finished product. Observations of other peoples work has also allowed me to offer feedback, and this is a skill which will help in a team situation to produce a quality product.

Research
This is an area I feel I have improved on the course. I use many more resources than I have used in the past, and I find that this actually makes it easier to put the projects together. This is because I can pick the best elements and bring them together to make a good finished result. In the design industry, this will help me to make the most appropriate product for the target audience, and therefore best creative solution.

Exams & Revision
As I have done many exams in the past I know the pressure that comes with them, and the preparation needed to do well in them. This has taught me to prepare in advance and to get a lot of practice in, as on the day you need the confidence that you know what you have to do in the exam. On the course the learning outcomes are essential to getting a good grade. In the industry, I will have to deal with this kind of pressure on a regular basis, as deadlines are much shorter, and projects are much bigger.

The Future
For the future, I feel that I need to work on my presentations skills. In terms of preparation I think I do well, and in terms of ordering information on the slides. However, when I am actually stood there I usually become nervous, and this will only improve with more practice. This is why I volunteered to talk to the first years earlier this year, and I found that I coped better with the anxiety better than I have done in the past.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Development plan for the short term

Over the next 6 months of the course I hope to start to make progress at becoming a more rounded, more professional person. To do this I will be required to make changes to how I work outside of college, as this has been an area which I have struggled with so far on the course.
Firstly, I will want to get into a better working routine, as this will be an important skill to learn for the future.

This will include having more self discipline, so going to bed early and getting up earlier on a regular basis is something I will be implementing over the next few months. Secondly, I will continue to improve my time planning, and have already designed a new system of planning and recording my time over the summer. This includes colour coding the time which I am in college, doing self study, and also my free time so that I can create a better balance between all 3.

I will also be creating a checklist of the tasks needed to complete the assignments, so that I can constantly keep perspective on what has to be finished when. This will include building up my folder right form the start of the assignment, as I can feel more confidence from seeing the project take shape.

Finally I will be making more effort to find a larger range of sources when it comes to the written parts of the course. I have found that collecting more resources can actually make writing the essays easier, as I can take the best elements and focus on them to maximise my understanding of the various topics covered.

Over the next 6 months I want to be well on my way to reaching my goal of having 4 merits for this year. As I now have a greater understanding of the criteria required to do this, I can again focus my efforts on providing evidence to reach these important levels. After feedback from the A7 assignment last year, I feel that I should improve the depth at which I experiment when doing ideas generation for the assignments. To aid this, I will be using a Flickr account to upload photographs to. This will provide a place to collect images I could use in my projects, which will hopefully improve my inspiration. This will be used in conjunction with the more general improvements I will be implementing.

Over the medium term (3 years) I have 2 ideas in mind. In one instance, I could do a third year so that I can obtain a degree. This may prove to be better in the long term if I decide at a later stage in my career that I want to go into teaching. I find helping people to improve their skills is a very satisfying task, and something which I have done with various projects in the past.

Alternatively, I could finish the second year of the course and get a job as a web and print designer. I would ideally like to do both, as I find print exhilarating, and web design a satisfying challenge to master. Currently, I do not know which route I will take, as I will want to see how the second year of the course develops, and how my skills improve with the changes I am putting in place to help me work.