Aesthetic Research

For my aesthetic I am looking to create something inspired by these two websites.

The national Trust Website promotes the beauty and culture in the UK. It also has a section on days out which can be helpful however to get full access you need to become a member and the site is aimed more at older middle class people.

The days out with the kids website is aimed at helping families find fun days out in their local area. I find this app is very easy to use and gives good information. However these days out are not all cheap and the options it gives are very obvious and places most people already know about such as farms, museums and castles.

I will take inspiration from each website combining the beautiful nature shots like the national trust website and adding in an easy layout day out vibe.

New Brief (Website)

Brief
In collaboration with a photographer from the North East of England. I wish to design an easy to use website which promotes cheap/free outdoor days out in the Northeast of England. The aim is to tackle problems highlighted in the news such as unaffordable family days out and the safety of runners. We are specifically targeting the Northeast of England as that is where the photographer and I are based.

There are many places in the North East of England that are fun and free for families to spend time. I want to create an website that people use when they want to look for options for where they can go for a fun family day out, a walk with a significant other or a safe lone run. To really show the beautiful nature of these places and to encourage people to spend time outdoors Danny Pavey will be taking photographs of these places to use within the website.

Video and Analysis

This video shows how easy it is to navigate the app, 
use the settings to personalise colours and more and 
how easy it is to select words to speak.


Project Overview

Overall this project was created to demonstrate that it is possible to make a communication app look more visually appealing to the user by making it personalised and overall have a better user experience. Using the same categories as the orginal apps I researched conducted research on existing designs and talked to people who have experience with that app in order to find out what needs to stay the same for usability and what can be changed to improve it visually. Many individuals use these apps in this case mainly younger people and they deserve to be able to make it their own and not generic. I was able to personalise the colours, text and speech as well as letting the individual create an avatar to represent themselves within the images. I paid attention to layouts, touch targets and consistency allowing for the app to be easy to use for a younger audience allowing them more room for independence. Overall I feel like this was a very positive project as it shows what is possible for such an important way of communication through giving people a voice but also visually allowing people to communicate who they are as a person through personalisation.

Page Development

After my feedback I edited the home page to have bigger touch targets but also include the friendlier rounder shapes. After feedback I decided it would be important to include a light and dark mode so that it fits to both eye and touch users.  

Creating my illustrations I wanted to use a simplistic style that looks good when the images are smaller but also use some shading and bright fun colours. This makes to illustrations look visually appealing to the younger target audience and is more obvious to what it represents.

Other feedback I received was that I should give the user the option to change the colours of each button. I experimented with what it could look like to have random colours. A positive of being able to use colours to represent categories makes it easier for the person to find what they need. However after deliberation I have found that doing this over complicates the app and is unnecessary because the illustrations do that job. The many colours can also make the layout over stimulating and give to much options. The only colour that is important is red for the urgent category because it would be used when needing to speak fast if in trouble or needs attention.

In the settings I want to make the layouts as simple and easy to use for the younger users. I want to give personalisation without giving to much which over complicates the device. When looking at the options for text I gave two child like fonts which are known to be easier you younger children to read and two clear and traditional fonts.

Within my designs of the settings pages I wanted to make each category have similar layouts to make it as easy to use as possible.  

The categories are layout easy to see with clear illustrations. The dots used at the bottom show how many pages of options there are and the large arrows are used to navigate. I will create a video to show how easy it is to navigate and use the app.

Group Feedback (halfway point)

I wanted to get more feedback on my ideas to see what direction I should Continue with.

Feedback

• Maybe in your first idea use less of a curve and make the buttons slightly bigger so there can still be dark backgrounds but also more of a touch area and bigger text.
• Colour schemes for each button rather than a whole so people can put colours that relate to the Caterogies that help them navigate. 
• Appropriate use of fonts for younger people to read

From this I will do more development on these ares then pic what I consider as final outcomes to so how more visually pleasing it can be to personalise such a useful app.

Apple Diverse emojis

Its nice that has released an article showing that apple Apple has worked with the American Council of the Blind, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and the National Association of the Deaf to create 13 new emojis to represent those with disabilities. Apple said. “Diversifying the options available helps fill a significant gap and provides a more inclusive experience for all.” This is inspiration for my project as it shows others such as big companies like apple understand how important it is to represent all people making a more for filling experience for the users. 

Layout Discussion

I have began to create my layouts on adobe Xd. My hypothetical user I am personalising for is a 12 year old Boy named Max. Max has chosen the blue colour scheme and has created an avatar of himself.


I decided to have a discussion about my app layout with someone who does a lot of interface design. After looking at my initial layouts he suggested trying another layout.

He suggested having a more blocked layout with the buttons taking up more of the area and taking away un necessary background because it gives bigger touch targets which leads to easier usability.


I decided I should develop on this idea to see how it could look.

After changing the layout I found it was still pleasing to the eye and didn't look cluttered due to there being a strong style and colour scheme however their are pros to both. My first layout is better from individuals who use eye tracking as you need a dark background to help focus the eyes and as there is a large amount of background on show in the first design.

However the second more block like layout seems best for people who can touch the screen as their are bigger areas for touch and this makes it easier to use. I need to figure out wether this could be separate settings on the app and which I should continue forward with designing.

Feedback & Character Creation

I wanted to get some feedback on my layouts and ideas so decided to talk to a group of designers about this to get design related feedback. This was the outcome

• The layouts should try to have a slight resemblance to computer controls have back buttons in the same areas of the screen to make it easier to use
• All of the personalisation seems to be a good idea and would work well to make people to feel more empowered to have a more personalised voice.

I asked about the styles of the images and how they could be personalised the conversation brought me to find that I shouldn't make it to complicated this brought me to a new idea.

Within a majority of the images on the app is a stick figure, what If the individual could create there own character/avatar which would be used in all the images?

Avatars

Avatars are most popularly used within games and social media. The most popular at the moment is the Bitmoji used with snapchat and messages. These characters allow us to even further personalise our visual messages to each other and make for fun and enjoyment of the users. I feel that this could be a good thing to add to the personalisation of the talkers to add a bit of fun and make it more realistic to the person.

Since the images are going to mainly appear small on the screen I want to create the characters in a more basic style. I want the user to be able to change skin colour, hair, facial features and clothes to make it look like themselves or just like a fun character.

There were two styles I liked but after feedback I decided on one of the styles.

The Avatars are basic but bright and friendly and are way more visually appealing then the stick men used on app currently.

Wireframes

My layout idea for the home page is quite similar to the existing layout however I am trying to incorporated more background space. This will make it look less cluttered as well as make easier for the user to not accidentally select options with didn't want. 

The Settings button will take the user to the personalisation options 

Within the layouts I want to keep it as consistent as possible making it easy to use for different ages. My wireframes are just a basic indicator of layout which will be altered during development and feedback. 

Aims & Considerations

After my research I have identified what I want to make personalised and more visually appealing. This includes colour schemes, images, voices and text. However there are considerations I need to take into account because these apps have made certain design decisions for a strict purpose of use ability such as dark backgrounds a better for the eyes to focus on eye tracking and certain categories may include certain colours for a reason. I want my re-design to still be very clear and readable to its audience.

Research & Opinions

AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) can come in many forms but I am looking into devices which is one of the most common due to technologies. There are different devices depending on what is best for the person and money restrictions. I want to look at some past designs.

The Go Talk 20+ is a lightweight portable device that allows you to record your own words.
Negatives of this device is you can only use 25 words at a time and to change the words you need to pull out the image sheet and replace it with a one with different words then rerecord all of the new words. This takes time and effort and leads you to only have limited speech that could not carry out a full conversation.
However the device is aimed more a younger children who struggle with words and attention.
It only comes in this dull green colour that isn't very attractive or engaging.

From the same company there is also a smaller 6 option version that in reviews people like because  'It easily fits into the hand for on-the-go use.' There are multiple of this type of device with different amounts of words available to say at a time.

The larger device costs £199.99
with the smaller at £170.00

Strictly design wise The MegaBee Assisted Communication and Writing Tablet has a simple enough layout and uses peoples eyes to track what is being said. It is a complicated device that costs $1,800. It is a well thought out device that needs all of its colours to work therefore cannot be redesigned. However there are now technologies that people can use tablet devices with their eyes alone.

Apps like Proloquo2go and Son Flex Lite are the apps I am wanting to redesign. They have thousands of speech options and are created more for children to be able to speak when they have difficulties spelling on a keyboard. They work well as a device but look cluttered and somewhat overwhelming with its colours. The clipart's are also important to children but are incredibly basic looking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibgSEx4AIIg


Talking to others 

I know a women called Kat who lives in America and has lots of experience with working with people who use speech devices. I wanted to talk to her about her experiences with the apps and devices and how she feels about them visually.

• Part of the way they're designed is for functionality for instance, the 12 year old I am currently caring for has her background black because it makes it easier for her to see the icons. However, I think there are ways to make them more fun, icons are always squares, maybe some could be differently shaped? The color coding of icons is for functional purposes but I'm sure there's something to making it look fun that is important too. There can be ways to go around all of this and make it better for the user.

Talking to her helped me to understand that colour is important due to the app sometimes being used to track eyes. Also it was important to find out that others feel like these apps should be able to personalised more!

Communication Device App Brief

Many people all around the world uses communication devices/apps everyday to help them speak. However they do not look at all visually appealing looking cluttered using basic clip art illustrations and old serif text. In this project I want to design some ideas of what a communication device could look like and give an individual a more pleasant user experience.

I decided upon this brief as I work with some non verbal people and know a lot of people carers and assistants who work with people who use these devises. Looking at the software they use I saw it was helpful and gave them a voice, however I always found them frustrating due to how cluttered they looked. They are also have very basic/boring clip art effect images and random colours. I felt that there must easily be a way they can be made customisable and not look like an eye sore because at the end of the day the person using the device will be staring at it for a majority of there day and they deserve something that fits them and is visually appealing.

Design itself communicates. So why give everyone the same voice when just from looking at the personalised screen you can already get a sense of what a persons personality is like.

Final Outcome and feedback

My final piece fits the brief as it shows disability in positive way and includes a strong message. The illustrations are clear and detailed which works well on a large scale which is what the work is intended for. The colour scheme does not over power the piece and works well at representing where I am from as an artist and using to colours to represent gender in some way. Creating a more hand created feel makes the piece feel more personal making the message appear more powerful.

In addition to this art piece I also created a Gif that could be shown online as I felt adding movement further appeals to the younger target audience and makes the concept of finger people feel more fun and engaging to the eye.

Final Outcome

My final outcome fits to the competition brief due to its strong use of typography on the cover and its striking and unique use of colour within a space theme. The design decisions were made in order to appeal to a contemporary readership by making the cover look less scientific and more approachable to an audience that may find books in this genre too technical. This more 

artistic and colourful approach has a difference from the many other book covers it is competing against by breaking away from the traditional and stereotypical space themed design identified during research; therefore appealing to a new generation of readers.

Feedback

I felt maybe in my last design there was too much colour involved and the text was not readable enough therefore I wanted to change around my layouts. I changed the back cover so the colour and darkness spilt the page and the text would be easily seen on the dark background colour. After I did these changes I felt happy with my design however I needed to gain some audience feedback to make sure that my theme was coming across well.

Feedback

• I feel that the use of colours is fun and engaging and is different from other space theme covers I have seen
• I feel that the text should be left aligned to be more readable and go better with the line separating the colourful from black.
• This design is eye catching and intriguing to look at making it seem more approachable and less scientific.

After receiving feedback I was happy with my use of colour and layout as the audience found it fun and engaging which is what I wanted. However I did agree with the fact I should left align my text as it is easier to read and would fit better on the page.

Public feedback

It is important before finalising a project to get some audience feedback. I showed my designs to a group of different age people asking what they found about the campaign. This was my feedback.

• It is refreshing to see a campaign for a cause that doesn't pull on the heart stings and is just happy and fun. It is also something I haven't seen in a campaign before and it is fun that you were able to have family interaction at the base. (FEMALE AGE 43)
• I like playing card games, I also like to collect things so I would like to collect these. (MALE AGE 9)
• I find that this is a fun little campaign which makes me think about the Dogs Trust in a happy positive way. (MALE AGE 21)
• Even if I don't have children these cards would still make me think about the Dogs Trust and would drive me more to look at the website (MALE age 45)

The feedback was mostly positive and even when people did not have families including children they still said the campaign in some way is affective at making them think about the dogs and charity. Which my main aim was to make the dogs look the most desirable and to draw attention to the Dogs Trust.