After talking to the client and understanding their requirements, creating posters to use in Support Local’s PR campaign was our main task in this project. Competitor analysis proved to be a constructive task as we were able to draw inspiration from posters that we, and the client liked. A lot of what we had learnt in the previous meeting influenced our design process. Before we started to ideate in any way, the first thing we did was to summarise what the client wanted and the direction the posters would take. The branding was something we were unsure about at the start of the project but was resolved after the interview meeting. Using the stylescapes that we had previously made helped us to think of ideas as the client had told us which one she preferred and why. The bulls eye technique outlined what had to be included and proved to be an excellent co-design method where the client could voice their wants and needs. We also used semiotic analysis as a co-design technique because the client was able to place how much information was needed on the poster and how serious or fun the poster should be.

When creating poster designs, we used the 635 method to quickly develop a large number of different ideas. We repeated the process 3 times as there were only 4 participants taking part in the exercise and we ended up with 19 different poster designs. These were drawn on paper which made the process quicker and easier, however, it meant that drawing ability affected the designs and each drawing had to be photographed. Despite this, I think hand-drawing quick ideas is still the best method as the designs do not need to be polished at this stage. We used the 635 method because it is efficient at collecting a number of different designs quickly and the non-verbal nature means all ideas are equally valid.

We organised the designs in Miro and using what we had learnt from talking to the client, chose 8 designs to develop. We took 2 posters to develop each. The developments involved improving the posters graphically, and making them clearer. It was worth doing this process using computer software as the posters needed to communicate a point clearly and it was important to be able to visualise what the final design would look like for our next design process. There would be no point developing the posters on paper as it would be time consuming and they would have to be digitalised anyway.

We decided to present to our client 3 posters to make their decision process as easy as possible. This was decided as a team member found an article explaining how 3 concepts is the optimum number of ideas to present to a client as it gives them choice without being overwhelming. To narrow our designs from 8 to 3, we used De Bono’s 6 hat method because it is a non-bias way of analysing ideas, considering each poster is made by one of us in the team. Despite not being time efficient, the information gained from this method was plentiful and it even allowed us to consider future possibilities for each poster. This was documented in Miro and conducted during a group video call. Using the 6 hat methodology findings, we then voted again on which 3 posters would be taken forward and presented to our client.

Before the pitch meeting with the client, the 3 designs were further developed to be more visually appealing, better communicate the points and include social media links. The posters were also mocked up in situ using photoshop. We did this to give our client a visualisation of how each one would look in real life. Adobe InDesign was used primarily to make the posters although Illustrator was also used to make icons and different elements of the poster. We decided to use the Adobe suite exclusively as it is industry standard, each program is compatible with other Adobe programs and the end result is of high quality.

When designing a product for collaboration between students, we used multiple design techniques which helped us generate ideas, evaluate and plan. Brainstorming has been a commonly used tool for different uses within our project. We brainstormed a lot because it allows us to collaborate and share our ideas easily whilst being engaging and allowing for further iteration. A mind map suits Miro’s collaborative interface, which we use as our primary sketchbook for our work. Mind maps are great ways of sorting information visually but can not be used for everything. When researching, I mostly did desk research but also used critical thinking to construct my points. As this was very early on in the process and we had not finalised the brief with our client, I thought it was not necessary to conduct observations or interviews or design probes at this point.

When planning the interview, we used the bulls eye technique to make sure our questions were worth asking and to focus our interview. This ensured we got the most out of the meeting. After the interview, we had a better idea of the brief and could start ideating to think of a  solution. We used the 635 method for this because we were in our design sprint stage of the project and the 635 method is good for generating lots of ideas in a short amount of time. As there are only 5 of us in our group, we made it the 535 method and we illustrated our ideas on paper. Using paper meant we could quickly show our ideas without having to worry about graphic design or the common digital problems such as compatibility or time. This proved to be a worthwhile exercise because we were all able to pull together at the end and come up with a promising idea.

Only one of us in our group ended on a physical product, the rest of us had digital ideas. One technique we used to develop the physical product was user testing. This is where we gave someone a very basic shape of what the product could look like and asked their thoughts on it. This was only a very basic test to see what kind of shape the product should be but still uncovered valuable information. The only problem is that we conducted this test before the client had seen our project proposal and so the test could easily become irrelevant if the client was expecting a digital product. If we were to do this project again, I think giving a project proposal in early and making sure everyone is on the same page would be more of a priority.

Entering the prototyping stage and thinking about visuals to show our client, we were using Adobe XD as our main software. By this point we had worked with our client and realised that a combination of our digital ideas, taking the strengths of each one was the best option. Unfortunately learning Adobe XD took longer than expected as none of us had used it before. We wanted to use it because it was the best software for wireframing prototypes quickly, but as designers, we should have thought about what we know and maybe used a more familiar program as we did not need a finished working prototype at this stage.