XPGH @ CMU Design

5 • Define Audience + Catch, Action, Validation

April 10th, 2016

Today Raph, Anqi and I meet together again to decide on the key aspects of our project: define the audience. After some research, we believe that the best people we can go for are the ones that are on the fence to explore but need a little bit nudge. This result is based on our previous observations of hte generative workshop as well as our speed dating with our students. We found that exploration / going out is not for everyone. Some people prefer to staying at their home and we can hardly do anything about them. This reminds me of one insight from the first project:

“Design is not about holding your users’ hands. Rather, it is about giving others the tools to help them solve their problems themselves”

After deciding on the type of audience, we start to craft the catch that grabs people’s attention. Here is a glimpse of the catch we brainstorm together:

After the brainstorming session. We filtered the list of entry points to the following:

1. Advertise interesting things that no one knows about Pittsburgh
2. Show Pittsburgh in a new perspective
3. Pittsburgh is closer than you think
4. Show how close the nearby beautiful spots are. It takes the time of Netflix to explore Pittsburgh.
5. Guilt people to explore. We are inspired by the slogans from other sports brands. For example:

Then we thought about combining the Banksy idea with what we

My group tries to search for a style that is persuasive. However, I want to promote a style that is cool and more visually enticing and more stylistic. Therefore I found the following videos as my inspirations:

Then I suddenly realized how stupid this idea is. It is for high schoolers for are in search of affluenza lifestyle and not really exploring the city. As a matter of fact, they use city as a backdrop and promote only the clothing brands. I decided to go back to my group’s idea and start experimenting with the simplest ideas of all. Because simplicity is always a good starting point.

We found inspiring motivations from other brands and we hope to achieve the same effects. Following are some of the examples of the motivational lines:

We quickly brainstormed our potential deliverables, and how we craft them.

6 • Audience, Catch, Action, Validation + Move forward

April 12th, 2016

• Organize my medium
• Take pictures of the visual system kit she brought in today
• Take pictures of my sketchbook

Questions and key points accumulated at the beginning of the class:

1. Right now our space piece can be used as a digital piece and vice versa. Can you help us decide?

Required topics and my responses:

Digital piece — Wall projection of the beautiful photos of Pittsburgh taken by students

Print piece — not sure yet

Space — Pittsburgh is closer than you think Poster.

Catch — Pittsburgh is closer than you think

Action — Go take a photo in Pittsburgh/not sure yet

Validation — Kosbie’s words (celebrity faculty’s endorsement); from our generative workshop, it seems like a lot of students are on the fence to explore Pittsburgh but needs a little nudge.

Audience — students who are willing to go off campus but needs a little urge.

Context — not sure

Mediums — not sure

Advice from Danae:

Come up with a better validation; validations should be a solid thing that backs up design decisions.

For the unpeel poster, maybe use a magnetic sheet as the front cover. The magnetic sheet can be reused.

The unpeel poster has to be a series.

How do the poser and the other mediums play into one another.

Stacie:

How can you guys unstuck. Work out the tension among teammates.

How to divide the work among teammates

How to move forward with your ideas

What does your catch mean to people → “Pittsburgh is closer than you think” → assume that proximity is the single issue in our prompt. Is it true though? Can it target something else, or say since our solution is portal, is portal the portrayal of this catch.

Andrew:

Think about in which environment you are going to intercept. Interception should come as a surprise. However, Culinart workers asking students if they have filled out their checklist that you give them is not a good interception technique.

Raphael :

Consensual belief that portal is our common message. Each memeber of the group is responsible of producing multiple iterations of the catch.

The context of our piece is probably somewhere near the dorm or on campus. Encourage people who almost can go off campus go off campus.

I am in charge of the digital medium, which means that I need to see how a website can serve us well.

I also believe that it is important to jot down the interactions we are going to have with the audiences. Right now what makes sense to me is that the space media leads people to explore the print and digital media.

Progress:

Digital piece — Wall projection of the beautiful photos of Pittsburgh taken by students

Print piece — Chrome vinyl sticker that has your name on it and encourage you to explore more.

Space — Pittsburgh is closer than you think Poster.

Catch — Pittsburgh is closer than you think.

Action — Go take a photo in Pittsburgh/not sure yet

Validation — Kosbie’s words (celebrity faculty’s endorsement); from our generative workshop, it seems like a lot of students are on the fence to explore Pittsburgh but needs a little nudge.

Audience — students who are willing to go off campus but needs a little urge.

Context — not sure

Mediums — not sure

7 • Back from Carnival

April 16th, 2016, Saturday

• Keep writing #6, start from what I left off
• Read Stacie’s requirements and see what I need
• Sketching + Digital prototyping the portal ideas + Make use of Raph and Anqi’s style guide tomorrow.
• Contact Raph and Anqi, plan to meet tomorrow + discuss next steps
• Record my progress for today + Scan my sketchbook

What’s due:

Tuesday presentation

1.Introduce topics

2.Define audiences

3.Explain the approaches to your systems (for us, it is creating a portal, make going off campus seem easy, and list great attractions to people, give them rich information)

4.Describe: what you hope to achieve → what medium/context you hope to use → why you think it is appropriate.

5.Introduce your catches

6.Color palettes

7.Show ideas of typefaces and treatments

8.Graphic elements & Styles fruitful ot pursue

9.End with examples of visual directions

Questions

8 • Back to work

April 17th, 2016, Sunday

• Finish my medium posts from yesterday
• Post more progress pics I did today
• Start some interface designs for the Explore Pittsburgh App
• Sketch out the service design flows of my medium and others

What is due

1.My part of the presentation.Work more on the app and projector designs.

2.Keep pushing on the visual and graphic elements, just try things yourself

Inspirations

Today’s work

Today I worked with Anqi and Raph to straighten out a lot of different parts of the presentation. Here’s what we figure out:

1.Introduce Audiences, we will use Personas to map out different reasons that lead us to our current state. Primary objective is to tell others why we chose to focus on the group of people that are between the extreme lazy and the extreme active.

2.Approaches to the system: “Portal”. people’s primary concerns with getting off campus are money, distance and ease of travel. Therefore, we want to use the idea of “Portal” to rid them of their fears. “Portal” symbolizes cheap, fast, easy traveling.

3.Medium 1, Chrome Vinyl Poster + Poster combination. The idea is that we will post a chrome vinyl on one side of the wall and a poster on the other side, to make people look at where they can be at the moment.

(a).We hope to catch people’s attention and get people excited to go off campus.

(b). Context, dorm room + campus (in front of UC and Purnell, or in staircases).

(c).Most people pass by these places and we can intrigue them with our designs.

4.Medium2, Projector + Explore Pittsburgh App. We want to project students’s beautiful photos of the places off campus; also, other students can have their photos projected when they upload to our app.

(a).Participatory design. We want to invite students to join the trend. Hopefully, they can bring more students.

(b).Indoor places, where projectors are already set up? (maybe, still need to explore my options)

(c).The voice of this is informal, fun and less administrative, should resonate with students

5.Medium 3, little sticky reminders. Parasitic design, we want to give out small stickies that students can take with them and remind them about different places that they can go to.

(a).Parasitic design. Spread among students, allow them to bring them to their rooms, etc.

(b).The stickies will be attached to the guerilla poster.

(c).Have a lasting impact on the users.

6.Chrome paper + Poster,

(a).Catch: It’s not another Universe, it is just Pittsburgh.

(b).Action (which serves as the caption of the poster): It only takes half an episode of Netflix to go to _____.

(c).Validation:

7.Projector + App,

(a).Catch (still working on this): You can be in this picture too (Ask people to go off campus and take pictures of them in it).

(b). Action: Go with your friends to a place off campus.

(c). Validation:Fomo, intrigue people to know where the picture is taken. We will make sure that the picture is taken somewhere in Pittsburgh.

8.Sticky design

(a).Catch:

(b).Action:

(c).Validation:

9.Color, typeface, working visuals and others (still in working progress)

Also I did some mock ups of the Banksy style, window-in-the-wall portal Raph and I been talking about.

Questions for Stacie

1.How to build my argument around the medium of my choice. Have I done a good job?

2.We need help on our digital piece. We have a lot of ideas on what to do with it but we are not sure which one to go with.

9 • Another day @ work

April 18th, 2016, Monday

• Talk to Stacie tomorrow, find a time to meet with her on Wednesday
• Email Kosbie and see if I can meet with him.
• Keep working on the studio project
• Meet with Anqi and Raph at 7:00

What is due

1.Finish my UX app design and sketch out the scenario for environmental interactions

2.Keep pushing on the visual and graphic elements, just try things yourself

3.Work on the personas → Design the solutions, wireframing → draw out the scenarios, and that’s for today

Today’s work

Celina’s advice

1.An app for a projector is ridiculous. Also, if it is not effortless for people to participate in something, they will not do it at all.

2.Maybe you can gamify the process, such as make it a Ice Bucket Challenge style. In short, allow students to encourage other students. Let your audiences do the work for you instead of you telling them something.

3.Have students bring other students to places that they have never been. I start to see why I am a bad designer. I think the first sign that says you are a bad designer is that you always start with something new, and you don’t want your design to be part of an existing, working structure.

Temple’s advice

1.Think about high level strategies first and then nail down the mediums, the details and others.

2.The content can be events instead of photos

3.

10 • Class critique & new insights

April 18th, 2016, Monday

• Finish the medium post
• Email Stacie to find a time to meet tomorrow.
• I have to stop staying up late; I feel so horrible right now
• Prototype, prototype, prototype

What is due

1.Prototype due this Thursday, just produce something. No one is going to kick my butt ever so I have to be my own time manager, product manager.

Questions

Currently, we have many ideas that we can use for our digital piece. However, we still are not sure how we can connect our digital pieces to other ideas. What happens if students can use the screen to vote who their laziest friends are and encourage them to explore more in Pittsburgh. Therefore, on the screen there will be names of the person and a message about where they need to go in Pittsburgh.

Theme: Portal

Spatial piece, a pair of posters that allow students to see themselves in different places off campus.

Print piece, a sticker that people can use to set a goal for themselves to go somewhere off campus.

Digital piece:

1.Interactive screen that allows people to discover different places in Pittsburgh, and their related events

2.A wish wall that people can use to write down their wished places to go.

3.A screen that allows people to challenge their friends to go somewhere together.

4.Vote a friend under a funny title that forces the person to go off campus, i.e. “What is Pittsburgh”, “species from another planet”, “Pittsburgh is my room”,

5.Pittsburgh is not just your room

Today’s work

Peers’ advice:

1.Portal, simple, effective. I could see someone putting a sticker of a place on their laptop or binder, then going to that place and having locals comment on it.What type of information is associated with areas

2.What do students do with stickers after they go and visit that place?

3.How will you get people to interact with the digital component?

4.For the print piece, wouldn’t people feel awkward to have a sticker that just says the name of a place in Pittsburgh, say, on their laptop?

5.I wonder if the reflective piece would be effective if the hallways were crowded?

6.explore pittsburgh: what kind of place would be in the poster? you’re talking about restaurants and stuff, but are those recognizable? Would it be exciting to see yourself in a restaurant? With the stickers, what happens when they go to that place? do they still need the sticker reminder? would they peel the sticker off once they’ve gone? with the slogan “its just pittsburgh” I know you’re trying to make the city less intimidating, but it kind of makes it seem underwhelming, which a lot of people already feel. A lot of people don’t go out into pittsburgh because they think it’s lame. How can you reach them?

7.Did you want to draw more attention to one of the posters in a pair? Like the mirror one or the picture of a place?

8.Would there just be one on campus? Are the stickers meant to be shared/ put places on campus or mostly just kept personal?

14.Having people’s handwriting on these stickers is a bit risky in that it might end up looking not as nice.

Couldn’t really understand the drawing explaining the interactive screen. Not sure that I got energetic and saturated from the color slide but super super awesome job with the typefaces and treatments. That definitely got my attention.

Stacie’s advice

1.Good description of your audience. Still love the portal visual idea. I’m also happy to see that you have particular places in mind. I’m curious if there would also be some benefit to having them in places that are visited by the vast majority of students, such as the UC? Where would the stickers be placed? Right on the vinyl ‘portal’? I’m also curious of how the stickers would be gathered as the places you’ll have the vinyl are outside. You’ll need to think about weather. Might there also be other places/ways to access the stickers where they would encourage participation? Your typographic sketches work well with the concept. I’m still a little hazy on how the digital piece works and how people will find out about it. I may have just been typing when you addressed this. Let’s talk.

Danae’s advice

1.Like the idea of the spatial piece being a window into different places in pittsburgh. — not sure I’d stop to engage in the interactive piece without a little more motivation to do so, the location of these screens will be crucial — you don’t want it to be in a high traffic area when people are changing classes for example, more in a palce that encourages casual exploration (coffee stops on campus?) — — -I lke the action and validation, using a metaphor like a netflix episode or something else you do daily is a great way to compare an abstract concapt (time) into doing something more productive/ adventurous

Conclusions

Stickers:

1.on laptop

2.A little bit too awkward if it just shows the names of places in Pittsburgh

3.Stickers reusable, recyclable.

4.Personal

Spatial piece:

1.Don’t show too much of the photo so that people r still interested

2.Installed at a place that encourages casual interactions.

3.

Ditial piece:

1.How it is connected to the other two components

2.How are people related to these components

Answers

11 • Another meeting

April 20th, 2016, Wednesday

• Finish the medium post
• Email Stacie to find a time to meet tomorrow.
• I have to stop staying up late; I feel so horrible right now
• Prototype, prototype, prototype, Raph got the glass pieces, and we can create posters
• Look at other people’s comments for us
• Sketch more in the sketchbook, work on the visual aspect of design

What is due

1.Summarize the feedback

2.Prototype the spatial piece

3.Brainstorm ideas on how to approach the print piece and the digital piece

Questions

Today’s work

The poster prototyping worked well. We installed a chrome vinyl material behind the printed poster so that people can physically see themselves appear in a different place. We borrowed a giant sheet of the printed piece from Smiley lab as our background.

Currently, the thoughts we have on the digital piece is that

1.We should emphasize on the power of the social media

2.It should not be a stand-alone app but instead be integrated into the existing software.

On the print piece, our thoughts are:

1.Laptop stickers, something attractive

2.Vintage post cards

3.Small pieces of something, for example — a map, that can be torn off so that everyone has a unique piece of the sticker. The sticker will be a personal object that reminds the person to go out of the campus.

4.Fish eye lens stickers (not really, cool though)

We try to connect the digital and the print piece to the poster series as much as possible. The portal idea seems to be hard to transfer to the print and the digital piece.

Sketchbook:

My sketchbook is an extension of my ideas. Many have fallen but here are the survivors.

12 • Meet with Stacie

April 23rd, 2016, Wednesday

• Decide on the message of the print piece, and how it relates to the spatial piece.
• Decide on the digital piece, digital experience website, or keep pursuing Instagram.
• Set time limits and we don’t know if we are going to go for it.

What is due

1.“Tremendous progress should be made between this Thursday and next Tuesday”

Today’s progress

Stacie told us briefly that we need to focus on making the digital piece and the print piece happen and we need to worry more about how

Reflections

1.It is stupid to stay up late before the studio night and then when Stacie comes around, you have no idea what is happening.

2.You know that you need to do more and yet you still don’t have anything.

13 • Group Meeting Sat & Sun

April 24th, 2016, Thursday

• Log my progress in my medium
• Read my previous notes and document where I am right now
• The first lesson I am going to practice is to not panic and think about where I am right now and then decide where to go next.
• Experiment with visual language

What is due

1.90% of our stuff should be done already

2.Poster prototype should be done

Today’s progress

The meeting on Saturday yields little fruit. We met to decide where we will put the intervention, and that’s pretty much all we did. I couldn’t stay awake that night and then so be it.

On Sunday’s meeting we decided that we will be taking pictures in the nearby neighborhoods for the poster. However, we never planned anything ahead of the time to do. From these two meetings, I learned tremendous lessons on how to conduct effective group meetings. First, set a time and agenda on what we need to do together, and then commence the meeting. Learn from the CSA group meeting. At the end of both meetings, we never clarified on what we need to finish between this meeting and the next meeting. I feel like we are forever stuck. We need to start assigning each group member a specific job.

After coming back to campus. I recollected all the photos and believe that the following phtoos will be suitable for our spatial pieces.

These photos are intriguing and interesting for people to look at and also tell a lot about the neighborhoods.

14 • Sunday Night Crunch Time

April 24th, 2016, Sunday

• Explore the relationship between the Digital, Spatial & Print pieces
• The theme s and variations between the three mediums
• Start documenting inspirations in your sketchbook
• Remember that your interventions are in baby steps. Don’s stress out too much.
• Develop visual language

What is due

1.90% of everything

Today’s progress

I sketched out concepts for visual languages, relationships between the digital piece, the print piece and the spatial piece. The problem with my exploration is that I did a lot of the explorations on my own and they all yielded fruitless results. Therefore, what I learned from this class is that I have to believe in my team and contribute during the team meetings instead of trailing off on my own. I also experimented with visual languages somewhat.

An inspiring article that taught me about the importance of high level thinking.

I brainstormed the words that describe our project the best first and then we go off to experiment the visual forms that express my ideas the most.

Anqi takes tremendous leadership in the process by asking me and and Raph to bring in works that can be discussed among us and we are happy about the results. I learned to move forward with our meetings.

15 • Monday Meeting Severe Crunch time

April 25th, 2016, Monday

• I want to log my medium
• Tkae photoso aof the process

What is due

1.90% of our project.

Today’s lessons

We realize that we haven’t done much and therefore we started the day off with visual language sketches. We deicded to swtitch hte shape from geometric to circular shapes so that they appear more friendly.

We also wrote ideas for catches and actions on the white board to choose the appropriate ones.

13 • Team meeting & Meet with Stacie

April 26, 2016, Wednesday

• Write down Stacie’s advice to my group.
• Help find more styles related to my Explore Pittsburgh’s styles
• Sketch more in my sketchbook about different ways that I can contribute to the group.
• Scan the feedback otehr groups gave us.

What is due

1.More refined visual languages. We have to keep working on the messages.

2.Work out the digital piece. Believe in that a healthy team meeting can produce more than you can in a few hours.

Today’s progress

Let truth be told: our group is not the most functioning group but we get along so well that I mistake friendship to good team dynamism. Meetings are different from hang outs. We went to Pittsburgh zine shop to hang out but not to meet.

Today, Stacie wants to talk to us for 5 mins and we know that means she believes that our piece is far from there.

Stacie asked us the following questions to help us evaluate the effectiveness of our communication pieces:

1.Does the message actually give the readers a clear direction of what to do?

2.Are you one of the groups that have a catch but not a call to action? (yes, our actions for the spatial and print pieces are: Think about it. It only takes an episode of netflix to go to Lawrenceville. It doesn’t really tell the readers anything. Also, “Find me when you are free” is too vague for the audience to pick up).

3.Make sure that actions and validations are on your pieces

4.Pay attention to Hierarchy. What is the most important message for your pieces.

5.Communicate clearly; look at the types and the use of images. If the image used is in full bleed, then the use full bleed images in a specific scenario only. Don’t switch it with other things.

6.Apply everything that you learned from this semester! Wait, what did I learn?

The advice Stacie gave to my group are :

1.The style is inconsistent. Our style is more corporate than fun and guerilla.

2.Produce the digital piece.

3.The message is unclear, especially the action part. The validation is non-existent right now.

Questions for Stacie

1. How to construct a coherent piece altogether.

16 • Thursday Meeting

April 28th, 2016, Monday

• Log our major progress in our medium. I haven’t logged my progress on the medium for a while. I need to keep this habit going. With only 4 mins, I can still put a lot of things here.
• Retouch on the photoshop file and see what else I can do.

Daily Progress

Yesterday, after talking to Stacie, we decided that we need to re-design our visual languages to be more street and personal. Therefore, we started exploring street culture and look at different street brands.

Afterwards, we thought hand-lettering was the best way to deliver a personal message and we started experimenting with paint markers.

It dawned on us that this is what we have been seeking for.

Therefore, we spent the rest of the night working on catch, action and validations and we overhauled the entire information system. We believe that “It’s not another Universe, it’s just Pittsburgh” limits our abilities to tell the stories we want to tell and a new catch and general direction is needed .Therefore, we designed the message to be more straightforward:

1.Catch: Hello, I am a Yinz-in-training.

2.Action: Have Yinz been to (insert Pittsburgh places here)

3.Validation: You could watch another episode of Netflix or you could visit (insert Pittsburgh places)

The new information is more attention catching and we designed the content for all three mediums below.

Andrew

1.Have a mobile version because that’s often how people web

2.Change the type on the print piece to hand lettering because it looks stale

3.Add URL to stickers

4.Click through from web to Google maps, sets them up

5.Send files to Stacie for Skype tomorrow

Robyn

1.Color bar or sky photo as header on web piece — everything needs more life and color

2.Photos need to be brighter — choose photos!!!

3.The portal needs to look less photoshopped, needs to have more structure to match the aesthetic of the other pieces

17 • Friday Meeting

April 29th, 2016, Friday

• Set the typeface
• Meet with the group

18 • Saturday Meeting

April 30th, 2016, Saturday

• Refine spatial / Digital / Print pieces and send them all to Staice for advice.
• Add URL to all three mediums.
• Design the workflow of the digital piece.

Daily Reflection

1. Making is better than thinking —

Transferring from thinking to doing really proves to be a giant leap for my group. As we prototype real life -size mock ups. We start to think about how people are going to interact with the piece in the environment and how we can transfer the message effectively to the audiences.

Regarding design, the composition between the catch, the action, the validation and the portal all need experimentation. Soon, we realize the problem is that we are trying to “trick” the audiences into believing that the hole actually exists. However, when we decide to be honest and tell the audiences that we know this is just a concept and we are happy if they get the message we are sending them, the poster becomes much more pleasing to look at.

Afterwards, Raph and Anqi both give me advice on how to improve the spatial piece:

1.The hierarchy between different graphic elements need to be improved.

2.Think about how people are going to use it

17 • Friday Meeting

April 29th, 2016, Friday

• Send Stacie the email to get the advice for the design works
• Work on the digital aspect of the project.
• Shoot photos of the process work I have so far.
• Drink Coffee
• Trim the edges of the pieces I have

Daily Progress

Today we made great progress on producing more catches, actions and validations. Our current catches, actions and validations are:

1.Catch: Have Yinz been to (insert name of the places here)

2. Action: You could watch another episode of Netflix or you could (insert actions here)

3.Validations:

Feeling stuck in a rut? Studies show that going to a new place can help you solve problems more creatively.

“We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” — ts eliot

Experiencing new environments besides school and home has been shown to relieve stress.

We finalized the image choices for the sticker piece and rearranged the text for the print, sticker and the web. We realized the treatment of text and images is the most important thing for creating a visual system. After multiple iterations, we finally arrived at a place where the print and sticker pieces appear to be consistent.

In order to arrive at this typeface arrangement, I have to go through a lot of iterations, and here they are: