Formative Assessment Reflection

Formative Presentation

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Feedback Received

**Matteo:**
our filter bubbles, nice mind map to illustrate ideas generation process
why Xmas? affects everybody but people have different experiences (filter bubbles), Xmas is a global phenomenon but it creates bubbles
information design: using colour meaningfully
use open-source code and adapt it to your purpose
bit.ly/hashtagXmas
explain the tech: how does it work*

**Aidan:** Clear visual support, good reasoning behind Instagram, nice idea for visualising it (branching off through circles)
Jack: good breakdown of how they came to a decision, good mind map to break down ideas, need to make more eye contact rather than speaking to the screen, Johan needs to learn to hold a remote, good to relate back to filter bubbles and how it’s relevant, like the idea of different languages.

**Jonny:** Nice way of exploring cultural differences

**Rana:** nice mind map, good reason behind choosing christmas, the whole team is interested in it, fun subject

**Metod:** Showing research through a mind map. Explaining the concept well! Talking about the theme through different experiences — talking about personal stories (really good approach in presentations). All three presenters are engaged and handover the presentations tasks. Visually a very good circularly-dividing interactive graphic. Reservation re a circle, because different words will have different lengths and will sometimes run outside the circle?!

**Ryder:** Nice to see a html mockup.

*Joe:** Good presentation, the mockups looked really good. I reckon that displaying Instagram images within each circle would be a really good idea. By doing that you’ll be able to show a brilliant snapshot of what christmas looks like visually in different countries as well as just showing hashtags. This’ll probably increase the size of your audience as well if you plan on releasing the project to the public online.

Formative Reflection

We received some great feedback from our Formative Presentation from our peers in the class, the lecturer (Matteo) and a guest Lecture (Metod) to give an Industry and External point of view to the project. The presentation took place on 29th October 2015, It took around 10–15 Minutes to Present, and then 5 Minutes or so for Feedback to discuss the criticism we received and discuss some further steps.

I personally felt that our Presentation went really well, we were organised and our ideas came across and explained very well. From the feedback we received, this appears to be true. I will explain some of the positive feedback responses we have had from our peers and how this feedback can be taken on board to develop the project further.

Clear Progression of Idea

The first point of feedback is that we had a clear Progression of the Idea with the use of Graphics. This was commented by Matteo and Aidan. We felt that it was important to engage the audience through info graphics so that they can go on a journey of how we came up with the idea. I felt that this paid off as the users could feel part of the journey. We started explaining our own Filter Bubbles and that we found that between us three in the group, we had some common elements such as we were all Interested in Social Media, Tech, News and Online Videos. This clear visualisation to show this, and then the explanation of how we applied our interests and common filter bubble overlaps to the project helped the audience understand why we chose to base our project on Christmas and Hashtags and display the data in this proposed way.

From this feedback, we can take this and continue to show a progression for when we present for the Summative Presentation. It will also encourage us to keep it clear in our heads where we started and keep on a focused direction that we continue to take the project in.

Christmas Theme

Matteo and Metod both commented on the Christmas theme being very strong due to the ending of the unit around the start of December, therefore being very current and we can predict there being lots of data when we need it most for the idea to work properly. We explained our Idea of Christmas in a way which Metod liked, we explained using our own Personal Experiences and Stories of ‘Our Christmas’ to show how Christmas is celebrated in different countries very differently all over the world (Such as Myself is very traditional British with a Roast Turkey Dinner opening on the 25th December, Whereas Johan celebrates on the 24th December and they eat Reindeer Ham and always have snow. Ade celebrates Christmas very religiously also), and we wanted to show this visually and in an interactive way for the user.

Team Engaged in Project

Another comment that we received was that we seemed very engaged and into the project. We took this as a positive as it shows that we are Interested in the project and hopefully this comment will motivate the team to succeed with the Javascript of the project, which is expected to be the hardest element of producing the project.

HTML Mockup

Ryder said after the presentation that he liked the use of the HTML Mockup. As this showed progress and that we had a clear direction for the project to head towards. I felt that it was important to show a working version that was offline, rather than just mock ups and wireframes. We coded this on the Monday before the Presentation, with plans to then after the presentation get the javascript functions working to create the product.

Use of Colour & Images

Another Piece of feedback received was that the Use of Colour had no actual relevance to feelings etc. We went for Red, as this is usually associated with Christmas, thanks to Coca Cola and its branding of Santa Claus over the world. However, this had no emotional response for a user, and could not be justified. An idea from Metod was to use Images inside the bubbles. This would create an emotional connection to the user as “A Picture Tells a Thousand Words”. These images would be of the most recent image with that hashtag. We have discussed this as a team after the presentation and decided that this would be a great feature for the product.

Text Sizing Issues (With Circles)

Another issue that we got was that the Text sizing may have issues when there is a long hashtag for the circles. Method explained that perhaps circles aren’t the best way to show this as the text may be too long and run outside of the shape. We discussed this in the feedback and decided to review this at a later date as a team to discuss the pros and cons of changing the circle theme, which is a major element to the project.

This feedback was great as it has challenged us to rethink our ideas and notice the flaws that we wouldn’t have been able to see by ourselves. Having peer feedback was great in doing this, and having Metod and Matteo to give an Industry perspective really helped us to better the project in the future.

Team performance

I felt that our Team Performed really well and that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. As we have identified these and can work around this to be as effective as possible. We felt that designing MockUps and visually showing our progress has helped us to stay on a focused route rather than wonder, and ultimately weaken the idea. The feedback we received, helped to boost our confidence in the idea and drive it in the direction we hoped to head. We also pointed out a few flaws that would not have been possible to notice in our group alone. Having different perspectives of it has really helped to better the project and allow for the ideas to flow.

I believe that next time, we should spend some more time to evaluate before any flaws, so that we can resolve beforehand. And maybe also have regular meeting with Matteo if possible to discuss the direction of the project. We are working to reach our goal of the end product, and have achieved what we wanted in time of the presentation. There was also no conflict, just issues around when we were all free at the same time to work on the project in person. This was sorted out over Facebook Private Message.

Personal Performance

I felt that personally I learnt to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the group in the early stages to then develop and devise a plan to work around this to be most effective. This played as a strength for our team in the earlier stages of the project. I also learnt that it is important to focus our attention on remaining in the same direction and not wonder into a different direction. This was helped by the way we mapped out our progress clearly to show how the idea has developed and where it is heading with the end goal in mind.

I reached my goals in the Formative Presentation, and am working towards the end goals of the unit in preparation for the summative presentation in a few weeks time.