Supervisor meeting with Simone 15/04/15

Today was the first meeting with Simone in about 4 weeks, as she was off for Easter for 2 weeks and prior to that I missed our last meeting because I had to go home.  I had sent her the draft sections of my dissertation which she had read some of.  The good news is, she is happy with most of what I have written (woohoo!) despite the fact that I am very over the word limit and I am not even finished drafting!  She gave me some notes on what she has read so far and we have another meeting on Friday to go over the rest of what she has read.  I had planned to blitz on and get the rest of the Contextual Review finished up today, but I was ill after lunch so it has not been a hugely productive afternoon.

In other news, a friend of mine who took the survey and viewed the prototype very kindly lent me his old iPad 3 to test on in order to help the design process, which was very kind and will hopefully help this last bit of cleaning up the UI as I will be able to see how it actually looks and feels, rather than relying on InvisionApp's simulator.  Speaking of this, Simone had a look through the prototype and voiced some opinions/concerns over navigation.  Once I am done with the current dissertation writing and editing, I am going to go in and change what needs changed/adapted.  This includes a re-ordering of some sections - we decided that exercises for mindfulness should be an option on the home page so that users would have a point of stickiness to return to the app again and again.  As you can see below, there is no direct route to this from the homepage on the current build.  It was also decided that the pale background would be the one to go for, as neither journalistic evidence nor the survey results established a definitive preference.  I wanted to give users the option to switch between a dark and light colour scheme, but Simone urged me to keep my workload to the essentials given that hand in is in almost 11 days (EEK).

Screen grab of "What Is Mindfulness?" page

We also discussed the idea of having users tap on buttons saying "Got it!" "Okay" etc as this will prompt them to read the text content and also make them feel like they are achieving goals, which directly relates to the application of flow theory in interactive design.  This is something I have written about previously and has emerged as something quite important to both practical and theoretical work, as well as being a help to the user experience design (and I need a lot of that!)

Week 11 supervisor meeting with Simone and draft of survey questions

Again, this week's supervisor meeting was relatively short, but was nonetheless really useful feedback-wise.  First off, I have finally worked out a bunch of questions to ask in my survey, and with practical development coming along it looks like I could have it ready by Friday - yay! 

Here are my proposed questions below, which will make up the main body of the survey:

1.  Do the illustrations help you to understand the processes of mindfulness and it's practice?

• How so? (explain in text box)

This question would be open ended, allowing participants to write about helpful elements of the illustration.  

2.  The images helped me to understand the processes because they showed…

• A literal process (e.g the brain diagrams)
• A depicted process (e.g the meditation illustrations)
• A depicted idea (e.g…?)

This question refers to the semiotics theory I am using to underpin part of my research.  By getting feedback on whether an icon, index, or symbol is more effective I can hopefully link my survey findings to literary research.

3.  Can you suggest any ways the illustrations could be enhanced to further help your understanding of the processes of mindfulness?

• Open-ended question

Originally I had wanted to put suggestions here, but Simone advised avoiding pre-emptive options for answers as much as possible.

4.  How did you feel about the amount of illustration on each page shown here? 

• Too much
• Enough to help give me a good idea if the subject matter
• Not enough to give me a good idea of the subject matter

At the moment I only have one illustration per page - is this enough or too little?

5.  How easy was it to read the text on the screen?

• The words in the text are legible
• The words in the text are difficult to read

6.  If you answered difficult to read, why?

• The text is too small
• The text is too cramped (letters too close together)

This one has just been added just now as I was re-wording things, so may or may not be kept in.  It is important to get feedback on how effective or ineffective the kerning is.

7.  What kind of tone of voice did you get from the choice of typefaces used?

• Friendly
• Authoritative
• Informal
• Informative

I want the feel to be friendly and informative so it is important to find out whether that comes across to participants.

8.  How do you feel about the amount of text information on the page?

• Too much
• Enough to help give me a good idea if the subject matter
• Not enough to give me a good idea of the subject matter

Too much text would result in cognitive load - not good!  Getting the right amount is vital to effective information design in the app. 

9.  After viewing the pages for the application, how likely is it that you might try mindfulness (either exercises or as a practice)?

• Very
• Quite
• Maybe
• Not at all

10.  Why did you choose the above answer?

• The information provided to me by the app
• The presentation of the information and the visuals
• The visual style and branding made it seem accessible

It's important to know if the way the information was presented was informative and persuasive.

I am going to run these questions by Simone again on Thursday and double check that I have the go -ahead. 

I also showed her a few pieces of my work from the last week and she gave me feedback.  In particular,  she said that there were too many dotted lines in some images, so I will need to go back and look at what they are best suited to.  She also noted that for some step-by-step processes I had, it would be better to have page numbers in the top corner than a label indicating the next step, as it gives the user a clear indication of how many steps are involved in each process and how much time it would take. (see image below) There are going to be a lot of iterations over the next few weeks I think - more to write about in my dissertation I suppose. 

As I mentioned, my next meeting with Simone is this Thursday, so I am aiming to have the breadcrumbs and accordion menu done for then, so that she can look over it and have a final say on pages before I put the survey together and send it out to people.

Week 10 Supervisor Meeting with Simone

Today's supervisor meeting involved Simone going over my current methodology section with me, which turned out to be a lot more of a making chapter than anything!  At this point, I have written more about research which constitutes as part of a contextual review than a methodology, but I am ok with that as the section as is is at 2000 words - a little too wordy for what is supposed to be the shortest section of the dissertation.  Simone recommended two books - Art Practice as Research and another one about visualising data, the name of which I can't remember.  The writing side of things will come together more when I start working on my literature review next week.

When showing Simone my work, I got some really good feedback and pointers on the design of the navigation system.  At present, I have designed an interface which is pretty basic and relies on little icons on the corner to take the user to either the homepage, the starting point for the brain, or the starting point for the body.  (See this in an upcoming post - I've been keeping my work to myself again, oops!). While talking to her about it we both realised I had no breadcrumbs system in place to tell the user where they were in the whole system, so that's something to fix ASAP.  Simone pointed out that if I was planning to use an Apple device for my showcase, I should follow the way Apple's operating system is designed as many iOS apps mimic Apple's own design.   She showed me the style of menus used both by Apple and apps run on them, such as Spotify and Ebay.  From looking at these I could glean that the accordion style of menu which pops out from a subtle hamburger icon, as well as where the simple navigation buttons were placed.  This is an extra something to iterate for next week.

I showed Simone my work from the past week, explaining how each broader section was sorted into a topic (for example, mindfulness and mental health is currently one page) and how that leads to a new modal window which goes into each section of that page in more depth.  In some places, I thought about having scrolling implemented so that the process pages (the how-to exercises and so on) but after discussing it with Simone and taking into account literature studies in reading about page vs. screen learning, I decided to keep the style consistent and have single-screen windows which centre around an illustration.

An important decision which was made during this meeting was to use a darkened background in a modal window.  Between Simone wanting to consider the element of "switching off" in the design of the app, and supporting literature against the case for on-screen reading as the brightness hurts the eyes, the "dimmed" look is my current choice for the modal windows.

For next week I am aiming to have a more solid idea of questions to ask in my survey - there are 6 weeks left, I need to get it sorted!

Week 9 supervisor meeting with Simone

Today's supervisor meeting was relatively short, as I had no practical work to show Simone.  Instead, I have been working on making notes from this fantastically helpful book, case studies, and my methodology section of my dissertation (as well as launching a game with Dyno Games, which stole a couple days of my time!).  I have sent to her so that she can go over it and give me feedback next week.  I want to get back into practical work now, so the plan for next Tuesday is to work on the layout of the app pages more and incorporate buttons, tabs etc., so that I can get ready to create the next bulk of pages with less iterations eating up my time.

One thing I was reminded to look at is a valid reason for making an app related to mindfulness, rather than off-screen visuals, so that is some further reading to do for next week.

Superviser meeting Week 8 notes

Today I met with Simone for our weekly meeting, where I showed her my draft dissertation plan and we briefly discussed the topic of flow and the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.   I am in the process of writing a blog post on flow based on some of Csikszentmihalyi's work so that will lend more context to the conversation! 

Much of Csikszentmihalyi's writings centres around states of flow and attention while using technology, which ties in with the other topic which was the question of using technology to communicate a subject that is typically associated with the opposite technology.   Simone suggested looking at a TED Talk by Sherry Turkle which I will write about later today.   We also discussed what ways I could create stickiness in the app  - Simone suggested using something like a link to a meditation playlist on Spotify.  The how-to sections of the app would be the primary points of stickiness which would get users to keep coming back to the app.  

One of the things I brought up in my presentation was how I would make the icons, especially on the splash screen of the app, look so that their function was immediately apparent.  Simone said that she felt a good way around that would be to use modal windows, as I showed in the presentation, which the user could tap on and see what counter linked to what section of the app.

Draft dissertation structure

Contents Table

Abstract

Introduction

Contextual Review:

Theoreticals

• Semiotic Theory
• Gestalt Theory
• Flow 
• Technology relationships (Sherry Turkle etc)

Content

• Mindfulness and associated visuals
• Designing for the target audience
• How to create a state of stickiness in using the app

Design

• Relationships between illustration and typography
• The visual system and learning
• Print/screen relationships
• Aesthetic themes of the artwork in the app

Methodology

• Practice based research
• Case studies
• Survey - what & questions

Results

Results of the survey, what do they mean 

Style guide

Outcomes 

• Web prototypes
• Print posters

Analysis of evaluation

• What went well, what didn't

Conclusions

• Results
• Further discussion
• Further reading

References

Any necessary appendices

I plan to at least have much of the methodology section of the dissertation drafted by next week in order to get feedback, and hopefully have made a good crack at the literature review too (although that remains to be seen). 

Week 7 supervisor meeting with Simone

I explained that the working title I am going with is "Relationships Between Illustration and Typography in Information Design".  Simone suggested refining that question even more to be specific to apps and the relationships between screen and print design.  Based on this I have expanded that a little so that the working title/question is now; "Relationships Between Illustration & Typography in Information Design for Educational Apps." Wordy!

I also spoke about how I have chosen two theories to underpin my dissertation research (*finally*).  As I will speak about in upcoming posts (note making is in progress at the moment), I have chosen semiotic theory and Gestalt theory as my academic frameworks, as both can be directly applied to my practical work and information design.  So far I have found both theories to be insightful on the topic of designing for information; particularly Gestalt theory as I have found academic papers where it is directly applied to an educational app to improve its function.   Simone also said I can briefly look at any other theories which could relate, but if they didn't serve the purpose I could write about why that was so (this is more a note to self than anything).   I feel so much better about having a plan for my academic theories now, and it means I can speak about it in Friday's presentation.

When showing my practical work from this week (also on it's way, being linked in to research posts now), Simone talked about creating a style guide for myself as we were discussing the possibilities of mixing a title font with a body font.  I found out that this could be put into the dissertation as a relevant section which could bridge the theory and practical sides of the project.  She very helpfully sent me a Powerpoint created for her second year students on Information Design, which details examples from a style guide put together for the Australia.au website.    The guide included things I hadn't thought of before such as where the logo will be placed if the screen is rotated and logo misuse.  I don't expect I will have time to create one for this Friday as I am still wanting to experiment, but I hope I will have one down in the next week or so so that I can have it ready for a week today (and have actually started a bit of my dissertation…).

Week 6 Supervisor Meeting

This week's supervisor meeting threw up a lot of questions, both by me and Simone.  She was happy with my flowchart (see previous post) but wanted to know how much of it I felt was absolutely necessary when it comes to creating the app pages.  This is a question I still need to answer properly myself, as I of course want to do aaaallllll the things, but this might not be possible given that I have a very full schedule and need to hit the ground running on further research and writing my dissertation.  I briefly discussed what my thoughts were - I am in two minds about having the "how to" section, because resources on those are widely available on the internet and in books, with everything from guided audio meditations on YouTube to classes available.   What I feel is most important here is presenting the information surrounding the benefits of practising mindfulness, as I believe this is what will be more persuasive. For the presentation I am aiming to work through those and the "how to" guides might be created later.

As an aside, something I found very interesting when talking to Tricia (who teaches mindfulness at student services) was that some MBSR and MBCT classes cost upwards of £200 for a block - these are aimed at busy executives who are stressed out in their jobs and need a solution.  The fact that they are paying so much for something that can be self-taught shows that in some cases the public is still under-informed about what mindfulness is and how they can benefit from it.

This led me to thinking about who "customer X" is and how to market the app and associated print visuals to them, as I know that if I don't have this at the presentation this will be a question I will be asked.  I spoke with Simone about this last week, mentioning people like my dad and my best friend's father who both shied away from the idea of mindfulness meditation, despite being the same kind of busy corporate execs who would benefit from it!  As I am creating the pages and the layouts, this is something I am going to cover alongside it so that the app has a cohesive identity throughout.

Another big question of the meeting was what my question is.  This I am still working on; while I am closer to hitting the nail on the head than I was last week, I still need to pinpoint the research question so that I can identify what practical work will answer it, and how.  The hand-in for the infrastructure forms is this coming Monday, so I need a title for then!  I would like it to encompass information design and my previous area of focus - image-type relationships - because the two can be linked as seen in my post about Happify info graphics.

Alongside this I was also nervous about still having little idea what theory was going to underpin my research.  I spoke about this to Simone who mentioned semiotic theory, which has turned out to be a pretty good basis and one I will likely end up using.  Following her advice I searched for articles or works that linked semiotic theory to information design, and found some excellent reads including Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction by Shaleph O'Neil and Semiotics as a Theoretical Foundation for Information Design by Jason H. Sharp.  The former was really helpful in helping me to better understand semiotic theory, as outlined by the key people of the field.   This is great, as one of my concerns I spoke to Simone about was that I had a difficult time understanding the concept of semiotics the last time I read up on it.

My next blog post should be about these books/articles and perhaps other theories which could be applied to the research project, as this was my task for my next supervisor meeting.

First draft of web design flowchart for app

Here is the first version of the website flowchart for my meeting with Simone later on today.  The purpose of this, aside from the obvious, was to help plan out my workload so that I could determine how many pages I would create.  Ideally I want to do all of them, but Simone has said that it is possible that I don't need to do that and instead have "key" pages with the information I feel is most vital.  As you may have seen from previous posts I have started illustrations for some of these already, so after discussing this version of the flowchart with Simone I'll be able to prioritise and get cracking for this progress presentation next Friday.

Week 2 meeting with Simone 20/01/15

This week's meeting went over what I have been looking in mindfulness apps (see previous posts), which Simone seemed happy with.  Last week she asked me what specific element of mindfulness I was going to look at, and since looking through the apps and how they work I have decided that my work will centre around encouraging short breathing exercises and body-scan exercises.  This is because it is the easiest way to get into mindfulness, as well as probably being the simplest aspect of the practice for newcomers to get their heads around.  In the past I have been taught, by way of an introduction to being mindful, to focus on the sensation of a warm cup of tea in my hands, or to turn all of my attention to the feeling in my toes.  Little things like this are a very accessible to everyone and don't require a lot of effort, so are well suited to the area I am focusing on.

My main question this week was about how the practical side of things would inform the research.  The lecture we had earlier raised this point, and I realised I am not so sure about this.  I think in order to answer this I need to press on with practical work - I have made a tentative start, but this week has turned out to be all about the research!  Simone suggested looking at how traditional media and digital media go back and forth, particularly with print media and app design. I reckon will be an interesting place to go.

As I am leaning more and more towards creating content for an app (alongside printed posters as advertisement), we discussed where I could get hold of a tablet in time for the degree show, as I don't currently own one.  I have emailed to ask if I can request an iPad mini, so fingers crossed! This also led on to what I could put on business cards in relation to the project and what the "take away" would be for people.  I have been brainstorming little slogans which could be used to attract people, so at the moment I am thinking a mix of them would be a nice touch and Simone agreed.

With regard to case studies, it was agreed that I would do extended versions of some of the apps I just blogged about.  Since I am also looking at branding and persuasion, there is probably scope to go back and do case studies on some of the stuff I looked at last semester.  Simone also recommended I look up existing academic journals on app design and see what I can find, as well as reading design blogs such as Fast Company.  The idea of reading spiritual, new-age books to get a grounding in Bhuddism-based mindfulness was also floated.

My reading for the next fortnight will also cover more of the history of graphic design, as the point was made that in order to go forward you have to look at what has been done before.  I have lots to do!

Meeting with Simone recap

This post is a little late, as I had my first supervisor meeting with Simone on Tuesday.  I felt like the meeting went well, I managed to get across my ideas and Simone asked a lot of questions which helped to streamline my focus a bit.  After I explained that my project would be looking at the relationship between image and typography, and that my practical project would be to create a body of visuals promoting the practice of mindfulness.

  Straight away Simone said that I if I was doing so, I would need to define mindfulness more as at the moment just saying "mindfulness" was too general.  She wanted to know what area, and what practices  I would be centring my work around.  Her next question was how I would present the visuals.  At this point I was thinking about a series of posters and information leaflets, however she made the point that leaflets were the kind of thing that would be iced up at a health and wellbeing fair - not the kind of place my envisioned target audience would be going.   She suggested that I stick with the posters but instead of a leafier create a series of visuals for the web, such as banner ads and a mock prototype of a website.  With regard to that, one of my jobs for this week is to look at web-based mindfulness materials, in particular apps designed for the mobile/tablet market.

Because I was clear about wanting to move away from the traditional new age visuals that can put people off trying mindfulness and meditation, Simone told me to look at what was already out there that was of the style that I did not want to do.  Coincidentally I mentioned Hay House books as an example of an aesthetic I don't want to go for, and Simone was able to recommend some spiritual people to look up as she used to work for Hay House in Australia.  She had a quick look at some of the names she remembered and we noticed that a few of them were moving into Twitter to connect with more people, so another task for me is to look at how content has been adapted for social media.

With regard to my dissertation topic, Simone recommended going back and looking at the history of graphic design, including Bauhaus aesthetics and making & breaking the grid.  If I am to take my designs forward, I need to know their history.  She also suggested looking at the Futurists, and in particular concrete poetry such as Zang Tumb Tumb and onomatopoeic poems.

Finally, I was asked to have a clear idea of what my target audience is and where I would expect them to go after viewing and interacting with my work.  This I will have to think about a lot more, as it is obvious I need to get real specific.