Minor Project

on

March 2021 Semester 4
Ng Ming De (0335594)
Minor Project (PRJ62204)
Process and Compilation

Instructions 

Week 1

We had our first meeting with Mr Mike and the professors from West Bohemia University of Czech Republic. For this module, we are given two choices: Water Rescue or Boutique Hotel. I chose Water Rescue, and the expected output is a product that can be used for water rescue or natural disasters like tsunami, floods, etc. We will be collaborating with the students from West Bohemia University throughout this project, whereby the BDCM students are in charge of researching and identifying problems and needs of the victims in floods and the West Bohemia students will be in charge of designing the product and prototyping. There are 3 groups for Water Rescue and each group only consist of 3 Taylorians. However, my group only ended up with me and my friend, Maisarah as there is no extra 1 person who is taking water rescue.



Reflection:
It was a new experience for me to collaborate with students from a different University and different country, I had some concerns for the project such as how do we come up with a water rescue product?
Do people even buy products like that? Being a person who lives in an area that is seldom affected by floods, I had no idea what it was like for other citizens in our nations who had to go through that.

Week 2

We finally managed to meet with our Czech groupmates as they had some issues with the student portal on their side, we did some research on floods in general. Mr Mike told us to decide if we want to have an interview or questionnaire to gain data, and what approach we are going to take to proceed with this project.

Fig 1.1 Flood


Reflection:
We met with the West Bohemian University students. I feel like meeting them was important to get to know them, be acquainted so that we can familiarize ourselves with our role in this project. This applies the same in the future in the working field when we will be assigned to do a project with our colleagues.

Week 3

We found and compiled some images related to flood to see the obstacles victims face during the events of a flash flood. From our visual analysis, we found that disabled people are the most vulnerable group of people during the events of flooding. 

Fig 2.1 Flash Floods

We even research and manage to gain some victim testimonies online and decided to focus on disabled/ children as our target audience for our product.

Fig 2.2 Target Audience


Reflection:
We compiled our research that we gathered with regards to water rescue and flash floods, and determined the importance of what is needed by the victims of these flash floods. We learned that during these times, handicapped people, children and the elderly are people that need help the most as they are the least mobile during events like this. Thus, I felt that we need to focus on the people in these groups as our targeted audience for our product.

Week 4

We went in-depth with our research and map out the factors we need to take into consideration before the sketching process of our product: Problem Statement, Needs, Equipment and Prevention of floods.

Fig 3.1 Factors to consider

I also noticed that the seasons in Malaysia and Czech Republic may vary, and asked what are the reasons on how flooding occurred in the Czech Republic, as Malaysian floods are mostly due to the overflowing of river. drainage system caused by the Monsoon season. My Czech groupmates said that their floods are due to overflowing of river caused by rain during the spring, and their conditions can be quite deadly as their country does not have a clear path for rainwater to subside in contrast to Malaysia, at least the river water still can flow to the sea. With this knowledge, Mr Mike said that why not we make a scenario from each country as a reference point on how our product will be able to work in that scenario.

Reflection:
I feel like the seasons of Czech Republic and Malaysia are different, like how Malaysia is always sunny whereas Czech Republic has 4 seasons. The events of flooding in Czech Republic occur during spring and autumn whereas for Malaysia, it occurs during the Monsoon season. Though there are some differences in needs between both countries, I believe that by designing a product that solves both scenarios would be beneficial for any events of the flash floods.

Week 5

The professors of West Bohemia had invited a water rescuer, Barborakubova to give a presentation on existing water rescue products and share her experiences as a water rescuer. This presentation has aid us on our research as we did not carry out any interview for our data collection as our research depended on secondary data from articles online.

Moving onto our progress, we made laid out the scenarios of flooding for both Malaysia and Czech Republic as well as our Problem statement:
Civilians, particularly children, need a way to protect themselves and 
keep themselves dry from the flood, so that they will not be swept away by 
strong currents or catch a disease from dirty stagnant water.

Fig 4.1 Scenario (Malaysia)

Fig 4.2 Scenario (Czech Republic)

Along the way, the Czech students have gathered some real life reference and concept of products that they would like to design for our product.

Fig 4.3 References of Products

Fig 4.4 Preliminary Ideas
Reflection:
The lecturers from West Bohemian University invited Barborakubova, who gave us a presentation on water rescue products and shared some of her experiences with us. It was an informative session and it opened up different aspects of water rescue that we did not anticipate from our secondary data collection from articles online. I do believe that we (the class) learned a lot from that presentation despite the language barrier, but luckily Barborakubova’s sister was able to translate to us so that we would understand the presentation.

Week 6

As I was scrolling through Facebook during the weekend, I saw a post that feature a recent flooding near my area, Kajang. I took some of the photos for us to refer to as our objective is to create a floating device for children. As we can see, children are still in need of these devices as they have a risk of drowning as opposed to adults, however, Mr Mike said that even adults could get swept away by strong currents of water during floods, thus giving us another approach for this project.

Fig 5.1 Kajang Flood

Reflection:
It was very interesting to work with people from different specializations because they produce unique designs to aid our current problem. The product designs made were innovative and usable for our problem statement in both countries. We also came to a consensus and designed this product in a way that it will benefit the difference in environment between Malaysia and Czech Republic.

Week 7

No consultation due to Hari Raya Break

Week 8

No consultation due to Independent Learning Week

Week 9

This week is our proposal presentation

Here is our proposal presentation:

Week 10

Our group doesn't really have a graphic majors student as me and Maisarah are taking entertainment design, so we don't really know the fundamentals on creating a brand identity for our product. Thankfully, Mr Mike taught use the core factors in creating the brand identity for our product.

Fig 6.1 Factors of Brand Identity

After that, we began establishing the art direction we would be going for our product.

Fig 6.2 Art Direction

Fig 6.3 Typefaces

Fig 6.4 Color Palettes

Reflection:
Our group doesn’t have a Graphic Design student, hence we, (Me and Maisarah) have to take up the task of doing the brand identity for our product. Luckily, Mr Mike was kind enough to teach us how to do the brand identity via art style, color palette, typeface, etc. This taught me that in the future, we would probably take up tasks that we are not familiar with, but it is never too late to learn.

Week 12

Me and Maisarah try our hands on designing the logo as we still hadn't finalise the brand name yet, but after consulting with Mr Mike, we went with Catabox for the brand name as it represents the catamaran structure of our product, and box being the overall shape of the product. We also made a graphic manual so that users will understand how to use the Catabox.

Fig 7.1 Logo Design

Fig 7.2 Graphic manual

I took the initiative of doing the wireframe for our product as consumers must need a platform to purchase our product, so I designed a simple layout for our website.

Fig 7.3 Wireframe 

Fig 7.4 Prototype

Reflection:
It was very challenging to design a pleasing layout for the website as I'm more accustomed to drawing illustrations rather than designing layout. In the future, I should use better references to refer to while designing a layout.

Week 13

Mr Mike told me to design at least 2 posters, one for boys and one for girls for our product using the methods below to promote our products. The idea of doodling/ drawing on elements onto the product shows a playful side of advertising, as our products are intended for children.

Fig 8.1 Reference

With that, I used a crayon brush to represent that childish feel and used soft pastel colors for the background. However, I still needed help with the wordings as I feel that it doesn't work really well. Mr Mike came up with "Safe and Imaginative, Keeping the child safe and happy" as our brand slogan.

Fig 8.2 Posters

Along the way, Mr Mike asked why not I just pick the existing layout from Pinterest that I had referred to and place everything on top of it, so I did.

Fig 8.3 Website from Pinterest

Fig 8.4 Redesigned website

Fig 8.5 Closeup

Fig 8.6 Closeup

Fig 8.7 Closeup

Fig 8.8 Closeup

Fig 8.9 Closeup

Here is the link for the prototype: https://www.figma.com/proto/RWAzRgnK1bBZHscuWRuzWQ/Minor-Project-Prototype?node-id=24%3A7&scaling=contain&page-id=24%3A2
Reflection:
Sometimes it's good to look at another group's work because there would be cases of "why didn't I think about that". My brain is like a wheel, if it doesn't move, it doesn't. So to counter this, I need to expose myself to other people's work to get inspired and start that engine in me to drive myself and create better outputs.

Week 14

I changed the wordings from the poster and obtained the final logo design approved by Mr Mike. I also added a mockup version of our posters to see its application in real life.


Fig 9.1 Final Logo

Fig 9.2 Final Logo (Inverted)

Fig 9.3 Poster #1

Fig 9.4 Poster #2

Fig 9.5 Mockup


Week 15

This week is our final week where we have to compile our output and present it to Mr Mike and the West Bohemia University lecturers.

Here is our presentation slide:

Reflection:
Overall, this project was a very good experience for me to collaborate with people from another country, working with each other to come up with a product that may save lives. Though there were some hurdles we had faced like time differences and language barriers, it was an awesome experience and opportunity to have despite the ongoing pandemic.


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