Amy Stephens’ Weblog

Please click on the link below to download my curriculum vitae.

a_stephens-cv

Here are some flat spreads from the book section of me credo. It was printed on 150gsm spicers satin paper, double sided, full colour with two gatefolds and various inserts of intricate paper stocks from Dragon Papers. It was bound at Law Bindery. The covers were 500gsm black box board, with a textured white stock paper, again from dragon papers and printed with the title in black. The spine was covered in a Black textred tape. Pics to come of final…

Over the past 12 weeks the credo project has occupied every extra minute I have a time to think (which is usually at the end of a long day, while I’m trying to sleep but can’t). Anyway – I think I have finally come to like what I have produced. Originally I was so hooked up with trying to find a theme and relating that theme to new technologioes and in the midst of this lost my way and became overwhelmed with different ideas and concepts. So I put the project to the back of my mind, and waited for this amazing idea to come forth out of the constant ticking as my mind battled on.

Finally, I can’t really remember when, I think it was a slightly hung over sunday, I realised – this credo is about me, and my thoughts, my opinions, my reactions and my inspirations. All of this I can easily relate to new technologies. And so I begun designing, and the project practically visually vomited from my mind (and 10 weeks of thinking about it) onto paper.Typical.

So now, I am waiting to pick up my Credo from the book binders and I’m actually excited about it. Last night I finished the packaging, which conceptually, is rather deep. And inside the box I have a CD (of my folio of work) and a DVD (a design research project case study) aswell as the Credo Book which documents my thoughts, creative process, response to various things and my inspirations. All of which neatly tie in to my relationship with new technologies. I’m actually rather excited to get it all back and hand it over for submission….I think Today I actually like the credo project. It made me face who I am as a Designer – after 4 years at uni, what do I stand for in the world of design? Whats my opinion on how the world is changing and more importantly, how do i become the messenger to mankind? Yes, I definitely like the credo project. Thanks Tony.

We have chosen the following design outcomes as part of our submission for the studio section of this unit:

Publication – this incorporates our text from the proposal document.

Product Design – a range of the re<mind information retention aids in different materials for different budgets.

Memory Games – we have developed flip books and a pairs memory game for the final presentation.

Postcards – these are for give aways at the presentation for audience members

Our final presentation will also involve a group excersise experience and an interactive website to accompany the memory games as well as a screen presentation and 3D animation.

Prototyping the glass gave us great direction in the form that the product should take.

Requirements

The glasses require a few ertain elements to function including – lenses, frames (capable of fitting the computer system in), a battery, a battery connection point (Interface Cable 400PCU), a memory card slot (micro SD Size), a camera, a speaker/voice recorder, a power button and a record button.

The intial design

This design was intended to have black pastic frames, however we have decided to propose a product range that features various materials and styles. This material would be on the cheaper end of the market. This design was refined further with a reconsideration of the placment of buttons and plugs as well as a change to a titanium material.

Below is our final logo. We have increased the space between the arrow and ‘mind’ so visually it appears of equal weight with the ‘re’ and the arrow. We have also slightly increased the thickness of the arrow so it has more dominance. This logo will always be featured in the negative format as shown. It will never be shown as a positive out of white. It is intended that the black boundary box be seen as part of the mark and not simply a coloured space for a negative version of the mark.

Also below is the icon which will appear when the re<mind product is plaugged (via USB cable) into a computer.

So we hand in our proposal document (undesigned version) tomorrow – i think we have done really well by making sure we covered all topics and sections in detail.

Our research methods (online survey, ethnographic study and focus group visualisations) have given us alot of evidence to back up what we’re developing and why. The most important method that we have just begun and will hopefully focus on this week is the paper prototying. Here are some initial sketches (VERY rough) that I did!

so we are officially over the halfway mark and the project is really getting going. We hand in our Design proposal on the 7th Octber, so currently we arn’t doing much other than writing writing writing!!! I have been put in charge of writing up introductions on the three methodologies we are triangulating in our research (which are an online survey, ethnographic studies and paper prototyping). The online survey was created approximately 2 weeks ago and has now closed with more than 242 people participating which is great! unfortunately for us, do to restrictions on our membership with the survey providers (we got the free version) we can only use the sample of 102 responses, but this is more than enough!here are some of the most outstnading results we received:

“OF OUR SAMPLE 62% ARE CURRENTLY STUDYING”
“92% ATTEND LECTURES”
“95% TAKE NOTES DURING A LECTURE”
“97% WOULD CONSIDER A PRODUCT THAT ASSISTED THEM IN RETAINING INFORMATION A BENEFICIAL STUDY AID”
“77% WOULD CONSIDER BUYING A PRODUCT IF THIS SORT”
“ONLY 7% OF STUDENTS CONSISTENTLY REVIEW NOTES AFTER A LECTURE”

What methods/ways/processes do you currently employ to help you retain information?
The majority of participants (97 people responded to this question) said repetition and writing information down were the two main processes they used to remember information. Verbally reciting (or telling someone else the same piece of information) aswell as visual association (this one may be particularly high however considering 47% of our sample are design students!) were also quite consistently mentioned

If there was a piece of technology that could subconsciously help your brain retain information, where and when would you choose to use this device?
Out of 95 responses, 47 said they would use it for study, many mentioned within a lecture environment in particular. Surprisingly, 25 said they would use it all the time, and in everyday life! Only 17 mentioned using it for work, and this usually related to organising appointments and remembering key points brought up in meetings etc.

The second method we have finished are our ethnographic studies, which involved the three of us attending a 2nd year University, 1 hour, lecture. One took notes of the information presented within the lecture, whilst the other two observed and noted the participants (who were oblivious to us being there watching them!). We asked the students at the end of the lecture to write down up to 7 pieces of information they recalled from the lecture – we then collected these off the students. We have compared this group to the second lecture group we studied, of whom were asked to recall/note the 7 pieces as they received the information, we then collected these results after the lecture finished.

We have created a timeline of the general mood/concentration levels of the students over the one hour period and noted factors that seemed to increase concentration levels (such as humor and strong visuals). This will be presented in our proposal.

Our final research method to still be completed is the paper prototyping. I believe this will be an important factor in figuring out the design and most importantly the ergonomics of the device. It will also be a strong indicator of functions our target audience would like to be converged into the product and why.

So our project is moving along quite nicely and we are now at the stage of completing our research methods triangulation for our design research proposal. We have sent out an online survey which has gotten 95 responses already which is great. From this research method we hope to gather information on ways in which people/students employ to help them retain information (such as writing notes etc) and also on whether they would find a memory retention device a beneficial study aid.

Our second research method we are completing this week is an ethnographic study on students participating in a 1 hour lecture. We will watch and record how many students are writing notes, typing on laptops, using dictaphones to record the sound, illustrating or even those who are doing unrelated activities such as texting or snoozing which shows they do not retain any information from the lecture at all. At the end of the lecture we will be asking them to quickly jot down/sketch 3-5 things they remember from the lecture. This will show us how much information  and more importantly what information is retained within minutes of the lecture finishing and also what methods (diagrams, keypoints, keywords) most people use when remembering the information. We will then compare these results to another lecture in which we will notify the participants at the beginning of the lecture that they are required to jot down/sketch 3-5 things during the lecture. This will be in contrast to the results received from the students who were asked to complete the task after the lecture had finished. We will post the results as soon as they have been collected and analyzed.

So with the literature review handed in we’re currently attempting to get a new direction, or moreso a narrower direction.

Through our research we have discovered how images and photographs can be used as memory cues for those who suffer dementia and alzheimers disease. However, as there has not been enough clinical trials and proper research conducted on this as fact we have decided to focus more on memory cues and creating a product that could assist people with their short term memory retention. Things like remembering someones name when we first meet them, or remembering a quote that was on the lecture screen a second ago but is now gone. By creating a program/product that could assist people and in particular students in short term memory retention we could be aiding the education of the next generation…..more to come!