Application and Interaction




My Reflection
This lecture on how to take methods and approaches to aid idea generation and in-depth project outcome is to fail and analyse in every project you approach. Torsten Posselt outlines a very simple theory in how failing and analysing is the key to a successful project. This is the case of not overthinking and spending too much time on ideas, but to get them onto paper for a process of elimination to focus on a direction. This allows you to have the freedom to try and make things that you can learn through the process. You really need to take risks in areas that you’re not confident to overcome boundaries and discover new things from your mistakes, which in time you will learn through the process. You have to always challenge yourself in every part of the process, so when you fail at some point then you have to anaylise and proceed to make amend of what you have learned.
Matthew Jones, Accept & Proceed talks about when starting a project with the client, they work on focus group workshops to define the brief through images selections and games that they use questions to identify the solution for the brief. This is a journey that allows the client to be part of the project and makes it easy to sell an idea through your and their perception of a concept. Matthew talks about a strategy in their workshop by the name, Triangulate which is the point of view from the designer, client, and consumer. The consumer point of view is very important to a brief and many designers forget this too often when challenging a brief. This is very true to keep in mind that we need to cover all angles on the target audience and client’s opinions to succeed in a project. Overall his approach is a very visualise approach for a brief and less of a written or verbal challenge, which can benefit in many ways to see the outcome.
The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
This was a lovely talk from Alan fletcher on his book ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’ which I have a copy to myself. I love the randomness of subjects that it brings with wit and humour that allows the reader to learn something new or read up again. When he spoke about letters are a form of symbols not letters to words that most people think usually. I’ve always visioned letterforms as symbols myself due to my Dyslexia so I can focus on the shape to create the words for me to read better. Alan Fletcher’s work always amazed me and love the projects he had worked on in the past and one of my influencers to why I chose the root I’ve taken as a graphic designer.
Further Research

Design Thinking: How to make a rapid prototype for mobile apps?
This article on a rapid prototype for mobile apps gives a great indication that it’s not about the look and feel of the app but more the user experience of succeeding in developing an app for the best of the user. It really speaks highly of developing a prototype to understand your audience and the tools you wanted to create. In doing this you want to develop a prototype very quickly at an early stage after your initial research to indicate any errors or success of the project. This goes without saying not just in in-app design but also in any form of the creative process. So creating rapid prototyping can gain lots of time for taking feedback, discussions, iterating, and re-testing the updated prototype step by step.
It really discusses the process and principle of using this method through a step-by-step guide in making a rapid prototype and also design sprint which can help with completing tasks that you have a flag with the prototype in a quick response to develop another stage of the app for discussion and re-testing. Going forward with this research can help me establish a prototype that I can learn from outcome to improve throughout the rest of this project or furthermore. This gives you some sense of focusing on the wireframe and getting the navigation and correct tools for the app than worry too much on the design of the product.
Workshop Challenges
This week’s challenge is the beginning of the development and I was throwing backward and forwards on whether I do an application, wearable, or a gamification product. I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be best to create an app product that focuses on-demand support for people with Dyslexia in the UK, with my research suggesting there’s only one service in the entire country. This seems the best option rather than a wearable or gamification product that won’t have the same effect as a tool such as on-demand support and teaching aid that can be accessed around the country.
I conducted my primary user research by sending a survey to people with Dyslexia who have had issues with their day-to-day challenges. I got a great response of 45 people participating in the survey which I was more than happy with the outcome. These were questions based on when they were diagnosed if they ever masked their difficulties with others, any emotional feelings such as anxiety, self-esteem, etc, and what they thought on an application, which can help with their everyday needs.
Below are slides of the results from the survey with some very key and interesting feedback which is very helpful in my next development.

This really interested me a lot of people were diagnosed whilst at school which surprises me from my experience but is really great people are picking it up early than I expected. The majority of those are still picked up after leaving school, so there is the issue that more needs to be done.

The age range differs and it’s great this chart shows a diversity of people taking part from school children to potential grandparents.

I wanted to ask this question to see if more people are aware it’s not just about spelling, writing, and grammar. It seems most people are aware of the other complications with processing information.

Overall thou most people have to mask their difficulties and this is clearly due to the stigma that surrounds the issue of learning difficulties seems a disadvantage, which really isn’t the case if we’re more open about it.

These statements have left people frustrated, embarrassed, no confidence, and low self-esteem in their own abilities. I really appreciate people’s comments here as they’ve really opened up to their feelings and thoughts. It’s really clear that people with Dyslexia are masking their problems but are suffering in their day-to-day tasks and lifestyles.

As you can see the majority have expressed they are feeling the emotions of anxiety, self-confidence, low self-esteem, self-defeating, and a sense of not belonging. This really argues my point that mental health is having an impact on people with dyslexia.

The majority of the people in this survey said they had copying strategies to help them, so I question them to find a bit more detail on how they did this to my next question. I was neither surprised nor by the answer to this, but it gives me a good indication that people tried to put something in place to help them. Whether it’s from guidance or not, they tried.

Reading these comments gave me a mixed thought on how people coped. I feel the majority would confide themselves from their own common sense rather than maybe what to be asked to do by an assessor for example. Some people reframed by ignoring the issue through humour or avoid tasks. Some would be very open and honest to others about their learning difficulties and some would use a method to organise and repeat things to help them understand. So there is a mixed bag of things people have tried but it’s not very consistent, where a tool like an application could help those dealing with things in the best way possible by leaving confidence in their own ability with others to confide too.

I love this question because I wanted people to answer this to see how they see themselves and I think self-image is a priority to help those to find confidence in themselves. This will allow me to think of a tool that can help them in this way for motivation in their daily lives.

This completely lets me know what they are looking for in an app that can help them with tools to motivate and grow as a person for the future of their careers and lifestyle. So things like organiser, spell checker, text-to-speech is still ideal for the user, but we need to also think about the information that can help them such as CBT methods that are simple but helps with the progress of their mental health. With that I want to place key information for inspiration and motivation, so looking at podcasts of discussions from others that either successful and experienced similar events to those needing the uplift. Also, the factor of a support network to connect with people is very important and would like that with a function to see people in their community to meet up for a coffee and share their experiences.
User Profiles

So with all the user research, I have gathered all together from my research, I decided to create three unique user profiles from the information I was provided by the people who answered the questions.
I chose to create three profiles that can cover learning difficulties for someone with Dyslexia. These people would have problems with speech, writing, and organising as these are the key attributes to individuals. Creating these user profiles really helped in gathering the data I have and understand what patterns were being shown in my research. This was a great start to what I can explore and produce to creating my outcome.
I also felt the target audience ranges from college students to senior-level employees that could benefit from an application that can help with mental wellbeing techniques and the use of a tool that can help with their working environment or education.
Colour Palette Survey
I also wanted to cover in my research the tools that can benefit people with Dyslexia in visualising text to be able to read clearer when using the application. So I looked into what is considered to be user-friendly for people to read content that is eligible for the eye and help to intake the information. On the British Dyslexia Association website, they provide principles that can help ensure that written material can be considered by some dyslexic people, which allows the use of text to speech to facilitate ease of reading. Adopting best practices for dyslexic readers has the advantage of making all written communication easier on the eye for everyone.





My Survey for the Colour Palette
At this stage, I did some research into the principle of how layouts, type, colour, and structure. I wanted to get some colour references that people with Dyslexia would refer to use. This is quite a fundamental part I felt for the use of reading text from a screen and wanted to survey this process again to get people’s opinions.
Results






