Reflection
Reflection:
During this summer project, I have found the newly introduced “Design Framework”” to be an extremely unique and positive experience. Quite so in the early brainstorming and research stages of the assignment. It does bear a resemblance to the design process we are taught throughout the multimedia degree, however, I prefer the framework as it is straight forward, to the point and actually looked interesting which engaged me to utilise it, which led to me learning even more about the importance of planning and step by step production.
Motivations was an interesting and extremely relevant point to start off with, I think this is what made my interest in the framework greater, rather than say the generic “why are we making this” which leads to a one line response which usually revolves around its assessment” or “I want a seven”. The motivations part of the framework really highlighted what our true intentions were, such as actually looking beyond the assessment and concentrating on helping the first year students for next year.
The outcomes section of the framework was also an interesting experience, Although some of the team refer to the outcomes we arrived at as vague and it was just re-highlighting our pre-determined goal of the project, I would rather say that it created a spark to allow our creative sides to show. Our outcome was the same as our goal, which was to engage students to create new relationships with each other, whilst learning about important buildings and services that UQ offers. While this is still non-specific, too many specifics would not allow us to develop the ideas we created.
When it came to the background research section, I found it a little overwhelming at first for two reasons. One because at the time we knew we were making a location based game and nothing else, and two because location based games research had a huge stretch across genres and definitions. Therefore, the research would be ridiculously time consuming and wasted once we settled on a concept. However, after defining a theme for our event, and brainstorming a few possible tasks and mini games etc i found the background research extremely helpful. So perhaps I would conclude that the background research section was well needed, just out of place in the current order of the framework.
Now, on to the site and stakeholders section, to me this was, as always, extremely useful. Learning about the stakeholders and site of the assessment will never derive ones knowledge, but rather give a boost to the insight of what needs to be created. Another great part of this section is that our group was able to find out a few limitations on some of our ideas; we were able to define what can and could not be done for our event. This was really helpful as we were starting to get a little lost.
The Theme was by far the more fickle of things to overcome. We wanted our project to be new, unique and innovative. At the same time we want it to be successful and easy to understand. So using a generic theme starts to take from the innovation and originality aspects. However, not choosing a theme would take from the successful outcome of the project. So to fall on a theme that was both unique and safe per se, well, it was quite a task, but well placed in the framework. I would not go so far to say it would constrict our creativeness, but rather help us shape our very broad ideas into a more definable direction to take.
I found the Narrative section quite needed, as it allowed us to view the overall experience and atmosphere of what we have planned, and how it should be portrayed to the partakers. This allowed us to give a more detailed description of the event to involved persons and parties, and also allowed us to create a more defined experience definition for when we are talking through the event with the new students.
Seeing we are still using the framework, I shall leave it there for now. Personally, I usually work with ideas and spur of the moment development concepts. However, I also am enjoying designing from a new perspective. To say whether I think the framework is a success or not would be far too black and white. So I will leave it as this a matter of experience, and this has been an extremely knowledgeable and entertaining experience, and as I stated before, it has been a great learning experience to design from a completely different perspective.
Michael O’Brien
s4118398@student.uq.edu.au
During this summer project, I have found the newly introduced “Design Framework”” to be an extremely unique and positive experience. Quite so in the early brainstorming and research stages of the assignment. It does bear a resemblance to the design process we are taught throughout the multimedia degree, however, I prefer the framework as it is straight forward, to the point and actually looked interesting which engaged me to utilise it, which led to me learning even more about the importance of planning and step by step production.
Motivations was an interesting and extremely relevant point to start off with, I think this is what made my interest in the framework greater, rather than say the generic “why are we making this” which leads to a one line response which usually revolves around its assessment” or “I want a seven”. The motivations part of the framework really highlighted what our true intentions were, such as actually looking beyond the assessment and concentrating on helping the first year students for next year.
The outcomes section of the framework was also an interesting experience, Although some of the team refer to the outcomes we arrived at as vague and it was just re-highlighting our pre-determined goal of the project, I would rather say that it created a spark to allow our creative sides to show. Our outcome was the same as our goal, which was to engage students to create new relationships with each other, whilst learning about important buildings and services that UQ offers. While this is still non-specific, too many specifics would not allow us to develop the ideas we created.
When it came to the background research section, I found it a little overwhelming at first for two reasons. One because at the time we knew we were making a location based game and nothing else, and two because location based games research had a huge stretch across genres and definitions. Therefore, the research would be ridiculously time consuming and wasted once we settled on a concept. However, after defining a theme for our event, and brainstorming a few possible tasks and mini games etc i found the background research extremely helpful. So perhaps I would conclude that the background research section was well needed, just out of place in the current order of the framework.
Now, on to the site and stakeholders section, to me this was, as always, extremely useful. Learning about the stakeholders and site of the assessment will never derive ones knowledge, but rather give a boost to the insight of what needs to be created. Another great part of this section is that our group was able to find out a few limitations on some of our ideas; we were able to define what can and could not be done for our event. This was really helpful as we were starting to get a little lost.
The Theme was by far the more fickle of things to overcome. We wanted our project to be new, unique and innovative. At the same time we want it to be successful and easy to understand. So using a generic theme starts to take from the innovation and originality aspects. However, not choosing a theme would take from the successful outcome of the project. So to fall on a theme that was both unique and safe per se, well, it was quite a task, but well placed in the framework. I would not go so far to say it would constrict our creativeness, but rather help us shape our very broad ideas into a more definable direction to take.
I found the Narrative section quite needed, as it allowed us to view the overall experience and atmosphere of what we have planned, and how it should be portrayed to the partakers. This allowed us to give a more detailed description of the event to involved persons and parties, and also allowed us to create a more defined experience definition for when we are talking through the event with the new students.
Seeing we are still using the framework, I shall leave it there for now. Personally, I usually work with ideas and spur of the moment development concepts. However, I also am enjoying designing from a new perspective. To say whether I think the framework is a success or not would be far too black and white. So I will leave it as this a matter of experience, and this has been an extremely knowledgeable and entertaining experience, and as I stated before, it has been a great learning experience to design from a completely different perspective.
Michael O’Brien
s4118398@student.uq.edu.au
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