Promoting the website

I feel that promoting the website is of great importance. I thought of a few ways that this could be done, the best two ways that I thought of was to either create an advertising campaign, or to create a brochure.

I chose to create a brochure because I thought that this would be the best solution due to the fact that people could easily pick this up and find out what the brand is all about. Inside the brochure features information about the brand to tell the audience all the information they need to know about the website, and how they get started.

Data input idea

I have been thinking of various different ways for the user to input their data on the website. This is an idea that I had. The idea is that there would be an image on the website that is cut into pieces (much like a puzzle). Within these pieces features the questions that the user will have to answer. The image of the pieces are covered up by the square box which will have the questions in them. Once the user has answered the question the piece of the image will be revealed.

My 8 day energy consumption

As part of an experiment I have decided to record data from the energy I use at home each day. I started off by taking photographs of the appliances that I use in the home.

By the end of the experiment I was left with the data that I wrote down each day to monitor what appliances that I used and how long I used them for.

Icons and colour

I decided to create a set of icons to apply to the site to help the use navigate around the site more easily. By using visual symbols like these ones catch the viewers eye and makes it easy for them to see what a specific element on the page is about. Also by using different colours for the icons helps the user identify each element on the page.

Testing the website

After completing the design of the website and getting it fully functioning, I decided to test the website on people to see if it works. I did this by using a new piece of technology called Snapz X Pro, that allows you to record anything that is being played on your computer screen. This enabled me to record the user's every move of the site, which could tell me how they found the interaction and the usability of the site. These are some of the recording that I took of people

Reminder system

I have been thinking of ways in which the brand will be able to help people reach their benchmark so that they will not be left on there own to reduce their energy and their emissions. One of these ideas is to have a reminding system that will remind people about their plan. This will be done by mobile phone. So the user will be able to choose how many times they would like to be reminded about their plan.

Sleep option

From my survey results I found out that people were forgetting to turn off appliances when they leave the room, or seem to be leaving them on for no reason when they are not using them. This also occured with recycling items, as people forgot to put them in the recycling bin.

My first solution to this was to design a set of stickers for people to place around the home. The stickers would have simple messages on them telling them to turn the appliances off. I thought of a new way in which this will work so that user’s don’t have to go around the house placing stickers.

The inspiration for this idea came from a piece of ineractive design that is found on an apple mac. Users of this computer are able to set their preferences on their computer. Within these preferences features a setting that is named “energy saver”. Within this setting one can adjust a tool

bar that puts the computer to sleep when they are inactive for a cetain amount of time. This is a unique idea and as it saves energy.

So the idea that I have thought of is to use this technology to apply to my website. The idea is to have a similar setting where users can choose when they would like to put appliances in their home to sleep when they are inactive for a certian period of time. There will be a slider tthat is features on the website so that users can choose when they would like to put the appliances to sleep when they are inactive. This idea is designed to help users reach their benchmark so that they are not simply left on their own having to meet their plan.

Bluetooth technology

After finding a way to monitor how much energy people use each day, at home and when they travel, I had to think of a way that they will be able to connect these devices to their computers to load up to the 'motive' website. This led me to look at technology that appears on an apple mac. This is of course bluetooth technology that allows you to upload devices such as a mouse or a keyboard etc to your computer. So I thought that by using bluetooth technology to upload peoples devices to the website would work well

Poke london (Website inspiration)

I have decided to look at some of the websites created by Poke in London, this is a web agency that produced web sites for really big clients. I wanted to see how the designs of there websites compare to the designs of my own website, so I can see what I am doing wrong or what I am doing well. These are some of the sites that I found inspiring and have learned quite a bit just by looking at them. The heirachy on each page is is really well presented as their is scale between each element that is on the page. This is something that I will be considering when designing my site.

Carbon calculator

Part of my idea is to monitor how much energy people use each day at home and when they travel. I came across a new piece of design creating by actonc02.com which allows you to calculate your carbon footprint. The only problem with this piece of design is that the user has to answer a series of questions that takes quite a while to find out their carbon footprint. Also I feel that this is not a very accurate way of doing this, as it does not measure on monitor anythin in your lifestyle.

Although my idea tells the users their carbon footprint. it will also tell them how there energy bill will be, and how many miles they have travelled. This will all be done accurately through new technology that allows you to monitor energy you use at home and how many miles you travel by car.

This PDF is a guide to climate designed by the Met Office. This PDF supplied me with most of the knowledge that I needed to know about what climate change is and how we are causing it. The PDF informs the viewer all they need to know about climate change. This is the document where I could draw statistics from to prove that their needs to be a piece of design that will encourage people to lower their carbon emissions, to help prevent the climate to change.

Click here to view the document

Self promotion

As part of this unit I am required to produce a set of materials to promote myself and my work as a designer. I have already created a website to do this, and I will also be working on creating a set of business cards to send to potential employers. I feel that promoting myself will be of great significance and a business card will be a nice piece of material to leave after an interview with a potential employer.

So I have decided to look for some inspiration on how the card could be designed, what materials it could be made from and also how it could be printed. These are some designs that I found inspiring. Promoting yourself is all about making yourself look unique and showing the employer what is special and different about you.

After researching to find different companies that I will be looking to get employed at, I have come across a potential web design company that looks very interesting. I like some of the work that the company produces and is exactly the type of design that I want to go into and the type of design my portfolio is based around.

This company is also positioned near where I live at home, so could be easy to travel too. This design agency is going down as one of the places to get in contact with to see if I can get my self a job.

Bournemouth or London?

I still don't know where I will be living next year which could prove to be a bit difficult with where to look for a job. I do know that I will be either living in Bournemouth or London so I will be looking at design agencies around these two areas.

My career path way

After spending over 5 years as a graphic designer, I now feel that I know the area of design that I am interested in finding a job, and I have designed my EMP to help me enter this area. I am interested in developing my knowledge and skills as a designer in either web design or branding. So I have decided to design my portfolio by including the projects that have consisted of creating websites and also my branding work. My EMP is based around these two areas of design.

Poke london

This is an award winning web agency that seeks perfection in web design. By looking at some of the websites that Poke have designed has made me realise that the hierarchy of a website is very important. I was being afraid of using large type on the page until I looked at some of the websites designed by Poke and realised that it would be fine to do so.

This is one of the top web design agencies in the UK that I have come across and to get my foot in the door would be a great achievement. Even if it was to gain some work experience, I would be more than happy to do so.

So aswell as drawing inspiration from the designs on the site, I also intend to peruse to get in touch with this company. So it's time to start getting my portfolio finished and ready to show potential employers.

The problem

I found many statistics about how the UK is causing climate change and how we are causing carbon emissions to rise etc. But these are the statistics that I felt were relevant to my project and even gave me an idea of what to focus on. I found quite a shocking statistic that states that 40% of the UK's man made C02 emissions come from energy we use everyday, at home and when we travel. This made me think on focusing on helping people improve on this aspect of there lifestyle.

Survey results

After conducting a survey I decided to visualise the questions that turned out to be helpful and relevant to my project. I found the results quite interesting as I found that 65 out of 70 people said that they think that they could do more to live a greener lifestyle. As I already had the idea of creating a reward scheme to encourage people to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I asked this question to people that I sent this survey out to.

After thinking of what content to put onto the homepage I started to create the first possible outcome for the site.

Promoting the site

There was various different way's that I could have promoted the site. The option that I chose to promote it was by designing a brochure so that people could simply pick it up and take it away with them to read.

Inside the brochure contained all of the information that people needed to know about the brand, this tells the audience what motive does, how it works etc. The brochure was designed using the same colours and style as the website, by using the brand identity across both pieces of media.

Final outcome

After going through countless designs, I have come to a design that I am pleased with and works well with the identity of the brand. The previous designs that I created were lacking in colour and also did not correspond to the identity of the brand, as it featured none of the colours that were used or any of the curved lines that we're used to create the typography.

Development

The development of my project has shown various different outcomes, this design is working towards the final. I am pleased with the layout and the hierarchy of the design I just feel that it needs a few more tweaks before it is completed.

After a tutorial I realised that my the design needed changing due to the fact that it didn't relate to the identity at the introduction of the site. So I started to work on the design straight away, this led me to removing the blue background on the design which left it looking a lot more fresh. I also removed the boxes that were holding the content in them, and then just simply aligned the type that was on the page.

First logo designs

After sketching out my first designs for the logo of 'motive', I decided on one that I thought worked quite well for the brand and decided to experiment with different colours. The meaning behind the logo is that motive is a brand that is thinking ahead, this is why I chose this as a slogan. Therefore the thought bubbles demonstrate thinking ahead, which relates to the slogan of the brand.

Our Invitation To You from IDEO on Vimeo.

Stickers

Due to my survey results I found that people were forgetting to do simple things such as turn off light switches and recycle materials in the home. So I thought of a way to solve this problem, this was to create a set of stickers for people to place around the home to remind them to do these simple things. Each sticker features a different message for different appliances that people may have in their homes.

After spending a while getting my work up to scratch I have put together my new website www.benstrowman.co.uk, and is now online. The website showcases all of my favourite projects and the type of design that I am interested in pursuing when I graduate.

To visit the site please click here

Final identity

I have been working on developing the idenity for the brand as I felt that the weight of the lines that I created before in the previous design were far to thick, the spacing between the lines was far to generous and also I felt that the colour of the identity needed more experimenting with. This is the final design of the identity which I am pleased with in terms of colour and also the detailing of the lines that I used.

Naming the brand

I have been through various names for the brand and have decided on one which relates to the connotations to the brand, the name that I have chosen is 'motive'. This is because the website is all about motivating people to lower their carbon emissions and energy they use at home and when they travel.

Final outcome of the one week experiment

After conducting the experiment on myself for a period of 8 days, I gathered all of the data that I wrote down and visualised this by drawing the objects that I used in the home from the photographs that I took of the objects. Underneath each object features the data, including how long I used the object for, which day I used them on and also what setting I used them on.

I have recently downloaded an piece of software that allows you to record anything that is playing on your screen, which I thought was pretty impressive. It has come in useful for me as I have recently been thinking about having animated pieces on the website. With this software I have been able to record other animated websites that I feel have used techniques that are inspiring for my project. This website is called Speakvisual.com, the reason why I found this site inspiring is because it features a variety of different people on it, as my idea for the splash page for my site was to have a variety of different faces to represent different peoples lifestyles.

When the user clicks on the image of that person, a video appears on the page with that person talking over the top of it. I thought that it would be a good idea to have a similar scenario, where the image of the person explains how the site helped them reach a certain benchmark. Then the image of the person on the site would ask the viewer who is watching the "What's your benchmark going to be?"

Identity

I wanted the viewer of the site to get an idea of what the website is all about as soon as they come to the first page of the site. After sketching out different ideas of what I could design, I thought of bringing in elements that are associated with the brand, such as cars, light bulbs etc. This would then signify to the viewer what the website is about, or at least give them some idea.

Technology

After thinking of my final idea on how the website will motivate people to lower their carbon emissions, I needed to see if this idea of monitoring peoples energy use would be possible. My idea was to monitor how much energy people use at home and when they travel by car, and that if the user reduces how much energy they use each week then they will be rewarded. But to do this I had to check if this was possible. Whilst researching I found some new pieces of technology that allows you to monitor how much energy you use in your home via a wireless energy monitor, and also a car mileage tracker device.

With this new technology I will be able to create a website that will monitor people energy use at home and when they travel, making the statistic that I found which states over 40% of the UK's man-made C02 emissions comes from energy we use each day at home and when we travel.

Tutorial

After todays tutorial I feel that the first draft designs that I have created for the website are not to the right way of going about this project.

I was told that the designs look too common and that they are quite dull, I completely agree with this feedback and intend to develop these designs further. So I now intend to start creating some sketches to plan out what is going to be featured on the pages of the site, hoe the navigation will work etc. Hopefully this will help me decide what the look and feel of the website should be too. I was expecting the first designs to be quite rough so I am The designs that I showed are featured above.

This is the first design that I have started on working on for the home page of the site after creating the final identity. I thought of drawing appliances in that we use in the home each day to use as the buttons for the user to use to navigate around the site. Then the other content on the page would be the identity and also the a box that would allow the user to enter their home reference code to receive their results.

Wrap

Presentation

Today I pitched the idea of my final outcome to the group and tutors. I feel that the presentation went really well and im feeling really confident about where I am heading with this idea. One problem that was mentioned from one of my peers was that how is the reward scheme going to be fair, because some people walk and run everywhere, where as other people can't do so. This made me think of a solution to this problem.

The reward scheme will work by measuring how much electricity they have used compared to the week before, this will be done through their meter readings.

I feel a lot better about my idea after today's tutorial, during this first stage of the project I was told to try visualizing a few experiments to help me get to the final solution. So I tried out few experiments that I felt would help me towards my final outcome, the first was to write a survey to find out other peoples opinions about being living a more sustainable lifestyle. So I achieved that and was inspired to create some sort of experiment from the answers that I received. For example many of the answers where that people forget to do the simple things like, recycle and turn off light switches etc. The other experiment that I have perused, was an experiment on myself, I calculated my actions over one week and then created a graphical outcome from all of the appliances that I use in my home. The outcome can be found in my development book.

Now that I have got to the stage where I have created a few experiments, the tutorial was mainly focused on pushing me to start designing the final outcome. I am pleased with this because I have been waiting to jump in and start designing the intended solution to this problem.

Act on C02 (Drive 5 miles less a day)

This Act on C02 advert focusing on conveying the message to the audience that by driving 5 miles less a week could make a huge difference to the world we live in.

It's quite clever as at the start of the advertisement the car exhaust is mistaken for a chimney. Over 40% of C02 emissions are caused by the things we do as individuals and car travel is the single biggest contributor to this.

This advert works really well as it reminds people to do the simplest things that could reduce there bills, and save energy.

It's things like turning a light switch off that could save energy and reduce your bills.

Act on C02 Advert

This act on C02 advert goes through the typical home appliances such as kettles, washing machines, telephones etc, most of the energy they use is burning gas, oil and coal which admit C02 emissions that effects the climate.

This is an advert from Kenco, they have decided to think of a way that they can use less packaging. So they have decided to use a eco-friendly refill bag instead of using the glass jar. Not only does this prevent people having to recycle their glass jar's, but it is also helping to improve the environment. It is good to see that company's like this are doing what they can to help people live a greener lifestyle.

After today's tutorial I feel that I need to start experimenting with some visual ideas. As the feedback from my learning agreement was to start experimenting visual ideas. My feedback was that I have started to think about the final outcome to early on in the project. So I intend to create a series of visual experiments that will lead to a final outcome.

The feedback on my learning agreement was to provide a methodology, and to think about the project as a research led outcome that develops through the engagement of a series of experiments.

The ideas that I have had for my experiments so far are:

• To see how much I recycle during a week and create a piece of info graphics from.
• Create an animation from the facts and figures that I have found about climate change.
• Create a system that measures how much people have done (reduced C02).
• Take the two countries that have the largest and the smallest c02 emissions and demonstrate this visually.

Reward system

I have had a new idea to add to my project that I feel could work really well. I found that there is no incentive for people who are not too bothered about maintaing a greener lifestyle, so I have come up with idea of having a reward scheme, where by each time the person does something good for the environment that get rewarded.

The way in which I intend to create the reward system is similar to the way the nectar card runs. The nectar card works by swiping a card each time you purchase a product at a certain place, you then get points that add onto your nectar account, the more expensive the item, the more points are rewarded.

Evaluation, Career Planning and Enterprise

After today's tutorial I have realized how much work there is to be done. So I intend to write myself a time plan to help me organise my work. I have already started working on my PDF Portfolio, so within this week I intend to get that completed. Then I will be working on thinking about how I will write the written piece for the brief.

• Review of possible destinations
• Critical reflection and developing a profile sympathetic to a chosen destination
• Documenting practice in level 6 with particular emphasis on the Major Project

• Critically reviewing and monitoring suitability of ‘portfolio’

To start with I have gone through the companies that I like the look of and feel myself gaining a possible job at. Below I have listed some websites of the type of design agencies that I intend to approach. I have designed my learning agreement to adapt to where I would like to be when I finish the course, In other words I have created a project in the area of design that I am interested in.

My other idea was to see how much each country is polluting the air of the world and then portray this using information graphics.

Since the tutorial on friday, I have been thinking about what product that I could create that would help people to live a greener lifestyle. The idea that I have in mind is to design a product that will be applied into each home, the product is a hand held touch screen device that calculates your daily carbon footprint.

Today I had my first tutorial for the EMP, I was in a group with 5 or so people, we each discussed our learning agreements with the tutor. I received some positive feedback about my learning agreement and also some things to take into consideration. Below are some notes that I made during the tutorial.

The methodology that I will provide to get to this point is somewhat vague- I need to conduct a series of experiments that will lead me to my final outcome, these experiments can be research based.

• The idea is sound and achievable.
• Does it need to be a website, if not what else could it be?
• What is the first experiment that I will decide to do this week?
• Could you make it some new product that nobody has got?

Since the tutorial I have been thinking about how I could conduct my first experiment, I have had two ideas. The first one is to note down all of the things that I do during one day in my normal lifestyle, then the next day I could try to improve my lifestyle by making it greener, then at the end of the experiment I could create a piece of graphical information through the results that I have gathered during the experiment. The second idea is to produce a survey which asks students questions about the lifestyle that they live, from the feedback that I receive I could create a piece of information graphics that portrays the results.

Synopsis of study

There are two ideas that I feel could work really well to focus on for my EMP, and I have found myself stuck between choosing which one. The first idea was to create an action plan application that would encourage people to maintain a more sustainable lifestyle, the second idea that I had in mind was to create a signage system for an environment such as a hospital or an airport where it is hard to navigate for certain people.

Below is the idea that I decided to choose in more detail: (Synopsis of study)

The current climate of today’s society is known to have a large green issue, this project aims to help to improve this issue by creating a website where people are able to understand how to maintain a more sustainable lifestyle. The website features an action plan application, this application will give people a useful tool to calculate a tangible value of their actions. The action plan application allows users to choose a prioritised to do list of realistic actions to shift them to a more sustainable lifestyle.

This site will encourage people to make a big difference to the world in which we live in. The system allows users to choose a plan that suites them best, and then customize this action plan to suit their needs, this will be focused on aspects such as expenditure. The website will be aimed at the average man and woman who are unsure about how to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

As well as creating a website I intend to create a set of promotional materials to promote the site, this will involve creating an advertising campaign and also materials to remind people to do the little things in life that have huge impact on our society, such as simple things like turning the lights off on their way out. I also intend to create a name and identity for the website.

The research for this project will involve looking at how to improve our impact on the world and how people can maintain a more sustainable lifestyle. The reason to why I have chosen this idea for this project is because I am interested in helping to improve the world in which we live in, especially because of the condition of the current climate. As a designer I feel that I should be thinking of different concepts to help improve the world, and I feel that this concept will achieve this. I also feel that this project will help me to develop a stronger breath of work to my portfolio and will also improve my chances of getting a job in the area of design that I am interested in.

Portfolio tutorial

Today I had a tutorial about my portfolio, I was in a group of four people. I found this tutorial quite interesting as I was able to see how other people have presented there work. Although the majority of people in my group showed a digital portfolio, where as mine was print based. The main aspect that I picked up on, was the way in which my portfolio portrayed my work. I noticed that the other students have photographed their work to take it out of context, this is a technique that I intend to use for my own portfolio as I feel that this makes the work look professional. As I haven't revisited my portfolio in a while, I realized that I have a lot of new work that needs to be applied to it, I also noticed that some of the current work in the portfolio needs touching up to make it look to a more professional standard. So I intend to work on

getting a digital and print version of my portfolio up to scratch during the next few weeks.

Kenya Hara (Umeda Clinic Signage System)

Developing from one of the ideas that I had for tourists to find it easier to navigate around cities, I have been looking at the use of signs. This is a great example from kenya Hara of how to use signs.

The Signage system was designed for the Umeda Hospital in western Japan. All of the signs are kept created using simplicity, the signs themselves are made from cloth, Hara states that the the reason for this choice is because he wanted to create a affable space. The clinic is a place where pregnant women and nursing mothers spend time before and after child birth.

Hara states that places meant for the sick or injured necessitate an atmosphere so tense that you could prick it with a pin.

The way Hara has used this signage system throughout this hospital is clearly innovative. By keeping the white cotton constantly clean clearly demonstrates the utmost hygiene to both visitors and patients.