Brief and Strategy | Interviews
It's always really useful to hear advice from people who really know what they're talking about! It seems very clear that in order to carry out a successful project you need to really explore the question at hand, conduct valuable research and plan, plan plan! However, this does not come at the cost of being able to recognise trends and change your course to match ever changing projects. It was pretty clear advice all round this week and there are definitely some things I will take forward in this project. For example, I am going to try and speak to someone at the science museum to really understand the project and the museum deeper. I am also lucky enough to live close to the Science Museum so I have convinced my partner that we should go and spend the day there on Sunday to carry out further research, take some pictures and learn more about science!
The best bit of advice and the bit that stuck with me was from Torsten Posselt from Feld, who described the job of a Graphic Designer as simply being a communicator, it's not about shapes and layouts but the communication is key - whether that is between the client and the designer or the designer and the target audience, it is the most important thing. I am definitely going to take this forward throughout this project.
Katee Glug - Hackney Laces
What an inspirational speech from an inspirational woman! [1] I really enjoyed hearing this because it shows that you can really make a difference in people's lives even if you don't necessarily set out to do so. Katee saw a need within her community and instead of passing the buck or getting someone else to handle it, she set up a football team and positively influence hundreds of girls and women in London. It just goes to show that if you spot a need, it's not only design you can use to help, that was part of it, for example, the branding and logo, but it isn't all of the work that is needed.
I think this is of particular interest to me because of my passion for social action projects, sometimes you can't get people (or the government) to help you with it, in these cases you aren't helpless, you can do something positive and productive yourself. It highlights the way that you can make things happen if you think outside the box and don't let potential obstacles get in the way.
Workshop Challenge
This week you will develop a strategy and project plan for your selected brief, to ensure your project aligns with its intended target audience.
Develop a strategy and project plan for your selected project brief, to outline your objective, research, collaborators and aspiration for the final outcome. Utilise a variety of visual and written methods to support a full and innovative rationale for your project development.
Upload your strategy and project plan to your blog and announce your intentions on the Ideas Wall.
Create and voice record a five slide presentation to clearly articulate the rationale behind your strategy and project plan for your selected project brief.
Your 5 slide voice recorded presentation can be created in the format of your choice (for example, a Keynote or Powerpoint slide presentation).
Upload the final slide presentation to your blog
Developing a strategy and project plan
I decided to make a Padlet as a starting point for my Science Museum project - this is to organise my thoughts and have a clear direction from the start. I think I have a tendency of not being the most organised when I start a project - I have sketchbooks littered with notes, drawings, diagrams etc with no real way to organise those thoughts. The Padlet will help with this - it is a central base for all of my thoughts and research and I will be able to categorise them accordingly. Taking advice from the interviews this week and specifically Michelle Dona from Accept & Proceed. She said that every project is different and they can change by the second - with my Padlet I can keep evolving it and adding categories as I see fit.
I decided to fill out the template to make sure I fully understood the brief. This was a really helpful thing to do and I definitely understood my brief more thoroughly after completing this.
The next step is to put a document together with my whole project plan.
PLAN AND REASONING
The brief is to encourage people to explore the online archives and bring objects that may never have been seen before to the fore and help people discover new things. There are almost 250,000 items ready to be archived and I want to encourage people to discover the items and expand their interest and knowledge in science and the world around them.
The target audience is young adults between 18 and 30 who have a casual interest in science who may never have been to the museum before.
In the SMG Plan 2018 to 2021 [2] they state their mission is to inspire the next generation of scientists, inventors, and engineers. This will be the theme I will be carrying throughout this project - allowing people not only access to the archives in a more intuitive way but also to encourage people to be curious about the way things are made and inventing things themselves.
Using the SMG plan as a basis, the deliverables for this project are to bring previously unseen objects into the public consciousness, to show people the scale and details of the objects in a way you wouldn’t be able to see on the website and to encourage people to think about science in a new way and come up with their own, unique ideas.
I have divided the weeks up into three distinct phases - research, development, and finalisation. These are structured around the double diamond approach and will move through the discover, define, develop, and deliver stages. I have broken down each stage into weeks and each week has a list of objectives to fulfil the brief.
I also plan to evaluate this project continuously all the way through, using peer feedback, target audience feedback and personal reflection to ensure I am sticking to the brief and coming up with the best solution to the question of the digital archive.
At this stage of the project, I have decided to choose a small part of the archive to focus on to refine my ideas with the view that it could be carried forward and expanded to the whole online archive in the future. I have chosen to focus on space as this has always fascinated me and I think it will offer the inspiration needed to come up with innovative ideas to drive people to the online archive. This way I can refine the idea and put a plan in place for expansion.
I have divided the possible obstacles into personal and environmental.
The environmental obstacles I foresee are time, budget, and feedback. To help overcome the obstacle of time I will have a rigorous timeline and check in at each stage of the project. To overcome the budget obstacle, I will have to keep prototyping to a strict budget and make sure the materials I use are not too expensive and I am efficient with the materials I do have. To help with feedback I am going to look at alternate sources of feedback and steer clear of social media as that can be bias.
Personal considerations are procrastination, confidence and a fear of failure. I need to not let Netflix get in the way of this project and push through the temptation to procrastinate. A strict timeline will help with this and hopefully minimise the effect of this obstacle. Research will be key in overcoming a lack of confidence, if I feel like I am prepared enough and have come up with robust enough ideas I will feel more confident sharing them. Fear of failure also plays into this but gaining confidence through research and preparation will hopefully help me overcome this.
Now, it's time to sort the thoughts out into a clear and concise project plan:
OBJECTIVE
The Science Museum Group Have over 250,000 items ready to be catalogued and added to the online archive.
This project will bring objects that may never have been seen before to the fore and help people discover new things.
I also want to encourage people to explore both the world around them and the online world in the form of the science museum digital archive.
TARGET AUDIENCE
This will be aimed at young adults between 18 and 30 who have a casual interest in science. They may never have been to the museum before.
This phase of the project will be focused on the objects relating to space so a casual in interest in space will also be a consideration.
DELIVERABLES
To enable online discovery and bring previously undeen objects into the public consciousness.
To put these objects in a real world setting to show people the scale and details in a way you wouldn’t be able to see on a website.
To encourage people to think about science in a new way and come up with their own, unique ideas.
TIME PLAN
Week 5 - Research each of the 4 briefs and select one.
Week 6 - Finalise brief, Carry out initial research, Visit the London Science Museum
Week 7 - Research science, Research Exhibitions and immersive experiences, Research online archives
Week 8 - Sketch out initial ideas, narrow down to three, Gather feedback on the three ideas, Decide which one to take forward for development
Week 9 - Develop idea further, Make prototypes, Conduct further, more specific research
Week 10 - Conduct target audience research, Make amends to design in line with feedback
Week 11 - Finish mock ups, Finalise designs and answer to brief
Week 12 - Plan for how to scale up to include full online archive, Evaluate project
OBSTACLES
Environmental -
TIME
As Da Vinci said, a project is never finished, just abandoned. There will never be enough time, especially with such an extensive brief. I am also quite the procrastinator so I will need to stay on a very strict timeline.
FEEDBACK
Outside of the Masters course it is hard to get feedback from the general public - targeting people on social media means you only get feedback from people who like you and are less likely to criticise, To combat this I am going to look at alternate sources of feedback and try and make it less bias.
Personal -
PROCRASTINATION
I have a tendency to procrastinate even projects I am excited about. I need to not let Netflix get in the way of this project and push through the temptation to procrastinate. A strict timeline will help with this.
CONFIDENCE
I sometimes doubt my ideas to the point that I don’t even want to put them out there for feedback. Research will be key in feeling like I am prepared enough and have come up with robust enough ideas to be confident with.
Here is my designed project plan document -
Summary
I really enjoyed the material this week, especially Katee Hui talking about Hackney Laces. I found it really inspiring that she spotted something that was missing and instead of relying on anyone else, she solved the problem herself, helping hundreds of women along the way. It didn't sound like the easiest of journeys but Katee manages to start a football club with a strong social message - women should be able to play football just as easily as men.
The workshop task this week was great although not as straight forward as I first thought it would be. It made. me think deeper about the brief and really drill down into the kind of project I want to create in response to the brief. I think having to think about this in a different way really made me realise what I wanted to get from it and gave me many ideas about the direction I wanted to go in.
Creating a Padlet board has really helped me organise my thoughts and sort out my research which allows me to focus more on the actual research. I haven't been the most organised person in the past so I think being organised right from the get go will be a really positive thing for this project.
Overall I cannot wait to get started with the research, design and development and I think merging my love of design and science will only make my brief response stronger.
References
[1] Glug, (2018) Katee Hui. Available at: https://glugevents.com/watch/2019/katee-hui
[2] Science Museum Group (2021) SMG Plan 2021/22 - 2024/25. p.3-4 Available at https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/smg-plan-21-25-v3.pdf [Accessed 1 November 2021]
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