Week 5: Journal (Poster & Pitch Reflections)

 This week, we had a presentation for our project concept, 'ViRails'. We printed and brought our poster to contact session and introduced our concept to others. We did presentation by turns and I was a bit nervous when I took my turn. I think it was successful. We did our best to do our first project, 'Poster and Pitch'. I took design part and made poster successfully, and other members did documentation part and it also went smoothly. While I was doing my poster, I showed the process of design and got feedback from my teammates. They provided good feedback and I could complete my poster well. Since the new design of poster was a bit different from first design, I had to change the frame and color but I could make better poster.

 We got feedback through our presentation in contact session. Lorna asked whether users can watch the random video or not, and we planned to give users a specific topic`s video randomly. She also suggested to show a visual images of the video in Playlist to users. I think it is a good idea for user-friendly website. It helps users to remember and find video which they saved. We also think of adding thumnail and description of the video.She asked what if users don`t type the keyword, and our answer was that the website will suggest other playlists to users. It was useful time to improve and get feedback for our concept. We will start our following project based on the feedback.

 We also looked our teams` presentation. There were interesting ideas. I like 'Pop e Cloud'. It is a music discovery website and users can explode the story behind the music. I`m very interested in music so It will be good and useful website for those who are interested in music like me. They also combined the idea with timeline. So users can also see news report relevant to the music. I think their idea is quite interesting but it will be a bit hard to implement the idea.  
 'Pick Flip' was one of attractive concepts. It is simple memory game for kids and teenagers. I like their concept which is to match the images. It will be fun to play the game and they said it will have more level as users finish one step successfully. 

Week 5: Project - Poster

 I`ve done a poster for our project. It was fun to make a poster using Illustrator. The concept of the poster is vintage because our webpage aims to show old video from Trove. I researched vintage posters from Google and got some inspiration from them. I made a frame of poster and title with wrap and 3D effect of Illustrator. It was first time to use Illustrator though, it wasn`t that hard and complicated to use. I also used mock-up image of our website which Nick created. It shows how our website will be and interact with users. The design of the poster is slightly changed from first design. When I was making the poster, I ask for feedback to my teammates. They said they like the main design and I can make highlight point for each of section. I accepted the idea and finished the poster. I liked the way we discuss during this first project and will do it again for next following project. 

<Our final poster>

<feedback from my teammates>

Here are posters which I got inspiration from.

    

Week 4: Project - Process (Poster Design)

 I started to work on a poster for our project. We haven`t decided the title of the webpage. I just left it as 'title. The use of color will be green, orange and yellow. Here is the general layout of the poster. 

Week 4: Workshop

 We went through Photoshop this week. We followed some Photoshop tutorials and learnt useful tools to edit photo. It was similar to Illustrator so it was not that hard to make it. I take design part for this project and going to make a poster. I experienced both Illustrator and Photoshop and I liked Illustrator more so might use Illustrator to make the poster. There is useful tool such as layer mask in Photoshop, so I might use Photoshop too.

Here is what I did in the workshop session.

Week 4: Contact Session

 In this week contact, we went through 6 hats process. We brought 3 different ideas for this exercise. It is Video Snapshot, Timeline and Sea creatures in Australia. Josh couldn`t make this week contact session so Joey, Nick and I worked on this exercise. Joey and I stayed in our group table and explained those 3 concepts and Nick went to other table to give feed back.

1. Video Snapshot

 

 As we went through the 6 hats process, we got some feedback for Video Snapshot. Video Snapshot is a webpage which shows short video from Trove. Users can watch old video which cannot be seen other website. The target audience will be a young adults and those who are interested in old video. People provide feedback in terms of first impression, weakness of the concept, generating and developing ideas. People`s first impression of the idea was that it is interesting and useful to users. Weakness of the concept was that it is too simple so they gave feedback in terms of developing it. It is to make video more interactive way, put tags for the video and show the most interesting part of the video as a starting point. 

2. Timeline

Timeline is a timeline for news. There is vertical line and it shows the time. If users click the time, it shows the news which was headline in that year. Users will be anyone who are seeking news reports. For this concept, people`s first impression was useful and they think it will have too much information. They also it is useful for those who write an essay and journal. They think it has also negative part as it has no interaction with users and it will be messy if it contains all the years` news reports. So they suggested to add top 10 news and give users some certain newspaper.

3. Sea Creature in Australia

 Sea Creature in Australia is a guessing game for kids who learns about animals. People said it is educational, useful but boring. They suggested get more animal from other countries to make it more difficult to guess. They said it will be a good way to teach children about sea creatures. They suggested to make a track of the scores to see other people`s score when users finish it.

 It was useful time to get feedback for our concept and it was quite interesting and funny. Our team chose our project idea as a Video Snapshot. This session was useful to build and develop our concept.

 

Week 4: Group Meeting

 We had first our group meeting on Tuesday at 4pm.
First we did team contract and started to talk about our project. We decided to do video snapshot webpage. We designed our webpage briefly and talk about its functions; Film reel, membership and search engine. We also set up 'bit bucket'  and 'Git' to share our work. I`ve never used this site before but I think it is a good way to work on our project.

Here are a brief summary of each.

- Film reel 

It shows video snap shot for less than 10 seconds each. There is also like/dislike button for the video so users can vote it. Target audience for this web site is young adult and those who are interested in an old video which cannot be shown on the other video website.

- Search Engine

Users can search the video with key word. It also has a category for the video.

- Membership

Users can join in the website. It help users to save a play list for the video.

Week 3: Workshop & Journal (Team Work Module)

<Workshop>

 In today`s workshop, we went through how to do Illustrator. Illustrator was quite interesting and it was not that difficult to use it. We can make any shape we want with Illustrator and we can write texts on the curved line too.

 Here is what I did in the workshop session.

<Journal: Team Work Module >


 -  What did you learn about your attributes to working in a team? Which Belbin roles did you identify with?

 I learnt it is important to take group members` idea and turn them into positive actions. It is also important to have good communication skill to complete a project well. I think 'Resource Investigator' and 'Implementer' in Belbin roles is identified with. 

 - Were you surprised by either your Leadership or Team Score following the first quiz? Why/ Why not? You don`t need to specify the scores that you received - rather was it higher/lower than you expected. 

 I wasn`t that surprised by my Leadership and Team Score from the quiz. I expected the level I got from the quiz. Sometimes I take a leader of a team and manage the project well with other group members. I also develop the  the necessary skills for team and project. 
When I work in a team, I am  a very effective team member as the result showed. I enjoy joining the team and working with other member.

 - Did you identify with any of the causes of conflict? Is it something you have a tendency to do or something you have experienced from previous team projects? How will you manage this if it occurs in this team project?

 I have experienced conflict with one of team member. He didn`t turn up group meeting and work on his task. My team member and I tried him to focus on our work and he did a bit at the end. I think communication and encouragement is a key to handle the problem.

 - What is important to you when working in a team?

 I think the most important thing when we work in a team is communication. I think a good result is based on good communication between group members. I think good communication is a key to make a successful result.

Week 3: Contact Session

 In this session, we brought the ideas, put them altogether and organised them by theme. In our group, we classified them into 5 sections; News, Media, Game, Searching and Others. My ideas was 'Finding Local Area', 'What UQ has', 'Sea Creatures near the Australia' and 'History of Australia'. After we categorized our group`s idea, we combined all ideas of this class and we looked through all the ideas.
 I liked the other people`s idea such as 'Finding differences between two' and 'Video snapshot'. So I made a team with Josh who designed the video snapshot idea, and we found two more group member; Nick and Joey. We shared our contact and took the part of the project. Josh and Nick is going to do programming, Joey will do database part and I will take design part of the project. It seems we have a full and good team. I hope we get through and finish the project well.

 Here is what we did in the workshop session.

Week 3: Ideas for Contact session.

- Finding local areas

 This application is a searching application. Users can search how their town was in the old day. It provide a map of the area. If users click a place, it shows pictures of the town in the past with explanation.

- What UQ has 

 This application shows what UQ has in their libraries and museum. It provides the map of UQ. If users click one of the UQ buildings, it shows the users the contents they have. 

- What sea creatures live in the sea near Australia.

 This application is a game that guess the sea creatures which live in the sea near Australia. This game let users choose one of two sea creatures the application shows. If users choose the right answer, it gives users points.

- History of Australia.

 It is a game to list the picture of Australia with time. It shows 5 to 7 photos of Australia and players list the photo with time in limited time.

Week 2: Workshop

 In the workshop session, we learnt how to use information from Trove. Tutor showed us how to get and use API. We went through the html resource of example website from DECO1800 Uqcloud and changed some coding and ran it.

 The process was quite complicated but also interesting. I hope I can handle it well when I work on the project.

 Here is what I had done in the workshop session.

Week 2: Contact Session - Brainstorming

 Today was the first contact session of DECO1800. We got to know each other with the way to make groups. It was a bit awkward when we made the group. After we made a group, we started to talk about Trove; what it is, how and what can we make any applications and websites with Trove`s data.

 Here is what we discuss during contact session.

 Trove is a website to help people to find resources relating to Australia. It has content from libraries, museums, archives and other research institution. There are search engine on Trove and it has many categories like journals, people, organisations, map and music etc. We went through all categories and started to brainstorm about what we can make with Trove data.

<What we can make with Trove>

- Navigation 

 We can make a navigation application with map and information from Trove like UQ Nav. It could be a museum navigation which shows where a specific work of art it is in the museum. 

- Music player or community

 We can make music application or community with huge amount   of relevant resources from Trove. If a user choose his/her music style, the application shows information about it. It also has play system so that the user can listen his/her favorite artist`s song.

- Dance & Music

 It is similar to music community application. If a user choose a type of dance, this application gives user well matched song list. User can choose the song, see the information of the song and listen the song.

- Critique or Rating

 With plenty of information, we can create rating application for food, places and movies. According to historical data, Users can know what recipe and places has been loved and used much.

- Messenger

 Users can share information which they are interested in by sending text to others.

- Crime Map

 This application is provided with information and map about which area had crime and what it was. If a user click a part from the map, crime Information is displayed with relevant article about the crime. 

Week 1: Course Expectations

 Based on what I know of this course, I expect to be doing good team work with nice people this semester. According to the course profile, this course introduce us to techniques and methods for effective team work and project management. It also provides us to work on design computing projects. I expect to propose good design and build final project with good communication skills. 

 I want to work on design projects with good team and get experience about working with team. It will let me get ability to communicate with others. I also improve my problem solving skill by working with team. Moreover, this course will give me how to develop self-learning skills and design process. It also requires some coding like html and java script. I want to improve my coding skill as well.

I`m worried about developing design because I`m not good at brainstorming. Another thing I`m worried about is the group work. If I meet good team for the project, we can built it successfully. I think communication is the most important thing when I think about group work. If communication is failed, It is no good doing whether we have a good idea for the project and good coding skill.

I hope that I can work with good team and build the design projects well.