Exam synopsis by Dosio Dosev TEAM 6, 2nd semester
May 2013
TEAM6, 2nd semester e-Concept Development 路 KEA Bi5
Exam synopsis
Dosio Dosev info@jasab.net
Dosio Dosev info@jasab.net
Introduction
The 2nd semester started with e-Communication every day and it lasted a month. After having few classes, we teamed up with e-Marketing class, we formed groups and we started the 1st project with a real client—Harboe, which is a Danish beer company established in 1883. The company’s goal was to establish strong position in imported beer market in Asia, focusing on China and on their key product—Bear Beer. During the project we worked on creation of a marketing and communication strategy of well known brand in new and not yet settled marked as Asia. It was also important to mention that the groups for the project were created by the students, and for me was really hard to find a good one. I am introvert person and this made it a big challenge. However that pushed me to start a group and talk to many different students to join. At the end a group was signed by 8 people from 7 different countries. In such group is easy to archive tolerance, I think. And that and the fact that we had no leader and project manager, the decisions were taken with full consensus. I have to admit the process and the work flow were not well planned, but all 8 members were working hard and were contributing. We had resources to make a huge qualitative and quantitative research, and many analyses were included, not only in the insight report but in the solution as well. With so many insight and ideas, we come up with a concept within the concept, which made the solution hard to shape and to communicate to the client, but the client representative was impressed of the insight we presented. Thoughts after teacher’s feedback: During the project the group spent their free time at school working or having team buildings. We literally occupied the work space next to the teachers office for 3 weeks. We returned to school to work even in weekends. And the hard work was rewarded, the teachers feedback was good and well appreciate even our event - the concept (solution) did not convinced them that will make much of an impact on the China market.
* Details from “Persona infograpgics” in Project 2
There were not any problems with the group members, but when having the feedback it was seen from the teachers that the rich analysis which were collected during the insight phase were not used properly in the solution phase. All in all the feedback was constructive.
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TEAM6, 2nd semester e-Concept Development · KEA Bi5
Exam synopsis
The 2nd semester in the program has passed really intense to me, giving me the possibility to learn and get new and deeper knowledge on the subjects: e-Communication, e-Media technology and last but not least e-Design, that I have selected before the start. The lectures and the projects during the 2nd semester were going together, and that was tiresome and hard, but also productive and challenging. To me is important to be in constant push and pressure to keep the excitement to learn, but time to time I missed the time to rest, especially between the projects. In the synopsis I will aim to address each project, explains the problems that arose during the group’s work and the methods used to solve them.
1st Project with client: Harboe in Asia
Dosio Dosev info@jasab.net
2nd Project (during e-Design subject) with client: Sagaz from Iceland This was the longest project in our education so far, and it was held throughout the whole e-Design course. Sagaz is in the publishing company and issues yearly luxury books for business class traveler, distributed free in selected hotels in Iceland, Denmark (focus Copenhagen) and Sweden (Oslo). The client came with clear need, to translate the context and the content of the physical books into digital application.
Exam synopsis
Interesting and very helpful experience was the arranged midterm presentation with the client. We presented our insight, list of ideas for the solution and we had time for some questions and a dialogue with the client before we started the solution phase. It was the first time we had chance to synchronise the process and get feedback from our client, which in fact was beneficial for us. In the solution we had few ideas, that the client already liked on the feedback session, but when working on the flowcharts, the prototypes and the design mock ups were difficult to express. The concept of Suggestinator was unique and specific, so we decided to spend time to create animated presentation with an user case scenario. The scenario was for businessman and guest in Copenhagen hotel, along with the clickable prototype on tablet for the pitch. Sadly the client had unrealistic expectations, and he left disappointed from all groups.
On the feedback, teachers pointed that is missing the in depth on target group and its lifestyle, but on the other hand the pluses are the three interviews with hotel employees, and the insight of travel services like Tripadvisor. Overall the feedback was helpful and positive dialog between the group members and the teachers, actually came out things like “10 steps to personas” and “Change management process”, that I am going to google, because I find interesting. But also, I can not be silent about it, the feedback happened the day before the deadline for the semester’s synopsis hand in, and this is something unfair—writing all night.
3rd project (The All Nighter) with client: VEGA - Musikkens Hus Last but not least was “The All Nighter” project—32 hours from the client brief to the pitch, and a report document of 10 pages. After the client brief the group started to work on the given assignment. The client is one of the biggest concert venue in Copenhagen, known as VEGA. They wanted to tie some of their guests/fans and recruit a team of ambassadors closer, who will help them spreading the word for the upcoming concerts. We started with discussions and brainstorming for ideas. We got a simple idea of community “The Vees” ambassadors, and how they will help the club, but we had disagreement on how the club will communicate and what platforms VEGA will use for. We used the tribes as a group of people connected to one another through an idea or a motive, to define the target group. The work was going fine and in some moment in the middle of the night we found ourselves in confusion. We spend 3 hours on discussions and we remodeled the concept, so we had to do most of the writing again. We worked all the time, we did some visuals and we finished the report and the presentation just before the deadline. On the pitch VEGA liked the concept and its identity, but they missed some more specifics on how they should identify the representatives.
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TEAM6, 2nd semester e-Concept Development · KEA Bi5
We started with qualitative research, because we all agreed it will be useful for this project. We kept the best practise from the previous project and we took few qualitative interviews with representatives from Radisson hotels in Copenhagen, and the manager at Skjámynd—hotel information channel in Iceland. And the insight we collected through the interviews was valuable for the report.
Thoughts after teacher’s feedback:
Dosio Dosev info@jasab.net
Thoughts after teacher’s feedback:
Conclusion
The teachers like the name “The Vees” and the concept itself, the report was consisting of many good points, but too abstract when it comes to explain think concretely in our proposal. However I find the project and the experience of working win no time useful, testing the dynamics of the work and creativity.
Knowledge is power, that says 1st page headline in The Copenhagen Post newspaper from few weeks ago. Also having a vision is to know how to set a destination and a journey free of any conditions. By having the choice to select from few subjects, I focused my interest in the e-Communication, e-Media and e-Design, and that gave me freedom and satisfaction of been in control of my future in the 2nd semester. On the other hand to chase my personal goals and to archive them during the group projects.
Used literature The books that proved to be helpful for me during the learning process in the 2nd semester were “The Media Student’s book” by Gill Branston and Roy Stafford, “Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning” by Dan M. Brown, plus “The Smashing Book #2” by Smashing Magazine and “The New Guide to Identity” by Wally Olins. The Media Student’s Book is especially written for students, and was easy to read. I honestly admit that I have not read the whole books, but chapters. In second book, Communicating Design, I looked through the chapters Flowcharts and Wireframes. It was helpful when we were developing the prototype of our solution in the 2nd project. Also, suggested by guest lecturer in 1st semester, I found and read the chapters Visible vs. Invisible Design, Designing Mobile User Experiences and Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping from the hard copy of the 2nd book of Smashing Magazine. The New Guide to Identity book helped me create the identity assignment in the Design class.
During this semester I learn to concentrate on the questions, read more, pay attention to the context, the content and the style, to listen, to follow and share. Good communication is based on paying attention to details and respecting the conversation’s pace. The e-Communication and e-Design are the two sides of one coin, I think. They always go together and they (together) are space for a completely new way of thinking, creativity and discovery within the e-Concept development. This is not possible to learn in the classroom of e-Concept, if you are not dedicated to and you do not cooperate with people to inspire and challenge youself. I was lucky to find friends and colleagues during the 2nd semester, and build good collaboration and commitment with in the projects. In one sentence, do what makes you happy and the outcome will always occur. Leave the drama, and take breaks.
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TEAM6, 2nd semester e-Concept Development · KEA Bi5
Exam synopsis
* Scatches for the wireframes from Project 2 “Sagaz mobile app”