Critical Justification 2 Laura Dobson DE1083
Contents Chapter 1 : Introduction Reading this Book 6-7
Project Recap 8-9 The Final Outcome 10-11
Chapter 2 : Concept Development User Ideation & Branding Exercise
14-15 Practice Run 16-17 Major Interim 18-19 The Education Show 20-21 User Testing 22-23
Chapter 3 : Creation Chosing a Name 24-25
Logo Design 26-27 Website Creation 28-31 Sourcing Material 32-33 Bag Prototyping 34-43 Packaging Design 44-51 Awareness Strategy 52-55 Photography 56-57 Add-on Design 58-59 Website Design & Hosting 60-63
Chapter 4 : Final Deliverables Filming Preparation 64-67 Filming 68-69 Editing & Scripting 70-73 Service Map 74-75 Board Development 76-77 Final Hand-in 80-81
Chapter 5 : Validation & Reflection External Validation 84-89
Personal Reflection 90-91 Acknowledgments 92-93
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Reading this book Personal
Anything highlighted, underlined or circled in green within this book represents me directing the project and reflecting on activities undertaken.
External
Anything highlighted, underlined or circled in blue within this book represents something an external interviewee/collaborator has said which has impacted my project.
Tutor Feedback
Anything highlighted, underlined or circled in purple within this book represents feedback from the team of lecturers and tutors.
Text in bold indicates my personal reflection looking back at the project, this will appear on most pages where important decisions were made.
At the bottom of each right hand page these reminders will appear so there’s no need to flick back!
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General Recap This is the brief I set myself at the end of CJ1. After a few weeks of having very little idea what the outcome of my project would be, this was the turning point where I started to feel it coming together better. By narrowing down the potential outcome of the project I was able to focus my attention and I hoped to have a strong concept I could communicate well at the major interim.
Having a final brief to look back on was both useful and reassuring as I progressed through the project. I was able to make sure I was fulfilling what I set out to do.
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The Final Idea The final outcome of my project is a service that provides both parents and children with the necessary tools to make outdoor play more inviting and more fun, tackling parents anxieties about the dangers of outdoor play. The service comprises of a selection of four adventure kit bags, each designed for use in a different type of outdoor environment. The kit bag is accompanied by a website which sets challenging but achievable goals for children to complete to help maintain interest, there is also an option to buy add-ons, keeping the initial cost down, as stated in my final brief. I had concerns about how much work was involved in order to create the four kits, however Laura Warwick assured me that for the purpose of illustration I should focus on one kit throughout the project to show how the service works from start to finish.
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How did I get there?
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User Group: Branding and Ideation Exercise To move forward with the designing involved in the project I wanted to make a start on the branding which would need continuity between physical products and the website. I went back to Laura Cathcart, the primary school teacher who asked her year 3 class to help me during the initial ideation process. I asked each pupil to complete a simple work sheet, I created 5 possible character groups for the website and the winner was the woodland animals with super powers, closely followed by normal woodland animals. I also asked them to decorate a den for me using coloured pencils, the imagination in the drawings was really good and helped me a lot when I came to design add-ons for the den building kit. Some children even copied their favourite characters onto their den showing their enthusiasm straight away, from here I believed I was definitely heading in the right direction Getting ideas from the user group was extremely helpful, looking back, I probably could have made more use of the user group in earlier stages to help get a solid concept quicker.
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Practice Run with Mark Bailey The day before the final interim, myself and a few other from my peer group had a session with Mark Bailey and treated it as a practice interim. This was really useful as Mark had never seen my project before so I could tell how well I was communicating my ideas from his feedback. I talked through my service map and the key points from the exploration phase and he quickly grasped my concept. His advice to me was ‘you looked really nervous when talking through that and you don’t need to be, you explained it really well and your service map makes a lot of sense.’ I was nervous about the major interim but Mark’s feedback gave me confidence in myself and I felt much happier and calmer about the approaching interim.
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Major Review At the major interim I was presenting to Laura Warwick, my peer group tutor, Dave O’Leary and Neil Smith. Both Dave and Neil had seen my project previous to this, I didn’t have to recap much to bring them up to date. During the 10 minutes I had to present I mainly focused on this service map, explaining how the entire service would work rather than individual parts of the service as I had done previously. I felt it was important to try and present my idea as clearly as possible so I could get the most of out the feedback given. The feedback was really positive and helped to confirm I had a strong enough concept to continue. Neil wanted to know more about what the four kits were, I knew that in future I needed to explain why there were four. Dave explained that a lot of people who tackle service design tend to miss out a lot of detail from the awareness part, he told me ‘don’t just say it’s advertised on social media,’ from this I decided I needed to develop my awareness strategy a lot more. Overall, my interim review went really well, however, writing down some key points to explain would have helped to make sure I communicated my idea even better.
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Education Show - Birmingham NEC My placement company offered me the chance the travel the Birmingham with them to visit the Education Show. This was a really good experience for me although a lot of the exhibitors were showing online resources for children and furniture there wasn’t a great deal of products that were in any way similar to what I was developing but it was useful to speak to people who sell to both parents and teachers. I did meet someone from a company called Discovery Dens that sold aluminum framed tents to schools with different backdrops that were suitable for indoor and outdoor use but the structure had to be assembled by an adult and was always the same square shape. I felt at this point that making it easy enough for children to assemble was a good idea. Although I had hoped to get more out of this trip, I am still pleased I went as it gave me confidence in my project.
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User Testing I had tested using the velcro ties myself (CJ1) but I needed to be sure that 7 year olds would be able to use them on their own before I continued with this method. I sent a pack of velcro ties to Laura Cathcart (primary school teacher) and asked if she could get a small group of children from her class to build a den. I asked her to comment on the following: - how easy the children found it - how well they worked together - did they come across any problems - did you have to help at any point The feedback I got from Laura was really positive, she said ‘I got 4 children together and I did very little explaining, I just let them get on with it, they had a lot of fun. To begin with they weren’t sure if they were doing it correctly but they worked together and soon figured it out. They had a basic structure together in about twenty minutes and then they asked if they could decorate it so I let them have our materials box. I was very very impressed with how well they did, the velcro ties are an excellent idea in my opinion and I can see that with more of them, they would have even more fun. We left the den up and all the children played together at break time, it was great.’ This was a very quick way of testing the ties without needing parental consent as I was not present and there were no photographs of children being taken. Laura sent me this photo of the finished den. This further reassured me that velcro ties were the ideal component for the den building kit. This exercise was invaluable, there was no better way to get feedback on using velcro ties as components so quickly.
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Explorer Kids Adventurers Nature Kids Explore More Explore It I Explore Explore Outdoor Outdoor Explorers
Naming the Service Naming the service presented a challenge in that it needed to appeal to both parents and children. I wanted it to convey the fun aspects of outdoor play such as exploring for materials to use with the kit. I quickly ruled out anything with ‘kids’ in the name as I realised that I was trying to give the target age group some independence when playing outdoors and they wouldn’t want to be referred to as kids. I needed to make a decision fast in order to move forward with the project as I was quickly approaching the final 10 weeks, I decided on Explore More as it would be easy for children to remember because of the rhyming and it would appeal to adults, emphasising more time should be spent outdoors. I decided on a name really quickly but I am still happy with what I chose. In hindsight, if I had more time I would have asked parents and children for their opinion.
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Logo Development Now I had my characters, colours and a name, I could create the logo. The same applied, I needed to make it inviting for children but also appealing to parents. I chose to use the hedgehog character in the logo as this is the first character level on the website, familarising children with it. I chose to use a magnifying glass to emphasise that its about exploring nature, but I felt this also gave a hint of the eductaional value it can have which may appeal to parents and schools (as part of the awareness strategy). I showed several people including parents, children and teachers the third logo which they all liked but some expressed it looked like it was maybe just aimed at boys, so I decided to swap the red for purple and I think this works well as a gender neutral logo. I am still really pleased with the logo design, I think it reflects the brand values well.
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LOGO
HOME
ICON
JOIN
ICON
SIGN IN
BANNER
ICON
WHAT IS EXPLORE MORE?
ICON
ICON
WHY JOIN?
THE BENEFITS
ICON
MEMORY LANE
PARENTS
TEXT
LOGO
IMAGE
HOME
ICON
JOIN
ICON
SIGN IN
JOIN THE EXPLORERS
EXPLAIN JOINING PROCESS
ICON
NEXT
IMAGE
Website Development Having never designed or built a website before, I was aware it may be time consuming. I did some wireframing and looked at the possible options of where and how to build the site. I expressed my concern about building a working site to Laura Warwick who reassured me I only needed to create the bits I needed. Laura told me to have a look at Square Space as some simple to use software. Knowing I didn’t have to build a working site reassured me at this point as I was worried spending too much time on the website would effect the rest of my work. I needed to plan my time carefully from now on. I’m pleased that I started working on the website so early as it was a very important part of my project, if I had left if any later it would have been rushed.
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Adobe Muse After looking into where to build the website, I came across Muse which used a similar layout and format to InDesign. I downloaded a trial of the software and quickly understood the basics of how it worked, I felt a lot happier about the prospect of building a site at this point as it didn’t seem as difficult as I had first thought. I was still unsure about whether I would host the site online or just use it as a dummy but I could decide on this later once I had all the pages I needed.
I didn’t know anyone who had used Muse before so I was relying on tutorials to help me get the hang of it. I’m so pleased I did decide to use it as it meant I could include my own animations and interactions on the site.
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Sourcing Fabric For Bag Prototypes I wanted to use iron on transfer paper to add the logo to the bag, which Laura Warwick agreed would be the most cost effective way. I did some research and found that in order to get the transfer hot enough without melting the material I needed to use a 100% cotton fabric, I searched local shops and the internet looking for material in the correct colours. I found the perfect colours on a site called myfabrics.co.uk, however I later found that they shipped the material from Germany and it would take at least 10 days to arrive. I worked out how much I needed to make two prototype bags and a final bag and ordered it, deciding it was worth the wait as the colours were so important to the brand and the design.I could get on with the website design while I waited for it to arrive. I decided to use a cotton twill as its durable for childrens use. It was a hard choice to make at the time, to wait for material to be delivered, it was tempting just to change the colour scheme and use what was available locally, but I’m pleased I waited as the material was the right colours and extremely good quality. If I were to do this again under another tight time frame, I would source material at the same time as deciding on a colour scheme.
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Kit Bag Prototype During a week at home in the Easter holidays, I made use of my mums sewing machine and started to prototype the kit bag. Having studied textiles in sixth form I was still confident threading and using a sewing machine, however I had no idea where to start when making a drawstring bag, I watched YouTube tutorials to help me. I know I learn best from doing things myself so I decided just to have a go. I didn’t quite get the top section central but on the whole it worked well for a first attempt. I wanted to add a front pocket to give it more detail and I needed to decide where to add the logo. To begin with I thought this basic design might be the limit of my bag making ability, but after being impressed with how it turned out, I had the confidence to continue to develop the design.
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Kit Bag Prototype 2 I made a second bag, this time with a front pocket and aesthetically it worked much better with the two colours. I had enough material to make another bag but I was pretty happy with this one, I just needed to decide where I wanted the logo to go.
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Logo Transfer Testing The first time I used the transfer paper I peeled it off too quickly and the result was very grainy and peeled round the edges. I experimented with how long to leave it on for and how hot to have the iron. I also experimented with whether it was better to cut a square round the transfer or cut closer to the image as it left a faint line. I then tried adjusting the brightness in photoshop before printing as the colours were coming out quite dark on the green background. I decided that cutting a square worked better and was less likely to peel. The transfers were for light fabrics so this meant I either need to put it directly onto the bag at the top or make a badge. Doing multiple tests with the transfer paper definitely worked in my favour, it took at least 9 attempts to get a result I was happy with. If I hadn’t done the testing, and gone straight onto the bag I would have started all over again.
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I tested it first, making sure the edges would only fray up to the stitched line, then positioned it on the bag so I could see it was an okay size and where it should be positioned
Logo Transfer I decided to put the logo onto the front pocket, meaning I could either make a new bag or unpick the second one I made. In hindsight I shouldn’t have stitched the second bag together until I decided where to put the logo. I decided to unpick it and stitch on the badge so if it went wrong I still had the option to make a third bag with the material I had left. I stitched along the fabric where the transfer left a line so it was less noticeable, I then allowed the material to fray from the stitching outwards as it was going to be too difficult to get a perfect edge without machinery. It worked really well and I stitched the bag back together and was really happy with the outcome. I decided this would be the final model and I didn’t need to make another which saved me a lot of time. My tutor was also really happy with the outcome.
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Wooden Bead Detail I felt that where the chord was tied looked unfinished and could potentially be pulled through the loop over time. I decided to add a large wooden bead to each side hoping this would also add value and convey the connection with nature that Explore More promotes.
I almost didn’t add this feature as I didn’t have the time or skill to make them myself and sourcing beads with a big enough hole in the middle wasn’t easy but I am so please I did as it really adds aesthetic value.
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Packaging Design I wanted to keep the box for the kit as small as possible to reduce material usage and so it could be recycled easily with other household items. I also wanted it to fit through a standard letterbox so it didn’t become a hassle for parents to collect if undelivered. The box in the first photo was from something that was delivered to me so I tested the size, seeing how small I could fold the bag and how much space I might need to the velcro ties. .
Using paper to model internals really helped me to visualise the layout and saved me a lot of time cutting up pieces of cardboard.
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Packaging Design (2) I soon realised I could put two layers of velcro ties together rather than side by side to save space meaning I could make the box a lot shorter. During a peer group meeting with Laura Warwick she asked why I had chosen to use the fox, she explained that if I was using the hedgehog as the first level on the website, then the hedgehog should appear in your first box. I understood what she meant and decided that I needed to change this through further iteration.
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Final Packaging Design I had intended to use just the hedgehog character on the inner packaging but I then decided to have all of the characters together to make it more exciting. The fact that the hedgehog level is the first one is still represented by the address label on the front, the instructions pouch in the lid and of course the logo on the bag. I think the design worked really well and when opened, all the bright colours are really inviting to children.
I am really happy with the final design of my packing, it was less important than other parts of the service but I still wanted to maintain brand values and excitement within it.
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Outer Packaging Design The boxes are addressed to the children, meaning the box needed to be instantly recognisable, I was careful to consider cost when designing the outer graphics. I didn’t want anything too complicated or that covered the whole box. I eventually decided on the design shown in the third photo. The character on the address label would be the hedgehog on the first kit box received however, as the child progressed through the online levels, boxes for add-ons would show the same character as the website level.
Addressing the packages to children ended up being a really key point to the service which I probably would have overlooked if Laura Warwick had not mentioned it.
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Message aimed at parents, making them think about their own childhood
Developing an Awareness Strategy After Dave expressing concern that I didn’t have enough of an awareness strategy at the interim, I decided to think about how I could do something more exciting than advertising on social media or via posters. I spoke to Laura Cathcart again to ask some advice about promoting the service in school she said ‘parents generally take a lot of notice of things that schools get behind, if you can create something more exciting than a leaflet but with a similar purpose that would get their attention. If you can make it inviting for children as well parents might be more inclined to look into it further.’ I created a flower shaped leaflet that opens up to reveal a small task for children to do that involves outdoor activity.
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Awareness Strategy Inside each flower shaped starter pack there is an activity card and 3 stickers. I included the activity in the hope that parents would join after seeing how a simple task such as making a lions face from leaves would get children outdoors. I included stickers to promote the service and make it memorable to parents as children will stick them to toys and books so they are seen regularly. “The idea of using stickers is definitely a good way of making sure parents are reminded of the service, kids love stickers!� Laura Cathcart
I was pleased to be able to develop such a simple awareness strategy that teachers thought would work.
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Photography for the Website As I was developing the website, I needed photos of the kit bag for certain pages. I decided the quickest and easiest way to photograph the bag at this stage was outdoors, I didn’t feel the website would benefit from having photographs on clean white backgrounds as it didn’t fit with the theme of the site. Photographing outside definitely gave the images more value in terms of connection with the Explore More brand.
I probably could have got better images using more professional equipment, however the images were fine for use on the website and I got them quickly.
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This is one of the childrens drawings that inspired me the most, I loved how there was a different colour on each side
Designing the Add-ons I enjoyed developing the add-ons but it didn’t take me long to settle on an idea. I decided to create a waterproof canopy that could be used as a roof or walls in a den. On the website I showed that canopies would be available in all sort of colours and patterns to help enhance imagination and available in small or large sizes to keep costs down for those that needed it. In each corner of the canopies is a large eyelet for easy attaching. Each time an add-on is ordered the character on the front of the package reflects the current character level on the website which maintains a child’s enthusiasm.
If I had had more time I would have liked to develop more ideas for add-ons as this would really help promote continued use of the service.
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Language and Layout of the Website As well as parents, the website needed to be simple to understand for children. I had to consider it was suitable for a child who may have just turned 7. With this in mind I decided to give the pages continuity, the layout was very similar on each page, I used fonts that were easy to read and exaggerated buttons in red so that the next steps were easy to follow. The use of the woodland characters allowed me to make the site more exciting. The feedback I got from parents and children was fantastic, parents loved how simple it was to use ‘it’s so simple but so exciting and inviting at the same time,’ (Ellie Clark) and children thought the animated characters were a lot of fun.
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Hosting the Website After putting a lot of effort into the design of the website I felt it would be a shame not to submit it as the working website, so I decided to host it online. This also meant it would work properly while filming so both the parent and child in the video could use it rather than just pretend. I had no idea how to host a website but I followed simple instructions from the internet and after a few hours had a live website. I clicked on all the buttons to make sure they were all linked to the correct pages and corrected any mistakes.
I never thought I would get a live website working by myself, I was impressed when it finally worked. I sent the link out to a few friends just to make sure!
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Video Planning Laura Warwick explained how essential it was for me to plan my video so I knew exactly what I needed to film. I attempted to sketch this out to begin with but it was taking a long time and sketching has never been my favourite form of communication so I decided I would just write a list which Laura checked to make sure I had covered all the key points. Fortunately my dad, Paul, is a professional cameraman for the BBC and had offered to help me get the footage I needed. This plan then became even more important as I had to explain to him exactly what I needed.
This was extremely useful when filming, there was a lot going on and it would have been really easy to forget things. I ticked things off the list as we went through.
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Planning for Filming with Children Speaking from years of experience, my dad explained ‘filming with children never goes to plan, have a back up plan,’ so I decided to print off the image Laura Cathcart had sent me of the den her class built, just incase the children I was filming didn’t understand what I wanted them to do, they could copy the photograph. I made sure I had everything in the garden ready to go, I had a big pile of sticks, much to my dogs amusement and lots of decorations. The children I used were family members although I don’t see them very often so we decided we would do the outdoor shots first so the children could burn off some energy and get used to me giving instructions and dad pointing a camera at them. We left all the shots of my mum (played James mum) on her own until the children had gone so they didn’t get tired waiting around. The day before filming I was very nervous that I wouldn’t get everything I needed, but it all came together well in the end.
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Filming Originally, James older brother, Jack was going to be the second child in the video but when he arrived he decided he didn’t want to take part. We carried on using just James and luckily his best friend Olivia was able to come and join in at short notice and the two of them worked really well together with very little input from me. I was confident that my dad would get really good quality images although the hardest thing for me was not being in control, I had no idea what we had footage of until we had finished. At each stage I explained what the key points were to make sure we got shots of the velcro ties, the children working together and the kit bag etc. I knew I was going to use a voice over and music on the video edit so the sound recorded here didn’t matter, this worked really well as I was able to direct the children and talk to my dad whilst filming was happening. It was difficult to allow someone else to film as I knew exactly what I wanted but I knew that with over 30 years experience, my dad wouldn’t let me down and I was right all the shots were well framed and of professional quality.
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Editing After 3 hours of filming we began editing my video. Again my dad offered to help as he is used to filming and editing news packages in the same day. I was aware it would probably take me about a week to edit so I was pleased of the help. We used my plan to make sure it was all in the right order and I had to explain which bit needed to go where and for how long so the story would make sense. Initially I was narrating the video and there were shots of me talking throughout, I expressed concern at this point but my dad reassured me that I could take all the files back to Newcastle and would be able to edit them in Premiere Pro.
I was so grateful for all the help I had received and it saved me so much time, however I was looking forward to finishing off the video by myself so I could add graphics and title pages.
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Script Writing I asked Laura Warwick to view my video as it was at this point and give me some feedback. Laura agreed with me that I should have someone else voice over the video and I should take out the sections where I was on screen. I wrote a script and sent it to Laura for feedback, she amended and added a few things for me and I was completely happy with it. My next job was to find someone who could voice it for me, friends expressed concern their accents were too strong so I took another trip home and this time roped in my mum who, after a few attempts, recorded it perfectly. Once again my dads equipment made is sound very professional with no background noise. I should have written the script before I filmed the video, but I didn’t feel I had time whilst getting all my other props ready.
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Word of mouth Reads message and remembers how much fun they had outside as a child
Decides to join Explore More
Parent
Follows web address on back of starter pack
Encourages child to go and collect some leaves from garden
Reads more about Explore More and the benefits it can have
Child
Uses stickers from the pack to decorate books and toys
Completes simple craft activity
Recieves Explore More starter pack at school
Giving out stickers in the pack means parents will be frequently reminded of the service if they don’t join up straight away
Other Methods of Awareness As the service gains popularity it will be possible for outdoor adventure parks and national trust sites to promote Explore More as well as schools, giving out the starter packs.
Awareness
Service Map The service map I presented at my major interim was quite complicated and needed a lot of explaining, since I wasn’t going to be verbally presenting my final deliverables it was important that it was self explanatory. Taking high quality stills from my video using MPEG Streamclip I was able to do this more easily, highlighting the key touch points of the service.
The service map helped to link all my deliverables together and I was pleased with how well it explained the service.
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First Draft of Boards I met with Laura Warwick, two weeks before the deadline to discuss the layout of my boards to make sure I was communicating my project in the best way possible. Laura expressed concern that I was focusing too much on the style of my layout rather than emphasising the content. I agreed with what she said and I explained I thought including more photographs might help me to break up the text and explain my choices more thoroughly. Laura also added some notes about including information about scalability and a business case to verify how it would be developed in future. I hadn’t even considered explaining this on my board but understood it was really important so I needed to include it.
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I met with Laura Warwick one final time a few days before the submission and she gave me some last minute feedback on my presentation board.
Board Layout A week later, I was much happier with the board I had produced. I printed it full scale so I could get a better idea of how the layout worked and make sure everything was where it should be. Laura pointed out that I had repeated myself a few times so I could take a few sentences of text out which I was happy about as I felt I had a lot of text at this point. This gave me more room to separate out different sections which made it a lot easier to follow. In the same session I watched my video back with Laura and she suggested a few small changes to the position of the voice over in relation to the footage. There were a few points where what was being said didn’t match what was on screen. I had been so focused on getting it finished I hadn’t put much thought into this and was grateful that Laura pointed it out as it was pretty simple to put right. Meeting with Laura for one final check gave me real confidence in my presentation and I was really happy with my work.
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Final Deliverables I was really happy with the way I presented my work in the end. My presentation was really bright and conveyed the fun theme immediately, I think using a lot of green worked in favour of the nature theme.
Choosing to do a service aimed at predominantly children gave me license to use bright colours and graphics in my final deliverables and I’m really pleased I did.
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Validation: Robert Wall Robert is the senior designer at Twoey Educational Resources, who design and manufacture children’s toys and furniture for both indoor and more recently outdoor use. “After seeing the initial concept, your project has come on leaps and bounds, I love the look of the website, the colours the characters and the design I think will be really appealing to your target audience, it’s really well thought out and has a lot of interesting content for both children and adults. There is plenty of scope for the kids to advance in their tasks and the social and educational not to mention health values will be really beneficial for the youngsters who sign up. I think if this product where launched to the general public you would see the subscription grow rapidly. I also think your awareness strategy is spot on, there is a big push to get children outdoors and I can see that schools would adopt this instantly and promote it well to parents. Twoey, as a company has definitely seen a surge in outdoor sales recently.”
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Validation: Tara Doherty Tara is the business development executive at Active Designs, having previously worked as a designer with the same company she has a lot of knowledge about designing for children. “I really like your project, especially having the separate sections on the websites for parents and children. The website is very easy to navigate and understand, and the adventure tasks are a fantastic addition. The website is simple enough for the target audience to interact with easily, with clear instructions. Even the colour scheme promotes the outdoor theme! As I know from having 2 young children, dens are a fantastic teaching method and without a doubt they promote independent play and keep children entertained for hours on end. All in all I think it’s a brilliant idea and would without a doubt work in the real world!�
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Primary School Teacher Year 3 (7/8 years old) Cockermouth Primary School
Laura sent me a short piece of validation in time to include it in my final presentation which is shown below, she then sent me a more detailed version later in the week. “The children in my class have loved doing the tasks you have set to help you with your project, it really got their imaginations going. I think the final outcome is absolutely fantastic, I can see children getting really excited about this and even swapping their velcro ties and canopies in the play ground so they collect different colour. The website is very well suited to the age range you specified, they would easily be able to navigate and understand.�
Validation: Laura Cathcart “I have been following your project from the beginning and I have to say, I didn’t expect the outcome to be so successful. From the initaial stages where my class did ideas on post-it notes, I had absolutely no idea what you were going to do with them, but then again that’s why I’m not a designer. You have done an exceptional job of capturing the activities that children should be doing and given them simple components to kick start their adventures and put the fun and excitement into playing outdoors. When you sent the velcro ties, the children had so much fun and they played in the den everyday for week at break time, it was brilliant! We have kept the ties and I am sure we will use them again. I viewed the website and your video recently and I think the website is just perfect for this age group and I love that you have involved parents too. We have loved working with you, its been a valuable experience and I hope we have been useful. Great job. Well done!”
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James Mum James is 7 years old
Validation: Ellie & James Clark James appeared in the video that I submitted as part of my project, his mum watched as he played. “After watching James build two different dens, it was really clear how much scope there is for this product, everytime a den is built its going to be different. James doesn’t normally engage with outdoor activities that well but watching him today, I definitely think this would work, he was so engrossed in what he was building I don’t think I would worry about him wondering off. I love the website too, it gives children something to work towards and encourages them to keep going back.” Ellie “I had a lot of fun building the army den and the spaceship den, it was really good when Olivia (also appeared in video) joined in. I really like the hedgehog that blinked on the website it made me laugh and I liked getting the points.” James
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Personal Reflection Looking back at my final year at Northumbria, I am extremely proud of what I have achieved. At the beginning of the year I had no clear idea of what my final project would be. During my final placement with Twoey Educational Resources in Cumbria, I worked on a lot of outdoor furniture for schools that would encourgae outdoor play. I decided to look into the decreasing amount of time children spent outdoors at home, I still had no idea what my final deliverables would be but I was pleased I had a topic. I quickly realised that I had to play to my strengths and on the advice of Laura Warwick, I needed to decide what kind of designer I was. I have always struggled to design anything conceptual or for the future so this was the point I decided my final project needed a physical outcome, something I could take photographs of to help me explain. The hardest part of the project for me was the period between finishing exploration and the point where I had a solid concept. For a few weeks I was anxious about what I was going to produce. My workshop skills are limited and I have never been very good at producing perfectly finished models I think this held me back during the ideation process. I would only put forward ideas I thought I could do well. Once I was happy with my concept and so was my peer group tutor I really enjoyed working on the project and although it was hard work, I had a lot of fun.
I have learned a lot about myself as well as my skills as a designer throughout the project. I have definitely become better at planning and managing my time, being able to set personal deadlines and stick to them. If I had more time on the project, I would have further developed the add-ons that are available and produced more of them, I would also have liked to develop and Explore More range for older children and young teenagers. Documenting all my activities has definitely challenged me, remembering to stop and take photographs of what I had done for development work and CJ documents was sometimes a lot harder than it sounds. When I was pressed for time this seemed like a very insignificant task but I stuck with it and I am pleased I did as it has made evaluating my work a lot easier. I was thrilled with all the lovely feedback I received from my validators. It was definitely worth getting in touch with them so early as they were able to watch the project develop from the beginning so by the end they understood exactly what I was doing and why. Overall I am really happy with the outcome of my project and I am proud to present it as my last piece of design work from Northumbria. Thanks to all involved for their help and guidance.
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Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people for their help throughout the project:
Tutors
Thank you to all the University tutors who have offered me advice and guidance along the way and special thanks to my peer group tutor Laura Warwick for weekly support. Laura Cathcart
Thank you to Laura Cathcart and the year 3 class at Cockermouth Primary School for all their help and feedback along the way, their work as invaluable and really helped to shape the project. Twoey Educational Resources
Thank you to Twoey for giving me feedback from the beginning of the project and special thanks to senior designer Rob Wall, who always made time to discuss my project.
Active Designs
Thank you to the staff at Active Designs who made me feel very welcome each time I visited and gave me constructive feedback on each occasion and shared their expertise. James & Olivia
Thank you to James, Olivia and their parents for agreeing to take part in my video and doing exactly what I asked of them. My Family & Friends
Lastly I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant support and help throughout this project. Special thanks to my mum and dad for all their help in producing the video.
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Laura Dobson Critical Justification 2