This week, we began with a group critique. I was glad to be getting some feedback about my interface design, as I knew it was lacking and could benefit from some changes, but I was struggling to see what I should add myself. I always find that our group critiques have a major impact and often completely transform my projects, is I was confident that I would overcome my ‘design block’ after the critique.
One of the main points pointed out to me was the lack of colour. My lecturer pointed out that although the 70’s were indeed characterised by lots of brown colours, that more vibrant colours were often used alongside this so I should experiment with incorporating these into my interface. The colours that accompanied browns most often during this era are often referred to as the ‘retro’ colour palette; characterised by bright blues, yellows and oranges.
My interface itself was complimented very much and I was advised to keep my overall structure and interfaces the same. Something pointed out to me was that I could combine the profile and dropdown menu into a single page and add it to the nav bar att the bottom, freeing up more room for the interface.
Overall, I had a very successful critique and I’m relieved that my feedback was so positive and encouraging. I feel that the areas of improvement outlined to me shouldn’t be very difficult and will hopefully give me a much stronger interface.
We discussed our upcoming project which we will begin in the coming weeks. It involves presenting data across multiple dashboards. This multi-dashboard should ve user friendly, illustrating diagrammatic thinking and a good Ui.
We were given some examples and ideas to kickstart our brainstorming process. These included:
<aside> This weeks critique went really positively for me. I always find is very motivating when my designs are discussed in these sessions, as it’s good to hear positive feedback as motivation as well as some constructive criticisms to help me make improvements. I feel that making these simple changes, such as adding more colours, will help me create a much more on-theme, playful app. Reflecting on what I showed in the critique, I can see that I tried to play it too safe with my interface and colours by only sticking to very muted colours and using one font. This is something to keep in mind for my future projects, as I can recognise how playing it too safe threw my project off-theme. I’ll experiment with these in the coming week and am confident that I’ll have a much more successful UI.
Discussing our next project was very insightful, as we looked at examples which has already helped me start forming ideas. I’ll begin to brainstorm ideas and themes which I could use for my dashboard, as well as looking at examples to help me come up with ideas.
</aside>