We were told as a group to think of generalised difficulties that we already/will have with being a student at leeds college of art and studying graphic design. This is what we came up with..
Forgetting names, Where to get a hair cut, Not knowing where to go, Budgeting, Washing up, Getting to university on time, Cooking, Making friends, Loan coming on time, Early starts everyday, Not knowing where to shop and what to shop for, Brief not making sense, Bad coffee,Not knowing your way around LCA, Sharing studio with 2nd and 3rd years, Others not familiar with the institution , Not owning decent kitchen equipment, Not having enough money, Liberty Park, NUS card, Not knowing how to use a washing machine, No bed space, Crammed bedrooms, Being organised, Homesick, PowerPoints, Running out of toiletries, No TV Licence, Computer accounts not working, E-studio, Blogging, Trusting flat mates, Leeds weather, Arriving to LCA on time, Noisy flatmates, Trying to set up internet in halls, Breaking items, Visiting home, Food shopping, Eating healthy, Expensive transport, Losing keys, Getting mugged, Items stolen from flat, No Wi-Fi, Tap water not tasting nice, Light switches in awkward places, Not getting on with flatmates, Losing your swipe card, Graphic design expenses, Affordable gym, Cards getting cancelled, Staying awake, Phone credit/bills, £8250 fees, Confidence, Fred time, Health and safety, Food poisoning, Fresher’s flu, No student union, Lack in variety of sport, Football training is far away, Lack of fridge space, Flat mates eating your food, Getting out of bed..
After a few laps of 'pass the problems' we were faced with our question.
Our question was ‘How to find your way around Leeds & Leeds College of Art?’, which we changed to ‘How to find your way around Leeds College of Art?’ because otherwise it'd been too varied.
Thought Process
Who needs to know?
New students to Leeds College of Art, Students arriving for an Open Day, Visitors to the college.
What/why do they need to know?
How to find their way around the university – during induction week, classes are scattered around the college due to different types of training.
Find nearest toilet – Everyone loves knowing where the nearest toilet is in that awkward situation where you really need a wee.
Find out where you are – very GPSy but yeah, it'd be helpful to get told exactly where you are in the building with help from the phone in your hand.
We asked the reception desk if there were any maps available for the college, but thy said no. So after that we actually spoke to other new students and they said a map would be very helpful to their first couple/few weeks.
How will we tell them?
Paper-based map – as there are no maps already we thought a paper based one would be necessary anyway.
Smart phone application – Most people nowadays have a smart phone, so creating an application would make a lot of sense.
3D layout of the building – This would show all the possible routes to where the student my want to go. I think it would be produced with real life 360 photos.
Colour coded departments – each department would be colour coded and corresponding colour lines would be placed along the floor around college.
Interactive online map – Most students will have access to the Internet, so an interactive map could an ideal way to help them navigate around the college.
Where will they look?
Freshers pack – Maps could be placed into freshers packs, so students would be able to familiarise themselves with the college prior to arriving.
LCA reception – A collection of maps could be kept at reception for students to take when needed.
Open days – handing out maps on open days would make a lot of sense to help people make their way around.
Enrolment days – Once enrolled on a particular course, the corresponding department map could be issued to the student.
Exhibition events – visitors coming to LCA to view exhibitions would be able to pick up a map to help navigate around the college.
App Store/Google play – If we decide to create an application, it will be easily locatable from the designated application stores.
How will they need to interact with it?
Smart phone application – by downloading the map application, students will be able to navigate around the college with ease. The design of the application should be simple and easy to use.
Paper-based map – This is pretty much self explanatory, but a well designed map could make journeying around the college much easier.
How will you know its working?
App Store/Google Play review – Smart phone users with the application will be able to provide feedback by adding comments and thoughts in the review section of the app stores.
What is the tone of voice?
Informative
Reassuring
We decided as a group that creating a GPS based application would be the best solution to the problem. However although most students now have a smart phone, not everyone does. Thus we have also opted to create paper based maps too.
Names for App -
LCA Class Finder - the app may do more than just find your class, so this name may not be appropriate.
LCA Room Finder - thus we changed the name to ‘room finder’, however this doesnt work as well.
LCA Maps - this name is simple, but could seem a bit dull.
LCA Mapp -combining the words ‘map’ and ‘app’, creative but could be spelt wrong when searching for the application as it would be pronounced as ‘LCA map’ and its also a bad idea haha.
We decided to go with the name LCA Maps as is simple and memorable.
Once we had decide on the name, Daniel and Oliver started creating a logo for the application.
How will we tell them?
Paper-based map – as there are no maps already we thought a paper based one would be necessary anyway.
Smart phone application – Most people nowadays have a smart phone, so creating an application would make a lot of sense.
3D layout of the building – This would show all the possible routes to where the student my want to go. I think it would be produced with real life 360 photos.
Colour coded departments – each department would be colour coded and corresponding colour lines would be placed along the floor around college.
Interactive online map – Most students will have access to the Internet, so an interactive map could an ideal way to help them navigate around the college.
Where will they look?
Freshers pack – Maps could be placed into freshers packs, so students would be able to familiarise themselves with the college prior to arriving.
LCA reception – A collection of maps could be kept at reception for students to take when needed.
Open days – handing out maps on open days would make a lot of sense to help people make their way around.
Enrolment days – Once enrolled on a particular course, the corresponding department map could be issued to the student.
Exhibition events – visitors coming to LCA to view exhibitions would be able to pick up a map to help navigate around the college.
App Store/Google play – If we decide to create an application, it will be easily locatable from the designated application stores.
How will they need to interact with it?
Smart phone application – by downloading the map application, students will be able to navigate around the college with ease. The design of the application should be simple and easy to use.
Paper-based map – This is pretty much self explanatory, but a well designed map could make journeying around the college much easier.
How will you know its working?
App Store/Google Play review – Smart phone users with the application will be able to provide feedback by adding comments and thoughts in the review section of the app stores.
What is the tone of voice?
Informative
Reassuring
We decided as a group that creating a GPS based application would be the best solution to the problem. However although most students now have a smart phone, not everyone does. Thus we have also opted to create paper based maps too.
Names for App -
LCA Class Finder - the app may do more than just find your class, so this name may not be appropriate.
LCA Room Finder - thus we changed the name to ‘room finder’, however this doesnt work as well.
LCA Maps - this name is simple, but could seem a bit dull.
LCA Mapp -combining the words ‘map’ and ‘app’, creative but could be spelt wrong when searching for the application as it would be pronounced as ‘LCA map’ and its also a bad idea haha.
We decided to go with the name LCA Maps as is simple and memorable.
Once we had decide on the name, Daniel and Oliver started creating a logo for the application.
I went on a little adventure to take photos around the university for some mock ups of the map application whilst Priyesh and Daniel began drawing up ideas and Bethany started on the map layout on indesign.
Everyone were given set tasks to make the process of the design development a lot quicker and to give us all work in our own skill areas.
My job was to organise and design the actual application format and visual representations of it.
Overall was a very successful project.
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