Reflection from first semester

Due to the dissertation hand-in that we all had its been a long time since I have given much attention to my honours project. It’s nice to now have just one project to focus on, and seeing as i’m not very confident in my dissertation, I am starting to really feel the pressure.

With the first prototype hand-in due in less then a month, there is a lot that I need to do. Although the last interim presentation I completed I was happy with in terms of the presentation of the boards, and the way I explained my concept and how it would be used, there is both improvement to be made in terms of the overall layout of the work I do and refining my actual concept. What made me realise this I think was the time off I had over the christmas period. I think it’s easy to get caught up in the mix of everything during term time when the pressure is on, I feel that sometimes I make split decisions or decide on things through the pressure of time, and sometimes those decisions won’t have solid justification behind them.

There was a hand in at the start of this week (the start of the term also) that asked us to explain: are strong points from last semester, what needs improving, and what our next step is to improve it. This really helped me get my thoughts down on paper and the point was to do this in preparation for our first tutorials of the semester with our two lecturers so we could sit down and reflect on everything that we thought in terms of what the projects were heading towards.

So when it came to my strengths, or what I have achieved quite well in the previous semester (this was only discussed briefly in the tutorial) I feel like it was the basic (but important) things that I did right. Firstly my presentation of models and boards was told that it was to a decent quality — although there is always room for improvement and this is something I do want to improve. I also in general want to develop my style to be more constant throughout: boards, drawings, models, and everything really. To be honest i’m quite annoyed at myself for not focusing on this in earlier years of university, but all I can do now is try and get this consistency. Anyway, another good aspect from semester 1 was my basic understanding of how people use speakers in their particular lifestyle which was generated through my research, and me gathering solid insights through instructables, as well as reaching out to people like Finlay Page etc. I can say that the process of research in first semester definitely helped me in both my project and being able to reach out to people to get the info that was necessary.

Now on to what needs improving, which is a lot. I knew that there were a few big holes in my project before the meeting and by that I mean aspects of the project that don’t really add up or are just flakey in general.

The first main aspect that I need to focus a lot more on is who the product will be aimed at. Although I know that the basic concept is suited towards a particular type of person — makers, designers etc, I need to create a more in-depth persona of who that person is. So basically I need to think of a few different kind of personsa that this type of product would be aimed towards, stick with it, and then justify the design decisions / tone of voice of the overall thing to suit this persona well. What i’m a bit confused about as of now is how i’m to best choose the type of persona that this kind of product would be best suited towards. What first comes to my mind is art school students — who enjoy making things but don’t necessarily have advanced technical skills. But what I understood from my lecturers is by going forward with a persona this basic and non-specific would not be healthy for my project, as although it is a group of people, I need to specify in greater detail this ‘type of art student’ (this is just an example explaining that I need to be more specific). I feel that to do this I need to think of a way to define what ‘personas’ would be good potential target markets, and then constantly base my project on this type of project. I also feel that this was really solid advice from my lecturers as explaining that trying to reach out to every kind of maker would be a very difficult task.

The next main aspect of my project that I need to put a lot of focus towards was explained through the question: what is the customisable nature of the product? I thought this was a great question as throughout the winter breaker I started to have doubts about how piratical my concept really is. I thought the process of interchangeable woofers and circuits created a dynamic that a) would only appeal to a very small group of people with a very high skill set — that to which i do not have, and b) be generally really complicated to make. This is where my lecturers were extremely helpful in letting me re-think the features that this DIY kit will include. They made me realise that the customisation of the bass with the woofers would, although spark interest to maybe a really techy person with a high skill set, but would be very complicated to do and in general you can buy speakers that can change the bass without having to take them apart. So I think I will go with providing the user with just the one circuit — because the main area where I could provide customisation and greater value to the users, is through the layout and form. What I need to do is create a fixed template that will include the tech involved, and then come up with several different designs that have this same fixed template, but have overall very different layouts and structures to them, which is then the customisable asset which I am wanting to include in my project. I also think — and the lecturers agreed in the feedback sheet — that my going with the route that involves a circuit of a basic level, but focusing more on the looks and layout that as well as providing the option of several different designs based around the one fixed structure, that the option of providing users with a platform and a template that enables them to create their own design, is still available. And I think that could be a very important part of my project, to provide the value to users through the customisation of the look and layout of the speaker, rather then the sound.

I feel that there’s a lot to do, but I certainly feel a lot more confident in my project then I did over the winter break. My next step is to generate a solid persona for my product, and find what would bring best value to them through more research / user testing.

Related posts:

1. Pilih satu stand yag terbaik (Beri ulasan ttg stand mengapa stand ini stand terbaik, dilengkapi dengan foto anda dg latar belakang stand) 2. Pilih stand yang memberikan layanan informasi terbaik…

If I would have listened to other people’s opinions on what I should be doing with my life, I would have lived a dull life. Some people ridicule me for being too much of a free thinker and free…

As you most of you already know, Hollywood has stringent standards when it comes to scriptwriting. But where do these strict standards come from? They come from tested genres, which are easily…