Week 4 Blog Post - Dave

This week I completed the mood boards, wireframes, mock-up designs and goals set in the previous week.

I started with the brand identity as I wanted to expand on it further and understand the visual aspects of the app. I started with creating a spider diagram with words that I feel are relevant to how I want the app to feel which allowed me to create a mood board with these words to show what I meant visually. As the story line is about the user and Dave helping each other across Japan, I wanted the vibe of the app to reflect, taking inspiration from studio Ghibli films and spring in Japan.

As the target audience and storyline had already been explained in the research document, I moved onto creating the Logo and then the App Icon. I had already had an idea on what I wanted it to look like while I was planning the project, so it was a quick process as I had the font and colour palette prepared. I made 2 versions of the app icon as I wanted a variety of options and want to have the target audience choose which one would grab their eye first. I will conduct overall feedback once I have completed the full document and then find out which ones I will be developing further in the build.

As I have the visual aspects finished, I started on expanding on what the app will include / how it will look. I began with the typography as it will be important when creating mock-ups and it will save time in the future when I am building as I have the fonts ready. Before I created any wireframes or sitemaps, I wrote down eveyr app page needed so I can understand the size of the project and if it is doable with my skillset. I did this mainly to self-assess and understand how long the development will truly take. I considered the fact that most components will be repeated code which means that it won’t take as long as it seems especially because I am using react so I can import components.

I then created the site map and wireframes which went well as I follow the same format from previous projects, and I started making mock up designs for each wire frame as I created 3 wireframes per main page. This is once again because I wanted to have a variety of options for the target audience to choose from. Since the app will be a hybrid app, I needed to create the mock-up design for both the desktop and mobile versions.

Another mock up I created was Daves final design as I will develop the expression further in the build however I want to have his final design ready for the build to save time. As I already had a mock-up of him before I created 2 versions, one is accurate to how macaques look and the other is a more marketable versions as it follows the traits set in the feedback.

Finally, I found the sound effects I want to use within the app as they will be indicators whether the user got an answer correct or incorrect. This will also be paired with the visual on the screen, but this addition will make the app more immersive.

As I have made a lot of progress this week, I think I will be finished with preproduction next week and I can start the build early. Next week I plan on expanding on Daves expressions, the websites functionality, UI, UX and how I will format the email marketing.