Jane's digital box

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN – END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

Module Code - OUGD202 Module Title DESIGN FOR DIGITAL MEDIA

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have developed a new range of skills throughout this module such as, Storyboarding and Animation skills. The technical skills needed to put together a piece of moving image were new for me. I also learned skills for designing and producing a web site, developing schematics and organisational skills to make the website work. A lot of organisation was required to make my pieces of work successful, I am happy with the logical approach I put forward when it came to designing for digital media, especially with my iweb site.
I learnt without these organisational skills the outcome I was trying to achieve was very difficult, I found storyboarding my ideas extremely useful before sitting down and producing moving image on screen. Planning and using these skills made the process of turning my ideas from paper to screen run more smoothly and less of a headache. I enjoyed the paper based work and preparation more enjoyable than designing actually on the computer, I hope to use the skills I learnt and adapt them into practices I do enjoy such as print. Organisation is a key skill throughout any practice, and also a key lesson learned from this module is not to trust technology to do what you want it to, being prepared for any mishaps with software etc. especially iweb shows patience is also a good skill to have when designing for digital media, which I think I had throughout most of the module.

2. What approaches to generating work and solutions to problems have you developed and how have they helped?
Understanding how storyboards can be used to communicate an idea was interesting and a part of the module I enjoyed, if I were to work with moving image again I would want to focus on this part of the design process. I have learnt the importance of mapping out schematics for websites and how these help the problem of organising a mass of information to be shown on a site. I enjoyed working out where everything went and this approach definitely helped my final solution on the iweb. Collecting and categorising my research and then developing it into a design direction was a new approach to me and allowed me to generate initial ideas more efficiently, I found a direction early on in the brief which allowed me time to learn the software skills I needed and develop my idea in a decent time frame. I will use this approach in future.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I can work schematically quite well; following a structure I created allowed boundaries and helped me work to the limits of the software available to me. I think the biggest strength in my work is the idea generation and concept development, having a strong idea helped me develop my work quickly and quite successfully. Having a strong idea masked my inexperience in the software. I found after effects challenging but rewarding when it came to viewing what I had achieved from no knowledge about the software at the beginning of the module.
I think my iweb is the strongest piece that has come out of this module, I enjoyed producing the site and experimenting with the layout and the interaction the audience will have when viewing and navigating through my site.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how could you exploit these more fully?
The first weakness in my work that I can identify is the finished look of the animation, the photography used could have been shot more accurately and I could have learned more about using lighting more effectively, also after the final crit it was brought to my attention that the final stage of my animation didn’t need to finish outside of the microscope and if I changed this the piece would be more successful. I feel although I learned a lot technically I could have read around the subject more and develop my technical abilities in after effects. I spent a lot of time on the iweb compared to the animation so my time management was weak in this area, I would in furture plan out equal time for both aspects of the brief. I feel I spent more time on the iweb because I enjoyed the process a lot more than putting the animation together.

5. Identify five things that you will do different next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Make more use of the specialist staff, this will help me know my limits and also gain valuable knowledge when it comes to designing for digital media.
2. Experiment more with after effects software and do more test pieces to make my final animation more successful
3. Make sure I use my time to make full use of the different computer facilities. This will allow my technical skills to improve by trying and testing using the different software.
4. Push myself, be more ambitious with my initial ideas, if they don’t work I can gain the knowledge of why they wouldn’t work and how I could make them work.
5. Balance my time between the two products; the iweb and the animation more evenly to get a stronger resulting finished piece.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

Attendance - 4
Punctuality - 4
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity Of Work Produced - 3
Quality Of Work Produced - 3
Contribution To The Group - 3