Jessica Floe's Archive

One of my weakest points that I’ve noticed (or maybe it’s an unknown strength) is color palette/texture choice within my web designs. In all areas of life, I tend to lean toward simplicity, often with the color grey and delicate line weights appearing frequently. I chose to go that route with this project in order to effectively organize all of the information but when I saw my work as compared to everyone else’s, I realized that may have been a foolish choice.

A very different aspect of this project was working in teams to establish the timeline/criteria and I think it was very helpful for us to establish which parts of the creative process we deem worthy of group time while still recognizing the need for individual contribution. The hardest part was in creating the wireframes; we are all highly visual/creative people so expecting our minds to all agree on a direction for a wireframe provided some challenges, but also made us more thorough. I can definitely see the benefit of group time but I can say that it would be difficult to do on a regular basis.

This morning, as the sun began to rise and I uploaded my final files to the dropbox, I realized I triple checked it to make sure every aspect of the required content was there. I have a problem with follow through (in all areas of life) so me disciplining myself to not only check, but double check, and triple check the necessary things. This surprised me because I, like the rest of the class, am completely burned out of school. This class was a good experience to enlighten me about the ways of the real world but it also is coming at the end of 8 consecutive semesters chock-full of design that have semi killed my creative spirit. When thinking about it terms of that, I can look around this class and be so proud of not only my work, but the work of my peers who continue to inspire me.

I know that I have a lot to learn in all areas of design and I’m looking forward to pursuing it after graduation. It’ll be nice to finally read the books I spend my life savings on ;)

Donator → Food Bank

Hector is a 6 year old boy from a low income family who often goes to school hungry. He receives free lunches from the school that is sometimes the only meal he receives in a day. Mrs. Smith, the teacher, is told by Hector that he is not eating frequently at home. Mrs. Smith googles ‘food banks in Abilene’ and clicks on the first entry entitled “Abilene Full Pantry Project.” She takes note of several places near Hector’s home, finds a printable promotion piece (ie flier with information) and sends it home to Hector’s parental figures.

Food Bank → Food Bank

Due to the recent tornado, the West Central Texas Food Bank has a shortage of bread, rice, and a quickly decreasing supply of canned food. The Highland Church of Christ has a plethora of these items because of a recent food drive at a local school. On the Abilene Full Pantry Projects website, facebook, and twitter, the WCTFB posts something about their food shortages and asks for donations from other food banks. The HCCFB sees the need and mobilizes forces to deliver food as soon as possible.

Needy Person → Food Bank

Charles, a 37 year old drifter, finds himself in Abilene not knowing where he’ll find his next meal. He stops in at the Abilene Public Library for some air conditioning. While doing some random web surfing, Charles notices a flier next to the computer advertising the Abilene Full Pantry Project that also says it offers a list of places to get free meals. He accesses the site and clicks on the page that lists times and locations of the different food banks and meal sites. He finds the one closest to him, gets a meal, and from there also finds a bed for the night so he can be well rested to drift again.

Church Search App- User Scenario 1

Home Screen

-User sees page of filters and selects one of each under the following categories:

– User selects Denomination –> Church of Christ

-User selects Service Times –> Any/All

-User selects Size of church (membership) –>   200-400, 400+

-User selects Distance from ACUs campus–> Any/All

-User presses ‘Filter’ to see results

-User sees a list of Churches and scrolls through the titles

-User clicks on Highland Church of Christ to view profile

-User sees the following list that drops down to show the secondary information:

-Volunteer Opportunities–> nursery workers needed

-Service Times–> Sunday morning at 10:00 am

-Classes Offered–> College class meets at 9:00 am

Tina is a freshman at ACU originally from Conroe, TX. She grew up in the Church of Christ and enjoys their style of a capella worship. In high school she was highly involved in her youth group and served in various roles, including nursery, sunday school, and service projects. She enjoys large churches, but isn’t opposed to attending a small church. Her first week in Abilene, her peer leader introduces her to the Church Finder app. Tina uses the filters to search out a Church of Christ that has a membership of over 200. She clicks on the profile of Highland Church of Christ and sees that there is an active college group and that there is a page for volunteer opportunities. Tina also finds service times, attends the next Sunday, and finds her church home in an instant.

Josh is also a freshman at ACU. After spending  a few weeks of church hopping and adjusting to life as a college student, Josh decides to download and use the Church Finder app he’s heard so much about. The previous week, Josh was asked to join the Abilene Soccer League that often play Sunday mornings. He values his time spent worshipping, but also desires to further his passion and skill in soccer. Josh uses the app to filter out churches that have Sunday evening services and opportunities for community. He clicks on the first one on the list and finds that both Hope Church of Christ and The Journey Church offer evening services as well as mid-week services where the church spends time as a family eating together. Josh decides to attend both and decide from there, happy that he’s able to fully commit to the soccer league without abandoning his passion for the Lord.

My interviews brought about a bunch of information that helped to enhance my project while also giving me something that I need to think about. It was a 50/50 split of people who said they’d use an app that was a guide to churches in Abilene- and that was among people who are “active app seekers.” Its amazing how many people truly use their iphones or itouches simply for necessary purposes (ie mail, texting, music, social networking) and don’t go beyond that. Part of this may also be because the students are all established at churches in Abilene- as a NEW freshman in college, I think this would be different, due to unfamiliarity. It only takes a semester to get a basic grasp on churches here, but at first it is very overwhelming and I think students forget that first feeling of uncertainty.

In order to further develop the idea (which I’m still pursuing with a slightly different target market of primary incoming freshman) I asked current students what they most look for in a church and will use those findings as filters within the app. Several of them were the same across the board- the top being community involvement, preaching style, and opportunities for involvement. I will use the most-repeated answers to create the aforementioned filter.

I am continuing to contact people for information, this time seeking as many younger students as possible, hoping that this new information will enlighten me as to weather or not I should actually pursue this as a viable option. More to come later…

Once again, I see both progress and.. non-progress (?) being made in my work. Getting into this after spring break was very difficult and while I am proud of the final outcome, I know it could’ve been better had I spent time on it over the break. Technically I think I need to be better at being thorough in my work. I forgot a few minor things for the overall layout and it was things that every site needs– no bueno for me. As you mentioned, I need to work on my type treatment; a weakness I do recognize and though I’ve made progress, every project presents different challenges.

Conceptually I think I am stuck in the box. Maybe its because it’s mid-point in the semester, or maybe because its my 8th straight semester doing nonstop projects, but I am in full get-it-done mode without getting adventurous in my design work. While this is not good, I’m extremely happy it’s Friday and maybe next week will be better.

Sketching it still my biggest weakness. I tend to feel pressure to start designing right away; maybe its the nature of the lab, but if I am sitting in the lab sketching then I feel like I’m wasting time.

As I’ve said before, I see definite improvement from the beginning of the semester and it’s getting better and better. If I could feel rested and legitimately inspired, I think I could do great things in this class.

http://www.stylishtemplate.com/demos/electronics-web-template-2/

http://btemplates.com/2010/blogger-template-sunflower-2/demo/

http://btemplates.com/2009/blogger-template-yosemite/

http://btemplates.com/2009/blogger-template-photoblog-2/

(Let’s ignore the fact that I overslept and pretend like I didn’t…ok?)

I set out on this project much more confidently than our first. It helped knowing how to more effectively organize my project utilizing groups and layers; I was able to efficiently use one document with a billion layers– and fully be able to move through them quickly. That was a huge step for me; one that allowed me to work more freely, more quickly.

The conceptual aspects of this project were more difficult than the technical. I started very strong with two decent directions; I was very proud of myself for meeting the deadlines and having quality work to present. I intended to go in the other direction, so when Mike decided he liked the black-focused one better, I wasn’t too excited. It suppose it was good because it challenged me, but I felt very lost and unsure of exactly how to organize the direction I chose to go. I spent a long time challenged by the labels of the bottom elements (new locations, seasonal salads, etc). I am pleased with the solution; just not at how long it took me to arrive there.

Technical aspects were fairly inconsequential; I’m learning a ton of things and figuring out the stuff I don’t know how to do. I think that, like most things, the more you immerse yourself in web design, the easier it becomes. I don’t yet feel confident enough to design a page for someone, but I feel exponentially more confident than after our first project. I can see progress being made.