Zack Giuliani's Archive

The one thing I loved about this project was meeting in the learning studio, and brainstorming as a group. That was the closest I’ve ever felt to being in a professional graphic design environment. Another thing I liked about this project was the subject matter of the smart phone app we created. This hypothetical personalized infographic app was a lot of fun to design, and after brainstorming and writing about it for a couple weeks I began to get pumped. This project however was not all sunshine and roses for me however, I couldn’t find an iPhone template that I liked, so I wasted a lot of unnecessary time in Illustrator creating as realistic of an iPhone as I could. Another difficulty I had, and I still don’t know the cause of this was, my photoshopped final versions came out super pixelated and very small… I designed them in Illustrator first on a 4″x7″ canvas, like I have every other project so far, and then moved individual pieces into photoshop, but  they kept turning out incredibly pixelated, and are almost half the size as the Illustrator files. Aside from that, I definitely enjoyed this project, and the creative process behind it.

Don’t judge me, I haven’t kept up with this site too much…

http://zackotheninja.wordpress.com/

When reflecting upon this project, I feel like it was fun and horrible at the same time. I got very carried away in the functionality of my tablet app, and became borderline obsessed with thinking through every aspect of my project as a functioning application and if it would work properly if it was instantly coded. One of the biggest challenges I faced was the size constraints we are dealing with. For me to create a whole application that encompasses nearly every aspect of what a restaurant server does on the the computer, combined with our entire menu, and then to present it in a way without feeling jumbled and crowded was pretty difficult. This is why I instantly had to decide that a smart phone was out of the picture, and that my project had to be tailored specifically for a tablet, simply because of the amount of information that needs to be presented.

Another issue that I thought a lot about was the overall appearance of this app. This is an application that is purely designed to be seen by servers at restaurants, and none of them care if the app is pretty looking or not. Simplicity and functionality are the two biggest factors in my mind. Can the server quickly navigate through this program and ring in different tables and different orders while impatient people are waiting. The server doesn’t need any pretty pictures or cool looks to this app, they just need it to be straight forward and fast. That being said, obviously I wasn’t about to make a bare-bones, wireframe looking application. Just because this app is exclusively for servers, doesnt mean that a customer won’t catch a glance of it, so I created a theme for this app that I feel sums up the overall theme/feel/genre of Outback Steakhouse (where I work), but this theme/color scheme could be swapped out depending on the restaurant. I didn’t deal too much with typography and choosing fonts, I just wanted to use fonts that read very quickly and are extremely simple for the server.

Overall, the hardest part of this project for me was designing the overall layout, and menu scheme. Because I have so much information to present, I had to start thinking about different menus and submenus, and I am actually pretty proud of the result. Again, the functionality of this was the most important part of designing this, and I am fairly confident that after a one-two minute tutorial, every person I work with could figure this out.

Name: Mark

Age: 23

Occupation: Server

Mark is a server at a restaurant that has just introduced a tablet application to take customers’ orders, and send them to the kitchen correctly. He needs to be able to quickly scan the screen and be able to locate the menu bars, and individual items on the tablet so he can promptly take care of his tables.

Name: Shannon

Age: 20

Occupation: Server

Shannon is also a server at a restaurant, which has just introduced a tablet application to take customers’ orders. Shannon needs this application to check ingredients and allergies. If a customer asks if a certain menu item has a specific ingredient, she needs to be able to quickly scroll through this application and find out the answer to her customer’s question.

1. Restaurant ordering app. Checks allergies/ingredients/manages hours and scheduling.

2. What’s happening near you app. Checks online for nearby sales/concerts/specials/events etc. and sends you updates based on your gps location.

3. Lost pet app. An amalgamation of vet websites and animal shelters websites, alerts you if a pet is reported missing in your area, or if one has been found. Pretty much a quicker way to spread information concerning lost and found pets.

4. Friends statuses and what not. Syncs your iphone and facebook with text messages and alamrs. Could help with intramural events to send out group texts reminding people of games and practices, or if someone updates with some event going on, it would send out a mass text/reminder letting specified people know what’s going on.

5.  A personal Health tracker app. Plug in what you eat throughout the day, what exercise you do throughout the day, you plug in your current health standings, and your target health statistics, and the app can keep you honest and on track with how you need to live your life.