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Reflection – Thursday February 7th, 2013

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What happened?
According to the feedback given yesterday, improvements of both video and presentation slides are made today. First for the video, several storyboards are changed or added, parts of the script are amended, voiceover person is rearranged and some back sound is changed. All the work is to make the whole story convey clearer message with more neutral style. And the group records the voiceover for final presentation slides with some changes to show better evidence about our research.
So what?
Most work of final video and presentation slides has been done today. It’s a good practice to have a chance to improve our work according to feedback from experts of all areas before the submission time. The more improvement work we have done, the more we feel confident of the final result.
What’s next?
We need to pair the new voiceover and improved storyboards to see the effect. Some slight changes may be made to make the story more fluent and empathic. All the submission materials including our group blog will be reviewed tomorrow to make sure everything is OK.

 

Getting ready for our client meeting

 

 

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Reflection for Tuesday 5th of February 2013

What happened?

Slides where finally completed. Video is fully ready, imported in the presentation. Context is clear, script written and all set for presenting to our client tomorrow. All the teams hard work for the past weeks has been remarkable, now its time to put all our effort in delivering the content that will satisfy our client’s need.

 

So what?

Today’s main objective was to re-ensure of our content for our presentation and practice again and again in order to be clear on communicating our message to our client as well as the audience that will be attending tomorrow.

 

What’s next?

Presentations will be held tomorrow afternoon. That will be the last opportunities for all the groups to present the outcome of their work and receive feedback, in order to finalise or make any necessary changes that might needed before submitting the project.

 

 

Teamwork

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What happened?

Today our group worked on the final stages of our project. Having received our client’s feedback as well as user’s feedback we set about completing all the necessary tasks. Everyone worked on different parts of the final presentation, using their own skills as well as being prepared to learn new ones.

So what?

Working in this collaborative way ensured that all tasks were being completed on time. It also meant that the group achieved a lot more, as near the end of the day it was a joy to see all the hard work come together.

What’s next?

Our group will continue to work in this manner until all tasks are completed. We will then focus on preparing for the question and answer time, as well as giving time to practice for our live client presentation.

Reflection of the day: Friday 1 February 2013

feedback

What happened?

Today was all about presenting. In the morning we had a guest audience, a social worker — Rebeca visiting. All the groups, Hazel, Fiona and Rebeca watched the video in the morning. After that we received really practical feedback from Rebeca and Fiona. To our surprise that the audience all prefer or love the animation style to the real person video.

Like last Friday, later in the afternoon we received feedback from Beth as well.

So what?

As the designer behind the video and the presentation we all know what we are talking about but it is essential to keep the audience on the same page. It is surprising to find out that the professional audience has a different opinion of story telling style. Also it is important to listen to the clients that what they take away from the video is what we intend to communicate.

What’s next?

The next week is all about finalization. To finalize the story script, finalize the video, continue the sketch style and to design the final presentation.

G5: Visualising the voice of WithScotland – Video context

Hello Beth,
Thank you for the great feedback you gave us last week.

We have chosen to further develop the concept of the video. In the following presentation you can see a pictorial representation of the video and the context in which it can be implemented.

We have included a snippet of the intended video style for you to see and welcome any changes you feel necessary.
We hope you enjoy our presentation and we look forward to your feedback.
Regards,

GROUP 5

Zoe, Skyler, Selina, Ding, Alex

Reflection of the day: Wednesday 30 January 2013

photo-0130What happened?

Lots of work has been done today. One primary school staff room scene is set in our studio with props; prototype video sections are shot at various locations with our actress of primary teacher; stop motion effect for video subtitle is tried out on computer; storyboards of the main video are sketched; voice-over for the video is recorded; the layout of presentation slide is decided and some slide parts are filled with contents.

So what?

Most materials for our Friday presentation have been collected today. Today’s work is a good exercise for our group to know how the real final video shooting will be like, what the process we will go through and what stuff we need to pay more attention next time such as props, light and sound.

What’s next?

Have got everything we need for video prototype and Friday’s presentation and then we need to put all things together. All these draws, sample videos and slides will be good materials for us collecting further feedback from our client, teachers and social workers and improvements will be made after the feedback.

Reflection of the day: Tuesday 29 January 2013

mapping of the video

What happened?

The day has started exploiting the class video techniques and receive tips and advice from an expert in the field. Afterwards, all groups met with the course director, updating their progress of their projects. After discussing with Hazel about some important points for communicating our project value and the reflection that can have to our client, had inspired our group on how to proceed more effectively; spend more time presenting the subject, less time on the look.

 

So what?

Getting some tips from a video technician was a useful activity for creating a more professional final project. The update meeting with Hazel, had as a result to re-structure our video and map down the whole user journey, in order to ensure that the message its clear and effective. Using a ‘quick and dirty’ approach sketching the different scenes, had given a complete idea on how the setting is going to be. A script has been prepared and an overall planning of the materials needed to set up the different scenes in the video.

 

What’s next?

Our next step is to get into action. Once we have prepared the main scenes and script needed, we would then start filming in order to prepare the idea for presenting it to our client. Sketches will be used as presenting our progress to our client on Friday, in order to get some feedback. Depending on that, we will then proceed into our real video using a persona as our main character.

 

 

Visual storytelling

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What happened?

Our feedback from last week was the spring board for starting our day. Looking at what we had done, gave us the focus we needed to move forward with our concepts. As a group we decided to take the video concept forward and use our research to inform and tell the story of the value of the WithScotland service. We drew out our plan, and then carefully storyboarded our idea. Each group member worked on individual tasks, ensuring that work pace was efficient throughout the day.

So what?

Telling the voice of WithScotland through the medium of video means that we have the opportunity to really use the information we have gathered in our research to make a relevant and engaging presentation. Storyboarding allows us to make a rapid video prototype which allows room for co-design. Having an open approach ensures that the final product will be the best possible solution.

What’s next?

As a group we need to visualise the storyboards in more detail, ensuring open communication with the users. It will also mean that our creative decisions are firmly based on evidence, resulting in a suitable outcome. We need to continue to work to the strengths of the group and maintain this steady work pace.

Reflection – Friday 25 January 2013

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What happened?

This morning both WithScotland and the Nile groups had the presentation with Fiona first. All the groups presented the initial ideas of their story-telling briefly. When Nile groups started to meet with their client, our group had a quick feedback meeting with Fiona.

Later today, we received feedback from the client as we. Both Fiona and Beth gave us really positive feedback.

Apart from the presentation, Alex and I went to a local Child Protection Charity for an interview as well. We had a chat with one of the charity workers to know about different practitioner’s user experience of WithScotland website.

So What?

It is always encouraging to receive positive feedback from client, which means what we have done followed the client’s needs. It is also a sign of good communication between consultants and clients. We actually “listened” to the client’s needs. But from the client’s feedback we also know that we have to be careful about the language we use.

It is a great opportunity for us to know user experience from more than one perspectives of view. It could help us to define the gap between current service and the users. How to bridge this gap could be showed in the promotion.

What’s next?

We provided more than video concepts for the final deliverable to the client. Next week we need to work on narrowing the concepts down to one best idea and work on the small points from client’s feedback. Next week we could also go back to the users we interviewed this week to ask feedback for our video concept. Work hard, work hard and work hard.