Design Process - 'How to...' Self Evaluation

What problem did you identify?

Due to the close relations of my groups previous How to's (excluding mine) we discovered they all related very well, as one of the how to's was 'How to travel crease free' we associated this with business travel, this evolved into the problem 'How to travel as a businessman'

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?

 After realising the close relation of the previous how to's this gave us a starting point to say that these are all problems that would be met by a travelling business man, and due to previous research this gave us a good starting point to base our concept on. we developed this further by continuing to research problems that a businessman may incur, this was mostly by quantitative and qualitative research collected from web articles.  

What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take? 

 I had difficulty trying to develop some useful trust worthy primary research on this topic, as it was not just as simple as handing out a quick questionnaire to the rest of the class and averaging the results out, this is an area I really need to work on I think, I generally have collected most of my research from websites, web articles, existing info graphics, existing travel guides, as well as research into book / Pocket folds which I collected mainly from library books and online tutorials.

Secondary - I would say all the research I did was Secondary, I know this is not ideal but I feel it is important for me to develop my primary research collecting skills, i could have emailed businessmen, businesses that are renowned for travelling to see what they would find useful in a traveling business guide.

Quantitive - 

• Business card dimensions around the world
• Etiquette of giving / receiving a business card in china or America
• Statistics of a typical business traveler
• Passport dimensions around the world.

Qualitative -

• Existing inf graphs
• Existing business booklets/ articles
• information and opinions of what a businessman needs.
• Existing paper folds 
• Reciept logs/ organisers
• Existing Diary and calenders

What methods of research did you find useful and why?
The most useful research I found was the information on business cards internationally and the etiquette of giving/ receiving said card, this wasn't just useful for the brief but I found it strangely interesting that such a small in some way insignificant thing can be interpreted in completely different ways, and to be polite in one country may mean you are offending another. This proves that research is key to good design as someones opinion or assumption could possibly cause offense which in turn renders the piece of design worse than useless.
Also as a group not just individually we all found that finding an existing business handbook filled with numerous business based info graphs really gave us an insight into what is expected or what existing styles have been used to aid business people. 

How did these inform your response to your problem?
Taking inspiration from the existing business handbook was key to our final design looking as it does, we were inspired by the smart/neat/ straight edged approach that was taken when designing that handbook and we could relate with the design, helping us to create a similar aesthetic. 
The business card research helped me understand the differences between all 3 cultures which in turn allowed me to confidently and accurately design a page that would contain useful information that may have been found useful.

What methods did you encounter as problematic? 

In general I think every group had difficulties with contrasts of design ideas and problems with remaining in contact over the brief so that everyone is on the same page, concept wise.

I don't think we were any different, we did keep in contact by email and met up whenever possible (breaks and after college) but I think we still encountered problems as some peoples ideas were developing in different directions to others so therefore trying to organise the group so everybody knew what they were aiming towards as well as what their individual tasks were to help aid the final product was very difficult.

How did you overcome this?  

By keeping in contact and arranging regular meetings we managed to keep the design  moving forward, some tempers flared at some points but I think it was important to make sure at least once a day we all sat down together and caught up on everyone's progress, therefore everybody could put input into every idea which I think helped us end up with a design that we were all proud of.

What research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?

As I said previously, I should have done more primary research as well as probably more quantitative research, I think doing more of both of these would have helped me and helped improve the quality of data that I collected, but as tasks were assigned it seemed easier and more time efficient to focus more on secondary qualitative research.

List five things that you have learnt about the design process over the last two weeks.

• Research is key to good design
• When working as a group ensure a good level of communication is maintained
• It is important to take influence from group members as well as give influence to them.
• Work more on presentation content 
• Making mistakes in a design is important as long as they can be resolved for the better.

 List 5 things you would do differently next time.

• Work out self set deadlines at the start of the brief.
• Ensure every member of the team knows what tasks they have been assigned.
• Make sure everybody in the group understands the design concept.
• Allow more time for design.
• Make sure I take advantage of primary research. 

I recently found out that certain members of the group were really not happy with anything that the group decided or produced, i understand that time management and organisation of the group could have been focused on more over the 2 weeks. However I feel sacrafices need to be made in certain situations when you find that you're group do not all get on 100% and some people feel their idea's are better than everybody else's. 
I understand the problems that they faced with the group but I think the rest of the group got on well and individually did their part. 
It was difficult to please some people and while time ran out, concept idea's became more and more complicated and in a lot of cases this would have involved dis regarding a week's worth of previous research and development. 
I am disappointed that everyone was not happy in the group as I think it is important to have a good working relationship when collaborating but then obviously not everybody will get on.