Research-Informed Design Thinking.

Overview This unit introduces approaches towards research informed design practice and thinking. The topics covered in the unit will include: Design Research - intelligence gathering, secondary research, textual research, visual research, primary research, analysis of others work, case studies. Communication Theory - process model, semiotics, meaning, audience, vernacular, visual language Design Thinking - divergent thinking, ideation, brainstorming, convergent thinking, mind mapping. Design Process - prototyping, experimentation, problem solving, testing, iterative practice, reflective practitioner. Introduction to blogging as a tool for reflective practice. A series of lectures, workshops and debating design sessions will enable group discussion and sharing of approaches. Using concurrent units and PDP as their focus, the students detail the impact the topics discussed have on their own design methodologies in a structured reflective blog that forms the assessed artefact.

Here are two mind maps I have created to help decide on the content for my folded booklet. The first mind map I created was very general including lots of diffrent things which link to portsmouth, i then decided to do a more focused mind map. In the second one i focused on four diffrent areas such as shopping, arcitecture, methods of transport and attractions. I have focused on these four as they are the main aspects within portsmouth which interest me. From doing this I can see I have the most knowledge about the attractions within portsmouth so this would be a good area to base my work on.

Here I am experimenting with different ways to fold my booklet. I have chosen the booklet which has a slit down the middle which allows a smooth transition between pages. I also like this design as you are always unfolding two joining pages at a time, so i can do 6 seperate pages or 3 linking joining pages. This will allow me to experiment with different ideas.

I took theese images on the third floor of the Spinnaker Tower, I thaught theese images were really interesting as you are overlooking the whole of Gunwharf. Almost like a realistic version of my map I created for my booklet.

Here are a few image I took whilst walking around Gunwharf, here I am focusing on bars and resturants. I find it really interesting how some buildings have been created to look old fashioned were as some are very modern designs (pub is an old brick buildings, Resturants are white with linear lines)

I have taken this image of the Life Buoy which is along the marina. This image should be usefull as there are many interesting sections within it such as the knotted rope and the way it dangles down, this image could look really abstract and interesting once it has been edited. I may also be able to use this in my booklet.

Images of boats. I took theese Two images alongside the marina were as one of them was taken from up in the Spinnaker tower. This shows the naval heritage to the town along with the tourist version of Gunwharf.

Images I took looking down over Portsmouth/Gunwharf from the Spinnaker tower.

Here i am trying to capture images of the Spinnaker tower from different angles, allowing a more interesting and abstract view. Theese images could look really good once they have been edited, as I could attempt to focus in on one area just showing a small section of the tower and seeing if it is still recognisable or not.

This is the coin which I got pressed whilst visiting the Spinnaker Tower, Although the coin is new there is a very old feel to it, maybe as most historic places you visit have coin pressing facilitys.

Rather than editing this booklet I am going to start again and try a completly different approach focusing on white space, grid systems and a strong colour scheme.

This is my map I created for the back poster on my booklet. I thaught a map would work well as alot of booklets/leaflets contain a map. For my map I based it on the map of Gunwharf, but have simplified and changed it quite alot. I have also added in the wave design which was on each page through out my booklet. This helps add interest into the map and makes it more visually pleasing.

This is the map of Gunwharf from my origional booklet design, I have just edited it slightly. I really likes the waves going across the top and bottom of the page, so i wanted to try and incorporate them in my new design. To do this I added a dark blue line running across the top and bottom of the page, this meant there was a strong link between my leaflet itself and this back poster. Although I liked the origional design of the map when I added in the dark blue lines, it over complicated the page and didnt look so good. To solve this i decided to remove the wave design from the page and just experiment with lines. I added the dark bluue line across the top and bottom of the page to link with the rest of the laflet, and to add contrast i added a lighter blue line alongside. This now works really well as it links directly with the rest of the leaflet, which allows it to flow well.

My booklet now only contains three sections of infomation - The Spinnaker Tower, The Marina and Resturants and Things to do. This means it only provides the infomation that a tourist/visitor would need, rather than random infomation. When writing about each section I have wrote about the things themselves but in some sections have given a breif history so the viewer feels more informed. At first i thaught i had included to much text within the design but once it was printed it worked really well. This may be due to the grid system used when creating the booklet but may also be as there are only three sections of text within the whole booklet.

Images of my back poster on my booklet.

Each side of the booklet once it has been opened up, can see how the images flow through out each page. I think all the images link really well as they are mainly well known sites of Gunwharf (The Spinnaker Tower) or based on the Nortical theme. The only page which dosnt have such a strong link is the "Things to do" page as the images consist of poker chips and bowling balls. Although the images on this page do not directly link to the other pages, having the same colour scheme helps greatly as it makes all the images link together no matter what they are.

Theese are images of the pages opened up to how you would see them when looking through the booklet. As you can see all the pages are layed out the same with the text down the left hand side and an image to the right. This works really well as it shows a strong grid and allows white space to be shown. I especially like the idea of white space as I printed my booklet on a light grey/blue paper, which fits in really well with the strong colour scheme throughout. If I was to print my leaflet on white paper i dont think it would have had the same effect, as the paper I used helps to make the booklet look complete without looking empty.