Scott Hogsett

The logo was really cool to create because I was able to work with Laura’s initial design and then try and turn that into a logo that could represent the brand. When coming up with a logo for an app it’s easy to go overboard and forget that the screen is smaller. I think that this design works for the brand and looks well in the context of the app design.

We didn’t want to make a profile just for the sake of it so I wanted the profile to have a purpose made since to store the data here so the user could track there progress as well as altering what you want help with.

When it came to the design I wanted to make it consistent with the design of the rest of the app. I’m really happy with the way that it turned out because it isn’t just a wasted page and holds an actual purpose.

Colour palette

For the colour palette we wanted something bright and colourful but not have it overwhelming and take away from the purpose of the application, went in a few different directions like trying out a brighter palette, we also tried a darkened version which ended up being too monotone and not the best looking.

in the end we went with the colour palette you can see at the bottom of the post. We went with this because we though it was bright and complimented the information really well and it also had quite a calming and welcoming effect to it as well.

Typeface

For the typeface we didn’t have to really dwell on it for too long because Laura, one of my teammates had spotted the font and we really like the look of it and when we put it in the context of an app it worked really well.

I think the search feature was really important to the app so I did a lot of research in order to properly design it for the purpose that it was going to have which was provide the user with the best information possible in a clear and understandable way.

I am really happy with the way that it turned out because I was able to adhere to the design style I had incorporated in the previous screens as well as create a way for users to find the information they were looking for.

This feature allows users to play different media such as podcasts and music playlists with the using this media as a form of helping students calm down and be productive. The podcasts will give them information about mental health and they will be able to listen to other peoples personal experiences with mental health and how they overcame them.

I took inspiration from Spotify and apple music in terms of the layout as well as my own sketching process and I really like the way that it has turned out and the whole design work really well with the other screens and I think there is a strong consistent style through my screens and also through my groups screens.

I also added the ability to like the podcast but this won’t be visible to everyone just the app and creator.

When designing the home screen I wanted it to warm and welcoming with calming colours so the user doesn’t feel overwhelmed, I think that it is a really important element of the design because of the type of app we are creating.

I didn’t want to put a lot of text into the home screen so it doesn’t get crowded and hard to read and understand but enough to explain what each feature is. We thought a lot about the language and tone of voice we used when designing these different screen.

I tried to design the icons as consistently as possible throughout all of my designs so that they all fit the one design style and if you took one icon out and put it on another screen it would look like it would belong on my teammates screens as well.

During are group calls I decided to sketch while we were talking so that I could be on the same page with my team, I wanted to test different layouts to see if the information we were discussing would fit in different layouts and this helped a lot when going on to sketch more defined layout designs.

Layout sketches

These are the sketches that determined the design of the screens I designed and because there was such a short turn around from the brief being give out and the final hand-in I needed to establish what the layout design would be so that I could show my team what direction I was going in.

After we had enough research and we had a solid idea on what the app was going be and the topics we were going cover and the amount of information we planned to include.

I then had enough to start developing the idea on paper to see all the potential features we could include and then boiling that down to 3 or 4 aolid features that would help students during this time.

Who has supported you with mental health stuff? 

Teacher - 3 votes

Friend - 20 votes

BF/GF - 7 votes

Parent/Guardian - 15 votes

professional -4 votes

From this question we were able to see who students relied on in terms of advice and help regarding mental health during this time. We wanted to make sure people had access to professional information.

What have been some of the common challenges of managing your mental health during Covid-19/lockdown?

School/University - 18 votes

Loneliness - 18 votes

Working from home - 11 votes

Routine - 16 votes

procrastinating 16 votes

We were able to address what people were struggling to deal with at the moment and from this we were able to plan the features we were going to implement in order to take some of the stress of students with these issues.

What do you feel have been common mental health problems for you during Covid-19?

Anxiety - 16

Depression - 10

Self esteem - 12

low mood - 16

eating behaviours - 11

alcohol/drugs - 5

Do you feel like your mental health was harder to deal with before or during the pandemic?

Before - 11.11% 

After - 81.5%

On a scale of 1 to 5 rate how severely has your mental health has been negatively affected during the pandemic?

1 - 3 votes

2 - 8 votes

3 - 8 votes

4 - 7 votes

As a group we put together a questionnaire to see what who the main audience was and to see what problems they encountered on a daily basis so we knew what features the app needed to have to best help the target audience.

For the 2nd assignment of the CER Economic recovery module we did a project that was put on by Big Motive and the brief was simple and it is as follows.

The ongoing transformation of public services has highlighted the increasing ‘digital divide’ between Millennials (who possess a high level of digital literacy) and large groups of the population who struggle to access essential services. This problem has been compounded by the restrictions imposed by the Department of Health in response to Covid-19. 

We would like you to identify a vulnerable group within the population, research their specific needs and challenges and develop ideas for a new digital service that can support better health advice and care.

Who to choose?

In our first meetings we discussed several options that we could go with and it was either older people who are greatly effected at the minute and are very vulnerable to Covid 19. Another heavily effected group is students who are trying to navigate through the hardest and most important parts of their lives in university and they have to do it through a computer screen.

This is my prototype, this is one of my most favourite projects that I have done and I think the style I ended up going with and how it was ececuted in the final design was really cool.

I wanted to do a video showing how a user might use the app and show the page transitions although this was meant to be a website and a one page scroll so most of the things I was trying to do in the final website wasn’t really possible in terms of trying to get a transition that looked like the way I wanted to do in the shortened time I had.

I the Loop prototype video

logo Sketches

This mess of a sketch is my logo design I started with the idea of the loop and then I was sort’ve obsessed with the loop and how I would make it perfect, eventually finding a grid that helped me out.

Wireframe Sketches

These are a few pages of my wireframe sketches, I had so many ideas for the layout and I was finding so much inspiration for the layout online so I was able to bring ideas to paper and mix and match from the inspiration that I had found.

I really liked doing this process and I fell like I have made a big progression in terms of delivering a decent level of sketches for a project and I feel like it helped a lot when it came to wire-framing the app because I had clear ideas on how to position things and the grid that I used for the designs.