#ashleypost

Jewel, Lily, and I take control most often, but Jewel is too young to use Tumblr so Lily and I will be the ones posting most of the time

SIDEBOARD CONCEPTS AND FINAL: process 

We felt it was important to come back to the concept behind the sideboard, as this was not explored properly in our earlier posts. 

The initial idea was to have a tonne of information on this piece, to act as a landmarking tool as well as a way finding one. We soon realised that this was impractical and made it too difficult to comprehend for someone visiting this area with English as a second language especially. 

As you can see, the use of colour and icons was slowly integrated and adapted to become what is a much clearer depiction of the map itself. We replaced words with icons and graphics, and removed pieces of information which were of no use. There is still a short description of the space, but we moved away from the navigation of the square, so felt this was now irrelevant information. 

FINAL DESIGN

Here is our final design

Our concept was refined even further from the development stage, as feedback from the class suggested we needed to be more clear about where and what we were navigating. The class liked our graphics but thought they were slightly too intense, so I scaled them down in this composition. As for the locator tags, I made these more prominent as they are the key component of this map. 

The icons assist the instructions as they make it clear which colour represents which category. If people were to read this now, I feel it is a lot more obvious what is going on and what they must do to read this map and use the way finding tool properly.

The language used in this piece is intentionally a little bit casual, as we feel that is what Kiwi’s are notable for. The ‘chilled out’ approach will go down well we feel, so the play on words at the bottom of the board, is to emphasise this approach. 

The sans serif typeface accentuates the playful and child like nature of this project, being that it keeps it fun and modern. The holistic impression left by the visuals is one that is interactive and full of fun. 

I have also included the flip side of the ‘key’ board for the side panel, as it has the entire list of categories used in the map. I think if this were to be in situ, I would take this one step further and potentially get the location tags updated and changed every 6 weeks, just to keep the map fresh and interesting - as I'm sure people would visit most of these places es within that Time and it would then be rendered impractical as people would have no need for it anymore. 

QR CODE APP FACE DESIGN:

This is the design I created for the app and QR code on our board. 

We thought that there could be issues for a traveller or tourist who is trying to find some of the locations on our map. If they scan the QR code on a QR reader, they will be taken to this app page. 

Here we have included links to all of our categories for further information: for instance, we have links to triage and booking websites for all of the hotels/hostels listed. We have a bus timetable and link to the AT hop website so users have a live update of when and where their bus will be if they are planning in advance. And a final link to each of the individual locations and their website, so there is no confusion. 

I kept the aesthetic of the app simple, and in style with the rest of the work. The pale pink colour in the background worked as an accent colour. It is blatantly an extension of the map itself so I am pleased with this.

SECOND REFINEMENT:

This was the second attempt at a graphic design for the map. I decided to refine the the graphic elements and work on the colours/overall aesthetic of the map. 

The botanical shapes came from an idea I had about the space itself when we first explored the location. We found that it was pretty artificial - lots of concrete and timber. a couple of palm trees but no notable greenery. This was something I found relatively interesting. The shapes are playful, and co I thought it was best to choose colours that would take this even further. The red blue and green were quite an easy option, however I didn’t want a classic primary palette. I decided to swap out the yellow (for readability purposes) and chose a pastel pink/nude instead. This made the map a little bit girlier, whilst not alienating the male audience.

I got rid of the thin lines and grid style pattern from the map as I felt these were the key streets in our map. We have decided to include in the app a more detailed map and links to the bus stops so that if people can’t tell exactly where a location is on this one, they’ll have a point of reference in their phones. 

REFINED CONCEPT

This was the second stage of development for our concept.

It was here that we saw the importance of distinctive colours and graphics. 

We felt that though the graphic was fun, it distracted too heavily from the map itself and wasn’t eye catching enough to be attract an audience. The detail in the map (highlighted by the coloured lines) became an unnecessary and unreadable element of the map. Because the brief stipulates that this is a way finding tool, we thought this was our next biggest task. This also meant we had to look at the amount of text/layout of the sideboard. For a tourist, or child, these instructions were both too lengthy, and unclear. There needed to be images/ icons to distinguish the categories instead of long paragraphs describing. If a non English speaker were to read this it could be hard to navigate. 

I also had a play with the ‘spotted’ graphic. I changed the colours and thought about using it as a key, however soon realised it didn’t distinguish the tags enough and became too cluttered. 

My task moving forward was to:

- make the key/tags more clear and readable

- Come up with a graphic that didn’t distract from the information itself, but also attracted an audience of all ages

This was the earliest concept of the map that we came up with.

I started with a very playful colour palette and developed my graphics to accompany this palette. The map itself isn’t as intricate as most maps, however this is for functional purposes as I feel it would be too hard to read if there were too many details in this map. As for the smaller lines, I am reconsidering my design decisions here as they render the map unreadable through the middle. It is hard to decipher buildings from streets.

As for the locator tags, I feel these are too small, and don’t indicate clearly enough the exact location of the intended places.

As for the general area of this map, we decided Freyberg square acts as a ‘hub’ for activity in our CBD. From here we decided that it would be better to expand our location for the purpose of this way finding task. The borders will run to the visible end of Victoria St West, Albert St, and Albert Park. 

Our map will be four sided (as the cube has four faces, we will create a face for each)

It was here that we decided our four categories would be:

- Coffee shops

- Hotels and hostels

- Entertainment

- Bus stops