#ixd104

After the group critique where I was given feedback on how I could improve my overall design, I decided to start re-working the designs within illustrator. I took all the feedback from the critique and made the appropriate changes. After refining my app, I then created a PDF document showing off all of my app attributes including the App Logo, App Icons, City Illustrations, Typography and Colour scheme.  Below you can find a link to the PDF document and the screens of my app:

 PDF Link:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aCoO6BZISS8x0iDfjmmPtitQ3rnq7IT7

Final App:

After presenting my work to both my tutors and my peers, I was able to gain valuable feedback on what I could change to improve my final app design. Overall, my app was well received, and a lot of the criticism was more about the padding and spacing of objects:

 The First piece of feedback I gained was that I needed to think about the size of my Icon The Icon was slightly too big for the circle it was placed in.  They also thought that I needed to try and re position the App Name to give it some breathing room.  

   For both my ‘Log In’ page and ‘Sign Up’, the feedback that I received was that I needed to make my buttons bigger for the human thumb/finger as they were too thin.  I also got feedback that I needed to slightly adjust the padding and spacing on elements such as the ‘Remember Me’ text as well as the App’s name ‘Travel’ in the header.

 For my ‘Region Selects’ pages, both of my tutors really liked the city scape illustrations I created for both Northern Ireland and England.  The main criticism I got once again was that I just needed to readjust the padding and spacing of the written elements.  

 For my ‘Home Page’, once again I was advised to try and readjust the elements within my header section as well as readjust my Burger Icon by bringing the three lines closer together.  

 Finally, for both my ‘Journey Planner’ and ‘Live Tracker’, the feedback has been very similar to my previous pages, i.e. adjust the padding and spaces on the header space as well as the text elements.  I was also given advice to try and rethink the ‘Return Button’ as normally it would be placed within the left hand side of the screen.  I was also told to try and experiment by making the text black so it could stand out on the page more.

 Once I showed off my sketches and Ideas to my tutor, I was given some valuable feedback to how I could improve not only the overall design but also the function of my app.  I then moved into illustrator to start actually creating my prototype app.  Below are my first couple of screens I have designed:

 Splash Page:

 Log In Page:

 Sign Up Page:

 Select Region Page:

After conducting more research as well as some personal re-thinking, I decided to change a lot of aspects about my app compared to my initial sketches and ideas.  For example, instead of using a gradient colour scheme, I decided to go with a more simplistic colour scheme which I will talk about in another post.  I also decided to completely revamp my splash page as well as my home screen to once again fit with the overall simplistic feel I want my app to have.  Below are my final sketches, as well as a couple of city scape and icon sketches, I created for my app:    

After looking at some existing apps and website based about travel, as well as a potential gradient colour scheme, I started to sketch out some initial ideas on some paper.  Like I said, these were my very first initial sketches, so I do intend to refine later on once I have a better idea on how I want my app to be laid out:

For my second Master Apprentice task, I was given the job to recreate a city scape of my choice.  The options we were given was an illustration based on either New York or India.  I decided to recreate both of them, but for the India illustration, I decided to keep with the same colour palette as the original, whereas for the New York illustration, I decided to experiment with my own colour scheme.  Overall, I really enjoyed this exercise as I was able to experiment more with colour schemes to make sure that they are appealing to look at:

 India Master:

 India Apprentice:

  NYC Master:

  NYC Apprentice:

In today’s lecture we looked at different illustration styles and techniques used by various artists.  We also looked more deeper into the different techniques used to create various pieces, for example the type of tool they used to create the piece.  Some of these tools include Pencils, Pens, Photography and even in some cases the use of a Photocopier.  We also looked at different software used, for example Illustrator and Photoshop.  

We were taught to look at different artist’s illustration styles that appeal to us. This then in turns helps us to develop are own unique style when coming to illustration.  There are many different types of illustration styles, for example there’s hand drawn illustrations and vector/digital illustrations. For me personally, I’m more drawn to the Vector/Digital illustrations as there’s something about being able to create illustrations within a computer that amazes me. 

 Susan Kare was born on the 5th February 1954 and is an American Graphic Designer and Artist.  Susan’s most notable claim to fame would be her interface and typeface contributions to the very first Apple Macintosh.

   The first set of icons that she created for apple were created by only using small black squares connected together to form the overall icon.  Due to the software limitations at the time, these icons could be classed as quite basic, however people could still easily understand what each one was for.  

Nowadays with the advancement of technology, you can see how Susan Kare’s initial icon designs have influenced the way the modern icon designs for apps are designed: