Progress Update #5: Lo-Fi Wireframes Pau!

Hey everyone! So glad you’re stopping by my Tumblr blog again! Read ↓below↓ for my project update details!

What has been happening over the past 2 weeks?

These past two weeks have been pretty busy as I worked on my other classes’ assignments. I went against the advice of our professor, who said, “Use the spring break to catch up,” but I instead opted to relax and decompress. I actually went outside this time, touched grass, and shopped at malls, unlike my previous breaks, when I would just stay cooped up in my house reading manga. I pretty much crammed some last-minute work before class today and the night before. At the very least, I finished my low-fidelity wireframes for the five microsites. In my last post, I only completed my low-fidelity wireframes for the main website, so I am happy to have done more. I think I forgot to mention that I reduced the scope of my website. Instead of ten designs, I narrowed it down to just five to make it more manageable for myself. If I also fail to deliver a fully functional website, I will fall back on a website prototype as a backup.

What is coming up for the next 2 weeks?

My next step is to complete my high-fidelity wireframes based on the low-fidelity ones. For this step, I will need to gather assets, such as images and text (copy) to use. After that, I will work on recreating the design on the actual website using Wix, hopefully by next week on the 30th. I want to launch the website as soon as possible to ensure there is ample time to gather data by collecting votes from my Instagram Stories polls, summarizing the results, and posting the summary on the site. So, that’s where I am heading over the next two weeks.

Hiccups/Hurdles/AHA moments

A hurdle I had to overcome was my perfectionist mindset. Because I want everything to be perfect, it was a struggle to begin tackling my five microsite wireframe designs. I did not know where to start, but once I began working, I had momentum. At this point, I realized I really just need to pass. Of course, I want to put out my best work, but I may need to take some shortcuts.

I had an AHA moment when I realized that I still had some time before I needed to launch my website. It is not a lot of time, but I remain hopeful. However, throughout this whole creative process, I have had serious self-doubt about completing this project. I had given up in high school for a STEM capstone project for STEM honors, where I dropped the class and forfeited the honors. It was definitely not my proudest moment, but I like to believe I have changed drastically from that time. Although I have self-doubt and imposter syndrome, I have accomplished a lot to get to where I am now. While I do not believe I was the person to actually achieve these things, I am trying to be more grateful and celebrate the small victories. By the end of this project, I hope to savor my triumph and success exuberantly with my friends and family. I am so close to the finish line. We all are. We got this, guys!

Any deliverable drafts to share?

At the top of this post, you will find screenshots of my low- and high-fidelity wireframes from Figma. I have finished my lo-fi wireframes and am beginning to work on my hi-fi ones. Click here to view my documentation for this project thus far. I have compiled my brand color palette, study guide, user personas, sitemap, and lo-fi wireframes into one Figma file to have everything in one place.

Where are you on your timeline?

I am kind of in the production phase, depending on how you look at it. I categorized wireframes under the production phase, but others may still consider them to be in the pre-production phase. Needless to say, I am quite behind, as I have assigned myself to launch my website this past Sunday. Now I know that the deadlines I set for myself are tentative and bound to change, so I won’t beat myself up over it too much. I am proud I have at least finished my lo-fi wireframes, which were substantially weighing on my mind due to feeling overwhelmed. Even so, I have reduced the scope of my project, which has lifted that immense burden off my shoulders.

Aloha mai kakou, I’m Maxine.  I created this short introduction video to give you an overview of my senior capstone project.  Basically, I will be sharing my project process on this blog.  

During last fall semester 2021, I did some research on my project topic, “Why are native Hawaiians leaving their homeland to reside elsewhere?” and found fascinating data evidence sharing that thereʻs a current migration of Hawaii residents relocating outside the Hawaiian islands, especially the native people of Hawaii also known as the kānaka maoli.  Hawaii is losing more and more native Hawaiian residents each year for several different reasons, but we find the top common reason is due to the high cost of living in Hawaii’s economy.

Therefore, I am using this project as a platform to bring awareness to this topic and support the native Hawaiian communities both in the island and abroad by offering a venue to share their stories and voices.  Ultimately, I hope to reveal the bigger story in the shift of the native Hawaiian population in different locations.

After graduation, I hope to obtain a career as a digital creator working solely online, so I can continue to work while traveling and connecting with family and friend abroad.

Progress Update #2: Workback Plan Pau!

Welcome back to my Tumblr blog! Per our CM 491 class schedule, I will post progress updates biweekly or every two weeks. Expect to see posts on Mondays or Tuesdays!

What has been happening over the past 2 weeks?

To get you all caught up, I finally completed my workback plan (pau means “finished” or “done” in Hawaiian)! If you are curious about how it looks, here’s the link: Galacgac_R_WorkbackPlan. I tried my best to make it look organized and visually appealing, using colors and formatting for contrast. I like color coding, so I made each phase different: pre-production = purple, productive = blue, and post-production = pink. I also “started” on my timeline but am still working on it. So, that’s what I’ve been working on these past two weeks.

What is coming up for the next 2 weeks?

Here is what the next two weeks will look like. Once my workback plan is approved, I will begin working on my user personas and a design doc for branding. After that, my wireframe sketches will be next!

Hiccups/Hurdles/AHA moments

Although demotivation and procrastination have been my top two hurdles, I am pretty proud of the workback plan I created. I locked in and did what I set out to do.

Any deliverable drafts to share?

Unfortunately, other than the workback plan, I come empty-handed with deliverable drafts. Please forgive me! Hopefully, in the next two weeks, I have more to show.

Where are you on your timeline?

I am pretty behind on my timeline; I won’t lie. I should be starting on my pre-production phase. However, I will take this time to celebrate accomplishing a milestone, which was my workback plan. I am pretty proud of it, and I probably spent an unnecessarily long time on the stylization and making it look nice and presentable. I picked up a few spreadsheet skills from my previous office job, so I wanted to show them off here, haha. Aside from filling out the template with actual information and deadlines, I focused most of my time on data validation, formatting, and coloring.

Since my last post, I had planned to spend a majority of today (April 21) working on another rough cut. This involved creating credits, title cards, transitions and fixing some minor audio and visual issues.

Well I did everything that I had set out to do. Spent about 6 hours working, getting everything just right and happy with the progress that I had made.

Before I get into the point of this post, let me provide a little bit of context. I am horrible when it comes to saving my progress in video games. I once encountered a glitch in Baldurʻs Gate 3 that prevented me from moving on to the next section. I decided that I should probably backtrack and see what my other options were, but my last save point that I had done was so far back I would have had to re-hit several major milestones in the storyline/game just to get back to where the glitch happened. Itʻs been about a year and a half and I have yet to play it again. At this point Iʻd rather restart the whole game, than try to figure out what happened.

With this in mind, you can probably guess what happened to me today.

I did not save any of the progress that I made on my project since I started this morning. At about 5:30 in the afternoon, my computer froze and decided to turn itself off. I havenʻt checked any of the Auto-Save files yet, so this is me crashing out prematurely, but this post is mainly to remind future me and others to SAVE YOUR DAMN WORK.

Outwardly, this is me:

Internally, this is me.

I’ve also been keeping track of my expenses for this project. My largest purchase related to this capstone film is for the rights to use some footage via Getty Images. As of today, I have spent nearly $2,000.

Of course, the money will eventually come back so I shouldn’t worry. But it just puts into perspective how invested I was with this whole experience.

UPDATE: Thank the Universe for Adobe Premiere Pro's autosave feature. All of today's progress is there! My crashout is still valid though. I cannot stress this enough. SAVE.YOUR.WORK.

Of course being that I had been working on my project all day, there was a moment where I wasn't paying attention to where I was placing some clips/audio. Somehow I had managed to erase all of my title cards for my interviewees and the cropping on some of my interviews is off. Time to call it a day and turn in what I have so far for more feedback.

The beginning of the semester hasn't been as productive as I would've hoped. After my pre-capstone presentation I spent much of winter break dissociating and trying to recover from writing that 19 page research paper. As mentioned in my intro post, this project is starting to turn into something big and it's honestly a little terrifying. I know I am capable of doing everything, I just need to lock in and believe in myself!

I had a bit of a slow start this semester, just trying to get back into the groove of being back at school. As of this writing (1/25/26) I haven't finished developing my online Workback Plan, but I do have a physical copy of some notes and things that I have to work on in the next couple weeks. I also researched possible filming locations and what some rental costs for gear would be. Not included in my notes is the cost for attending a ghost tour with Lopaka Kapanui, which runs at $40/per person. This could end up being an expensive project -_-.

I also started re-reading Obake Files and Obake: Ghost Stories in Hawaii by Glen Grant just to get an idea of what I can talk about with the people I interview.

I reached out to my film professor Samantha Farinella for some advice and we had a nice phone discussion on Sunday (1/25) about the project. I expressed my concern about finding people to interview and she suggested to start off with 3 people in different fields (one descendent, one practitioner, one historian, etc.) and that everything else "will steamroll from there". While it was a short conversation, I felt re-energized and appreciated the support and encouragement that she gave me.

It's time to get this project going.

Goals by next update:

Find three people to interview, with consent forms signed

Workback Plan started

Hi everyone! My name is Heather and welcome to my capstone blog! I am excited to *finally* be near the end of my academic journey and am looking forward to working alongside my peers as the semester progresses.

As a longtime lover of all things creepy and a fan of mythology/folklore, this project began as a passion project and has quickly evolved into something big! After conducting my research last semester, I’ve realized that folklore often serves as a "shadow history" of a place, reflecting the cultural adaptations and shared experiences that traditional historical narratives might miss.

What started as a curiosity about childhood "chicken skin" stories has transformed into a deep dive into cultural syncretism. I’m interested in how Japanese and Filipino legends didn't just survive in Hawaii—they blended with the environment and Native Hawaiian traditions to create something entirely new.

Throughout this semester, I’ll be documenting my research process, from archival deep-dives to (hopefully) some fascinating interviews. This blog isn't just a requirement for my degree; it's a space where I’ll be exploring the "why" behind the "who" in our local ghost stories.

As I began my own journey into Hawaii’s plantation history, I spent some time looking back at past senior capstones to see how others have navigated the "Local" identity. One project that immediately resonated with me was Janalene Tumaneng's Fall 2022 research on the influence of cultural artifacts from the plantation era on modern local culture.

Tumaneng’s work highlighted how the physical items laborers brought with them across the Pacific acted as anchors for identity in a new and often harsh environment. Her analysis of how these items evolved from survival tools or personal mementos into symbols of a shared "local" heritage provided a perfect framework for what I am trying to achieve. While Janalene focused on the tangible,I find myself drawn to the intangible. If her research was about the items people carried in their trunks, mine is about the stories they carried in their minds.

Website Prototype Walkthrough

Hello again! So I know I said the final reflection would be my last post, but I forgot about the website prototype walk-through video.

Here’s the prototype link: https://www.figma.com/proto/QFgVXtu0MNs7YHqouaoLJy/Galacgac_R_ADSProject_CM491?page-id=138%3A553&node-id=138-3732&viewport=1717%2C889%2C0.18&t=NcuJEhmLKQzg1yPY-1&scaling=scale-down&content-scaling=fixed&starting-point-node-id=138%3A3732

Final Reflection

Alohaaaa! 🤙 Welcome back to my blog! Alas, this will be my last post on this blog, unfortunately. I have overcome many hurdles, and I am proud of where I am today, my project, and what has led me to this point. This journey was not easy, but it was definitely worthwhile and memorable, thanks to all the support I received. I want to personally thank everyone who has participated in my Instagram polls and my usability testing survey. Shout out to y’all!

1. What were your thoughts about your research topic going into the first week of the semester?

My thoughts during the first week of the semester about my research topic, job displacement in web design, were that AI will not replace human designers or artists as a whole because they lack empathy and the ability to form meaningful connections with humans, both interpersonally and in person. However, I didn't think I could win this battle against AI due to my inexperience. I have the skills, sure, but they are elementary at best. Prior to this project, I had some experience working with Figma and creating my first website prototype through my CM 316 (User Experience) course. I also practiced more coding in HTML and CSS in my ART 320 (Web Design & Development) class. In the end, I created a website prototype, so no coding experience was actually needed.

2. What are your thoughts now about your research topic and your project/practicum?

My current thoughts on my research topic are that AI can be used as a tool to brainstorm during the ideation step of the design process, generating ideas or inspiration for wireframes and similar tasks. However, it should not do the work entirely for you. It's the same with templates; you don't just submit it as is. You have to add your own personal touch and style, and replace the content with your own words. Regarding my project, I never thought I would beat the AI, so it was a pleasant surprise to win against it. I had many ups and downs, and at one point, I thought this project was impossible to complete and that I wouldn't graduate on time. Nevertheless, I'm so glad I reduced its scope, making it less overwhelming and daunting. Best decision I ever made. I somewhat regret not being able to complete my original deliverable of a website, but maybe I can create one in the future. Some things are just not meant for you at the moment, but they can come to you later.

3. What did you learn about yourself as a creative through this journey?

It was challenging for me to meet my own deadlines, so I kept giving myself extensions, as the project was self-directed and mostly independent. I always thought I was behind, and it really made me doubt my abilities and timeliness. However, I learned not to be as harsh on myself, even though we are our own worst critics. I once saw a quote that said, “Make it exist first, then you can make it good,” or something along those lines. That really resonated with the perfectionist in me because I am always so focused on the little details, like spacing and alignment, when I should really be focusing on the broader picture.

4. What did you learn about the creative and production process?

If you don’t already know, the creative process has three phases: pre-production, production, and post-production, also known as the three P’s. What I learned is that you just need to trust the process. There will be some bumps and hiccups along the way, but that is to be expected, as no one is perfect and is bound to make mistakes. You also have to remember that you are still a student, so you're still learning; it’s okay to make mistakes. From planning to execution, every phase of the process is vital, but the bulk of your project will be the production phase. During the production phase, it took me approximately one to three days to work on the lo-fi wireframes and five days to complete the hi-fi wireframes and prototype together. I learned to be patient with myself and the process. Locking in wasn’t easy, but once I was in the zone, nothing could stop me, not even hunger.

5. What advice would you give new senior capstone students?

My advice is to get started as soon as possible and really plan ahead. The pre-capstone is essentially your blueprint for your project, which is necessary for any project. You really need to thoroughly and thoughtfully consider what your project entails, including the specifics for each phase, or at least a general outline. Also, make sure to have backup plans in case your original plan doesn’t work out, like me. My backup plan was to create a website prototype, since I saw other classmates doing the same. Ergo, at least have a plan A and a plan B. The more plans you have, the better prepared you are, and you have more options to choose from. Also, be truly interested and passionate about your research topic. Additionally, I suggest delivering something you’re familiar with, so that you’re not just learning an entirely new skill from the beginning. It’s good to challenge yourself, but the final product may not turn out as you wanted.

6. Where to now?

After graduation, I was referred to work for the local Hawaiian government as a web designer. I still need to follow up with them if the offer still stands. Regardless, I plan to work in-house at a local or remote company, at a local or remote agency, or as a freelance web designer. I dream of working at top companies like Google, Microsoft, or Adobe. If all else fails, I could start up my own web design studio called "Webko," meaning "my web(site)" in Ilokano. I am trying to apply to as many jobs as possible, but I want to focus on graduating first.

Here’s a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) version:

Initial Beliefs: AI won't fully replace human designers due to a lack of empathy, but I felt that I was inexperienced and wouldn’t win. In the end, I triumphed.

Current View: AI can be a brainstorming tool, but it shouldn't replace the designer's personal touch and creative vision.

Project Experience: Faced challenges but ultimately reduced project scope, which made it more manageable.

Personal Growth: Learned to be less harsh on myself and focus on completing work rather than perfecting details.

Creative Process Insights: Trust the three phases—pre-production, production, and post-production—and be patient with the process.

Advice for New Capstone Students: Start early, create detailed plans, have backup options, and focus on topics that genuinely interest you.

Future Plans: Seeking work as a web designer with hopes of joining major companies or starting a freelance studio called "Webko."

"Don't be sad it's over, be happy it happened." - Dr. Seuss