Project Management

Components of a project design process

Before starting to produce a digital product, it is important to examine the best approach to creating the product; and how to create the best possible product/solution.

product purpose and design criteria

  • A purpose for a digital product is that it must perform what it is designed to do

  • if we start with a purpose, then the digital product has a good starting point and from there, other considerations can begin

  • The City of Perth requires a poster to promote The Festival of Perth, then the poster must do exactly that. Promote the event.

  • your employer asks you to redesign the company website to ensure a better user experience, then the design will have to allow this to occur.

target audience characteristics

knowledge levels, interest levels, language skills, information needs, and special needs = psychographics

age, gender, culture and background and income levels = demographics

project presentation medium

how will it be presented?

  • Print

    • single graphic

    • publication (i.e. brochure)

    • photo of your message

  • Audio Visual

    • animation

    • video

  • Interactive

    • website on a desktop

    • website on a smartphone

    • tablet

    • gaming

situation analysis

a collection of methods that managers use to analyse an organisation’s internal and external environment to understand the organisation’s capabilities, customers and business environment

ISW EOT

style guide

  • a set of standards for the writing and designing documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organisation or field.

  • It is a document that provides guidelines for the way your brand should be presented from both a graphic and language perspective.

covers areas such as

  • language use

  • punctuation

  • use of incorporation of quotations

  • document layout

  • heading use

  • referencing

Design Plan

Storyboard

  • sketches or drawings graphically representing a product or design with annotations.

  • for an animation or movie they are are a series of graphic organisers that consists of sequential panels or frames used to plan and visualise a narrative, project, or presentation.

Thumbnails

Terms of images on the internet - reduced size representation of the image, often has a hyperlink to the full-sized version

Terms of video - makes it easier to scan and organise than their full size counterpart

Terms of design - thumbnail sketches are quick drawings of an idea. It doesn’t necessarily have to be small in size.

Wireframes

A skeletal representation or drawing of a design best used for Web sites or a magazine layout.

  • It displays the functional elements of a Web site design or design of a magazine or poster.

Criteria to evaluate digital product/solution

  • Project management is a step-by-step approach to completing a short-term goal.

  • Evaluation is an important step to make sure the product is worthwhile.

  • We evaluate as we are doing the project, as well as, at the end.

  • Who do we get to do the evaluation? We could do it ourselves (self), get a colleague to do it (peer), or get our target audience to do it.

Self-evaluation

  • Look at your work and try to improve as you are making it

  • Look at your work when it is finished and try to find ways to improve for next time

  • Ask yourself these questions

    • Is there a marking key? Compare your work to the marking key.

    • How can I improve it?

    • Will people be able to understand it?

    • What should I change?

    • What did I do well? What are my strengths?

Peer evaluation

  • ask someone else to evaluate your work

  • they take time to look at it and give you feedback on what to improve

  • ask questions like the following:

    • Does the work match what the assignment asks?

    • Does the product have visual appeal?

    • Does it say its message clearly?

    • Are the images helpful?

    • Is the text readable?

    • What other things could be improved in this digital product?

  • Ask for feedback in writing

  • Read the feedback and make changes to your product, if you think they are needed.

Target audience evaluation

  • is where you get the people you have designed the digital product for, to evaluate it.

  • may be peers, or relatives

  • Provide with written questions to answer how to improve your digital product

  • Questions:

    • Does the work match what the assignment asks?

    • Does the product have visual appeal?

    • Does it say its message clearly?

    • Are the images helpful?

    • Is the text readable?

    • What other things could be improved in this digital product?