Minor Project


PRJ 62204 | Minor Project
Week 15 - Week 28
Sangeetha A/P V Supramaniam | 0339644

Instructions:


Lectures

Week 1 (14/4) 
Introduction to Module
In this module is a multi disciplinary one, we will be collaborating with the Computing students for the project. A group of 4 from The Design School will work together with another group of 3 or more/less on a project that involves a industry client concerning a current problem that needs to be solved. 
Figure 1: A look at our first online class for the module.

 Using the Project Tracking Document as a template (Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wXZ146c5-Fi9SVivVk7-VeEnO2_-B07FkQia-5RGptU/edit?usp=sharing), we are required to develop the pre production document and track the process and progress of our project. The project Proposal leads to a proof of concept prototype, which needs to be unique and innovative. We need to consider 'how conclusive is the solution' and 'how good is the prototype quality'. It is a requirement of this module to pitch and present professionally to the panel of judges which includes the clients themselves, industry spectators and the lecturers from both schools.

 The project development will me marked as formative assessments. It includes our research, readings, solutions applied, management of design process and communication. With 7 different problems, our group (Group 10 - Aaron, Enos and myself) are assigned to the PetroScience project. It requires us to create a virtual learning center for primary and high school students to enjoy the exhibits and galleries amidst the current Lockdown due to Covid-19.

 Question 1
Please describe what is Design Innovation based on the artilcle "What is Design Innovation? by Alex Obenauer". Please cite some examples to elaborate your observations. 
Answer
Design innovation is a choice we make to do things better than before. We leap forward with assurance and faith. It is a combination of immense thinking and the 'aha' moment which then gives birth to something good for the world and its people. It often depends on what we do on a day to day basis and subconsciously choose to do them better which eventually leads to a conscious decision to make that happen. By making improvements for ourselves, we open the doors for others to enjoy the product of innovation as well.

Examples of product innovation or creation of a new product are FitBit and Kindle. These products came about due to changes and advancement in customer requirements in turn enhancing their way of life. FitBit came in the form of improving the workout or exercising experience while Kindle allows you to carry an unlimited amount of books wherever you go which brought happiness to the bookworms of the world. Using the principles of design innovation (respectful of context, deeply empathetic, goal-oriented, intentional and iterative), these products grew in demand amongst the people because it brought about growth and improvements in ones lives.

Question 2
Please watch this documentary about Design Disruptors and write a short essay about what are Design Disruptors with cited examples. Blog it and provide the URL in the text box below for me to access.

Disruption is the catalyst of change - to change for the better. Enter design - design changes everything as a ''natural form of life''. Being a disruptor is not about creating problems but rather solving them according to the needs and wants of everyone. It is about ''the act of intentionally solving problems'' and providing solutions to everyday pain points which often go unnoticed because we are used to adapting and thus not realizing the opportunity for improvement.
Design disruptors may be described into several cogs that make up the wheel of change: future promises, understanding the world and the opportunity to contribute. Disruption provides promise of change for the future and to bring ideas to life. Understanding the feedback loop is a key to understanding what needs to be improved whether it is a service, product or business. As a disruptor, one needs to contribute to the way both technology and businesses change.


Petrosains Project

Week 2 (24/4)
Project Brief
All groups involved in the Petrosains project were in the call with the clients from Petronas.
Below is the overall Project Brief

Week 4 (04/5)
Geotime Diorama Content
We received the content for the Geology content (Liquefaction and Fossil Casting):


Progress

Consultation Week 1 - 17/4 (Friday)
We shared with Mr Mike on the outcomes of our first discussion with the IT group we are meant to work with as a team. As a group we covered the necessary research on Petrosains and familiarized with the general services and main exhibits for the center. Below is a deck with the compiled research materials.
Feedback:
Mr Mike mentioned that the materials are not confirmed yet but some exhibits have been uploaded on the Google Drive for us to look through and be more familiar with. We are only meant to pick 1 out of the 5 to develop and share the experience onto a web platform. The main theme is how oil and gas is the foundation of life. Whereby we started from the molecular world leading up to lifeforms. There is a narrative to how the space is desired. The element of story is involved in each space. The important thing is to follow the Corporate Identity of Petrosains. It is how we want to interpret or present each section to engage the kids. For teamwork, it is important that we establish trust and team effort amongst our IT counterparts and make decisions as a group. We are meant to work together to shift the content to the web and represent the exhibit in digital form. As for the document, it is written too lengthy, short and straight to the point statements are preferred.

 Consultation Week 2 - 21/4 (Tuesday)
Robin Lee joined our consultation as a representative of SOCIT. Mr Mike reiterated a few points from the previous consultation which includes the fact each group will have to pick an exhibit to work on. There will be a meeting with the client on Thursday so that they may present the brief to us. The Petrosains team will be adding in more content into the folders for more substance. We are tasked to create a direct representation of the interactive experience for 10-18 year old students, which consists of those from lower and upper secondary schools. We need to find an interactive solution for them according to their age groups. 

 Under the interactivity umbrella, there are many ways to visualize the learning experience and design the content. It can be diagram based, vector based, tutorial and photographic based or a combination of them. We are not meant to design the teaching materials but to convert them to interactive engaging experiences. The next step is to find inspiration to support our ideas, visuals and content. Compile all case studies to a folder to address the problem statement once the brief is given to us by the client. We have total creative freedom as long as it teaches the content and follow the corporate brand identity.

 Consultation Week 2 - 24/4 (Friday)
Presentation is set for week 5 and 12 with the clients.The Unity space needs to be modified according to the Petrosains brand guideline except for the rooms. The spaces can be broken apart and made into something better. The Geotime Diorama will be made into a jungle room to host the learning simulations. The presentation on week 5 requires the slides version of the proposal and the document along with plenty of visuals. We are meant to create the interactive experiences  and plant them into the game level. The content of the learning experiences will be passed to us and we have to discuss as a team. We can create our own content if we find a better way to teach the learning materials.

Consultation Week 3 - 28/4 (Tuesday)
Presentation is set for week 5 and 12 with the clients. Aaron will take up the Unity program with other representatives of the other Petrosains groups to design the space where each activity will take place. The Unity space needs to be modified according to the Petrosains brand guideline except for the rooms. The spaces can be broken apart and made into something better. The Geotime Diorama will be made into a jungle room to host the learning simulations. The presentation on week 5 requires the slides version of the proposal and the document along with plenty of visuals. We are meant to create the interactive experiences  and plant them into the game level. The content of the learning experiences will be passed to us and we have to discuss as a team. We can create our own content if we find a better way to teach the learning materials.

 Consultation Week 3 - 01/5 (Friday)
No consultation was conducted due to public holiday (Labor Day)

 Consultation Week 4 - 05/5 & 08/5
Received the Liquefaction content (Geology/Earth Sains) from Petrosains on Monday (4 May) but yet to receive the content for the Paleontology learning. Art direction - related to the 10-18 year old group. The age group is too wide, we need to design something that will cater for all the different age groups (10-12, 13-15, 16-18). Different sections to entertain each demographic so that each of them are entertained with the learning material

 Art direction deliverables - corporate colours, typefaces, colour palettes, UI design (buttons, graphics), backgrounds, graphic elements that will be in the animation. Provide references.. Ensure they are deliverable within 5-6 weeks. Execution of animation will happen after Petrosains gives the green light

 Presentation requirements (needs to be approved by Petrosains group):
- Proposal (both Design and IT sides)
- Prototype (consisting of: flowchart, navigation, type of content that goes inside)
- Each section of the prototype: that carries animation, reading materials, voiceover or narration

 We need to anticipate the type of information that will go into the flowchart. Start a Miro board - post moodboards, drafts and sketches, mind maps, note ideas and how to develop them, story scripts, inspirations, embed videos. It is to track where you came from. Track progress.

Miro board sections: Art direction, Animation, UI Design, Flowchart, Sound design for interactive aspects, Unity, narrative scripts. A separate team will tackle the building of the environment in Unity
Image: Overall Miro board of Geotime Diorama as of Week 13.

 Consultation Week 5 - 12/5 (Tuesday)
Regarding the liquefaction - Consider adding a Richter scale to indicate the intensity of the earthquake - Option to use 3 buttons for simulation based Richter scale. By dragging and dropping each layer of earth, then click between 3 buttons (simulate the different types of earthquake accompanied by a Richter scale - e.g. small, mild, heavy) to show the intensity of the quake and the results of the quake.

Regarding the fossil casting - Need to provide ingredient replacement for home experimentation and add variety to different kinds of fossils students can try out with and follow through with the recipe. Can be replicated at home with parental supervision since the ingredients are easily found. Make a note that activity carried out can be done at home with substitutes for the ingredients.

After design group discussed and established the illustration style and colour pallete. I went ahead to develop the Homepage and a few frames for the animation design shown in the PDF. Also, I built the narrative and script to the animation video. Within the PDF above shows the homepage, animation narrative and examples of the animation illustration.

 Consultation Week 5 - 15/5 (Friday)
Visual elements:
We need to put the elements together to see if they fit. Revise the colour palette to compliment and adhere to the Petrosains colours and have reasoning to using those colours. Using the same shades and making them lighter. Develop visual guides for the entire UI design for the presentation (UI frames based on 2 colour palettes and voting on which works better as a team). One can be more warmer colours and one can be earthy and natural tones. Test them on backgrounds and interactive parts and troubleshoot the ui design. Provide samples.
Image: Considerations for colour pallete and typefaces for the whole
Geotime Diorama interactive experience.

Image: Inspiration for illustration styles and vibrant colours and exciting compositions.Our main inspiration came from https://kurzgesagt.org/

 Narration:
Read a little and look/ follow flow. The text does not appear at the same time otherwise might miss out on the animation. Unless the word is difficult to capture, viewers will refer to the subtitles. Need to double check the sequencing of the information. Sketches to be drawn by sunday. Consider meeting them on a separate time to clarify the information before animating the content since the presentation is rushed. A way to present the storyboards is to make concept boards whereby it is sketchy and draw key frames. Not production boards where the many drawings are detailed.

Week 6 - Presentation of Proposal - 19/5 (Tuesday)
Feedback: The games are straightforward and clear. No issue.

 Consultation Week 7
There’s not much progression this week. The colour balance for the fossil casting has been confirmed with outlines and shall be used consistently throughout the animation. The liquefaction colours need to be more appealing with higher saturation used for younger audiences. We produced a Gantt chart to organize our design protocols and responsibilities within the team so that everything may flow efficiently and according to the timeline.
Image: Geotime Diorama Gantt chart. The responsibility and delivery
of the entire 2D design section fell upon Azmina, Rausha and myself.
Aaron and Enos would handle the 3D design deliveries.

 Consultation Week 8
Animatics is due for all of the animation parts. Assets for all of the animation parts should be well under way and should be shown for approval next. Voiceover should also be reviewed as it should be completed by next Tuesday along with all of the UI designs. The Unity 3D gallery final model assets need to be listed and evaluated for optimization. Must ensure that whatever task or deliverables listed in the Gantt Chart’s weekly tracking is up to date in terms of progression review.

 Consultation Week 9
The animatics has been delivered to the Petrosains team. Currently awaiting approval of the animatics to proceed with final animation. Also, the design team handed over the UI files to SOCIT team. The compilation of the UI design below was created by Azmina and Rausha based on the two activities of Liquefaction and Fossil Casting.


Consultation Week 10
Petrosains’ feedback:
1. to mention details as what VO mention
2. CTA in the end
3. Add on some animation/movements to the icons - to make it livelier
4. Is it possible to add on some colors to some of the drawings - contra to the white background & black lines
Mr Mike: Note keywords to appear on screen that coincides with the VO, and since this is animatics without animation, they don’t know what will be animated in the end. The colors will be added eventually so u should ignore point 4. But for the CTA, is there some action you would want the viewer to act on in the end? Client feels there is a lack of things to see as nothing is moving.
Fill the inactivity with animation or motion graphics that will entertain the users. Not frame by frame motion. 
CTA could be probing questions instead of a statement.
Review the individual components that will be finished with the SOCIT team.

 Consultation Week 11
Plan B: Animated walkthrough to be placed in Unity instead of a script. We accidentally left out the Welcome screen for Geotime Diorama. It will be a repeated welcome screen on each console. It will be placed before the Liquefaction and Fossil casting activity home screens.

 Consultation Week 12
Need to discuss with the IT team based on the flowchart created by Aaron on editing the animation videos. At the end of week 13 is when the animated interactive simulations will be decided. The main Welcome screen to Geotime Diorama is good to go. Our next course of action would be to create an in between page from after animation and before game and a Congratulatory page for the end.
Image: Welcome screen to Geotime Diorama.

Image: In between page for after the animation and before the game.

 Consultation Week 13
We need to ensure all the files are well placed in Unity. Also, the Congratulations page is too green. Perhaps add more colours into it instead of just green. Next course of action would be to change button colour on Congratulations screen and pick a background music for animation, in-game and in Unity. The SOCIT team to complete the engagement by Tuesday (14/7). However, we are aiming to have presentation next week. Also, the voice over to be made more clearer and less echoey. So Rausha, Azmina and myself asked Aaron for help on that since we do not have much experience in sound editing.
Image: Congratulatory page that has too much green in it.

Image: Adding a reverse colour to the button to make it pop from the green.


Self Reflection:
Week 1
Upon being briefed by Mr Mike, it would be interesting to see how the following weeks will pan out. I have been to Petrosains as a child and I am quite excited to see how we can push it further in the current digital age. As well as amidst the current pandemic that we are facing globally. We will be working with SOCIT and establishing communication with them is the first step to efficient teamwork. Our SOCIT counterparts seem friendly enough to work with, however, only time will tell how the project will proceed.

 Week 2
This week we welcomed two additional members into our group, Rausha and Azmina. Our group has now grown to 5 designers which allows our content to be creatively rich with design. We were told that meeting with the client is scheduled on Thursday and will be looking forward to meeting them to formally receive the brief. We will need to prepare a list of questions for them and select the exhibit we will be working on. I feel that it is necessary to gauge their expectations on the project so that we may exceed it and bring a well designed interactive experience to the children at home.

Week 3
I was surprised by the decision to switch to Unity since it is the first time I am hearing of the software. Also, I realised that there will be plenty of assets to build once the content is delivered by Crystal from the Petrosains team. In terms of the design, Rausha, Azmina and myself decided to anchor the 2D design and animation aspect of the project. I am looking forward to building this virtual world since it holds much potential to be something amazing.

Week 4
We started becoming more clear as to what needs to be done on the design side. We managed to research and establish an art direction for the interactive animations. We pitched the idea of a quiz but Mr Mike was not for it and asked us to research more on the kind of games we can carry out and not worry too much on the coding end for now. Which is something I am guilty of doing which actually limits me. Rausha, Azmina and myself are to brainstorm on how we can deliver a better engagement for the students.
I took it upon myself to create the content and flow of information of the animation and in game content. The animation content will flow in a question and answer format so that the students will know exactly what type of knowledge is being asked of them to retain. All content was extracted from the presentation slides given by Petrosains. No outsourced information was brought into the overall content. I just had to process the information and shuffle them around to ensure the flow is engaging and informative in the perspective of the students. I was quite fun re organising and writing the content. From the narration, I did a quite recording of the content to roughly estimate the length of the short animation.

 

Week 5
We pitched a new engagement for the activity and Mr Mike approved of it which is good. Now we can move forward with designing the assets and key angles of the interactive activity. It feels great to have had that taken care of so that we may progress forward on slowly executing the engagement. Also, preparations need to begin to allow us to be ready for the presentation next week. I am looking forward to what we can produce as a team and with everyone else looking as things seem to be falling into place slowly.
I took it upon myself to ensure we kept to the timeline and that the workload is divided equally amongst the three designers in our group: Azmina, Rausha and myself. Therefore, Azmina was responsible for the design development of Liquefaction, Rausha for Fossil Casting and I took care of the general visuals, content/script and animation development. We worked together in the brainstorming and creation of the user interface (UI) designs and Azmina produced the final outcome of it.
Image: My work in progress when developing the Homepage for both Liquefaction and Fossil Casting activities.

Image: My work in progress when constructing of the colour pallete
that originated from the Petrosains pallete.

Image: My work in progress when developing the first round of UI design based
off the Petrosains colours, look and feel.

Image: My work in progress when expanding and developing the illustrations to other forms to communicate the narrative in its visual manner using the confirmed colour pallete.

Image: My work in progress when constructing the storyboard for Liquefaction.

Image: My work in progress when constructing the storyboard for Fossil Casting.

Week 6
We pitched our proposal to the Petrosains team and made the necessary explanations to allow them to understand the art direction, animations and narrative. However, we got very little feedback from them which made me feel uneasy and not satisfied with their lack of response. However, we would have to wait till the next class to get a better grasp of what needs to be done next if whether or not we can move forward with our proposed direction.

 Week 7
It was a challenge to get the art direction right with the rest of the assets. The content had to be tweaked a little to fix the new changes. Since we have passed the halfway mark for the semester, things have picked up to its final stages and refining the details of the assets. The animatics is also a work in progress. The next step would also be the need to illustrate the motion graphic elements once the art direction is solidified.

 Week 8
It was a challenge to get the animatics to work as I imagined it to be. So had to explore a frame by frame approach as we first need the approval of the Petrosains team. It is necessary to get their approval before proceeding with the full animation. Some amendments had to be made to the Gantt chart in response to this as the animatics timeline had to be pushed a little. There will be less time to produce the actual animation but it will meet the deadline regardless. The UI design is developing to its final stages thanks to Azmina and Rausha.

 Week 9
Mr Mike approved of the UI designs and animatics. The animatics have been sent over to the Petrosains team to approve so that we can have the green light to develop the full animation. It would be great if they replied soon as it would take time to do up the animation appropriately.
Image: My work in progress when developing the illustrated storyboard for Liquefaction so that they may be exported to be animated on After Effects.

Image: My work in progress when developing the illustrated storyboard for Fossil Casting so that they may be exported to be animated on After Effects.

 Week 10
The art direction needs to fit with the rest of the assets. The animation is currently a work in progress. I keep hitting an issue whereby my current AE keeps crashing and its putting a strain on my timeline for the videos. I will keep trying, however, there is a need to have a Plan B in place if unsuccessful.

 Week 11
Since we have reached the last few weeks of the semester, things have picked up to its final stages and we hit a snag. There is worry on the deliverables for presentation day whereby the role of the other collaborative party may have been misunderstood. Awaiting for that to be cleared up so that we may take necessary countermeasures to solve the issue. All in all, I am anxious and worried for Week 14.

 Week 12
All that is left is to fill in the hole or parts that were missed out or improve on some part of the flow by adding in more pages to make the engagement more smooth and seamless for the users. We need to be prepared just in case there is any last minute necessary add ons for next week. Overall it is looking rather promising for the final outcome.
Image: My work in progress when developing the Welcome page, in between page after
the animation and Congratulatory pages.

Week 13
It seems we would need to prepare for the Plan B of video walkthrough animation for the final presentation as the SOCIT team is unable to complete the prototype on time. I will be asking Aaron and Enos’s help in regards to the animation. We also proceeded to voting and choosing background music for the game and animation. All in all, it seems to be going well however we need to be prepared if there are anymore last minute changes on the deliverables.

Week 14
I am very grateful that it is finally week 14. From the point of being briefed by Mr Mike from week 1 till now has been quite the roller coaster. Building the Petrosains world with the teams while pushing it further in the current digital age was an exciting journey. Being in the midst of the current pandemic that we are facing globally has forced us to adapt to online communications and presentations which turned out fairly decent with a few hiccups here and there. When working with the SOCIT team, I realised how important it was to have written (in black and white) of the deliverables to ensure there is no miscommunication from both ends. The project proceeded expectedly at first but towards the end the point of the collaboration was questioned. Hopefully the teams will be able to rectify the issues in their next semester. As for us, we will proceed with the presentation to Petrosains with our Plan B which was discussed in week 12. Here’s to the last dash to the finish line.


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