Creative Processes

Aim: Introduce A2 and begin your creative process.

Objectives:
Use the SoA for A2 and consider the key criteria.
Know the deadline for A2.
Write a brief.
Work well in pairs.
Investigate the best logo, interactive website and visually interest website.
Investigate different creative methods for exploring key terms.
Complete A1, proof read and submit A1.

Hello!

When I came into college, the first starter we had was to create a new SMART target. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. My target is to remain efficient in my workflow and although I am able to meet deadlines, I would like to work even harder because I have to create my portfolio. Today, the CEO if DevelopEBP also came in.

Before the lesson began, Adam did a small recap by telling us to create a question and an answer for it in regards of U35_A1. A peer then told another peer their answer so they can guess the question. Throughout the day, Adam creatively covered U35 A2 with us by using various activities. They were to look at examples of con-current logos, interactive websites, visual websites and navigation.

As we went through the Scheme of Assessment, as a class we covered what we are supposed to do. Therefore we started our second assignment by making a brief - this is where we talked about the purpose, audience, and our digital graphics design requirements. I found this bit quite straight forward and I managed to quickly re-word the SoA into an understandable format, this was a strength.

When I began the productive log (mood board), I got stuck here as I was confused with the work. I didn't know what kind of images to find when creating the mood board and I had to ask for help, this was my weakness. However, when I understood what to do, I worked on the mood board until it was done.

I also took the opportunity to ask Zoë about my U23 A3 resubmission because it was a bit confusing. We worked together and as a result I understand what I have to do to achieve the criteria. I will be working on this over the days at home.

Reflecting today, it has been productive in terms of learning. I am currently transitioning the phrase between technical to creative. My inspiration has been Adam because he is very up to date with the latest creative designs of interactive media, and my own mood booard. My personal aims are to work furthermore on the brief/production log as well as continuing my portfolio creation. However, I am very paranoid and axious because Catherine is taking a while to get back to me - I would like to submit my UCAS application as soon as possible but she seems to be busy at the moment.

See you Thursday!

Colourful Day!

Aim: Investigate the other parts of interactive media theory and terminology

Objectives:
*Complete the student quiz.
*Investigate how colour impacts interactive graphics.
*Research creative examples for the theory of A1.
*Write a report covering the key terms related to the theory of graphics for interactive media.
*Explain the link between theory and industry practice.

Today is Black Friday! A day to work,

Coming into college today was tiring due to lack of sleep but that is because I worked on U23_A2 resubmission for a particular criteria. When I came into college, I proof read the work and submitted it to Zoë as soon as I had the time. I constantly checked my work against her criteria to make sure I can attempt to achieve it.

We then had the weekly Friday Quiz - I think Friday is the official date now. It was about how robots come to the rescue after a disaster, such as tsunamis and earthquakes. The TED talk discussed various machines and how its effective speed can impact on saving lives and restoring the economy quicker. By the end of the quiz, I got 7/13 - once again making it to the 'safe margin'. If you are interested in the video, you could watch it here. Brandon B got the lowest score, therefore he'll be making a quiz next week... hopefully a Kahoot one.

When class began officially, Adam got myself, Sami H and Liam B to complete a survey for some professional web designers.  Using the college's website, we had to provide feedback and honest opinions of certain areas which can be used to as qualitative data for future improvements. If you are interested in reading up about the college I attend, you can check out DevelopEBP's website here.

Afterwards, I continued with U35_A1 where I was describing and explaining about various interactive media factors such as bit depth and optimising. Through this, I learnt a little more about it and hopefully this will be useful in the future when I design. A strength of today was being able to work hard and crack on with article assignment.

Sometime later, Adam dedicated an hour into various activities to teach us further about colour theory with relevant terminologies. The first activity was to label a diagram of the colour spectrum. It had acronyms such as LAB, RGB, and CMYK. Although some of these abbreviations are recognisable from GCSE teachings, I was reminded of some of its processes - such as CMYK printing via layering and rolling machines. Furthermore, we also matched colour wheels to its description and even played a game afterwards where we need to match the colours as accurately as we can (it progressed in difficulty). I got an accurate result of 8.0, above the average 6.3. If you want to play it, you can click here.

The above activities taught me a lot more about hue, saturation, value, brightness, luminance, and more. With this, I completed U35_A1 and submitted after proof reading. I attempted to keep as succinct as I can and this could be considered as my strength. My weakness would be my temporary procrastination, lol.

With time spare after lunch, I am writing this blog earlier. For my reflection, my inspiration for today has been Adam (tutor) because he is very knowledgeable in the creative field. For my personal aims, when I get home I will be continuing with my art and portfolio creation once again. Today has really been productive and exciting. I will end the day by doing some designing, preparations and with the art club!

I guess I will leave U35_A2 to the Monday's me. See you Monday! c:

Interactive Media Visual Aspects!

Aim: To recap and check knowledge for the first parts of A1 for Adam.

Objectives:

*Complete the .AI matching activity.
*Judge examples of work and grade it.
*Consider how pixels impact interactive graphics.
*Research creative examples for the theory of A1.
*Know the deadline for Assignment 1.
*Create a report covering the key terms related to the theory of graphics for interactive media.
*Investigate how pixels relate to interactive graphics.
*Explain the link between theory and industry practice.

Hello!

Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, I have been working on my assignment and art. As a result, myself and Sami H are quite ahead. Coming into college today, the starter was to look at several links Adam had sent us in regards of researching creative examples for the theory of A1. It included real examples of things we learnt, such as site here - interactive elements. This was helpful to understand how our learnings could be applied to real life scenarios.

The first activity of the day was to match some definitions to images. Since I have completed the set work within my independent study time, I was able to understand all of the terminologies due to previous research. I found recap activities to be helpful because they remind the small intimate details. 

Since myself and Sami have completed the first half of U35_A1, we asked Adam on what we could do next. After discussing, we decided to proof read each other's work. Once done, I made the changes Sami recommended and they were predominantly grammar mistakes. Since my grammar wouldn't be considered as exceptional, I decided to improve upon this. In addition, I also added information that I had previously missed. Then with the spare time left I messed around on Adobe Illustrator to further develop creative skills.

During break, I asked Zoë about a piece of resubmission that was difficult to understand. She briefly went over it and said she would reiterate it to the class after lunch. This resubmission is due in soon, so I am glad I am ahead of my current assignments. When Adam was ready to move on, he explained the second half of U35_A1 and thus, we began typing away. Overall, I believe to have reached a good point where I could stop and focus on the upcoming maths with Emily.

Aims and Objectives: 

*Be able to multiply out brackets.*Be able to recall the difference between a arithmetic and geometric sequence.*Be able to write the rule that describes a sequence.*Use correct notation.*Be able to identify the proof for a arithmetic and geometric progression.*Be able to calculate the series of a finite sequence.

Before we started with Emily, Zoë explained about the resubmission for U23_A2 - I made notes during this talk. When Emily began teaching, we started with something simple and that is in regards to recapping last week's sequences and nth term etc. We practised different questions of simplifying algebra.

Once we understood the basics of algebra, Emily taught us all the definitions we need to know. As I made notes, she also taught us about arithmetic and geometric sequences. Arithmetic is where a sequence goes up by a constant, and geometric is where the sequence goes up by multiples. Seems easy enough, but finding the nth term has been a pain and intensely difficult. Although I understand roughly how to work it out, I still need to understand more for the future assignment.

Reflecting throughout today, my brain is fried but that is a good thing because it means I have learnt something new. Today has been a day full of progress, it was a successful day and I have decided I will be working on the practise questions Emily will set as well as assignments from Adam. I believe a big reason for my struggle is purely to do with distractions, which muddles my thoughts. I sometimes dislike where I sit because it brings more distraction to my learning, but I guess I need to muddle through this, too.

See you tomorrow!

Beginning of Unit 35 - Digital Graphics for Interactive Media!

Aim: To introduce the unit and consider A1.

Objectives:
*Complete the pre-unit survey.
*Use draw.oi and consider the unit and criteria.
*Consider expectations.
*Complete the Kahoot Quiz.
*Know when the deadline for Assignment 1 is.
*Consider criteria for Assignment 1.
*Explain key terms for interactive graphics.

Hey!

Coming back from the review week, it is safe to say that I have spent the majority of the week on furthering my progress in regards to my portfolio creation. I have been doing a lot of art and resubmissions in order to ensure I am ahead of my game.

Returning to college, we now have Adam as our tutor. The first thing the entire class did was to fill in the initial survey for the new unit - Unit 35: Digital Graphics for Interactive Media. For this, it is somewhat similar to the Digital Graphics unit last year therefore I will definitely be enjoying this. When the day started, Adam talked to us about our expectations of him as well as his expectations of us and thus, created a long list. Next, we also took part in a Kahoot Quiz that Adam put together for us in order to identify how much we know of the topic as well as adding a bit of fun element into learning. I did not realise Kahoot was a manipulative webpage which means if I ever need to create the quiz, I will be using it. At the end, I came in the top 5 of the class!

Before we looked at the first assignment, Adam went through all of the criteria's and deadlines. This is essentially all the process words and bloom taxonomy as well as key dates on when our work is due in and what not, this is important and it made me decide to use the Google Calendar more as it is directly linked to my phone's calendar (go Microsoft!). With the understanding of the criteria in mind, every peer was assigned to a heading/word we had to research about in regards to interactive media's first assignment (websites). For me, I was assigned to screen icons and therefore I learnt a whole bunch of information about it. When we all presented our work, it also gave me the opportunity to take notes down and use it in the future.

For the last part of the day, everyone focused on the first assignment of the unit. For me, I started off a bit slow but steady wins the race, right? I am aiming for the distinction criteria, therefore I am frequently matching my work against the criterion in order to ensure the quality is good in my taste. On the other hand, I believe that I have become much more succinct, but in return my weakness is the speed of my workflow. My inspiration has been Adam because of his great attitude. 

As a personal reflection, I believe I have progressed today in terms of productivity, this is because Adam is an optimistic and positive tutor that boosts our moral esteems (not saying that Zoe isn't either). Over Tuesday and Wednesday, I will aim to achieve all of what has been set to be completed as well as to once again further progress on my portfolio. I will also complete the remaining resubmission for Zoe (so far) as well as fitting in the deadlines on my calendar. This week will be busy but I believe hard work will be rewarded accordingly.

Unit 23 Human Computer Interaction Done!

Aim: To evaluate the HCIs created.

Objectives:
Complete the structured documentation for the HCIs.
Complete the end of unit survey.
Describe in detail the good and bad points about the HCIs and some improvements.

Hey! Today has been a productive day.

When I came into college today we began with the weekly Friday quiz. For this week, our quiz was about how HCI can have multi-touch sensors as it can have many different advantages to the user. It is also a technology revolution. By the end of this quiz, I made it into the "safety margin". The winner was Alex W and Liam B, and the loser was Edward L. If you are interested in this TED talk by Jeff Han, you can watch it here. This time, Zoë checked to see no one cheated, and this felt much more neutral as it was always the same winner every week (cough cough, cheat cheat)...

Continuing with work, I took all of the survey results that I gathered yesterday and began my HCI evaluation report. For this, I explained the introduction, added screenshots, mentioned the positive and negative elements, and then gave a conclusion and improvement. This only took my half a day and I was proud, which a strength is my speed at working when I am in the work mood. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I also spent some time helping other people by filling out their surveys. I then submitted and that was U23 completed! (With resubmissions remaining).

Sooner later on the day, I got my U23_A2 resubmission back. I instantly worked on it and I was able to resubmit on the same day. The resubmissions was relatively easy and this meant that I had very little mistakes to amend. Afterwards, I did the end of unit survey for this unit and filled in all of the questions. For this unit, it has benefited me in a positive way because I am able to apply this to my games art and design career in the future. I will be able to understand the different effects HCI can have on users, as well as learning different specialist adaptations I can do too. It has also boosted my confidence in coding websites a bit more too, yay! Through the end of unit survey, I learnt about Ben Shenidermans, this wasn't really mentioned in the work as much but I decided to look him uop and read his eight golden rules.

At the end of the day, I submitted my entire U23, along with the correct Scheme of Assessment filled in and Observation Sheet. To reflect on my work today, I believe I have achieved an incredible amount once again - this is really satisfying. After today's class, I will be doing art with Becci then gym! As I have next week off (review week), I will be working on the maths resubmission as well as working on my own art throughout the week.

It has been another awesome unit, I cannot wait until the next one with Adam. 

Sperm Keyring!

Aim: To evaluate the HCIs created from Zoë.

Objectives:
Create a feedback survey to evaluate the HCIs.
List some good and bad points about the HCIs.
Describe the good and bad points about the HCIs and some improvements.

Hey! 

Over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday, I actually got a lot of work done and was quite free. I was able to complete all my resubmissions with ease and progress on my art, along with some university work.

Coming into today, the first thing Zoë asked us is whether or not we will attend bowling for December. I am unsure on this because there will be many Level 3s and Level 2s that we don't know, so a lot of people are put off by this - it would be better if we could have an event set to our class only so it feels more personalised. Nonetheless, Zoë explained the last ever task for our second unit (U23_A4T2). Essentially, this is an evaluation report that we will be explaining the feedback in regards to our HCI designs. To do this, we created a feedback survey and sent it around the class. We also put all of our work into a folder so others can access it. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have enough data to start evaluating. Today's strength was being able to quickly gather and give feedback, as this will be helping our work. A weakness from the entire class is that I hoped they give more feedback, as many seem to ignore it.

Sometime later before lunch, the Terrence Higgins Trust came in and talked about sexual healthcare to us. Though it was awkward and embarrassing, it was enjoyable in a way as they made some activities that interacted with us. By the end, most of us signed up for a new C card which will last until 2015, along with free condoms, of course... And oh, don't forget the condom-dildo demonstration was probably the highlight. Ah maturity, it's never mature. I was reminded on some things, and this was a good positive thing of the day. We also got a sperm keyring. I'll attach it to my gym chain... NOT.

After lunch, we had Emily S. 

Aims from Emily:

Objectives:
Review assignment 1.
Understand when the resubmission date is.
M1 Explain the relationship between matrices and computer program variable arrays.
P6 Identify the difference between a sequence and a series.
Use notation for a sequence.
Describe the concept of infinity.
Identify patterns in sequences.
Work out 'n'th terms.

She talked about our results from the first test in assignment. She then started to explain assignment two, which is about things that we have actually learnt in the past. This was about sequences, nth term, and series. Throughout the day, we practised and learnt all three areas, as well as making notes. Today I learnt what series is, it is essentially a sigma (greek symbol) that means to add up all the values in a sequence.

To reflect for today, I believe I have got a lot done once again. My outstanding work is to complete the U23_A4T2 and submit by tomorrow, to complete everyone else's surveys, and to prepare and practice M1 maths in U26_A1 which is due next week. Oh, along with U23_A3 resubmission and good old art. See you tomorrow.

Documenting My Future!

Aim: To document the HCIs created.

Objectives:
To create a document with basic information on the design and development of HCIs.
To create a well structured document explaining the design and development of HCIs.

Welcome back!

Over the weekend, I invested my time into progressing my U23_A3 work - I got about 85% done, and am aiming to complete it soon. I also progressed on my personal statement.

Upon arriving to college, the first thing I did was added tags to my emails, this helps me being more organised and allows me to search for relevant emails quicker. Then as we wait for some people yet to arrive, Zoë showed us a video about how Li-Fi could be the next Wi-Fi. This was an interesting concept as data is transmitted through LED (light), but there are certain limitations.

When the lesson started, Zoë firstly explained the U23_A4T1, which is a documentation about how we created the prototype screen designs and the order form. It is very professional as it requested that we have to structure it and make it manageable. A strength of this was that I was able to get this done relatively quick within the day as I am used to word. For anything I did not understand, I searched it up and therefore I learnt how to add page numbers after a specific page. Things I included in the documentation is: Cover Page, Introduction, Contents, Designs, and Creation Process.

Sometime throughout the day, Catherine called me in for my progression review/meeting. She talked and asked me about how college is gone, which is great. I also took this opportunity to ask her all the questions I require - such as scholarships, bursaries, choices, grades, references and more. Furthermore, I also asked Zoë about the Merit criteria in U23_A3T2. I have been filling in my UCAS application furthermore, as well as getting my personal statement completed for sure by draft 5! All I need to now is add the predicted grades, and submit when the deadline is here.

Reflecting throughout the day, I managed to get a lot of things done, so that is a strength. However, an improvement is to get even more ahead because I still have to do art and some resubmissions I plan on finishing tonight. Life is good.

:)

Work Galore?

Aims: To be able to implement user interfaces.

Objectives:
To test input and output HCIs.
To create a user survey that could be used to test the effectiveness of an HCI.
To explain some ways that the effectiveness of an HCI can be measured.
To explain in detail how the effectiveness of an HCI can be measured.

Today was a hectic day with lots of work in bound.

As I spent last night working on the code, it was near perfection and completion. Coming into college, we firstly held our weekly quiz (presumably held on Friday now). The quiz was about the future of Human Computer Interaction and how it can help communication and mobility for everyone including those who are severely injured and or disabled. The video was interesting to be informed about. Though, when it came to the actual quiz, the questions were a bit bizzare - cough cough, Brandon. Nonetheless, Zoë said that if I lost the quiz, I do not need to make one because I've made the previous two (which is true, I didn't realise).

When the day started, Zoë explained the last part of U23_A3T2, which is a merit criteria piece of task where we need to explain how the effectiveness of HCIs may be measured. As she presented the powerpoint, she taught us about qualitative and quantitative data/research and how these can be applied to questions and surveys we create. This clicked into me relatively quickly as a strength because I had learnt these keywords during Business Studies class in GCSE.

When we got on with our work, I firstly showed Zoë my piece of code that I had edited last night. Together, we edited and fixed minor issues, which then led me to uploading and updating my final fully functioning website (order form) on FileZilla. My weakness for this is workflow, though I have worked hard and quick, I need to remain slow and steady to avoid mistakes and give quality efforts.

For half of a day, I moved onto creating and completing the test document. This is where I got an Excel Spreadsheet and listed all the types of tests I performed on the order form, stating the expected results, actual results, along with columns for improvements and reasons of errors. I am extremely proud of my test because I feel like I have thoroughly checked everything, giving me a semi-accomplishment sensation.

For the last part of the day, I started to catalogue down evidence for my creation process. This is where I use the screenshots I took throughout the design production and annotate it along with relevant code. I had to leave this near the end because I could only begin once the website is finished and fully interpreted by me. At the end of the day, I did not manage to complete this and is classed as my slow work flow.

Since this assignment is due in today, my aims is to get the creation process done at home, then the merit work. But first, I have to attend the art club after college, then my gym, of course. This is a lot of work, plan B is that I will submit and complete the rest over resubmission later, but that is my last resort if I cannot finish things on time. Knowing me, I dislike missing deadlines, so I'll have to push! :)

See you on Monday!

JavaScript + Matrices Maths Test!

Aim: To create and test an input and output HCI.

Objectives:
Create an input and output HCI.
Document the creation purpose.
Test input and output HCIs.
Create a user survey for the HCIs.

Hello, welcome back to another blog!

Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, I have been revising maths intensely for today's test regarding matrices and so forth. I worked on my third draft of my personal statement. I also worked on the code for U23_A3 but unfortunately it did not work at the time due to unknown issues.

When the day began, Zoë went through the U23_A3T2 where we need to create a user survey and a test sheet for our order forms. For the user survey, it is as simple as creating open questions that allows the viewer to return detailed feedback, like specific questions. On the other hand, the test sheet seems more complicated but still understandable where we need to create a table in Excel Spreadsheet and show how we tested, improved and more of our order form. My strength was being able to understand this but my weakness was not being able to move onto it today.

This is because I have been working on coding my order form. After many experimentations, I began stressing until I decided to use Zoë's code and then adjusting it to mine. One of my biggest weakness of today was not being able to distinguish two separate variable names by a single uppercase letter, this confused my naming convention and led to my downfall. However, my strength was being able to recognise this issue and then amending it immediately. This is thanks to both Zoë and Euan J where he had a similar issue. To compensate and thank him for helping me, I decided to help out Euan J too. I have promised myself to help him out tomorrow if he requires assistance. When I focused heavily on the code and the words used, I understood slowly what it roughly does, which enabled me to duplicate and mess with the code and expand on it beneficially.

Sometime later, Catherine walked in and explained more useful information for our UCAS applications. One of them was to use the Grade Predictor where it can allow us to safely presume which grade we will achieve depending on the unit, this will help us fill in the sections. She also stated some other useful information in which I uh, forgot? :P

Nonetheless, after Lunch we had Emily. Before the maths test, she spent 15 minutes recapping the basics with us - of course, just the easy good parts. This refreshed my mind although I was mentally prepared, yet worried. Throughout the maths test, I felt like I did exceptionally well proving that my hard work has paid off. Though I couldn't interpret one/two questions only, I believe the rest went well as I have double/triple checked. Ultimately, this is also the reason why the blog was delayed - I had used up all my time and had to leave, but as promised here is my blog, yay!

Since this is written around 21:30pm, the goals I have managed to accomplish was to make the changes Zoë sent me for my order form.php file. I have also improved the readability overall by indenting and commenting. The remaining work I have left is to upload the website to FileZilla, create and finish the design documentation sheet, create and finish the user survey document, and create and finish the test documentation all by tomorrow! This will be a pinch, but I strongly believe this is achievable if I work hard once again. (I decided to leave it until tomorrow because all of the relevant sources remained in college property).

See you tomorrow! 

Jabba The Script?

Aim: To create an input and output HCI.

Objectives:
To create at least one input and output HCI.
To create some information to document the creation process.

Welcome back to Monday Madness!

Over the half term, I have been spending time working on various pieces of work. This includes the resubmissions I have for U20_A3 and U20_A4. I also worked on my personal statement which has been sent to my tutor(s). Returning to college has been difficult to re-adjust the time, but I arrived awake and ready to learn.

The first thing Zoë showed us was a video regarding Virtual Reality on mice - this was quite recent so I was fascinated by it, this is because the testers are trying to understand how the brain makes decisions. Though, it feels a little cruel to test it on innocent creatures like mice.

After the above, Zoë went through U23_A3 with everyone by explaining our objectives via PowerPoint. It was a load of information which we had to process quickly. So for anything I couldn't catch, I asked Zoë to quickly repeat it after. Our task is to recreate the order form protocol we designed as well as linking the different screen designs we did from our HCI pencil projects. A strength of this is that I was able to quickly understand what we had to do and cracked on by planning a list in my head. Though my weakness can be confusion when things got difficult. Within a few minutes, I was able to link all the screen designs and export it as web HTML pages but I was unsure if I needed a fourth screen design because the home page may not count (will ask Zoë later).

Then I started to code the order form. I firstly wanted to create the overall form and I did this by using HTML. My inspiration was w3schools because it help remind me of everything I need to know. Through the process, I used table tags and more, which helped me understand how it works more. Afterwards, I started to validate a part of my form by using JavaScript script functions along with Zoë's guide. For this, I have spent almost the entire day and possibly more time tomorrow to complete - this is because my weakness was the inability to understand JavaScript quickly, so as an improvement I kept focused and tried to analyse line by line, then rewording and commenting my own words.

Nearer the end of the day, Zoë helped me with my resubmissions as I asked her a few questions I had in mind over the week, then I submitted instantly. The remaining work I have is predominantly U23, an improvement and goal is to get this completed soon. My other aims is to revise for maths and get more art done as a test and lesson is coming up.

Reflecting over today, I have got a lot done but due to the complexity of the Scheme of Assessment, it has made me think of more worrisome questions. This can be a bit annoying, but I am happy and confident whenever Zoë helps me out. I may or may not come into college tomorrow. If I do, it is because I want to get further ahead. Otherwise, it means I am A-OK!