Tutorial 3

Where I am so far:

• Always consider what symbols, shapes and composition means and how it communicates to the audience.
• What exactly am I trying to say to my audience?
• Who am I saying it to?
• Does this style work with my audience?
• Is it effective?
• Make a logical journey.
• Consider the content.
• Figure out the touchpoints - where can I catch my audience?

Target Audience:

• My target audience is in the age group of 18-24 year olds, primarily University Students.
• I have chosen this age group as they are overlooked generally within this topic.
• Children and Adults receive different treatment for depression, however people aged between 18-24 are technically classed as neither, making the treatment difficult to judge. This is a gap in the market.

Methods of Delivery:

• The initial point of contact will be screen based - the vast majority of people in this age group have access to a screen of sorts.
• Another reason to back this, depressed people lock themselves away - a subtle way to get the message out as they too have access to screen based communication.

Intention:

• I am producing adverts and a campaign for informational, educational and awareness reasons.
• I will explain the avenues and possible directions to take in order to prevent depression.

Information is out there, however in order to become aware of this issue, you need to go looking for the details. This project is making the link between the person/people and the help.

It is not about making or persuading, it is about informing the options available.

An Animation

According to my survey results, the vast majority of people feel that a TV advert of some description would be the best way to communicate the topic of depression.

As it can be a very sore subject to talk about and approach, I think a friendly, simple way of displaying relevant information would have the best effect. The TV adverts I make are going to be animations, the characters are presented above. The reason behind the animations, are to make the topic more approachable to talk about, and make them differ from the common adverts using real people today. 

Depression is a very personal illness as it varies from person to person, and can effect each and every one of us for any reason at any time. It is for this reason in particular that I am against using real people trying to act a feeling/emotion which could completely mis-interpret and mis-communicate the problem. By using simple animations, the style will stand out in the hope that people will take interest. From here the message can be slowly introduced - but also gives the audience an option whether to take notice or not. The animations will tell a story, but only enough to introduce the problem. 

The animation will then direct the audience to a website where they can find relevant information about what to do and how. This website will direct to a page with links to sites such as NHS. 

My characters and symbols shown previously will form the basis of my project in order to communicate this issue appropriately.

Building on my Symbol Designs

© Megan Corkhill
Following on from my symbols regarding the types of depression, I have built up a table to explore how I can simplify the whole topic. The pink box containing a filled triangle is my symbol for 'Depression', I have specifically chosen a triangle because of the down feelings involved in this illness (hence the reason that the triangle is pointing downwards). The orange boxes represent the different causes of depression, blue shows the types (also shown earlier in this blog), green representing the physical symptoms, yellow for the psychological and purple showing the different treatments.
This symbol system will form the basis of my project in order to communicate my chosen topic to my target audience.

Adapted Symbols: Depression = Triangle

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Upgraded from the previous designs, these follow the rule that Depression = Triangle. The shades of grey depend on the severity; mild, moderate and severe as seen on the key.

Upgraded Symbols

Exactly the same symbols as before, but to make them look like more of a set, I have rounded the corners. They also look more friendly and approachable which enhances the designs, especially in this topic area.

Converting Types of Depression into Symbols

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Depression comes in many different forms, and sometimes can be difficult distinguishing the difference. Each type can be put into a category of mild, moderate and severe (symbols shown at the top of the page). The remaining listed symbols demonstrate the various types. I have tried to illustrate each type in the simplest way that still shows understanding.

My colour palette has remained limited in order to help demonstrate the representation of depression. 

Experimental Work

Some typographical experiments using the word 'depression' in one typeface of various sizes. The opacities have been changed according to the size of the word. The positioning and layering was then experimental in order to produce these outcomes.

I feel the most successful experiment is the last circular one. This represents the 'black hole' depressed people find themselves in. As a starting point, I think this can work as a piece of artwork alone, but also demonstrates how depression may feel.

The following experiment uses the black hole effect, in different colours to see how they display a different perception.

I think these look quite pretty and artistic - however this is the opposite of depression. Could it represent depression in a different light? (Thoughts about this needed).

The next experiment follows the same pattern as the first couple, using the colour palette from my previous survey results - also demonstrating earlier in my EMP blog.

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Project Boost

A much needed tutorial later and a decision different from my outcome of the tutorial - I am going to stick with my topic of depression. I've been researching and digging for six weeks, it'd be a shame to let it all go to waste. I just need to focus and work on visuals to push it along in order to see light at the end of the tunnel. During the chat I had come up with another idea, completely different - which I now hope to try and complete on the side. Words of wisdom got me thinking on my way home that I need to stick with what I've already worked so hard to achieve and maybe not worry so much about what other people think - what is it my target audience NEEDS?

Survey 3

1. What are the biggest problems you face during student life?

• Living conditions
• Housemates
• Homesickness/Not being able to settle in
• Relationships
• Workload
• Presentations
• Tutors
• Multi-tasking
• Money
• Health Problems

2. Please list the order that you would prioritise the following:

• Socialising
• Uni/College work
• Relationships
• Jobs & Money
• Returning home
• Health & Fitness

3. In general, do you seek help when facing worries and problems?

• No
• Yes
• If no, why not?
• If yes, who from?

Back and Forth: "Find a Nugget and Explore"

So all day I have been contemplating my ideas and going back and forth between past ideas and possible future ones.
So far my mind thought has gone like this:

1. DEPRESSION: This was my first starting point and a HUGE topic with so many different possibilities, causes, symptoms, signs and types. The subject could easily become complicated to deal with in regards of ethics and the sheer mass of knowledge that would need to be consumed in order to understand the illness as a whole.

2. TEENAGE DEPRESSION: This topic wasn't narrowed down, however the target group was. Teenagers. This is an age group I feel is neglected in terms of this illness as most people pass it off as a black mood, time of the month, tiff, typical teenager. Most of the time they could be asking for help, so I believed this target group needed to be aware of recognising symptoms and know what to do to help themselves initially before gaining the confidence to open up and talk about their issues. This is also the time of their lives where big changes happen and life changing events take place.

3. STUDENT DEPRESSION: As depression in a large age group such as teenagers was also still too large, I moved on to focusing on a particular event in someone's life which was significant to possible feelings of depression. Focusing on moving to Uni and away from home for the first time seemed a sensible option.


4. DEPRESSION WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE: After much research and discussions with various students and tutors, I found that although the initial move is daunting, depression can strike at any time during the time you spend at Uni. Depression amongst students is on the rise due to the lifestyles they lead. These lifestyles are typical amongst all students, but can have a severe affect on the individuals. Awareness needs to be raised and people need to be encouraged to talk to someone in order to help themselves before sinking in to deep.

5. ASKING FOR HELP: The more research I have been engaging in, the more my project seems to change. Still focusing on University students, I think the problem is that not enough people ask for help when they really need it. Continuing from students being encouraged to talk about their problems, can also lead to asking for help with Uni work, help about where to go and who to see about health problems/money problems etc. It is a different spin on my previous idea as I'd be encouraging people to ask for help and talk it out in order to boost confidence, which in turn will subtly move them away from the risks of stress, anxiety and depression.

As I am STILL not 100% sure on my solid focus, I'm currently juggling these ideas around in order to see where I can take this. Survey 3 has been completed and I am awaiting my results.

Confusion Sets In

I have now struck a brick wall and unsure as to what my next steps for my project will be.
So far I have understood depression, the symptoms and signs around it and what can help this situation. My focus is now at the three or four years you will spend at University during student life.
I want to produce an encouragement/awareness campaign in order to spark interest and deliver information to all students and make them aware that it is common and they need to speak to someone as soon as they notice the symptoms.

During tutorials we have been asked to produce various experiments and visuals regarding our project which I am finding very difficult to come up with. The only way round this that I can think of at the moment are visualising my survey results.
Balancing my workload is proving difficult and I need to tackle this in order to maintain a strong project. I'm worrying too much about my end product and not enough about my current situation, so by Friday I need to present my final decision and tackle it head on as of next week.

I have started to visualise how depression and happiness feels to someone. I think I really need to define exactly what my message and problem is before I can think of a solution. I'm one step ahead of myself without the relevant information!

It looks like survey 3 might me on its way...

Making an Identity for Myself: Me

I wanted to make my identity tie in with my interests and style of working. I have made two 3D white letters from card to say 'ME'. I thought this was personal and it relates to me in terms of being the first two letters of my name too. Although I will still go by my name, I thought this was something I could play on and adapt to many different situations.

This is just a starting point into developing my identity further. Below are some images I took regarding my 3D letters.

Survey Results: Informative View of Colour Associations

Based on my survey results regarding colour association, I have produced some infographics in order to display my answers in a better way. Each coloured circle is a certain diameter depending on the number of people who chose the colour. For example 25 people associated orange with Happiness, this has been demonstrated with a circle 25mm across and positioned with the top of the circle level with 25 on the axis. It's a simple self-explanatory system which works for the time being, I will adapt and change when and if necessary.

Survey Results: Colour Association with Depression and Happiness

My first response to a colour abstraction exercise. In my second survey I conducted, I asked about colour associations between depression and happiness. The image above shows the results from the 82 people I have collected from so far. The larger blocked colours represent the most popular answers, the thinner blocks representing the least popular answers. Where some people generalised with answers I used initiative to create a small colour palette within this experiment.
As this is my first response, I would like to experiment with other ways to demonstrate this information in order to display it more effectively. However, from this experiment I can get a better understanding of what colours to steer clear of and what colours would help boost my future designs.

Focusing My Project Further

I've had great difficultly in focusing my project from the massive topic of depression. However in order for me to create a good project, I need to make 'a nugget in which I can explore'.
So this is what I have come up with:

Target Audience:
Persons aged 18-24 making the life changing event/transition of moving to Uni and leaving home. I will aim towards this age range in general and look at how to spot the symptoms and signs in order to prevent a down-spiral. I will be making the issue more public amongst this age group so people can see it's common, encourage them to talk about it and ask for help - and hopefully to let them know where to go and what to do in this situation.

I will touch on the stresses, anxiety and strains that can lead towards depression, focusing in particular on the mildly depressed. (This is the point where you have a choice - you can either get better or sink further into depression) I want to raise awareness about what it is, the severity and how to recognise the symptoms and signs. There are things you can do to prevent this and I will adapt these to a typical student lifestyle.

As it can be quite a negative topic I want to put a positive spin on it in order to maintain encouragement and interest so people will not deliberately ignore this issue.

Evaluation, Career Planning and Enterprise 2

Our discussion today was something I definitely needed in order to kick start me and make me realise how little I knew about different agencies and areas of design I could go into.
I HAVE to start looking now, work on my portfolio and build relationships in order to have any chance of achieving the best I can in this industry.
Design agencies to look at:

• Cartridge Levene
• North
• I Love Dust
• See
• Made Thought
• Graphic Thought Facility
• Pentagram
• Browns
• Farrow
• Spin
• NB Studio
• Poke
• Rose Design
• Parent Design
• Ideology
• Bright Blue Day
• Type Foundry

I need to look into these well known design agencies to help me determine where it is I fit into within the graphic design industry.

Survey 2

I have decided to conduct a more focused survey which will give me relevant feedback in order to produce various experiments and spark initial project ideas. I need to make a start as soon as possible as everything will need thorough planning and proper feedback throughout the course of my project.

Below are the questions asked in my latest survey:

1. Are you:

• Male
• Female

2. How old are you?

3. How did you feel when you first moved to a new place?

4. Have you ever/do you suffer from depression?

5. What colours do you associate with the word depression?

6. What colours do you associate with the word happy?

7. What do you do to lower your stress levels/cheer yourself up?

8. What things do you find triggers stress/low moods?

9. How would you visualise depression?

10. How would you visualise happy?

I am currently gathering my responses. I hope to get a range of 100 to broaden my thinking and to reach out to as many people as possible.

Critique Feedback

General comments:

• Find a nugget to explore
• Experimentations are needed in order to push your project in a direction, there's room to go wrong at the moment; eg. Colour charts, abstraction - work from raw data
• Get something through practice
• Lead to outcome instead of having something pre-determined
• Distribution of data
• What are the misunderstandings?
• Interviews are useful - primary sources
• The use of language needs to make sense to your target audience
• How can you represent different words?

Comments regarding my presentation:

• Think about the USER - want to avoid getting caught up in ethical situations
• Perhaps aim your target audience to non-sufferers as a pre-warning?
• Record different events that may cause a turbulence in people's lives, choose one to associate these feelings to?
• Be clear in what you want to do
• Pick one event to develop a target audience instead of pin-pointing a particular age group
• Be careful for ethical issues that may rise

I feel my feedback was really helpful as I did struggle to find a focus where I could completely avoid an ethical issue. I now need to expand on these points and define exactly what my target audience is and how I will achieve this.

Survey 1 Results

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These results do not include the self reply answers. Due to the type of survey I applied for I was only able to receive 100 answers, this was still an amazing response and enabled me to see a broad range of replies to this topic area. 

The majority of the people who participated in my research was students - this is good as it is within my target audience age range, so their feedback is important for my project. 

46% of people thought that the most common age group to be effected by depression is 26-40, it is infact 11-25 (my chosen target audience).

77% of people understand that depression does not need a particular cause in order for someone to suffer from it and a huge 85% of people don't think enough is being done to promote the awareness of this illness.

79% of people luckily know it is an illness, however it means people still believe it is a weakness or a phase that everyone goes through - this is not the case! There is a difference between feeling depressed and suffering from depression. 

33% of people think only 40% of people find anti-depressants ineffective. Although it entirely depends on the individual, results have shown that a massive 70% of people find these drugs ineffective. Which must mean there's room for another way to help?

84% of people realise children can get depressed, it is usually harder to spot as parents often label it 'their difficult time', however this needs to be communicated that if they have the symptoms, it is likely they are depressed.

Luckily 84% of people understand that depressed people shouldn't just snap out of it, because they can't. It's a good sign people are aware of this.

I found my results informing about how people think. From this I can try to find a loop-hole and build a project focus around this problem.

User Centered Design: What is it?

Wikipedia definition:
In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. User-centered design can be characterized as a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use an interface, but also to test the validity of their assumptions with regards to user behaviour in real world tests with actual users. Such testing is necessary as it is often very difficult for the designers of an interface to understand intuitively what a first-time user of their design experiences, and what each user's learning curve may look like.
As a designer I need to remember these important points:


Purpose:

• Who are the users?
• What are the users' tasks and goals?
• What information do the users need, and in what form do they need it?
• How do users think this 'thing' should work?
• What are the users experience with documents like this, and how can I improve them?

Visibility

Accessibility

Legibility

Language

Audience

Purpose

Context

These are all really important things to consider when designing for my target audience. Constant feedback will be needed to ensure that I am producing something worthwhile and effective enough to help and create a solution to my problem.