Developing a visual response

 Whilst it may not be a requirement of the unit to produce a creative outcome, I still wanted to at least start to visualise the concept I've grown throughout this project if nothing else for my own clarity.

Throughout the project I've mentioned this concept of a 'mini scavenger hunt' and collected ideas for interactive and engaging means of education (activities) that could be included. I wanted to find as many ideas as I could that would relate to the different learning styles, to create an inclusive piece of learning material. 

I didn't manage to come up with quite as many ideas as I had hoped for but nonetheless there is quite a large selection of both activities and outcomes for the information gathered to be presented through. I started to make a few connections through the activities as well, that link to the idea of the information gap. There are a number of activities that link to the information gap here, such as the QR code poster, the quiz and riddle, to name a few but I love the idea of the three piece activity. Searching for colour (which is somewhat of a riddle in itself) which then corresponds with a post it note flipbook, communicating a word that fits into the crossword. It allows for individual learning and acts as an accomplishment at the end.

As I did about half way through the project, I went back to 'playing' to type in order to create a visually curious box to house the scavenger hunt and re-visit the idea of using type as an aesthetic rather than purely as information. The plan for this box would be to laser cut the panels, in a similar visual sense as previously in the project;

It wouldn’t be the same layout but it would keep the burnt look, to engage with human curiosity as in most classrooms, this aesthetic would be out of the ordinary. I'll return to this in a minute but first, the continued development of the activities.

Find the word! and Snap!

Whilst developing these ideas I read a small section of a rather outdated but still useful book from the library - "Active Learning, Games to enhance academic abilities" - Bryant J. Cratty.

Excluding the outdated and inappropriate language, these activities did get me thinking about a more physically engaging activity for both those who are sporty as well as those who (not unlike myself) often think better whilst moving. 

The digital development:

Unfortunately at this point, I don't have the time to develop the entire scavenger hunt but I wanted to start some initial digital development, in a conceptual sense.

As a design concept, to keep a sense of consistency throughout the different activities, I had the idea to create a 'watermark' that could go on the back of each card/activity, as a visual indicator as to which learning style each activity falls into. I started with inclusion to get an overarching sense of what might work. Whilst in illustrator this design looked far too pale however, on this screen/program it actually looks pretty good! Both a lesson to remember the difference from one platform to another and to check before mass producing!

I moved onto this design, to have a background colour, with grey type over the top but thought it was just a bit boring and a bit too intense in colour. Whilst it will only be acting as a cover design rather than a base layer to work on, it just felt too overwhelming.

The effect of the gradient works a lot better in my opinion, it's a bit easier on the eyes although I'm now not too sure if it's better than my original attempt! For the sake of time however, I will keep it this way as it is probably still easier to read which is still important to communicate the learning style.

Learning style watermarks ^ 

Bit of a challenge with the shorter words as not as much or the word fits in and is a very different font size however the concept is still there and works for the purpose.

These 'fine the word' designs aren't as visually stimulating as the watermarks on the back will be and if I had more time with this project I would do some research into inclusive design so that I could make it more visually stimulating whilst keeping the inclusive nature. However, time has not permitted so for the sake of keeping it inclusive and child friendly I went for an inclusive font and simple layout. It's still visually curious because it isn't instantly clear and obvious and takes a minute to work out.

I followed the same idea with the snap card but because there is so little on the card, it just looked far too empty and doesn't have much visual appeal - it's just boring. I couldn't think of how to make it more interesting within illustrator as I wanted to keep it text based so I went back to my sketchbook to see how I could make the word 'snap' more visually interesting.

Didn't take long to work out upon visually thinking!

Turning a sketch into a digital visual... pretty cool!

The lack of text on the 'climate change' card still makes it a bit boring but the definition card is much more balanced and stimulating. Perhaps if I had more time I would develop more of a visual to go along 'snap' but for now it does at least bring a pop of colour.

Back to the box!

In my classic style of wavy, wonky text, I created a series of panel's that literally break apart the words 'inclusion' 'active learning' and 'auditory' to further the concept of seeing type as an aesthetic, and less intimidating to those who aren't so good at reading and understanding through reading. Of course the centre word is still legible to communicate the central theme but still isn't straightforward, as such.

I may have the time to get these laser cut but due to the workshop closures over the easter break I may not have the time. I can however, imagine that they would be highly effective cut as a raster given how effective the previous experiment was.

Of course I would like to experiment further and develop more designs/ideas however from these alone I can confidently answer the question of how materiality can enhance the user experience within my own practise. A more expansive explanation of this will be within the next post.