Entry 4.


A lot has gone on since my last entry, I have spoken to the persons that developed the schematics, I have started and finished an ibook course book and I have started the research process for designing some icons for the Lindsay Composer.


Last week, I met with an enthusiastic pathophysiology student named Yan, he was the representative for the students who developed the original schematics. He expressed how excited he was with what I did with the schemes and one of his first questions was "How did I come up with these redesigns?" As an information design student, that question stumped me. I wanted to say it was easy to do but then I realized it is not easy to do, it was something I was trained to do. Even though he and his colleagues are experts in this subject matter, they could not for some reason, layout the scheme in a way that was easy to understand.  I began to feel unique because I made sense of their puzzle presented before me. In the end, he asked my supervisor if I had time if I can work on a few more for him and we both said, Yes!


The next task I had to do was quite daunting, it was to redesign an existing PowerPoint medical case pdf. document using a program I have never used before. To make matters worst, I am a PC user and this program is only available on the Mac products, in other words -  I have to learnt two things at once. Learning this program called iBook Author was  a very unpleasant experience. Though iBooks is really a genius way for making online books, it operations like Adobe InDesign but it lacks a lot of features and has a lot of limitations. For some reason, I felt pressured to come up with something innovative and fantastic but because of my lack of knowledge with the program and the computer I was only able to develop something mediocre. This made me feel like crap, I felt defeated by this program because I know how awesome I am with the Adobe products - I cannot believe how much hate I had for it. Though at the end of it, it got a bit easier and I had something that was functional and useable. In retrospect, it was an awesome experience because I learnt something knew, I suck with it and got through it. 


This week I will be tackling 3D icon designs for their Lindsay Composer. Last Friday I was briefed on which icons I should develop, it is so new and scary too me. I predict for the rest of the week I will be researching and sketching.


The examples below is my version of the iBooks Case Book, everything in these 5 pages are interactive.


Original PowerPoint pdf

Redesign iBooks Case Book

Cheers, L.

Entry 3.

Since my last entry, I haven’t touched nor made any changes to the iPad and iPhone app design because of the upcoming focus group meeting on Tuesday 12th June.

On the day of the meeting, we (the programmer, writer and information designer) had to present our work on the iPad and iPhone app for The Calgary Black Book. Before the presentation, the focus group got to preview the application designs. Their smiles solidified their satisfaction with it and elevated my confidence in producing something tangible and functional. During my presentation, I explained every step and why it was done, I felt a sense of pride while I explained the features of the designs. At the end of the presentation we were all congratulated on a job well done. This was truly the highlight of my week; all my training in understanding, researching, organizing, etc. in information design has given me the confidence outside of school projects to perform my best. Yay!

What I have been working on for the past week is reorganizing existing medical data schematics so that it is easier for the medical students to understand. I know I made it sounds easy but it was a frustrating task trying to understand the information presented but I got through it with sheer volition. While going through the schematics, I realized how afraid they are of colour but with my designs, I can see how much clearer the information is displayed. The two example charts presented below are all different and I have dealt with how they are to be handled. Especially if someone else were to replicate it, they can do this with ease.

The next step with these schematics is to have a sit down review with the people who came up with the schematics and the head dean. Hopefully if they are not open to colour, various shades/gradients of gray will work, fingers crossed.

Example 1.

Original

Sketched Iteration

Redesign

Example 2.

Original

Making sense of the information

Redesign

Overall excellent experience so far, :)

Cheers, L. 

Entry 2.

My second week of the internship is coming along well and I am pushing myself to the limit so that I can reflect at  what I have accomplished. Our office recently relocated and we are now spoiled with a fridge, microwave and a coffee machine. Yay!


I have finished designing the iPad application, it is now under review. Once it receives the go ahead, they will start the process of programming the application. I have ensured and tried my best to problem solve and user test the application. At the end of the entry, I have provided an updated sample of the iPad application; this time in its entity. It is a step by step simulation of the iPad app. I hope you enjoy :)