Life After School

It's been a few months since I last wrote and I figured it was high time I get back to it. I graduated from Maryville University back in May of this past year and have been working vigorously both at Rawlings where I interned as well as looking for a permanent job. I realized it is just as difficult if not more difficult to get a job than it was to get the internship. However, I can't give up especially with how much I desperately would love a job. Hopefully I get one soon because I have been getting lucky enough to receive a couple interviews here and there to show off the work I have done on the site. The next time I post on here, I will try to make it so that I have a job by then. I don't know how long it will take, but I have to keep trying.

Reflection to Capstone

Well 16 weeks ago I had no clue what I was going to do my capstone on and now I have created an amazing website on a topic that is important to me as well as handling an important problem, health. This project has given me some real insight on what it will be like to work on projects and the real world and the many changes that must be made in order to come out with a beautiful looking site. I have learned to properly research and look to all things for inspiration, not just things that pertain to my particular topic. Most of all, I learned how drastically a topic can change from its initial concept. I have encountered points like that in my other projects, but nothing to the extent of this project. Overall, it was a great learning experience and I'm pleased that I made it to the end because I can look back and proudly say that I have really improved my skill set as a designer and am ready to tackle real challenges outside of school.

Response to Capstone Presentation

My capstone presentation didn't go as well as I hoped it would, but I received a lot of good input from the professionals who came. At first it was going to be three separate pages to navigate around, but the panel felt it wouldn't be nearly as effective as a one page scrolling site. I originally was going to have it as a one page site, but it wouldn't have fit well with my project because a one page story site typically tells some sort of story or it's a large poster or image. So I steered clear of the one page site idea, but something had to be done to make my site more appealing. Then it was brought to my attention to visit a site called the slavery footprint and this set the look for the rest of my site.

I was originally going to stick very close to the site by having a quiz and putting the rest of the information in light boxes. However, that got to be too cumbersome because you would have to exit out and click something else to go to a different page. It didn't make much sense. So after many revisions I arrived at a solution that worked with the style of my project.

I divided the site into 4 pages this time, but made each page more appealing and greatly cut out information that wasn't necessary. On the first page of the site there is a short quiz that can be taken to determine whether or not your child has a gaming problem giving you your results at the end. Next, is the about page giving very general and quick information about what this organization is and what we do. The next page is the risks page that tells six major risks that come with gaming and also gives a solution to solve and combat said risk. Lastly, the fourth page is the contact page that has a small email form that can be filled out and sent to the company along with links to a Youtube page, Twitter account, and Facebook page.

Overall I was disheartened at first by the setback from the capstone presentation, but then quickly realized how good the information was because it allowed me to create an excellent website.

Name and Logo

It's been a long few weeks, but I'm finally starting to get somewhere on my project. The name of my company, which will be fighting for health in gaming, will be called Better Play. I figured with a title like this the message would really get across that I want to find the balance between physical activities and gaming. After all gaming is here to stay so we might as well find a way to make it better for everyone. When deciding the name, it actually didn't have much competition. My group originally narrowed it down to either BAXY or the Active Sloth. BAXY was a completely made up word that paid homage to the most common buttons on most controllers, except for the playstation. Active Sloth was a choice because of it being an oxymoron in that this organization is trying to keep people from being sloths all day. Though, they both had pull, Better Play was the stronger option at the end of the day and then the hard part of a logo was still to come.

The idea has always been to combine medicine with gaming and that has been my thinking when sketching out logos. I utilized numerous combinations of the medical symbol with game equipment such as making it a joystick or combining it to a nunchuk. However, that wasn't strong enough. Upon further inspection, it was brought to my attention that the d-pad or directional pad is a common factor on most controllers. The thought was that also looks close to the medical cross and so that is the direction I have been going for the past week or so. I have illustrated countless ideas of including the d-pad with medicine by changing it to red, putting it in shapes, choosing the proper typeface, and so on. I still have not been entirely sold on one particular logo, but I feel that I'm getting very close.

Most Compelling Research

I have looked at many different websites about health issues, game benefits, and solutions to health issues, but the most compelling research I have found is probably balancepoints.com. This website not only pertains greatly to my topic, but is a viable solution and forced me to think even more critically about what I needed my project to be. I had to decide whether or not my project should be a campaign to raise awareness about this issue or a program that solves the issue. I decided it would be best to make it a campaign because it will not only bring an important issue to light, but also tell where to find help.

The most important part about balancepoints.com is that it tackles the solution of too much screen time such as computer, video games, or even just television. It provides helpful solutions to parents on how to monitor their kids screen time, get them more active, and turn their activity into points for screen-time. What this research also does is talk about my greatest solution to the health issues, the parent or guardian. It is up to them to monitor their child and this account to make sure the child is seeking other hobbies and interests and not sitting in front of the screen all day.

What this site does the best for me is provide a ready-made solution that my campaign can take parents to. Through the discovery of this my project has taken another step in that I will potentially be creating a fake organization that is all about helping the children health and could partner with this site. I will also be providing other areas to find solutions and even tell the many benefits of gaming by providing links to another site called theesafacts.com. On this site are various facts about gaming and articles relating to this topic that tell gaming isn’t all bad. This will not only reassure the parents, but keep them more open-minded when their child is gaming. However, they would still need to make sure that their child is doing other things.

Through the use of these two sites I will be able to focus more on the topic of getting the issue out there for people to know about it while letting the sites back me up. This discovery of the two sites has pushed my project ahead by laying the groundwork of what I need to create for my capstone project. First, I will create a infographic or motion piece talking about the issue of health in gaming and where to look for help and that it should be monitored. Next, I will then create a small website for my organization telling about other issues for gaming, what you can do to prevent these problems, and various benefits that can come from gaming. Lastly, I will create a few posters for my organization that have simple quotes coupled with pictures to stress the importance of safety, health, and of course fun.

Capstone: Week 1 Conclusion

Over this past week, my class and I have been discussing and researching with each other to get closer to our core idea for our big final project, Capstone. For those that don't know, the Capstone is a large final project of our choosing to put together everything we have learned over the past few years to present to companies and our peers at the end. The overall topic I have chosen is something to do with video games. I was originally thinking a psa or something along those lines to bring video games into a more positive light and show that the normal negative connotations are false. However, it just isn't deep enough. A lot of talk has gone on and I need to focus on a particular problem with video games and figure a way to solve it. A couple problems I have looked at is not being as physically active as one should be or the lack of educational benefits behind it. Over the next week, I am hoping to both find a problem and find research along with it to prevent the problem from continuing.

Project 3 Process

The purpose of this project was to create an app that utilized some sort of augmented reality feature or a scanner of sorts. The app I came up with was an art scanner for the St. Louis Art Museum. I call it the SLAM Scanner. The main features of this app is primarily a camera were you take a picture of a piece of art and then it instantly brings up information on it. Next, there is a history page of ones you scanned recently and a favorites page of art you liked and wanted to keep stored in your phone. Lastly there is a search feature which allows you to search by artist, movement, work, or gallery number if your just curious. That automatically links up with the map feature and plots a course of how to get to that part in the museum. Below are images for the five main pages and the informational page after scanning the art.