Evaluation

The way in which I think that my piece meets the needs of the brief is that the icons show what the apps are well. I think that my apps are quite well visually understandable. I spent quite a lot of time choosing the colour scheme as when seeing a few friends work from the class, a lot of people had done the silver theme so I wanted to do something slightly differently, but I think that these are clearly part of a series. The way that I think my apps project doesn't meet the brief is that maybe that the drawings might all slightly be drawn in a different style. The strengths within my apps is similar to what I have said above, with the drawings show what they are quite well. The weaknesses with the project I feel is that I should of tried slightly more to keep the style perfect with each other. I think that there was room for improvement within these, but sadly I didn't have the time to change them all again with this project running along side another one, juggling the 2 projects I found difficult at times.The ways that the apps might be mis-read or mis-understood is the barometer app might appear as though it is about the whether, the audience that this might be for is the younger audience or people who have no specifically been looking for this app. The way that I think that I could improve on with this project is the weakness area of what I spoke about above.

My time keeping for this project I think I didn't handle quite as well as I have others. In all honesty, I didn't enjoy this project and so I felt as though my interest was slowing falling away, I was away on work experience which also swayed my concentration. I came through still and did what I needed to. My research for this project was all kind of linked in with my time keeping, the subject of semiotics was really hard for me to grasp as I couldn't get my head around it quite as quickly as some others so I think this slowed me down with the designing of my apps. The research on the actual apps I think helped my designing and understanding about what was appealing within an icon. I used my research to generate ideas by looking closely at the iPhone and iPod apps that are around and the amount of detail and colour they have in them. I used experimentation with this project for making my apps. I tried lots of different colour schemes for the icons to see what looked best with my drawings. The part of the project that I enjoyed the most was the designing. I think that was the best part as I feel as though I feel I'm getting somewhere when I can see in front of me what is going on and how I can change these things. The part that I didn't enjoy so much was the research, the semiotics like I said before was really confusing for me to research as I didn't know the specific parts that I had to look for.
 

Final

Designs

Decibel Meter

Thermometer

Thermometer (2)

Altimeter

Pedometer

Anemometer

Speedometer

These are the three apps that I have designed initially. I am really pleased with these designs so far. I think I am going to experiment with colour a little, in a way that connects them as a series. I think that they would already link together as a series but I want to just add some colour to make them more exciting and more intriguing when first seen in an App Store.

Here is the first try of putting the apps into an iPhone to see what these apps look like as they are:

These apps look quite stylish and I think that they stand out well on this background. Although if the customer was to have a photo as their background then I dont think the detail would stand out as much. I am pleased with the way that these are looking here so far though, I would still like to experiment with colour slightly and then re-try this image with the apps on the iPhone. 

Here I have started to experiment with colour within the apps. I quite like the way that this has turned out. I think that the grey works well with the orange, its just as a personal preference I don't like the orange as a back ground. I am going to continue to experiment with colour for this as I think that it looks slightly different to what a lot of people have done, using grey metal effect. I still want to use the texture I created for the app, just I think the colour looks slightly better.

These are more designs that I have done including colour. I think that the ones with colour within the back ground look better than the original silver that I designed but after doing an experiment with keeping the silver background, but I hae changed the overlay percentage higher than what I did first, this makes the shine more intense which I think looks alot better and more professional for an iPhone.

As a decision, I prefer the silver with the blue text, to continue here I am going to try the blue within a drawing on an app, this might turn out different because this app I experimented with is in text.

I am really happy with the blue shoe print for the pedometer. I think that the blue works a lot better and is different to what I have seen within the class. I am going to carry on and change the rest of my designs to fit in with this experiment. I feel more confident that this design will attract more attention.

This is the design that I have decided to use.

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 These are the final iPhone looks of what I am going to use. I am really happy with the colours that I decided to use for the app icons because I think it stands out really well next to the background and also the shelf of other apps, I think that it all contrasts well against each other.

These are links that I used to find the icons on the app for the shelf. (Messages, Contacts, Phone and Music)

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20069685-285/how-to-delete-text-messages-from-the-iphone/

http://www.sync-iphone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/how-to-backup-iphone-contacts.jpg

http://www.ifans.com/forums/threads/old-iphone-icon-anyone.334160/

http://macthemes.net/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=440537

Apps: research

After doing some first initial drawings of a few designs for my apps I have started to design on the computer. I started by looking at other apps on my iPhone and online and to see how they have been designed. Looking at the simplicity, colour and symbols.

 Some of the apps that I looked at were really simple, which apple have designed as the Music app comes with the iPhone, the colour of this stands out a lot. What I have noticed about a lot of these apps is that they have an oval shape up the top, making a reflection. 

The Temple Run app I think might be too complicated for a series of apps that I have been asked to design. I want to create my series simple like the Music app. I think that this wouldn't appeal to as many people and as it's a game, it does look quite fun, but I think that there might be too much going on in such a small space.

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This app design is quite simple and self explained. Is is obvious as to what is it and what it does. I think that apps should have this type of image on it as I don't think that you necessarily need to be able to read the description to know what it is. The detail in the image is small and subtle, so when the app is small on the screen on an iPhone you can't see as much but as the rest of the image has all been designed quite big then I think that the smaller bits of details adds to the realisticness.

This British Airways app I think its instantly recognizable. Even if the text wasn't there on the app design, the ribbon is a widely known icon for British Airways. The font used here on the app too is related to the company. The design and simplicity on this app works well and if you was to see this in the App Store then the customer would know exactly what it is without looking at a description and I think this is one of the most important parts about designing an app. 

This app is for Beatwave. Looking at this I didn't know what it was without looking at the name and description of it. I believe that this app is for someone who would be looking for it specifically. I don't think that it instantly describes what it is with the image, but after looking at it closely (and knowing the name) that is when it all came together for me. I think that this could of been designed slightly better to show those who aren't as clued up about the app to know what it is and does.

This is the app for the App Store. This was designed by Apple originally. The outcome and the images of a paintbrush ruler and pencil I think work really well describing the way the app works. The colour and extra texture here is really effective, giving the viewer a feeling of being brought in. The white along side the blue I think is working really well here and for me it makes me want to look at it as the colours are so striking.

This Angry Birds app I think is so good, this might be because of how well known the app is in general and most people would know what the app does or at least what it is if they were to see it in any environment. Angry Birds has branched out into other fields and now makes items for phones, eg. iPhone cases.

This app is called Evi. I'm not sure what this app does, but seeing it in the app store on my phone I thought it was a good example to show an app that doesn't show what it is with its design. To me this looks like a game, but it is in the knowledge section. The simplicity is what is good about this app though, I think that it is a app that you would purposefully go and look for knowing what the app looks like.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2012 app is pretty self explanatory. The app is exactly what it says on the design. The design is a very well know design for EA Games (Sports). I don't really know much about the game but I do know the layout of how they do their designs and so this app I think is good that they have used the continuous theme.

This app is called TuneIn Radio Pro. This is another example of an app that doesn't really explain what it is by the design unless you are specifically looking for it. I think it has the same kind of qualities as the Evi app for design wise.

Semeotics Research: Apps

Semiotics- Notes taken in class.

Saussure - teacher, linguist.
Language is not instinctive, it is learnt as you grow, visual language, cultural, you have to learn them.

Denotation - what you see - real
Connotation - what you think - personal experiences, education, own things, ideaology, own past, perception.

Signs - arbetry, random.

MOST SPOKEN WORDS DON'T MEAN ANTHING, THEY ARE LINKED TO CERTAIN THINGS AND OBJECTS - made up with culture, learnt by everybody and has been agreed as a language. 
grown with time.
tradition - brought up over the time.
it doesn't alter the truth of something if you do it differently. 

Paradigm and Symtagm.

THE CAT SAT ON THE MAT.
cat - symtagm - cat, kitty, puss, tiger, lion cheetah, moggy
mat - carpet, floor, rug, door, mat, matting.

From these notes and in class I think I got a slightly better understanding of semiotics. This amount of information that I took down will give me enough knowledge to carry on with my research and explore the subject in more detail.

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Two of the original thinkers in semiotics were Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) and Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Each of these thinkers posited a basic theory of signs and their meanings

Ferdinand de Saussure

Saussure, a french linguist, was one of the first to develop a semiotic theory. He worked along side Peirce. Their theories were different from each others but related well.
Saussure developed the idea that language is a system of signs, so that words are only used to signify objects, for example, the word cat, only signifies the animal of a cat because we, as a culture, has decided and agreed that, that word means 'cat'. The same goes for every word, we all know what objects are, but we all need to agree that the word for it can be used by everybody.
Saussure said that a sign is made up of two elements - the signified and the signifer.

I found this piece of information wihch explains what it is in a way that I found easiest.

• a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and
• the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents. 
  http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

Peirce semiotic model was similar to, but more complex than Saussure’s.
Peirce’s model also became more strongly associated with American thinking on
semiology, while Saussure is more often represented in European works on the
subject. (www.jackwhitehead.com/teesonphd/004c3.pdf)

Syntagm and Paradigm

SYNTAGM - When saying a sentence you will get an image in yor head of what you see what you hear or say it. But if at least 1 of the words in the sentence was changed then you would have a completely different meaning.

'The man cried' 

This would give you an image of a man crying.

BUT

If you change the word 'man' to 'boy' the image is changed, you then see a small boy crying, the cry would also be different, a smaller higher pitched, therefore you see something different when just 1 word is changed in a sentence. 

PARADIGM - A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paradigm

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As a species we make meanings through signs. 

ICON

something that physically resembles what it is showing e.g. a photo or a map

physical resemblence

photo

map

onomatopoeia

looks like the thing it's describing

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Habitat/Pond/pond1.jpg

http://www.lookoutbb.co.uk/images/areamaps/map-eastsussex-and-kent-1778x1550.gif

 

SYMBOL

something that represents something and is culturally learned e.g. typography or road signs

culturally learnt

conventions

arbitrary (words)
(most spoken)

all typography

http://www.thecrossedcow.com/2011/09/09/the-partners-redesigns-road-signs/

 

 

http://www.paulhuxen.co.uk/typography.html

 

INDEX

signifier cannot exsist without the presence of the signified

eg. symptoms, smells, smoke.

http://www.hull.ac.uk/visibility/Images/fire%20and%20smoke.jpg

'Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign', declares Peirce

Pictogram research.

A pictogram is a visual way of showing a part of information without using words or sounds. For an example road signs are all pictograms, universal knowledge with what they mean. They have to be easy to understand and known by everybody to have a certain meaning. Like a toilet sign, everywhere has the same image of a stick man or a stick woman with a dress on.

Connotation and Denotation.


Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition."¨ For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotative meanings is "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles, kapering a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."

Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word. The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings. The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger.

 http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/terms/denotation.htm

 

Design.

The beset way to think about designing for a small pictogram I think applies to the same as designing a logo.

Keeping a design simple for all the app designs in this project is important. The points listed above I am going to follow.  

First initial designs for iPhone apps

Screen shots of my iPhone, these are to show different apps that already exist. I am going to just write here what I think these apps are and what I think that they represent.