Evaluating My Own Projects – Yays and Nays
A self-initiated project is only complete at the evaluation stage. Such an exercise helps in identifying the success and failure margins of the project, and in return see whether the failure points can be improved upon, and the success points can be used to other projects to make them equally successful.
Evaluation Presentation
My inspiration for my project was to shed light on the not-so touristic places of the Maltese Islands, to promote the island as a whole especially to expats. In the end I created a series of ‘exploration cards’ where users can buy them and get a location where they can visit, hike to or just read about. (You can read about my project here).
The Success Points
From a design standpoint, the visuals turned out well. In the sense the way that I intended them to be. I enjoyed the bit of improvisation and experimentation as I went along, and I am happy with the result of the artworks. As a designer, I am very much into this ‘retro-futuristic’ style and like to experiment with collage, so this reflected in my design. It was also an opportunity to work in the artistic realm of graphic design. I often get to work with brand design, and I wanted to break the cycle for a bit.
When it comes to the design style I chose to work with, I chose such a style because it is one that is rarely explored. Currently, a lot of designers are getting into this two-dimensional flat design. It is quite popular, but since it is used quite a lot already, it would make my designs practically invisible. In addition to that, such a style is rarely seen on souvenirs, or postage stamps for that matter.
The Failure Points
Time management is a recurring issue from my part. I tend to overthink things or bit off more than I can chew, which can often lead to a frenzy to finish everything in time. The idea of the whole ‘cards’ thing came rather late during the week, so I had to get things going. And it was totally by coincidence. I figured that at that point, it was a feasible and adequate form to present the stamps. In addition, the concept of the mystery envelopes was to make people curious. It could work, but I would definitely need a good promotional boost. Especially since we live in the digital age, some form of online promotion or presence is needed.
If I had more time, I would have definitely added a couple more designs just to make the project for legitimate and should I contact any public entities, it would leave a better impression. Another building block to this project would be a digital platform where users can interact with each other and document all the ‘unusual’ or quirky’ things they came across during their trip.
Feedback From Peers
I used a couple of different ways to collect feedback. One of them being the course’s Ideas Wall. Although they have not visited Malta and they are all designers, I wanted to get some feedback from a creative standpoint. Overall, it was a positive feedback all throughout the four-week period. The issue that was risen was in the part where I had to find a way of putting the pieces of the project together and package it in a product.
Similarly, I posted the design of one of the stamps on my Facebook just to see how people react. I did not post a description of the artwork or its use on purpose as I wanted the viewers to look at the aesthetical aspect of it. The opinions varied. Mostly they reacted positively except for one particular comment, where he was not into the decadent style of the artwork. Another comment attributed the letter ‘X’ in the artwork to a particular local talk show that had been running every Friday for over 20 years. I expected such a comment one way or another because it is indeed a popular show. That being said that there was a response. It had definitely made people look.
Lastly, I conducted a survey to see how people would respond to such a project. The respondents a mis of locals and expats. Out of all the respondents, the majority are into exploring and are into outdoor activities, however not really into collectables. Moreover, the majority responded positively to the project. The ones that answered ‘no’ it is because they ‘have no car’ and because they do not need an incentive to go exploring’. The comments with regards to pricing, whether they would buy it and/or make use of it are positive overall.
The final and most important question in the survey is where I asked whether they would like to see any particular features or any suggestions on how to improve such a project. All the respondents responded with very valid ideas. One of them being the digital presence of the concept, something that I was also thinking about in the long run. One of the respondents also suggested to make this project more gamified, like adding a points system according to the places visited, add gradings to different locations, and even extend this project to events.
Check out the survey results here.
To Sum Up…
It was quite a journey these past four weeks. I would have loved to have some more time to work and develop this project further and also learn some basic app development software to at least build some prototypes. The one hurdle I also need to overcome is that I do not have to be the one creating everything from scratch. I am used to working on a project from start to finish that I tend to limit myself on ideas that are feasible with the skills I have. It is time to embrace collaboration to the fullest.
