One Final Post. Or is it the Beginning of Something Bigger?
Tomorrow is the last deadline of the course and also marks the end of the whole two years. It has been one hell of a ride, from late night inspirations, to studying through a pandemic (all the while working from home). It will take some time to realised that the two-year course is over. But will get through.
In my final post I wanted to talk a bit about my project: how it turned out, the initial reception by the users and any future plans. As I mentioned time and again in various posts, my main goal was to get expats to interact, and ideally learn Maltese. So, when I learned that there was no immediate need for them to learn, and the parents that I had spoke with were not that interested in getting their children to learn Maltese – they simply did because Maltese is a compulsory subject, I panicked a little. It took me some time to settle on a good research question, so I was not looking forward to going back to the drawing board for sure. That said, in one of the interviews, it was suggested that if parents knew what the children were learning in class, it would help as at least parent know what to expect.
That is how the Pocket Tutor idea was born. It did not occur to me that I needed to create a brand for this platform, and I realised somewhat late in the project. After some mishaps, I created the logo and complementing concept board to help be visualise better the ‘look-and-feel’ of the brand. It was around June when things started falling into place and the progress was more consistent. After the brand design, the next hurdle was to design the website (or app, as I was undecided back then). Web design is not my best skill, so it was a new challenge for me to delve into UX and UI. I discovered Typedream (the website builder) by coincidence over a group chat between the design team at work. Before learning about this, I was between creating the website in Webflow, or simple create the static UI in Figma. Typedream was really a godsend, as I was stressing out over the prototype design, and how I will present it.
After some trial and error, I got that website builder working nicely and I am very happy with how the prototype came out. The website is technically live, but there is still a lot that needs to be done. I mainly took care of the content and basic navigation. I should not be a problem to do it on this website builder. That said, in order to build the dictionary and functioning search engine within the site, I will be needing backend developers to help me set it up. I tried setting up the dictionary twice, after completing most of the website, but I failed spectacularly. It felt as though I have never worked on a computer before. Installations over installations, files saving in the wrong folder… My stint at coding was not very pleasant.
I would like to keep working on this platform after this course, and make it better year after year. One of the features is a ‘sentence builder’. The dictionary is in the initial stages as it needs to contain current terminology. The idea of the ‘sentence builder’ is to maximise the use of the translator by explaining how a translated sentence is structured. Making a functional search engine in the site will also come in handy. In addition, I am planning to include regular collaborators, including teachers to curate the information and guidance counsellors and other relevant personnel from time to time to work on the ‘Tips and Tricks’ page that will be offering support for the parents moving to Malta.
On that note, this marks the end of a journey that was full of events and surprises. I am learned a lot from this course, that do not only impact my day-to-day job, but also me as a creative professional. I will probably keep writing here from time to time. About any upcoming projects, opportunities and the like. Might as well keep it as a digital portfolio as well. I never got round to doing that.
Till next time! 😉
