Week 4: Challenge Activity - Rapid Ideation Kick-Off

This week we will be tasked with a two week project to to create a prototype. The inspiration for this will be revealed in our weekly live seminar. I feel as though we have spent the last few weeks gently manoeuvring ourselves towards this, but as a relative newbie to the world of UX I do feel quite daunted at this point. 

From this challenge activity, I want to introduce myself to some of the software used, either Adobe XD or Figma (or possibly look at both). I have had to step away from studies for a short while for personal reasons, and so I am nervous about my time management and what time at the moment I am able to give to this. 

The Card Reveal

The starting point for this activity was revealed by the turn of a card from the Dixit card game. This was a randomly selected card that depicted an older, weary looking lady with a hunched back, carrying some buckets across her shoulder. Her reflection is seen against the blue wall in the background, and this depicts a younger, pregnant lady. Her hair is tied up and she’s whistling. She is very happy and positive.

Figure 1: Dixit Card (Dixit, 2021)

We had the option to also refer to a news article as inspiration for this challenge, however I felt that the card was a more interesting challenge that already gave me some great ideas from the beginning. I also felt that with a news article, it might make the constraints of the challenge too open, too broad. I wanted to see what I could achieve with the card only.

Mind Mapping

I wanted to begin my ideation journey with a Mind Mapping activity. I set myself a time limit of 5 minutes to force myself to think fast and hopefully come up with some great ideas that came from a place of pure creativity and that were not over thought. I knew some of the ideas or words might not be useful, but I didn’t want to put a cap on creativity at such an early point. Here is my mind map:

Figure 2: Mind Map 1 (Antonio Jackson-Perkins, 2021)

Following this task I sat with my partner and talked through some of my ideas. I wanted to get some initial feedback, and see if he had any other ideas that I had not considered. I always find it really useful to get a second opinion on ideas, especially during those early stages when working independently. 

Whenever I design clothing in my other field of work, I very often get my drawings and colour ups done very quickly. If I can mentally visualise it, then I usually want to get it down on paper (or Illustrator). I know this might not be the best method as one of the key points is to not over work a prototype as it can stifle creativity, it is not cost effective, and too much design work paves the way for unnecessary commentary of visual elements (logo design, font choice, colour palette) rather than functionality.

I found this Mind Map exercise very useful, especially giving myself a time limit to force me to focus on initial ideas rather than delving into deeper consideration of the first idea. I chose three words that I wanted to explore further, and so I carried out a second mind map exercise, again with a 5 minute time limit:

Figure 3: Mind Map 2 (Antonio Jackson-Perkins, 2021)

From this second attempt, I decided that they key ideas I wanted to focus my artefact on were:

• Retail storer parents to be

• Help and Support Forum

• Community

As a progression from my previous challenge activity where I explored the layout and usability of the ASOS app, I wanted to prototype an app that acted as a retail store for parents (and parents to be). In keeping with the theme of balance I wanted to enhance this store with elements of community to create a fully rounded, one-stop place for parents to be to buy all the things they need for this stage in their life, as well as a source of community, support and guidance from other customers.

I moved onto a sketch to illustrate how sample pages might look, focusing on layout and features:

Figure 4: Layout Sketch (Antonio Jackson-Perkins, 2021)

I felt that I was at a point where I was really keen to draw some prototypes and add some styling. As a newbie to UX I was keen to attempt to use Figma. I know I could draw this up much quicker on Illustrator but I must challenge myself, and what better time than now.