Tickets to Connection

Peer Feedback

I explained my project idea to my peers on a Miro board to receive feedback. I also provided feedback on other peoples projects.It was reassuring to hear that my project was unique and that it would meet the needs of the target audience. I understand that the prompts and communication points need to create a path towards an end goal of the conversation topic and my feedback highlights this.The idea of tarot card sizing is something I might consider as I plan to look more into design, layout and size of different cards however currently tarot cards seem more impractical as they are much longer which would be more more difficult to display on a variety of screen types and if they were to become physical printed cards would be a lot less practical for users to store, carry and use.It is unlikely that it would be possible to combine cards due to the prompts being longer and fairly specific in nature to allow users to have the art reflect themselves but replayability is something I do need to keep in mind. There needs to be a reasonably large number of different cards so that prompts are not needed to be repeated quickly and that the prompts can be completed again without feeling too repetitive. Getting suggestions from social media for prompts would be a good idea because I would be able to get suggestions and feedback from the target audience. I think suggesting people share what they have created on social media would be good, but having it run completely on social media would make it harder for people to be more open and personal in their art, diminishing the purpose and outcomes of them using the project. It would be good to include extra challenges on the card to modify the prompt as well as modifiers that make it more accessible if necessary but this might be difficult with the space I would have on a card, although the cards being digital might still allow this to be possible. The conversation points will encourage the users to move out of their comfort zone too. I do want there to be little badges that can be earned from completing sets or a certain number of prompts and this would be fun, engaging and a good way for users to compare their experiences without having to share more personal things such as drawings. These will be accessible in the sense that it won’t require social media posting, be in a certain size group etc for the main set.The activities are designed to be done on your own whilst on voice or video call with the person/people you care about, then you can answer the conversation points whilst creating art, after creating it or can have your own conversations. Although they are still just art prompts, meaning they can be done in person, collaboratively or alone before you call those you care about. They have a variety of uses outside of their intended use. The cards will have a design on the back that makes them identifiable to the project brand, the front listing the prompt will most likely be just text so it is easy to read and understand, however I might include a small illustration in the corner or similar to make it less boring. I will need to explore layout and other things before digging into the exact design of the cards.

Organising the prompts

I started by coming up with some categories that I could organise the cards by. There were lots of things I wanted on the cards to help users if they would be able to complete the prompt. The first draft included a lot of categories, with each category having multiple classifications. This was becoming very overwhelming for me, and therefore would be confusing to the user.To do this, I thought out loud my ideas to a peer and talked them through my process of narrowing it down. This allowed me to see if the categories were confusing to someone else in real time and also get pointers on how to get the list as small as possible.I was able to reduce the list drastically, having most things be listed as yes/no for the category and identified by symbols, which are far more user-friendly.This process seems to be redundant at this stage, but actually makes coming up with prompts much easier. I want the prompts to be easy and accessible but knowing I can expand into more resource intense and longer projects in the future meant I could put those prompts aside. It also means once I come to the design of the card, I know what I am going to be needing to design and what I need to put on the cards.

#ThinkBigARU Pitching Competition

I decided to enter the #ThinkBigARU Pitching competition because I am really passionate about my project and want it to be an actual product. The initial entry required a business proposal, proposal for funding and a 1-minute pitch video. I have done small pitches during my studies but nothing to this scale and especially not looking for funding.I started by creating the pitch video, and I have done something similar before. I did some research and found the key points to include in a pitch. I found I needed to present the gap in the market or problem, the target audience and the goals of the project. I also found that the script for a minute-long pitch is only 120–180 words, which is not very many, so I need to figure out how to write my idea in a clear and concise manner.I got some feedback on the pitch from my peers when asking for feedback on naming the project, and everyone understood what the project was. The feedback was to add more on my personal experience and example images. I plan to include my experience in the written part of the form as it would not fit into the 1-minute limit, and I don’t yet have mock-ups as I’m so early on in development.I storyboarded my video to give me a vision of what I wanted to show and what it should look like, which was very important to me in getting my message across correctly. Whilst creating the storyboard I decided I should change my approach slightly, rather than explaining what the product is I should show how it works. This would help with confusion when others are trying to understand the project but did involve adjusting the script.I initially wanted to animate the video using stop-motion and live action for the demonstration. However, the amount of time I could spend on production and not having a good set up made me change my approach. I instead animated the assets in Adobe Animate using a mix of handmade assets and digital ones made to look hand made.I then moved on to the written parts of the entry. This was far more difficult as I struggled to know where to start. As this is a pitch for a project as a business idea rather than just a creative project, I needed to include different details in comparison to the usual way I pitch ideas. Despite the struggles of explaining how my business would make money whilst still telling a story, I feel as though this was a really good skill to develop more in my future career.After getting some feedback, including on the written part of my pitch, I ended up changing the name of the project to Ticket to Connection to reflect the project better whilst giving the opportunity to no longer call the cards “cards.” I then checked over everything before submitting the form.After two weeks of waiting, I found out I had not made it through to the next round. This was disappointing, but it didn’t affect my motivation to keep moving forward with the project. Furthermore, the competition is open to graduates, and I will try to enter next year even if I get help with the project, as teams can enter as long as one member is an alumni.

• Pitch Video

Naming the Project

Deciding on a name for this project was rather difficult. I knew I needed to decide on one sooner rather than later to stop whatever nickname I gave the project stuck as the name. However, I was incredibly indecisive, and it was the deadline for the #ThinkBigARU competition that forced me to actually make a decision.I started by brainstorming any related words and initial name ideas with the help of my peers and partner.I then pulled out names and wrote a list of names I liked. I narrowed down the list using my script for my pitching video, reading through it over and over, each time using a different name. This process also allowed me to practice reading my pitch. This allowed me to get down to just 3 names; Creative Connections, Tickets to Connection and Ticket to Creative Connections (a combination of my 2 favourites).I then asked a few of my peers if they had a preference for either name, or any other suggestions I should consider. It was a mixed response with some liking creative connections to other art with a distance, some thought a more sophisticated name meant whilst others suggested it be more catchy. This actually resulted in making it harder to choose.At first, I went with Creative Connections, as it seemed to well represent the project and not create assumptions around specific target audiences or limitations on what the product could be used for.During the process of entering my project into the competition, I changed the name to Tickets to Connection. Initially I didn't like the name because I felt it implied the need to travel, or the reason for distance is something you can choose to travel across to visit for example. However, my perspective shifted by starting to call the cards tickets, and focusing on the journey the users take using the prompts to become more connected, they are their tickets to connection.

Looking at other cards

For inspiration for my cards I decided to look at Trading Card Games (TCG) and Tarot cards, these were often bigger or contained more information than standard trading cards.Looking at TCG cards, I found that most cards are standard 63mm by 88mm which allows for enough space to include all the necessary text whilst still being readable. Smaller Japanese sized cards like Yu-Gi-Oh tend to be harder to read due to the lack of space, which for my project would make it not very accessible for users. The standard size for tarot cards is 70mm by 120mm, giving more space than the standard card. This space could be more useful, but overall would more likely be impractical. I want the cards to be convenient for the users by not taking up much space and be easy to store or carry around. There are many options to store standard TCG cards, but if I went with tarot cards, users would be forced to use the original packaging. Although I want the original packaging to be high quality and have added value, some users may just want to carry around a small selection of the cards.Some TCGs have full art cards, which can often make reading the text on the card difficult. In TCGs this is less of an issue because the full art cards are often more for collectors and those who play with the cards know what they do already. For my project, the text needs to be easy to read, and a full artwork would not make sense in this use of a card.All TCGs and tarot cards have the same back design because you can’t know what they are before they are played or revealed. I think keeping the cards consistent in layout and basic design, but I think using colour or changing the design slightly to identify the theme pack a card is from, or other identifiers could be useful and convenient for users.

Daybreak, Guest Lecturer with Matteo Menapace

• Daybreak Dev Blog

I went to a lecturer by Matteo Menapace talking about the board game called daybreak that he co-designed with Matt Leacock.Daybreak is a cooperative game where players must work together to stop climate change and reach net-zero on emissions.

Card Design
I was able to look at the different types of cards used in the game. Daybreak has 3 different sized cards, one that is a standard card size, one that is like a tarot card and small cards that are almost half the size of a standard card. Although my cards are initially going to be digital, I still have to keep in mind the future proofing of the design and physically printing them. What I learnt from these cards is that there is actually a fair amount of space even on a standard card, as I am mostly used to cards seeming quite cramped because of the often large amounts of text needed on a trading card. A large amount of space on these cards were taken up by an image, and there was still space for several other elements.The cards went through a couple of interactions to make sure the information displayed on the card was able to be understood by the players. Originally they had a lot of text and names, making it hard for players to remember what they are and quickly recognise. This is something I aim to achieve within my development and have already made progress towards, with reducing how my prompts are organised and the aim to use symbols to show a lot of things.

Game Name
The presentation also covered the naming of the game. It actually followed how the naming of Tickets to Connection went. I had different directions and themes the name could go. Furthermore, Matteo mentioned that to begin with the name chosen he didn’t like too much, but it grew on him, and he now thinks it fits the game well. This gives me some confidence that choosing a name doesn’t have to feel 100% perfect to begin with, as it probably will by the end of it.

The design of the cards, and the game as a whole had a very strong art style and aesthetic, with warm gradients, muted natural colours and soft edges.I want to make sure Tickets to Connection has a clear, consistent style so that the entire project is cohesive and has a solid brand. This will be important in marketing and advertising the product as everything will be visually related.

Figuring Out Colours

I began exploring colours during the process of deciding what I wanted on the cards and how I want to label aspects of the cards. Therefore, I began exploring larger colour palettes, picking out shades I liked from 6 colours. I then narrowed this down to 5 colours, given that most of the categories I wanted to label had 5 classifications.However, I soon cut down the way I was organising the prompts and decided that the more complex or resource intensive prompts would not be included in the base set. This led me to narrowing down to having only two main colours. I wanted to go with two complimentary colours so they had a strong contrast whilst still being able to work together. Red was an initial option as it represents love, warmth and excitement, but I felt the connotation with romantic love was too strong and that association could dominate the overall message of Tickets to Connection. I then decided on using orange as it has a strong link to fun, energy and happiness. Orange's complementary colour is blue, which makes for an excellent base colour having lots of usable and aesthetically pleasing shades but also represents trust, loyalty and adds a sense of calmness. Together, both colours balance each other out and represent both sides of Tickets to Connection; the fun creative parts and the trust and connection it helps build.

Artistic Experimentation

I knew what my product was, my audience and the feel I wanted my brand to have. I knew I wanted it to feel creative, fun and welcoming, so I decided that exploring different materials and techniques I could potentially use within the branding and visual style of Tickets to Connection would be very useful at this stage.I had some fun with some paint, creating different brush strokes with close representations of my brand colours.

Packaging Research

Similar Games

Materials

Sustainable vs Low Cost

Bonus Stuff

Building a Brand Strategy

I was struggling as to where to start on the visual identity of the Tickets to Connection branding. I decided to research other designers' processes for making a whole brand, as design projects I’ve worked on before have always had an existing brand and guidelines I’ve had to work with. I found that designers often help clients build brand strategies or look at the current brand strategy before designing branding for a brand.I had heard the phrase brand strategy before, but assumed it was far more “businessy,” looking at things within the business concerning gaining more profit and growing. When actually it’s more about defining what the brand's personality is, why they exist and what they want to do.However, despite the large number of websites explaining what a brand strategy is, even listing templates, it's still difficult to define what a brand strategy is, and even more difficult to find example documents from existing companies. Instead, I ended up looking at many different templates at pulling parts from each that I felt were the most applicable.

Create a Brand Strategy - Linkedin Learning

To further help my understanding of a brand strategy, I took a Linkedin Learning Course on it. This was actually helpful because it gave examples of each part, although it was still difficult to figure out how to create it for a digital product with no direct competitors.

Logo Development

When working on my submissions for #ThinkBigARU I started thinking about a logo, knowing this is a key identifier of a brand. As this had a deadline it caused a bit of panic and I jumped straight into digital designs, fully aware this is not the best practice both from my education and my experience.I used a C, standing for connection from the name, to make half a heart and used the brand colours. I do not like this design, and at the time I also couldn’t think of anything else to make or even ways to improve this design. I quickly came to terms with the fact that this method of jumping straight to trying to get a final design was not going to save time and would likely result in a lower quality logo that I was not happy with. This wasted time, not saved it.I changed paths and decided to come up with as many logo ideas as fast as I could, even if I thought they would be terrible. This method is effective because it gets all the ideas out on paper, and I can actually see what I could work with. After a while there were a couple of designs I felt could work, they just needed to be refined, so I flipped over the page and started making different variations. But none of these still felt like the one, they didn’t have the right theme or felt too clunky to be a logo.Going back to the sheet of logos, the logo of the tickets linked together like the link symbol felt like it had potential, even at the time of the sketch I had made notes around it. I then pulled together some images as reference for the shapes of tickets and the link icon itself to help as inspiration.I then created a very simple vector version of the logo, which then gave me the opportunity to make many interactions and refinements. During some experimentation with some paint, I had made some paint strokes which I wanted to implement into the logo to infuse it with the creative element of the project. I actually have a variety of vector brushes so I tested out all of those, adjusting them to get the exact taper I wanted.I also created a compact version of the logo with the name inside the tickets. Having a logo that can be used in a variety of situations is incredibly important as it allows the branding to be versatile, adapting to its location to be practical and look good.

Launching a Promo Website

Being able to develop and host the actual website is still a way off but getting feedback and prompt suggestions at this stage is very important. So I created a website that gives an overview of the project and a place for people to provide feedback.I also created a page for the project on Instagram to gain interest in the project and another place for people to interact and leave feedback.
I initially had a form on the website, but that was basically just a template for an email that's sent to an email address added to the website and that meant I would have the email address of those who submitted the feedback, which I didn’t like the idea of. So instead I made a Google form, this way I could ask specific questions to get feedback on.Because I know there are multiple links I made a Linktree, it's basic and not fancy looking because I don't want to pay a subscription for it, but it works and that's the most important part.

• Promo Website

User Journey

I didn’t know where to begin when it came to the app and website for Tickets to Connection, so I started out by making a list of pages and features that are needed for the user to get the cards and use them.The next step was to convert this list into a flowchart of how a user would navigate through the pages. The navigation bar (shown in colour) will be on every page, with the bar changing slightly for the “Your Journey” area of the website. The flow chart doesn’t show every possible navigation path, as stated before, every page can lead to the pages linked in the navigation bar, but it was a way to make sure no pages or features required a long journey to reach them.

Website Wirframe

About

App Wirframe

About

Choosing Software for Mock-Ups

I needed to decide what software I was going to create the mock-ups for Ticket to Connection in. I have experience using a piece of software called Axure before, but that is expensive if you do not have an education licence and I want Ticket to Connection to go from a project to a business beyond graduation. It does have all the tools I need, including a way to test a mobile app on a phone.I also currently have access to Adobe XD but again, once my student licence runs out I will not be able to access my files as they save to the cloud, and I am not going to pay for a Creative Cloud licence. Adobe is also currently not updating XD beyond minor bug and security fixes, and might end up phasing out the product after merging with Figma.I started by looking for free or low-cost options that would be able to make high quality mock-ups. This would be the best option as it would make the early stages of building a start-up much easier.
Figma is the first one I looked at because it does have a free option and I had heard about it a lot. Figma can be used in the browser but also has a desktop app that can be downloaded, so I have the choice of working on any device in the browser or on the more powerful desktop app. The UI looks similar to XD, and it has most, if not all, the same features and tools. Figma also has an app that allows for the testing of prototypes on mobile devices, which will be great in testing the app. The problem is that the free version is limited to 3 files which might prove hard to manage when I need a low and high fidelity mock-up of both an app and website, but there is likely a possible workaround.I then looked at an open-source piece of software called Pen pot, which looked similar to Figma except much less overwhelming. I was able to figure out how to make a board and set up a button to link between two boards within seconds. The main issue I can see is that there isn’t a native app to be able to test the designs on mobile. It is possible to share a link and test web pages on any device, just not the app design.The last piece of software I looked at was Framer, another browser based application. It became clear almost instantly that Framer was just a website builder and not cut out for UX/UI design. I could not add unique elements, and I was incredibly limited on where I could place things. Framer felt like Canva but for website building.Due to it being open source, I did start creating my mock-up of the website in Penpot. However, I quickly realised I could not create the elements I needed to add to my design and I couldn’t have the different pages connect the way I wanted. So, I decided to switch to Azure as I knew this had all the elements I needed and I do get a free year with the software using my student ID. I will just need to export my file as a universal format once it is complete for future use.

Website Low fidelity mock-up

About

DBACE Application

About

Weeks 0: 20/12/24 - 05/01/25

I have begun thinking about what I want to do for a major project and have decided on a project I am passionate about.With being in a long distance relationship, I feel I would personally benefit from having a product that makes things to do on call much easier so I think others would too. I found that since coming up with this idea I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it and I really want to start working on it which tells me this is the project I should take on. Furthermore, I feel as though I can use a lot of different skills developing it.

Week 1: 06/01/25 -

This week I moved onto expanding my idea and exploring all the things I could possibly do as part of this project. I used a mind map so I could write down as many things as possible so I had all the potential paths in front of me.By doing this I started to further expand certain ideas as well as expanding who this project could be for. With all the possibilities I then defined my goals for the project. The minimum viable product is the core parts needed for it to be usable in any capacity and the minimum I expect to submit. This includes a base set of prompts with card design along with the concept and visual design of the app and website.So far I am pleased with the progress I am making with the project and am excited with the potential the project has and how beneficial it would be to people.

Week 2: 13/01/25 -

This week I started to look more in-depth at different areas of research to inspire different areas of the project. This was interesting as I got to explore different ways media had been used in communication. I really liked the way Dear Data used physical media in sending postcards to each other which is something I want to inspire elements of my project as I really like having physical media.I started to look at names for the project as well as colours for the project. Naming the project is difficult because I want it to be reflective of what the project is whilst remaining short and easy to remember. A lot of words associated with the project imply that the project is for romantic couples only which is something I want to avoid.For colours I was able to decide on a colour scheme which will be really useful going forward. The colours feel welcoming and fun without being overly bright and obnoxious. With the blue being slightly more desaturated it gives a sense of warmth to it which helps with the overall feel.As the project involves a large amount of art prompts, I started a spreadsheet to keep track of all the prompts I think of so I don't have to come up with them all at once. Using a spreadsheet made it easier because I could list the prompt as well as all the other things that need to go along with it whilst being organised.

Week 3: 20/01/25 -

This week was an overall productive week. The deadline of the #ThinkBigARU competition was a great motivation to make progress on the overall project and commit to certain decisions. Also getting feedback from various groups of peers was useful in ensuring my idea and plan was clear.A large part of my week was spent working on the pitch video. Changing from describing what my project is to showing how it works in the pitch video was a big turning point in how I explained my idea and also how I saw the project. It made it much easier to visualise the project as a final product that is functional over just a concept.Making the pitch video meant I had to start to commit to certain visual aspects of the project. I didn't want to commit to full branding right now but deciding on a name and some colours was a good step in that direction and important to the video. By narrowing how I was going to organise the cards, I could choose just colours that are more personal which I like given my personal connection to the project. However, I needed to just do more than use favourite colours, I needed to find colours that would actually work as a brand. I found trying to find workable shades of each colour rather interesting, a bit like a puzzle of trying to find colours that worked well together but stand out from each other without being too bright to look at.I found peer feedback to be very useful this week as it helped me decide on the name for the project. Choosing a name felt like such a big deal and I was really struggling with it as I knew I would be committing to the name and couldn’t change it, unless I remade the branding. In the end I went with the one that got the most positive feedback from peers as this gave me reassurance it was the right choice.The peer feedback also made it clear that the prompts and discussion points need to be meaningful to stand out from generic prompts. This has encouraged me to start looking at art therapy and mindful art prompts.

Week 4: 27/01/25 -

This week I submitted my pitch to the #ThinkBigARU competition. With this I had to explain my business idea in only 500 words which made me figure out how to clearly explain my idea to others which first meant it had to be clear to me.During this process of writing my business outline I ended up changing the name of the project from Creative Connections to Ticket to Connection. I feel this change was necessary and I am glad I made the change. Tickets to Connection links better to what the product does for its users, calling the cards tickets emphasises that they are going to go on a journey using art to connect. The name also feels like it has more potential with branding and being able to link together things with the language used. Furthermore, it clashes less with already existing products and projects.Outside of completing the pitch I feel as though I wasn’t very productive as the project didn’t make much progress. I feel like I need to put more effort into blocking out time to work on my project rather than working on little bits when I feel like it. This will also involve setting myself some false deadlines and getting someone to make me accountable for them.

Week 5: 03/02/25 -

text

Week 6: 10/02/25 -

text