Moodboards & the Thesis Change

So as the thesis keeps going forward, modifications happen.

Currently the idea went from: Fridge app, to healthy lifestyle to the final idea which ends in: donating food instead of wasting it.

I can't explain much of how is happening due to -privacy policies while developing it- = somebody stealing the idea D: but i wanted to just show you a mood board a write about those.

So moodboards are good for the design process, when i went to my undergrad i don't remember being told to make moodboards, but they are useful for so much, is like mind mapping but for design. Also you can apply it for house projects, personal projects, etc.

So i'm gonna show you the moodboard i made for my thesis so far. 

Moodboards tend to include:

• Color palettes
• Typography
• In my case: websites or apps that might be similar or inspiration for it
• Design Layouts
• Photography

For finding or creating color palettes, you can check Colour Lovers and for the rest, check the web and do your research for your own projects around google and enjoy. Moodboards are fun and easy to do, and as i already said super helpful. 

Also while i don't want you to read tons of info, you can check this TED video so you can understand why the food waste is such a problem in the USA

Don't forget to follow me in some of the other places.

Twitter - Instagram - Flickr - Random writing

Cheers.

Mary

User Personas & Portraits

This past months (October and September) have been about trying to define my thesis work, even though its yet a work in progress due to many reasons, i've been trying to integrate everything i know in it from photography to things i enjoy like food and plants.

So the other day i had to start doing user personas (you might ask what is that?); User Personas, are often used during the initial design of a website, app or project where one generates a person in which you start basing your content on, it's like a target audience with the difference that you create from 2 to 5 and give them needs and possible user flows, this way you are creating your design, website or app with an specific user in mind besides yourself.

User personas can be real people or can be people we made up, in my case i usually like mixing both because it makes the process of creating them easier and is fun. So this gave me the chance to request friends to get their portraits taken and work on it for a weekend of fun portrait shooting, we had terrible hours in some cases which led to the sun being on top of us or having no sun at all, but i think it worked out, the final layout for my thesis book is not yet finished but this will give you an idea of how User Personas might look.

For the portraits of user personas, often stock images are used, i always like doing my own photography to avoid either paying stock images and because i feel they look more natural than the stock people (sorry stock images people :/ ) so in my case, we used natural light and the one bouncer in some cases, except in the night portrait in which my flash was needed.

Some Portraits

 

         

Some of my User Personas

And thats it for this week :)

Hope the Halloween treated you all great and that you have an awesome beginning of November.

Mary