The week of the big presentation.
I started and finished the mobile checkout. We were a bit behind on checkout prototype and hi-fi work, so I needed to just bang this out and make sure it was done and up to standard.
Monday we all met at merchants house for a team meeting. We divided up the final few tasks: Rob and Harry to prototype and do advanced prototyping. Max, Hanley and I would double check with an audit. Max worked as a jack of all trades, auditing the presentation and designing the slide videos. Hanley worked on the presentation and her bit of the script. I did a through detail audit of the design files (down to the millimeter!), made the final checkout, wrote our script and lined it up with the slides.
Figma files:
By Tuesday, we had all agreed that the design was as complete as we could have it to make sure there was enough time to prep for the presentation. And when I say “as complete as we could have it” that definitely does not mean we wanted to do more! Rather, we were at a place with the design that all of us were truly happy with it. That feeling and avoiding a rush to the end thursday? Miraculous.
Four Versions of the script were made before the final was sent to print
Honestly, I could continue to divide up exactly what we did leading up to the hours of the Virgin Wines Showdown™ but in reality, we just worked as a team. Our communication was on par, checking in throughout the day, offering up to help where we thought it was needed and making sure everyone was drinking water.
We had everything done: script, presentation, files and all by wednesday afternoon. Once we got feedback on making sure we focused on impact, we audited the script together line by line to perfect it. That evening, and thursday morning, was spent practicing. We ran the presentation around 6 times.
After the presentation, we went and got fairly pissed sitting down by the river and feasted on fish and chips, a plan we had made when we formed the group. So if there could be considered any marker of success, that would be it. Here’s proof.
All Else
In comparison to the Oh No talk last week, Ian Wharton left me feeling ready, inspired and excited. That was by far my favourite talk, possibly of the year. What he presented us with felt applicable and real. I could see where a bit of it was removed (£30,000 being said like it’s nothing, but honestly, I’m sure the likes of design bridge and partners work in the hundreds of thousands and just don’t say). But his style for the talk had me leaving with tangible ideas and a free pitch course! I am planning to email him about a mentorship once the summer session starts. He also had (what felt like) the most varied background, so even though he started and still does animation, I could relate to it as a UX designer. Just a stellar talk. Here’s some pages from my journal of what I jotted down during.
This week I felt so prepped to make, play and have fun in the sun. (read: I really was not feeling like writing a dissertation report). I met and started doing work with a friend, Sam, and came up with the concept for my own brand and new portfolio website. (I’ll place the Samu Studio work in an extra blog post). Here’s some concepts I’ve been working on for my own brand: okay mara studio. An intra-dependent, shape-shifting studio exploring UX and Graphic design in relation to the natural, human, and artificial worlds around us.
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