8600 Graphic Design Thinking and Research

Did you begin university straight after high school?

How did you feel about starting at UC? (Excited, nervous...?)

Did you have any previous opinions about UC before starting?

Did you see the 2016 Orientation Guide?

What did you like about the guide? Would you add or change anything about it?

What was the most exciting part about starting university?

What images do you associate with the University of Canberra?

What words do you associate with the University of Canberra?

What brands do you find appealing?

Do you follow current trends or try and set your own style?

Introduction

The aim of this report is to design the process of successful 2018 orientation program for the University of Canberra that is practical and attractive for the target audience. The design of this project includes the main art, which includes a theme that is attractive and appealing for the first year students with no lose in cross-cultural appeal. However, the constraints, which will be obstruct the project completion, are the limitation of resources and time available for the students. On the other hand, the design of the project being visually attractive should be used by the University for branding and future guideline for the style statement of the institution (Jonas, 1993). The success of the project depends on both the capacity of the clients and participants to meet the selection criterion and the positive and negative comments and feedback given by them about the project. In addition, how the key message is conveyed to the target audience plays a pivotal role in the overall success of the project.

Methods and Methodology

To successfully complete the research with the students of University of Canberra, several methods of discussion, thought process and brainstorming are adopted to complete the user research and initiate the first stage of the project to develop the idea.

The user research:

User research is one of the initial processes adopted for the research to work on. This method includes questionnaire methods with a small group of target audience comprising of students who are joining the university as first year students. The questionnaire is includes feedback section about the previous University orientation program and improvements they feel necessary for the new orientation guide. A small group of 10-20 students representing the target audience is selected for this process.

Concept development

Developing a concept totally depends on tee though process involved in the overall process. The content is developed on several methods like brainstorming, questionnaire, and discussions (Desmet, & Hekkert, 2007). This is also helpful in the search process of solutions for different problems, which will occur throughout the process of research. Brainstorming, besides mind mapping, interviewing and sketching different ideas are part of the concept-developing phase of the research method.

Research/ideation/concept development

The process of developing a new orientation guide for the first year students is a process requires thorough analysis of the feedback given by the earlier batches, which is the best source to analyse the short comes of previous orientation guide and what should be included in the new one (Bergen, 2002). To perform this task two set of target audience is important. One is between the age group of 17-20 years who are still in high school and the second set is of students of 21-23 years who are new to the university culture. Interviewing them brings out thoroughly a typical idea about the required improvements in the orientation guide. The students of the second set will provide a detailed sketch of the first idea that hits their mind as they visualize a university. The students of the first set provides idea about the requirements they are looking for in a university. Combining both the ideas a clear knowledge about the changes required in the orientation guide can be achieved.

To focus on the exact idea of rebuilding an orientation guide it is important to follow every possible iterative concept to sketch the exact plan. This includes processes like brainstorming, discussion, mind mapping, individual interviewing, sketching ideas and providing questionnaire to set off target audience to evaluate the exact requirements of the students and the backlogs of the previous system. All these processes are adopted for the research and development of the orientation guide for the first year students (Lantis & DuPlaga, 2015). The research is based on the idea of overcoming the short falls of previous orientation program and to develop a better orientation guide for the next fresher year. A questionnaire is made to get an idea about the though process of different students and focus on the exact requirement of the process to overcome the short comes. For different people the word “University” defines different things like friendship, knowledge, career, growth and many more. All these ideas are short-listed to perform the overall project.

Final design strategy/concept

Based on the analysis of all the methods and ideas collected from different methods clearly the idea, which is predominant is the idea of “Growth”. Almost every student hit the idea how the University of Canberra will provide a supporting stage for his or her improvement in career growth and life (Nelson Laird et al., 2014). The idea of “Growth” will be reflected in the new orientation guide for the first year students to portray the university among first year joiners. This idea can be further used for branding the university for future students.

Conclusion

“Growth” is a concept, which symbolises youth, prosperity and full of life-energy, which is a very good idea to use as a symbol for a university. Not only for this orientation, guide (Ali, 2017). Growth will be forever symbolize a prospering institution as it symbolises the power of knowledge and how it is used to empower the youth of a country. Branding the University of Canberra with the idea of “Growth” will be a great idea for future generations to understand how helpful the university is for their career growth.

References

Ali, H. D. (2017). Towards Developing the Orientation Programme Content for the First-Year Students at the University of Dodoma.

Bergen, D. (2002). The role of pretend play in children's cognitive development. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 4(1), n1.

Desmet, P. M. A., & Hekkert, P. (2007). Framework of product experience. International Journal of Design, 1(1), 57-66.

Jonas, W. (1993). Design as problem-solving? or: here is the solution - what was the problem? Design Studies, 14(2), 157-170.

Lantis, J. S., & DuPlaga, J. (2015). Global Classroom: An Essential Guide to Study Abroad. Routledge.

Nelson Laird, T. F., Seifert, T. A., Pascarella, E. T., Mayhew, M. J., & Blaich, C. F. (2014). Deeply affecting first-year students' thinking: Deep approaches to learning and three dimensions of cognitive development. The journal of higher education, 85(3), 402-432.