Substantive Contribution #2

Design Process

A design process is a methodical approach to project planning, development, and enhancement. Usually, this process involves research, ideation, prototype creation and testing, and changes. Being adaptable and receptive to criticism and modifications is crucial while developing a design process. This is key because as creators, that being in a classroom through a structured lesson plan or in other careers, it is easy to get blinded by our goals and what we think works. Being able to work with a community is great because it allows multiple perspectives to come together to make something better and more well-rounded than an individual creation. Along with working collaboratively just being able to take a second and go back and edit is critical because you can start to view your work differently and from multiple perspective.

“The first draft of anything is shit.”
— Ernest Hemingway, in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917–1961, ed. Carlos Baker (1981)

Challenge A

My design process for Challenge A began with reflection on my work experience and how I could create something that was applicable and would help people in similar situations. For this assignment I was thinking about my Inclusion support worker experience and how a Comic regarding emotional regulation would be super handy. This came up as most calls I got weren’t because a child had some crazy thing going on, most of the time it was because the leaders weren’t versed in helping children through their emotional states. The material I ended up making was for students and teachers to use preventively so that the class or camp can set a tone with seeing emotions such as anger and sadness are normal emotions and provide positive ways to help students through them. My prototype was way too ambitious as I did 3 different situations with different characters to address multiple perspectives and roles. As I tried to create it I tried multiple online comic book illustrators but I couldn’t figure out how to make it look like how I pictured it. After I got some feedback that said it was overcomplicated, I finally was like Yes, I need to change this. So I made it one situation with easy visuals so that students in high-stakes situations can make it easy to digest. This really helped me streamline everything and resulted in a project I was pretty happy with.

Challenge B

So far for this group project, I have had a lot of issues, as I was supposed to be in one group, but they had already started before they responded to my emails, so we decided it would make the most sense for me to do it on my own. This was challenging as the project was due the next day. I wanted to then do something that I have some experience with, and that is fitness content. In other classes, I have made some fitness content; however, I knew that it could be improved upon. I decided to do it about the big 3 lifts (squat, bench, and deadlift.) Though I’m not in a group, I have some friends who make content like this for a job, and so I am going to bounce my choices of editing, content, and scripts by them so I can still get the benefit from working together. I really look forward to seeing what comes about, as I love editing videos so I’m excited to learn more.