Evaluation

As a digital publisher, I wanted to create something that would push my knowledge of software use to a new level for my final project. Having a good knowledge of the most common of Adobe programs, I didn't want to do something basic with a simple photoshop or Illustrator so when planning my ideas and the suggestion of an app was put forward, I wanted to jump at the chance to create something I had not done before. I wanted to create an app that I, myself would want to use and so coming up with Snapthat, an app where you could take pictures of clothing or shoes to find UK based suggestions seemed like a strong enough fit. When envisioning this app, I wanted something marketed at my target age range of 18-25 and straight to the point in terms of usage, maintaining a sleek and minimalistic design, as my research suggested, seemed like the best fit, I believe that I executed this well, In terms of influence I had, as most 19-year-olds will tell you, I am heavily involved on social media and I think this is what encouraged my idea. I knew that my app making skills were pretty poor and so I wanted to bulk it out by also designing the marketing for the campaign and the branding of the app, in doing this I could put into practice what I have learnt over the last two years and then push myself further with the app.

I believe that my app has both strengths and weaknesses, due to the limited time frame I have had I feel like the app could look a lot more professional and polished, however, I believe that the app stays true to my original intentions of creating the prototype and I should be less critical of my skill strength considering I did not any skills in apps prior to this project. Another weakness I believe my app has is the fact that I could not fully understand how to get a working camera for it to work via phone, I think this has taken away from the overall professional look of the app prototype, with no straight answers online or tutorials on how to add in the camera, there was not much I could do about it. Another weakness of the app is that is the complex maintenance I had to go through in order for the app to work correctly such as creating small files such as text and having to bring them into Adobe XD, it was hard and I believe that maintaining the app if it was to launch in real life would take a lot of work. I believe that a strength, however, is the fact that the app has working features so I can show examples of the prototype and it fully explains through this medium, it has been very beneficial, another strength to me personally is the is the success of teaching myself Adobe XD through tutorials to great a working prototype. My final two weaknesses were the fact that the app looks too simple and the detail does not look sustainable enough for me to work at the grade I am may have been originally expecting to achieve, as spoke about previously my personal circumstances  had rapidly increased in problems due to this I struggled to manage the workload I wanted to achieve as I found my day to day life more difficult and this jeopardised my quality of work. The final two strengths of the project that I found to be the fact I did a heavy amount of research which turn meant that the experimentation and other work after came pretty easy, the final strength was the fact that my work was coherent together, it has flowed together consistently and all made sense together.

As for the experimentation, I performed a lot of my work on aspects of branding such as font, imagery, layout and design work. All of these elements were considered prior to making the prototype for Snapthat as they all have a character to build into as a brand, I made different forms of experimentation and then displayed them to my focus group as they would be deciding which designs I picked, I wanted to do this because my target audience would be the consumers who would decide if my app could be successful or not and so in giving them the choice, they will know what they like. Experimentation is such a key part of any designing process it really affected how my work developed from different forms of a logo to have a definitive answer for example. My development after securing my designs escalated from there on, I had the ability to make leaps and bounds in my work from having a simple logo to choosing where I would place that logo on my app, looking through my progress blogs which I ensured to do at least twice during each assignment has allowed me to reflect on just how far I have come, from being unsure of my idea to finalised it seems like months ago. With each reflection blog I have done, I always ensured to plan out what my next steps were or how I would build upon the information I had collected and what my plans were to do with it. I found myself falling behind at the beginning, like I found last year, due to the overwhelming amount of work I needed to do, I also believe I procrastinated a lot due to the refusal of believing this would be my final year of school and then I would be an adult (I'm still not over it).

In terms of Snapthat in comparison to another similar type of media, I feel like it is most similar to Screenshop, a competitor I researched into during my research portion of this project. In comparison between the two, I feel like Screenshop caters to a different audience such as middle ages women who like high-end expensive goods in the USA or that is what it likes its celebrity promoters to believe, in comparison to this Snapthat offers a UK alternative which caters to a younger, social media hungry audience who just want to know who or what each other are wearing. Screenshop others a variety of alternatives to what is being scanned, however, as seen in my research, this doesn't always go to plan with some of the alternatives being nothing alike! with Snapthat, it only offers replicas of what is being pictured and if it cant be found for some reason or another, will then only offer alternative items which will be consistent with the image. The other obvious difference between the two apps is the fact that Screenshop is a published app, whereas Snapthat is only a prototype, currently.

Showcasing my app to friends and family felt like a huge relief, to me it meant that I had finalised all I could and was now finished, the feedback I gained was very complimentary but I know it wasn't the best. However, if you do not know much about Adobe then I assume it must seem like a lot to create an app. Creating the app and the research, experimentation and a lot of consideration for small things like a time frame you could advertise in is a lot more time consuming than anything could realise if you want to be through so completing the last hurdle and finishing this app felt great.  My changes/improvements have remained similar throughout, If I could improve this project I would have liked to have polished my design work more and see the prototype of my app through to a strong result, another improvement I would have liked to perform if given the opportunity is to see if my marketing could be successful, such as paying Instagram to upload my advertisement and seeing how much intrest I would have recived, the same could be said for a bus advertisment, by registering the traffic I recieved to the app I could state if the marketing would be successful or not. I also would have liked to work on Snapthats social media, experimenting with promotional photoshoots and other ways to get the brand out there. It is very surreal to look back at my statement of intent and see how far things have progressed, it's like finishing a television series that you have watched until the end, bittersweet. Originally I intended to create an app that would identify garments of clothing and filter through to find the best UK based alternative, I think that I have stuck to my statement of intent really well and although I haven't created work to a quality I am happy with, I have stuck to all of the original intent.


In conclusion, it is very bittersweet to come to the end of this project, something it feels that the department has been talking about since we started two years ago! Opposite to others, I started this FMP very hesitantly and reluctantly, however, over time I feel like my enthusiasm has grown as well as my love for focusing crutches like Red Bull. I have had a huge personal battle going on during this project and sometimes it felt easier to drop out and walk away than continue but through the support of those such as Jo and Ed I have come to push myself and achieve more with every week even if I am deteriorating on the inside. I fell behind a lot, but thanks to the understanding of those in the media department I have committed to something that I can walk away from with my head held high and hopefully a good grade to have for the future even if it is looking pretty bleak for me right now. The outcome of this project has been great in showcasing my current talents as well as learning new ones with new software which I can display in years to come and grow on top of. Overall, I think my project was successful in its own way.