Prezi Style
In our final presentation, we spoke about the mapping of artworks around NTU. Creating routes and tours to guide our users to navigate around in this enjoyable journey. Again, Prezi seemed to be the best in animating the tour concept, navigating our viewers through our slides.
The following is a link to our presentation slides.
https://prezi.com/view/MfhB7gg5XKu3tdNO2uB1/
We hope you enjoyed our Prezi presentation, till we meet again!
Cheers!
Group 1 
Refinement Process
With what I had last week, I proceeded on with the feedback given to me that I should include a captivating slogan (could be from the poster design) as it could better represent the overall theme rather than simply the generic lines of Arts & Health @NTF Hospital.
Also, the use of the pop up space at the back should signify a better meaning and no panels should be left black. As clients pay for every page and leaving it black might be questionable. It could act as a form of advertisement when the user opens the brochure, and someone views the image from the other side.
I explored the possibilities of the folds and harmonise it with an origami heart-pencil illustration. So that at one glance, people might feel that it is a pencil, but it doubles up as another meaning of a heart (in line with the slogan of arts from the hearts).
In addition to that, I made improvements on breaking the diamond shaped form. Allowing shapes to suggest the lines rather than directly showing the audience the intended shapes (Left paint tube signifies the diamond shape).
I added the header Art & Health @NTF General Hospital in the middle section, making use of the pop up attention and brought the viewer’s eyes to the text on top. To add more flow to the design, I was advised to create a flow line that could visually guide the viewers to look at other points on the brochure design.
Colour Palette #01
I tried to work with Analogous Colours with reference to the red logo. At this point, the design seem to be rather empty as there are too little visual elements involved in the print out. Also, the colour does not seem to work out as well as I had expected.
Colour Palette #02
This time, I tried using the split complementary colour palette with reference to the vest colour as it was appearing in many photos of the brochure design. The translucent white elements add a subtle effect to the entire print out instead of a bold series of elements. I really appreciate how it come together along with the choice of colours as it brings down the hierarchy of what was not important. 
After consulting, I realise that there were too little photos in the brochure design. I was told to remove the orphans from the body text as well as to block out the headers with another colour as they were not clearly separated from the body text at one glance.
Mobile Application
In the final application, we used Adobe XD to create our prototype mobile application. The following is the link to our prototype.
Link: https://xd.adobe.com/view/9bc56cb1-fa21-4d0a-9dab-2d0910b05347/
Screen Grabs
Reflections
The only way I could describe my insights to the Heritage Tour was WOW. It was extremely insightful that so much thought goes into a tour. There were many pointers which I noted during the tour, but I thought I list those that had more relevance to our next project.
First Hand Experience
I was extremely appreciative of the fact that the tours are experienced by the staff members and the tour guides themselves before introducing them to the public.
Our guide mentioned that the experience could allow her to “feel the information in context”.
Our group agreed with this point as many times, we discovered things during a field trip which cannot be done in front of the laptop. In addition to this, it was value adding if the users could test out the route in beta before it was launched to the public.
Visuals & Other Learners
Also, she provided us with various visuals and information notes just to allow different learners to pick up information in different ways. The visual learners could look at photos and typed words better relate to them rather than listening to what the guide had to say.
It was significant that she mentioned that as well. Upon finishing the tour, our group discussed and thought of ways to involve the different senses. One of which was the sense of hearing.
Indicate Purpose
There were two purposes of this heritage tour. First was to educate, second was to preserve.
Our group also knew that we needed to state our objectives towards our NTU Museum tour to have a clearer direction. In our case, it was to educated and bring awareness towards the artworks while making it fun for the users.
Comfort
Last but not least, we were mostly comfortable or provided with comfort in majority of the tour. Our guide mentioned that this allows people to be less exhausted and more interested in what was going on in the tour.
All in all, I really loved the tour and what I had learnt out of it. It was an exciting journey to discover new things as a local. I really look forward to creating our own tours in NTU.
Notes Taken During The Tour
Final Phase of Design
In my final phase of changes I contemplated on adding the line of flow on both sides of the brochure design. However, I felt that it spoilt the overall look and decided to make do without the suggestive line. I moved the alignment and text to allow the header to have a better balance (previously sinking downwards, heavy).
Final Print Out
I adjusted the orange contrast higher on the pencil to allow the images and text to be easily seen on both sides. Also, I had the images radiate outwards form the pencil tip such that it was an exploding series of photos from the middle and that complemented with the design of folds. Lastly, I increased the crop tension so that the images had lesser space and look less apart.
Final Reflections
The final project was an exciting journey that I never expected to hop onto. From the folding techniques I could explore, to the thoughtfulness in layout. Now, I see how a brochure should be designed and a good one must not be taken lightly. It was definitely an interesting and fruitful semester of to join VC1!
Detailed Write Up On Art Works
As we moved onto designing the experience, we picked out information which were required within the application or brochure. It was tough as we did not hope for the designed brochure to be too wordy. So we summarised the points and listed the basic information (Name, Artist, Date Created, Summarised Info).
The following is the link to our write up:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nwqaoSUMKxp0WLmeHeXR5n6wvOo_CxN4
Rebranding
As we discovered that the NTU museum does not have their own logo or main branding for its fun personality, we felt that it was crucial for them to differentiate themselves from the NTU body (academic/serious). Although they are a subsidiary of the school, they need a more distinct identity in order to gain more awareness as a museum which had its own artistic side. Therefore, we created a logo for this project using the word ‘Muse’, which was an abbreviation to ‘Museum’ and also has a doubled meaning of a creativity side of the user. It is also a catchy name as compared to the lengthier ‘NTU museum’.
We decided to go with blue and grey for our colour palette. Through research, we found out that Blue aids the mind to learn, which is why it was widely used for educational purpose. Since NTU is an educational institution, we wanted to portray the academia side of the Museum using this colour as well as subconsciously aiding the users to learn about the artworks.
Spatial Elements Design
Next, we discussed on the medium in which we will use to deliver the tour. Our concept was to provide a tour that allows users be at ease when travelling around the school visiting the artworks exhibited. Hence we thought of having a physical map (brochure) and a digital map (application) available for the users to navigate. Also we decided to incorporate soundscapes for certain artworks to bring out the theme or environment that the artwork was trying to express. Moreover, we created digital ‘stickers’ in which users can collect through the app as an attempt to deepen the user’s understanding and interaction with the
As we chose a panel folding method of our brochure design, we thought of the direct folds creating panels as though reflecting a real museum observational panels. This improves the user experience flow as they look at the panels as pages of information. Rather than cramming all information in a one page poster-like design.
Also, together with the mobile application design, we used an overall colour scheme of blue and grey for the best results of a learning based experience.
Digital Translation
With what I had last week, I proceeded on the feedback was given to me that I should include a captivating slogan (could be from the poster design) as it could better represent the overall theme rather than simply the generic lines of Arts & Health @NTF Hospital. I made use of the fold reference and redesigned a fold that could link with my concept.
I used the pop up as an area for the two paragraph of texts and with a signifier of a pencil (inspired by the logo design of the Arts and Health @NTF). I included pictures and worked on the lines/solid colours to try achieve a better result.
Existing Brochure Design
I am always fascinated with origami folds. How it could unravel the message from within. I wish I could show more but here are three of my favourite designs.
# Numerical Order From Left to Right
Design Reference #01
Unravelling the fuller picture when unfolded. This technique of fold only require a slit in the middle while retaining the mystery of an unusual fold technique. I really love the simplicity in layout of information and shapes played throughout the brochure design.
Design Reference #02
The die cut technique used in this context was extremely appropriate. I really love how the mountains are cut out to show you what you would expect when visiting the holiday resort. The bold colour at the bottom (blue waters) block out the text and let its audience read without any distraction in the area. This method of cutting really captivates the eyes and I felt that it was really well played.
Design Reference #03
This method of cutting the paper is interesting because the maker blocks out an area in the middle (where the eye first goes) to draw the attention of its audience. With this method, one can place important text or highlights within this sunken area of folds.
Playing With Folds
As I was exploring with folding methodologies, I tried to minimise the complexity of the fold or cut techniques mainly with considerations for mass production. As I refer to my internship experience, brochures that are designed with more cuts (die cuts) becomes more expensive. Also, the risk or error or bad production plays a part in these designs. Hence, I chose a more functional approach towards creating the folds, trying to seek a simpler form with a meaningful concept behind the simple folds.
One last example I would like to show was this technique of one step folding. Whereby the users open in one step, views the information, closes in one step. I feel that this direct approach really attracted me as a user and I wanted to explore with its possibilities. Changing some shapes to develop what I ultimately want.
Mock Up Folds
There are three mock up folds you can see below varying from the usual panel folds to 3D cut outs and pop up folding styles.
As I did the mock up folds, my focus was on the fact that there were not too many information. So I should not have too many panels that might end up empty. I looked at how a brochure could be easily handled and decided to go for an A4 choice rather than the allowed A3 size which most of my classmates were using.
Visual Studies
I studied how the placement of text affects the hierarchy of information. Also, I wanted to implement a flow line which was recommended during consultation that it could be a subtle line of information rather than a solid line work.
Design Concept
As the first step, our group worked on incorporating games and puzzles in hopes to create a fun factor for the NTU museum tour. A tour that deviates from the usual you would see in a formal setting. We wanted the users to make use of a kit to solve puzzles that will tell them various locations of the artworks scattered around the NTU campus.
Our works took references to the Tokyo Metro Game as well as the collection of travel stamps trend overseas.
Design Concept
Through fun activities, our design was to create a physical set of game kit. Directing users around campus to view the artworks. The balance between good and bad game design was the difficulty and we struggled to fuse the difficulty level along with interest level of the users. Upon speaking to some of our friends, they felt that it was not extremely enticing to get on these tours as they felt that it might be too difficult to through some tasks. Time was key that the tours were not too long such that it disrupts their day.
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Field Research
We made sure that each and everyone of us went down on different days and times to explore the situation and find out about the artworks. All of us had different perspectives and took note of different details. Menno in particular had the preference of looking at works from far, and how it harmonises with the surroundings while the rest of us took many close up shots.
Here are some photos which we had taken:
We hope to show you more and here are two links to the images we had taken
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10ZOC3O43lcCTZB6js35hAhSTHmUKkkcg
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CTlEjIHaWxsHFe0CePA0o9U8Xo5dHRMe
It was during our field trip that we realise that even as a NTU student, we had a hard time when we tried to look for the artworks as some of them are secluded or are exhibited at places which we ourselves didn’t knew existed. We each went on separate occasions and found out that it took us at least 4 hours to finish exploring the artworks listed.
This idea became not fun anymore when the design issue is time.
The tour was to allow users to visit the artworks at their own time, thus it was important to retain the idea of time efficiency. We decided to morph this idea while retaining the idea of fun!
Interesting Finds
Something interesting that we had never expected to find out was the word MUSEUM created by some of the artworks. It was definitely a gem found and Laura recommended that we could possibly use it in one of the marketing collaterals as it was certainly a unique point we had in the project.
Ultimately we decided to develop them into stickers which could be interactive sticker and cards used for special occasions such as on NTU orientation or open house. As constantly replenishing the items on a long run would be extremely exhausting for the NTU museum team.
Hence, we decided to also implemented a challenging tour which requires the effort of uses to discover the Muse in them. Allowing them to look at these thoughtfully designed images and match them according to their artworks. Only upon matching are they allowed to proceed onto the next location revealed.
Mapping
We plotted out a map of the artworks on campus and came up with a full tour route that is the most time efficient. We also decided to incorporate the bus routes around the campus, which we already mapped out in our previous project. However, at this point since we realise that the tour will take approximately 4hours long to complete the entire tour which we had mapped out. The duration is too lengthy and users will be easily exhausted since they are required to do a lot of walking as the artworks are scattered around the whole school compound. Thus, we took in the suggestion to split the artworks up into themes to create various sub-tours. By doing so we cut down on the time spent to 1-2 hours on each tour, which is more manageable for the users.
Shorter Route Options
As mentioned in our first project, the ability to choose shorter tour routes was extremely important. This allows the user to hold the flexibility of choosing a longer or shorter route according to their own time constraints. Lastly, we had the numerical markers on the map and key to finding the artworks as the overall map. This allows users to look at a glance where were the works located for informational purposes.
Ultimately, we derived two tours of <Find Your Muse> as well as the <Sustainability Tour> which allows you to look at a fun and challenging tour vs another tour which is direction for educating methods of sustainability initiatives taken on by NTU Museum.
Final Improvements
As I continued to work on the layout and colours, I had to print out various test prints to look at how the poster is in real size. It was difficult to judge small details based on what we see on the screen as I could only see a small portion if I were to set to the A2 actual size.
Some visual elements were improved to make more sense out of the poster. For example, the droplet that is falling from the cloud is a paint droplet squeezed from a tube of paint.
Final Print Out
In the final print out, it was important to note the margins as well as reducing weight of certain text (top left) to reduce the complexity of the poster at one glance.
I do acknowledge that there are still some small details which could be refined at this point of time. Nevertheless, the journey of poster design was an enriching one. I never expected myself to create a poster with so much thought and concept behind it. Looking back, I am proud of what had been achieved at the poster exhibition session. 
