Weeks 1-2

• This is a time for blue-sky thinking and brainstorming. You may have an some idea of what you'd like to do, or you may have none at all. If you have no idea of the project you'd like to do it's important that you listen carefully to your peers in Design and other disciplines as they may have an idea you'd like to join up with or at least be inspired by their project proposals. Conduct your own research into Junior/Graduate design positions - what are the skills they are looking for in a designer? You may like to think about a project that showcases your skills in these areas well.

Weeks 3-4

• By now you should have an idea of what project you'd like to pursue, in week 4 you will be pitching this idea in your teams formally so we will be building towards that. You should be conducting early research to demonstrate that this project is relevant, appropriate for your budget and feasible within the time frames of CIU 212 & CIU330.

• Your pitch should include early sketches and mock-ups, research you've completed into similar/competing projects as well as early budget enquiries.

Weeks 5-6

• After your week 4 pitch your team will have received a green light (good to go), a yellow light (some follow up required) or a red light (not feasible). If you received a yellow light you will need to complete a short follow up presentation in week 6 to address the feedback given to you, if you received a red light you will need to present a new project pitch within your current group or indicate that you will be joining another group with a green or yellow light. All project ideas must be finalised by the end of week 6 where you will be graded in 'Client & Supervisor Simulated Meetings Assignment' which is graded on a 'to specification' - 'exceeds specification' - 'not to specification' scale.

Weeks 8-9: Defining the Project

Responses to the following questions due on your learning journal by the end of week 9

1. Name

2. Tagline - a one sentence summary of your project

3. Synopsis - a longer 100 word explanation of what you plan to do

4. Voice words: list five adjectives that describe the project

5. Personas: develop a description in two-hundred words of a male and female user. Support your description with images from your research. For example if you are working with a real business located in Bondi, you will need to conduct demographic research into the residents and tourists of Bondi to understand how you should proceed with your project.

6. User experience description: Describe the user experience. How to they navigate the product. What the various points of entry into the product experience? Is there an expectation for a user exit to another platform? What are the calls to action? How do expect the user to behave in response to your product? How have made that behaviour achievable? Is this a multi-media experience - if so how do all elements relate visually and in user-experience

7. User Journey: This is a diagram with accompanying and notes, which demonstrates a range of routes through the service. With time mapped on the X axis and channel or platform on the Y axis, it provides a clear idea of dependencies and bridges between each component serving to highlight any issues with behaviours of the user (points of entry, calls to action (CTAs), or service exits). Key events: Depending on the complexity of the service, the journey user chart and key events, this may be split into chapters, seasons or weekly blocks; Timeline of the user journey: what needs to be in place to launch and progress the user journey through the key events; Branding How do the brand elements and change across the journey

Weeks 10-11: Marketing objectives

Responses to the following questions due on your learning journal by the end of week 11

1. What do you want to achieve from the perspective of the user through the service? - what will your user get out of this?

2. What are the goals from the perspective of the creative team? - what do you and your team hope to get out of this?

3. What is the economic goal or model? - is this project aiming to make money OR raise awareness?

4. Success indicators: How will the stated goals be measured, and from those results how will you decide if the service has been successful? The KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and ROI (Return On Investment) are traditional ways to measure success, but from a story perspective there may be other engagement metrics you are building into your service/s.

5. User need: This is a short high-level section covering the key question of why your service will be noticed and used. A simple user-needs analysis (or SWOT) will highlight gaps in the market, weak competition, or just a strongly ‘needed’ utility-like service.

6. Target audience and marketing: You should have started this with your persona research. Who will use the product, and how will you attract them to it? It will include a demographic [who are they? a/s/l] and psychographic [what are they like?] breakdown of your user/audience, listing competing services or examples of similar services, quoting numbers. It will be a well researched comparative analysis and most likely use some bespoke research you have completed for the project.

7. Production team: Provides biographical backgrounds on each of the team with head shots if possible. A complex project will require the key roles of producer/s, writer/s, designer/s, technical lead, system architect, programmers, business managers, marketing and so on to a maximum of say ten project leads.

8. Copyright, IP & licensing: Are you using materials that you have not created?If so you may need to gain permission for use. If you create new materials within the group, who owns IP after the project is completed?

Weeks 12-13: Deliverables and Elements

Responses to the following questions due on your learning journal by the end of week 13

1. User elements: What will your user see at the end of the project? Make an itemised list to all the elements of the project. List in the order of the user experience. Do not include project deliverables that are invisible to the user (e.g. client management systems).

2. Concept Moodboards: Colour, typography, styling, photography, visual research, thumbnails, marker roughs and digital development. Describe the intended character of your product. Include mood boards for colour, typography, design and layout, photographic style.

3. Project Scope needs: Everything you need to complete the project: deliverables are a detailed version of the elements that included software and productions processes that are invisible to the user. List all the items needed and how to they will be produced. What are the communication platforms and channels that you are going to use:e.g. list all the technologies. What supporting collaterals is needed for your final product? (e.g. do you need a website, business cards, poster, social media, t-shirts, etc, etc). What are the technical requirements and concerns for your media implementation? (e.g. Print: digital, offset, bookbinding, finishing; Web, Flash, HTML5, mobile, tablets; AV: portable, specific hardware, cinema screens; Consoles: games platforms, media boxes or handheld games devices).

4. Timelines: Itemise the deliverables and workflow and plot into a timeline for CIU330. This should include a different section for all members of the team so it is clear to all involved who should be working on what at all times next trimester.

5. Service providers: Will there be third parties who are is going to make or supply the deliverables and elements of the product? For example printers and web hosting. Include quotes and a rough budget.

6. Prototyping and testing: this could include print tests or physical/digital models of what you'd like to include.

7. Dependency map: Once you have identified the technologies, then list the required technologies, elements and deliverables that are need be produced to reach the outcome. With this list of technologies, elements and deliverables produce a dependency map for the delivery of the product - this should identify any potential bottlenecks in production.

8. Wireframes/Storyboards: You may like to use software such as Adobe XD or Figma to demonstrate your prototype in action. Plot the structure of the project and user experience of the graphic project. Like Wireframes for web design, these define the structural elements of a build, before final assets and graphics being put in place.

9. Final style guide: This guide should include colour palettes, fonts and graphic and UI elements.

Week 13: Final reflection of the unit

This should be an individual reflection of what you have learnt and the challenges you have faced this trimester. You should outline how this knowledge will change how you will approach next trimester. This should be 700-1000 words and include sources & images where relevant.