Design Studio 2A | Stefani Margaretha

Design Studio 2A (2nd term)

Week 9.1

Reflection on the Past Project <1st Term>

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How did cross-collaboration contribute to the project's success? Were there any misunderstandings or communication barriers? How did you overcome them?

I would bravely say that the domain of ours, or even the background of our experience (the cross-domain-collaboration) did not really affect much on our success. Rather, our "cross-personality-collaboration" is what matters. Since day one, we're both all agree that we have different roles, but the same vision and mission that we will stick in throughout the project (please refer to my previous journal to dive deep further). And of course, as highly responsible individuals, the three of us managed to work together efficiently, consistently, since the very first day of our meeting and discussion. That commitment, is the one that plays a big part on our success.

Of course there are some times when one of us or even the three of us feel very low motivated, or even burnout with all of the responsibility of the assignment itself (maybe because we're too passionate:p). However, again, with our "cross-personality-collaboration, we then will cheer and encourage each other up, always be available on giving hands and giving space for each other, when is needed. Because, after all, what is important for us is not the end product, but for us to really learn and enjoy the process of discovering and exploring our learning journey of service design, together as three.

Did cross-collaboration lead to new insights or unexpected outcomes?

Yes, Of course! As the project that we tackle in is language learning related, our different nationality, language experience and design skills help us to come out with more ideas. People usually may be intimidated with different dynamics, age group, or even domain when it comes to doing an assignment as a group. But we really do take advantage of our differences. For instance, the three of us have our own skillset and experiences. And with that in mind, it contributes towards the discussion on how we approach it in many aspects; even if let's say at one point we could not relate towards the issue, then it brings us to a new perspective of looking from the outside perspectives.

Have the role you resonate with changed in a way?

Nope. As I said previously, the three of us committed really to our role that we choose since day one, and we all agree to stay stick through our role until the whole assignment is finished. In fact, that was why we took a lot of time reflecting and choosing the role of IDEO, and try to connect it with our own personality.

With the different roles that we have for all three, it really helped us to develop the idea and be consistent from the very start of the assignment till the end, that we even thought and consider ourselves to work together as three in the future.

Lecturer's Feedback on Our Past Project: Say It Pal!

We're very lucky to become as one
Make our positive and consistent hard work to be applied on our next project
The work dynamics that we have is always consistent from day one
The three of us managed to play our different roles based on our skillset and background as one; and take advantage of it to become as our strong group dynamic

Personal Reflection

With all of my heart, I am really beyond grateful to be paired up with these two amazing individuals. From them, I gain a lot of design skills and most importantly, life's bittersweet experience and values, or the type of knowledge that I would never learn from school.

Overall, I would say that this group really heals me on my presentation trauma:) and what I really love about them, is that they never judge me also during my anxiety breakdown right before the actual final presentation. Rather, they help me to cope with that with their comfort and encouragement. Other aspects also including that they are very patient with me, as the youngest one who might not be exposed towards the industry as much as them. So, throughout the process of finishing this assignment, we learn from one another and grow together, along with the goal to enjoy all process, and not just for the outcome.

For the future ahead, as you can see from the previous journal of mine, there was a lot of selfies and outside school hangouts. Which mean, other than working together, we also value our friendship and acknowledge each other's skillset/ differences that brings out the best of our own characteristics/ skill. Thus, also to respond to the lecturer's feedback, we all agree that this work combination of us three really benefit us in a positive manner, and we will apply our positive process and dynamic that we have in this group to our second assignment in this semester.

LS:N Global Article

Article: Innovation Debrief 2023-2024

There are a lot of topics under this innovation debrief, but I'll focus to talk more about "Longevity Products" since I personally think that it is one of the most important aspects that a designer should consider in their design.

The current and possible future demand from customer and their expectation amongst a product:

- Durability and accessible innovation

- Repurposed design

- Product that can last for lifetime and be passed down towards the later generation

- Deeper meaning of tools, even each process of the manufacturing of a product

- A product with minimal waste towards the environment in mind

- Collaboration with several brands or even customer in the making of the product

- Product with sustainability offerings

Thoughts:

As a designer, it is an essential aspect for us to always be present and always follow the trends that is happening nowadays, then apply it towards our design. Because, if we done so, it’ll help us to deliver our customer’s needs and create satisfaction aspects on our design to meet their desire. However, if we only limited ourselves towards the current issue, how will we deliver the next possible level of design in the future? With this question in mind and also from the article, it made me realize that as a designer myself, I need to consider on the possible future and not just stuck with what I’ve already known currently from articles, interviews, or journal on the current state. What I can do next is to build more meaning on my design by having a lot of consideration of the purpose and meaning of it from many aspects, and not just merely for aesthetic purposes.

*other thoughts:

Reading articles in LSN GLOBAL always amazes me, because there is a certain method of every article that in a way convinces me on the possible future, even by them just showing the current efforts/ product. It's like they have their own way to create the impression of the uncertain future to be uncertain. It's probably because of the alignment of the article, or just the visual. Still, in a sense, I'll try to learn on their layout and apply it into my future works.

IDEO 10 Faces of Innovation

As you can see above, all of the 4 of us are having pretty much different roles that we hold onto in this group. And to be honest, the work dynamic since the first day of us trying to figure out our company/ research/ even as simply as doing the discussion; I could clearly sense that all of us are very passionate in design and committed on each of the role that we wrote. I really hope that with this different role that we held, we can complete each other and work together efficiently in the future, and to always be remembered that we work together as a team and not just individually. <3

Project Brief: Criteria(s) for The Next Company to Work with

- not too big not too small

- have some presence locally

- come up with a few options then identify pros and cons to see how much room we have to improve on their product and services

- don't do overhaul, we are not a business consultant to expand business in a non-relevant way

- don't get too far fetched

- look at other stakeholders, not just immediate customers etc

Week 9. 2

Trying to think about the Company that we will work for service design

Since the very first discussion, on this day, we all agree that we want to tackle on the company that we're excited about, which are those that are not related to our everyday lives and fun to work with. Guess what? IT'S A NIGHTCLUB!!!

We're very much excited and curious on how we will work on nightclub. Even several of our members are not really used to go to clubs, which we also think is interesting because we may need to observe and actually go there to gain more insights on the matter/issues that related to a nightclub. But, before going deeper into which nightclub that we're going to work with, we just briefly tried to find on the actual reason why we want to choose a nightclub at the first place.

We then searched about some issues/ what type of stigma or stereotypes on nightclubs; why and why not people go to club in Singapore, nowadays.

Our current findings:
Stigma of clubbing, as it is often associated with negative stereotypes which refers to the frivolous or superficial activity. The reason behind it is because there are a lot of excessive drinking/ promiscuity cases that leads to the judgement and discrimination against individuals who enjoys this form of entertainment. However, clubbing itself can also be a form of self-expression and pure enjoyment.

Our approach:

As we realize that there is a tiny possibility of us to approach the negative stigma and change people's perception towards clubbers, we then tried to see from a perspectives of the clubber instead, on how our service would be able to elevate their clubbing experience:

Implementing safe and security, better customer experience, creating diverse entertainment options, promote inclusivity and diversity, create more collaborations.

Knowing all of that in mind, then we were trying to identify what are the "typical experience from start to end for a clubber" , to better understand on how we can then elevate their experience:

Queuing and entering the clubs, including checking the bags
Getting drinks at the bar
Exploring the dance floor
Enjoying the music
Supper

*some of the possible stigma that we might want to approach and considered later on*

Stakeholders?

After branching out of the overall experience of going to a nightclub, we also tried to take a step further and narrowing down the possible stakeholders work with together with the company itself, so that later on we can do more connections or improve their service with design.

And yes, of course all of the things that we wrote above, our research, is not based on our own assumption but all based on the current experiences of the persona, those who went to nightclub.

Further Research on Which Nightclub that We're Gonna Work With

First, it's Drip. Since the very first meeting of ours, we considered this nightclub because we are very much familiar with the environment, the vibe, and even a lot of our friends also visit this nightclub. So, we thought that doing this assignment and choosing Drip may be a better fit for us since we can get a lot of insights from the Drip-goe

Second option is Ark 11. This nightclub is very much hot in the pot of all youngster here in Singapore, as it just opened recently and located in orchard, very much near towards Drip. As the new competitor for Drip, we thought that it is better also for us to do more research in this nightclub to create a comparison on their market, especially because it still attract many clubbers even though it’s just opened.

Then, we have Prism nightclub. The four of us may never been going to this club, but it is very much well known for older people than four of us to go to this nightclub, rather than Drip or ark11. As you can also see from our research above, Prism has a lot of good reviews, a lot of varieties on the club activities, as well as spacious space for all club goers to enjoy the night. Even from the marketing perspectives, Prism do has better engagement compare to the other existed clubs. Having all these qualities, we thought that going towards Prism as our company, will make us even harder to promote their service as it all mostly already in a good standard.

For all people in Singapore, even for those who just stay only for education, of course they have at least heard once about Zouk. From the marketing aspects, aesthetic, experience, activities, and stakeholders that they have is beyond designed for a school project. Choosing zouk as our company may be a good option for us, as we then can learn and practice our perspectives of service design from broader manner, because of their reputation. However, after doing further research, we thought that this club is best to just be our competitors, not as our main company to work with.

Personally, I had once visited this club. The vibe, the music, and the interior, as well as the service may be considered as the good one, but not the best. However, after looking at their brand visibility, social media engagement, as well as reviews from the club go-ers, we decided not to choose Yang as our company, as this nightclub had always been very consistent and having the least improvement from years to years, hindering our motivation for us to improve their service towards design.

Headquarters are one of the other clubs that we consider as our company. It’s because that this club is not very much well known to the club goers in Singapore. The vibe of this club is similar to Drip, as an underground club that also have 2 different levels that offer different taste of music. Furthermore, the brand engagement and reputation is also similar towards our current finding and approach to delivering the “next level” of club.

The last club that we ever considered to be working to is Marquee. This nightclub is by far the most well-known amongst the club goers, even by the tourist, or those who live outside of Singapore, because it is owned by TAO Group. Other than the other clubs that serve its purpose merely for partying and their music/dance, this particular club sell the “lifestyle” of Singapore, or even those who are expensively rich; due to its location that is near towards Casino, designed with the purpose of being similar to those in Las Vegas. With all of the exposure and resources (as in money) that Marquee has, we decided to drop it as our chosen company, as this nightclub is TOO BIG, TOO LARGE, and does not meet the requirement for this assignment

Personal Reflection

As you can see from the picture on the left, this is our progress that we made for only twice meeting. I'm very glad that even with the different backgrounds, skillset, as well as knowledge that the four of us have, we all agree that doing research is an essential aspect in designing. As it then help us to narrow down our thoughts, gain more insights, to understand our company better, and even to see more competitors for our chosen company on the later on.

For the next meetings that we will have, I wish that this work phase will be consistent, our excitement, and our goals, so that we can enjoy the overall process and gain a lot of inputs and insights while practicing our skill in approaching service design.

Here's the summary/notes on the article:

Cherry is also well known for their aesthetic and vibes amongst youngster. However, as we see online, there were a lot of bad reviews and even controversial perspectives that already been going on mouth-to-mouth, creating this nightclub as one that have bad reputations; which makes us don't want to choose it as our company

Discussion and Class Activity: SWOT Analysis

1. Drip

2. Ark11

3. Headquarters

Result:

After having further discussion and even narrowed them down with the help of SWOT Analysis, we decided to further work with Drip nightclub.

Reflection of doing SWOT

I would probably say that comparing the process for doing this assignment to the previous term, I did more research and reflecting the results on this one. I learnt that processing our findings and data are also important. Because by then, we can narrowed down our thoughts and see more clearly on the possibility of the next steps and approach, by looking at many aspects. One of the method to assess it is by doing SWOT Analysis.

I must admit that at first, I thought that this analysis is merely useful for developing individual characteristics, which was why the exercise of it was included on my PDP on Year 1. Then, I realized that by applying this analysis also to help us choose our company, if very much useful also. Because, it then helps us assess internal factors that might affect the business (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats) on the company that we might possibly working with. In other words, it also help us to have further understanding about who they are, what they do, or even other competitors that may hinder their development. Furthermore, after doing the analysis, then our group was trying to review and right away able to act on the results of the SWOT Analysis, which is to create our own value proposition along with the basic knowledge of Drip.

Having all this experience, I would use this analysis again in the future to help me assess my thoughts and see further possibility on the development of my approach in design.

Week 10.1

A value proposition is a simple statement that summarizes why a customer would choose your product or service. It communicates the clearest benefit that customers receive by giving you their business.

A value proposition stands as a promise by a company to a customer or targeted market segment. The proposition is an easy-to-understand reason why a customer should buy a product or service from that particular business.

Reflection of Lecture:

The value proposition is pretty much like the end goal that our customer shall have after having our service. By offering this value, it is pretty much like the measurement of the success based on our service. In other words, having this one line of value will guide us further on how we may approach the problem/ findings from our customer.

Some other way to approach it is to reflect this following statement/thoughts:

- We assume that... but the customer thinks that... because "why" your customer thinks or feels differently

- what is working in the company we chose and what is not working

- identify which fit our company fits under (can b more than one)

What I gain from this lecture is that the value that we will have, will lay the foundation for what the company cares about most. It provides a common purpose that all employees should understand, work towards and live by. Next, once we define and promote our values, we can come to understand the behaviors that are expected of the persona that will lead to success.

Lecture Feedback of the SWOT, Chosen Company, and Our Response

After looking at the SWOT, then what is the next level of Drip?

- Based on our latest finding from articles and other reviews of Drip, along with a lot of perception of nightclubs being negative, we were trying to make Drip as a safer place for people to go clubbing. For now, that is all the insights that we could get from our research, however, we are going to take the next level of research by doing site visit, conducting surveys and interviews.

What is the pain points of your recent findings?

Most of them are based on their experience on the pre-, during, and after the clubbing. Which includes on their process of:

- Getting home, problem finding transport

⁃ Post club supper

⁃ Safety and perception of clubs

Research points to look further from the lecturer:

⁃ What about conducting interview and cross reference on why certain people go different clubs? then must try to pointed out some key insights on different club goers

⁃ How about creating events that have no relation with the usual club goers. Tea dance? How do we make use of the space

⁃ Wholesome experience? Different experience?

- Please do more research on other competitors such as festivals, tomorrowland, and coachella to gain more insights on the pain points/ unit selling propostions

⁃ Think about our generational habits and lifestyle? What do people at our age do, can we find opportunities in that?

Our Response

We realize that there are a lot of missing points that we had no further research about. Thus, on the next step, we will try to do more research and more comparison towards the other existing events, activities, or any other possibilities on how we can manage to make use of Drip's space, or even their existing propositions that aligns with their brand. But first, we will look deeper on the company itself, and try to understand better about their brand as a guide for further consideration of stakeholders/ service.

Research: All about Drip's social media

Drip is very much well known amongst youngster. Which is probably why, this club's only online platform is on Instagram. Through their instagram, they release some announcement on the upcoming nights, promotion, as well as the activities that will be conducted on the space of Drip itself.

They are very much responsive on their instagram, by answering several questions related to the events that they conducted; and very much take responsibility of their customer's convenience by having a separate instagram account for lost objects during the operation of nightclub.

Also, as you can see from our research, all of the key events that is held at Drip is all related towards the lifestyle of nightclub, as well as varieties of artistic activities such as screen print that they also take advantage of by connecting it with promotion as marketing effort.

Research: All about Drip's Review

Pro review observations of drip

- Reviews mostly praised the good ambience and aesthetics of the club

- Music was praised for being good even in some of the bad reviews

- Very thoughtful lost and found social media service (hinting to the club's empathetic nature)

- Staff were friendly and helpful, including certain bouncers

- Drip seems to have made someone who felt older, feel younger in one of the reviews

- One of the reviews mentioned HDL (Supper opportunity)

- Younger target audience to relate to such as teenagers and youths (activities opportunity)

con review observations of drip

- Bouncer unprofessionalism, rudeness or racism, were complaints among majority of the 1 star reviews

- Hot and stuffy place with ventilation issues were pointed out

- Music for some other reviews felt little to be desired? (Feels more subjective, maybe an opportunity for ppl to know what to expect?)

- Slippery floors

- Queueing experience for tickets were bad with no differentiation between pre purchased and walk ins (lets see, since we pre purchased)

- Complaints about the staffing were brought up in some reviews

All about Drip's online article

- A quirky entrance sign hinting at a cheeky vibe relatable to clubbers within the 18 - 24 age range

- Drip costs $32.50 on eventbrite and $40 walkin

5 min walk from dhoby ghat MRT, accessible in terms of distance

Drip consist of 2 floors for different music genres. the main room hosting Top 40 EDM, or the Salt Room with hip hop tunes and experimental tracks

Reflection of conducting online research of Drip:

It is very much important for us to conduct the research of Drip, until each of reviews out there online. The reason why is because it will give our “design team” an insights on Drip’s identity, the memorable impression of their customers, their pain points, and to further consideration of marketing or “next level” service that we will provide.

It is not an easy process of course. And as you can see on the screenshot of our Miro, we wrote the research in a very much detail manner. This was all successfully gathered, thanks to all of the member of this group’s contribution on doing the research, by dividing our responsibility in several platform of research.

Even though that there are a lot of research that we conducted on Drip’s brand reputation since the very first beginning of this brief, we still think that it is not yet enough to support our knowledge on the overall brand reputation of Drip. Which is why, then we extended the overall research process through conducting survey dedicated to all different types of people (let alone they are a club goers or not), to understand better about the outside looking in of club experience, as well as Drip.

Research: Survey

Conducting a survey is one of the key activities that we must have on the process of research and design. Because, it will provide reliable, usable, primary data to inform business decisions. They are important because the data comes directly from the individuals we have identified in our goal, and surveys will gives us a detailed, systematic way to view and analyze our issue for broader perspectives.

Here’s the flow of our planned survey that we will conduct. It will be covered into three different main topics: their perspectives in clubbing, those who go to club, and their own experience or going to clubs (as well as the reason on why they may never go to a club before), lastly, is their knowledge of Drip.

On this survey also, we were trying to gather more information about our competitors, which will be dedicated on those who go and those who never go to club, to have better insights and understanding of other expectations and experiences at different clubs.

Flow of our survey questions

Week 10. 2

Field Research: Drip

Intentions

Our next research method is by visiting the club and do silent observation, as well as role-playing as the club goers who enjoy their Friday night at Drip. But first, we also listed down our intentions on our observation, or some key aspects that we need to take some look into throughout the process.

Pre Drip

We went to the club from 10pm to make an observation about what people were doing on their journey before going to the venue (Drip). Here, we also sat down at the front door of Drip. What we saw are a lot of them were doing pre-drink, by gathering around outside of the venue and drink alcohol together. They bought they own bottle and threw them away later on, keeping the space clean. After that they just came inside Drip and following the queue, then, the security would check our ID, tickets, and bags.

During Drip

Main Room - the pool, the installation made by NAFA student

From the moment that we walked in towards Drip, we were given a card for us to redeem on the latter for a complimentary drink of one glass of drink that we will chose on our own. But, first, we were trying to experience the infamous swimming pool that created a lot of attractions of the club goers, and "the main place for hangouts" as quoted from the reviews on the internet.

Some of the reviews said that the floor is slippery, which turns out to be true, because it is made out of the kind of tiles that we would have for our bathroom. But, even so, for us to climb into the pool, they have a pole to hold on to which then anticipated the fall.

Main Room - the vibe and the chant

Just like what we already discovered from the reviews and article, the main room in Drip is very famous for their crowd, as well as the kind of music that they will play there (mostly EDM music). If you played the video that I attached above, you could listen to some “chants” that the Drip-goers made while the DJ was playing the song. While I was there, I was very confused on why these people were making the chant. And it turns out to be not just me, because the DJ even thought that it was very “lame” for them to do so at the club. Because, they kept on repeating this chant for more than once, or even through all of the night. And to be honest, it annoyed me so much as I then could not really heard the music.

However, the chant itself can be seen as a proof that all of the people there are having a good night together. Becoming as one as they scream the chant together. So, even though that some may find it very disturbing, the other group of people may find this as one of the selling point, to be having the one similarity and community on their own way of enjoying their nights.

The art installation at Drip's main room

This is one of the many art installation in the main room. If you take a deeper look into the paintings, you could clearly tell that there is no certain meaning or relation of containing it in the middle of this nightclub. It's probably just a painting out of acrylic that the Drip owners thought was cool, and goes well along the brand image of Drip.

Even so, from this installation, we could really tell that all of the decoration contained at Drip are considered with aesthetic in mind, which then really support our motivation of becoming their design team; to improve their service with aesthetic and business perspective.

Main Room -the bar

The time when I took of all pictures above were when it was almost 1 am, and you could still see that the crowd near the bar is still full by people. Which also shown of the Drip goer’s excitement on still having some drinks, even when the party was almost over.

For the bar, here, we tried to assess their bartender service. So, I role-played as someone who never had the experience on going clubbing and ask for the way to customized-order my drink. The result, is that their staffs are very friendly on giving response towards my “first timer” experience, and even giving me further recommendation of my drinks.

Go downstairs- salt room

After observing the crowd upstairs, then we go down towards the salt room which usually is known for their hip-hop music, and the crowd that always “pass the vibe”. Here, you can see the transformation of the vibe and crowd when we were about to go down. Different than the main room which is dominated by blue color and aesthetic, the salt room is more dominated by the color of green and laser.

Salt Room- the environment and decoration

The space downstairs are not as big as the main room. However, the designer of this space is very much successful for creating another different high pedestal such as the main room’s one, to even emphasized the place for the club goers to dance. Some of the decoration in this room is also included with “random” Albert Einstein’s head at the very corner of the bar. There is no further description about the meaning of that statue there, but, we assume that it meant to be purely for aesthetic.

For the crowd, there is no chant or any different shouting that is not the same as the lyrics. If you do play the video, you could clearly tell also that without the chant, all people are still successfully enjoy and had a good time throughout the night. With one another, it is like they become one with the music and the dance. Here, there was also a “hype man” which is someone who supports the music which a DJ plays in clubs. Which allows the club to cater to its patrons in a much personal way, such as giving shout outs and amplifying the feeling of the song which the DJ's play. Other than the DJ, I would say that this hype man also carry the whole night, helping the club-goers to fancied and being lifted up throughout the night.

Salt Room- the bar

Same as the main room, we tried to do some role playing as someone who never went to a club before. And it turns out that the service of the bar of this club is always consistent! They are very much friendly to ask my questions, giving recommendation with a very welcoming response.

But, in other aspects of collecting the glass, there is no certain place for it, which made us and other club goers to just dump our glass at some random table. Some of the drinks were spilled, which later on made the dancefloor to be slippery:(

Post Drip- inside the club

After enjoying the night for more than 4 hours inside the club, Drip then closed at around 3 am. The lights then suddenly turned on, for both main room and salt room. As a result, then the security and all the staffs were directing the way out (in a friendly manner). All of the people inside the club were also being mindful, by just following the security and leave the club in a controlled crowd.

Post Drip- outside the club

Here’s a video of the situation outside club after the party is finished. You could tell that there are a lot of people waiting outside, and there were a lot of crowds who were laying down at the ground, as they got tired of the fun night they had with friends!

As becoming the “customer” of Drip, I would admittedly say that all 4 of us were really enjoy and fancy the night on the whole process of observation and spending the Friday night together, and will visit Drip at other times!

Observation

#1st member

Before:

People hanging around to wait for friends and sitting at random spots as there were no seats (point to a waiting area outside drip?)
No queues at around 1030
Bouncers were friendly and professional (not sure if they will be when it gets busy)
Club goers were about our age range or younger

During:

Club was empty at first as we went in early
Ventilation and aircon felt pretty good, not too cold nor hot either
People that were early sat on sofas on the first level and some were just chilling at bar tables at the 'salt room' (level below 1st floor)
Stef had ordered drinks from bars on both levels and bartenders were nice and friendly overall
Staff had kindly asked us to move from our table as someone else bought a bottle so priority goes to them, he had told me that we could use the other empty tables until another group buys a bottle to share
DJs on both the top and bottom levels were alr playing music and the type of music changes based on the timing as more people come in at 12am ish
Bottles were expensive, so we didn't buy, but the bigger groups had bottles on the table
Music was meh tbh, they could have done better with a truly different style from first floor and underground.. In their defense, first floor was stated to be more like top 40EDMs while the bottom is hip hop, r&b, pop vibes... Couldnt really tell the difference between the two overall other than the occasional EDM song on first floor.
As there are two levels, people constantly moved between the two as different music was played
First level had gang chants (majority from guys, maybe army guys)? salt room didn't, which i find quite interesting between the two groups of clubbers
when girls and guys were in a group, the guys can be seen looking out for the girls sometimes
The dressing of most ppl in the club were either really hypebeast or sexy
There were alot of shoes that were plain and non expensive (since its a club i assume ppl scared to be stepped on wearing expensive shoes)
Many guys were barely holding bags (except me), while girls had mini purses
Toilet door locks were still not fixed from the google reviews
Many people were dancing and knew alot of the songs in the salt room, probably more knew the songs on the first floor since its supposed to be top 40EDMs, very few were sitting down around, and nobody puked?
Drip's overall design concept in its interior incorporates many stage-type, performance spaces where people can dance in/on to show their moves
Age group actually ranged from our age and below, even up at times
Drip allowed for smoking and vaping, not sure if it applies to all clubs?

After:

The end of the night, the DJ on the first level was pinpointing those who chanted as immature and didn't want the club to be associated with the likes of the gang
There was a whole crowd of people gathering outside the club space, waiting for taxis or grab, some even walked to other areas to catch a grab such as 313 somerset or plaza singapura
Supper is such a vibe at that timing and I was keen on getting food since im already out and about
Taxis and grab are hard to find (opportunity for alternative service?)

#2nd member

Before:

the security is quite friendly and professional
they checked our ic and bags

During:

we smell the lingering smelling of smoke when we entered the room
the two rooms have totally different vibe and music style
when it 1050pm, ppl were just chatting, the music still not that loud, but we still felt hard to hear each other
bartenders were friendly
11pm, suddenly a lot of ppl appeared on the first floor
Females always come with their boyfriend to at least one male, but the males always come as a huge group
WE CAN NOT LOCK THE TOILET
the age group are pretty mix. We met a lot of college students, young adults around 25, and a few adults who looked 35+ years old.
their are blocks for ppl to dance on, we saw 3 ppl sharing one block
outside smoking area, there’s no trash can, no sitting area, ppl were sitting on the flowerbeds
Embrace to all (LGBTQIA+
Ppl walked up the stairs connecting the 2 rooms and we could observe their dissatisfaction with the music in one room, so they changed the room to stay.
Salt room has 2 DJs, one controlling the music and on singing on the microphone, moderating the atmosphere and interacting with the audience.
the later the time, the heavier the bass
the DJ controlling the music receives cues from the DJ with the mic, when the one with mic shouts “DJ, dj”, the music changes,
DJ changed 18 songs within 10 mins, when they found that there are less than a half of ppl dancing, its time to change song.
Drip uses plastic cups instead of glass cups, avoiding the cups dropping and breaking, then hurt the customers.
There is a hole under the stage in the saltroom, and cold air is blowing out from it. Is it on purpose??
there is another hold on the wall near the toilet, looks like somebody broke it. The wall is not solid.
0255am the lights on
when the lights on, ppl stoped dancing on the block

After:

The staffs became more serious when its time to close. They loudly spoke to the customers, “the exit is that way”, and pointed the direction of the exit. (Feel that they could add more signs pointing to the exit, eg, lighted arrows etc.)
some of us felt hungry after clubbing
its very hard to find a driver at that time and location, many ppl were sitting on the stairs in front of the gate, slightly blocked the way to exit bc they are waiting for taxi.
we have to walk to the nearest taxi stand to take taxi, which took us around 7-8 mins to reach there.
its hard to find a driver through grab, after finding the drivers, we waited for more than 10 mins.

#3rd member

Before:

arrived at around 10:30pm and there was no queue (can see a few ppl trickling in once in awhile)
thought it was because their business was affected by the opening of ARK11 nearby as long queues at Drip is quite a common sight (turns out that the long queue started at around 12:30AM-1AM as Drip posted about the queue on their IG story)
there were ppl waiting at the big area outside of the club probably for their friends / to pre-drink
saw a few taxis dropping off club goers
first they check our nric, before scanning our tickets. we were then given the chop + the free drink tickets
then came bag check and we were told to empty our bottles
security and staff outside were professional and friendly
most of the club goers seemed to be around our age

During:

when we entered, there were not much people around and no one was dancing or gathering at the dj booth for both rooms. however, there were groups of people drinking at the sofa and tables. (as it was still early on in the night)
it started to get crowded from around 11:30pm onwards and there was a huge difference in crowd from when we first entered. more people were drinking and getting drinks from the bar (need to queue but it was unclear which part was to order the drinks, which part was to redeem the drinks)
we redeemed the drinks at the start of the bar. when we wanted to buy more drinks, apparently we had to go to the end of the bar, order and then come back to the start of the bar with the receipt before getting the drinks aka walk twice & repeat order twice.
when its midnight, more people are gathering at the dj booth area and dancing. altho there were some ppl just standing around (sometimes in the middle of the crowd) and not doing anyth like alone and just blocking the way tbh................
we spent most of our time at salt room as the music there was better. we did went up to main room twice and saw how the crowd grew from earlier but got turn off when people started chanting????? (even the djs called them out and said they were lame) so we went back down where people dont chant and just enjoy the music
salt room also got crowded over the night (there were 2 djs throughout the night, some songs were repetitive and the second half got hypeman)
lighting and visuals were quite blinding if u stood at certain places (like the laser kinda lights gets in ur eye sometimes)
ez to navigate to toilet since i knew where they were at but experienced both toilet doors not being able to lock for both cubicles in main & salt room
at 2am we were defeated and we sat down on a sofa (luckily no one chased us away so we were just observing the crowd and even tried to airdrop our survey hahahah)
dj made an announcement that its the last song and they ended at 3am. headed up to main from salt room to exit the club. as the lights were on, we could see clearer how the club interior actually looks like.
bouncers were "fiercer" as they redirected ppl to exit the club in the correct direction and their tone sounds annoyed when ppl go in the wrong direction.

After:

there were soooo many people already outside the club when we exited. obv there were drunk people too
it was a fun night with my grpmates tho, nice to see that everyone was letting loose
usually i'll go for supper after clubbing but i was so tired from being in sch the entire day and the clubbing the night away hahaha
we walked to 313's taxi stand to book grab as the outside of the club looks overwhelming and it would probably be hard for us to find the driver when they arrive. there were quite a bit of ppl at the 313 7/11 taxi stand also (probs just finish clubbing also but unsure if they came from drip)
didnt have to wait long to find grab but the prices were insaneeee

my observations:

Before:

us:

The security were checking out our IC/ Singpass. Since it was the four of us and the ticket is compiled into one (as lists) it was fast as it only require one person only to show it and be scanned.
They were checking out our bags. This time, i intentionally not bring any bag and keep my belonging in my cargo pockets, they did not check.
We need to throw away any of drinks that we have (probably to prevent any alcohol to comes in)
Overall service was meh. Not very welcoming but not so rude, the service itself was okay for the entrance

other people:

at 10.30, not so many people came in and most of them who already did were waiting outside of the club to smoke and talked to one another
Most of them came there by car, as a friend group (rarely saw couple there)
The queue itself was not long when we were outside
Not so much of pre-drink, but a lot of smokers. around the club <in front of it, there were a lot of stairs> but none of them disturb the queue for entering the club
All of them were youngsters, 18-27, or probably cool auntie or uncle at their mid 30s
While queuing people just wait while talking with one another. Nothing special and just wait for their turn to enter the club

During:

Upstairs

Complementary drinks. the staff were very friendly and patient to give us recommendations of their available drink for free. Very much professional, with smile, welcoming. All of the bartenders were nice
The floor was a bit slippery. I tbh almost fall bcs of the light, as I was queuing I didnt see my step and notice the different level of floor
The queue for the bar was very crowded. And there was no sign on which area we could buy our drinks (and not to exchange the complimentary drink card)
While waiting for the queue at the bar, people were very nice, they even greeted me when our eyes met, no stealing places and they wait patiently
First come first serve for the standing table. for those who did not buy bottle
The lights were not connected to the music itself (not sync to their rhythm or so)but blue color oriented
Not so many people noticed the wall, the art painted by NAFA students, but it def took some attention for some
at 10 pm -12 am, the music were just mash up and remixes version of edm. Not so many people were enjoying the crowd or vibe to the music, as that was the time for them to drink
12- end. A lot of people do the giant chant. They seem to enjoy the music there as it got more towards progressive, techno, and remixes of 2000s music (but the Dj found it v lame for them to keep on doing it)
The sofa table were not as crowded (not many ppl fill in and pay), but around the dancefloor, people be very much vibe into the music and even make out with one another (but there was no fight ya)
Not many people utilized the pool. We assume that it will be more to be used for instagram/ taking pic. But they don't really care and just vibe on their own. If ppl get tired.

Downstairs

Staff were very friendly. They keep their service consistent, of professionalism, smiling, and very much welcoming for newbies. They were very polite and patient to introduce me on the available drinks
The music was LITTT. Many people were vibing, dancing, and singing with one another, even let's say that they dont know each other.
The lighting/ the laser did not sync with the music, but they are very green oriented
The hypeman really carry out the whole night. It then made the crowd to really pass the vibe of the song, and enjoying the night together
The floor was def slippery, because after people drink they put their glass on the table which sometimes poured on the floor accidentally by the us
There were not so much of impressive design (except for the random albert einstein statue at the back which is not done yet), as people just be there for the music and dance
Some of the wall/ stairs got hole (not so much of affecting the use of it but it did affect the sound distribution)
People were very mindful, respectful, and cheerful
We could sit at one of the table (i dont think we could actually) but the bouncers were very nice to let us do so
at 10pm-12pm, the music were pop remixes
at 12-end. The music was more towards hiphop, rnb and a bit sensual. But the transition was perfect and smooth
After
THE TOILET WAS HORRIBLE FOR BOTH UPSTAIRS AND DOWNSTAIRS. SMELLS LIKE PEE EVERYWHERE AND THE DOOR CANNOT BE LOCKED
Even though that the floor was a bit slippery, people mind their step so even when we go upstairs, there were no accident
When people walked outside, they seem to enjoy their night (smiley face, even got some random people posing while we took pic)
The security was very professional and very strict. They really treated all of us as though we were drunk maybe? so maybe seems a bit rude but actually the nicest security at club that i ever encountered
Many people were waiting for their taxi to come (not so much to walk towards train/ bus stop)
A lot of stores were closed alr, only 7/11 that still open
We did not feel hungry, just a bit gassy? probably because of the alcohol that came in
Taxi were abit hard to find (since we then went to somerset and it was also the closing of ark11 club)

Reflection on doing field observation/role play

isiting Drip as four really do help us see this nightclub at a more objective manner, as the judgement and the overall impression of this club will just be decided based on that one visit that we had together. Furthermore, field research can provide a deeper understanding of the local situation, allowing us to measure the origins, scope and scale of a problem, as well as to gauge local opinions on the causes, consequences and means to resolve a problem. Because, in the middle of the process, we also manage to send out our survey and be filled up by some of the people inside Drip;)

Other than that, having this research also help us to assess their service by ourselves, and test the truth of all the reviews and outside opinion that people currently have over Drip. Even better, we got to compare the current state of Drip with other clubs similar to Drip, which is Ark11, when we were waiting for our taxi (post-drip). There, we also interviewed them about the overall experience that they got from the club. And most of them also had the same difficulties, which was to find a transportation to deliver them home:)

Overall, having field research helped us gather more information regarding the overall experience, encountering some pain points, and even gain more insights by putting our shoes on our persona. By doing that, it will guide us to improve the service of Drip, for their customers, or even to attract more possible customer outside of their regular ones.

Week 11. 1

Research: Survey Results

1st section: Demographic and Club Scene

Turns out that most of the response that we want to gather under the "clubbing" environment or perceptions were covered mostly on those who have not so much interest in going clubbing. Which then made us questioned and reflected further "Why do the response are very much back to back towards those who enjoy clubbing?".

One of the response that represent the reason why most people have that perception is due to the "passing down" generation to generation, that they are being brainwashed by their parents that a club is a dangerous place for people to have unpleasant experience. That it is a place for people to hook ups with one another, do drugs, or drinking excessively. However, based on our observation at Drip, there was no such activities taken throughout the night.

So, is it that our job as the design team to approach this possibility to change the perception of nightclubs? Or just for us to improve the service of clubs for those who go, and help them prove that there are not so much of negative activities along the nightclub?

2nd section: Understanding the Party goers/ none party goers/ those who don't go anymore (+they knowledge about Drip)

There may not be a lot of our respondents who ever went to Drip. However, the impression of Drip, along with their own negative or positive experience at this nightclub will most likely push them to recommend this nightclub to their friends.

Party Goers

We also want to know about our competitors to understand better their value proposition or any other qualities that makes our customer/ party people go there. The majority of those who said "YES" they go to club, said that they ever went Marquee. After that, it is Drip and Zouk. And here's also the reason why:

For zouk it had a great atmosphere with good music and the target audience was a balance of young and older people
the venue and ambience
The music

Those who used to go to club

Those who never go to club

Even for those who may never been to club, we also asked them on their opinion on which club in Singapore would be the one that they would most likely to visit. We provided several visual of the interior of those clubs, but turns out that not so much of the response were answering Drip as their go to club.

This then pushes us to wonder also, about the qualities that other clubs have, but not being obtained by Drip. However, most of the response just answered this question based on their knowledge from their friends, or just naming the "famous" club that most people usually mentioned to. So, this then lead towards our opportunity to ponder: "Even after being in Singapore for awhile, what makes Drip to not becoming a well known club aside from the newest competitor such as Ark11?"

Then, the answer to that questions are: Because some of the other clubs are actually making use of their potential to extend and expand their service by providing several other activities that are club related. For example: Zouk has their own DJ class and Yang usually rented out their space for annual events such as Indonesian Night, all of which are the kind of activities that were never been conducted at Drip.

It then leads us to encounter another opportunity, which is to make use of the space of Drip as one of our approach of service design.

Research: Other Competitors' Pricing

After conducting the survey, we realized that one of the most important aspects on the party-goers’ consideration of clubs are based on the pricing of the club.

Here then, we conclude the pricing of different clubs as our competitors. By having this all, we hope that later on when we are doing the strategy to set up our service can be affected by the pricing as the unit selling point of Drip.

Problem Statement

After having all of the data from our respondents, as well as doing further research at Drip and online reputation, we then created our problem statement.

But, before that, we also concluded all of this points in mind that all problem statement should cover these 3 aspeects, as a guide to create one:

1. The background of a problem.

Which organization or department has the problem and what is the problem? Why has the problem arisen? Note that in some cases you may not know the exact causes of the problem. This is what discoveries are for: to uncover root causes. (In this case, you may add this aspect once you’ve done your research)

2 The people affected by the problem.

There could be multiple user groups affected by a specific problem in different ways. In the problem statement, you should call out how the problem affects users. In some cases, internal employees (particularly customer-support staff) can be affected by a problem, as they often bear the brunt of poor user experiences –- for example, by handling disgruntled customers.

3 The impact of the problem on the organization.

If the problem is not fixed, what will be the effect on the organization? Reputational damage? Paying unavoidable costs? Losing out-of-market share? In some cases, you may want to quantify the impact in order to convince your organization to fix the problem. Your discovery could involve working out how much this problem costs the organization, and this information could end up in your problem statement.

so, it then lead us to several possible problem statement:

Based on the pain points that we had on the clubbing culture experience that it usually laid on the negative perceptions, we saw a lot of opportunities on re-designing Drip as from the aspect of being inclusive, as a safe space for club or non club goers to enjoy their night. By having this, it can be one of the Drip's selling point

Final one:

Clubbing and "nightlife" have long been associated with excessive drinking, drug abuse and frivolous activities, leading to negative perceptions. As the design team at Drip Singapore, our goal is to challenge these stereotypes and redefine clubbing as not only a lifestyle but also an inclusive space that celebrates life itself. How can we offer more than just clubbing culture and set Drip apart from other clubs?

The key points of this problem statement is to change the perception of clubs and making use on the way of it to become as one of Drip's unit selling point.

Value Propositions

After deciding on the problem statement, it then becomes our job to create the value proposition, as the overall purpose and main goal, the value that our customer will have after experiencing our service. So here are also some of our considerations/ brainstorm process:

Final one:

Feel alive, live the life #atDrip

The main meaning behind this value proposition is to sell the lifestyle of nightclub as just a life at night, with Drip; not related with all of the negative perception that is currently stuck in between the society.

Our Ideation: Dance Defense

As we also encountered that people who went to club usually had no idea to dance or vibe to the music, we also thought about adding a separate "Dance class" to teach to the customer, so that they can have a better confidence while in the club. Also, since Drip is famous for their music and known as the best place to learn a dance moves.

However, we then encountered a problem that the space of the club may not be possible to contain a lot of participants to learn a dance movements in between of the limited space. Other logistic and technical issues may also happen, such as: the placement of mirror. Having that in mind, then we test on ourselves on learning a dance from a dancer but without mirror. The results are, it is possible to do so. You can see on the process of us testing it on the video that I attached above:)

Discussion: Creating a Pop-Up ---> Dance pop-up

Even though that the "mirror" problem already been solved, the problem of the limited space at Drip is still being unanswered. So, we were considering of creating an external pop up.

We were also trying to expand the idea of learning a dance move but in a more purpose manner. So, how about the dance that we were teach is related towards a defense movement? because by doing so, we also promote the safe environment that we want to achieve on the space of Drip:)

About Dance Defense:

Dance Defense is an innovative concept that enables dancers to not only showcase their skills but also ensure a safe and enjoyable experience on the dance floor. By integrating effective defense strategies into clubbing dance moves, individuals can actively ward off unwanted attention and maintain a personal space that promotes comfort and security. With Dance Defense, dancers can explore a variety of techniques and tactics to navigate crowded dance floors, assert their boundaries, and create a positive environment for everyone involved. So whether you're a seasoned dancer or just starting out, Dance Defense empowers you to express yourself freely while staying in control of your personal space.

Our Ideation: Considering our customer's experience in the before, during, and after Drip

As we got stuck, me and Yilin then were trying to compare the club environment, features, or any different service that we have back in our country (Indonesia and China). While Timothy and Megan were also contributed by telling us their perpective on our ideation. Then, after looking at it from the bigger picture, we thought that implementing some activities other than the "typical clubbing activities", which is dancing through to music or drinking; such as playing games, arcade games sounds fun. And we were almost implement it on Drip.

The reason why is:

- Drip goers are usually those around the age of 18-25

- Its location is around orchard, even though that some tourist may come there, we also want to create the "fun" experience, as well as every youngsters can do during the noon to release their stress of work/ school

- "nightlife" is just life at night. By having the game and arcade, youngster will have more chance to interact with one another while still vibing to the music

But the problem is: Drip nightclub has its own limitation of space, and adding more physical features that will taking more space for our customer to dance, may not be a great idea. So, then we were brainstorming together to make use of the Drip's unit selling point, which is their vibe, music, environment, and people:)

Reflection

We were actually stuck in the middle of this process. And have no direction on further pushing our thoughts on thinking about what kind of other approach that we could possibly do to meet the problem statement as well as our value proposition....

Thus, there is a belief that I always applied on my design process:)

It is that when we got stuck, we must take some several step back and take some walk.

For some, they thought that it is best for them to just keep on looking (which is coming from my other group mates). So, in combination we did all our principles that works for us, and come back again to got clearer idea.

Discussion: Inflatable Nightclub for Drip?

We were thinking about creating an inflatable nightclub for Drip. This consideration is based on the assumption of ours, that if people are just creating their own party that will be attended by several people that they intentionally invited to, would not that mean that the overall space be most likely safer? As it then inclined with our problem statement, we then try to push and “digest” this idea in our mind.

However, after discussing about it for quite awhile and seeing it from different aspects (one of it is the regulation in Singapore), it may not be possible for us to just make this ideation happen in real life, here, in Singapore. The reasons are mostly related with budgeting (money), electricity, and the market that may not be as huge as those who still go to club. Because, after all, people go to a club for the space. And we’re afraid that this inflatable space may not really deliver the needs of having the same vibe/ environment as the actual club.

Lecture's Feedback for Our Rield Research and Problem Statement

All of the approach and efforts to create a safe space in clubbing will most likely shift the overall club environment to be safe and boring. Club needs those “high risk things” to attract people. However could you (as the design team of Drip Singapore) break the atmosphere of the nightclub itself and take advantage of those negative perception?

As mentioned towards the several service that we already have, it seems like it loses some essential touch points (or maybe it is not being highlighted enough). So, maybe can pointed that out better to deliver the design direction.

How can we make Drip stands out? Maybe by using the space itself other than the 3 nights of the operation club….. Find other activities/ possible stakeholders that can support the operation.

Our Response

Acknowledging the lecturer’s feedback, we also wonder… Even that our lecturer is not our target market (along the age range of the youngster), but they seem to consider as our efforts to be very “safe” that even may pushes us to lose our customer. So, as a response we were trying to reinvent the perception of it to create a sense of community, Drip community….

Along with the fact that the Drip space is not capable of holding a lot of different activities that we initially wanted to have at the club, we’ve decided to create an external pop-up, and there will be conducted several activities that goes along with the night club activities, or any activities that the youngster and club goers can gained into.

By providing these different types of activity, our aim is to portrays that there are more than just negative perceptions at the club, that what's happening inside the club during the night is just... LIFE. (which then goes along towards our value propositions)

Other than creating an external pop-up, we also thought and gather several “random ideas” and any different types of efforts that we could possibly do to promote the safe and inclusive club. One of our key points is to promote a responsible drinking habit, by providing a wristband.

However, thinking about the practicality, some of the club goers may feel rather uncomfortable to have some objects swirling around their wrist while dancing. So, we narrowed down the object into smaller pieces, which is coming on a form of stamp/tattoo.

Other possible approach that we have not thought about further also including having a separate operation of nightclubs, but only specifically created for those who wishes to have the safest club environment amongst all, which requires no alcohol involvement.

Reflection

In between of the process, we were stuck and it really hold us back on moving further. We feel like we had all of the data that we need but seems to cannot connect all the dots together, taking advantage on what are already in front of us. Our communication with one another sometimes also got stuck, because we were too panic and still not used to with the terms of service design:)

This then also lead us to not having effective discussion and may be the time where possible bad things happened. However,

Because all of our members have the same goals and still have the same excitement on tackling this project, we still managed to move on and try to find our own way to make it fun throughout the process. For example, we tried to apply the demo of the dance defense and laugh for a while:)

On this “stop” process, I realized that when we are working with group, it is easier for us to get back to our track and see several possibilities from many aspects. Which is, for me is very much enjoyable and priceless experience that I would never encountered if I never gotten the chance to work in a group. Also, with all of the different experience and perspectives that we had, I saw it as the potential for us to keep on moving forward, even during “stuck moments”.

In the future even, if I did encounter the same difficulties as this one, whether if it did happen on a group project/ individual, I’ll try to apply some other method of relieving it by “keep on going” and absorb any of the data that I get, then stop for awhile to have a thought process; which were the method that this group did and successfully passed:)

Week 11. 2

Class Activity: Presentation for 1 Paragraph

Lecture and Peer's Feedback

Will drip be safe and boring?
Is drip opening on other days?
Find places which are important, interesting
What is the direction? Alcohol? Relationship? Something unique?
What is the next level of clubbing?

Our Response

We realized that based on our presentation, there were a lot of confusion happened on the definition of club being “safe”. Which was also leading towards the end result to make Drip loses their customers. So, we then discussed further and take a several possibility of the type of pain points/ current problem that we may tackle onto.

Which is: Looking at the future possibility of Drip losing their customer (from the business aspect). So, our direction is a bit shifted to no more setting up the “safe” aspects as our main focus, but rather to create other service that will enhance Drip and make this nightclub stands out.

Research: Interview

After several share with lecturers as well as our peers, it comes to our realization that we got easily stuck with our own thoughts or our own ideas. Having that in mind, we then conducted another research which is formed into interview. Because, we also thought that even with all data that we have form our survey, it is not really enough since most of the response are collected from those who never go to club...

So, we then conducted our interview by creating it in a text and send it to our peers who had at least once, went to drip

The questions are as follows:

How did you know about drip
Why do you choose to go to Drip
Please share your experience at Drip
What do you typically do before visiting Drip
What activities do you engage in while at Drip
What do you usually do after leaving Drip
Do you prefer spending more time in the main room or the salt room
Do you usually purchase additional drinks besides the complimentary ones
Why do you return to drip or what would motivate you to revisit Drip
Is there any service that you wish was available at Drip but currently isn’t

Research: Interview outcomes

Reflection on conducting interviews

Design is a long process. Of course, even with all datas that we already gathered, it is never too much for us to conduct another research, for example another interview. In fact, I think the interview that we conducted even benefit us more on listening towards exactly what are the problem that the Drip goers usually experienced, or even their subjective perception of Drip, as well as other clubs.

By having a lot of data including this interview, we are now at the state when we must connect several points of one another, then got backed them up with another data. At this stage, i then realized the importance of having an interview, which is to help us explain, better understand, and explore research subjects' opinions, behavior, experiences, phenomenon, etc. That’s why we also created the different varieties of questions that are open-ended and not leading, so that our response will be more honest and genuine, to help us gather more insights to tackle the current issue

Other than that, I also did really enjoy on having other communication and sharing thoughts with people other than my group mates, as I could clearly create another bond and gain more empathy towards the issue, helping me to see this project on the customer's point of view.

Based on our interviews, it turns out that not so many pain points are experienced throughout their whole experience during clubbing at Drip. However, if there are any possible improvement on the overall service, it will be more towards the space (which us, as the "internal" design team of Drip may not be able to deliver. However, we then become even more sure on creating another external space for Drip-goers, which a Pop-up that will offer different types of activities in relation towards the club experience.

Further discussion about the results of the interview will be delivered on the latter journal, under the "discussion" section, which most of it are referred towards the interviews conducted by us during this period.

Week 12. 1

Discussion: Talking about Pain Points

Being ready with all of the possible data that we collected, we then discussed further but mainly towards the pain points that our persona have. Here are some of them:

Long entry lines and wait times
Expensive cover charges
Overcrowding and difficulty finding space
Loud and overwhelming environments
Limited seating and food options
Difficulty ordering drinks at crowded bars
Inconsistent music quality or genre preferences
Lack of cleanliness in restrooms
Safety concerns and potential for harassment
don't know what to do during the club (so we might provide game inside the club)
find clubbing boring, because of the flow. like they found their routine is all the same

Looking at their pain points, we then try to think about what kind of pain points that will benefit us with our current state of approach, which is to differ the existence of Drip than other clubs. Which is why, we then will go into the direction based on our persona that experienced boredom due to the same flow of nightclubs.

Discussion: Closure of Nightclubs

We were looking at different reasons of many Club to be closed in the past. Here are their reason:

- No more funding that will support the operation of the clubs

- They lose a lot of customers as another nearby club got operated at the same time (competitors)

- Their whole activity or event is mostly repetitive and not inclined with trends

- COVID 19....

Having all of this possibility of the closure of nightclubs then even pushed us to have a certain approach on reinvent Drip as the club that should stand out in the middle of other existing club operated. Most importantly, their current competitors which is located nearby: Ark11.

Discussion: Other existing clubs

Not only looking at the reason on the closure of clubs, then we also take a look at other clubs that still operates till this day, and taking a further look at their qualities or unit selling point; assessing on what is it that we can input on our service, to create Drip to gain more exposure on their marketing side as well as their service and reputation.

Here are the compilation of all clubs that ever existed in Singapore. Those who are covered with black and white filter are ones that already closed for various reason. Whereas those who still got the color, are Drip’s competitors.

Now, the big questions is:

How can we make Drip stand out amongst the other existed club?

The obvious answer:

By us offering more variety of the club experience, getting afar from what is already expected, so that it is no longer considered as one of the club in Singapore that is “monotonous” and “repetitive” as what our persona said.

Discussion: Pop-up(s) service and More Features to add on Drip(experience)

Based on our survey, internet, and interview, the party goers in Singapore thought that the whole journey of Singapore nightclub is "boring". Because of that, we then thought about creating a pop-up to elevate their journey on before and during going to Drip. The pop-ups on before to Drip:

1. Food and Drink

2. Make up Pop-up + Photo booth

Here are some of the research on visualization of our pop-ups:

Exterior of the Pop-ups

We were trying to associate any of the pop-up to look alike the literal meaning of the reason why it is build. For example, one of the pop-up will be a food and drink pop-up, as a response towards the pain points of our persona. So, we imagined the exterior of the pop-up to look similar as a shape of different glass, see through, just like water.

Additionally, as we considered this pop-up to be located not so near towards Drip, we also trying to imagine it as a marketing movement, to have the shape of it to look like a drop of water (Drip-Drop)

Pop-up outside of Drip?

Based on our response and our experience on the Drip itself, we realize that the space of this nightclub is very small, and some people even went out for awhile to catch some breath outside or just to simply smoke. Thus, we also thought about creating another space just outside of Drip, to allow the Drip goers having some break while partying, or just simply additional space for them to interact better with their gals. The shape and layout of it, however, are more towards small blocks that are easily removed. Because we don’t really know whether the space outside of Drip belongs to Drip or other company….

Goodie Bag?

Other than creating an external space for Drip, we also thought about giving some supplies in forms of goodie bag for the club goers, to even elevate the deal and the price that they paid for the night.

The main purpose of this bag is to: create a smoother post-drip experience

Inside of this bag, we were thinking to provide several medications in relation to handle the hangover phase, loyalty coupons for Drip, some promotion with our other stakeholders (most importantly with transportation app: Grab).

The design of the bag, is intended to be in a smaller size (not so big as a5) so that all of the club goers that are probably drunk/ hangover can bring it even until when they reach home

Discussion: DJ Class

As we realized that Drip's selling point is on their music, we then also considered about creating a pop-up or even just using the space of Drip for a DJ class that is accessible for those who are interested in composing music. In this course, we considered of conducting it with other stakeholders, that will provide the equipment also. In return exchange of the course, the participants then will get more education about how DJ-ing works and getting exposed to the outside world of DJ, as they will get the chance to be the assist DJ/ guest DJ at some party night at Drip.

Discussion: Other Pop-Up ---> Alcohol Patch?

There is also a concern about the safety of the craziness from drink alcohol. This is a way for us to prevent the bad things happened in club and to promote the responsible drinking

Lecture Feedback:

Our problem statement a little too broad and not an actual issue to tackle. Based on the way we present our problem to them, it shows that there is no clear direction to assist it.
Our approach of providing another pop-up does not seem to convince them on the elevation of the exprience. "why not the persona just visit another bar?"
What is the future of clubbing in a sense? Safety?

Our Response

It is true that we got a little confuse to our direction of tackling the problem. It is almost like our approach are all forced and based on our own perception. We must find a way to present or “sell” our idea of pop-ups to be more convincing and sounds very much useful to help our persona meet their needs…. Thus, our next step would be defining more of our problem statement.

Discussion: Another Problem Statement

In Singapore, a city known for its vibrant nightlife, there is no shortage of clubs. With such a competitive landscape, it is crucial for Drip to establish itself as a long-lasting presence in the local scene. So, how can we create distinctive experiences and cultivate a secure clubbing environment that sets Drip apart from other clubs?

SO, our direction is more focused on creating a secure clubbing environment and Sets Drip apart from Other Clubs.

Discussion: Persona

Demographic

Name : Cecilia
Age : 23 years old

Occupation : Undergraduate

Attitude and Personality

Enjoys drinking and socializing. Work hard, party harder. “Hiphop music is my life!”
A fashionista at heart

Pain Points

Clubbing experience in Singapore is getting “boring and repetitive”.
Unaware of her alcohol consumption limit.
Wants to be able to let loose without having to hold up her guard all the time.

Core Needs

“Safe” clubbing
Experiences that promote a sense of community.

Discussion: Final Pop-Up

#1 Pop Up: Customization of alcohol patch + Photobooth:

At the very first pop-up, our persona will be able to have their own customized alcohol patch as a way for us to promote responsible drinking. Here, we will also provide other external platform for them to have their picture taken while having fun with their peers, on their way to Drip.

The design of the alcohol patch will of course be considered with the aesthetic of Drip in mind. It will be come in a size of droplets that similar to metal liquid. With this patch, persona will be able to see their alcohol limit on the glowing of the patch.

*the backdrop of the Photobooth are purposely design with the brand image of Drip, which is known for their metal and watery equipment that can be achieved by making use of foil's texture

#2 Self Defence Dance Pop-Up

At the second pop-up, persona or our user will be able to learn some dance defense moves. The purpose of having this separate pop-up is to create a more spacious place for them to move their body, by learning the dance that they can implies at the nightclub when they encountered some possible harassment inside. Some of these dance movements will also be used to order for the food and drinks sold at the next pop-up...

Here are some illustration of the movement:

#3 Bar Snacks and Drinks

The last pop-up that we will cover is for food and drinks!

The purpose of this pop-up is to allow the persona to have their meal before going to party. This particular pop-up will be designed differently than the other twos, as it meant to also provide some additional space for the persona to catch up, knowing one another before having the party. Also, to our user who order the menus based on the dance movements that the learnt on before going into this pop-up, will be able to get some discounts in exchange!

Discussion: Flow of our Presentation

The last pop-up that we will cover is for food and drinks!

The purpose of this pop-up is to allow the persona to have their meal before going to party. This particular pop-up will be designed differently than the other twos, as it meant to also provide some additional space for the persona to catch up, knowing one another before having the party. Also, to elevate the deal of this particular pop up, our user who order the menus based on the dance movements that the learnt on before going into this pop-up, will be able to get some discounts in exchange!

Reflection

As you can see from the layout, content, as well as the description of this week's journal, are all very much cluttered and all over the place. However, it is not because I, as the owner of this journal is very messy or have a lot of things in mind. But in fact, it is a showcase of the whole discussion that we had throughout the week, the confusion, the anger, as well as the cluttered mind that the four of us have.....

I believe that I'm not the only one who thought that this term is very much harder than the previous one. Because there are also a lot of external factors and internal consideration as the design team of our chosen company that we really need to digest, which makes a lot of possibility of approach that we propose may be rejected. Which for this team's context, hinder the process of us to go further and be on track on the supposedly timeline.

The thing is, the four of us are planners. And knowing to the fact that we are a bit left behind towards our targeted timeline, made us panic (a lot), in the whole process. Which also then pushes some of our discussion to be not as effective. Not to mention also about other module’s assignment that takes a lot of our time….

However, I still believe in our effort and group dynamics to still pass this term together as four, finishing it strong, and hopefully… in the next following week, we can work in a more effective manner and be not as panic when discussing

Week 12. 2

Class Activity: 5 Mins Presentation

Feedback from Lecturers and Peers:

⁃ Problem statement with the closure of clubs seems abrupt

- The direction of the overall approach is mainly to make the club goers loyal? or purely to attract a new other potential customers?

- Make sure that the approach that we created are not for a minor adjustment or improvement

- How do we measure success?

Our Responses:

- We need to have a separate conclusion slides to tie everything up, as well as the direction of our service

- It is clear that some of the content or choice of words that we had may not be really convincing to proof how effective it is for us to provide different deliverables. And we may think of the closure of clubs as the opportunity, but the problem is "safety". As in the closure of clubs are not the problem.

Possible Collaterals:

⁃ Establish art direction for branding and illustration

⁃ Menu that lets people offset drinks based on “dance defense”

⁃ Fluorescent sticker design

⁃ 3D pop up physical mockup + digital representation

⁃ Social media marketing/guerilla marketing

⁃ GIF stickers for dance defense (tele, whatsapp)

It also comes to our attention that some of the deliverables are a bit hard to understand, as we don't provide much data and making use of it as the back up of the reason why we choose certain method. Thus, for the next presentation, we would also consider these following aspect to better visualize our service:

- Competitor analysis

- Problem statement slide

- Customer Journey map + Storyboard

Reflection on doing peer sharing

By having this peer sharing, we were able to gain more insights, as well as came towards the realization that the way we present our problem/ service are confusing. Even though that not so many of our classmates are club goers, they also did give us another perspective on how we could approach this project, and create a comparison towards the other competitors. For example, when we asked whether they ever visited Drip, the majority said no. But they did mention some other existed clubs that are Drip's competitors.

Knowing this in mind, it then really highlighted how Drip does not have enough exposure (currently), since they also don't have any other external collaboration/ events, making use of the space of the Club's space for other activities. So, after this sharing, we would further tidying up the flow of our opportunities and reflect towards their feedback and consider it on the latter consideration of different approach that we would do to tackle the issue.

Discussion: Art Direction

As the first visualization and discussion after a longg day, we started on designing each icons that will represent each of our activities in the pop-up

Icon for Pop-ups

We were thinking about going into the direction where the symbol/icon for each pop ups are not really literal
Example: food and drink pop-up= spoon and forks.

Here’s some compilation of our inspiration of icons and some sketches that we gather:

Final Design:

1st pop-up

alcohol patch+

photo booth

2nd pop-up

Dance Defense

3rd pop-up

Food and Drink

Persona and Storyboard

Here's also some of the picture on the style that we were trying to aim of the persona, storyboards, or any other illustration that will be included in our project. It will contains of thin lines and some of the persona to have more expression as a representation of their feelings/emotions throughout our service. Most importantly: We decided that there will be no filled up colors on the illustration, and we will only use the grey and blue color of our branding.

Exterior of the Pop-ups

Interior of the Pop-ups

Here also are the inspiration picture of our pop-up; from their exterior and their interior. As from the start of our discussion, we all agree that this additional space will allow our persona and other users to interact with one another, creating a sense of community and comfortability in the space. For all the objects that we will include, however, will also be blue... Some of it will be designed to look more like a droplets of water, or a puddle. Then, for the exterior of it, we also want to make use of fabric drape resulted from velvet fabric, as it then gives fancier vibes; as well as to attract more youngster, since fabric will contributes in more impression of homie and trendy decoration.

Sketch:

Before having further research on the overall look of the pop-up, we only limited ourselves to create the pop-up to look as it is floated and compiled by some pile of droplets. Here are some sketch of it:

However, knowing several activities that we will conduct inside of the pop-up, it may not be possible for a space to be expanded further on the height and not further width. Thus, we then decided to finalized the pop-up to just be formed like a rectangle on the outside, but then provide wider space inside:

Here's the final sketch of our pop-up.

It's purely drawn to help us visualize on the inside space later on, as well as to consider further about what is going to be, as well as to anticipate any further changes on the content of the pop-up activities…

Week 13.1

Branding

Here's the color palette and font that we chose, we will use all of these components at every design elements/ deliverables that we would use throughout the project; and we gathered them all by color dropping on the content that Drip post on their online platform: instagram

Here's also the final illustration of our persona, Cecilia from head to toe.

As you can see, she is posing with some drinks on her hand, which visualize her loved of drinking. Looking at the outfit, the overall style of her, you could clearly tell also that she is one of those girls who enjoys partying. But, knowing in fact that she is an undergraduate an a 23 years old woman, she is very much responsible also in their studies.

As what we already gathered from our previous research on Drip's online existence, they are very much up to date towards the current trend, as well as conducting several night that resembled with the hot-topic-event happened in Singapore. Even their poster for finding out the operations crew are very well designed.

So, we also managed to gather some of the essential key design elements of Drip that we will use as guidance of our future deliverables;

Blue based content
Aquatic
Connect the names with water meaning
Contain a lot of texture.

Pop-Up Details

As you can see from the rendered/sketch of our pop-up, there comes a lot of space for our persona/ users to interact with one another. Since this pop-up's purpose is meant to contain several different activities, the interior of it may also be different, depending on which pop up it serves the activity to. But, the overall impression and layout on the inside will mostly look like this:

Why would she become a loyal customer of Drip if the pop-up experience is the same? (What will we change?)

For example, if a Khiphop artist comes, the food and drinks will be curated based on Korean cuisine.
If there is no special artist, the menu will still change.
The photo backdrop will change each month.
There will be different customization options for alcohol patches.

Priority goes to all access holders for queuing in case there are too many people and a need to mitigate the crowd. General public will have to queue.

When does the pop-up open?

March, June, September, December
Opens every day
4 PM to 11 PM

How do we measure success?

By the frequency of people visiting the pop-up repeatedly.
Indicated when people apply the dance defense tactic and it is being used.
The ability to attract more customers to the pop-up, even on days when the regular club is closed.
Reflected in customers returning to our club because of our secure clubbing environment and consistent services

Pricing

For this overall experience at the pop-up, we also created different varieties of ticketing price depends on the kind of service/ activity that our club goers will get.

During this period of pop-up, we would like to promote the space itself as a marketing exposure of Drip, which is why, the existence of the space would also be available for general public, as in for those who may not have any interest on coming to Drip for the night, as a way for us to gain more exposure towards possible future customer.

Photobooth BackDrop:

For the photo booth that would be available at the pop-up, we need to have more texture on the foil. That's why, here, i was trying to create different backdrop using different types of texture and color, to experiment on it, as well as doing some tsting on the last stage on how the backdrop would look like with a persona in front.

Persona and Photo backdrop

As there is no a physical prototype of visualizing this photo booth idea, the best and most possible approach on how we make them into life is by combining the illustration of our persona with the alcohol patch at the front of the photo booth.

After editing some of the different backdrop of the photo booth, we then discuss further and coming up with these three final layout. Our final chosen picture: the one on the right! It’s purely because the overall visual of it does not look as “disturbing” because of the different varieties of texture and color contains on it.

A1 content

Website content/ flow

As I already mentioned previously, the four of us are planners... So, even though that we have not yet finished our deliverables or fixed any of our service that we will include for the end product, we already thought about the content of our final A1 and website.

Here are the result of our brainstorm ideas:

Testing: Telling friends about how our service works and having their feedback

the pop-up

1st: alcohol patch + photo booth

cool idea as it will help them to manage their drink level
would love to have the customized shapes of it
may not be practical, won't it be wet when is worn? (since of the sweat)

2nd: Dance defense

As a girl, i would usually just go when someone was trying to vibe with me. The dance moves may not be practical as I would be panic as hell and run away
I would love to have it as an additional marketing/promotion for me to buy drinks and food only. But I won't use it at the club.

3d: Food and Drink

since it's free, i would go. if not, i might just have the pre-drink with my friends in front of drip la

Feedback:

Alcohol in the clubs are incredibly expensive for no reason, which makes me lazy also to buy. Please give us more service related to the drinking...

Regarding the dance defense, if you guys really want to create that "secure" for girls, can provide us a flashlight or anything that will help us notify faster towards the security; that way it will be more efficient rather than doing some dance moves in the middle of "dancing"

At drip

Drip challenge

Feedback:

The challenge in between clubbing may feels like a school event, but I really love the rewards for doing it.

Class Activity: Peer Sharing with other Class

Turns out that the day of our peer sharing with other class was conducted during Halloweens. So, we could not help but also dressed up as four. This year, we all agreed on becoming the MRT mascots, as they are the only ones that related with our dynamics of 3 girls and 1 boy! Doing this is also make me realize that our group has our own way of showing our friendship and different personalities that we have, based on our chosen characters:)

Our Presentation

On the actual presentation, we tried our best to even represent the vibes of being at the nightclub, particularly at Drip, to have a deeper and more connection with our audience to communicate about our chosen company's brand identity.

To even create more engagement with the audience, we specifically created some interactive scenario and script throughout our flow. <we even demo our dance defense movement to come the illustration of the content into life>

Lecturers' Feedback and Our Response

It is good to have a system, but dance defense can be helpful but can also be provoking

-tone down demonstration using elbow strike and narrator concept

Not much added innovation in terms of the clubbing experience

Due to the limitation of time, we were unable to mention all of different qualities or service that we will provide. So, here are some:

- Shape of alcohol patch allows u to redeem a certain drink in drip

- Only all access ticket holder will get the patch

- Projection/ lcd to show up a dance and give a challenge to redeem drink, directly choose people to do some challenge for some people who are at the pedestal. if they do, then they got drink

- Relate it with social media a challenge, to redeem drink <find someone who have the similar outfit as you. first 10 ppl who mentioned drip and we reply to it, got free drinks> will project the challenge.

What can bring people together in that space?

- Sense of community from our pop-up and the challenges inside Drip!

What does our young target audience need?

to have a better experience in this space, to breakthrough the stereotype of the repetitive motion of going to club

Slides are not clear enough

We will add ticketing details to explain, provide more menu, mock up of challenge, and other visualization that will help us explain further our service.

Further reflection as group:

What else can we bring to the actual Drip club? (the menu applies to the bar in drip also, patch from pop-up allows u to get secret drink, challenge thingie)
How can we enhance the club experience beyond its current state?
Make the slides more clear with the details (think must emphasize the pre-experience part - talk about typical club experience)

Reflection

We learnt to adjust our focus on the main thing, that we're a part of the Drip's design team and must consider it also as customer's perspective. The way we present our service, was not really concise enough to highlight what our target customer gains from the "pre-clubbing" experience that we were trying to build. Anything that we have presented need to be elevated more or be wrapped up in certain way, where it does not look like we are repeating any of the service that already exist on other club.

It also came to our attention that the showcase or the demonstration of the dance move might look as though we were trying to make use of the movement to provoke someone, where it should be used to protect ourselves/ our persona from danger/ predators. Also, maybe during the experience at the Drip itself, we would think further and deeper on how we can make use of this dance to our customer benefits; as well as upgrading more features or service to enhance their overall experience from before, during, or after Drip

Storyboard's Flow discussion

On the night of having this presentation and feedback, we realize that the flow of our persona's overall journey may be confusing. Because some of it requires different varieties of timing and places. So, we then right away created the storyboard to help us further narrowing down and giving more details on each of the touch points that our persona will have from our service, as well as to assess some any possible missing points that we need to take a look into.

Discussion: Assessment Exhibition

3 exterior pop up models at 1:50 scale
3 Interior render prints OR 3D model making of interiors
A1 board

Logistic/material for the Exhibition (draft)

PVC board 45x60cm
Foam board plain 30x45cm
Dark blue fabric for curtain (should have drape feel)
Dark blue paper (corrugated metal sheet roofing)
Plastic clear sheet (glass paneling)
Dark blue paint for colouring

Week 13. 2

Discussion: Revision of Presentation flow

Thanks to the previous feedback that we have from other class' lecturer and peers, we know have a clearer idea on stating our service design. We realized that the flow of our past presentation was very odd, too complicated and very hard to comprehend. Which is why, then we changed again our flow and even included more additional description and detail of our service, such as having separate slides for ticket and having a summary slide as the closing of the presentation.

Ticket Mock-Up

Here is the mock up of our ticket of service that offers different types of experience and price, created based on our research of our competitors’ price range, as well as the design of Drip’s card invitations from one of their events :

Discussion: Infographics of the Data that we have

In the process of compiling the slides, we realize that we had a lot of data that we already gather right away from people who are similar to our persona. Whether it is the survey or the interview, if it all added up, it almost reach until 150 respondents. However, we realized that we did not really make use of this data in our presentation as the back up of our findings.

Having that in mind, we then also specifically choose some of the data that we would like to display on the final presentation. As you can see below, we were having some hard time on the layout of the presentation of the data that we have. During this time around, we were just trying to think about several layout that we could do to better communicate our data that is mostly coming from a “multiple” choice answer.

Lecture's Feedback

- Whats the main intention of the idea?

- Works better as a separate event type of thing, it seems like the direction that we are going through is too restrictive..

- What should be taken out of the usual equation of music dance and alcohol? What is there to change if there is nothing to change and how can we improve?

- Other case study of safety? Try to do more case study on the existed other events conducted by competitors

- Take alternative days and implement safer clubbing? Certain time, certain day will attract a different crowd? We might want to consider creating additional services to use the space rather than relying on the current activity, but still tie back to the company.

For example: We are known for music, space and how other way can we make it Drip specific...

Our Response

There are a lot of confusion that are still happening internally. And we’re realized that our proposed service may not be really effective to meet the problem statement that we created, as well as our persona’s pain points.

We also realized that we restrict ourselves too much, because we’re avoiding a lot of risk that may potentially happen when we thought of some of the deliverables. It’s almost like the reason why most company were looking for students to innovate their business, was because students tend to be very “imaginative, creative, and out of what is mainstream”. However, we’re too afraid to create break through and create challenge to deliver our service.

Thus, during this time around, we will try to do more case study on our competitors, conduct more research on several activities that is somehow linked towards clubbing culture, and try to expand our approach by thinking more than just what is exist/ be done already.

Discussion: Reflecting, Changing, Looking at other directions to approach problem statement

Miro Discussion

Although we want to associate other activities that may be related towards clubbing culture, we also thought about other alternatives that may never exist before. How about creating a camping at Drip?

*since Drip is Berlin inspired, and Party in Berlin is considered very wild, as they can party all night even til morning.

Here, we created some timeline that will both serves the purpose of the space of Drip, for those who wants to have the safest clubbing to experience the nightclub without alcohol; but on the next day the club would be operated with alcohol. Our aim for this camp is to promote the safety of clubbing culture that can be achieved in Drip, as well as to promote healthiness amongst the fast paced country, on some of the activities such as Yoga raving/morning exercise.

During this camp, we were considering about having several different types of activities that initially we wanted to conduct on the 3 different pop-ups. But now, we narrowed them down into just having 1 pop-up and the rest purpose of the pop-up to be conducted at Drip.

Exhibition

As our direction of service is now more towards a camp in Drip, the layout of the exhibition’s design also shifted to camping vibes (as you can see, we also included some flag as pin drop for the location:D). We were thinking about making use of the A1 space to contain only our itinerary maps, the list of the activities that will be conducted inside of Drip, as well as other additional poster that we would use inside of the club to promote the safety inside.

Here, we would also still wanted to include our mock up for pop-ups that will be operating during the camp, serving its purpose as the place for alcohol tasting and hangout space for the Drip goers.

The layout of it may not be fixed, since it is just been made for us to settle ourselves to think about the possible deliverables for final exhibition.

New interior and exterior

These are some of the visualization (rendered) space for the pop-up that will be operated and opened for alcohol tasting that will be only accessible for 50 participants. Our expectations for this pop-up is that the space could also be a hangout space for the Drip-goers, as well as a way for us to promote Drip at the market, since it will be located at Orchard.

Design and Possible Collateral

For the exhibition and to help us better make our service into life, we will create some mock up of the detailed itinerary of the activities and other stakeholders that we will include throughout our service

Here are our direction of design that we will apply later on. We were thinking about creating the design to have some aspects of camping, with the flags, pins, and the foldable map that our user would able to refer to for the details on the camp itself.

Fabric buying for the exhibition

Since we are going to create a model for our pop-up, the first contribution that I could do <since I can not render the interior nor exterior look for the pop-up>, is choosing the right fabric that can be used as the curtain of the model.

As you can see above, I had been through several fabric shops and collecting some samples that I would show my other mates on the later. Since the look of the rendered curtain are very drape-ish, I then initially chose some blue, thin to medium weighted fabric that looks similar to it. At first, we wanted to use velvet fabric to enhance the luxury vibes of nightclubs. However, blue velvet fabrics are very rare in Singapore. So I then tried to collect some other alternatives to silk blend fabric to give the shiny texture instead, and some polyester blend to give similar texture to velvet.

I'm very much glad that I got to experience the collection of fabric samples, as well was choosing some variation of fabrics for the deliverables of this project. It personally cure my longing-miss of fashion:D

Research: Strengthen our new ideation

We already got the data from our persona, our aim and the timeline for our camping. However, we still think that there are some blind spots that we have for the details of different activities that will be conducted throughout the camp. Which is why, then we collect more data on the internet and even think about our possible stakeholders to strengthen our ideation of the camp for a success.

On Camping and Raving

For this particular section, we did some research about our competitors; some other similar events to clubbing, which are Coachella and Tomorrowland. Even though that the purpose of these festivals and clubbing are greatly different, these two festivals never fails to attract wide range of audience to gather as one and enjoy to the music that probably already been played for more than once. We were curious about what their “secrets” are on the consistency of attracting the crowd. Additionally, we also took a deeper observation to the existed camping/rave which are associated with other aspects than clubbing, which is Yoga Raving.

Alcohol tasting, possible stakeholders

We realized that the success of our alcohol tasting and alcohol making activities are dependent towards our stakeholders. Thus, we researched deeper looking at any possible stakeholders that we could collaborate to, from their way of providing the drinks until the pricing that will affect the budget.

We also take a look into what kind of tasting/ bottles that we would provide inside of this activity, as well as some tips to create the best possible activity that our user can experienced into. The purpose of having this detailed research is to anticipate any kind of additional logistics that we need to prepare for during the camp.

Alcohol making, possible stakeholders

Dance workshop

There were not much of the dance workshop research that was conducted. However, we took a look into some kind of movements that can be taught during this workshop. At first, we even want to teach our user with ecstatic dance. But after doing further research about it, it turns out that the movements of it may be too much of controversial, knowing how it resembles towards cult culture, which will even make us lose out our customer.

DJ workshop

Recently, there is a TikTok video that gone viral, where the girls are expressing her thoughts about DJ-ing. She asked to the world a question “What TF Do DJs Actually Do?”. This TikTok even got liked by millions of user, which then pushes the rising trends of DJ learning. For the research, we were looking more towards several possible stakeholders that will collaborate with us on the activity. Other than that, we also further research about how our stakeholders would conduct the workshop, since all four of us are not really familiar about how DJ-ing works.

Reflection on doing more research on each activities

At this stage of the project, I really then understand the importance of having research. As you can see from the screenshots of our research, it was all done digitally, and we found that doing the research and create separate annotation as well as including the resource of it next to it really do help us to organized our scattered information, and assist us to save our time while sharing it to other mates during discussion. Even though that all of the data that we gathered from our research would not be used, it is still beneficial for us to include some additional information. Thus, it is essential for us to provide and still adding more information into it to help us examine the possible solutions to problems, expanding knowledge, and advancing our understanding of the activities that we will associate in our brand.

I believe that in the future, we will refer to this research a lot. Going through a lof of research is one of our learning and thoughts processes. By conducting this form of deeper research, it really does help us to approach the problem in various areas. So, I will apply this method also for my further project, studies, or even career.

Visualization of our Pop-up Through Storyboard

As the timeline and itinerary of the camping may be a little complicated due to the several activities/ touchpoints would be happened at two different timings, we then also created a new storyboard to help us also visualize on how the overall camping works.

We noticed that we have the tendency to create a new narration of our user and visualize it right away to a storyboard. Although I sometimes wonder why we have this urgency to move really fast towards one of the production deliverables (the storyboard), I realized that by doing so, it helps us examine our thoughts and see some blind spots, and to make the complicated flow to be smoother.

Week 14. 1

Picking up names for our Pop-up and our Camp

For the name of our service, since we want to associate all of the design elements and the activity there to be similar as camping, but still resembled with Drip's brand; we then created several choice of different names that associated with water/ drop.

Consultation with Christabel and her feedback for our service:

All of our service, even though that it was all based on our persona's pain point and we pointed out all of the concern of clubbing, it all sounds very forced and has no link towards one another.
The secure part, it is more towards like the parents' concern rather than our persona/ target market. Since maybe not so many people are care about their safety
SG club= boring; because it s too safe already
There is an opportunity on us coorporating the clubbing experience towards education (DJ or Dance workshop) as it shows different approach to what is happening now
It would be beneficial for us in the future, if we create a better narration and back it up with data, survey, interview. analyze the keywords

Reflect:

maybe connect all with being responsible and education?
how to elevate Drip?
what is this experience connect with the tangible experience?
how does all our possible solution deliver their needs.

Our Response and My Reflection

That's the art of the service design:) the whole process of it is circling around. Since what we can do is providing a service based on our assumption that can all be supported by our research and data, we still need to have our own time to reflect and consume all and create some sort of narration that is convincing enough that our solution itself already deliver the problem statement that we encounter. So, even when we already at the stage of doing the design or talking about another ideation, we will of course go back again to our data and will still needed to think about the deeper connection. That's why even during our presentation feedback, or even just a consultation with our lecturer, when I saw their face, it looks like they confused.

then I also question myself "If we talk for about 10 minutes and show them all of our research already and provide some solution and even showed them some of the demo, and they are still confused. Then, there's a mistake in our flow, our way of communicating our ideas. And after reflect it for the weekend, I personally think it happened because we did not make advantage of any of the data that we have:), or, we did not connect them clearly since we're so panic and focus more towards the end product because of our tight timeline.

Our New Problem Statement:) <again>

During this time around, we then decided to create a new problem statement with different approaches than all of the previous one what we already decided. Rather than only focusing on creating a safe space and promote inclusivity on the club, we will now focus on our goal to set Drip apart from other clubs, by providing our service that will help our user to stimulate intellectual curiosity, encourage them to have meaningful connections and even foster personal growth and development.

By having this problem statement, we hope that we would have a clearer ideas and direction in the future to shape and shift our existing proposal on our service.

Feedback from our Lecturer

For our concern on the sleeping part of our camps, it is possible for us to have hotel as our stakeholder. Other alternatives for the sleeping problem can be cured by having small capsules for the user to slee
For further research/ approach, it is better for us to create a comparison between the traditional and our service.
Creating several activity that promote health and education may be the wins for us, because it's also be like the opposite of the negative section of the club
How do we measure our success? is it through membership?
What about us approaching in different ways of clubbing, from a future scenario of the COVID 19, 2.0?

Our Response

We might want to shift our approach again, since we also realized that what we are doing currently is only limited to provide an activity that covers several aspects of our targeted user, and they are not as convincing to really deliver the problem that we have or what we also quoted, that our service currently are not “service design” enough.

There are a lot of new ideation on how we could tackle the issue that we faced. One of it is to approach the possibility of having the second outbreak of pandemic in the future. But, as what we already gather from the data, approaching it towards that direction does not even meet our user’s pain points (although that it may help us to anticipate the latter future).

So, after having a lot of discussion and narrowing down the several possibilities, we decided to still continue on our approach, by creating a new additional activities/ events by Drip, but making use of the space of Drip. We would still continue on including the aspect of having educational part and promoting healthiness, but we need to conduct further internal discussion regarding on that:)

Discussion: New Ideation

After having the previous consultation, now we got a clearer idea on the purpose of our direction and role as the design team of Drip.

I feel like the kind of approach that we did are mostly covered towards the additional part of enhancing the exposure of Drip, or to get more customers in the future. However, there are not so much of aspects that we considered of, to think about the retention part; or simply put as the reason of our customer to come back to our service/ even partying at Drip.

Thus, we then decided on making use of the several activities that we already researched upon for the camp, and combine it with some personalization/ customization by our user to increase the retention of them combing back to Drip. The picture on the left that you see here, are the showcase of our thought process and ideation.

Why do retention plays a big part in service design

"Understanding the concept of customer experience design" is all about grasping the idea of how a company can design and shape the interactions and experiences that a customer has with the brand. It goes beyond just offering a product or service, and instead, focuses on creating a holistic and memorable experience for the customer.

Customer experience design plays a key role in customer retention by fostering a sense of loyalty and satisfaction among customers. When a customer has a positive experience with a brand, they are more likely to return and make repeat purchases. They may also become advocates for the brand, spreading the word to friends and family."

Which is why, we decided on creating a different varieties of personalization or customization experience by our user on our service that comes and depend after their personality, or in this clubbing case, "The type of clubber they are"

Questions to be included on the quiz

We will still make use of the pop-up that we already decided as our approach on providing an additional space for the Drip goers. This time, rather than making use of the space to conduct some activities such as alcohol tasting, we will only use the space of the pop-up to serve some food and drink, and some machine of the quiz that titled as “What Type of Clubber Are You?”. In this quiz, our user will be able to provide several answer that is associated with one type of clubber, that then will be the guidance of the next type of activities that they will be able to experience to at Drip.

Discussion: Final activities that will be included in our service

Here are some of the activities that will be conducted at Drip. Some of it are similar like what we already decide for the Camp, but we also added the Jagua Tattoo, Coaster Making, and changing the alcohol tasting to a mocktail making activities, to anticipate the sober ones of our user.

Discussion: Our ticket pricing and Creating a Lucky Draw

The setting for the ticket price are all considered with the comparison of our competitors. And since one of the main considerations of the final decision of club that our user will go to is the price, we were trying our best to set up a certain price that is “worth it “ for our persona, but still in the mission of us gaining profit and comes along with the additional expense that we need to pay for having several stakeholders.

The main highlight that the user would most likely compelled to is probably the one in the middle, since it will complies of the 3 different activities based on the quiz result that they will have, as well as having the chance of participating in lucky draw, based on the completion of those 3 activities.

The lucky draw that we have will be in exchange prizes of :

- free sofa reservation

- free bottle

- free ticket

Discussion: Customer Journey

After being set up with clearer direction and approach that we would have in our service, we then created a customer Journey of our persona. The main purpose of having this detailed journey is mainly only for us to see some missing points, but for the final deliverables, we would use a storyboard journey to help us visualize the overall service.

In the discussion, we also thought about the 5 marketing steps, which started from the awareness to consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy. With the guidance of these 5 different stages, we then also have deeper discussion to boost our overall user’s experience.

While in the process of the discussion, we also talked about the video flow and storyboard.

Discussion: Storyboard

Discussion: Video inspiration, flow, and properties

As what I already mentioned before, the four of us are planner. So, before even going to the actual day of shooting, we also discuss about the different scene that we will shoot, as well as the place, timing, talents, and other properties that we need to bring on the filming day. We even also created a specified name of the scene to make it even easier for us to manage the timing and reference on the filming day and editing.

Week 14. 2

Discussion: Site Visit for the possible Pop-Up location

We are almost reaching the production day! On the rainy Thursday, we were doing site-visit on our pop-up place which would be located in Orchard. Initially, we thought about having the pop-up to be placed at the front of Plaza Singapura. But then, it turns out that the space for us to contain the specific sizing of the pop-up is not possible. Thus, we then walk towards the front of Wisma Atria, which turns out to be the perfect place for our pop-up.

The timing of 14:45.84 are the duration of us walking from Drip venue towards this pop-up. Even during the rainy weather, the duration of the walk are quite far. So, we may speculated our user to just take the mrt to transport from this pop-up to Drip.

Our Deliverables: Alcohol Patch design

This is the final design of our Alcohol Patch. We have 3 different designs and each of the sticker represents our overall service’s value proposition, which is: Feel alive, live the life, As You Are; and the “As You Are”, is the name of our overall service.

The main purpose of having this alcohol patch is to promote responsible drinking. How it works, is that the patches will detect the wearer' alcohol limit through body sweat, and the patch will glow when the wearer reaches their alcohol limit

Alongside as the sign/symbol of glowing when it reaches the user's alcohol limit, we then also created some prototype on how the patches glow. We used glow in the dark paint, and as you can see from the picture on the right above, it does not really glow

:(. Thus, we would still going to use this idea and the painted patch for filming.

Week 15 - production week

Final storyboard

Here is our final storyboard after having a lot of different approach and types of services. This storyboard will cover started rom the awareness stage of our persona, who encountered our service from her friends, Cecilia going to the pop-up and participated in the activities that she get customized from the card. This storyboard also include the illustrated function of the alcohol patch, which will glow right after when Cecilia's alcohol limit exceeded. At the club also, Cecilia will be able go got participated on the lucky draw and even redeem another drinks out of the alcohol patch that she wear throughout the night.

With all of the activities that she participated in, you could clearly tell that she enjoys her journey and experience with Drip As You Are!

Quiz interface

If you play the video below, you could see the visualization of one of our deliverables, which is the quiz of "What type of clubber are you" that our user must participated in before going through the different activities at Drip. Some of the questions are as followed:

1. How do you respond to an invitation for a night out?

2. How do you dress for a night out at a club?

3. When do you go to a club, what's your preferred choice of drink?
4. What’s your favorite type of music to dance to at the club?

5. What’s your go to dance move on the dance floor?

6. What’s your favorite part of the club experience?

7. How late do you usually stay at the club?

Based on the results of the quiz, then the user will have a specific result of the type of clubber they are, which will also been followed with lists of activities that they will need to attend and finished to be participated in exchange of the chance of doing the lucky draw.

"Types of clubber" card

List of activities for the Responsible Buddy

- Dj, Jagua Tattoo, Mocktail Making

List of activities for the Wild Dancer

- Dj, Dance, Cocktail Making

List of activities for the Unstoppable Sipper

- Mocktail Making, DIY Coaster, Cocktail Making

List of activities for the Social Butterfly

- Dance, Jagua Tattoo, Cocktail Making

List of activities for the Generous Friend

- Dj, DIY Coaster, Cocktail Making

All of the list of activities that we specifically chose are under the consideration of the different personalities and even allergies.

For example: for the "Responsible Buddy", are those who are allergic to alcohol/ can not drink alcohol <we collect the data based on the quiz>. Which is why, then there was no cocktail making activity that they should take any participation into.

Filming Process- day 1 on tuesday

On the first day of filming, our aim is to focus on taking our own “stock image” of different activities that we will provide in Drip. The purpose of us creating it on our own, is also to experience all 6 different activities to ourselves. Because, if we had no idea about how it feels like to learn to become a DJ, having the experience to create our ownmocktail, and getting tattoo-ed by Jagua, how can we even offer them to our user?

Since we were not able to create the physical pop-up, we were making use of the 2m blue fabric that we bought as the backdrop of all. The set up of the footage are taken at Level 12. Note that all of the bottles and drinks that we included here are just for property, and there were no actual alcohol involved throughout the process.

Throughout the process, we were thinking to apply the metaphor of “killing two birds with one stone”. So, while we do the filming for the video, we also took a lot of back-up footages for the content of our A1 board, website, and presentation.

Here, you could see the amount of different footages that we took for the activities, card, lucky draw, and alcohol patch:

After taking some footage at level 12, for the other activities such as Dancing and DJ, we needed a much wider space for us to film, so we went down to level 5. There, we also set up some lighting effects to create the club environment similar to one that Drip have.

After that, we continued to film the “flashback scene” of Cecilia being drunk, before she even joined our service. You could also refer to the video below to take a look at Yilin becoming the make up artist for the day, by adding more blush on my cheeks to create a visual of me being “drunk”.

Filming Process- day 2 on Wednesday, @Drip

On the next day, we also need to take some footage of picture and clips at Drip! We are fortunate to be able to join their Wednesday events and got the free entry to go there.

During this night of filming, even though that we could enjoy the night for the party <to even going through the same experience as our user>, we did not go, because we were too tired of the schedule and have another upcoming submission for other module in several days. However, we still enjoy our time together there and manage to take all footage that we need!

Website interface development

I'm in charge of doing the website and since I did not have much experience on the UI/UX for the platform, I then conducted some research and find several inspiration picture for the layout of our service.

Fashion eCommerce App - Dark _ Design by Pineapple UX_UI Studio.jpg

This is one of many experiments that I created for the website content:

My intention was to create a splash of water that will only show the name of our service, As You Are. However, as you can see below, the results are not really good and I realized that the the style of it is also different than the Drip's brand image. Thus, I then dropped this idea and won't include it as part of the website. Even so, I'm also happy and glad that I got to experience this failure of trials and error of experimentation, as it then exposed me to learning more about

The layout that takes most of my time is the activity. The picture on the corner left was the first draft and second layout that I used for the activities. Since we have a lot of footage of picture and video, I was thinking to include the two together and just add some description for each.

You could see also that for each pictures and video that I used were all edited to have like the “blue” filter. It may look very simple, but the process of doing so required some different software and even some help from my other mates:)

Editing, edited picture for content at website

This is the very first draft of the edited pictures for the different activities that we have. I was trying to simply toned down the saturation of the overall picture, and created the black and white picture then towards blue.

The overall looks of the complied picture may look very fancy, but I realized that it dos not really related towards Drip’s brand.

Here, you could look at the development of the image editing that I created for the activities. Started from the tropical look on the original picture, bnw filter+navy, brighter blue, and the final one to have more contrasted blue and black points.

From this process, I learned a lot about color theory, as well as making myself be familiar with different software. Even though that I encountered many difficulties in the process of editing, I still enjoy every process of discovery of method, as it is part of the learning experience.

Editing, edited video for deliverables on submission

Almost) similar to the picture editing process, I also need to use several different software to edit the video. It is not just simply put copy and paste the filter, as I then also need to adjust the contrast, hue, brightness, and RGB color of it. What’s hard throughout this process is that, the lighting and color of the object that we film were all different. However, the final result of the edited video should be similar or even the same.

Thus, you can see the development of me adjusting and adding the contrast and color of the video here:

Model making: Experiment on the curtain

For the curtain of our pop-up, I created it by sewing some ruffles at my house. The measurement of the overall sizing, however, was given by the model maker- Timothy. Here, you could see that I put some pins on top of the failed mock-up’ roof, which has the same measurement as the actual mock up.

In this curtain also, there would be one section that was painted with Drip logo with white color. It takes me for about 5 times of prototyping to successfully achieve the desire outcomes.

For creating prints/ to paint on top of a cloth, it usually requires specific formula and dylon paints. However,

To just paint a small part of the cloth, it may not be very much worth it, knowing how expensive the equipments are. So, we then just created the prints of Drip for our curtain using acrylic paint.

It may take us a long time to actually paint the print right away/ creating the sketch on top of it. Since the fabric is silk, it would also be hard to make the cloth still. So, we then just create a stencil of Drip logo and painted on top of it.

Here are some experiment of me doing it:

1st experiment

4th experiment

2nd experiment

5th experiment

3rd experiment

6th, last experiment

Doing all of these experiments lead me to gain more knowledge- fashion related. That acrylic paint cannot be used for creating prints in fabric. Even if it works, it will only be possible by having two coat layers of paint. Thus, after having the final desired outcome of the prints, I then sew the fabric and compile it together with the rest.

Sewing gathers

Week 16- Production and Submission Week

Exhibition set-up

Since we are almost done with the final deliverables of our project, now it is our time to think about the exhibition set up!

For the exhibition later on, we would print more of the "alcohol patch", provide the type of clubber card, our model, and our tags/ name card on lanyard. Here's the sketch of how it would look like. All of them would be put on top of the pedestal that has a cloth on top of it.

Final Write up description of our project

"drip As You Are" is an experience designed to stimulate intellectual curiosity, foster personal growth, and encourage meaningful connections. The journey begins at a pop-up on Orchard Road. Visitors can take a quiz titled "What Type of Clubber Are You", and receive a card detailing a curated list of activities based on one of five unique character types. They can then visit Drip to try activities such as DJ-ing and cocktail making. After completing the activities, visitors can enjoy food and drinks at the pop-up, or participate in a lucky draw for a chance to win attractive prizes.

Every visitor will receive a wearable sticker patch that monitors alcohol levels through sweat and body heat. The patch will glow if alcohol levels exceed a certain limit, promoting responsible drinking habits. This patch can also be shown to club bartenders to redeem a secret drink.

As evening falls, the pop-up transforms into a casual hangout spot offering bar snacks and drinks before clubbing. Drip will also resume its normal operations as a club.

This pop-up also serves as a marketing strategy to create buzz for Drip, which is located in a slightly hidden area. Visitors will also have the option to purchase a premium ticket, granting access to the "As You Are" experience and a night at Drip!

Final Look of our Pop-up

Final A1 submission and content

Final Ticket Prize and Design

Final Video

I’m also in charge of editing the videos. Just like editing the other stock image/ video content for the website, of course I need to edit each of the video contained on it one by one.

Below, you could see different “filter” or color scheme on 3 different timelines.

The first one on the left was when Cecilia, the persona was having a flashback on the previous week, so I intentionally created the overall color to be warm. The second one, which is the present time, is when Cecilia was experiencing the overall journey with Drip As You Are, and the color are really saturated but still resemble the Drip Brand, as I created it more tint. The last one on the right, however, was the most enjoyable frame of editing of the color; since all of the footage were taken at Drip. So, I just play with the contrast and added more “blue” to even elevate the fun of the night of Cecilia.

Here's our final video:

Further Discussion on our project

To prepare us some further questions that our lecturer may ask on the presentation day, we created several possible scenarion and some questions that we had in mind, and answer it:

Final PPT

Click here to view the PDF version of our PPT

Final website interface <desktop>

Final website interface <mobile>

Please do access our website to further understand about our service. However, here I also included the screen record of how our website would look like, for both desktop and mobile view

Click here to go through our website

Final Model of Pop-up

The model of our pop-up are the last deliverable that we manage to finish, as the “almost” closing of our journey in this project. Below, you could see that we created the pop-up with teamwork, as we don’t have much time left.

Our Pop-up Model:

Design Studio 2A (1st term)

Week 1.1

Class activity: Team Talent!

Defining our values, behavior, norms, and roles

Our team members were combined based on those with different domain together. The two of us are pursuing graphic communication, while me, the only one who is from fashion domain.

Both of my team mates are diploma graduate, so I was feeling "so small" as I have not gotten that much exposure and opportunity in arts and design world. However, they did create a space and environment that is very much "workable" and professional, yet enjoyable for me to step in and discuss the matter together. As you can see, the first thing that I feel of the group was very negative..:(

However, while talking about our values, behavior, and norms, we both all agree that those different backgrounds are actually those one who makes our group solid. For example, in terms of communication conducts during discussion, we do believe that all ideas have its different point of view, and we shall never hold judgement on that... Other aspects as well as working environment and responsibility that we talked about, was also circling around how we should make ourselves be inclusive, collaborative, and enthusiastic.

Since this is our first ever encounter, we do hope that each of us can contribute based on this commitment and play our roles as what we already discussed during the group project.

Lecture's question: What is your impression and notes on today's class?

Today, I learn a lot about contribution. More in-depth about the impression of collaborating in cross-disciplinary domain, with those who has different background of skillset and experience as well. I was once a fashion student and whenever people asked me questions like “what career are you pursuing after graduating?” I would simply said “a fashion designer”. That’s more or less is the easiest, straightforward answer…. But, after today, I realize that just because I took the fashion domain, does not clearly mean that I will be ”just” a fashion designer; someone who design a garment that usually related to aesthetic and functionality only. The expert is fashion, but can it be more than that? How about changing a mindset/ social problems? As technology and people are evolving, us, the so called fashion graduate or expertise, need to do more than that.

Now, I got broader image on the more opportunity and obtain more of an open mind. There’s one thing that the lecturer said about how a designer nowadays, need to experience the “T zone”. Which means that us, as designers, need to explore different varieties of industry/ working place, horizontally; then also need to be able to expertise at one industry. Because after all, it is no good to explore every possibilities as a designer and don’t know what we’re good at, as it will be very much hard to put some food on the table later on. So, I hope that while doing this course, I will be able to practice my design thinking, futures thinking, and most importantly, learn about working with other people as well.

Week 1.2

Reading : Tim Brown, Design Thinking

Rather than asking designers to make an already developed idea more attractive to consumers, companies are asking them to create ideas that better meet consumers’ needs and desires. The former role is tactical, and results in limited value creation; the latter is strategic, and leads to dramatic new forms of value.

There's like a big question and uncertainty whether designer will be replaced with AI, However, I think because us designer have the ability to think as to approach in a human-centered design, we won't be replaced by them. The reason why is, just as how the article above, Brown was talking about how we are taking a "people first" approach, when we are needed to put our empathy first in order to start our thinking/ even before coming up with the solution.

Reflecting to the reading, I believe that design thinking is the major, the massive aspect other than multidisciplinary skills that one designer should have. The reason is, because we are focusing more on approaching our design to people, we then actually offering a service or an object, a product that they really need and be very functional to meet their needs.

As a design thinker, we also comes up with iteration of process that may be going back and forth to test our product, as well as taking other consideration on how we should present our product. Example: people don't just buy what we sell, but also about the environment or even a lifestyle that we're selling. Hence, it is probably why Apple store in Singapore usually are located at a specific area which have the impression of being rich (Orchard and Marina Bay Sands)

Discussion: Concept / Ideas

We were assigned to choose one of our past projects, a product that will be then turned into a service.

As we just learned about a human-centered design, we decided to choose this one project that Tasha has, that was tackling on an app <platform product> that is purposely designed for kids to learn English language- idioms and expression, on songs that they are listening to. So, this particular app has the accessibility to be managed by their parents and to filter some explicit songs.

With this idea, we take the idea of learning a language, but not necessarily made for kids and try to expand the whole idea and possibility of the issues to a broader perspectives based on our past experiences. Here's what we find:

Summary of the pain points and those that we chose <for now> to dive deep into:

- Learning a new language can be intimidating (even before we start), and we don't know where to start

- We need to practice our language with someone who actually speaks fluent in that new language that we want to learn

- Sometimes it is hard for us just to make time to learn

As for the persona, we have not really decided precisely who they are but we only think of these several possibility of those who might experience the issue that we tackled on, and might added more later:

- Travelers who want to learn new language

- Casual learner

- ?????

Feedback from tutor

- The whole concept is okay, we can further discuss and research more to have even more broader perspectives

- All of the process that we did was a bit too early for us to take to, which lead us to be more specific onto the persona, which then also limited our point of view of the issues. If let's say that we want to target the "casual learner", we might need to define it better on who they are

- Next, we can next start to ask more general questions to those who want to learn a new language, for us to gain more insights and possibilities

Personal Reflection:

This was our second meeting and I think we did a very good job to work in grouping. By far, we really be completing each other's weakness and works really well in combining ideas, without even being afraid to state it out loud... Which really proves how we are open to any ideas, thoughts, and beliefs of each other's.

We did run too fast during the almost end of the discussion, but then I really grateful that the lecturer also guide us on how we might take a step back and rather do more research on what the issues are.

During this lesson, I learned that in the context of designing a service or a product, it is very much necessary for us to not think about the outcome/finale deliverable design, so that we won't be limited to certain goals that might holding us back to think about much more great possibilities.

Week 2.1

Reading : LSN Global- Mass Movement; LSN Global- Quiet Mode

Mass Movement

Talking about more about connection, how people are trying to seek for a sense of community and belonging after having longing pandemic of prohibit them interact with one another
how people are becoming more and more inclusive each day, where they also provide opportunity for people with disabilities to take part in everyday activities
This isn’t just about celebrating the joy of close human proximity and bigger crowds; the consumer sentiment behind this shift marks a pivotal change in desire towards a craving for novel wellness experiences that are community-based.
As 2023 progresses, Gen Z especially will prove their passion for new experiences that expose them to new people and places.

Strategic opportunities:

Brands can connect with the mass movement concept through a variety of touchpoints. Consider where your consumer communities are. How can you transition some of these social spaces from online to in-person? How can you support consumers in finding the connection they are craving?
Consider broadening your in-person activities to a larger scale. This can create consumer buzz and bring excitement to the overall event experience
What are your consumers’ values in the health and wellness space? Consider hosting in-person gatherings centred on activities that encourage movement, meaningful social connections and nature

Quiet Mode

The idea of tuning out the noise is indicative of a consumer need for better boundaries and compartmentalisation of tasks.
New, quiet-driven features give consumers the focus and freedom to do what truly matters to them. By putting consumers in a more solid position of authority , their experience on social media platforms can be more positive and productive.
While brands in the technology and social media fields are investing in quiet culture already, the shift has just started. Cross-industry brands should consider what changes they can make to lower the volume, both literally and figuratively, for their consumers.
Brands need to consider what quiet means for their consumers and how to give it to them. Otherwise, they may just put you on mute

Strategic opportunities:

As they emerge from the pandemic, some consumers want to party, while others want peace. How can your brand cater for each of these audiences?
Quiet can be interpreted in a variety of ways: soft, boring, peaceful, private. What does quiet mean to your consumers and how can you help enable it?
Gen Z consumers are exploring the Luddite life. How can you encourage them to connect with and build a relationship with your brand

Personal Reflection:

To be honest, I relate with both of them... In a world where we live in a fast pace movement, sometimes it is very easy for us to get carried away with life. Pandemic has changed us in a deep and a massive way, even I who were used to like for being alone, are now always very much appreciate anybody's company. Even, I can't imagine how I will live my life without having a direct connection with people. However, sometimes I still require a quiet moment, or a moment for myself where I just reflect on what I did, or as simply as doing my work. For example, when I am doing my homework for school/ doing soeme research related to the project that I am assigned to, I prefer to do it with the company of friends surrounding me. Yet, I need to have some peace by creating an environment of silence, meaning that I will tend to take my AirPods and put it on my ear....

Class Activity : Building a Customer Journey Mapping

This was our first draft of customer journey mapping and It was done on paper and sticky notes. The whole point of using sticky notes is that for us to not afraid to make mistake in the process, that the idea can be dismissed and then we rewrite it on another notes. However, we did take a lot of time to figure out what kind of experience that our customer may have, probably because we realized that we have not really defined our issue is, nor our specific "casual learner" persona.

But, Here's what we think about their experience on each stage:

Awareness

Our persona may encounter our app/ service through advertisement on social media, by first searching up online about what she needs, a language learning platform

Consideration

During this stage, we visualize our persona as those who is still confuse about how she would learn a language, so she may did several tries on several language platform other than apps <physical courses, or perhaps through a friend>. At consideration, we also narrowed down how she thought about her pros and cons on learning a new language from the 3 different resources. The results are she enjoys more learning through an app, as she does not really need the certifications of the language that she will master and wants to learn the particular language freely on her own time.

For us, we also then think further about what really differs us from our competitors, on other language learning app that already exists and how we can improve our service for our persona to choose learning with us.

Purchase

At this part, we think deeper about how we can let our persona has the experience and the "enjoyment" of language learning through app, and how they can understand our service that is better than the other through a free trial.

Retention

For the interaction part, we think that it is best for our users to be able to connect with their friends

Advocacy

Probably recommend it to a friend with our feature of sharing , or the most effective way could be from mouth-to mouth <verbally>

Another service that makes us different than the others are the ability of our users to:

- Connect with their friends that are on the same level as theirs

- Connect with best tutors

- Choose how they want to learn a new language through different activities in daily life <ex: while cooking>

Feedback from lecturer and peers on our Customer Journey Mapping <basically, our services>

Feedback :

We need to make language learning journey of our user to be immersive as people are usually interested in those who share the same value as them, and anything that connects with their feelings
It’s okay to let go of ideas, since we don't really have strong visual on our target markets/ how the app will run
What makes it different than duolingo? There are a lot of apps already:(
What if rather than the app to focus on wide variety of languages, make it a bit more specific to one? ex: mother languages of singapore. So that your app can also focus more on either those who will travel to Singapore, or basically, Singaporean who already loses touch with their culture

Response and more development:

- We understand that our idea was too vague as we didn't do much research on the persona/ understand deeper about what they need. It may be because we perhaps haven't decided who our persona is. So, here they are:

Students, casual learner of languages that does not have anyone to practice with

Knowing our persona in mind, we provide our service that shall include the ability of them to have sense of:

- Personalized/ in control of their app/ Ownerships

- Sense of community

- Interactions

- Enjoyability, a platform where no one should not judge each other.

Discussion: More concepts/ improvement on the service

Match & Chat feature

Match with a native speaker on the app to practice communicating with
Can include voice memos to practice speaking

Purpose of this feature: Interactions, Improve enjoyability since not many people are comfortable enough to interact with larger groups

Language based feed

Twitter like interface for users to post queries.

[Not a free to post anything platform, will have to be within the categories of either media recommendations, grammar/ learning, or food/lifestlye ]

Can be asking about elements about that culture like food songs, dramas
Houses media recommendations. (Books, movies, shows)

Purpose of this feature: Interactions, Community

Practicing at a restaurant

Our app partners with various restaurants to help users practice different languages.
Users book a table through the app which notifies the restaurant that the customer intends to converse with them in a native language.
Upon arrival at the restaurant, the table will include a manual with simple phrases that will aid the ordering process in that language.
User will speak to the waiter in the native language to order.
While waiting for their food to arrive, they can complete an activity sheet provided on the app(?)/ or provided at the restaurant.

Purpose of this feature: Interactions, Improve the user's experience to go beyond app

Feedback from Lecturer

in terms of the services that we provided on our app, it is very much clearer now, as we also already research on those who actually have the same problems and also gain insights from their pains and gains. Some areas still can be improved by making our visual on the app to be broader, as in providing more variety of choices on how our users can use the language/ practice it while doing everyday lives activity such as cooking.

Much more ideas can be gained once we did deeper research on those who have similarity with our persona. Things to look forward to:

What makes people stop learning a new language
What aspect/ activity that they find useful to learn in a new language
What is the famous language that we can include to on our service
What type of possible company/collaborators that can we work with to enhance our service/product

Our Response

Including a daily life activities into language learning is a great way to pick up a new language. For example, cooking. The idea that we have in mind is similar to that concept, pushing into how our service will help them to give instruction on the recipes fully in that new language that can also be translated into English/ their native language if needed. With the translation feature that our service may have, it can be pushed again with partnership with supermarket, whereby our user can scan the object/ food there, and get the translation in their targeted language right away.

We did discuss further about this concept, but realized that the persona of the user may be different than who we were trying to aim. We know that it is still possible for us to change our direction, but based on our research, the app that does all the cooking feature that just mentioned, already exist. Considering the possibility of us to create a new one and sell it better, compared to the other services more targeted in just- learning a new language for a casual learner, we prefer to go further on the latter one.

Reflection on discovering Customer Journey Mapping:

I actually have a lot of background in learning about Customer Journey, as I also got interested in marketing. However, applying it in real life and seeing it as a designer perspectives helps me to see a this journey mapping in different perspective. In marketing, all we did to provide and even increases our service is based on the purpose of business (gaining profit), or to create a brand image that is suitable and very much best when is compared to another services/ brand. But, from a designer persepective, the aim to provide this service and consider thoroughly of our persona's perspective, is to find the best way for our persona, target audience, or muse in fashion, to obtain their needs from us. Not so much as gaining profit as in material in business. Okay, I know that the two may sound very similar or even alike, but, as a designer I see and consider more of the persona's pain points and importantly, including them on our path even before, during, or after we provide our service to give better ones in the future.

With the two perspectives that I have, it helps me to push my thought further and put a lot of time considering much more possibilities for our muse/persona to have great experience of our service.

Week 2.2

Reading: Singapore Airlines' Service

Discussion: Our Service Blueprint <first draft>

This was the very first draft of our service blueprint that we discussed outside of the class time. Creating our service blueprint helps us to be more in detailed about how we may deliver and coordinate our service and app to create an immersive experience for our customer. For example, we used to just said that during the conversion stage, we would like our customer to try our free-trial. Then what happened? *this is a question that then be answered after we did design research

We discover that we need to have more support process in order to run the service smoothly, which is why we will also use AI Progress Tracker, to tracks input from the lesson experience completed by the student, to identify how the students are improving throughout the lesson (much more or less like a leverage)

During this stage, we find that it was very much hard for us to consider and encounter in detailed for the customer journey/ the actions that our persona did. Also, there are a lot of questions that arises during the discussion, such as:

- Details about our persona, about how we deliver our service to those who want to learn and teach at the same time

- How should we manage to know that the teachers are eligible to teach on our app?

- What makes the experience for those who subscribe on our app and those who just joined the app without?

- How to differentiate our service that the other language learning app that already exist?

- What will the teachers/ tutors gained for teaching on our app, and not through their own private courses?

*All of the questions stated above will be answered on the later weeks as we go through more research and discussion

Because we encounter this difficulties, then we realized that we still have not really put our mind and perspectives on our persona (both for the learners and teachers), and not getting enough involvement on our persona to actually listens about what they need. That is why, we then did a survey and in-depth interview with those who are similar to our persona on week 3.

Discussion: Persona(s) <first draft>

Samantha

Age : 32 years old

Motivations : Wants to increase her career opportunities by showing her superiors she is a key member when communicating with foreign clients

Goals : Wants to be proficient in the language

Pain : Existing language learning apps are not providing content applicable to her.
Gain : Practice conversational language on app

Samantha is a 32-year-old working in a regional business who wants to practice a new language to increase her career opportunities by communicating more effectively with foreign clients.

Samantha wants to perform better at her workplace and expand her fluency in different languages to connect with clients who are part of an ever-growing network across the globe. However, she’s frustrated that the current language learning apps that she uses does not provide her with relevant material to carry on a conversation in a professional setting. Upon stumbling across [Our app's name] while browsing the app store, she is intrigued by the ability to choose subjects of conversation to learn and practice, and the tutors simultaneously help her with language proficiency and develop her soft skills which is helpful while conversing with her clients.

Ryan, persona who wants to learn and practice a new language

Age : 19 years old

Motivations : Finds learning a new language enjoyable

Goals : Speak fluently in a foreign country when travelling, understanding a foreign show withouit subtitles

Pain : Has no one to practice with
Gain : Making friends and building connection with like minded people

Ryan, 19 years old, is a dedicated International Business Management student at SMU. He is driven by his passion for languages and cultures and aspires to converse fluently in foreign lands and understand foreign shows without subtitles, all while staying deeply rooted in his Singaporean and Southeast Asian heritage.

At such a young age, Ryan actively seeks opportunities to learn and connect, embodying a spirit of cross-cultural curiosity and yearns to share the richness of his cultural heritage with the world. Yet, faced with the challenge of finding language practice partners, he actively seeks opportunities to enhance his language skills and connect with enthusiasts who share his passion.

Notes:

When we discuss further on Ryan's perspectives on how and why he both want to learn and teach his culture, it was very hard for us to define them. It may be because we've never encountered people like Ryan before, and also it then complicate us to settle on whether or not he got the access of premium version on our app since he simultaneously want to teach and also learn.

Then, we figure out more in depth about how we could figure out this problem, and the solution is to remove this persona, as it does not have any significant benefit for our service.

Seo Joon, persona who wants to teach a language

Age : 24 years old

Motivations : Enjoy imparting knowledge with others

Goals : Wants people to understand his language and culture better

Pain : Does not have a platform for him to educate his culture

Gain : Building a community of people who are interested in his culture

We encounter a lot of difficulties when we want to put description on Seo Joon's perspectives on his aspirations and gains, because we don't have any insights on how a teacher's view on teaching, most importantly on how we could make Seo Joon stays on our app and not just open a new firm of language teaching. <That's why we then do more research on week 3&4)

Reflection on week 2:

During the whole discussion of week 2, we had a lot of silent discussion. Meaning that we just digest the whole possible problem that may occur on our service. The effect of doing this, is that then our discussion are not as productive. We take a whole of 2 hours to only imagine of our Customer Journey, when it can just take for about an hour and discuss further about the detail on the latter.

I realized that creating a service on a group, takes a lot of time of adjustment at the very beginning of the discussion, since we both all have different style and pace of digesting and pouring out our ideas into one. Knowing this in mind, I then as the caregiver (my role in this group), was trying to combine and gather my teammates idea out in the open, so that we can work more on improving our service effectively. However, even though that I encountered this problem just before we got deeper on our project, I am really grateful to be paired with my other 2 teammates because we have the same vision to get this service done in a slow and consistent pace rather than doing it in the fast way and got burnout later.

Other than that, we realized that meeting in person for discussion before class is more effective and time efficient than doing it in during class. To be honest, I feel that sometimes we were on a rush to get our idea together during class, because we wanted to have the slot of the consultation and get the feedback from our lecturer. Funny thing is, we both all usually got our idea when we were randomly doing an activity such as eating, walking, or even just peeling an apple. Which is why, we will do the discussion more outside class to collect ideas and build more chemistry to improve our coordination on the process of this assignment.

Week 3.1

Activity: Design Research of Our Service

We conducted a survey and several interviews to have more understanding of our persona's perspective on language learning, understand their difficulties, and what they goals are.

Survey

For the questions that we want to ask for design research, it will be driven more about the user journey, about their experiences.

We managed to gather 77 responses ini 1 week, and here's the result:

These are the responses of our target customer on their basic demographic about their age, their gender, and their current activities about language learning:

Majority of the demographic consists of young adults between 18 to 24 (92%)

49.3%- Interested in learning a new language
29.3%- Currently learning a new language
21.3%- Not interested in learning a new language

Those who are currently learning a new language

Those who are interested in learning a new language

Here's a summary data of our surveys:

People are motivated in learning language for Personal growth, Connecting with people from different backgrounds, and cultural enrichment

Language and preferred learning methods:

TOP 3 Preferred Practice methods

Casual Conversation
Pronunciation and speaking practice
Cultural activities (e.g., exploring food and media)

The challenges faced while learning a new language

Lack of time
Lack of motivation
Unsure where to start

What puts people off from learning a new language

Lack of motivation
Lack of time

Summary Statement of the Survey:

The survey conducted revealed that the majority of young adults are interested in learning languages for personal growth, cultural enrichment, and connecting with people from different backgrounds. The most popular languages for learning were Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The preferred learning methods included self-study with books and resources, watching movies/shows in the target language, and language learning apps. Preferred practice methods included casual conversation, pronunciation and speaking practice, and exploring food and media. The biggest challenges faced while learning a new language were lack of time, motivation, and uncertainty about where to start. The service being proposed received an overwhelmingly positive response, with the majority of participants (27.1%) expressing a very high level of interest.

Interview with learners

#interview 1

Motivations:
- Wants to learn Korean to watch her Youtube videos/content without subtitles.
- Heard korean is fairly simple to learn and just wanted to try.

Background:
- Used Duolingo before, wasn’t a fan.
- Attended Korean classes in a language school before but has stopped.

Experience:
- Found lessons fun, teachers kept them on track with spelling tests & homework.
- Lessons focused around learning the characters, vocab & reading passages.
- Appreciates that content taught in school were very applicable to real life context. (not like duolingo's random phrases)
- Appreciates that teachers in school could explain why certain sentences are the way they are.

Problems faced:
- Lessons were expensive and time-consuming, made it hard for her to make plans around her work schedule.

Wants:
- Would like to have more hands-on experience with the language, more conversational practice with people in a way that’s more natural and applicable.
- Recommendations for books to read (other than textbooks)

#interview 2

Motivations:
- Interested in K-pop, wanted to try picking up a new language for fun and satisfaction.

Background:
- Almost 1 year of attending Korean classes in a language school every week.

Experience:
- Enjoys the lessons taught in school, feels assured that he knows whatever is taught is correct since tutors are korean.
- Is able to ask tutors more complexed questions (eg.how do people normally say ____? , Is it offensive to say things in this way?)

Problems faced:
- Doesn’t have people to practice speaking with, lessons in school don’t focus on the conversational speaking aspect.
- Can practice with friends made in the class, but having 2 newbies doing an exchange means they are unable to verify if what they say is accurate. Only able to practice what was taught in class
- Not many native Korean speakers around will have the patience to correct learners all the time for them to learn.

Wants:
- Someone to practice speaking with a native korean in a more casual manner like small talk or simple topics like how to order food.
- A safe and judgement free platform where he won’t be embarrassed making mistakes or sounding like an idiot sue to him mispronouncing things etc,

#Interview 3

Motivations:
- Interested in Thai and Korean through the media she consumes like shows and music.
Background:
- Had to pick a language to learn for a school module one semester, thus picking Thai. No longer learning at the moment.
- Currently considering to enroll in a Korean language school

Experience <learning Thai>
- Appreciated that the lessons conducted were very detailed, the teacher had them reply in Thai and also had conversational roleplays.
- Enjoyed the immersion activities offered. (eg. got to eat thai food, teachers made them thai milk tea, had online games to practice recognising the thai characters etc.)
- Appreciated that they had a telegram channel to recommeded shows/movies to watch, thai music, thai related events or places in SG.

Experience <learning Korean>
- Used Duolingo for about a week or 2, got lazy to continue and found the activities boring. (Just matching the korean word to the correct meaning) Uninstalled the application after getting spammed with notifications.

Problems faced:
- <Learning Thai> Generally is a very difficult and complex language to learn hence now that the module is over she has no reason to continue learning.
- <Learning Korean> Has to make time out of her busy school schedule to pick up Korean, since language classes are always at night. However it’s not a priority in her life right now hence not commiting to the classes.

Wants:
- A constant way to learn that is still fun and engaging, but also doesn’t take up to much time from her daily life.

Finding:

Young adults are interested in learning languages for personal growth, cultural enrichment, and connecting with people from different backgrounds.

Insights:

Most popular languages for learning were Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
Preferred learning methods included self-study with books and resources, watching movies/shows in the target language, and language learning apps
Preferred practice methods included casual conversation, pronunciation and speaking practice, and exploring food and media
Some learners are uncomfortable to learn a new language in a group environment as they are too shy
The biggest challenges faced while learning a new language were lack of time, motivation, and uncertainty about where to start

Problem Statement:

How might we provide a service that allows language learners to improve their proficiency in their target languages to practice in a fun yet judgement free zone?

Reflection on collecting data from the Learner's perspectives:

Survey

We send out a google form link to accumulate measurable data, to support our hypothesis/ even to gain more insights about what they thought about language learning. The process of conducting and collecting the data, we did it by sending them out amongst our friend groups and even directly asked people <politely> to answer it on their phone. It was very easy, since we just need to wait for them to answer. However, some people may not willing to just answer it right away, because of the many questions that we had <they may be just too lazy, or say that they will fill it up but never do>, and some of them may false the data because they are too lazy to give their answers on the why. That's why, we also conducted other method of collecting the data by doing interviews

Interview

The process of interviewing learners are just conducted by one of our members, Tasha. However, we did accumulate the questions and guide for how she should take the interview. Since it is an in-depth interview, the first very section of the question may not be very deep and just a general questions to build relationship between us and them. As a language learner ourselves, we of course have known already about our personal preferences and our pain points during our journey. So, it was very hard also for us to ask questions that is not leading and bias, to uncover even more hidden pain points that other language learner faced. That's why, we tried to remain objective and rather trying to analyze and listen to what is unsaid by understanding on how they replied to our questions.

Activity: Market Research on Our Service

Case study on the app that offer similar service as us

#1 HiNative

HiNative is a global Q&A community for language learners and people that are curious about the world. Each of the questions can be answered by other users of the app, or even by their IT Support, AI.

Basically, their app's selling point is that they allow users to ask questions about language, and native speaker or other like minded individuals can answer their questions. So by having this interactions, HiNative created an interactive commnity among language learner enthusiasts.

I tried to give a question related to the meaning of "language" and when I scrolled down, they also give me suggestions about similar questions. I think, having this "similar"/ "you might like...." feature, can really help users to stay in their website to keep on using our service.

So, for our app/ service, we can consider to include it as our feature also.

#2 Duolingo

Duolingo is an American educational technology company that produces learning apps and provides language certification.

Their learning app is more towards gamification, which is their method to keep their learners engaged and keep on going back onto learning. However, some of the reviews said that their learning is very repetitive, and their structure, topic, and grammar cannot be applied in everyday lives.

Their main selling point is that they have collaboration with universities around the world and providing an english test that can be taken by language learner online, and is acknowledged by universities (even though they are not collaborating)

#3 Busuu

Busuu is a language learning service that provides interactive community, courses that is created by expert, lessons that featuring real people, and self led learning.

This particular app/service collaborated with educators to enrich classroom learning for students.

It provides a recording, to allow their students to actually downloaded it, so that they can review it at anytime.

#4 Tandem

Tandem is an app that connects language learners around the globe. It is a free mobile app that provides a way to learn a foreign language one-on-one with other people

First, users will have to register their mastered and targeted language, then the app itself will find a match for other people who want to exchange the language, then allow them two to interact together.

Case study on what people usually think about learning through app (more towards the disadvantages)

1. The functionality is limited

They say that:

"No matter how good they are, language learning apps are comparatively limited as far as content coverage is concerned.

Some apps center on one section of the language. Like just vocabulary, grammar, survival, conversation skills, for instance"

2. It can create an inadequate sense of success

It is great excitement that reinforces user's positive associations with the language and keeps user motivated, learning more, and moving forward. But the perception of accomplishment that language learning apps create can be rather insufficient, if not entirely false. The tools deployed to measure language proficiency are not similar to the actual tests conducted by various organizations to award official certification to successful candidates.

3. Apps are very impersonal and don’t explain

Language learning apps are very impersonal compared to face-to-face training and communication. It manifests in unconventional ways.

For instance, they impart a language through gamification. Once you start playing it, you become addicted, and your primary focus will be on winning the game instead of learning it efficiently.

"Apps also do not adapt to individual students. They may be built and designed to accommodate as many learners as viable, but they cannot meet everyone’s demands"

4. "Language learning Apps is a big distraction"

Let’s face it; the internet is full of distractions.

When you use your smartphone to gain a new tongue, it is amazingly easy for you to switch over to Facebook, Instagram, check your email, start chatting on WhatsApp, watching YouTube, and completely forget what you were doing earlier.

Sometimes it is very tempting to go on social media instead of truly learning.

Moreover, when you are doing assignments and exercises, all sorts of notifications can pop up and divert you from it.

It is one significant difficulty with mobile learning because it merely increases the screen time a student indulges.

Reflection:

As we now have a better understanding on how people out there are thinking about a language learning app, we then have to think about how should we deliver our service to not be as stated as 1-4 things above... We realized that the main problem other than learning the language itself, is to remain consistent on doing it, as well as the credibility of the content of learning.

In order to provide a better service and also solution, we will do further research and prototype on how we can create our app/service to make our user to stay in our app, and practice their language learning with fun, engaging, and more of immersive way.

Discussion: Mood board for our app/service

We create our preference on the overall look on our app would look like by creating moodboard

Rakshi's:

Rakshi is an illustration diploma graduate, so she also have some consideration on the coloring about how we will draw icons on the latter to be included on our app. The way she made the mood board, is very clear, she even included some of the app interface in the color scheme that she imagined. From here, I then learned from her that we need to be direct on the visualization and take a look exactly about the existed app, or even our competitors.

Mine:

Me, as someone with fashion background, is also more focus on the icon of our app. But doing deeper research about it and find more visual, it does not really say about our brand voice, a language learning app.

As you can see, most of the color that i included on the moodboard is strong, vibrant, and very feminine color. Because I usually designed for only one gender, and my style is mostly feminine...

Tasha's:

Different than me and Rakshi, Tasha as a graphic communication graduate, did the moodboard very much direct on the logo, and other icons that really said about our brand image, our service provided. So, it is easier for us to imagine how the app will look like just by looking at her moodboard.

Even though that the three of us have different styles, we all agree that we want to achieve the best color palette and vibes of our app to deliver the service that we have to our users. So, to settle on the color palette that we want, we then finalize it by tacjoosing that one color that we included at all of our board: yellow and purple. From then, we create a whole color palette, choosing the one that is bright, contrasting and have the friendly vibes but are not pain in the eye (hard to look at):

*the color code is at RGB setting

Reflection:

Since we are all coming from different domain specialty, the way we see our color/brand insights are quite different. We're trying to create a fun and engaging app to provide our service. Even how we interpret fun in the color are all different. For me, a fashion enthusiast, I always be biased with more of fashion color- the combination of the vibrant color that may look good on fabric but not as good when it comes to an app. Even for choosing the code number of the color that I chose, I almost do it in Pantone. But, the three of us have the same vision, which is to make our app look appealing and able to deliver the best solution provided for their needs. So, even with the different taste that we have, we are managed to successfully come up with our final color palette and style of our app.

During this stage, I learned a lot in considering several aspects from a UI/UX perspective when it comes to reflecting a brand image. And since our app is a language learning app, we need to make it look as appealing as possible, creating the "fun" vibes of it, so that our users will be consistent on using our app; even make it as part of their daily lives.

Discussion: Service Blueprint <2nd draft>

As you can see from above, we've added more of touchpoint to improve our service. I realized that after going through in-depth interviews as well as doing market research, there are still a lot missing on our service. That's why, we've upgraded them by creating a more detailed description on each touchpoint:

REGISTRATION

Upon creating an account, users have the choice to learn or teach

In order to teach, user will go through a verification of the language proficiency tested on speaking skill and grammar (evaluated by AI)

OUR FEATUREs

Match and Chat with private tutors to learn specific conversational topic

On each lesson, learner will be able choose on what they want to learn on that day, as well as choose specifically on the topic that they want to learn in private lesson with direct tutors. Learners are able to choose on which tutor they wanted to learn with, by choosing on our list and take a look on the experience and rate of our teachers on their profile that is rated from their previous learners. During the lesson, teacher will give the lesson based on the chosen topic by the learner and also correcting the voice note sent by the learner (if the learner wants to know how to pronounce a certain word correctly). Learner can save certain phrase/ vocabularies of their lesson and review it on the tracker feature. After finishing the lesson, learner should state whether they are satisfied with the lesson conducted by the teacher; and the teacher also to state their student's completion. For the next lesson, learner can re-do the same topic that they learn if they still not understand about the topic. (for paid version) learner can choose their next tutors.

Tracker feature

On the app, learner are able to review their past lesson and will have several suggestion on the next conversational topic to be studied on the next lesson

Learn language through Media of tv shows/movie, generated by AI

Learner will be asked to answer the given questions based on a clip of movie/ tv shows that is generated by our support process, Artificial Intelligence. If the answer is wrong, AI will give correction and give further explanation.

Learn language through songs, generated by AI

Learner will be asked to answer the given questions based on lyrics of song that is generated by our support process, Artificial Intelligence. If the answer is wrong, AI will give correction and give further explanation.

Partnership with Restaurants

To create more of an immersive and beyond the app experience, We will also be partnered up with Restaurants of our learner's targeted language, where the users can practice their language by having conversations with the staff in targeted language. Before wanting to visit the restaurants, however, users should make a reservation to let the restaurant know that they want to come and converse in the language. For each visit and conversing in targeted language, then the users can have 10% discounts and the progress of the improvement on the language can be tracked also in the App, and be shown at tracker feature

Social interaction feeds

ON our app, we will also provide a free-judgment community space where users can upload their journey of learning a new language on specific segments filtered from lifestyle/food, entertainment, and grammar, allowing them to interact with one another and give recommendations.

PAID TIERS

Free version Students

Users are bound to only 3 conversational topics with any instructor online and available at the time
Topics will be selected by the user but the content for the lesson is dictated by the tutor. (Students can give input on what they want to learn)
Each session is only 15 minutes.

<Learn language through media>
1 Movie/show clip learning
1 Song learning

Paid version Students

Users have unlimited conversational topics per day. Each session is 30 mins, has the choice to remain with the same instructor by booking the next session once the current one ends. If not they can start a new session with another tuto
Students will confirm if the tutor has completed the lesson well once the session ends.

Teachers

Can use the app for free, because they are offering their time to teach.
Every lesson they complete, they earn a certain amount of points that can be exchanged for discounts at our partner restaurant.
After each lesson, teachers should also give “rate” to how far the students had learn on the previous lesson

Feedback from the Lecturer

Get creative with the presentation...
Our persona is not really clear, what exactly is their purpose? We ned to do more research and settle them first before we going deeper into the blueprint/ solution.
For the teacher, is there any certification/ qualifications of training?
Balance informality and learning (learn via conversation/ songs/ cooking) can designed it as a form of Weekly challenges
We need to have a strong structure of teaching and modules on what the learner will learn
“I’ve learned a language! Now what?”--> How do we gonna provide a consistency on the Fall in love with another language with an award system?
AI Progress Tracker
How to reward the teacher?

Responses and Reflection

Personally, I feel like we pretty much have the data that we need to create our personas. However, it is just about how we combined all the data together that needs to be discussed more together. For the next meeting, we will do more research again, deeper this time and probably will conduct an interview with one or two people that is similar towards our persona, to understand better about their pain.

For the terms of our service, we will conduct more clear and constructive features on how we will "test" the teacher to be our persona. What we have in mind right now is just a simple test, but we'll figure out further on the following weeks.... After listening deeper about what our persona's struggling, their core needs, and also their journey related to language learning/interest in teaching.

So far, I think we have not really gotten into the point when we are on track... Since all discussion that we have is only just during class, and the time that we have in order to do so may not be as much... So, we definitely need to conduct a further discussion other than class time and then distribute our work to the three of us, to make use of the time effectively.

Week 3. 2

Class Activity: One Paragraph that is best to describe our service

Being a melting pot of diverse people, food, and experiences, Singapore is the perfect hub to pick up a new language, but that's easier said than done. Learning the language is one thing but having people to practice with is another. So [TBC] is dedicated to uniting individuals who want to expand their language capabilities with those who are willing to share, matching newbies with fluent speakers of the language. With chat rooms, interactive media, community platforms, and unique dining experiences, [TBC] aims to enhance your language learning journey on the app and beyond.

Feedback from lecturer and peers

- It is good that we provide online and offline service, but we need to remember to put only the feature that is inclined with the purpose/ user's needs.

- Some people are not really understand about what the teachers will gain for join our app (incentives)

- We also need to see things from bigger perspective, different cases.

How exactly are we going to provide our app to those who are afraid to socialize?

How are we going to create the safe space for them?

- If we're providing topics for learner, what makes our users want to stay on your topic?

Our Response

Yep, our selling point is that our app can go beyond the app, and our purpose and mission is to provide a more immersive learning for the learner to enjoy their journey. As from the one paragraph itself, maybe we cannot really say about each details of our service, for example like how will we make the user stay in our app, always be engaged by it, or how to make them interested in learning the topic. But, actually we do provide a platform for them to have a customization of the topic that they will learn, meaning that they are able to choose on those topics that they only want to learn. Also, the app provide a social interaction feed that allows the users to have a sense of community, where they can exchange information and practice their language with like minded individuals (even teachers). People are social creatures, so by having this feature, it will create a more engaging experience at safe zone of learners, where they can motivate each other, having interactions, and keeping the urgency to stay on our app.

For the different cases of a shy persona joining our app... We have not think further about it, but we will consider it as a possibility of our learner, so that all learners are able to have the best experience on our app.

Reflection

I am someone who typically will gain more ideas after talking with other people. And I believe the three of us in this group are quite the same. So, sharing our overall idea to our peers and not just the lecturer (as then we can see from an actual learner perspectives) really do help us to see things in broader cases. For example, as a service provider and learners, we haven't really think that far on a case of someone who is completely shy and afraid to be put out there, because we aren't. But, after having this sharing, we also then consider this possibility of the user in our app. Or, probably, we wanted to build this app specifically for them. But, on the specification of the persona, we will not decide them now, as we feel that we need to conduct more research and in-depth interview with them.

Also, it comes to our attention that people are questioning in details about the teacher's perspective. Knowing this in mind, we also be a little bit triggered by how many of our peers are quite interested to join as teachers; meaning that the teacher on our app will most likely to be those who may not have any experience in teaching, or never ever even think about it. There are also a lot of concern regarding the incentives/ what they will get in return for teaching. At first, we think that the restaurant discount is already good enough or selling enough for them to join us. But, by having this peer sharing we then understand that maybe it needs to be something more...... And we may not encounter this problem if we hadn't had this sharing. So, we will conduct more research on it, maybe even with our friends and not someone who wants to be a teacher....

Discussion : Brand Names

PolyglotPals
LingoChat
Hey_____
Paltalk (EXISTS ALRDY BOOO)
ChitPal
telePal
Budding - beginning and showing promising signs of continuing.
Budly
Say___
—-ly
Say it pal

All of our Brand name consideration is all started with the idea of "How do we usually greet someone" ; because we wanted to create a brand image that is friendly and fun. Our difficulties is that most of our name ideas, already exist:(. But then we stick towards the name of Say It Pal, as we are an app for people to converse in a language that they learn/ teach in a safe, judgement free community.

Week 4. 1

Design Research

Interview with teachers

#interview 1

Motivations in teaching :
- As her Ikigai, she found happiness in teaching and by doing so, she can encounter new knowledge in related to the material she taught and expand her skill of communication with people

Background in teaching:
- Have opened a fashion design course for almost 2 years after graduating from Diploma
- Self-taught teaching
- Have a father who is a tutor, so most of her knowledge comes from her father

Experience in teaching:
- Two years of opening her own course as well as having collaboration with numerous institution of fashion school

Problems faced during teaching:
- When students sometimes didn’t do their homework/attend class, she feel sad but then it pushes her to reflect more on how to improve the class to make her students consistently attend the class

Wants in teaching:
- As most of her students are those who are creating their portfolio for applying to design school, she wants all of her students to got accepted into their dream school with the help of her course
- Create more collaboration with even bigger institution/school to make her course well known by many people

]

What they get in return for teaching (emotionally)
- As she really enjoy teaching, no matter how busy she got from doing it, she’ll always be happy to pass down her knowledge to other people

What drives them to continue teaching
- She likes to encounter new things, she loves learning. By delivering materials to her students, she always know that she’ll gain more information, skills, or knowledge about fashion design <the topic of the tutorings>

What alternatives compensation they prefer, other than getting paid
- She believes that most teachers usually don’t get paid for what they do. For her, teaching is not just business. As simply as her students gaining knowledge from her and becoming passionable on the learning, she already finds joy and that’s the only thing that she’s seeking for on teaching

#interview 2

Motivations in teaching :
- The passion of being a teacher, It give him happiness to teach other people so that they become better in english <especially>. Communication is also what he likes from teaching. Not only he was able to talk to other students about learning lessons, but he can also get to know his students by them sharing experiences of problems

Background in teaching:
- Have been trained as a teacher from his major at university

Experience in teaching:
- He has been teaching English for Indonesian at many level, from elementary school to senior high school

Problems faced during teaching:
- When students sometimes didn’t do their homework/attend class, he feel frustrated and sad that his students are not interested on their learning
- School curriculum that needs to be fixed that it is not as strict/ structured

Wants in teaching:
- Seeing his students to graduate with good scores

What they get in return for teaching (emotionally)
- The joy and feeling proud of his student’s success

What drives them to continue teaching
- He thinks that it is nice when the students he teach comes back to school and greets him to tell his/her story of being success

What alternatives compensation they prefer, other than getting paid
- “Well, payment is important but that’s not the only thing that you need to think about a lot, but for me it is still our living nature to work and get paid. Since becoming a teacher is my job, if I don’t get paid at least the government need to pay my living cost, not my payjob”

#interview 2

Motivations in teaching :

- Loving the human connection, the collaboration of the teachers and the students during the lesson as if they are working together
- (in relation with language teaching) She believes that a language skill is practical and essential in life, which is why she want to pass it always to other people

Background in teaching:
- Have a certification from Cambridge Education for second language teachers
- Taking TEFL
- Master in Education specialising in Inclusive Education

Experience in teaching:
- Have been teaching since at young age (19 years old) to become an english teacher
- Taking a self-learning teaching course in Jakarta
- Teach English for University student (as one of their invited lecturer)
- Obtaining an English course of her own

Problems faced during teaching:
- The lack of focus and concentration that her students have during class to get “in-tune” on the lesson
- Students not doing her homework
- The quality and the student's motivation nowadays are declining…. “They don’t want to work hard, but they want to get the highest possible thing”

Wants in teaching:
- Her students to achieve their dreams (in this case, is for them to got accepted in their targeted language and certain score of english test)

What they get in return for teaching (emotionally)
- She thinks that it is very much rewarding to get to know her student's story, for she and them to exchange stories and give more of the life lessons, relating it again with human connection

What drives them to continue teaching
- To be able to see their students to reach their fullest potential, their dreams
- Because when she teaches, she has the human connection that allows her to be-friended with her students. And that friendship outside class is what she is very much grateful of; the connection of her with people

What alternatives compensation they prefer, other than getting paid
- She never really thought about the compensation in material, since she is very passionate about teaching. But, for her, the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment of her being able to teach some knowledge to other people that may not have the potential in English (zero knowledge) is enough for her

Reflection

Since I also have some passion in teaching, I am the one who did the interview to find teachers and trying to understand their experience in teaching. To be honest, doing an interview is the type of research that I really love. By asking questions, I feel like we as a designer can understand better about our persona, as well as having a better empathy to listen to their pain points. Because, if we only sent out a survey, we may only read and know about what is on the surface; about the general things that we may already know before. Even the answer of the given question may not be as deep, as there is no direct connection between the interviewer and the teachers. However, by conducting an interview, it really help me and my group to have a deeper connection, to create an impression that they can trust us as a designer, the facilitator, the provider. So, they can trust us better and open up more about their struggles.

Other than that, from this interview, then, we also can have a better perspective on how in real time teacher, we need to give more incentive as a return of their effort in teaching their students. So, later on the discussion we need to think further about how we can improve it and compel the teachers to still want to teach at our app.

Discussion : App Interface sketch

For the app interface, it was sketched by Tasha when Me and Rakshi are trying to draw our logo also. But before the three of us trying to settle on our work distribution, we discussed first about what to include and not on our prototype sketching.

Main page of the App

Since Tasha is the most experienced one compared to us three when it comes to app interface and ui/ux, it was very fast for her to come up with the arrangement of our service. So, we also learn that the first step of creating the app is to sketch first on the main pages that the app will provide, including the home, restaurant, match and chat, and social interaction feed.

Registration, User Profile, and Proficiency Test

Then, following the flow of the customer journey and our service blueprint, the next step is to draw the registration page that will accumulate the user's role in our app, and for our app to gather more information about our users (their demographics and payment account). There is also added more interface specifically for those who would like to be the teacher, to have 3 different types of test which needed to be completed first and checked by AI.

Profile page consideration for learner

For the profile page, we created 2 different possible sketches, as we also considered on having the "following" and followers feature, for the learner to follow their favorite other users, based on the content that they post on our feeds.

But, we then removed it and settle with the one on the right, because we afraid that our app will then becoming more like a social media whereby users can get anxious on how many their followers are....

Profile page consideration for teacher

For the Teacher's page, it is actually a bit similar to the learner, but since teacher will accumulate more points based on their timing of teaching, we also included the

"Rewards" subpage for them to access and see how much reward that they already have to be then redeemed at our partnership restaurants

Match and Chat from Student's POV

Next, it is the match and chat feature for the learner to learn conversational topic with their preferred pal that they can choose first before having the lesson. Then, the learner should choose about the topic that they want to learn and if they are ready, it will lead to a private message with the timer on the top right of the chat. The time will start to count once the teacher already have a warm up first for them to get to know one another first and it will be start when the teacher press "start lesson" (it will only shown on the teacher's POV). After the lesson, learner will "rate" how the lesson is conducted by saying whether it is good/ needs improvement (for the teacher). Then, premium learner will also be able to book their next lesson with their preferred pal/ teachers and make confirmation.

Learning tracker and review

In order for us to keep the learner to come back into our app, we created also the learning tracker, where the learner can review their past lesson they had with teachers, also getting suggestions for the next topic that they may like to learn.

Social interactions for users

This is the social interactions feature that we always talk about, for the users to interact with one another and for us to create a sense of community, belongings, amongst our users. On this page, we can see that the type of content that the user will post is based on the filter of media, food, or even learn on their preferred language. At each post also, users can give comment and like the post.

Dine and Prac'

Our selling point feature! the Dine and Prac page. This is the page where the users can have access to see the list of our partnership restaurants, and make reservation for them to come (can also add more pals to come with them), and practice their conversational ability in the language.

At this page, we also add the scan QR code by the restaurant that will be accumulated on the profile of learners, to let the SIP know that they have practice at our partnership restaurants.

Discussion : Logo, Color Palette

Here's the sketches that Rakshi made for our service, Say It Pal. and again, the ideation always came up from a questions.

Who are we?

At first, we wanted to have an icon of ours, and she started to just draw the alphabet of S I P , then it leads her to create a form of ducks greeting. When she showed us the duck, we were very impressed by it, as nowadays in Singapore ducks become quite a trend now... And we even consider it right away to make duck as our icon.

Knowing this in mind, then we also find that ducks are social creatures just like human, so it is possible for us to create an duck icon. However, people may not see them the same as we do, so we don't continue on using ducks...

On the brighter side, from duck, we see that the duck's head look alike a bubble chat. Which we then continue to develop further as our app's logo:

At this page, we also add the scan QR code by the restaurant that will be accumulated on the profile of learners, to let the SIP know that they have practice at our partnership restaurants.

After looking at how other people made their logo, the three of us then have a better insights on what we like on our logo, which is an overlapped chat bubbles. And since our app is a language, we want to include it also. So it does not look like a social message app. But our concern is, it then look like a Google Translate logo:(

Still being stuck at the duck icon, we then try to force ourselves by drawing another icon of a boy greeting. What is cute about it, is that we want to draw the phone icon also, as if the boy is coming out of the phone itself. Since there are a lot to draw, the icons, then we also take some step back to reflect our current drawings and consider further about the dominant, subdominant, and the subordinate of the logo.

After settling on the drawing of the logo, Rakshi tried to add more color on it. From just the colored outline, into filling up some of it. But our concern is, if it has too much color, it's giving an impression of a children's app and not a young adults...... So, we take a look again on how other people design their logo. Then, we realized that it may because of the rounded corner of each lines that make it look very playful.

So, we tried to make the line of the icon to look very sharp and use fonts that is easy to read, but not hand written.

Final Logo:

Activity: 5 Minutes Presentation

Today we were being taught about how we could sell our product/ service by creating a narrative story about it. Most importantly, we should make our audience be engaged and got curious about what we were talking about; by not exactly said in detail about our product/service. Rather, giving them the flow on how they need our product/ service in their life, and how it can be very much impactful for them.

This time, we were briefed to give only 5 minutes presentation with total preparation time of about an hour. To be honest, I was panicking a lot until I could not think straight and it really shows.... However, since we discuss it all together, we then came up with giving presentation by telling a story of our persona, their touchpoint, and basically how our product is solving their problem, a service that they really need <even though I may not be> in their life. So, we made our presentation flow in such way that we're telling our persona's life when he is using our app fro the before, during and after.

Even though that we still have not any interface/ visual related to our service to help our audience understand better of what we actually offer; for this presentation, we did a lot of gimmick by impersonating our persona. From their voices, their faces, and even the way they behave (ex; one of our personas is an extroverted and a dancer, so we imagined her as someone who might speak with a little bit of dancing)

Here's our first flow:

Being such a melting pot of diverse people, food, and experiences, Singapore the perfect hub to pick up a new language, but that's easier said than done. Learning the language is one thing but having people to practice with is another.

Meet Ryan, a Singaporean student who loves indulging in foreign media, especially K-dramas and Anime. He is intrigued by the idea of picking up a new language but wants to do it in a fun and engaging way. He knows he is bound to make mistakes when learning a new language, and he really does not want to be embarrassed in front of others. So how can we help Ryan find a suitable way of learning?

That's where we come in, introducing Say it Pal! A brand new fun and unique language learning service that conducts lessons through a variety of media forms.But that's not all, Ryan can also learn and practice with fluent speakers on the app like Suzy! Suzy is a native Korean living in Singapore who aspires to be a teacher and is looking for a platform to gain exposure and experience in teaching.

Alright now back to Suzy, she will conduct her lessons in a private chat room, where Ryan can decide the topics for the day he wants to focus on. He will be able to practice speaking with the voice chat function while Suzy corrects his pronunciation.

To provide more speaking practice, we've partnered up with restaurants of different cuisines.

Once Ryan is more confident with speaking, he can make a reservation at a Korean partner restaurant through our app, and converse entirely in Korean with the staff during his visit. To make the deal even sweeter, he will receive a 10% discount on his bill when he completes the dining experience.

Other than just having lessons with our service, we also have a community feed for other users just like Ryan and Suzy to share all things related to their target language.

Ryan can use the feed to look for recommendations on Korean dramas, songs, or even recipes for Korean food! If he has any questions, he can upload it on the feed and have other users comment on his post.

Feedback from Lecturer and Peers

Total duration : 3 minutes out of 5 minutes

We need to show some visuals
We should probably showcase our blueprint while presenting our service
It is good that we have a note changed at each description to sell our service, especially on the persona
chemistry between the team members can be seen during presentation, so keep it up! and show some enthusiasm during the final presentation

Our Response

We were very panic during the discussion of the brief to wrap up in such limited time of our "complex" service and convert it to only 5 minutes presentation. We have not had have any visualization of our service except for the sketching and prototype, so we did not show anything during this activity. We just used our voice, expression, as well as our body language to sell our service towards our audience. As a result, we managed to present everything right on time for 3 minutes. For the final presentation and the next next presentation, we will keep our presentation flow just the same, even improving our tone and body language.

We wonder whether or not we should include our service blueprint, since our presentation flow is the same as our customer journey and touchpoint... But, we'll see first whether later on we need to include more features on our service. If we did, then we will include it during presentation, because our touchpoint will added up and we may find it difficult to present every journey that our persona will have.

Discussion : Persona <draft 2>

After having a more in-depth interview with our learner persona and getting more feedback from our peers, we finally came up with our learner profile and make him as an introvert, as someone who is very shy to socialize with people but want to have the ability to converse in a new language in his daily lives.

He need to practice much on his speaking, but he needs to have a judgement free zone to be comfortable enough on his learning journey. That's why, with our service, we will help him to achieve his goals!

Same as Ryan, we also created a persona profile of Suzy, the teacher of our app. But, for Suzy, we want to focus more on how she is a person who wants to get more exposure in teaching and love to connect with people who are interested in her culture.

She never had any experience in teaching before and never had any time spare to even start. Which is why she then got interested to have that experience in our app that allows her also to teach at anywhere, anytime.

Research on the content of learning

Korean

Japanese

Reflection on week 4

During this time, me and Rakshi are a bit burning out from school work. For me personally, I was having a lot of hard time sorting this studio's project while also having other responsibilities to get done outside school. it's almost like I am dedicating most of my time only thinking about this project, but don't really have the time to actually doing it; which then makes me frustrated and repeatedly afraid of not get it done by the due time.

However, when we sorted out the powerpoint presentation this time, it was more fun! because we did it all together at once. So it is also easy to finish and wrap everything up together since we did divide our responsibility for each of us <it saves up a lot of time>. During the process, since it's almost due to the submission time, we could think more effectively and discuss our idea together because we don't have much time. I do understand that some people have different working-time-paced, but I think all of us can handle the pressure very well, which then unites us best when we finish our task for the day.

Also, because we have different abilities and background, we learnt from each other. For instance, Tasha had already worked for a company for 2 years, then today she actually shared her knowledge on graphic communication principle <like choices of color, and arrangement of lay outing>. From Rakshi, just today she taught us on how we should design and arrange the proposal for creating storyboard, since she has a diploma on illustration and animation.

Week 4. 2

Discussion: App Interface

This is all app interface that we will present during presentation. It is not finished yet, but we just want to give some visual about how the main page of our touchpoints/service to be delivered with the users.

Home Page and Teacher Proficiency Test

Learning through media and tracker page

Dine and Prac and our Social Interaction Feed

The match and Chat features

Activity : 5 Minute Presentation

The next meeting, just 2 days after, we were asked again to give a brief 5 minutes presentation about what our service is, why, how, and for whom. Previously, we have not had any visual so it is a bit hard also for us to tell our service. But this time, it is the limited time that makes us even harder to finish the slides, script, and visual on time. Luckily, we always managed to distribute our group work for the three of us, so we can manage to finish it right before the presentation!

Total Duration : 4.40 minutes

Feedback from Peers and Lecturer

- Sometimes people are most focus on how to pick up the language/ vocabularies, some can even pick up the grammar/ the structure of how a sentence should be from a show, drama, music, that can be applied on daily conversations

- Huge improvement on the presentation as well as the service 👍

Our Response

One of our members is unable to join us during this presentation, so we had to manage and sorted out again the script of our presentation.

Since we already have some visualization of our service, now it is easier for us to deliver exactly what our service is provide, who is it made for, and why at the first place we even come out with it. Also, we did the flow of the presentation just the same as what we had previously, in story telling manner.

This time, we have upgraded our service! to give more of the variety of personalization, customization for the content of the learning, in order to let our learners be in charged of their learning journey. Intentionally, we will provide our learning in several topics that is used for everyday lives, and be followed up again by the specifications of it (for example: users want to learn about buying; then be specified into bargaining, asking for a price, denomination)

For the teacher, now we offer the incentive of a discount at a restaurant after they had reached a certain amount of points accumulated on the minutes of teaching.

Without the help of the previous peer sharing and our research, we will never came up this far...

Week 5. 1

Discussion: Making powerpoint presentation

On Monday, we created a new presentation board as we think that the previous one is not as concise and the content was not really professional. The previous slides that we have was actually suitable for our service and our moodboard. However, the color was too contrasting, making the reader to be "confused" on where to look at when we're trying to sell our proposal.

Other than the presentation board, we did a revision on our persona <Suzy> because after doing a lot of peer sharing, internal discussion and also interview with an actual teacher, we think that there's not much to offer to this persona, as much as "what actually motivate her to teach on our app" ; not just teaching at an institution/ other app. It is clear that we want to targeted Suzy as those who are native/ teach their first language on our app. So, Suzy may just want to teach for fun and not as a career. Knowing this in mind, we realized that not much of our inputs are from people who similar like Suzy. So, we did another polling survey on instagram <via Tasha's account> , to understand more about bigger community's perspective.

Doing a survey/ pollen in Instagram might sounds dull and "not as credible" as people may just press the button for fun. However, in this case we purposely choose instagram as the platform for us to collect our data to reach to the right audience, to those who may never think of considering teaching as their career and see their point of view on why/ why not they are not interested. Because, for an actual teacher, someone who finds joy in teaching, the thing that they need to get in return may realistically be the happiness of their student, money, or the sake of filling up their resume. On the other hand, for those who never think of being one, it can be as simply as an offer of discount, or even things they get in return that we may never considered before (which is what we wanted to know).

the result:

Screen Shot 2023-09-07 at 23.13_edited.jpg

Screen Shot 2023-09-07 at 23.12_edited.j

So, based on our insights and further discussion, we then formed a new persona, Suzy:

Thoughts:

Being a teacher myself, of course I also want to have more incentive to get in return of the knowledge that I give for my students. However, even though that it may not be as in material of money, the joy of my students, their achievements are enough for me. But remember, I got the experience and actually willing to teach to gain more things to write on my Resume. But how is it exactly for those who just want to teach for fun, to just spare several minutes of their time during the day to share their knowledge on strangers? For our persona, Suzy, we realized that we were becoming too biased on targeting at those who wanted to be a teacher. But in reality, there are much more number of people who is willing to do it for fun but with incentives, than those who really want to be a teacher. So, we really need to see and imagine our persona realistically and go deeper on that.

We already change our persona in total of 3 times because we sometimes lose our focuses and affected by our perception bias that has no supported data. Encountering this, this is the time when I learned that to offer a possible solution or offering the best way to deliver our persona's needs, we need to be really careful on accumulating it, as designer is a facilitator that should always be objective.

Based on the previous feedback and backing up from lecture on how to do storytelling, we made a lot of changes on our flow of presentation through more visualization on the data, such as:

Providing several measurable data of our research, help us proof on our audience on what is happening right now. Not so much of introducing the issue; because we will do it verbally along on the persona, when we also mentioned that the collection of data is conducted through interviews.

After delivering the issue, we thought that it is important for us to highlight the needs of our persona, as well as the insights that we have by stating it in a form of persuasive sentence, by making the audience be empathized on the issue. And here's how we do it:

To even persuade our audience that our app is best to deliver our persona's needs, we also made a comparison of existed services that our persona already tried and how they are not as beneficial. After stating that, we then introduced our service.

Furthermore, we also think about how we can make a comparison between the free plan and subscription version, as well as what the users will gain after using our service:

Discussion: Flow for the Storyboard

First, we discussed about how the flow should be and what type of touchpoints/ essential journey that should be captured on our storyboard so that our users/ audience can understand our service better.

Ryan's story

For Ryan's flow, Ryan is a persona who already bought the subscription plan. However, we haven't think much further about the dialogue that he has, we just think about the description and the flow of his journey

Description

Ryan watching K-Drama on his computer

Discovers our app (App store)+ Reads the reviews

Creates an account and chooses the “learner” option

Tries the media learning options

Now wants to see what 'Match & Chat' is about

Looks through the list of pals to start a chat with, picks Suzy

Selects the area of focus for the lesson

Eg: learns about food

He applies what he learnt from the lesson and post it on the feed.

Eg: *taking a picture of a strawberry and post it on the feed, captions "I learnt how to say
딸기는 달다 ttalgineun dalda (strawberries are sweet)"

Now that he is more confident, makes a reservation at a partner restaurant with the dine & prac feature

Goes to restaurant and converses with the servers, receives a 10% discount after successfully conversing in korean

He’s happy about being more fluent and can now converse with more confidence

Shares with his friends about the service

Suzy's story

For Suzy's flow, we already think further about what dialogue that may be contained on the storyboard.

Description

Dialogue

Suzy is celebrating a friend's birthday

"Oh in Korea we would prepare seaweed soup whenever it's someone's birthday"

Her friend asks her how to say seaweed soup in Korean

"Interesting… What is the dish called?"

Suzy explains it well

“It’s called 미역국 (miyeok-guk). 미역 (miyeok) means seaweed, 국 (guk) is soup

OR

"It's called…."

Friends are surprised and happy to get such a response

'Wow you should try teaching Korean to people in SG"

Suzy is skeptical

"Yeah I wouldn't mind, but teaching is such a hassle…"

Another friend suggests to Suzy to try Say It Pal!

"You should try this app! It's easy to teach because it's via chat and can even get discounts at restaurants as a reward"

Suzy is intrigued by the idea

"Oh really?! I'll check it out."

Goes home and downloads the app

Chooses the “teacher” option

Undergoes the proficiency test, where she’s tested on her speech, listening and spelling and grammar skills.

Receives a match from Ryan

Converses with Ryan

Gains points from the rating system, happy with her discounts

Suzy browses through the feed and sees a recipe for Samgye-tang (Ginseng Chicken Soup) and leaves a comment

"My mum used to add…. for more flavour!"

나의 엄마는 맛을 더 내기 위해 …을 추가하곤 했다!"

Happy that she has a way to get in touch with her roots

Reflection:

It's very much fun to create Ryan and Suzy's story now, because we already settled on who they are and what is their background/pain points experience that we then can help on our service. We even learn several culture of Korea to include it on the actual dialogue of them. Also, since one of our members have very much experience on illustration and animation, we also learnt on how to plan properly about the content that we should include on the storyboard : It is through create a table on what our persona is doing, as well as writing the dialogue. Moreover, I'm very glad that we settle on the storyboard earlier on this week and not just do it on week 6, because we then have much more understanding about who our persona is and can think about how further explain it on the presentation for peer sharing.

Discussion: More Illustration for the app's interface

We were thinking about how we can make some sort of visualization on our app interface for the users to better understand about what the feature is.

For each feature, we also include several color from our color palette just to decorate the whole illustration. Our challenge is: to not create an animation that may look like a children's app. So, to answer that challenge, we create several edge of the illustration to be sharp and use more shadows.

Reflection :

Since this project is our first time of doing a service design on a degree level, sometimes we find it hard to cope with how we manage to do our work and still be having the balance of our life. Which is why, I think as the caregiver of this group, it is important for us to build a deeper connection in between the three of us, some sort of friendship that will hold our bond to survive the burnout, the storm, together.

For example, every 2 hours of us working, we then just simply go to 7/11 or take a walk outside without even talking about this assignment. We will grab some food, enjoy it and even talk about the randomest thing that popped in our head right away. If you see it from the working method perspective, this 20 minutes conversation of the act of going out together really help us to work effectively afterwards.

Other than that, I think to have small talks/ bond in between each member will help us to improve our group dynamic, as it then really helps us to understand each other better and can use that as input to give advice for each other's working-related obstacles to support each other

Week 5. 2

Activity : 10 minutes presentation including feedback

Total duration: 5.50 minutes

For the flow of this presentation is still the same as the rehearsal on the previous week. But this time, since we did it online, we did the presentation together in TowerBlock so that it is easier for us to present it as a storytelling and coordinate, divide the script together for three.

Feedback for the presentation and our response:

Mr Jung: You need to make your service to look more appealing to people; at some point on "if a parents are able to find a tutor for their children for 5 dollar, then why should them subscribe to your service?"

Our Response:

We are trying to provide a service for those who are a casual learner and some features that we have are specifically designed for them to access it anywhere, any time, when they are free. That's certainly why we did some case study and research also on existed app that is already on the internet and try to better execute it on our service

Mr Will: There should be something on the app that will help your users who had zero knowledge about their targeted language, for them to then be motivated to consistently learn about the language/ just simply can start a conversation with the tutors

Our Response:

It's a very realistic and relatable feedback. Because all this time we are very much targeted our app for those who have some background knowledge on their targeted language learning journey. For example: if they want to learn Korean, they should have already mastered to read hangeul. However, to be realistic, some people who are very much interested and even know some background about the language may simply forgot/ don't know exactly how to apply the alphabet on words.

That's why, we then discuss further and come up with the solution: to provide a pinned basic guidelines <alphabet, basic grammar, pronouns> on the targeted language's social interaction feed. By doing this, our users especially the learners can recall and review again their knowledge before even start the lesson.

Mr Will: How about expanding it to international market?

Our Response:

Since the very beginning of the discussion, we actually had considered it, but then given the period of time for 7 weeks; it will be very hard for us to execute and combine the feature that several special language that may need additional further. Knowing that in mind, we then did some research in Singapore, on the specific 2 languages that they are interested/currently are learning.

+their thoughts on our service/ app + our Response:

"It's good that you guys provide every pain points of your persona into just one app that you provide, but now it seems like everything is just about the app. It will be very much better for you to show the exact touchpoint of your user's journey on the app."

Our response:

Yes, it is very much understandable that the audience may be confused on which exactly is the benefit of using our app <it's about how we communicate and convince the student about our service and not about the content>. For the final presentation, we will highlight the touchpoints and state more visual

What is so special/ different about your app that makes people really just want to subscribe to your service and not download other several app that provide the same service as you are?

Our Response:

Even that Say it Pal provide several feature that other app may have on their service, what makes us different is that we have it all. Other than subscribing on several apps that offer only one feature of ours, users can simply download our app and have the features of it all! From learning through media, conversation, and having a sense of community until even create personalization target on learning specific topic of the language.

We should have pointed out that we have other offer that allow the users to practice their communication skill on the targeted language on a restaurant. There, by practicing and conversing fully on the targeted language with the staff, learners can have discounts. Moreover, the learner can also visit the restaurant with other users/ learners to have dinner together and practice the language with them and both of them can have discount. For the final presentation, we will try to highlight this feature even more by elaborating the details verbally, creating a story where the audience can understand the importance and benefit of it.

For the final, can just show the storyboards and explain the service blueprint

Our response:

For the final presentation, even though that we already tell the user's journey by storytelling, we understand that we should put more visual on it so that it will help the audience to imagine and understand better about the exact experience that we're trying to offer. We will put the service blueprint and state it maybe just very slightly and highlight the touchpoints.

Reflection :

We did not manage to have a picture together to captur this moment, but today I am really grateful for this team so much. We have came this far and so far our process remain consistent. There were some storms that we felt throughout the discussion, but because all the three of us be always having this safe and comfortable environment, we never ashamed or embarrassed to tell each other about how we feel/ the obstacle that we face.

For instance, recently I have been stressed out because I have never felt this rush on doing an assignment. Even if I did, it may still be bearable because it is related to fashion <the thing that I'm really passionate about> but this time, it is completely different. I need to deal more about the ui ux and not with fabric anymore. Even worse, there comes the degree pressure when most of my friends all mostly diploma graduate and I feel that I need to catch up more due to my lack of experience (I'm 19 from Indonesia). Then, I talked to them and they basically give me a lot of emotional support and teach me more things about life/ software that I haven't been taught at school. Okay, this may sound very exaggerated, but I am bravely to say that I may not survive this term without the help of my teammates.

Week 6. 1

Discussion: Service Blueprint

This is the first draft of the final service blueprint that I did for Say it Pal. Throughout the process, it was very hard for me because this is my first time ever of using Adobe Illustrator, other than for drawing related to fashion (technical flat, zipper, button). It is not perfect, really. There are still a lot of arrangements needed for it, even as tiny as some lines to be a bit smaller than the others, even the coloring. But this may not be the final one that will be included on the website, since we will put some of the illustration at each touchpoints for audience to better understand our service.

Discussion: Storyboard

Ryan's storyboard (draft 1)

This is the very first draft of the storyboard for Ryan's story. Rather than doing it in a "comic" look, we want to create a flow that makes it easier for people who may not familiar with design to understand our persona. For Ryan's part, we wanted to illustrate it more on detail about each touchpoints that he experienced before, during, or after our service. Also, we think that it is important for us to also include more expression on Ryan's face, to really emphasize on how he feels throughout our service.

The illustration was all be done by Rakshi, but the style and the narration were being done by us. Even though that it looks done already, we may need to tweak some part/ even added more on it since we still figure out on how we can make our service go beyond from our app, but not only at the restaurant.

Suzy's storyboard (draft 1)

Market Research : What other language learning service put on their website

For Suzy's storyboard, we did it more straightforward since she does not have as many touchpoints as Ryan. Same as the previous one, this illustration was being done by Rakshi and we may need to include more brackets/ line on Suzy's one, since we still need to figure out on how we expand our service. However, different than Ryan's storyboard, we want to focus more on how as a full-time student Korean who lives in Singapore like Suzy, she may feel the lost in connection with her roots. Knowing this in mind, we then want to communicate how our app is a way for her to stay in touch again by providing a community at online platform for her to share and even having sort of interactions with people who interested in her culture.

To be honest, at first I thought doing the storyboard may take quite awhile for us, but since we communicate all our ideas and help each other throughout the process, all of this draft were all done by 1 week. I hope that we can continue on motivating each other as well as helping each other, so that we can better state and rethink again on our service:)

Market Research on What to Put on Our Website

HiNative

Since we have a lot of app interface to help the users visualize our service, we think it is better for Say it Pal to provide it also, and choose the specific one that can differ us from other service

We can also put more of our service, state it directly at the homepage, especially the "match and chat, learning through media, and partnerships with restaurants"

For the social interaction feed, Say it pal need to highlight on how the feed will really help the user to learn new languages, as well as getting the feeling of the "free judgement" environment on the language learning community.

Of course, we then also need to use more concise paragraph and use more of selling tone

Duolingo

Other than app interface, can also combine with several illustration.png

Even though that we are a language learning service provided for young adults, we think it's better for us to provide more illustration on the website, as a backing up also to highlight the several purpose on our app. But, it may be a challenge for us to specifically provide several illustration and making the arrangement of it to not look like it is designed for children.

Also, looking at Duolingo's way to highlight the learning process, we also consider that nowadays in marketing, people usually sell with stating the "missing" of not using the service rather than the benefit of it. So, maybe we will consider of doing so on several statement on our website.

Busuu

why learn with.... _for teachers and learners_.png

Adding features of "Why learn and teach a language with Say it Pal?". We were also imagined how the app itself is not only designed for a language learner, we needed also to highlight the benefit for the teachers.

Ways of providing this: providing header and audience can click on it to learn more

As we have a lot of app interface visualization, we will probably take some of the important illustration of it; for the variety of the design

Tandem

Just like what we will do for our final presentation, the best way to compel the audience to join our app is by telling stories. So, we will probably use this method also on our website! Since we have created storyboard, we then can also combine it together with Suzy and Ryan's story, after telling the "why use our service"

For the footer of the website, we may need to create a slogan for last words of our service, and our most selling point; that users can utilize the service at anywhere and anytime *quite similar with Tandem, but we'll discuss about it later*

Reflection :

Other than discussing about the service that we provide on the app, it is also important for us to be able to sell our service and state it on the website. And since all three of us have not had any background in creating website for clients, it's best for us to conduct some research first. By doing this, it really help us to create and gain a critical information about our market and "business" landscape; including the current preferences of language learners, market trends, and competitive landscape. Gathering all the information from other website, we next then need to combine our insights and apply it to our own, in a way that is different than them, and to sell our service that provide better solution; so that our similar users will use our app and not theirs.

In short, I noticed that designing the website of our service needs to be done together with marketing a strategy in mind.

Discussion: Pages on our Website

After having a further discussion on what we should put on our website, we then made a new model/mind map on the arrangement of each pages of our website, as well as the content. Since this is our first time of creating a website based on only one project and not our portfolio, it takes us quite a while to finally confirmed the content. Thankfully, after looking at past project's website and existed language learning website, we managed to structure it all. Here's how the mind map look like:

Sketch on how the website preview will look like (including the content and the design), so it will be easier for us to arrange them and divide the work responsibility:

First, it is the home page. Or what we like to consider it as the one that will give the first impression on the audience, and the essential page amongst the other, as this is the place when we show our brand image.

Other than just for the sake of finishing this term, we wanted to practice our thoughts and our ability to sell a product/service towards a website platform. The color of them is not final. However, focusing on what we will put there, is more or less the same as the flow of our presentation.

Here, we want to include:

Our logo, one of concise paragraph description
Reason why people shall use our service, how it will be beneficial for them
The difference between our service compared to the other existing platforms

Other than the homepage, it is also important for us to introduce our persona at one separate page, so that people will also understand on why at the first place we even provide our service. At this page, we want to highlight our 2 persona, subsequently no our:

Research on their Pain points towards survey
Research on their Experience via in-depth interviews
Our problem statement of each persona
Their persona profile including demographics, summary of their pain points, motivations, and core needs
An illustration of Storyboard that reflects towards their experience and touchpoint of our service

On all two of our persona, we specifically want to tell their journey by as if we're providing a story (as can be seen on the actual website on how we arrange the description and data as a narration; so that it will create more emphaty on the reader.

Last, "about us" page, that we will include links for our own journal.

For the service page, we want to include all of our app interface, to help the reader to understand on how we will deliver our service to them. On this page, we will include also the service blueprint & touchpoints, their customer journey, and our subscription plan.

On this section also, we will include our A2 board, and our presentation slides.

Feedback from Lecturer

Based on the previous presentation, we are right on track and can just keep on doing our work. We are very good at selling our service and we need to keep the spirit until the day of presentation. However, there are several aspect that we need to focus on:

If we want to sell our service to someone who have no idea of our service, it's a bit hard to grab their attention since most of what we talk about our service reflects towards the app interface. So, we need to emphasize more on touchpoint of our persona and include the service blueprint
Other than us providing a lesson, media, feeds, and the restaurant discount, what if we also provide other beyond the app service that can enhance our persona's experience? #culture is beyond food.

Our Response

It is true that we highlighted most of our presentation towards the app interface, and we thought that it would be okay for us to not include the service blueprint since how we sell and doing our presentation is based on a storytelling narration. However, we should need to include more visualization of our service, which we will do on the actual presentation later by providing storyboards of our personas.

But after having further discussion about the flow of our presentation, we decided to add one more flow of ours, which is to "pause" or adding climax on the content of it where we will tell more about how our service is different than the others, or even taking more time about highlighting the restaurant part. Because, we remember that during the peer sharing, we never really tell in detail about the restaurant; which led to the audiences to assume that our service is just based on an app.

For the other feature that we will include on, we decided to create another beyond the app service called PartyPal!

PartyPal

This event's name is PartyPal, an annual physical event of Say It Pal that has the purpose to gather our language learner/teacher together, allowing them to exchange information about what they know of their targeted language learning.

Some of the events: Film festivals, cultural cooking workshops, potlucks, and traditional games day.

Benefits for the learner:

- They can practice their conversational language ability in their targeted language, directly at a judgement free zone along with the teachers

- They can "experience" pretty much how it feels to be at the country of their targeted language learning, as some of the events will be conducted more reflected on the cultural aspects of it

- They can get and make more friends, expanding their connection

Benefits for the teacher:

- They can stay in touch with her roots by getting "a taste" of their culture again even in Singapore

- They can get and make more friends, expanding their connection

Creating website for submission

Knowing the limited time that we have to include our service on a website, we will deliver our service and other requirements of the submission in WIX, because all three of us already familiar with it. But, this time, we also divide our responsibility to finish this assignment by creating a distribution of works. Me and Rakshi to wrap up the website <the arrangement of app interface, as well as all description on the website>, and Tasha to do the A2 Board and some alteration on the presentation board <the content and the description of the slides>. Even that we have our own responsibility (to make our work effective), when we're together we still discuss the problem/matter that we encounter, as teamwork.

Me and Rakshi did the website only for three days, mostly at our own pace (online), and not while we were together; and I was having so many difficulties on arranging the website since I did not know that as an owner of the account, WIX can have a co-owner (that allow me to give the access for Rakshi to edit them while we're not togehter). So, most of the time, at home, we did the work by me arranging the website interface, and ask Rakshi to do some illustration to put on our website and provide other missing content/ description. Also, I did not have that much experience on delivering a UI/UX interface, so it took quite some time for me to arrange the overall piece of our service together. Even so, this hard time only happened for awhile, because the three of us have managed to still commit into our first week rule, as to maintain a good communication between us.

For example, the picture above on the left happened to make the audience, the reader hard to read all the content on the PartyPal banner, creating a bad UI/UX. So, then I asked for advice on the group chat...then, as you can see on the right picture above, it turns out to be very much better. Right at this phase, i then realized that it is very essential for us to always share our difficulties and not be embarrassed to ask for a help from our groupmates, to make the work run smoothly and save us more time.

Here's the overall look on the first day of me and my group to achieve an excellent UI/UX interface for website. To be honest, I'm quite proud of it.... Because i actually despise the act of using website (even though I create a journal on website); as it is something new to me.

But, doing the Say It Pal website, is easy, I really enjoy the all process of it, even the difficulties that I encounter, since I can simply ask for a guidance and gain new knowledge and learn from my friend, and apply it right away.

This is the result of me practicing and learning to create an excellent UI/UX website interface with the guide from my teammates. It is not perfect, but I learn a lot from this, such as:

To create more space in between the app interface, visual, or even paragraph as to make the reader "breathe"
To not combine 2 contrasting color together on app, because it makes it hard to read
To be consistent on the sizing (visual)
To use different font size and adding/reducing description to fill space

Week 6. 2

It's week 6 already and our submission is next week! We have not finished our presentation board, our website, and there are still many little things that we need to shift a bit. I am a bit panic but thanks to our group's distribution and consistent work, I can still control it and moving on, on actually doing the work and not just thinking too much about it.

One of my friends told me to "make use of our team's specialty" in the project. And that's how the three of us are doing since the beginning!. For example, on the picture here, while Tasha is working on the A2 board, I do the website arrangement, while Rakshi is doing some illustration to be included on the website. But, if let's say one of us need help, the other two will stop our work and listen to her concern. For the past 6 weeks we always manage to do work in this method, which we find effective and keep our sanity, and workload on the right phase.

Reflection : A bit panic <for me> due to submission. Then we divide our responsibility during the discussion

Update: Storyboard

As we’ve already discussed also, PartyPal will have similar, but a bit different benefits on the two personas that we have. For Ryan, the learner this event will have a strong impact on how he is allowed to practice his ability in conversing a new language in everyday life. But for Suzy, it will enhance her life by staying in touch more with her roots.

Ryan's Storyboard

Suzy's Storyboard

Update: Customer Journey on Ryan's POV

Update: Customer Journey on Suzy's POV

Update: Service Blueprint

Since we have added one more feature of our service, we also need to add a little details on the service blueprint and added more illustration and highlighted the added touchpoint. It does not really take that long, since it’s quite obvious and already discussed that this PartyPal will not be related on the app, but rather conducted on physical location.

Update: A2 Board

Update: Website

Update: A little bit panicking

Reflection :

This is how an overthinker i am. Since it’s almost due of the submission, I encounter a lot of anxiety and sometimes it held me back to move forward and do my task. I need to write every-tiny-single details on what we’re missing in the website, then working it further rightaway. It’s not that I don’t believe in our group’s paced on finishing these tasks, but it’s just me who seeks for the comfort of finishing the assignment before it is due, like how I usually do everytime. However, this time is different. Given all the many workloads that we need to finish in 7 weeks <with us learning also> will of course require more time, or perhaps all will be finished 1 hour before the due...

I guess, as a designer, I need to be more patience about the result outcome and be more focus on the process. Because, this is just an exercise for us also to gain our knowledge from one another, and since our group does not have any conflict until now it’s a healthy learning journey. Thankfully, our group is very much consistent since day 1, so as long as we keep on doing it this way until the end, we’ll manage to finish it right on time.

Week 7. 1

Say It Pal Website

We've finished our website, a2 board, and all requirements for the submission and is ready to do the presentation for our finals!!!!

Here's a cute illustration made by Rakshi for us.... So cute right?

Press here to look at our final PPT deck

Reflection of our 5 weeks of doing say it pal:

This is by far my most, interesting, and the only project that I don't get burn out throughout the process. I feel so blessed and honored to take part in this group project, together with Rakshi and Tasha. From our working distribution, our personality, and our skills, all of them really be complementing one another. If I got the chance to choose/ the opportunity to do so, I will definitely work again together with the two of these talented girls....

Also, doing this project makes me realize how I really love doing collaborative work with people. Because, there are a lot of learning progress and design method that I may never learn through school. The kind of skill set of being social, maintaining communication, as well as being consistent in doing work. Not forget to mention that by doing in group, it's combined of several brains together, with those who have different background to support one another. I reallyyyyy love the process, every part of it (in the context of this project)

See the video on the right? It's a video when we submitted the link of our project. You can really sense the chemistry between us, as we got to build more connection with one another, and how we look so happy even though each of us have not finished our CPJ on the day of submission. We should be a bit panic right? But for us, that's not really matters, it's the joy, experience, design process, and the company of each other that is so special/ more important.....