Today, more than any other day I`ve realized how our work on the app project is different from anything I`ve done with a class in the past. The students' willingness to persevere is beyond anything I've witnessed previously in my classroom. Every single student demonstrates a commitment to completing this task and to completing it well.
We should have been finished this project weeks ago; however, term 3 has been marked by interruptions which I've commented on previously. We are scrambling constantly for time. The design of the splash page and main page have been left until the end and now we've only one week of schoo `to go. Typically at this time of the year it is difficult to get students to put their best effort into anything. With this deadline looming, students submitted their page designs - what they thought would be their good copies - for the app. We left some of them on the Wiki for Ian to look at, but I knew they were not going to pass muster and I was worried about this. When I came back at the class today and said their work wasn`t good enough, how would they react? Would they give up at this point because they are simply tired of school? Would they redo them half-heartedly just to get them done? Would I face a mutiny? I really had no idea what to expect from them.
This morning we had a talk about how projects work in real businesses and that designers need to go back to the drawing board many times until they get things right. I spoke to them about leaving emotions about their work out of the process and to look at what they had done with critical eyes. Was their artwork good enough to be accepted by Apple? This really is the only opinion that will matter and the list of why an app might be rejected is several pages long. (see wiki)
Would their design be a good user experience? Would a user want to download and use their design? Once we had that discussion we looked at their designs from the previous day. (They re on the wiki for all to see) On the screen, large in size, the flaws were obvious and Class 62 recognized the problems. They realized for themselves that they weren`t good enough, that they needed to do better. They spotted all the errors - design flaws, blurry writing, sloppiness, poorly drawn lines, poor colour choices, spelling mistakes, buttons too close together, layout - they didn't miss a thing. I pointed out the importance of focusing and working quietly so they were truly concentrating while they worked. We even discussed the tools - sharpening pencils, using rulers and carefully outlining.
Finally, we talked about button names and came up with better titles:
Welcome
Downtown
Fun Places
Historic Sites
Nature
A.R.
There was not one complaint, which frankly astonished me. A few admitted to complaining on the inside, but they didn`t do so in front of me. They just set to work and got the job done. I was so very, very proud of them for this and as they were working I tweeted their thoughts on having to do their pages again and why they weren`t complaining.
Nicole: we don`t mind because it`s fun to think about the actual design
Taylor and Emily - we don`t want our app to be rejected by the app store.
Justin C. - I saw the mistakes I had made in my design and wanted to fix them. I wanted to get it right.
Nikki - you could tell they needed more work and they`re going out into the world. We don`t want our work to be rejected.
Taylor When I first started, I was just sketching and thought we`d be remaking them on the computer. When I realized that they were the good copy and will be scanned, I knew I had to do better.
Carlie - I knew my writing was messy and I really wanted to fix it.
The consensus was that it was worthwhile to do and that they weren`t going to give up now, not after all that`s gone into this project.
Here for all to see are the a few of the main pages that were submitted today. There are more, but they are not quite finished.
What pleases me in particular is the thought that has gone into the design. Rather than buttons sitting on top of the artwork, they have become part of the pictures. Understanding of how design and functionality can fit together has been learned.
We should have been finished this project weeks ago; however, term 3 has been marked by interruptions which I've commented on previously. We are scrambling constantly for time. The design of the splash page and main page have been left until the end and now we've only one week of schoo `to go. Typically at this time of the year it is difficult to get students to put their best effort into anything. With this deadline looming, students submitted their page designs - what they thought would be their good copies - for the app. We left some of them on the Wiki for Ian to look at, but I knew they were not going to pass muster and I was worried about this. When I came back at the class today and said their work wasn`t good enough, how would they react? Would they give up at this point because they are simply tired of school? Would they redo them half-heartedly just to get them done? Would I face a mutiny? I really had no idea what to expect from them.
This morning we had a talk about how projects work in real businesses and that designers need to go back to the drawing board many times until they get things right. I spoke to them about leaving emotions about their work out of the process and to look at what they had done with critical eyes. Was their artwork good enough to be accepted by Apple? This really is the only opinion that will matter and the list of why an app might be rejected is several pages long. (see wiki)
Would their design be a good user experience? Would a user want to download and use their design? Once we had that discussion we looked at their designs from the previous day. (They re on the wiki for all to see) On the screen, large in size, the flaws were obvious and Class 62 recognized the problems. They realized for themselves that they weren`t good enough, that they needed to do better. They spotted all the errors - design flaws, blurry writing, sloppiness, poorly drawn lines, poor colour choices, spelling mistakes, buttons too close together, layout - they didn't miss a thing. I pointed out the importance of focusing and working quietly so they were truly concentrating while they worked. We even discussed the tools - sharpening pencils, using rulers and carefully outlining.
Finally, we talked about button names and came up with better titles:
Welcome
Downtown
Fun Places
Historic Sites
Nature
A.R.
There was not one complaint, which frankly astonished me. A few admitted to complaining on the inside, but they didn`t do so in front of me. They just set to work and got the job done. I was so very, very proud of them for this and as they were working I tweeted their thoughts on having to do their pages again and why they weren`t complaining.
Nicole: we don`t mind because it`s fun to think about the actual design
Taylor and Emily - we don`t want our app to be rejected by the app store.
Justin C. - I saw the mistakes I had made in my design and wanted to fix them. I wanted to get it right.
Nikki - you could tell they needed more work and they`re going out into the world. We don`t want our work to be rejected.
Taylor When I first started, I was just sketching and thought we`d be remaking them on the computer. When I realized that they were the good copy and will be scanned, I knew I had to do better.
Carlie - I knew my writing was messy and I really wanted to fix it.
The consensus was that it was worthwhile to do and that they weren`t going to give up now, not after all that`s gone into this project.
Here for all to see are the a few of the main pages that were submitted today. There are more, but they are not quite finished.
Taylor
 | ||
| Bianca |
 | ||
| Sara |
 | ||
| Ashley |
 | |
| Nicole |
 | |
| Sydney |
 |
| Avery |
 |
| Justin C. (one more element needed still) |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Heidi invites you to comment on your attempts to transform your teaching practice.