This is a collection of my spring papers up to date.

vap_essay3

vap_production

what-feeds-you-vp

Here are all of my papers from the fall semester.

brief

domains-1

impetus-2

usability-v1

final-brief-clean-1

From previous user testing and after having several meetings with my thesis advisor I realized that my previous design needed to be pushed further. The original design was simple and resembled a message board look and feel. My original inspiration came from public message boards that shows people seeking other people with common interests and goals. It really made me think about the people who I found online through blogs and personal videos who were searching for other people with the same problems or issues. I felt for a first round the design was satisfying until I began to user test. The main comments that I was receiving was the fact that I am dealing with emotional eating, but when you go to the site the message is not apparent right off the bat. Those comments became major concerns for me. I knew I had to add in some images dealing with food, but I didn’t want to add insult to injury by adding pictures of cupcakes and tempting foods. 

I had to take on a new approach by staying true to the holistic approach by focusing in on the idea of self care and making people feel healthy without being really obvious. I decided to use images such as fruits and vegetables, plates, silverware, homemade stuff. I want people to think about taking care of themselves eating at the dinner table rather than sitting in front of the television. I wanted to add hints of bright colors but still keep it earthy. I am still in the process of adding all of these elements, but I have to be careful not to overdue it. 

I did some research on trademarks and put in a request to have “what feeds YOU” trademarked. I sent in the paper work about three weeks ago and am still waiting to hear back. I went through http://mycorporation.intuit.com/ and thought that they were the best to use. This trademark would be used for branding anything dealing with the health, food industry.

Since I have the ability to work with a real-world company I changed some things with my production schedule.

Here is the newest version of the post-it note section. I was able to have some things fixed based on my user feed back.

1. The screen is now full screen which allows more room for users 

2. More post-it notes are being generated at the bottom

3. The post-it notes are now rounded corners… no longer hard edges

4. Notes can’t be saved over directions

I am still working on more changes and will have another round of user testing

I did some user testing with the post-it note section of my site. I wanted to see how the functionality works and how smooth it was running. I tested it with ten people. I gave them the link and asked them to randomly post a note or a comment and keep a list of things they liked or disliked with the interface. 

Here are some of the comments that I received…

1. The post-it notes were too large and a little rough looking 

2. The screen was not full screen and that seemed somewhat annyoing

3. The color scheme seemed a bit off. There were too many color choices and the pins holding them up were too large

4. The save button didn’t match the style of the notes

5. One is able to save a note over the directions

6. They didn’t know they could drag them

7. After awhile there are no more notes to pick from at the bottom

8. The post-it notes are able to move of the side of the screen, a few users commented how they didn’t like it

I’m in the middle of trying to figure out the best platform for my version two site. I have been asking around getting a lot of opinions but still no answers. I have a meeting set up with Katy Garnier and I also have a Wall Street Journal connection to see if wordpress would be my best bet. I’m researching all opportunities and don’t want to jump into anything yet until I know the best platform for my site.

Here are my options…

Drupal (not recommended by most)

WordPress

Type pad

Joomla

I’m thinking wordpress might be the way to go but don’t want to confirm that until Thursday. My thoughts page is however on its way as I am working with a developer on that. That component should be up and running for testing in about two weeks.

This was hard to put together. I think I have the month of February down, but I think I will have to modify the month of March when I know for sure.

What feeds you, Emotional eating, emotions, thoughts, stories, videos, inspiration, support, peer to peer, network, social, social network, bored, stressed, lonely, depressed, feelings, sad, mind, body, spirit, issues, campaign, online experience, poems, artwork, drawings, photos, experiences, creative, inspired, experiences, food, comfort food, pointers, suggestions, work, temptations, community, tips, grassroots, unbiased, issue, web archive, written contributions, personal stories, reflections, personal struggles, inviting, artistic environment, self improvement, lifestyle, healthy, multimedia, technology, awareness, buzz marketing, user focused, journals, blogs, post-it notes, sticky notes, message board, interviews, nutritionists, blogging, hungers, guilty, physical hunger, experiences, overeating