OUGD501 - Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

The skills I have developed through this module are my writing ability and my ability to take this written material and contextualise it with a visual element. My writing skills have always been consistently good, however this year I took extra time to find more sources and develop my ideas further when it came to writing my essay.
In terms of synthesis between the two elements of writing and design, I feel that I have applied my skills set to create an outcome which does represent my essay subject well and also my interests well. It is something that I found was quite easy to grasp and create a visual element for.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

As my work all focussed around digital technology, I used this in the contextualisation on my practice piece. I designed it purely through digital output and media to further strengthen my concept and synthesis across from the essay. I feel that I have experimented with a different way of working as my practice piece was screen based media designed to be printed instead of being interactive on a screen. This was a challenge and something that I have learnt a lot from through the production of these designs.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I think my strength lies in my ability to find a subject from my essay and create a visual piece for it, hitting on exactly what I was saying in my essay. While I initially thought this would be what I found hard in the module, with all the research that went behind the essay, I found I had a lot of ideas and different routes I could go down, and the difficult bit was choosing the idea to go with.
I also think that I have found it easy to relate quotes and sources to one another, as well as see where the writer is coming from when they have written what they have. I believe that my quick grasp of this is something that has aided my written work as well as my practical piece.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

My main weakness in this module is down to triangulation. While I think I did a good job in my essay with this, I do believe there was more depth I could have gone into and a lot more to be taken away from what the writers were saying, and finding other writers who feel the same way.
Something I didn't do in my essay was find an argument against the point I was trying to make. While  this doesn't necessarily affect the strength of my essay, I do believe having that insight there would be beneficial to me and show me a wider picture of the subject.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. I would like to spend a bit more time on the tasks set after seminars. While I think I did a relatively good job in these tasks, there is definitely room for improvement and a much more developed response to these tasks.
2. I would like to develop all the ideas for the visual element to the module instead of focussing on just a couple. I found that towards the end of the brief, while I had a solid design and outcomes, I hadn't thought about packaging or how these would be presented as a pack.
3. Working on triangulation and finding more sources is something that I continuously want to improve on as well. I feel that while I have done a decent job this year, there are points which can be developed further.
4. I would like to experiment more with ideas for a visual piece by researching more than I have for this brief and having a bit more of a focussed idea initially instead of having a vague idea and seeing where it takes me.
5. I would like to further my knowledge in the subjects covered in the lectures and research more into these subjects and how it relates to me and my practice.