DA Progress baby! – OP1

Ideation is “the design process in which you concentrate on idea generation”. This process is conducted in order to allow individuals to move past identifying problems to then generating possible solutions for their audience or related users. In its essence, ideation involves viewing a broad range of concepts and outcomes in order, to narrow down into the specifics. 

Techniques that harvest ideation include, but are not limited to, brainstorming, mind mapping, sketching and building. During the ideation process for my digital artefact, I have tried to take these methods on board. 

My DA experience thus far

Originally I had two digital artefact ideas that I was contemplating pursuing. One was titled, UOW4Dummies and the plan was to create relatable and useful content on YouTube and Instagram with my group. The other was to continue my YouTube channel that I created for BCM112 last semester. The plan content-wise would be to post generic, ‘basic’ content that appeals to other teenage girls. 

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I received positive engagement for both ideas, however, the appeal of working within a team won me over. This being as I believed that working in a team on this DA would allow greater ideation, we would have more minds to think of creative ways to interact and engage our audience and more hands to assist in its creation. 

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For example, as a group, we took advantage of the ability to collaborate on ideas by creating a brainstorm in which we approached new ideas by building on each other’s concepts and plans. In addition, identifying our audience in a starter pack allowed us to narrow down our content ideas to more specific and valuable content plans. 

We also had a collective Instagram folder where we would save similar content in which we could draw inspiration from. As well, a collective folder on Canva allowed us to maintain a united aesthetic.

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However, upon producing some content we found that there was a lack of engagement with our intended audience and poor feedback despite various forms of promotion. In addition, working as a team was difficult due to conflicting schedules and other commitments. 

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As a result of these adversities we each decided to pursue a different digital artefact. For me, that was my YouTube channel. What especially pushed this choice was a comment on one of my old videos and a rise in views on this video. Although I haven’t generated a massive amount of views I believe that I can work with the foundation I have created last semester. 

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Our digital artefacts are learning processes. Consequently, I learnt several lessons from my BCM112 project and will utilise this new knowledge upon moving forward. For instance, I have already identified my target audience, video ideas and also proposed a plan to keep video creation consistent.

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In addition, I have already finished editing one of my videos and plan to upload it next week. The process for this video has also already been met with some positive engagement from users on Twitter.

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I have also utilised Instagram and Twitter to interact with users and my audience.  

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Future

“Creating your own content is often more valuable than curating”. In terms of production for my new DA, I will be focused mainly on creating content rather than curating it (which was originally apart of the plan for UOW4Dummies). 

The plan is to move into prototyping and testing for my new DA. I am also contemplating utilising Instagram as a platform where I can start fresh and engage with my audience. This being as, on my current personal Instagram despite receiving quite a bit of views on my stories (relative to my following) this does not translate to audience engagement (e.g. I receive a much smaller amount of likes on posts). By creating a new account I can hopefully generate greater interaction with users. 

LINKS:

Twitter: simplysez

Instagram: sarahcreecy

Youtube: Simply Sez