Effective Design

Hello and welcome back to another post! We have just finished our first Maker project for this year which connects to the “Power of Imagination” field study we went on. For this project the driving question was “How do I make effective personal design choices?”. I like to think of this project as if its two main parts. The first part being the “Personal Productivity System” which then builds us to the second part which is the 5 Trend Videos. 

As I mentioned the first part of this project was your “Personal Productivity System”. To start this off we learned that this system is a way to prioritize whats important by organizing it into a chart. Doing this helps you recognize what do get done first and what you can hold off on so you make the most out of your time. This system is made up of the steps Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect and lastly Engage. I feel like this connects to my goal in my Learning plan when I mention that I want to work on scheduling my time in an efficient way.

After learning about this system I was able to work towards incorporating it into my everyday life. One of the ways I did this is by adding daily and weekly reminders into the things app. I have these reminders on repeat so that the daily review goes off everyday after school, and the weekly review goes off Sunday around lunch to ensure I have accomplished a small list of things. I feel the one challenge with this is getting into the habit of actually taking the time to go through the list. This is something I am still working on but getting better at.  

We then started to move onto the second part of this project. This investigation was “Creating Trend Videos”. To start off we watches examples of what the final product would be. We then got right ahead to completing research for 5 different trend videos we wanted to make, creating a planning document for each one. We had lots of options for these videos as the only rules were that you could have no more then 2 with friends that you both get credit for. I honestly enjoyed creating my research page as I happily kept it organized and all the information I needed was in one place. 

Once the first step was completed moved onto the next investigation “Effective PBL Pathway for Personal Design”. For this investigation there were four different steps Plan, Storyboard, Draft and Reflect. 

For this first step I used what I already knew to help organize my plans into things. First I created a new project giving it an explanation and emphasizing the overall due dates. Then I was able to add each video as well as specific topics like Prototype videos, Storyboards, Shot lists, First drafts, and final drafts. This kept everything organized later on when the time came to film.

After completing the Research Page which held all the important information about all of the videos I would be creating I was able to plan out what every shot would look like in a storyboard for each video. I think that because my videos weren’t going to be very long the storyboards were pretty vague. I made sure to still include specific angles, music and sound effects for each shot. If I were to do this again I would have included the final storyboards into my research document as soon as they were completed. This would have helped them become easier to get to, rather than having to search chaotic pages app for them. 

Although I thought I was ready to film we still needed to create prototype videos for each one of the trends we were going to be recreating. This encouraged me to practice shooting each specific shot with the angle I wanted which was helpful in the end. Because of that I was able to reconsider what needed revisions bringing me the the final step for this investigation.

For this step we presented our video ideas to small groups to receive feedback. Because I had already made the few revisions I needed right after I found them in the “Draft” step, I did not get any feedback from my group. 

Check out my completed trend videos down below ⬇️

“Quiet” Moments at Disney

Rating Foods at Disney – with friends

“Don’t Stop Me Now”

“Dumb Ways to Die”

Dumb Ways to Die – Extra Video

Overall I was able to use my knowledge and everything I learned throughout this project as well as past projects to successfully complete my Five Trend Videos. I was able to use my creativity to use everything I learned together. I am super happy with how everything turned out in this project and who knows maybe if I post my Trend Videos online ill go viral.