Today I continued with Design Foundations. The first class I took today was a class on problem solving in regards to the design process. Psychology is an explanation of why we do what we do. In psychology, we have a term called cognitive thinking, which means the order in which we think. problem solving is a form of cognition.
The 4 P's of Problem Solving:
Preparation
Plan
Performance
Perfect
We went over a project which involved a bakery and a website. The neighborhood the bakery is in has lost customers over the years. Many of the baker's best clients have passed away or moved away as time has passed. The owner wants help in revitalizing his business. There were three problems that needed to be resolved:
1. The bakery is hard to find.
2. The bakery has no brand identity.
3. The bakery needs to bring the experience to the people.
In the planning phase, the designer simply lists what needs to be done to carry out a solution. These are educated guesses about how to solve the problem. These educated guesses, together, are called "The Proposal." The Proposal in this case consisted of three key points:
1. Make the bakery more visible through Signage or Main Attraction.
2. Develop a brand identity through a Logo, Color Pallette, Type, and perhaps a Mascot.
3. Convey the bakery visually through print and digital mediums such as Menus, Takeaways, and a Website (with online ordering capabilities).
A time frame and a quote to the client for the work should be discussed at the time of the proposal.
The next step is performance. First, you must be passionate about the project, second, break the project down into steps, third, positivity is the key to making progress, fourth, there must be a purpose because without a purpose there's no solution, fifth, get rid of complications, sixth, always go with your gut feeling, and seventh, be confident about your work.
The final step is perfection. In this stage, we should identify the problems again (below).
1. The bakery is hard to find.
2. The bakery has no brand identity.
3. The bakery needs to bring the experience to the people.
Then we should evaluate the solutions we created for these problems. The perfection stage is never really completed because we reevaluate the problems and cycle through the process over and over. Problem solving is a cyclic process.
Photoshop
After completing the Design Foundations course, I began working on the Photoshop Foundations course. The Photoshop Toolbar is divided up into sections, and each section has tools grouped together which are related to each other. The first group at the top of the toolbar palette is referred to as the selections group. These tools allow the user to select parts of an image. The next group of tools is the image editing and painting group. The third group of tools is the vector group. The 4th group is the zoom tool. The 5th group represent the background and foreground group.
The instructor is using a mac and a different version of photoshop elements than the one that I have (on my pc), and this is causing me some delays in my photoshop classes because I have to find the equivalent features in my newer and pc version of photoshop at every step of the way. However, although this is slowing my pace, it is also making me understand photoshop better. I created my first photoshop-modifications today. Here's one of the initial pictures:
Then we should evaluate the solutions we created for these problems. The perfection stage is never really completed because we reevaluate the problems and cycle through the process over and over. Problem solving is a cyclic process.
Photoshop
After completing the Design Foundations course, I began working on the Photoshop Foundations course. The Photoshop Toolbar is divided up into sections, and each section has tools grouped together which are related to each other. The first group at the top of the toolbar palette is referred to as the selections group. These tools allow the user to select parts of an image. The next group of tools is the image editing and painting group. The third group of tools is the vector group. The 4th group is the zoom tool. The 5th group represent the background and foreground group.
The instructor is using a mac and a different version of photoshop elements than the one that I have (on my pc), and this is causing me some delays in my photoshop classes because I have to find the equivalent features in my newer and pc version of photoshop at every step of the way. However, although this is slowing my pace, it is also making me understand photoshop better. I created my first photoshop-modifications today. Here's one of the initial pictures:
And here is my final image, after photoshop editing, on my first real day of using photoshop:
I spent about 6 hours today on photoshop alone, in addition to finishing up the design course before that. I'm really looking forward to continuing my studies tomorrow! It's getting late though, it's 3:26 a.m., and I'm still studying, so I should get to bed now since I wake up at 6 a.m. to exercise.
SUMMARY OF CODING SKILLS
Total Treehouse Points: 2,795
Treehouse Points by Subject Matter: HTML 663, CSS 1,599, Design 503, and Miscellaneous
Treehouse Ranking (%): "You have more total points than 80% of all students."
Badge(s) Earned Today:
Becoming a Problem Solver
Design Foundations Final
Workspace Basics (Photoshop)
Courses Completed:
How to Make a Website
HTML
CSS Foundations
CSS Layout Techniques
Aesthetic Foundations
Design Foundations
Design Foundations
Books Read or in Progress:"Head First HTML and CSS," by E. Robson & E. Freeman (In progress, I've read the 37 pg. preface and the first 255 pgs. of actual content, which is the HTML section of the book)
Hours Spent Coding Today: 8.5
Total Hours Coding: 161
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