Home page of my Online Portfolio Website - part of the P1 project
Hi all,
It's been a long time since my last post (mainly because I've had a couple of really busy months). In these past months, I've done a Personal Project with at its center the goal of getting an internship 😁.
A few days ago, the Personal Project was closed off with a presentation and an interview with both my supervisor and another teacher. (I got a 9!!! 💪😄) It is customary in my education, that students provide documents of their work, matching certain objectives and proving their learning curve and development.
In this post, I want to take you through my activities in the Personal Project, with my Objective documents and Video Material.
PP1 - Part 01 - Preparation, Goal & Planning
Objective 1: 4th-Year Plan
Every 4th-year student at IGAD needs to create a 4th-year plan document. This is a document in which students describe their plan for the next period, their approach, the objectives they will try to reach and their planning. A 4th-year plan serves as a sort of learning contract between the student and its supervisor.
Creation
The kind of project management/set-up, that was required to build the 4th-year plan, was still a bit difficult for me. Especially since I was still having trouble with accurately estimating the duration of my tasks. A skill that I'm working very hard to improve. Whenever I hit a challenging situation like this, I do two things:
I create lists to clear my mind (What to do, where to get info etc):
Whenever I start a big new project or challenge, I like to structure my mind with lists.
I try to find sources/tutorials to improve my skills. In this case a book about project management:
The source of information for this project: Praktisch Projectmanagement 1, Ten Gevers & Tjerk Zijlstra
One example of the notes created when reading the book
Product Breakdown structure created from the tips in the book. This structure will help me in the creation of my approach and planning.
Result
As a result of my study, I found my goal: Getting an internship in the P2 period. To approach this goal I wanted to:
Get used to showing my work:Create a blog and frequently upload work.
Create a solid application:Design & Create my own Portfolio, Resume & Motivation.
Make a selection of companies:Find companies to apply to.
Get myself known: Update LinkedIn page and gather new contacts.
Get the required skills for a UI developer:Create a small UI for a pre-existing game.
I described the plans in the 4th-year document. The pictures below give an impression of that document:
Objective 2: Work log document
From all the research and guidelines in the 4th-year plan, I created my planning. For the creation, the ‘top-down’ method was used. This is a method where you start with the amount of time you have in total (for your main goal), then, in steps, you continually work your way down into sub-goals and tasks, assigning the time relatively.
More information about the planning and a reflection on the process can be found in the ‘Worklog’ document. For this objective, the UI/UX Tech Research objective and the Prototyping objective, I created documents of my own design.
Image from the Worklog document
Image from the Worklog document
Objective 3: UI/UX Technical Research
After I narrowed down the planning, I started with my last preparation phase: Research into tools and methods, in addition to determining my pipeline. This process of researching tools and methods has widened my view of the pipeline possibilities in UI development and improved my skill for analysis and assessment when it comes to possible future workflows.
The research was conducted into tools like 'Affinity designer' (for UI design and prototyping), as well as design thinking methods like the 5 Stages of Design Thinking. Most of the research is documented clearly in the 'UI/UX Technical Research' document. The pictures below give an impression of that document.
All the research sections started with an introduction and a Pros & Cons list.
With several tools and methods, important subjects were also discussed.
The first page of the Webflow research section
The first page of the Data-driven UI research section
Some video material of the research:
PP1 - Part 02 - Reaching the goals
The most important goals for me personally, where the attitude related goals:
Get used to showing my work:Create a blog and frequently upload work.
Create a solid application:Design & Create my own Portfolio, Resume & Motivation.
Make a selection of companies:Find companies to apply to.
Get myself known: Update LinkedIn page and gather new contacts.
I had already acquired most of the skills I needed to get a UI development internship. However, I wasn't even close to having a portfolio & application. And, at the time, I was still very afraid of posting any of my work online.
Showing my work and getting myself known
To get used to showing my work, I wanted to make it a habit. I re-opened and updated my blog and started adding old work. Old work is more comfortable for me to post because mistakes are more easily forgiven 😇.
Picture of my blog - 'My First Year at IGAD'
My LinkedIn page needed to be updated as well. A lot of the text was still in dutch and some of the core elements, like my skills and introduction, were missing. After the update, I started looking for more contacts in the UI development field, as well as, following multiple UI related groups and game studios.
An introduction was included, with a link to my blog
English texts were put into my experiences and new skills were added
Objective 4: UI/UX Prototyping
Creating a solid application
A crucial part of every application in the games industry is an impressing portfolio. Because I focussed on UI Development, I wanted to create my own portfolio website to both prove my skills and show my personality. After some research, I decided on creating it with HTML&CSS because, at the time, I still wanted to be both really experienced in developing UI in games but also Websites and Applications. (Though, unsurprisingly, this was too much and I now know to only focus on UI in games 😂)
During the development of my webpage, I followed the 5 Stages of Design Thinking. All of these stages and my experiences on this project are described in the 'UI/UX Prototyping' document.
The 5 stages are:
Empathise...
Page from the UI/UX Prototyping documentation
Define...
Page from the UI/UX Prototyping documentation
Ideate...
Page from the UI/UX Prototyping documentation
Prototype - Low Fidelity...
Page from the UI/UX Prototyping documentation
Prototype - Mid Fidelity...
Prototype - High Fidelity...
And finally, user testing.
Get the required skills for a UI developer - Old game Project
The Old game project was focused completely on the improvement of my UI development skills. It started out as a project in which I would create a fully designed, animated and polished menu for an older game (as if it would be production now). Though, due to a lack of time and a shift in my focus, it turned into a project where I would create a proof of concept for a system with Data-driven UI in Unreal. More about the Old game project can be found in 'The Old Game Project' post.
PP1 - Part 03 - Reflection
During the block, I kept notes and day-to-day reflections on all my tasks. I used the reflections to create a Journal entry every 4 weeks and a Self Reflection at the end of the project.
Objective 5: Learning Journal
The learning journal is a document in which students reflect on the tasks they've worked on in a 4 week period. For each task, students provide a description; the link between the task and the chosen competencies; a reflection on the task (what went right/went wrong/could've gone better) and learning goals related to the task (Achieved- /Future- /Missed-).
Screenshot of a part of my Learning Journal
At the end of the Learning Journal, I needed to provide an End of Project Overview and reflection.
Second part of the reflection in the Learning Journal
Objective 6: CTR Self Reflection
For the CTR self-reflection, students needed to prove that their reflective capabilities were up to standard, by reflection on one or more situations of the past IGAD years. This kind of self-reflection works with the following parts:
Complexity:What was the situation, Who was involved? - analyzation skills
Transfer:What previously acquired/ Newly learned skills or knowledge did you use?
Reflection: What was my role, what did I account for?
First set of pages of Self Reflection
Second set of pages of the Self Reflection
Last set of pages from the Self Reflection
That's it!
Thanks for reading/viewing the post 😁!
I will be creating one other post for the Old Game Project specifically, which I'll upload soon.
Other than that, you probably won't be hearing from me for a while because i'm in the middle of an important (and exciting 😄) work-placement search.
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