MDIA 1007 Digital Platforms

Final Assignment – Digital Platform. Design Report

Due 9 June, 2024

This assignment is designed to encourage your Learning through Innovation and is worth 40% of your total grade in the course. This is your opportunity to showcase what you have learned in the class and the project that you have been building since week 2.

Your task for this assignment is to create a report on what you have done and learned throughout the course. Your report should cover both:

1. How you have used your website along with other digital platforms to develop an audience and build a brand for your concept.

2. How your understandings of media, creativity and culture have developed over the semester.

You need to present this report in the form. of a page on your website, using photos, screen shots, graphs and embedded content. You will be marked on how well you have designed that page and used the visual elements, as well as on the written content.

Your goal is to clearly explain how and why you have made the creative decisions behind the various aspects of your site in order to best serve your concept and audience, and what you have learned from this process. Your decisions should be supported by scholarly research, and you will need to use at least five academic sources, cited using Harvard style.

You should divide your report into six sections:

1. Concept and Overview -- 10%

Describe the overall concept of your website, clearly articulating its target audience and what makes it unique from other similar sites. (max 200 words)

2. Extension of Research and Learning – 10%

Explain what your own learning and research goals were for this project. What ideas, skills, techniques or concepts did you set out to understand through this course, and how did you accomplish this? Goals that go above and beyond the requirements for this course will be looked upon favourably! (max 200 words)

3. Visual Communication and Design -- 15%

Show how you have purposefully used the various kinds of visual communication (photography, design, typography, et al), to connect with your audience. Include images that you have used in your website to illustrate the approach you have taken, and make a clear argument about why this kind of visual communication is the best approach for your concept. Please include references to the course readings or other outside scholarly sources to explain your perspective on what good design is. (max 300 words)

4. User Interface Design -- 10%

Explain how you have designed the layout, interface and structure of your website to best serve the needs of your audience. You may want to use screenshots of your interface design or diagrams of your site’s structure to illustrate this. Please include references to course readings or other scholarly sources to explain your perspectives on users, interfaces and user-centered design. (max 300 words)

5. User Experience across Digital Platforms -- 10%

Discuss how you have used other digital platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et al) to further extend your concept’s brand and to connect with your audience. Consider how you have used these digital platforms to create a coherent user experience design across different online spaces. You will need to embed at least one post from another social media platform. into your webpage. Please include references to course readings or other scholarly sources to support your understanding of UXD and/or digital platforms. (max 300 words)

6. Metrics and Analytics -- 5%

Examine your audience and its engagement with your concept by using statistics gathered either directly from the website or through other digital platforms. You can use charts and graphs to illustrate these metrics. Discuss some of the potential explanations for your findings, and their implications. Please include references to course readings or other scholarly sources to support your understanding of the value of metrics and analytics in understanding users. (max 250 words)

7. Reflections and Future Directions -- 5%

Taking into account how you have developed your concept, audience and digital platforms over the last few months, please reflect on what are the key things you have learned during this course. How has this process changed the way you think about digital platforms, visual design, online communication, user experience, or other key ideas from this course? If you were to continue this project, how would you envision moving forward with the site? What would you change in terms of design, concept or intended audience to improve or grow the site? (max 200 words)

You will also be assessed on the following aspects:

Grammar, spelling and punctuation – 10%

Use of references and Harvard style. citations – 10%

Design and readability – 15%