A few days ago I wrote a little bit about the report I am writing on evaluating successful user-centred design and my ideas for its content and timescale for its completion which you can read here.

How’s it looking?

As of January 8th 2019 I have now found all five case studies and written about each in detail. Each case study is unique, each runs on a different platform, each solves a unique problem, each product was created by a separate design agency and each has primary and secondary evidence to back up how successful it was. I’m really pleased to have been able to find all five case studies over a month before the report is due (February 15th) – this gives me plenty of time to make refinements and improvements to my report.

I’ve enjoyed researching this report… so far!

I have found researching this report enjoyable and it has been fascinating to see some of the major brands that smaller design agencies are recruited for. I have used case studies from Earthware, Foolproof, Sigma UX, Cyber Duck and Webcredible in my report so far – each of these agencies have worked for very large national and sometimes even multinational corporations to help make a real difference to their products and business. Of course, not all of the work that they have produced has been relevant for my report, but just reading the vast range of case studies presented on their websites has opened my eyes and made me realise that you don’t need to be working at a multinational company in order to be able to work with them on their products. In fact, it has made me realise that sometimes working for a smaller agency like those referenced in my report enables you to work with more ‘big clients’ in the long run as the work is more varied and changes more frequently. Working for a large multinational such as Apple or Google or Microsoft or Facebook you might well end up doing the same thing day in and day out with the same (or similar) people, briefs, company objectives and guidelines to stick to for years. But working for a company like Earthware or Foolproof you may be working with Transport For London on one project for several months, then later in the year working for another ‘big client’ – who knows who that could be? It could be anybody from Suzuki or another car company to large pharmaceutical companies to L’Oreal to Dulux! Surely this must keep work more exciting and fresh?

The plan going forwards

Back to the report, it currently stands at approximately 2,900 words with an introduction but no conclusion or discussion about how each of the agencies referenced differs from one another. This leaves just 100 words available for that, so there may be some ‘pruning’ to be done, but I am hoping that by the end of this week (January 11th) I will be able to submit a complete first draft, approximately 3,000 words in length which will include a conclusion which can be evaluated. Providing that I have interpreted the brief correctly, I am hoping that there won’t be too many things to change or add which means that I can either work solidly on it to get this report finalised as soon as possible and have it completed well before the deadline, or I can spend the next month or so making changes as and when I have the time.

It would be good to complete this report as soon as possible because the next project I am working on for university is also due on February 15th and has not officially started at the time of writing this post – so the workload will be heavy. I’ve been told that between now and February 15th will be the busiest time of university in Year 2 for me. To aid my stress and hopefully produce better outcomes for each piece (this report and the project work), it would be good to not have to worry too much about one whilst working on the other.

That’s the plan anyway, let’s see what the feedback from my first draft will be like!