This was the first time I had ever created a Diagrammatic or a dashboard as a designer, so everything was new to me, during this part of first year I had begun to get sick of using Swiss design as I just felt it can be too easy at times and while yes it is great I do want to challenge myself and do a variation of designs to show not only others but myself that I can do it. That being said I enjoyed the project more than the music app as I felt there was more to do and I enjoyed using a style that is new to me, I did face my challenges and had some interests as well however
The first challenge I faced was the design style itself, I had never done anything like it so throughout the project I was worried it wasn’t neu-brutalist, but I kept looking at the mind-map and inspiration from the web to ensure that it was right, Making the dashboard cohesive however was not a problem due to the re use of assets, But designing those assets took a lot of time and consideration.
Another thing I struggled with was layout, I found it so hard to make the boxes fit into place, I was really concerned with the hierarchy of data and I really was worried that the design would take over from the data, that’s when a style like Swiss design is perfect for a dashboard, That being said I feel like my dashboard is 70% Data and 30% Designed, and that is a ratio I’m happy with.
And lastly I struggled to find good ways to showcase the data, I did do a lot of research and Ideation to find different types of charts and graphs etc. but when it came down to creating the dashboard I was struggling to make it make sense, So a lot of time was spent working on finding ways to showcase data, I’d say the ones that are lacking is the music screen, I wish there was a better way of showing my top five albums of the week.
One of the reasons I chose this design was the ability to allow me to draw, I haven’t drawn for a project since last may and when researching the multiple styles I was considering I wanted to draw some more, so neu-brutalist was a good way of doing that, I’m happy with each of my drawings, they’re all cohesive and look good which is what I wanted.
I also was interested in the prototyping aspect of the project, I made some components with the buttons and added an animation to them when you hover over them which was fun to do and fits with the design style, I also enjoyed finding ways to prototype each of the screens I felt like that was a fun part of the project and I can’t wait to do more so in the future.
This project had its ups and downs, I started it when I finished the Music app so I had a lot of time to do it which is great, I struggled to record data, I went to do it instantly and I kind of regret it, I should’ve started recording it on Monday rather than Wednesday, It just makes the charts look weird and it doesn’t allow for further analysis, I.E I cant say I drink more caffeine throughout the week, It’s true but the bar chart goes up and then down, rather than keep going up, annoying but something to remember if I ever do another dashboard. I did enjoy this project overall and It was fun to take data and organise it into design, I’m looking forward to the next one.