Simplicity is Key
On 3rd August, Dr. Shawn reviewed the first two mock pages for Sayembara’s website that I made during the first week of my internship. We have decided, however, that we minimize the amount of information-dumping that exists on the original website, and instead highlight on what the investors would possibly need from us with only a few words and attention-grabbing graphics. Dr. Shawn suggested I should highlight three things—a flowchart of what the system does, the legitimacy of the system, and contact information. So, I decided to redesign the mockup—almost from scratch, only keeping the website header—and started to planned out the look of the Sayembara website by referencing other similar websites.
Looking Consistent
Dr. Shawn also highlighted that the assets I chose look as if they came from different artists—and they were. To remedy this, I decided to choose one specific asset-creator on Magnific, and downloaded graphics from only that specific account to make sure that the Sayembara website has a more consistent look to it. The one I’ve chosen was @macrovector, as they have countless assets in an isometric art style—professional and quite modern-looking.
Some assets, however, have quite different color schemes from what I had planned from the website. For this, I used a digital art software, called FireAlpaca, to make certain edits to the assets—changing the colors, making the background transparent, removing any unnecessary bits—and made sure that it doesn’t look obvious that it looks like it was lazily downloaded straight from an asset library.
Aside from that, Dr. Shawn also shared me a Facebook page in which I can use any images from to promote the legitimacy of the system. Instead of using the photographs straight off of that page, I decided to trace them in a lineless art style—similar to the graphics I downloaded—since I was worried about the privacy concerns of the kids shown in the photographs I had chosen.
Observing the System—Live!
On 9th August, I was given the opportunity to witness how the system actually works in a real, live setting at the Sunway Square Mall. It was used for a competition, and I got to have a closer look on how the system eases every step of the process for these kinds of competitions.
Unfortunately, I was late to the venue since I was unfamiliar with the area, so I couldn’t meet Izatul before the competition started. Thus, she couldn’t show how the registration process would look like in the system first. I managed to meet her at 8:50 AM, instead, in the recital hall.
After watching some drumming performances and ensuring the system had no issues needed to be fixed, we went to the other venue for the competition, which mostly consisted of musical drama re-enactments. Izatul explained to me, in-depth, how the Sayembara system for both judges and emcees work. I also got to observe the comments made by the judges, and got to know how the automated scoring system works.
Following that, we got to meet up with Dr. Shawn and Tan Liang Yao. Dr. Shawn basically ensured that I had all the information needed to properly market the system, and answered any question I had regarding it.
Reflection
For my task, I need to try to imagine myself being newcomer who had just discovered the Sayembara website. If I were them, I would probably feel iffy on why the website would have so many different-looking assets, and too much information could overwhelm me. Thus, being able to see things in a different perspective is quite essential.
Not only that, in the future, I should properly converse with my colleagues regarding the location in which we’ll meet up so that my mistake of being late doesn’t happen again.
Next Week’s Plans
The ‘reliability’ and ‘contact information’ part of the mockup website are not finished yet, as I spent most of the time editing the assets for the ‘flowchart of the systems’ part to give the website a more consistent look. I hope that I can finish both of the former parts next week, and be more efficient in my editing skills.
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