Koside Onyegbula

DESN 380

Journal Assignment 4
While preparing the personas, I envisioned the kind of persona our research would help and
then searched for images. Interestingly, one of the pictures of the lady was very popular. Later, I
discussed my vision with my team members to ensure their understanding. We also
brainstormed ideas related to how we could best create the persona for our research. Finally,
we agreed on a plan and got started with it. One challenge was coming up with the name and all
the features we wanted the persona to have. We also had to take into consideration the cultural
background of the persona and make sure it accurately reflected our research. Finally, we made
sure the persona was relatable and believable.

The personas were conducted successfully. We created Chloe Bailey and Grant McPherson.
Chloe Bailey is a 21-year-old residing in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She is currently a 2nd year
full-time student at MacEwan University, pursuing a Bachelor of Design. Additionally, she works
as a part-time sales associate. Chloe’s scenario is that she has a hard time finding easier ways
and inspiration to plan her tasks. As a student and sales associate, she recognizes that without
a plan, her ability to manage her time struggles. She loves to read and write and prefers
physical time management strategies. Then, Grant McPherson is a 25-year-old full-time student
at MacEwan University in Edmonton, AB. He is currently in his third year of the Bachelor of
Design program and is currently unemployed.

What could be improved next time is diving deeper into the individuals to find more unique
solutions. However, a major challenge was creating a character that does not exist. To address
this challenge, the team can decide to create a character based on a combination of real
people. We would have to consider the individual's strengths and weaknesses, as well as their
motivations and goals. Finally, the team would consider how the character would interact with a
journey map of managing their time. When creating a report and poster, we can improve the
value of delving deeper into the subject matter and individuals to develop more distinctive and
impactful solutions. Additionally, reflect on the challenge of making the content and visuals more
authentic and engaging to capture the audience's attention effectively. The most surprising detail
was most people are not perfect with time blocking right away, it is a process of trial and error.
Failure is the beginning of learning.

The persona and scenario method can be very valuable in my branding class, DESN 311. By
creating detailed personas that represent your target audience, I can gain a deeper
understanding of their needs, desires, and pain points. This informs the branding strategy by
helping me tailor the corporate identity to resonate with your audience on a more personal level.
Additionally, using scenarios can help envision how target personas might interact with the
brand in various situations. In my design journey, I plan to mix branding and user experience, so
the method will make sure my efforts are truly customer-centric.
Persona & Scenario

Chloe Bailey
Age: 21 years old
Education: 2nd year full-time student at MacEwan
University
Program: Bachelor of Design
Work: Part-time sales associate
Residence: Sherwood Park, Alberta

Now in her second year at MacEwan University in the

Bachelor of Design program offered there, she
recognizes that without a plan, her ability to manage her
time struggles. She loves to read and write and prefers
physical time management strategies.

Needs: Clean, creative, and inspiring ways and

solutions to plan her tasks and activities.
Main Problem: She has a hard time finding easier ways
and inspiration to plan her tasks.
Grant McPherson
Age: 25 years old
Education: 3rd year full-time student at MacEwan
University
Program: Bachelor of Design
Work: None
Residence: Edmonton, AB

Grant enjoys completing all of his design projects and

loves to do his best on each of them. He often finds
himself working last-minute on projects and getting
really stressed when his assignments pile up. He
wants to improve how he manages his time and wants
to try a time-blocking strategy, but he knows he has
been discouraged by time-blocking in the past so he
doesn’t know where to start, but he uses his phone
often so he would like to use something digital.

Needs: Task management app to have everywhere he

goes and make sure he’s being productive.
Main Problem: Extremely busy schedule with a lack
of organization and planning.
Preparing for the idea selection matrix involved finalizing our personas, as they served as the
inspiration for our solutions. Chloe’s persona suggested ideas such as a weekly planner in
sticky notes style, mobilized reusable sticky notes, an Eisenhower Matrix whiteboard with
magnetic task cubes, and more. Grant's ideas included a digital, accessible, and easy-to-use
time management tool, as well as making plans with other students to complete work together
ahead of their deadlines. We faced the challenge of avoiding repetitions from old solutions we
had used in previous methods, such as an app or third-party extension to help track time. We
overcame this by allowing ideas to flow, then sorting through and selecting the best ones while
using the idea matrix.

Conducting the method was an honest and critical way of selecting which ideas were mediocre
and which ones were innovative. The strongest ideas included making plans with other students
to complete work together ahead of their deadlines, having a planning and accountability
mentor, using a digital, accessible, and easy-to-use time management tool, and moving or
changing locations for different tasks. A surprising finding was that setting aside time to work on
projects and recording how long it takes to learn how to budget time is considered a weak idea.
Personally, I find this to be the only way I can work. While I may not be perfect with time
blocking, it still seems like an essential skill.

What could be improved is inding ways to transform weak ideas into strong ones rather than
simply discarding them is crucial for fostering innovation and creativity. This can be
accomplished through a variety of methods, such as engaging in brainstorming sessions to
generate new perspectives, seeking diverse viewpoints to challenge assumptions, and
conducting thorough research to identify potential areas for improvement. As we continue to
work on the report and poster, it's important to highlight the best solutions that have emerged
from these processes, showcasing our commitment to achieve our final goals to learn what
strategies and approaches lead to effective time-blocking or time management, and discover
design opportunities and possible solutions to address students’ time-management issues.

The process of selecting ideas will always be relevant in every class. It's about learning how to
streamline my final outcome for each project, which is particularly useful in classes like DESN
344, where scaling ideas is necessary. I can apply this process in my graphic design work by
using it as a tool to evaluate and prioritize design concepts, strategies, or projects. I will start by
defining my criteria and generating design ideas. Then, I will create a matrix to compare the
ideas based on the established criteria, such as "ways to improve eating habits within students."
After evaluating all the ideas, I will select the best ones based on their effectiveness, and then
refine and develop them further. This approach will help me make more informed decisions
about which design strategies to pursue, leading to more impactful creative outcomes.
Idea Selection Matrix
DESN380 Design Research - Research worksheet

Personas and Scenarios

1. PREPARE
1.1 Goal and sub-goals
Within the research goals identified in your research proposal, which one(s) do you wish to address with
this method? Are there subgoals?
We wish to focus on how we can help university students learn to live a healthy, well-rounded, and
balanced lifestyle in school. We used a survey to collect data from university students on their lifestyle
choices. Subgoals in this aspect will be finding design opportunities and possible solutions to address
students’ time-management issues.

1.2 Description of what you wish to do in your method (1 paragraph).

We will analyze all the data from our research purposes to help us understand the best solutions to create
a healthier, well-rounded, and balanced student lifestyle. The method will investigate the effectiveness of
using time management strategies such as time blocks, physical productivity, physical time tracking,
colour/environment, collaboration, and breaks in our personas.

2. CONDUCT
2.1 Instructions for Participants/Questions (see slide deck on this week’s
method for more details)
Consent forms were not applicable to this method.

3. ANALYZE
1. Look at your results and select 10 interesting elements (or more).
2. Write them here:
1 Chloe has found that time management struggles when she doesn’t have a structured
plan. Therefore, structured plans are valuable for her ability to manage time well.

2 Chloe struggles to find easier methods and motivation to plan her tasks out, preferring
physical time management strategies. However, most physical time management
strategies could be simpler.

3 Chloe’s persona would appreciate solutions like a sticky notes planner, mobilized reusable
sticky notes, an Eisenhower Matrix White board with magnetic task cubes, a tear-away
task list for better task tracking, or a planning and accountability mentor.
 4 Most people are not perfect with time blocking right away, it is a process of trial and error.

5
Moving/changing locations suited for productivity is a way the environment can influence
one to allow the users to have a break between tasks.

6
A way that Grant could solve time-blocking problems could be to set aside time to work on
his projects intentionally and record how long it takes so that he learns how to budget his
time more moving forward.

7 An AI-helped app that can offer daily task plans to maximize productivity is also a good
idea.

8
The strongest solution ideas to help an individual be productive are a digital, accessible,
easy-to-use task management app, a planning and accountability mentor, making plans
with other students to complete work together, ahead of their deadlines, and

9
The weakest solutions are a weekly planner; sticky notes style, utilizing a colour palette,
setting aside time to work on a project, recording how long it takes to budget time more
while moving forward, and a building/cafe/workspace with floors styled differently to feel
like completely separate designs.

10
The strongest of the strong ideas came down to collaboration with others and/or having a
mentor to keep the user accountable with the task management.

3. Organize them into these categories (you can create new categories):

User Effectiveness Place Problem or Design Visual Questions

Pain point opportunity Communicatio
n

1 6 5 4 8 7

10 9 3

2
4. DESIGN
Sketch 1-2 ideas or design solutions (for each team member) that arose from your results. Write a 2-3
sentence summary for each sketch.-

Koside Onyegbula

The sketch illustrates how collaborating with other students to complete assignments ahead of schedule
can help keep everyone on track. By working together and planning ahead, students can effectively
manage their time and stay organized.
Emily Patterson

This sketch is of a potential configuration of an AI

weekly planning tool. It could be text-based,
similar to other chat AI apps. You could tell the AI
what to add to a schedule through texting. Then
the AI would send you the ready-made schedule
similar to how images and videos get sent
through text.

Franz Pechardo
An AI idea potential app planner where users enter the tasks that they need for the day and let AI plan
their day depending on the user’s daily activity. The user will enter how much time they need to allocate
for the tasks. The AI will automatically insert breaks and food times depending on the user data that they
can gather.
Group Ethics Certifications: