evaluation

1. L3 Creative Media
Production & Technology
Marauders Map Evaluation

2. Project Overview
.

3. What was the theme of your project and
what attracted you to it?
• The theme of my project was Harry Potter. It focuses on a group of student
call The Marauders that are briefly mentioned in the Harry Potter books
and films. They are mentioned through a map which is what I wanted to
create my own version for York, which would be heavily inspired by the
visual features of that map. I think what attracted me into do this
specifically is that I am a fan of the harry potter books and films, so I know
a lot about the subject. I also wanted to create some designs on a drawing
tablet as I enjoy drawing but haven’t been able to do much of it in other
college projects. I think that it really helped me that I knew a lot about York
(as I've grown up here) so the idea of combining a subject that I enjoy with
a place I know a lot about didn’t feel too far fetched to complete. It also
helped that the shambles are referred to “being inspired for Diagon Ally”
which made me able to link York and Harry Potter together.

4. What research did you undertake and how did it
help develop your project?
• I did research on a few different subjects which all helped me create my project appeal to my target audience and make it
look a visually pleasing as possible. I started with researching profile attraction. I looked at what my target audience would
want to see and what they engage. This gave me ideas on what feature I should use to try attract the audience and what
makes York unattractive to them. I overall found researching this very knowledgeable as I made me think about if each step
is necessary for the audience to engage with it. It defiantly made a difference with choosing which chosen media to work
with and which device I want to see it on. I also did research on what people do engage with York (opposite to my target
audience). It was interesting to see what they enjoyed compared to what my target audience did and that helped me during
my idea process when trying to produce a concept. I did a little bit of research on York tourism which helped me just get an
idea of which attraction are most popular, how tourist are most likely to travel and the reasons they visit York.
• I then moved onto research about a Harry Potter themed game. I did it on an app call Hogwarts Mystery. At this point in
research, I had an idea that I could do something on harry potter, however I did not have a concept on what I wanted to
achieve. Researching Hogwarts Mystery helped me get an idea on some creative concepts that are themed with harry potter
and some ideas on how some concepts I had in mind were could look. When researching, I looked at their audience which
helped me know if it would appeal to my audience. However, when looking at the game, I did realize that creating a story
telling game was not going to be an effective way for people to try tour York, so even though the harry potter themed
helped me creatively, It did help me conclude that I did not want to create a story telling app.
• I started to research Pokémon go which I felt like was good to research to help come to my final concept, however once I
started to create my project in production, I felt like that researching the game didn’t really benefit me in any way. I thinks
it’s a good game to research as i think the game created something that was unheard of at the time and created a new
version of a media inspired by a tv show. The research did help me think of the idea of creating a map which then led to
doing it marauders themed.
• The two final parts of research I did, which was in the planning process, was doing some research on the marauders and the
fandom. I wanted to check that it was going to appeal to my target audience and that it was something I could create.
Overall, this part of the research I felt was necessary, which is why I added it to the planning document. The last piece of
research I did was software research. I did some research on adobe xd as I was unfamiliar with the program. Everything I
learned in my research, I applied.

5. How did you develop and improve your ideas
throughout the project?
• If I'm honest, I don’t think that I have necessarily developed my idea
through my production process which took majority of the projects time. I
do think finding my concept and developing it from a simple idea to the
planning idea, there was a lot of change. Once I had a concept, I was happy
with it until the end of my production where I felt like I had to add some
pages that would make it make more sense. For example, I felt like I had to
add a locations page last minute because the locations were hard to
pinpoint where they were on the map. Once I had finished my project, I
also wanted to add a gallery page where you could display the photos that
the users will take, however because I wanted to create this in my last
week of production, I was unable to do it. I think during my planning
process, I was happy with the solid idea I had and knew what I wanted to
do.

6. What was the outcome of the project/task?
• The outcome of my project was a Harry Potter themed app concept
with a presentation to go along with it to explain the app function.
The purpose of the was to attract the age group 17-24yrs to York as
that was the group that least interacted York.
• The outcome of my project was exactly what my initial intentions
were. I created an app concept on Adobe XD that followed the visual
aesthetic of the marauders map that is referenced in the harry potter
franchise. The harry potter audience fits into the same category that I
am trying to bring into York.

7. Personal Response

8. How did you feel about the project before
you started?
• Nervous. When the project was explained in the lecture, I was very
confused on what I was going to do, and then nervous on creating
something that I wouldn’t like or that would unmotivated me. It was
more about creating a concept that would interest me for 7 weeks
about an area that I’m not particularly interested in. Once I spoke to a
tutor about some types of things that I could create, I then thinking of
concepts to do with harry potter which made me feel more interested
and more excited about the project. I felt like during the planning
process I was happy with the solid idea I had created and ready to
start production.

9. What do you think about your project development and
how did it help you to refine your idea?
• I think it was key for me to not make my idea over complicated, because I
wanted to be able to complete my project within the time limit. When
producing different concepts in idea development, I ruled different options
based off time management, my own ability and whether I liked the
subject/media. All these factor came into account on refining my idea to
something that I could produce. I think my planning was clear of what I
wanted to produce so I had such a fixed idea on what I wanted it to look
like, that it didn’t leave much room for me to expand my idea during the
production process. However, during the last week of production, I did
think of things that I would add to the app, but I don’t think that was
necessarily developing my idea, more just adding to it to make it simpler.
The ideas should have been in my planning to begin with.

10. How did you feel when the project was
completed and why?
• Now that the project is complete, I feel like there is more to do that I
didn’t plan for, so the project almost feels unfinished. I wanted to add
a few more pages that would help the games functions and only got
to start them in my last week of production because I didn’t plan it or
put it in my schedule. Besides that, I feel very happy about how the
project looks as I think that it looks aesthetically pleasing and fits the
profile I was aiming for. The project came out how I pictured in my
head, and I think this is the best project that I have done when
following my planning.

11. Evaluating the project

12. What were the good points about the project/task and what did you
learn from them? [try and think of at least 3, more if possible]
• I think one of the main things I am happy about is the way my app looks
visually. I think I did well with the illustrations and the design of the
project. I enjoyed being able to draw to designs and create my own version
of the marauders map. I was happy with the features I created and how I
tried link both harry potter and York together. For example, I think that
adding the moving feet was a good link to the marauder map and people
would be able to easily recognize the animation as it is a familiar feature
for harry potter fans.
• I think another good point was creating my opening screen. It was
something I was quite nervous about because I was doing it completely
free hand. I am happy how the page turned out as I think it looks very
realistic which adds to feature of making the app looking like a real map.

13. What challenges did you face and how did you
respond to them? Try and think of at least 3...
• Illustration complications – when doing some of my designs, like my cover, I struggled to create
some of my planned design. This was because I either struggled with the practicality of the
designs or I didn’t like the look of them when creating them. Both applied for the cover of my
design which I explained thoroughly in my production diary. My original plan wasn’t going to work
out based on my lack of experience of the program and the small amount of time I had to
complete the page, so I had to redesign the logo as I went. I still wanted to include some of the
aesthetic features that I had planed in my original plan, so I used similar color theme and included
a photo of the minster.
• Idea development – I have written about my process of idea development in this reflection
document, but it is one of the challenges I did face. I found it hard producing a concept that I
could achieve within the time frame, and something that I would be motivated to create. I worked
around this by trying to produce idea in areas and subjects that I enjoyed. Once I figured out
some subject that would link back to York, I still needed to if the project I would create would get
my target audience engaged. Overall, I found the idea development stage difficult and worked
around it by producing as many different concepts as possible.
• Adobe XD – In my schedule, I initially planned to worked on adobe xd first, however during the
first week on production it, the program wasn’t working. I felt like to stay on track and manage
time well, I would have to move onto starting my designs. This did mean I did have to miss out on
any experiments in adobe xd. I also spent the first week doing some research on how the program
works so that when I can use it, I would be able to get started straight away creating the concept.

14. What were the negative points about the
experience, and what could you have done to
improve them?
I think that a negative point about the experience is that I spent the 4
weeks of production doing the same thing. I was constantly using the
same software throughout my 10 hours of production. Along with
doing the project on a place I don’t have massive amount of interest in,
I found the whole experience just very repetitive and occasionally
boring. The part that kept me interested was the fact that I was doing
on a subject that I was familiar with and enjoy engaging with outside of
college. I wouldn’t change my subject matter, however, to make it more
interesting in the future, I would maybe expand on my concept. My
concept was built to make sure I could complete with 4 weeks of
production, so by expanding on the concept I would have to make the
production time longer.

15. How would you rate the final piece? [think along the lines of
poor, satisfactory, good or excellent...justify your rating]
• Good – I think the design is good and how I produced the work, but I
not sure how much it would attract my target audience to download
it. I think the age group that are most likely to download it are 17-24,
however my concern are if they are likely to engage with it at all. This
age group engage with what is trending and is popular, and harry
potter was engaged a lot during the film/books release and then
again in 2020. I don’t think the way I produced my work has any effect
on whether it will engage this audience, I think it is down to the
concept and themes of the app.

16. What is your opinion of your final piece? What
elements do you think are successful and why?
• I think my project is something that I would personal engage in and I
fit into the target audience. I think the fact that I have chosen this
theme and media format helps the engagement of the concept which
is why I think the overall project is successful. The design process and
the way the app looks visually helps towards that.

17. How did you design appeal to your target
audience?
It will appeal to the harry potter fans, which are within my target
audience, however my target audience as a general it may struggle to
engage with. My target audience like to engage with things that are
currently trending and are popular, so I think that they are still more
likely to visit places that are currently popular than York. If the app was
coming out during the time of the release of the books and films or in
lockdown of 2020 when harry potter was more engaged with than
currently, it would be more popular. I also do think seasons may effect
the concept. The films and books have a very autumnal/winter feel to
them, however traveling in bad weather is going to put people off from
doing the activities.

18. Analysis

19. How did your skills develop during the portfolio? [remember,
skills aren't just technical, remember things like organisation,
time management, communication, etc as well]
• I think in a lot of my pervious project I have really struggled with my
time management, and it was very important that I got it right for this
project. During this project it was important I have a strict timetable
that I sticked to. And I think its defiantly something that I can say I
achieved quiet well and I have developed better through the project.
This is down to my organizing in planning and being strict with myself
during production.
• Before starting the project, I has some knowledge of Krita and online
drawing, however through this project, I have defiantly developed my
ability to use the program and my own design drawings.

20. What feedback did you get from your peers
and viewings?
• Most of the feedback I got were from people that were also fans of
harry potter, so they understood the references in the project. The
feedback was focused on how the project looked visually and how
impressed they were over how it was hand drawn. They said that they
would engage with it if they were a tourist coming visit, however they
did say that they would not engage with it as they do live in York.

21. What would you do differently in the future
and why?
• If I was to do this same project in the future, I would add more pages
to the app so that it made more sense (like a location list with
information). I would also have liked to finish the actual map page.
• However now I have done this project, I feel like I could create
something more complicated with a bigger time frame. In my idea
development, I had a concept to create a story telling version of a
harry potter themed York game, I would like to create that in the
future. I think that my current concept ended up being very simple,
but I did feel pressured about only having 10hrs of production time.

22. Action Plan

23. If you were making a similar project in the
future, what would you do differently?
• I would have like my knowledge to expand so that I I could have
added the animation feature to the pages. The animations would
have featured on nearly every page, whether it was the moving feat,
or paper burning. I was just limited with time. I also wanted to be
able to add specific transition between each page that I couldn’t do
based on limited time. Other than that, I was very happy with my
overall project.

24. How could you develop your skills for future projects? Please
identify the appropriate resources and courses. For example,
webpages, tutorials, books, short courses and qualifications.
• I defiantly would have looked at some adobe xd effects more to help
me develop the actual concept. I would have liked to look at other
programs that could have achieved other things as well. So, spending
more time watching a range of different tutorials instead of watching
a bunch that all focus on one small subject area. A better knowledge
of adobe xd would have defiantly helped my project.