Graphic Design Thinking & Research: 2018 UC Orientation Program

This report details the research and design process for the 2018 Orientation Program at the University of Canberra. The project aims to create a practical and appealing program for first-year students, incorporating a visually attractive theme suitable for branding. The methodology includes user research with questionnaires and concept development through brainstorming and discussions. The research emphasizes feedback from previous batches and identifies 'Growth' as a central theme, symbolizing youth, prosperity, and the empowering nature of knowledge. The final design strategy reflects this theme to portray the university as a supportive environment for career and personal development. The report concludes that branding the University of Canberra with the concept of 'Growth' will resonate with future generations, highlighting the institution's role in fostering student success. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments.

2018 UC
Orientation Program
Research and
Evaluation
Your name and student ID
Project 1: Concept report
8600 Graphic design thinking and research
Faculty of Arts and Design
University of Canberra
Date

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2018 Orientation Program in UC
Name of Author
1. Introduction
The aim of this report is to design the process of successful 2018 orientation program for the
University of Canberra that is practical and attractive for the target audience. The design of this project
includes the main art, which includes a theme that is attractive and appealing for the first year students
with no lose in cross-cultural appeal. However, the constraints, which will be obstruct the project
completion, are the limitation of resources and time available for the students. On the other hand, the
design of the project being visually attractive should be used by the University for branding and future
guideline for the style statement of the institution (Jonas, 1993). The success of the project depends on
both the capacity of the clients and participants to meet the selection criterion and the positive and
negative comments and feedback given by them about the project. In addition, how the key message is
conveyed to the target audience plays a pivotal role in the overall success of the project.
2. Methods and Methodology
To successfully complete the research with the students of University of Canberra, several
methods of discussion, thought process and brainstorming are adopted to complete the user research and
initiate the first stage of the project to develop the idea.
2.1. The user research:
User research is one of the initial processes adopted for the research to work on. This method
includes questionnaire methods with a small group of target audience comprising of students who are

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joining the university as first year students. The questionnaire is includes feedback section about the
previous University orientation program and improvements they feel necessary for the new orientation
guide. A small group of 10-20 students representing the target audience is selected for this process.
2.2. Concept development
Developing a concept totally depends on tee though process involved in the overall process. The
content is developed on several methods like brainstorming, questionnaire, and discussions (Desmet, &
Hekkert, 2007). This is also helpful in the search process of solutions for different problems, which will
occur throughout the process of research. Brainstorming, besides mind mapping, interviewing and
sketching different ideas are part of the concept-developing phase of the research method.
3. Research/ideation/concept development
The process of developing a new orientation guide for the first year students is a process requires
thorough analysis of the feedback given by the earlier batches, which is the best source to analyse the
short comes of previous orientation guide and what should be included in the new one (Bergen, 2002).
To perform this task two set of target audience is important. One is between the age group of 17-20 years
who are still in high school and the second set is of students of 21-23 years who are new to the university
culture. Interviewing them brings out thoroughly a typical idea about the required improvements in the
orientation guide. The students of the second set will provide a detailed sketch of the first idea that hits
their mind as they visualize a university. The students of the first set provides idea about the requirements
they are looking for in a university. Combining both the ideas a clear knowledge about the changes
required in the orientation guide can be achieved.

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To focus on the exact idea of rebuilding an orientation guide it is important to follow every
possible iterative concept to sketch the exact plan. This includes processes like brainstorming, discussion,
mind mapping, individual interviewing, sketching ideas and providing questionnaire to set off target
audience to evaluate the exact requirements of the students and the backlogs of the previous system. All
these processes are adopted for the research and development of the orientation guide for the first year
students (Lantis & DuPlaga, 2015). The research is based on the idea of overcoming the short falls of
previous orientation program and to develop a better orientation guide for the next fresher year. A
questionnaire is made to get an idea about the though process of different students and focus on the exact
requirement of the process to overcome the short comes. For different people the word “University”
defines different things like friendship, knowledge, career, growth and many more. All these ideas are
short-listed to perform the overall project.
4. Final design strategy/concept
Based on the analysis of all the methods and ideas collected from different methods clearly the
idea, which is predominant is the idea of “Growth”. Almost every student hit the idea how the University
of Canberra will provide a supporting stage for his or her improvement in career growth and life (Nelson
Laird et al., 2014). The idea of “Growth” will be reflected in the new orientation guide for the first year
students to portray the university among first year joiners. This idea can be further used for branding the
university for future students.
5. Conclusion
“Growth” is a concept, which symbolises youth, prosperity and full of life-energy, which is a very
good idea to use as a symbol for a university. Not only for this orientation, guide (Ali, 2017). Growth

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will be forever symbolize a prospering institution as it symbolises the power of knowledge and how it is
used to empower the youth of a country. Branding the University of Canberra with the idea of “Growth”
will be a great idea for future generations to understand how helpful the university is for their career
growth.

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6. References
Ali, H. D. (2017). Towards Developing the Orientation Programme Content for the First-Year Students at
the University of Dodoma.
Bergen, D. (2002). The role of pretend play in children's cognitive development. Early Childhood
Research & Practice, 4(1), n1.
Desmet, P. M. A., & Hekkert, P. (2007). Framework of product experience. International Journal of
Design, 1(1), 57-66.
Jonas, W. (1993). Design as problem-solving? or: here is the solution - what was the problem? Design
Studies, 14(2), 157-170.
Lantis, J. S., & DuPlaga, J. (2015). Global Classroom: An Essential Guide to Study Abroad. Routledge.
Nelson Laird, T. F., Seifert, T. A., Pascarella, E. T., Mayhew, M. J., & Blaich, C. F. (2014). Deeply
affecting first-year students' thinking: Deep approaches to learning and three dimensions of
cognitive development. The journal of higher education, 85(3), 402-432.

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