Before i started designing my own dashboard i did a few of the master apprentice activities provided on Blackboard. This was superb for getting used to designing consistent icons, and knowing what weights etc look best. I completed a few each week, these are in my weekly blog posts as i want to keep this section solely for my project development.
i used many sources for inspiration for this. Since my design is regarding specifically 90s music, i dont want any aspect of the app to feel too modern. I spent a while pondering how i could actually achieve this, and decided the best way as always would be to look for some examples online.
This was my very first iteration. I tried to make the icons reflective of the 90s east/west coast context, but i realised it was slightly too cryptic and way too detailed for iconography.
after our second lecture where we learned about iconography, i realised the reason this didn’t look good was because of the lack of consistency. Despite my best efforts, different weights/styles will never look good… back to the drawing board we go.
My initial plan was to make the learning experience feel like a journey, similar to the way Duolingo takes you on a path. I considered the West coast journey could be like you were riding a subway, and different years/events could be different stops. East coast would be the LA freeway, and the user would travel through the journey in different cars reminiscient of this era, and the further you went the more car options you could explore.
I tried my best to sketch and design these ideas, but they were too broad and i felt i was getting further and further away from the actual brief, a music app. not a ‘various forms of 90s travel’ app. This is why my original icon for ‘Learn’ was a car, but after i scrapped that idea i reaised that too needed reconsideration.
Despite not using this idea, it was still useful for getting me to the next part of my research. To see my process ive linked these original designs here