14

Test plan:
Specify task:
I want you to read the newspaper
I want you to interact with the newspaper
What can you create with this newspaper
What can you create with this spread?

Users:
Find 3-5 people that can represent your usergroup most diverse. For us that would be people between 50 and 70 years old. People that live in Rotterdam, Both male and female and others. And ofcours people that are allergic to abstract art.

Documentation:
Make a video/record. SO you can see their facial expression
Take distance and make notes.

- Tell people you are testing the design, not the person
- When users make a mistake, its your mistake

After testing ask specific questions:
- I noticed this was not clear for you, what did you make your hesitant?
- What surprised you?

In class prototype
and usability testing

Great example of the Piet zwart newspaper Maytal showed us. The way how it was printed mono color with riso, the sketch paper and the way that it was folded inspired us.

Experimenting with size and folding

Chosen for this lesson user testing ^

Before we started with user testing we had to write a plan:

30 seconds intro:
We created a newspaper that introduces people to the art of Rotterdam. Please go through the newspaper and try to interact with it.

Specific questions:
Can users interact with the newspaper. Are they able to find and understand the DIY tasks.

Pattern:
Users can go through the newspaper however they like. The prototype includes DIY and information about the artwork

Place:
In public spaces but preferably in their own home.

Possible test users:
- Tante Tineke (60 years old)
- Mom and dad Kim (56 and 59 old)
- People in the supermarket (ask random people)

Documentation:
Video so we can see their reaction. After going the introduction make notes on papers when observing them.

Click the link above to watch the first user testing with Noemi

Click the link above to watch the first user testing with Kristiana

I chose for a link so the videos could stay private in YouTube.

https://youtu.be/nk4syHN9r3Q

https://youtu.be/AC1oGetgC4Q

Noemi observing and feedback

- Claps open as we intented
- Missed paper, scissors and glue
- "Make your own piece of Rotterdam was confusing. Difficult to understand. Didn’t take it seriously. Didn’t make sense I was creating it for Rotterdam."
- Change shapes of make artwork
Maybe 3D? 2D makes it feel a bit easy or childish.

Kristiana observing and feedback

- Claps open as folder, not how we intented
- Confused about every part because of that
- Confused her that it doesn't open as a newspaper

Second paper prototype and first real user testing
29 april - 8 may
>>

For our first user testing we made a very simple paper prototype. In this first prototype we wanted to test:

- Creative assignments
- Paper
- Typography size
- Folding
- Opening
- Content test

First paper prototype A3

User name:
Age:
Hobbies:
Job:
Residence:
Test location:
Date:

For school we need to record our first tests with this first version of the newspaper. Preferably we would like to film you while you are going through the newspaper. This way we can also see the facial expressions back later. The footage will not be published and only shared to the teachers. Are you okay with this? If not I can also record the conversation with audio and take notes. During the test I will not say anything. So that I do not influence the test.

30 seconds Intro:
We are making a newspaper that introduces people to the art of Rotterdam. This first version of the newspaper is about the content. So not yet about how the newspaper looks visually. I want to invite you to go through the newspaper and to see if you can do something with it! Above all, do what you feel like doing! When you have finished testing I will ask a few more questions.

Typography size test ^

These were the things we asked and mentioned first before we started with user testing:

These are the questions we asked after user testing

Were there any confusing moments?

What did you think of the creative assignments in the paper?

Did you think the creative assignments were appropriate for your own age?

What kind of creative assignments would you like to do yourself?

What do you think of the format? Would you rather see it bigger or smaller?

What did you find positive about this experience?

What folding technique would you like best to receive in your mailbox?

What text sizes do you like best?

What do you think of the paper types?

Do you have any other comments?

Different ways of folding (One is given at the beginning to start, after this the other two are presented):

Because the first user testing was in the vacation it was inconvenient for us to start testing with actual people from Rotterdam. So we tested in our own environment. Right now this was no problem because we didn't focus yet on the written material and the shown art pieces.

To find users that fitted the target group (without asking my parents ) I posted a message on Facebook in two local facebook groups.

Our target group is dutch, that is why all of our user testing is in dutch. For Hotglue I translated it.

Translation FB message:

Hi Ladies!

Once again I would like to ask for your help! For a project for art school, I'm looking for people who don't like abstract art. Do you think image 1 and 2 are just two weird shapeless shapes 😉 ? And do you prefer to see the image in image 3? Then I would love to ask for your help!

For the project, I am making a paper about this topic together with a classmate. It would be great if you would like to test this first version of the newspaper. We are testing to take out any errors.

Testing the design will take about 15 minutes. I can come by your home or we can meet at another place. I would like to document the conversation, this can be with video, audio, notes or anything else you feel comfortable with. The documentation will only be shown to my teachers. Nothing will be made public.
If you want to participate or have any questions I would love to hear about it via pb.

Greetings,

Sascha Vreekamp

The FB message got 3 responses. One of them was my aunt (So i could've asked her myself).

https://youtu.be/gi6_pY5kn8k

User testing with
Tante tineke

Copy & paste the
link for the video

Translated user testing answers

User name: Tineke Vreekamp
Age: 58
Hobbies: Making things, clay sculptures, nail art, She made clothes in the past.
Residence: Maarn
Test location: Tineke's house in Maarn
Date: May 3, 2022
Why allergic to abstract art: Too high costs for a weird piece of art, can't recognize anything in it, would be better if it was spent on something else. "Even I or my little neighbor can make this".

Questions after user testing:
Were there any confusing moments?
= What should I do with this? I don't like this kind of art? I don't like abstract art, I see abstract shapes on the front. I don't feel like being creative with that. I would have not taken a look into the paper.

What did you think of the creative assignments in the newspaper?
= If you like this kind of art the first creative assignment can be fun, otherwise not. Would rather see forms that I can connect with.

Did you find the creative assignments appropriate for your own age?
= Adult assignment. Wouldn't let kids do this.

What kind of creative assignments would you like to do yourself?
= No idea. (Once I reminded her of her own hobbies) Yes nail art I would enjoy.

What do you think of the format? Would you rather see it bigger or smaller?
= nice newspaper, good size. Just normal newspaper size right? Smaller is inconvenient to cut and read. And bigger it gets clumsy while holding it.

What did you find positive about this experience?
= Being able to give my opinion to you. To be able to help you further.

Which folding technique would you prefer to receive in your mailbox?
= The rolled-up newspaper, the American way! You can throw it around. Haha!

Which text sizes do you like best?
= The first, second smallest. The fourth too much in the face. Otherwise I take a magnifying glass if I want it to be that big.

What do you think of the paper types?
= No thicker or thinner paper. Too thin is also impractical right? And otherwise you can't fold it.

Do you have any other comments?
= No

Ideas and notes during the usertest

Notes from Sascha while observing.
Tineke tries to decipher the shapes on the front. But doesn't like the shapes, maybe even gets frustrated.

Shapes recognized in front:
-Music note
-Someone swimming
- blocks

Lack of clarity during the first cut and paste task. Tineke thought she had to paste the shapes onto the postcards. Which I thought, didn't think of but what a fun idea!

Other comments
When Tineke said "my little neighbor girl can make that too" and "and they call that art pfff". I came up with an idea. What if we give the target group a place on BKOR where they can also share their art. Self made work. Where they can determine whether it is labeled as art.

When Tineke said: "You can throw that American newspaper around like that, haha". I got an idea: what if we actually do that? Instead of going to a lot of trouble to get addresses. Can we also throw the newspapers while cycling on the driveways and sidewalks of Rotterdam. Now I hear the teachers say, "are you reaching your target audience then?". Maybe, but isn't art meant for everyone? So shouldn't it then also reach everyone?

User testing with
Nicander

https://youtu.be/DWwkEWgnEJA

Translated user testing answers

User name: Nicander
Age: 36
Hobbies: Outdoors, practical making (wooden cup making)
Job: Occupational therapist
Residence: Maarn
Test location: Nicanders house
Date: May 3, 2022

Were there any confusing moments?
= no, everything was free to do what you want to do with it. That was positive.

What did you think of the creative assignments in the paper?
= Surprising, I didn't expect that in a newspaper.

Did you find the creative assignments appropriate for your own age?
= If I understood art better, I would like it more. I have little time so wouldn't do it anytime soon. Also, the first assignment felt a bit for kids. Maybe something with folding better, 3D element is more mature.

What kind of creative assignments would you like to do yourself?
= If the card was already shaped I would send it out faster and like it. I would like to find Art routes in it. Local information: "if you are here please look at this". Facts, I missed too.

What do you think of the format? Would you rather see it bigger or smaller?
= is fine in the hand. A3 makes sense

What did you find positive about this experience?
= The card, you can do anything with it. What is unclear to me is what direction you want to go with the newspaper? What is your goal?

Which folding technique would you prefer to receive in your mailbox?
= Cutting became awkward with the rolled form. But must say there was otherwise a folding line on the creative assignments. So that would be inconvenient then too.

Which text sizes do you like best?
= Between the first and third. The text would be easier to read if there was a picture next to it. Now it is quickly intimidating.

What do you think of the paper types?
= Yes good, fine thick sketch paper. Invites you to be creative.

Do you have any other comments?
= What is the next step? I don't really understand how the creative tasks connect to abstract art?

Notes during testing
very abstract to abstract for Nicander, Doing it interactively!
Do get invited to be creative. ,Do crafts with all the kids? Is this too childish?
Does it get boring? He seems to get bored
Empty sheet invites you to draw on it.

Ideas after user testing
Nicander talked about the judo technique. It is a technique that therapists use when someone keeps talking negatively about things. With this technique you start talking very negatively/exaggeratedly with them. This sometimes results in people doing the opposite, "it's not that bad".

Can we also apply this technique to the newspaper? Can we talk excessively bad about the abstract art in Rotterdam so that people are voiced against it? Or can we let different opinions be heard? A picture of an artwork with a reaction from an art lover and an abstract art hater.

Furthermore, we can bring the content Nicander suggested back into the newspaper. Facts in the paper about the arts. An art tour. And actual articles about the art of Rotterdam, information.

Furthermore, I think it would be good to include simpler creative assignments in the newspaper. Things that people can tear out, send in immediately. Something that asks less of the people, like the postcards.

Ideas and notes during the usertest

On Kim her hotglue you can find
her user testing of week 1

Kimmy & Gabrielle class
9 May
>>

During our feedback talks this Monday we had time to see eachothers user testings. And to discuss our results with Kimmy. This is what came out!

User testing conclusions

- Users have need of content! We need to add articles or some kind of introduction for them to understand the purpose
- Change the cover. (So no abstract art on the cover!)
- Apply the "judo technique" told by user Nicander.
- How does it fit through the mailbox?
- More 3D creative DIY

Valuable feedback from Kimmy

- From the judo technique, try to maybe talk negative at the beginning of the newspaper and slowly change it towards the end.
- Try to focus on a more specific part of Rotterdam. Like a neighborhood newspaper. So you can talk about local things. Make it more small scale.
- Make a cover which attracts the user group.
- Add a introduction to the newspaper
- Design the newspaper

Inspiration from this:

- Maybe try to get inspiration from the "prive" gossip magazine. So the newspaper has the feeling of "gossiping about abstract art".

- Focus on one local neighborhood in Rotterdam so we can focus on the information found there and people feel more connected to it
- Design the newspaper so people feel more attracted to it
- Start with the newspaper with things the user group likes. (The “Judo technique” ) Be maybe sarcastic about the abstract art or show traditional art.
- Give information about a subtract art piece in the neighborhood. Write down opinions of haters and lovers
- Design sarcastic postcard, maybe also one version that is not designed so people can create themselves.
- Find users in Rotterdam

Feedback talk Belle
& Noemie class
10 May
>>

We chose to focus on the neighborhood Oud-Charlois. We are focussing on this neighborhood because it is a living area where a lot of abstract art is stationed. But there are also some traditional art forms to be found. This makes the contrast between the two bigger and makes it interesting to mention it in our newspaper.

To the right you can find the art that BKOR mentions on their website found in Oud-Charlois.

< Artist of Rotterdam origin

< Art school Rotterdam

< What the user group likes

Zonder titel, jaap Gidding,

Het gezin, Chris Elffers

Talenten, Henk de Vos

Zonder titel (1963)Ger van Iersel

< Art school Rotterdam

< Artist of Rotterdam origin

Ziek en genezen (2010)
Albert Kramer

< Artist of Rotterdam origin

< Piece made for Rotterdam

Zonder titel (1990)
Dick Postema

< Artist of Rotterdam origin

Liggend naakt (1994)
Jan de Graaf

< Art school Rotterdam

De schaduw van het beeld (1998)
Kamiel Verschuren

< Lives and works in Rotterdam

Vrouw II (1990)
Kees Buckens

De visser (2006)
Ger C. Bout

< Artist of Rotterdam origin

Obelisken (1989)
Jan van IJzendoorn

- To slowly introduce the user group to abstract art we picked 5 art-pieces that go from traditional art to abstract art. See the pictures to the right.
- Many of the artists are from Rotterdam origin or have a strong story connected to it. Based on the judo technique we are first going to talk very bad about the artwork. Think about screaming headlines saying it is ugly. But in small additional text we give slowly a positive sound about the artwork.

Tips, tricks & feedback
from Belle

- Select 5 artworks which you can make or write content about . (As shown before) This could also be a fake and/or absurt story!
- Users don’t need to be from the actual neighborhood Oud-Charlois. If they fit the user group for the biggest part it is enough.
- With the second prototype ask: "Is this attractive for you to open it?"
- Find local salon/ or places where people hang out and take time for activities and test your prototype there.
- If you have difficulties saying provoking lines about the abstract art pieces maybe ask the user group themselves. "Could you say mean things about this?"
- Rethink the medium of the newspaper. Are maybe the postcards already the core of your idea?

What is expected from us in the end presentation:
- Cover
- A few spreads
- Show what the concept is

Before the lessons we also worked on some ideas for the cover of the newspaper:

Noemie told us about a towel that has Rotterdam accent phrases on it. The way they write is a great inspiration scourse but also the site where they sell it: Rotterdam Warenhuis also speaks in the same "language", also a great inspiration scourse!

When searching for newspaper examples we got inspired with how the headlines displayed their different content. These sensational headlines reminded me of gossip magazines. And these gossip magazines reminded me of the "poezenkrant". Which also has great examples of newspaper designs.

Can we use their design elements for our newspaper design?

The provoking lines we want to use as headlines in the newspaper reminded us again of the Facebook group:

These memes were written by our user group. This is a good sign this language will speak to our user group. In our newspaper we want to use the same Rotterdam accent in writing.

In Noemie her class we discussed our user testing and idea with Come, Davina & Nikol.
This talk confirmed our expectation that the user would better like if the newspaper also talks bad about abstract art. Davina explained that all the Rotterdammers she knows get excited when you write in Rotterdam accent and it causes a chain reaction.

When we discussed the idea with Noemie she mentioned a mozaiek place in Schiedam where older woman work creatively together. This might be a good place to find our users.

Working day
11 May
>>

Maytal's class
12 May
>>

On this day we both worked individually on the cover and cards. Kim worked on making the typography inspired on the Rotterdam central station used on the building.

Very rough sketches for the cover and headlines ^

Digital design sketches and small alternations ^

Digital design sketches for cards and small alternations ^

Text lines for the explanation of the art ^
The information is based on real information found
on the BKOR website. But I rewrote it in a "Rotterdamse" way.

Ja tog, niet dan?
Maar lieve mensen er zit toch wel een verhaaltje achter deze kunst.
Het kunstwerk is gemaakt doormiddel van een oude en zeer moeilijke techniek genaamd cortenstaal. Door deze oude techniek te gebruiken hoopt deze knutselaar het verleden van Rotterdam uit te beelden. De moderne, niet zo geliefde vorm, duidt op de toekomst. Zo komt het verleden en toekomst van ons Rotterdam samen in een vorm.

Ja tog, niet dan?
Deze knutselaar heet Jan de Graaf en is een geboren en getogen Rotterdammer. Ook al lijkt het of dit mevrouwtje is uitgegleden in de badkamer heeft ie toch een andere betekenis. Liggend terwijl je in je nakie zit is namelijk al eeuwen lang ontzettend sexy. Dit is dus eigenlijk een erotisch beeldje.

Dus naar wie ga jij dit kaartie sturen?

In this class we presented our user testing to the class. We then got introduced to Adobe XD. I already got introduced to Adobe XD on my old education. So we worked on the cover again.

We also made our document ready to try out the RISO printer on our design.

Kimmy's Typography lesson & Riso print trials
13 May
>>

Rules of typography

Higher key = The order of how things are read. What do you want your readers so see first, second. Etc.
This is how you can change the hierarchy of the text. The traditional rule is to only use a maximum of 2 typefaces. But Kimmy tells you could also use more because it has a more playful appearance. It tells a way different story. Be aware of the typefaces you choose because it can change the appearance completely.

- Kerning The space between letters. Important to look at with big text in your design! And with free or cheap fonts the kerning is most of time worse. Also if you all use caps, the kurning needs extra attention because capital letters are designed to stand next to lower case letters and not next to lower case letters
- Tracking How kerning is applied on bigger lines of text.
- Line height Interlinie
- Specific typeface and font
- Positioning size
- Thickness
- Orientation
- Whitespace

Paragraph width/collums general rule
- 12 words a line or 40/50 characters per line
- Justify is where you space out the alinea so the edges form a straight line.

Newspapers are often justified. With justified you can paste more words to the text. This might be nice to apply to our own newspaper design.

Rule: the headlines needs to be twice as big or twice as small as the running text.

Ligatures:
Is where certain letters are merged together. Because if for example the IF are next to eachother it could happen that I collapses with the F, making it illegible.

Old style figures
In the running text the big numbers can take a lot of extra attention because they act like capitol letters.
But its a table you can use the bigger numbers so they stand out and are clear to read.

To the right you can find the notes
I made during class about the typography
rules/basics and some nice reference material
Kimmy showed us.

We then did an excersice where we had to change our design for the newspaper completly.

Composition 1: First task: Change the typography in your poster completly with the things we discussed earlier in class.

Composition 2: Second task: Use the typography from someone else in the class and use it in the poster. Try to get the same feeling.

Composition 3: Third task: Make a design and think again about the high key of the typography. Did you learn something from the other compositions?

With the reflection on these covers it was cool to see how my classmates (that don't speak dutch) Could guess what the content was about by looking at the design. Where the first and second composition could be used for an art contemporary museum. The original and the third was a more formal approach.

When explaining the user group to the class many classmates thought the last composition was most fitting. Kimmy pointed out that the high key is way clearer then the original one.

When asking Kimmy for feedback she suggested for the new cover design to maybe ad some creative or DIY elements to the poster. Like I experimented with in the first and second composition. In this way the formal serious newspaper tone can be combined with the playful character of DIY.

- Use the justified lining in the newspaper design as it is often used in actual newspapers.
- Add the playful elements of composition 1 and 2 to composition 3. So the seriousness of the newspaper and the play fullness of DIY can be combined.
- Newspaper club place to print your newspapers!

After class we went to the printstation to try out RISO on the newspaper!

We tried two kinds of paper. Thin, newspaper paper and somewhat ticker sketching paper like our first prototype.

The thin newspaper paper was difficult to print. But we managed to print some. But if we want to pursue this we would like to do it by the newspaper club. For the cards we want to use thick paper, maybe even coated in the future so it can be send.

We very much like the duo color tone the RISO gave to our designs. It gives the feeling of a cheap print because only two colors are used.

We also printed in full color. Because it is in full color it does display the art better.

To make a choice I think we can ask our user group. See what they prefer.

After some brainstorming with Kim we want to prepare the following things for our user tests during the DD week!

- Make art rout map (from our last user tests we noticed there was some need to local information)
- Ad two new creative DIY in the newspaper
- Ad an introduction
- Ad an information article
- Make pictures from art so that they are of high resolution
- If we have time, change the cover

14 May - 22 may
DD WEEK
>>

During this week the nature event Dark Sky at Texel started which I organized the past 4 months. For this event I learned how to organize and plan. Thereby I designed banners, patches, social media posts and posters for this event.

Curious? You can check this link for more information: https://www.ivn.nl/jongivn/naturebits/activiteiten/nature-bit-dark-sky-texel

To the right you can find some new designs for the content inside the newspaper.

Design for a DIYS piece. But when rethinking about it we decided that this doesn't ad anything to the magazine as it can be considered to childish.

Some attempts to make the cover I made during Kimmy's class more playfull and DIY. So the cover reflects more about the inside of the newspaper.

Art route in Art-Charloit

Kim and I met up at Wednsday to print the design and merge our work.
In this video you can see how we presented our prototype to the users:

We chose to include the art-route map inside the newspaper as a booklet as we think the users would like to bring this seperately with them when going on the walk.

Things we wanted to test with this user testing:

- What did the users think about the design of the newspaper?
- How did the users like the tone of voice (that the newspaper makes fun of art)
- How do the users like the creative elements inside the newspaper?
- What do the users think about the new information added?
- What did the users think about the two print techniques RISO and Full color?
- What do the users think about the paper used inside the interface?
- Did the users annoy themselves less about the abstract art seen in the newspaper after reading the text?
- What do the users think first when they see the art?

User testing - Dirk
(Paste link)

Questions after user testing:

Waren er verwarrende momenten?
= Ik vond onduidelijk wat de bedoeling was bij de eerste pagina met die zwart wit tekening. Is het een zoekplaatje, puzzel of kleurplaat?

Wat vond je van de inhoud van de krant?
= leukste stuk inhoudelijke informatie over de kunst. Wat de geschiedenis enzo is. Maar ik zou niet naar de wijk zelf gaan nu. Ben nooit in een museum geweest. Dus ben daar niet echt geïnteresseerd in.

Wat voor soort inhoud zou je terug willen zien in zo’n krant?
= Verder borduren op algemene informatie over de kunst. (Later toen ik hierover doorvroeg) Ik zou het leuk vinden om de ambacht erachter te weten. Hoe komt zo’n kunstwerk nou tot stand? Het talent van de kunstenaar vind ik het interessants.

Wat vond je van de toon van de tekst in de krant?
= Goeie tekst, kort en bondig. Wel viel het niet echt op dat de tekst een Rotterdams accent zou moeten hebben.

Zou je deze krant zelf oppakken?
= Ja ik zou hem openen. Maar er gaat hier niks de deur uit voordat ik erin gekeken heb. Afbeelding die er al in staat verwacht ik ook genoemd te worden in de krant zelf als onderwerp.

Wat vond je van de creatieve opdrachten in de krant?
= Ja zou het zelf niet doen. Wat wel opviel Dirk vond het beeld van de naakte vrouw niet abstract. “Iemand heeft daar veel moeite in gestopt”. Dat vind ik interessant. Hoe heeft iemand dit kunstwerk gemaakt?

Wat voor soort creatieve opdrachten zou je zelf willen doen?
= pff nee

Wat vond je positief aan deze ervaring?
= het stukje tekst over de kunstroute.

Welke vouwtechniek zou je het fijnst vinden om in je brievenbus te ontvangen?
= Dirk haalt zijn schouders op.

Wat vind je van de papiersoorten en print techniek?
= Dirk vond Riso wel wat hebben. Geeft wel een kranten gevoel en het groen springt eruit. Dirk vond het dunste papier het beste passen: “Je leest en je gooit hem weg. Financieel gezien dunner papier pakken toch?! Wordt toch weggegooid.”

Heb je nog andere opmerkingen?
= Behoefte aan betere foto’s.

User testing - Tineke
Together with Dirk
https://youtu.be/y7XAnTYmqKw

Questions after user testing:

Waren er verwarrende momenten?
= Nee niet echt, of nouja dat begin die tekening was raar.

Wat vond je van de inhoud van de krant?
= Ik vond de inhoud een beetje mwa. Wat ik wel leuk vond was de tekst op de voorkant. (Ik zag ook dat Tineke moest grinniken en de meeste lol had toen ze “gemene” opmerkingen maakte over de kunstwerken).

Wat voor soort inhoud zou je terug willen zien in zo’n krant?
= (Later toen ik doorvroeg toen de camera uit was) Ik zou het best leuk vinden om meer van dit soort meningen te lezen, die kritiek hebben op de kunst. Misschien zelfs met een reactie van een liefhebber eronder.

Wat vond je van de toon van de tekst in de krant?
= Ja goed. (Ook Tineke viel het niet op dat er Rotterdams accent in de tekst zat)

Zou je deze krant zelf oppakken?
= Ja ik zou hem openen. De ronde Amerikaanse vorm en de cover triggered heel erg om te openen. Ik zou nieuwsgierig worden over wat er dan allemaal in staat.

Wat vond je van de creatieve opdrachten in de krant?
= Niet echt. Ik zou geen enkel van de opdrachten doen. Dat kaartje misschien.

Wat voor soort creatieve opdrachten zou je zelf willen doen?
= Ja geen idee.

Wat vond je positief aan deze ervaring?
= De cover met “dat kan mijn buurmeisje ook”.

Welke vouwtechniek zou je het fijnst vinden om in je brievenbus te ontvangen?
= Fantastisch, het triggered om open te maken.

Wat vind je van de papiersoorten en de print techniek?
= Ik vind full color fijner. Zie je tenminste beter wat de afbeelding voor moet stellen. Ook het dikke papier is fijn. Ligt veel beter in de hand.

Heb je nog andere opmerkingen?
= (Tineke ging steeds heel dichtbij met haar ogen om de foto’s te kunnen zien) Dus behoefte aan betere foto’s.

Reactions of Dirk & Tineke on the art pictures found in Rotterdam.

Notes during user testing:

Reacties cover
Ja knikkend geluid
Lachen
Niks mee
Kinder speeltuin,
Ik heb er niks mee, verwarrend toch wel.
Zijn er wel mee eens dat het niet hun smaak is.

Reacties introductie
Wenkbrauwen optrekken naar de tekening
Langzaam, niet veel zin om te tekenen.
"Rotterdam is toch meer beton” De eerste anti Rotterdam opmerking waaruit blijkt dat het geen echte rotterdammers zijn.
Puzzel? Ze deken dat het een puzzel is, ontcijferen
Dirk wacht op bevestiging dat hij door kan bladeren.
NIET leuk!

Kunstroute
Geconcentreerder lezen bij kunstroute
Reactie moeilijker te pijlen
Foto moeilijker van zeemeerminnen.

Reacties kaarten
Kunstwerk van vrouw mooier!
Zouden kaartje niet opsturen
Lezen tekst op de achterkant niet!

(after testing and camera was turned of, they then got more comfortable ) Brainstorming & discussions

Ik zal nooit overgehaald kunnen worden om abstracte kunst iets mooier te vinden zegt Tineke. Dirk een beetje, als er echt vakmanschap achter zit kan ik het misschien iets beter pruimen.
Als Dirk dat zegt ontstaat er een discussie. “ER zit wel vakmanschap in” Zegt Dirk het kan nog steeds Verfijnde kunst zijn. Tineke is niet overtuigd “als ze zulke vakmanschap hebben waarom maken ze dan niet iets moois?”

Ideeën brainstorm samen met Tineke & Dirk
Misschien twee plaatjes naast elkaar plaatsen met als vraag: Vind u dit beide kunst? Of allebei niet.
Verschillende meningen van mensen horen in de krant is leuk. Weer wat meer inhoudelijke informatie.

Ik dacht aan het memory spel Fake or real. Waar twee plaatjes te zien zijn die op elkaar lijken terwijl er een gemaakt is door AI en de andere bijvoorbeeld een echt mens is. Wat als we hier ook een versie van maken: is het wel of niet kunst? Als voorbeeld een Karel appel schilderij tegenover een tekening van een kind.

Tips & Tricks from Kimmy

- We have to let go of the "creative element" in the newspaper. So no coloring or DIY elements. The only creative things we can keep are the easy ones. Like the postcards
- More negative opinions about art!
- A little information about positive information about abstract art.
- User testing idea: two pictures. One is from a famous artist the other from a kid but they are visually alike.
- We need to test with people from Rotterdam. As our current testers do not feel connected with the city or the neighborhood.
- Better pictures (right now they are of low quality)
- Smaller running text

In this third prototype we did not yet change the typography of the buttons. We want to see how the user group reacts to it.

The first time Kim and I could talk through our progress we did during the DD-Week was with Kimmy's consulting hours. Kim made some high quality photo's during the DD-week which we could use in the newspaper. And she walked the art-route. By Walking this route she discovered some things in the route that could better be removed or added to. For example the art work "het vervoer" at the RET head stations was barely visible from the street. And when you walked in the park of Karel de Stoute you encountered some other art pieces we did not include yet. Therefore Kim made some fun pictures of the artwork how it was used in real life. For example art piece "het gezin" was used as bike standard & on "liggend naakt" there were tons of flies and on the statue there was drawn on by other people.

After sharing our progress with Kimmy these were some tips from Kimmy we could work on:

- The childlike typography at the front would be fun if that returned in the rest of the design.
- Maybe much more details at the top of the page. Like newspapers have. They always have this banner.
- Introduce the cover style to the other pages. Now the other pages feel a bit “loose” from the cover design.
- More space between the collum’s and less thicker collum’s now there is to much words on one sentence.

Kunstroute
- Change the art route a little bit

Nieuw “Poster idee met beelden. Karel Appel vs kindertekening, rara wat is kunst”
- Karel Appel vs kinder plakwerk

Nieuw “Critics & Experts”
- 2 meningen van abstracte kunsthaters
- 1 mening van kunstexpert

Visueel
- Visuele van de voorkant meer doorvoeren naar de rest van het ontwerp
- “Buurmeisje typo”
- Groene streep voorkant
- Schets streep voorkant onder ook
- Button doorvoeren
- Hoofd font van voorkant naar kleine tussenkopjes informatief
- Meer ruimte tussen collum
- Kleinere collum (minder breed)
- Banner aan bovenkant met grapjes erin en content erin , datum, nummer

To do list after feedback

"guess.. which one is considered art?"

Answers. Three are from actual artists and the other 3 are from kids.

After some quick testing with my mom I changed the lay-out so the purpose of this creative page would be more clear.

Feedback talk with Kimmy & Maytal

After explaining our progress and showing our design we had some valuable feedback.

- Maybe reconsider the size of the newspaper. Now it feels like you don't have enough information to fill up the A3 page.
- Reconsider the folding. Is rolling up fitting? or can you better fold the newspaper?
- You need smaller typography!
- Reconsider the typography in the buttons of the design.

Especially the change of the folding & the resizing of the newspaper required some big changes in the design.
We agreed with the feedback because we also felt something felt akward when you openend the newspaper.

When trying to figure out the order of pages now we have a booklet form Kim had the idea to make a test booklet.

After some puzzeling we had found our new layout. Now everything had to be converted into A4 format and change the design into a more newspaper feeling.

New attempt of design for information pages. Attempt of a more newspaper feeling by adding the banner with information on top. The typography and lines from the cover re-accure on the information page. Just like the childlike typography.

In the printed version we tape little
cards of the actual paintings on top
of the green squares so they hide the
answer.

The typography is now 12 points. Alot smaller then first. We still wanted to that the running text stayed slightly to big then the rules. Because our user-group has most of the time more worst eyes.

When printing this prototype we thought it was important that because of the smaller size the paper had to be that of newspaper quality. Except for the cards, those needed to be of sturdy paper.

Different collum's for different content. Now with 0,5 space between the collum's.

With new high resolution pictures. Except for the cover :(
Because I forgot.

https://youtu.be/sjIIroL5lfI

To user test this prototype we went to the neighborhood Oud-Charlois. Where the art in the newspaper is actually from! In the hope that people felt more connected to the prototype we give to them.

Tarik goes through it calmly. He was eager to give his opinion. He takes the time to read everything. Once the official test was over, he seemed to relax more. People don't like the official questionnaire after the test maybe we should apply it less in the next user testings. Tarik has dreams of moving to America in the future. First in the form of a gap year. He doesn't like the city, the crime that reigns in it and the crowds. He much prefers the warmth and atmosphere of America. This makes him a citizen of oud-charlois but not a proud one.

Trying to find users

May 27 we went to oud-Charlois in the hope that on this day were most people were free people would have time to test our prototype. Our introduction went something like this:

Hello! We are two students from WdKA art school and we are making a newspaper about the art found in Oud-Charloit. Would you like to see the newspaper and give your honest opinion about it to help us?

We mainly looked in parks where people were walking their dog, or tried to find our users close to flats for elderly people. Although some people were willing most people answered with "Sorry girls I would have loved to help but I didn't bring my glasses".

Our first user was Tarik. Tarik was playing football on the football field in the neighborhood. Although he looked younger that our estimated age of our user-group we still asked him because we wanted to test if we might have been wrong with the age estimation.

Tarik didn't want to be filmed or photographed. But to get an impression of how it was like you can look at the picture.

Things we wanted to test this
user testing (the first point was the main point):

- Do people from oud-charlois felt connected with the newspaper because it was about their neighborhood?
- What did the users think about the design of the newspaper?
- How did the users like the tone of voice (that the newspaper makes fun of art)
- What do the users think about the paper used inside the interface?
- What did people think of the size?

Waren er verwarrende momenten?
= Geen verwarring. Het raadspel was het leukst. Maar bij het raadspel dacht hij wel dat er maar een paar goed waren.

Wat vond je van de toon van de tekst in de krant?
= Wel prima, wel vond ik het grof naar de persoon die het abstracte kunstwerk maakte. Verschillende meningen door elkaar heen maakte me in de war.

Zou je deze krant zelf oppakken?
= Nee ik ben geen lezer. Maar misschien wel als ik in kunst geïnteresseerd zou zijn.

Wat vond je positief aan deze ervaring?
= Proces van de kunst. Vond interessant om te lezen hoe de kunst gemaakt is en hoe het tot stand is gekomen.

Wat vind je van de papiersoorten?
= gewoon best. Wel zou ik het nieten! Het waaide steeds weg en ik had moeite met alles bij elkaar houden.

Hoe vind je de krant eruit zien?
= Leuk gemaakt. Ja tog?

Tarik was honest but he wasn't our user group because he was neutral in his position in art and he didn't read in his free time. This seemed the answer with most younger people we approached (18/25). Kim had the same experience when she approached her colleagues
from Oud-Charlois. This confirmed that our user group was more in the older age (40/80)

Second user, sadly name unknown. Because of our previous user test we tried to have a more of a conversation with the user. So it felt less formal and more relaxed.

This hard-rock fan has lived in this neighborhood for quite some time. He likes to listen to music very much, from hard-rock to Bach. When asked if he likes abstract art, he said yes. He believes that everyone should do their own thing. “People are art too”. He found the artwork on the front of our newspaper very vague and not beautiful, which made it our target audience. He envisions the work of Herman Brood in abstract art. Which told us that maybe he likes abstract art more because it has a connection to something he has a huge passion for, music.

With this man we quickly noticed that a questionnaire did not work very well. He went through the newspaper without actually reading it but scanned the pictures more. The game at the end of the paper gave him the most enthusiastic response. A smile and head-shaking laughter. Despite the fact that he did what the "assignment" was, he did not understand from the design that there were 3 works of art and 3 children works.

The man was enthusiastic because he also used to work for a newspaper printing company, so he really appreciated our design. In fact, he was so excited that he took the newspaper home with him. And I'd rather not give it back ;).

We continued our search for more user testers. We walked to the park where most art of our newspaper was actually stationed. There we found our last user tester while feeding the pigeons in the park...

This pigeon lady is a real Charloise born and raised here in the district. Now that she is retired she walks every day with her husband in the park where we met her. She has a grandchild that she likes to spend time with. She has seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood, she says herself while talking about what the park looked like in the past. She is active in expressing her views on the neighborhood. For example, we've heard a whole story about how there should be more play areas in the park where we were. And how scooters and cars make the streets unsafe at night.

"I wish I had more of these types of magazines! Yes ladies, sorry can't make more of it" She said when we asked for her opinion. "Just think it's nicely done, ja toch? niet dan?" Kim did notice that the papers were quickly blown away and she had trouble holding the newspaper together. That's why we have to put staples in it.

Conclusions user testing

- People feel connected to the newspaper :)
- People liked the design as it felt like a newspaper and had the colors from their city and images that they recognized from their own neighborhood.
- The newspaper flew away or people had difficulties holding it together. We must ad staples to the design to make it more friendly.
- Our user-groups age is approx 40/80 years old.
- We need to change the "rara wat is kunst" layout to make it more clear how many artworks are fake or real.