Juvenis is an interactive experience that explores young adult male identity issues in today’s society. From research the team decided on two focal areas; coming out and moving out. The intention of focusing on both is due to the importance of both and based on research, issues that young adult males do not often talk about. Juvenis is driven by a point ‘n click interface, where the user can click objects to access relative information and inner thoughts of the two characters.
The story is about two male students who move to Dundalk to study in DKIT; Ben who is excited with his new independent life and has expectations of constant parties and fun, and Ryan, who has troubles dealing with his sexuality. Through this, the characters will interact with one another and find out situations that will affect their day to day lives, and find information that may explore or tackle issues they are facing. This will be explored in a period of five virtual “days”, were dialogue and content will be different.
My role in the group was head designer. I worked on the logo, branding and interactive interface.
The project was featured at the Fis Exhibition in Dundalk Institute of Technology, an end-of-year exhibtion held for 3rd and 4th year Creative Media and Video and Film students.
Given that the project focuses on two social issues, I found it was important that that posters appealed to both sets of people. With that in mind, two designs were made focusing on each character in the interactive film. The characters take up the majority of the posters to help express the importance of them in the interactive film. Labels were also placed on each person to tell the viewer about their identity issue. This was done to avoid any confusion about what each character is going through, as the group wants the users to identify with each character upon viewing.
As part of the project, an academic poster was needed to show off the research the group did over the course of t the year, and the findings we obtained throughot.
The academic poster needed to feature all of the relevant information of the research, and needed to follow the same visual style as everything else featured in the project.
To help demonstrate the research the group gathered over the course of the year, posters were displayed on the group’s booth during the exhibition. The posters consisted of quotes and information obtained from our participants during the focus groups and vox pop interviews. The reasoning for this was to enlighten people on the difficulties many have grown through while coming out and moving away from home.
I felt it was important to keep the posters simple and let the quotes and information be the only focus point of the posters.
The main design approach was originally influenced by the current trend of UI design. I looked at different informative apps, websites, and interactive videos with a flat, sleek design, and noticed how effective this design approach is for attracting people and keeping information clear.
The idea was to implement this style into the interactive part of the video. In the early stages of development, designs were made for the different aspects of the video, such as clickable objects on
screen in between scenes.
Elements of the interface gradually changed once the group received feedback, with the main advice being that we should move away from the flat design and move onto something that stands out more to the user.
Looking at more contemporary design styles and layouts, the interface changed to include a glass-like effect. The reasoning for this was to display the information more clearly, and also give the interface a more unique look.
To give the interactive interface a balanced style, we combined some of the labels we originally designed, such as the labels for each interactive element.
The video interactive features two sets of buttons - one for hearing inner monolougues within the chaacters heads, and one for displaying information and help on moving out and coming out.
I went through many steps to try and get the best looking buttons for the video interactive. I wanted the buttons to stand out, but not to the point where they become a distraction to viewers who do no wish to click them. I wanted them to be similar in style, but not enough that users would be unable to differentiate them. I also wanted them to communicate their purpose straight away to the user.
Initially I went with red buttons to both go along with the projects colour scheme, and also to stand out to the user. However, upon receving feedback, I learned they were too distracting and looked out of place on a film.
I eliminated the colours and went for plain white. I then looked to find a way of communicating the purpose of the inner momolouge button. One idea was to feature audio levels to insinuate that the characters had inner thoughts, but felt that it didn't fully communicate that the thoughts were coming from inside their head. With that, I decided to insert a cloud, which I felt did a better job of displaying the buttons purpose.
From there, I looked to design the information and help button in the same style. I felt that the letter 'i' is a near universal sign for information, and felt that it worked best. To further distance it from the other button, then, I decided to add a glassy effect to the button. The purpose for this is because the blocks of information and help that the button leads into has an overall glassy effect (as seen above), and felt that adding that style to the button would keep it consistant.
My two final button designs.
Below is an example of the buttons on screen. The lables above the buttons appear once the user rolls over the buttons, and help them see what exactly they are clicking on.
