Monday, February 9, 2009

Critiques: A First Look

Critique #1

Domestic Violence Referral Brochure

1. Statement of the Problem

            The San Francisco Shelter, La Casa De Las Madres, uses Referral sheets that are complex to clients, preventing women from searching for resources that can improve their life skills.

2. Procedure

            The researcher used a variety of methods to collect data. Methods included interviews, surveys, and research through the Internet, books, and articles. Although the methodology worked great for this project, I believe that the researcher could have structured the statements for the methodology a lot stronger. Interviews from the staff and volunteers worked well in this report. It would have been great to also get interviews from clients to see exactly what they needed from the shelter’s brochures because interviews often offer a better understanding of what clients often look for and need when they utilize the brochure. Though, the questionnaire helped gather topics that could help a greater range of clients.

3. Hypothesis

            The hypothesis was clearly formulated with the client in mind; it was made for easy utilization for the user. It is not clear how the hypothesis was tested, but the researcher created a brochure for clients through feedback from the organization and through literary research.

4. Major Findings

            Chapter 3 restated the introduction, problem, and purpose. It also introduced topics such as the parameters of the design, its cost, and summary. The brochures were created from the collected research. Though, I researcher did not follow up to see if the new brochure had in fact proved to be more useful than the one before.

5. Conclusions

            The researcher summed up the fact that a cleaner, easier to understand brochure was created, though there was no follow up research on the new brochures.

6.  Appendix Materials

            Appendix was cleanly organized; yet some materials are hard to read. The materials related to the study and were necessary to understand what the researcher was trying create.

7. Overall Critique

            What I liked about this report was that it was very clear. It was straight to the point and it did not go off topic. It was easy to understand that the researcher saw a problem that an easy-to-understand and navigate brochure needed to be made. Through the researcher’s data collected a well informative brochure was made, though I believe that the design could have been pushed a bit further. I believe there was more work to be done after the brochure was created. I wouldn’t refer this report to other students.

 

Critique #2

Graduate Design Programs In The Bay Area

1. Statement of the Problem

            Visual Communication students apply for gradate school programs in the Bay Area need a resource that provides timely information.

2. Procedure

            The researcher used a variety of methods to collect data such as surveys, interviews, Internet and literary research. The surveys were a great tool for the researcher because they are the focus of this study.

3. Hypothesis

            The researcher stated that a resource educating students about graduate school opportunities in Visual Communications was needed.

4. Major Findings

            Chapter 3 restated the introduction, problem, and purpose. It also introduced topics such as the data collection, data analysis, parameters of the design, its cost, importance of research questions and summary. This report is more detailed and its charts and graphs help show a better analysis of the data collected. Students had an in adequate range of information they needed for understanding their opportunities.

5. Conclusions

            The researcher concluded that although students plan to take graduate courses, they have timely and informative data on graduate courses for Visual Communications. The researcher thus proposes a set of recommendations for both the graduate schools and for students.

6.  Appendix Materials

            Appendix was cleanly organized and materials were appropriate for understanding study.

7. Overall Critique

            I liked this report, though I believe that the researcher could have came up with more recommendations or a better plan of action for students to follow. I would recommend this so other students could look that the research done on the different schools.  I just wish there were more schools reviewed for this project.

 

Critique #3

Making Letters for the World: A Study in Philanthropic Type Design

1. Statement of the Problem

            There is a lack of high quality Transitional Slab Serif typefaces in Open Type Format with a comprehensive website and specimen book available online under a free Creative Common License.

2. Procedure

            The researcher reviewed various types of literature for data collection.

3. Hypothesis

            I couldn’t clearly find a hypothesis.

4. Major Findings

            Researcher came up with three different solutions to the problem. The Researcher focused on the typeface, the specimen book, and the website. The three solutions were similar, but each had differences concerning the anatomy of the type.

5. Conclusions

            The researcher concludes with choosing one of the three solutions. The researcher avoided “unnecessary embellishments” thus creating a clean typeface with strong strokes and serifs.

6.  Appendix Materials

            Appendix was good; it offered a cd and specimen book about the OpenType Font.

7. Overall Critique

            This report went into a lot of detail within the literary review. I believe this was a huge part in the research, because it helped support design decisions for the type, specimen book, and website. I would recommend this report for student reading. 

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