DAY 1: 001 Visit to LIFESHARE/MDC

Today we listened to LIFESHARE's Zara Bobat share her experience of what the Manchester Digital Collective does for the digitally-excluded. Ranging from SIM-card provision to digital drop-off centres and free WIFI hotspots, the charity provides a vital lifeline to those experiencing digital poverty, or simply wishing to begin their online skill-sets...

DAY 1: 002 Visit to LIFESHARE/MDC

With so much of daily life now being conducted online (from Doctor's appointments, to job interviews and banking), we learnt just how vital MDC's work is - and how wide-ranging the proposed digital map and non-digital campaign can be.

DAY 2: 004 Practical Charette of Themes/Graphical Styles

Today saw the undergraduates create profiles of themselves using the distinctive LIFESHARE/MDC colour-scheme in order to have a better practical understanding of what was required from the interactive map and physical posters/infographics. Postgraduates helped teach students how to use software such as Procreate, or Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.

DAY 2 : 005 Poster Design Ideas and Collective Research

After exploring LIFESHARE/MDC's website, and cross-referencing their findings with the information given by the Client; work began on initial poster designs. Undergraduates were encouraged to identify what themes and information could be conveyed from a poster successfully, and what graphical techniques could be utilised to do so. After a quick display of the posters, students divided into groups based on creating the interactive map or creating infographics/posters.

DAY 003: 001 Initial Concept and Design Work

The groups engaged in creating preliminary designs for the posters and the interactive map.

Posters were created in a variety of maquette-styles; ranging from heavily infographic designs to heavily informational presentation-styles. Students also learnt new software skills on InDesign and Photoshop. The interactive map team started to learn Figma as a software; and began planning how to produce a user-interface that married clear iconography and legible information.

At the end of the day, a brief informal review between the teams led to discussion of future ideas and plans - and preparation for the days ahead.

DAY 6: 001 Poster Design Finalisations

Today the undergraduates proceeded with their poster designs and helped standardise them according to the Client's graphical guidelines. They also edited their designs to better communicate the relevant information, and finalised the posters ready for printing.

The mapping team also made progress with the interactive map; finding precedents for graphical styles linked to the posters, and also rationalising the map structure.

DAY 007: 001 Poster Printing and Social Media Work

Today saw the posters that will be used in the physical campaign tidied up, finished, and printed! In order to better collaborate with LifeShare/MDC's varied social media strategy; our poster team focused on converting their posters into Instagram tiles - experimenting with fracturing and highlighting particular elements.

The interactive map team also made progress by focusing on creating landmark graphics/icons, and working on the hover-callouts for the technology drop-off and pick-up centres - as well as strategizing how to improve the website interface and how to integrate it with LifeShare's colour and graphic schemes.

DAY 009: 001 Physical Campaign

Today we utilised our posters to raise awareness to the work that LifeShare and MDC do. Posters produced by the undergraduates highlight services provided by the charities such as sleeping provision, food services, and their activities tackling digital exclusion.