User Testing

To test my Concept Idea I first of all gathered three parents from my neighbourhood. There were two mothers and one father. I presented my idea to the group and asked for their opinion and thoughts wether they would or wouldn't purchase the cookbook.

From this discussing I was able to gather positive and negative feedbac

Amina - "I do indeed admire the appearance of the book. It does grab the readers. However, am not to keen on layout of the recipe. It is clear and the instructions are easy to follow but maybe you need consider a sticker page or some kind of reward system towards the end of each recipe"

Zedd - "The design of the book is certainly colourful for a world war 1 cook book and that is a good thing. As you may have come across during your research that most world war 1 books contain a lot of greens and browns. It is nice to see something vibrant and encouraging children to get involved and find out the key facts of the relationship between world war 1 and children activity. I would buy the book for my son"

Fatima - "The avatars on the front cover of the book are so adorable. It looks fun and it is informative and am sure my kids will be attracted to the book. Yet, I do agree with Amina on the fact that you may need to add something to the book to make sure that the child is gaining something other than solid facts."

Once this discussion was over I was able to convince Fatima to put my book to test. She downloaded the front cover and the other pages of the book on to her iPad and printing a copy of the word search. Fatima  had an attempt at creating one of the recipes with her 6 year old daughter.

Fatima reported - "We did really enjoy creating the eggless sponge and it was interesting to see how my daughter used her sticky fingers to follow the arrows while reading out the steps. Lailah was fascinated by the avatar in the left corner and often questioned why the little girl does not move. So it might be a good idea to make the avatar come alive by adding sound and movement, if it is an ebook.  While the cake was in the oven Lailah and her brother completed the word search within 20-30 mins since, she currently into solving puzzles and competing against her older brother. Overall the eggless sponge seems to have work and taste good. Lailah, was interested in book and she did ask if we could cook the bread and jam pudding. The book does work my only criticism is that you need to think about adding more features within the book."

I am grateful that Amina, Zedd and Fatima were kind enough to participate in the process of User Testing. From the results of user testing the issue that was commonly raised was the fact that the appearance of the cookbook is great and it works, However, the parents did stress about they fact that there is no added feature.

Since it is now too late to make any changes to the design of the book. Yet, I do have an idea that will meet the demands of the children and parents. If I had time I would certainly add a sticker page. the stickers would have been design in the form of a medal and congratulat the read as he or she achieve to cook a certain recipe.

Finals

Draft recipe pages

EGGLESS SPONGE

Draft no.1

Draft no.2

 Draft No.3

 Draft No.4

Looking through my draft pieces you will be able too see that it was difficult trying to figure out the layout of the page. Since there are ten different diagrams that had to be edited individually and the layout of the text had to be carefully placed to go along with each diagram.

Bread and Jam Pudding

Draft no.1

Draft no.2

Draft no.3

Here you can see that I took my time with laying out each diagram and making the crucial decision what is necessary to keep and what to get rid of. the Typography with both recipes have not yet been finalised. By adding colour and arrows to diagram it seems to add another dimension which is working well.  Since, both of the recipes were too flat

Drafts front and back cover

Avatars

My first draft created on cover photoshop but it is not look complete yet. however this is the layout that seems to be working for the book right now

Blurb

Cook For Victory

A rare collection of recipes from the Word War 1.

Discover, Experience and Taste the creativity behind the food that was produced. Since, there was a limited amount of food during World War 1. Throughout the years of the war, Women and the Children of United Kingdom had to live without the luxury of Eggs and Meat. Potatoes and Bread were primary food as they were easy to access.

So, lets find out what can be done with Potatoes and Bread.

Generating Ideas

Generating Ideas 

To generate ideas I firstly brainstormed and scribbled my thoughts down. One of the issues that was raised within the brainstorm was who is my target audience. Since, Prof. Maggie Andrews left the age range for us individuals to decide. This was an important decision to make before I began to create thumbnails.  Hence, why I spent alot of discovering different forms of children cook book. 

refer to to my sketches 

Draft Learning Report

Learning Report: GDES3004 Children Book Design

Introduction

In this piece writing I will be discussing the knowledge and skills I have gained throughout the module GDES3004 Children Book Design. The purpose of the module is to consider the vital elements that go towards the production of creating Children Books. The module is designed specifically to teach us the techniques used within Children Book Design industry. Also, studying the significance of imagery, creative writing and typography to this particular genre. This module encourages individuals to use and take advantage of our existing skills, which we have been taught in previous modules. The module gives students an insight of history as well as other aspects of Children Book Design.

Lecturers and Tutorials

From the day of introduction of the module we have been bombarded with different forms of children books ranging from newborns to young adults books. Every book that we came across during the sessions we were consistently requested to analyse the art style, typography and question how the book is appropriate for the targeted audience. By taking part in these sessions I was able to understand how imagery, front and narrative of a book works as a whole.

Watching the TV programme "When We Were Very Young" by BBC remminded of my childhood. One of my all time favourite books was "Were going on a Bear Hunt" written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxbury. The imagery within this book is fantastic as and narrative works so well together. The book has all the elements of a good story which is demonstrated through the the amount of danger an ordinary family goes through to search for a Bear. The book is exciting as it contains an adventure and solutions to every problem they face. The programme discussed "The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Noddy and other classic children's book.

This programme benefited me when it came to the Major Brief. Since, it allowed me think from a childs perspective. During the sessions, we covered the benefits of added features, coloring and activity books. All the notes that I  had gathered form the sessions came to use when the Major Brief was released.

Major Brief

The Major Brief...

Generating Ideas 

To generate ideas I firstly brainstormed. I managed to gather several concepts ideas

Conclusion 

Conclusion