Brief: Design a planner for a Children's author
Time Limit: 20mins (Brainstorm - 5mins, Sketch - 5mins & Mock-up - 10mins)
Brainstorming: I decided not to go for the usual calendar planner, as the brief was open for interpretation I chose to design a planner to cater the niche need of children's author who are commissioned to write a book, so it would involve a more structured approach to writing than a creative flow without direction. Taking inspiration from mood boards with artifacts used in a design workflow, I wanted to make a planner that would help authors to stay focused and helps them stay on track without cognitive overloading by externalizing the story framework. This would help them use their mental attention capacity in writing.
Sketching: I researched blogs looking for tips on writing a children's book and sketched most useful tips into easily understandable solutions which could be incorporated in a single form.
Final Mock-up
The final solutions were chunked into four sections each focusing on a different aspect of the story framework.
Top-left section: Choose a market will help understand the basic needs and limitations of a particular target audience.
Top-right section: Gives a sense of motivation and place to write the story title & tag line
Mid-section: Helps create character and context for protagonist and antagonist by answering 5 simple questions.
Bottom section: Inspired by a pyramid concept for creating story outlines, requires the theme>story>plot to be written.
By doing this author's will no longer need to remember to remind themselves of the key aspects of the story like character, premises or limitations during ideation of the story.
Mock-up in authors work context (below).
