Interconnection

Interconnection: The Little Prince + Good Will Hunting

The ability to create an organized structure for written and visual content is a complex design challenge—and more successful when room is allowed for theme and variation to continuously engage the reader while allowing for individualized interpretation based on editorial content.

This is an online multiple-page publication of the article “On the True Essence of Man: An Analysis of The Little Prince” by Miftah Amir (2020) that is complemented by a second supportive monologue,“Your Move Chief”, from Good Will Hunting (1997). This publication explores the complexity of relationships and the journey to self discovery.

Role

Visual Designer
Illustrator
Photo Editor
Art Director

team

Me (Solo Project)

time

1 Month

tools

Figma
Procreate
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign

Prototype

Style Guide

Color Palette

Iconography

Typography

Research

Since both my texts take place during the com- ing-of-age time point of one’s life, I wanted my prototype to emulate a vintage children’s book. Therefore, most of my references and inspirations are from books, posters, and typefaces used in the 1900s. While looking at works from the 1900s, I found myself looking for a more timeless design. This indirectly influences me in leaning towards a direction where my prototype has both the quality of a vintage book and the timelessness that the messages of my texts hold.

Discovery

I spent the most time in the exploration stage. Since then, my two texts only connect with one another during the last instance. It took a lot of work to develop ideas on how the texts would interact with one another while also keeping both texts readable. Another issue I ran into was the web flow. I struggled with creating a web flow that was interactive and engaging with the text without feeling static after a few scrolls. Through an extensive discovery process and feedback from my peers and professors, I was about to generate successful outcomes. It gave me ideas on how to move forward with my project while also knowing what does not work.

Text Interaction & Design Exploration

Primary Text Storyboard  and Sketches

Text Interaction & Design Exploration

Primary Text Storyboard  and Sketches

navigation and user flow exploration

Refinement

I based most of my refinements on user feed- back. My main goals for the prototype were for it to be engaging with users, easy to navigate, and clearly distinguish between the two texts while also having good interaction moments between the two. Hence, most of my questions for feedback were based around those criteria.

Initial prototype

Synthesis of Testing Feedbacks

Some criticisms that my peers and faculty said about my project that really stood out to me were:

Have set rules, so navigation doesn’t become confusing
Don’t set up false expectations
Have indicators (mini tutorial), so users under- stand how to navigate

These criticism helped point out moments in the prototype that I didn’t expect to cause a jam in the user flow. They also helped give me more insight into the issues that I was facing when working on the project, but I couldn’t figure out what was the problem. From these criticisms, I also learned the importance of consistency. No matter how great my ideas are for micro-inter- actions, it does not compare to the consequences that could come with functionality and us- er-understanding issues of such design choices.

Conclusion + Reflection

Working on this project provided me with many challenges. I had to pleasure to explore the interconnection between two completely separate text. I had to consider how I will articulate the theme from my selected texts and use their paring to convey an added layer of meaning. In the end, I am confident that this project has allowed me to explore various creative opportunities while creating a clear typographic system using a strong grid and allows for typographic variation as defined by a range of editorial content.

If I had the opportunity to restart the process again, I would have started thinking about the interaction between the two texts from the very beginning. After having developed a system for the primary text, it was a challenge finding ways to implement the second text and bring out their shared theme. Therefore, having a clearer understanding of the interaction between the two texts would have allowed for smoother process and opportunity to flesh out more design concepts.

Lastly, intentionally designing through the lens of storytelling has pushed me to cultivate an immersive experience that carries the user through a range of sensations as they uncover layers of meaning between the two texts. By doing so, my perspective of design thinking has expanded beyond just the visuals and functionality.