Project Details
Tools
Adobe XD, Illustrator, InVision, After Effects, Marvel
Time
March-April. 2019
Role
UX/UI, Website Designer
Writer's Corner
Writer's Corner is a website for those who love the art of handwriting, from the type of paper to the ink and the kind of pen one uses. At Writer's Corner, there are numerous writing & calligraphy workshops to choose from and exclusive stationery for those who need the tools. Ultimately, Writer's Corner wants to keep handwriting alive in this fast-paced digital-prone world.
This is a personal project that explores the value of handwriting through thoughtful moments of communication in this digital age.
01. Problem
In our digital age now, writing seems to be a thing of the past. People don’t really write letters and notes by hand anymore. It’s faster to text, email, or snapchat someone. Conversations happen and are lost and forgotten soon after. But with a handwritten object, we may have it forever. Handwriting can convey a sense of an individual–we see the curves of a person’s mark. We read their words, instead of automated responses, like in Gmail. It’s them. We value it, yet we seem to do it less and less. This leads to my design questions-
How can I communicate the value of handwriting through thoughtful moments of communication?
02. Research
20% of people write their tasks with pen and paper.
25% of people use digital devices to remember their tasks
55% of people use a combination of both methods.
During Thesis 2, I conducted a Google survey among my peers which examined how people organize their tasks and found that only only twenty percent write their tasks down with pen and paper while twenty-five percent of the people only use digital devices to remind their tasks. And fifty-five percent of the people use a combination of both methods. The results surprised me because I always thought using pen and paper to write things down was the norm but after my survey, I realized I had become the minority. Moreover, other studies have shown that people have been writing less and less. A 2016 study cited in The Guardian found that only "one of three respondents had not written anything by hand in the past six months" among the 2,000 people being asked. The article then say that, "Handwritten copy is fast disappearing in the workplace."
Writing by hand has cognitive benefits to the brain.
Much research suggests that writing by hand has many cognitive benefits. Studies have suggested that writing by hand helps one retain new information more effectively than typing. For example, there are three separate studies conducted by psychologist Pam A. Mueller and Daniel M. Oppenheimer that demonstrate that students who take notes by hand are more likely to answer "conceptual-information" questions then those who type by notes because it takes longer(Mangold). Typing is very efficient in helping students transcribe the lectures but because the brain did not actually processed the information, the students did not really learn about what they typed down.
03. Brainstorm
After research, I started mind-mapping my ideas. Below is the mind map I have made rewarding handwriting.
04. Goals
My main goal is to create a website which could be a foundation or organization with the goal of preserving the practice of handwriting amidst our fast-paced and information overload world world.
I envision there will be many different kinds of workshops on handwriting, calligraphy, and lettering held in this foundation and there products pertaining to handwriting that sell in this foundation or website. And along with this goal, I also wanted to conduct a series of writing workshops to bring people into a space to slow down and handwrite a thoughtful message to another person. The intention of my workshops was to bring people into a space where one can slow down to reflect on what he/she wants to say to another person. Through these workshops, I want to collect and observe the effectiveness of writing workshops.
04. Prototyping
For my workshops
First, I wrote down how I should design my workshop. I decided that it was a workshop with writing prompts.The first was to write a thank you note sb that you wish you could have thanked. The 2nd was to write a thank you note to sb you wanna thank now.
Diagram of my Workshop
Reflection on my Writing Workshops
I conducted a total of 10 workshops. From my writing workshops, I have gotten various feedback from my attendees of how they felt after the writing workshop. Most people like being in a space and taking some time to write something down. Some people became more emotional than others and some people said the workshop made them want to pick up writing again.
Some problems with my workshop were that a few people felt that the space was smaller than expected. They wanted a more private and personal space when writing a card to another person. Others may not write as real as they normally do because they know that I want to collect the cards in the end. Another problem was that my attendees are primarily female and it's hard to find guys to join but I tried my best.
For my writing organization:
Writer's Corner
After conducting my writing workshops, it further confirmed me that I wanted to create a writing organization where future writing workshops can be held at different venues. I also wanted the website to have a shop section where people can buy the writing tools they need easily. First, I drew out low-fidelity sketches of each page of the Writer's Corner website and eventually came up with a website architecture for Writer's Corner.
My rough wireframe sketches
Website Architecture
High- Fidelity UI Screens
Final Website
05. Next Steps
This project was a passion of mine with the love of handwriting and bullet journaling. However, the time was rushed and many of the user interaction of the website needs more user testing to ensure it to be easy to use. I am sure after user-testing, there will be many components that needs to be refined and made better.