1.1 Thesis One: Major Project - Thesis Materials

Describe how you came up with the keywords and how they connect to the topic, goal, and audience for your thesis.

• When I began brainstorming keywords for my project, I started with the sentence “I want to design something that feels…” and I tried to think of adjectives that a middle school student might think of. I also tried to think of words that described how I would want the learning platform to look and feel. I want to design a product that is fresh and fun, yet structured and organized. I want students to want to use the platform because it reflects them as students and because it is streamlined and easy to navigate.

Make a case for why the three keywords you chose are the best ones. 

• The three keywords I chose are connected, structured and playful. I chose the word connected because many virtual students feel disconnected from one another and the teacher. I want to express the idea of connectedness throughout this project. I want there to be a strong social aspect to learning between the students and the teachers. I chose the word structured because I think that in order for the platform to be clean, streamlined, and easy to navigate, it needs to have a solid structure. Having things neatly organized and in their place will allow for more freedom in other areas to explore, learn and create. Lastly, I chose the word playful because I want this to be an inviting space that does not feel too rigid. I want the students to feel connected to the space and for it to be inviting.

Describe anything new or interesting you learned in this process.

• I realized that as I was searching for pulls for my top keywords (I originally had 6) there was a lot of similarities between ideas and concepts. I ended up combining keywords and narrowing my list down to 3. Even among the final 3, I think I would like to find a way to use all 3 concepts to develop one visual system.