..or quantity over quality. Depending on the context of the situation, we usually hear these statements in reverse. In my case, its dysfunction over form. Sometimes my glaring inability to maneuver within Photoshop (proficiently) is baffling. As I grappled with a recent Photoshop project working, my lack of ability to grasp a concept frustrated me to the point of wanting to never work in Photoshop again. Its an overreaction, I know, and it probably won’t happen because my love-hate relationship with the software. Its clear to me that InDesign might work for my brain processes better. Photoshop is pretty cool though, and its just too intriguing to walk away from.

By napat

Outside of the technology gap, The recent project focused on stakeholders and how the personas affect the design. This post will explain the importance of how the stakeholders role, views, goals, pain points and behaviors dictate what to include in your project. Combining these aspects for Photoshop users can also present challenges as you are working within the medium.

Admissions & Recruitment – American Indian Mailers

Persona 1 – Native Graduate.

Front

Persona 2 – Native Higher Education liaison.

Front

Stakeholders & their importance

Stakeholders are those that have an interest in a topic, subject or situation. In this case, the relationship between the official representing the higher education offices for tribes across the country and the student to the University are the stakeholders here. If the University of Oklahoma and The office of Admissions and Recruitment were to work specifically with the American Indian offices in a mailer campaign in an outreach effort to communicate with both student and an educational official from the tribes. Knowing who you are designing for, is imperative to the creative process. Knowing which elements to include or what language to use is a symptom of good planning and creating the persona for each of the stakeholders.

Knowing

Role: Who are you creating for and what role do they play in the organization or business.

Views: Their views are what you can directly appeal to. How do they view themselves and the community.

Goals: What are the goals of their campaign or organization. What they trying to achieve?

Pain Points: What are the issues or barriers that they may encounter or currently are experiencing.

Behaviors: What are their behaviors and how do they approach their goals?

In the case of the mailers I created for this assignment, knowing the aforementioned key points for stakeholder 1 helped define these specifics in how stakeholder 2 interacts with them, revealing an angle in how to effectively communicate the message. The students needs dictate the interactions. Ultimately, its about the student needs.

By Anna

Suggestions

However, my suggestion is working with the latest version. I have two machines I work with. An iMac at home and use a newer MacBook Pro for my traveling machine. The new features within the software are evident when working between two different generations of technology. The Object Selection Tool is amazing and worked well when approaching two mailers I created for OU’s recruiting and admissions office and the masking effect you see. I really enjoy PS. It does however, make me crazy. I found this guys blog to be helpful in establishing a better approach a session. The post included some helpful tricks that I am going to continue to use.

The biggest advice for anyone wanting to improve is to just dive in. YouTube videos are always helpful but not knowing what to even call a particular process or technique its rather difficult to relay what you are looking for. Its another one of those cliches: practice makes perfect.