When I think about my digital self, I see my Instagram feed. A colorful series of pictures of my happy self with friends. My digital image represents myself because of where the picture is. It’s in a beautiful flower field with bright colors such as yellow, pink, red, and green. With the edits made, I also included important information about myself that is important to my digital self. The picture itself is a graphic and image because of the changes made to the original image. I also edited the picture to increase the brightness or else it would have been underexposed. It also has a shallow depth of field which can be seen with the blurriness of the background. For the revision, I changed the color of my name from white to pink in order to follow the design principle of contrast.

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Though this video, it represents my digital self because it’s my daily life at work. A big social networking platform that is relevant to me in LinkedIn. Working at the International Student Center helps me develop my profile which can further my career in social media and event planning. The job itself also has taught me valuable communication and interpersonal skills by interacting with international students on a daily basis. I was able to capture my daily work routine through a third person video using establishing, medium, and close up shots. I also kept the camera at eye level and used the rule of thirds when it was appropriate. For the revision, I created a new video with the revisions of my old video in mind. I filmed a day in my life during finals week by filming a variety of people and scenery. I filmed in first-person as I was the one walking around and showing people around. My old video didn’t include much text so I included text when there were people to tell my audience who they were. I made sure to remove abrupt stops by making the music continuous. I also overlaid the video with my own audio to further explain what I was filming. I made sure to include all types of shots such as establishing, medium, and close up shots to keep the audience engaged in my video. I also kept most of my shots at eye level and tried to include as much action in my videos as possible.

This last digital assignment really captures all of my digital assignments into one because it was all about me. It highlights not only who I am as a person, but also my accomplishments as well. Through this assignment, I utilized some of the five qualities of great visualizations. Since the infographic was about myself, I was able to follow the principle of being truthful. I also followed the principle of being beautiful by using small icons in order to draw the reader’s attention to read information on the infographic. In my revision, I also added color to the icons to add more color. I also divided the sections aesthetically by color in order to separate the information through contrast. The data I used was also cleanly represented by using clear labels. For the revision, I added myself as the source and took my own pictures for my infographic. I also cut back on the amount of words as well as highlighted some words by bolding them in order to keep the reader’s attention.  

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What is your digital self and how do the digital assignments represent this?

My digital self is someone who is happy and loves to explore. My digital assignments represent this through many different ways. The use of vibrant colors and location in my digital image help reinforce that I’m happy. My new video that’s about my day helps support that I love to explore since I was trying the Popeyes Fried Chicken Sandwich for the first time and interacting with a variety of people. I love being social with people I don’t normally hangout with and trying new things. It keeps me on my toes and engaged with life. My infographic embodies both my happiness and love for exploration since it’s all about my digital self. I’m able to include a picture of me smiling and talk about my accomplishments that came from my love of exploration. Whether it’s exploring new places or exploring my career, it’s always exciting and a part of who I am.

How has this class has helped you have a better understanding of digital media principles and design?

Through the lectures and readings assigned, I’ve developed a better understanding of digital media principles and design. Being able to learn terminology and read examples of this in readings helped me understand the digital media principle itself as well as when it’s applied in real life situations. For example, the notification design article was interesting to read but it also applied mobile notification design that I learned about in the lecture. By learning about this principle, I also became more aware of mobile notification design in my own life. The digital assignments also helped me apply everything that I learned in a certain unit and I found it satisfying when I applied what I learned.

What digital media principles and design resonated with you the most? Why?

My favorite topic we’ve learned about so far is UI/UX. I’ve had prior knowledge about basic design in photography and videography, but not with UI/UX design and its principles. Learning the difference between mobile website vs. mobile app principles was also interesting. Overall, I was able to learn that UI/UX is best when it’s simple, clear, concise, while being aesthetically pleasing to the user. Certain features such as a search bar, filtering, and push notifications are also important to UI for mobile apps which was something I was unaware of before. Throughout this course, I was able to learn something new about digital media principles and design even if I was already familiar with the general concept which made this class important to my career.

Tell me about your experience in creating your digital image, video/audio file and infographic?

My digital image was easy to create as I had just gone to the Carlsbad Flower Fields and took a lot of pictures. In terms of the graphic part, I thought that the colors stood out to me most so I tried to make it a focal part of the design while incorporating small but important facts about myself. The new video I created as a study break from finals week and thought about interesting parts of my day to put in the video. It was interesting to be able to watch the video back and see what I do on a daily basis since it’s not something I think about often. For the infographic, I thought about how I could tie in all the assignments for the semester while presenting it in an infographic fashion. Overall, my experience in creating all three have been successful.

What digital tools and applications did you use to make your digital assignments and why did you choose them?

I utilized Canva for both my digital image and infographic because it’s the easiest application to use. Canva also provides a variety of fonts and design help on its website which I found useful for both the digital image and infographic. For the video, I used Kinemaster because of its accessibility on the phone and simplicity of it. It was convenient to be able to edit it on my phone rather than a computer application because I would have had to upload the separate videos and then edit it in another application.

Describe what were some of the challenging moments of the digital assignments and why?

I struggled the most with coming up with ideas for the video/audio assignment and infographic. For the video assignment, I wasn’t sure what to film or how to film it. I had to reference my notes a lot and watch vlogs on YouTube for ideas for shots to film. Once I had an idea, it was easier but it was not my best work. Through this assignment, I realized that I don’t like video/audio and would rather work with graphics on images. The infographic was also difficult because I didn’t know what to do for a while too. I looked at a ton of different examples, but none of those topics appealed to me. In the end, I was able to come up with ideas I liked for both and was able to execute my digital assignments well.

Describe what were some of the most enjoyable moments in working on the digital assignments and why?

The most enjoyable moment of working on my digital assignments was the freedom to be as creative as I wanted to. I often find that in the classes I had to take for GE’s were always boring and never challenged me to think creatively. I also find a lot of satisfaction in applying concepts I know I’ll use in the future for assignments and receiving feedback. It reassures me that I choose the right major and I can actually enjoy learning and doing assignments. It was also interesting to figure out who my digital self exactly was through these assignments while also making me aware that others also have a digital self versus another persona in reality.