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Week 5/2 -5/8

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Biostats Logo

Project: edXBiostatistics Assets
Due On: May 12
Notes: The goal of the logo is to get students to draw a connection of the course Biostatistics to the logo. I talked with a fellow STA, Adrian, about what logos we liked and narrowed our choices down. We both sketched a few and image-traced potential ideas. Maddy, our design director gave us some helpful image ideas to keep in mind like health (like DNA, cells), and statistics (like charts/axes, graphs). here’s our first iteration and combined logos:

 

Then after some feedback from Maddy, I expanded on some other ideas of mine.

 

Then Adrian and I then combined our logos for the client to choose.

Biostats Backdrop

Project: edXBiostatistics Assets
Due On: May 12
Notes: The goal of the logo is to get students to draw a connection of the course Biostatistics to the backdrop. For the backdrop, I removed the TEXAS logo and replaced other images with a mix of bio/health/stats images from stock photo sites. I referenced a template Maddy provided and placed each image as they fit.

 

UTFC Greenscreen Edits

Project: Greenscreen Image Sourcing
Notes: A handful of STAs were tasked with finding royalty-free images and uploading them into a PowerPoint. As a team, our responsibility is to insert the correct copyright info into a Spreadsheet our Art Director, Maddy, had made. Overall, I found the process therapeutic and gives a means to paying attention to detail when finding images.

Week 4/27 – 5/1

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UTFC Studio Testing

Project: Backdrop Color Testing
Notes: Since UTFC plans on recording its lectures this summer, I had the opportunity to go inside the recording studio to test backdrops for the lecturer. It was a cool and fun moment to get a hands-on experience with the other side of this assignment! I could see the backdrops in real time and edit them to the correct display such as altering contrast and saturation inside Photoshop. So far we’re almost done with the first course for recording.

 

Biostats Logo

Project: edXBiostatistics Assets
Due On: May 12
Notes: The goal of the logo is to get students to draw a connection of the course to the logo. I researched different statistical methods that analyze health data as a reference. So far I have quick thumbnail sketches of some possible ideas.

See You Later

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Shoutout to my team

Hey everyone. Here is my “last” post before I flew back to my country and visit my family. But no worries, I think I’ll be back in Fall 2023 and continue my journey as a design STA. From the 2022 Fall to the 2023 Spring, it has been a great year working as Design STA and meeting all of you! Thank you, Leilani, Luisa, Lorena, Thang, Marissa, Adrian, Daniela, and De’sha, for always being on my back of me and encouraging me to be a great designer and person. You guys are so nice to me and I love working with you!!! Isaiah, I hope you can have a great summer semester with this wonderful team, and let’s see if I get the chance to work with you (since I’m working on web design a lot)!

Valeria and Maddy-I are so grateful for your’s help in the entire year. I’m so glad that you can be my STA Manager and Art Director. You guys can always give me useful feedback by seeing my design with new eyes and being open to all design possibilities, and guiding me via different approaches. You teach me not only how to succeed as a designer but also how to be a more proactive, organized, and inspired person! Thanks for hiring me as an STA and allowing me to engage in these wonderful design projects and work in the team.

Also thank you to other LAITS staff and STA from other departments, as well as all the clients, for trusting me to work on all of projects and providing effective communications in terms of it.

What I’ve Learned

I’m glad that I can be one of the design STAs in LAITS and I’ve learned so much in the past year. I was a graphic designer as a design student but I’m interested in user interface and experience design. I appreciate that Maddy, Valerie, and our clients gave me the opportunities to work on CTX Retold, the UTFC website, and the Precursors, and help me out each time I stuck. I can tell I improve a lot from the experience and get more comfortable to use Figma for websites. I hope I can do more projects related to that shortly.

I also like other design tasks I did in the LAITS studio. I’m able to see some behind-screen story and a studio can work out with each component. I’m especially thankful for the STA presentation. It was my first public speaking in front of such a large group and I did it! It’s a tough process but my design team and Mike helped me succeed in the presentation. I hope I can do it better next time (if I get the chance!)

My journey..

I’ll go back to Shanghai, China soon to visit my family and friends soon! I haven’t been back for two years and I’m getting excited about it. In China, I’ll also be a product design intern in the AI team at Tencent. It’s a Chinese Internet-based platform company and I believe that it’s getting more international these years. I’ll also spend several days in Los Angeles for vacations before I went back to Shanghai.

Thank you for this team! It’s really a greta time to work in LAITS as design STS and hope to see you guys soon! Here is my Linkedin and Portfolio Website! Feel free to walk through and connect with me. SEE YOU!

isaiah ~ week 001 & 002

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Week 1 – 2

my 1st week!

APRIL 21st – 28th

 

This was my first week as a Web Development and Design STA 🙂 🙂 🙂 let’s gooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

 

I trained one-on-one with Thang and published my first ever website! We used WordPress to update the university’s Psychology Lab webpages. Thanks to Daniela, we were given an up-to-date template to work with. After taking a look at how previous content was transferred, we cloned the new template site using the NS Cloner plug-in. We then copied content from the ten-year-old site into its new template using block coding. I also learned how to edit the website’s backend using HTML and CSS in Visual Studio Code. The Psych Lab pages will soon be ready for client review once they’re cross-referenced with the design team for crisp visuals.

 

Here are some screenshots of our work :

 

new sample template

 

 

 

psych lab reference site – draft 01

 

 

original psych lab site

 

newly published site – draft 01 

 

 

 

I also began working on the banner design for my STA Blog Post page. I started creating my official background in Miro. I am now developing drafts for typography using Photoshop. My end goal is to create a three-dimensional graffiti font.

 

color palette inspiration

 

 

 

drafts

 

 

 

official background & accents

 

 

 

current typography draft

 

 

Farewell!

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Farewell Post

Gracias y adios

As the title says, this is my farewell post 🙁 I will no longer be an STA during the upcoming fall semester due to a heavy course load. During this last week I will be wrapping up the 2 website migration I was working on and write some notes for the next STA to take on the project. That being said, I am extremely honored for the opportunity to have been a Web Dev and Design STA for the Spring 2023 semester. When I first joined, I was not truly aware of how big of an impact LAITS (both full time and student employees) have on UT. I am in awe of how huge some of the projects the other STAs were working on were like the UTFC Textbook, Carrie’s Precursors, Thang’s Master of Economics site (and all of the others projects too!). You guys are extremely talented! Luisa, Thang, Adrian, Marissa, Carrie, Leilani, Lorena, and Isaiah, I wish you all the best!

 

I’d also like to give a big thanks to Valerie, Maddy, Stacy, Chris, and Marianne.

 

To STA Managers: Valerie and Maddy thank you so much for always being there and helping me get started as an STA. When I first joined, everything seemed daunting but both of you made the process of joining the team very enjoyable! You both made the Dev Lab a wonderful and cozy workplace and you were both always there to answers all my questions and provide feedback 🙂 .  Thank you, especially for helping me with my STA Presentation, when I say I couldn’t have done it with out ya’ll I really mean it. I think I would have had a stroke on the stage.

 

To LAITS Web Development Team: Stacy, Chris and Marianne thank you for working with me on the LAITS Web Dev team. I learned so much through out this past semester from all of you. Thank you to Stacy and Chris for introducing me and guiding me through multiple projects throughout the semester. Thank you to Marianne for answering my questions and giving me feedback!

 

Moving Forward

This summer I will be interning at Texas Instruments (the one that makes the calculators) in Dallas. I will be running software tests on embedded processors. This is a more electrical engineer-y job than you would expect someone working on the front end of websites would do but I am very excited nonetheless! Looking forward I plan on continuing to work and learn more in the software field with a focus on Software Design and Data Science in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program here at UT. I also plan on building my portfolio by creating apps and software tools in the near future. I do not have a portfolio (yet!) but you will be able to see any of my future projects on my Github.

 

With that being said, you can reach me on LinkedIn if you want to know more about any of the projects I’ve worked on, if you are interested in embedded processors I guess, or if you just want to say hi!

Thank you LAITS and STA Team for everything and goodbye! <3

 

 

 

 

Bye until Fall!

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Farewell post (I’ll probably be back)

BYE!

Being an STA for the 2022-2023 year has been such a great experience! Spring semester I received a larger variety of projects (image sourcing, course graphics, posters, logos, etc…) I’ve been able to learn so much from my fellow STAs and Design managers. I’ve also been fortunate to receive other design/art opportunities where I can apply what I’ve learned at LAITS. I plan on coming back in the Fall (from Italy haaaha) and designing more projects for LAITS!! Hopefully, I will see everyone after a restful and enriching trip to Italy ( I’ll try to take pictures to share). I’ll miss the fun polls on the board and having a group of design experts to ask for help though.

Thank you to Carrie, Leilani, Lorena, Luisa, Adrain, Thang, Daniela, De’sha, and Isaiah for being a supportive and welcoming team of graphic and web designers! I have learned so much from y’all and for that, I am so thankful. I’m always inspired by everyones’ work and hope you guys have a great summer!

BIG thanks to Maddy, Valerie, and Suloni for hiring me and allowing me to work on the design team at LAITS. I’ve gained invaluable skills and knowledge from this job and you guys!

 

Projects I’ll be Handing Off:

  • R.A.C.E. Lab logo: I believe Maddy was taking over this project since she and I worked together on the initial drafts and final picks. But if another STA picks up the logo design, we are making a logo for Professor Ibekwe-Okaforwork’s research website. Her research will focus on the effects Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems (family, social, and cultural relationships) have on black children’s development.
      • key terms: access, resilience, systems (Brunfenbrenner), education, early development, adversity, & black joy
      • steer away from explicit political imagery and colors (red and blue)
      • color: neutrals, earth tones, greenery
      • layers and systems to the way people develop

 

  • UTCF Backdrops/Image Sourcing: I am currently working on 7.5 Hair and Make-up image sourcing and the images I have found thus far have been logged in the spreadsheet, box folder, and PowerPoint. I think 4.1 Professions and Occupations still needs to be signed off by either Maddy or Valerie. As for backdrops, I sourced for UTCF modules 5 & 6 but couldn’t find any images for 6.2 Bamako. Leilani, Carrie, and I have tested those images in the studio. The PSD template for modules 5 & 6 are in the box folder and still need to be edited a bit (I think Leilani was going to do this).

Me shocked to be in Cairo :0