pitch deck
Slide commentary
Slide 1 – Open
Hi everyone! Welcome to my pitch to present my digital tool to enable collaboration. Last week you saw my elevator pitch introducing filo’type and here I am going to go into further details.
Slide 2 – Contents
I will tell you about the project, the users I am aiming for, similar products and the opportunities for collaboration during development. Then I will take you through the potential feature modules before showing you my development plan. Let’s get going!
Slide 3 – About
The digital tool is aimed at people interested in typography to enable them to capture, catalogue and reference type examples for their future projects. It will build a collaborative library to expand horizons and save time in the research of projects.
Slide 4 – Users
I am focussing on three consumer segments, namely typophiles, which is anyone interested in type and its history, set designers who build fantastic worlds for audiences in films, theatre and TV; lastly, type designers who create new typefaces for clients. This is a summary that looks at the users.
Slide 5 – Users 2
Here is a more detailed look at the Consumer Segments and the jobs, pains and gains for each group. The information is based on assumptions at the moment. At the bottom, I have listed questions to which I want to find answers.
I need to do further work to validate the assumptions about the consumer segments I have already made. It may be that the project and features shift slightly to accommodate the feedback.
I plan to form focus groups to isolate the issues each group face and propose solutions.
Through the development stages, I plan to collaborate by continually testing and developing with the users to meet the goals of the project.
Slide 6 – Market Research
I have looked into other digital tools that have a feature overlap with my tool. Firstly, social media sites such as Pinterest and Instagram can act as discovery and archive tools. However, even with hashtags filtering content, they are not explicitly built for type and posts cannot be viewed geographically.
Type resources such as Fonts In Use have grown to be able to identify typefaces in other people’s work. It is a useful archive that enables the identification of fonts but doesn’t show examples you would see walking down the street and doesn’t present the context in which the work was created.
I want to incorporate Augmented Reality Technology into the digital tool, and Adobe Fontphoria is a brilliant example of using machine learning to extrapolate a whole typeface that the user can project into an AR space. Those features alone don’t match what I am trying to do, and no context is provided to the new typefaces made.
Slide 7 – Collaboration 1
When I look at the features that I want to include, there are opportunities to collaborate with others throughout the development process. I have mapped these opportunities onto the Double Diamond process on the next slide.
Slide 8 – Collaboration 2
At the Discover Stage, I want to validate my consumer segment values and draw further wisdom from my users and consult with a company like Metier Digital to build a solid structure for the tool.
At the Define stage, I need to consult with lawyers that specialise in copyright and intellectual property because features such as distributing others’ work might breach some laws. By considering this at an early stage, I can mould the exact features so that they do not contravene any laws before it gets to the development stage.
At the Development stage, I imagine including many more people. Some are to do with the actual construction of the tool: App and Augmented Reality designers and Search Engine Optimisers to build a flexible system of tagging. Before development gets too far, I’d like to include Type Historians and Archives to populate some sections for quality control and test the design with users at different points to create a strong project.
Lastly, I see the delivery stage as an ongoing process where testing, feedback and development continues as an iterative process.
Slide 8 – Features
I envision the tool as four different modules, called Catalogue, Archive, Explore and Augmented type. Let’s take a look.
Slide 9 – Catalogue 1
This is the core of the tool and aimed at all consumer segments. Here, users can upload their images into a shared catalogue that details the type features, usage and context and location. To help the user build a full description, I will include multi-choice tags and questions. The user can view posts in a feed or on a map to identify resources close to them.
Slide 10 – Catalogue 2
Users can build a profile and create collections for inspiration and gather references for projects. Users can set their privacy for these features.
Slide 11 – Archive
From the base of the Catalogue, the Archive module builds on the information to detail the further context. Users can message each other to share jobs, resources and knowledge that they can use to rebuild typefaces for the future. For example, fonts from ghost signs can be restored to create a background sign on a film set to add depth to the scene.
Slide 12 – Explore
Typography reveals the history of an area and knowledge from the Archive module can build self-guided walking tours with information about chosen examples. There will be some built-in tours with the feature for users to craft their own.
Slide 13 – AR
Finally, Augmented Reality. It’s not enough to see what others have created – let’s create our own. Using typefaces designed in the Archive module, users can type their text to leave invisible messages for others or module a concept in Augmented Reality.
Slide 14 – Road Map
Going forward from this point, I have mapped out a rough route I can take to bring this tool to live. I begin with user research, consulting with experts before developing the tool. Then, the tool is tested and developed and improved up to launch, from when it will continue to this iterative process.
Slide 16 –
Thank you for paying such close attention to my pitch! I hope that you can see a place for this tool in your creative process. I can’t wait to see what you guys have come up with.
Slide 17 –
Do you have any questions?
Reflection 1 – Recalling my presentation
I like how this presentation went because I was much more prepared and together than in previous crits. I knew my stuff and was proud of my idea. That made a huge difference.
My slides were a little bit iffy thanks to Big Blue Button and optimisation and so the logo on the first page was missing. To me it was glaringly obvious and I pointed it out so that people would know it was the techs fault rather than my poor design. Sometimes I think that it helps to appear human rather than perfect in a presentation because everyone can relate to it.
The slide information and talking ratio was generally right, although on a couple I could have spoken rather than displaying the text too. This was deliberately set up for an in person pitch, and I wonder how best to translate the pitch to a format for a remote pitch instead.
I felt calm whilst doing it and measured out my pace when I thought I was going too fast. Writing out most of the script helped as I prepared the presentation so that I knew I was including everything I intended too. I might have come across as a little scripted and stilted but there were times I took the text more freely and ad libbed to include comments from Alex’s presentation before mine.
The trouble with bright pitch decks is that the app mockups came across as a little bland in comparison. The sage green didn’t give the impression wanted and I want to make it look cleaner,monochrome with one accent colour for the final presentation.
Anna Robinette 