DESIGN RESEARCH DISSERTATION [ TASK 2 ]
12.06.26 - 12.07.26 / Week 8 - Week 12
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / DESIGN RESEARCH DISSERTATION / Taylor's University
Task 2
OUTLINE
Instruction
Feedback
- WEEK 8
- WEEK 9
- WEEK 10
- WEEK 11
- WEEK 12
- WEEK 8
- WEEK 9
- WEEK 10
- WEEK 11
- WEEK 12
Reflection
INSTRUCTION
Module Information Booklet (MIB) of Design Research Dissertation
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Final Task 2: VISUAL DESIGN PUBLICATION
FEEDBACK
WEEK 8
Specific Feedback: Absent
General Feedback:
- Students who were unable to fully attend or understand the briefing for Assignments 2 and 3 must review the recorded session available in the main/general channel on Teams. They should ensure that they fully understand the assignment requirements before proceeding.
- Students are strongly encouraged to make active use of the Turnitin practice window before submission. The practice window should be used multiple times to identify and address potential AI-writing and similarity issues. As the practice window may close before the final submission deadline, students should not wait until the last day
- The same mistakes made during the draft submission should not be repeated in the final submission. Since the practice window was used too late for the draft, there was limited opportunity to reduce the AI-writing percentage. For the final submission, students should check their reports early and revise their work in advance.
- Only Taylor’s official Turnitin and AI-checking systems should be used. Unofficial or duplicated software purchased through platforms such as Taobao should not be relied upon. Students should only trust the official Feedback Studio and Turnitin services provided by the university.
- When students receive an AI-highlighted report, they should review the highlighted sections and rephrase them in their own words. AI-flagged sentences should not be left unchanged. At this stage, the lecturer’s feedback is based primarily on the AI report, as the full dissertation has not yet been completely reviewed.
WEEK 9
Specific Feedback:
- Your current concept for the e-publication is still unclear. Although your research topic focuses on cultural identity and stereotypes in character design, the overall visual concept has not yet been clearly established. As a designer, you should be able to define and explain a clear conceptual direction for the publication. Even within entertainment or character design, the work should not focus only on creating visually appealing characters, but should also establish a clear design positioning that connects directly to the research topic.
- When searching for references, broad terms such as e-publication cover design are too general. You should use keywords taken from your dissertation title and research focus. Cultural concept design was recommended as a broader and more useful search direction than stereotype character. Since the research covers films from different cultural backgrounds, including Pocahontas, Peter Pan, Mulan, Moana, The Little Mermaid, Coco, and Black Panther, cultural identity and visual cultural elements should become the central design focus of the e-publication. Each case study should reflect its specific cultural context.
- Your selected concept direction is Cultural and Elegant. Although this combination may initially seem unusual, it can work if developed carefully. In this context, elegant should communicate a modern, luxurious, sophisticated, and classy visual quality rather than simply looking decorative or attractive.
- You should maintain cultural elements consistently throughout the entire publication, from the cover page to the final page. Different chapters may use distinct visual treatments based on the cultural background of each film, while still maintaining a unified overall design system. The Cultural and Elegant concept should also be applied consistently to the typography, page layout, and chart design, rather than being limited to the cover page. You should conduct separate reference searches for cultural concept design, typography, page layout, and culturally influenced chart design.
- Your current amount of work is insufficient for this stage. Since you have only developed a mood board and have not yet completed the cover design, you should prepare significantly more pages and show clearer design development by the following week. The project is still acceptable as a rough stage, but it now needs to be developed quickly and more substantially.
General Feedback:
- All students should establish a clear design concept based on their research topic before developing the e-publication. The concept should be logically connected to the research focus and should guide the overall visual direction. For example, a culture-related topic may explore a cultural direction, while a 3D animation topic may focus on contemporary design, realism, or motion.
- Reference searches should be conducted systematically rather than using broad terms such as cover design. Students should combine keywords related to their research topic, visual style, and design component. For example, searches may focus separately on cultural elegant cover design, cultural elegant typography, cultural elegant page layout, and culturally influenced chart design.
- The cover, typography, page layout, charts, and tables should all follow the same design concept. These elements should not appear visually disconnected, as consistency is necessary to create a coherent and unified e-publication.
- Illustrator may be used to create covers, illustrations, typography, and graphic elements, but it is not the most suitable software for managing a long publication. Students should consider using InDesign or another pagination program for the final layout and page organisation.
- Any use of AI must be clearly disclosed in the declaration section. Students should explain which parts were created or supported by AI and which parts were completed independently.
- Since the submission is due in Week 11 and the class is already in Week 9, students need to accelerate their progress. A mood board alone is no longer sufficient. By the following week, students should present more developed work, including the cover, typography, page layouts, charts, and tables.
WEEK 10
Specific Feedback:
- You did not submit the Turnitin Report. You should download it from the final Draft Dissertation submission page in Google Classroom and submit it together with the Draft Dissertation PDF. A Google Drive link and other unnecessary files are not required.
- You should revise the hierarchy of the dissertation title so that Cultural Identity and Stereotype receive the strongest visual emphasis, while Character Design appears as the secondary level. This hierarchy should be clearly reflected in the cover design.
- You need to define the main design concept more clearly before developing the publication further. You should decide whether the primary focus is cultural identity, stereotypes, or character design, and use that decision to guide the overall visual direction.
- Your Introduction should include the full research structure developed in the proposal. At the moment, the Research Question is included, but the Research Objective is missing. You should also review the Problem Statement and ensure that the Problem Statement, Research Objective, and Research Question are clearly connected.
- The scope of the research should be communicated more clearly. The study compares seven films from different cultural backgrounds rather than focusing on one culture. This should be clearly explained in both the Introduction and the cover design.
- The cover design should communicate the actual research content rather than functioning only as an attractive visual. It should clearly represent the central themes of cultural identity and stereotypes.
General Feedback:
- Visual design quality is a major part of the assessment and is worth approximately 20 marks. Students should therefore aim to improve the overall design standard and create visually impressive work.
- The e-publication should be treated as a design outcome rather than a simple report. Since the lecturer has experience as both a designer and an author, the visual quality and level of design completion will be evaluated carefully.
- All students should apply a clear typography hierarchy to their titles. The title should be divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Using the same size and emphasis for every word should be avoided.
- The design concept should be established before deciding on the typography, layout, graphics, and colour palette. Students should first determine what they want to emphasise and then develop the visual elements based on that decision.
- Students may use Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign together according to their functions. For example, typography may be developed in Illustrator, visual effects may be added in Photoshop, and the final page layout may be completed in InDesign.
- Sufficient visual research should be conducted before beginning the design process. Students are encouraged to use Pinterest and search engines to explore relevant keywords, images, and possible design directions.
- Typography should not only function as readable text. It should also be treated as an important visual and design element within the publication.
- Students are encouraged to study the work of well-known typographers, particularly David Carson, to explore experimental typography layouts, cover design, and unconventional visual arrangements.
- Students should aim to complete as much of the design as possible within this week. Depending on the class’s overall progress, the Task 4 briefing may be postponed until Week 12. All work should continue according to the final dissertation submission schedule.
WEEK 11
Specific Feedback: Absent
General Feedback:
- The Draft Dissertation should contain a minimum of 7,000 words. Students whose dissertations are significantly below the required word count may need to expand and strengthen the content.
- The research background and context should be developed more clearly. Students should not simply copy content from the earlier proposal. The Final Dissertation should explain the background, context, significance, and necessity of the research so that readers can understand why the study is important.
- A clear Problem Statement must be included. Some students also need to strengthen this section by adding appropriate in-text citations and supporting evidence.
- The verbs used in the Research Objectives should be reviewed and revised where necessary. Objectives should use clear and appropriate verbs that accurately reflect the research methods and intended outcomes.
- Findings from surveys, interviews, or participant feedback should not be changed arbitrarily. Since these findings represent actual research data, their meaning must remain accurate. Only minor language editing should be made without altering the original meaning.
- Self-plagiarism from a previous draft may be less serious if the lecturer can verify that the work belongs to the same student. However, the use of AI to replace the student’s own critical thinking or writing is considered a more serious concern.
- Some revisions may relate to editorial and formatting issues rather than content. For example, page numbering may need to begin with page 1 from the Introduction rather than from the first page of the document.
WEEK 12
Specific Feedback:
- You should review the recorded session uploaded to Teams if you were unable to attend the final assignment briefing or did not fully understand the requirements. Make sure that you clearly understand all submission requirements before completing the assignment.
- You should add your name, Kim Abin, to the cover. There is no need to include your student ID or other detailed information. Your name only needs to be placed appropriately to identify you as the author.
- Although the publication is designed in horizontal A4 format, some pages appear vertical or visually inconsistent in proportion. You should check the actual document size and ensure that all pages consistently follow the same horizontal A4 format.
- Reviewing each page individually in Canva makes it difficult to evaluate the relationship between the left and right pages. You should check the final e-publication in a two-page spread view, similar to an open book. Make sure that each page is correctly positioned on the left or right and that both pages work together as a coherent spread.
- Some pages are divided into two colour sections, making a single page appear like a full A2 spread. You should revise the colour division and layout so that the boundary of each page is visually clear.
- Illustrations and graphic elements taken from Canva should not be used without further modification. You should adjust their colours and forms to match your research topic and overall design direction. Your own design input should be clearly visible rather than relying too heavily on Canva templates or library assets.
- Any use of Canva AI or other generative AI features must be clearly stated in the AI declaration. You should explain which elements were created with the support of digital tools and which parts were modified or designed independently.
- Some pages still require further refinement in alignment and composition. You should review the alignment across the entire publication and adjust the balance and placement of elements, particularly on pages that do not clearly appear to follow the horizontal format.
- Since the cover typography is currently set entirely in lowercase, you should experiment with capitalising the first letters of important terms such as Cultural Identity and Stereotype. This change is not compulsory, but you should duplicate the cover page and compare both versions before deciding.
- You should not place the Copyright Page immediately after the cover. Instead, add several introductory pages to make the publication resemble a professionally designed book. These may include a blank page, a simplified title page, a monochrome version of the cover, or a page containing the author and publisher information. The Copyright Page may also include the logo, barcode, ISBN-style information, designer details, and image credits.
- You should refine the alignment of the Copyright Page and consider changing Taylor’s University logo to a single colour so that it matches the overall visual direction.
- The use of seven films and the adaptation of their different cultural backgrounds into the design are effective. The publication already conveys cultural elements relevant to the research topic, and the inclusion of references and image credits is appropriate.
General Feedback on Task 2 and 3:
- Students who missed the final assignment briefing or are unclear about the requirements should review the recorded Teams session and confirm all assignment and submission requirements before submitting.
- The e-publication should resemble a professionally designed publication rather than a simple PDF. Consider adding introductory pages—such as a blank page, simplified title page, monochrome cover, or publication details—before the Acknowledgement or Copyright Page. The student’s name must also appear clearly on the cover as the author.
- When designing spreads, ensure that typography remains readable across the central fold. Adjust kerning and positioning carefully, applying publication design principles that also consider potential print production.
- Avoid using the same white background and page structure throughout. Create visual rhythm through varied colours, spacing, columns, images, text wrapping, lines, and tabs while maintaining balance and consistency. Charts and graphs should also use colours that match the publication’s overall palette rather than default chart colours.
- Assignment 2 must be submitted before midnight on the relevant Sunday. Some Friday tutorial students have an individual Assignment 3 extension until 19 July; submissions made within the personalised Google Classroom deadline will not be penalised even if Turnitin marks them as late. The Friday group’s practice window will reopen later for final file checking before submission.
General Feedback on Task 4:
- Develop a concise, standalone journal article from your dissertation. Do not simply copy, paste, or shorten the original text.
- Focus on one specific research objective, question, theme, or finding. Revise the title, methodology, findings, and discussion, so they consistently reflect this narrower scope.
- Maintain critical academic writing by comparing relevant literature and using it to support a clear research argument.
- Follow the provided author manuscript template, including its word count, fonts, and formatting requirements. Consult your supervisor or tutorial lecturer to confirm your article’s focus.
- Submit through your usual class platform. Task 4 is compulsory, worth 30%, and targeted for Week 14; any extension to Week 15 depends on the lecturer’s approval
REFLECTION
Experience
In Task 2, the author had difficulty establishing a visual direction due to overly broad reference searches, resulting in only a mood board and a colour palette. Following feedback, they refined their concept to "Cultural and Elegant," although representing seven cultural backgrounds proved challenging. A modern, minimal structure was adopted, incorporating various cultural elements. By Week 12, they aimed to finalise page layouts by July 10. After final feedback from Dr. Hayati, they revised the design but later discovered an omission of a table, leading to feelings of discouragement over continued mistakes since Task 1.
Observations
I observed that specific, research-related keywords produced more useful references than general design searches. Feedback also helped me clarify the concept and become more confident in my design decisions.
I realised that elegance does not only come from decorative elements. A modern and minimal layout could provide a consistent foundation for presenting the different cultural characteristics of each film. I also noticed that focusing too heavily on visual design could cause me to overlook important content, as shown by the missing table.
Findings
Task 2 taught me that publication design requires both visual creativity and careful content management. Clear reference research, regular feedback, and a consistent design concept are all important.
For future projects, I should complete the main design earlier and use a final checklist to review every page, table, image, appendix, and credit before submission. Although I was upset about the omitted table, I decided to stop dwelling on the mistake and apply what I had learned to the next assignment.
QUICK LINKS
Projects
- DESIGN RESEARCH DISSERTATION TASK 1
- DESIGN RESEARCH DISSERTATION TASK 3
- DESIGN RESEARCH DISSERTATION TASK 4
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