Naming Your Thesis
This week with the user journey map I used one of my primary personas. The persona is a student who is about to start fall semester. She is Asian American and does not feel connected to her ethnicity. She's looking to connect with others who are similar to her. Jessica attends orientation and receives a link to an app and podcast show. Eventually she decides to check out the app. She creates an account and adds a profile photo. She begins to browse the app which leads her to others who have similar stories. She decides to post to connect with her identity with others by building community.
I started researching names by looking up Asian graphics for inspiration. I played around with combining words together for a double meaning. I added taglines to help the name be more meaningful. I looked up specific graphics that would relate to the meaning. I learned that coming up with the name can be challenging especially if you have a specific audience that needs to relate to it. Out of the three names I chose to explore more, Asian Fusion (to join two or more things together to form a single entity) seems to fit my thesis well. I wanted something to connect all of the different Asian cultures together. While doing research I came across similarities within the different Asian groups depending on which area of Asia someone comes from. For example, people from East Asia tend to eat with chopsticks while other Asian groups do not. I'm trying to find similarities within the groups depending on where they come from so I can create a symbol or marking to represent that area. I can use it throughout my visual system. For each thesis name I created sketches and started some rough computer comps.
Last week I spoke with a few students that are my target audience and asked them for their thoughts and opinions about an app and podcast show discussing how to create identity through community for Asian Americans. Every student said they would use the app and listen to the podcast. They mentioned feeling disconnected to their ethnicity. It's interesting to get feedback from your target audience and people who are not your audience. Both opinions are different but informative.
