Speech and Language Therapy Teaching and Research Clinic

Background

The Speech and Language Therapy Teaching and Research Clinic at the University of Reading is a clinic on the campus run under the NHS. They help children and adults who have speech difficulties, as well as providing student training to University of Reading students. The main purpose of this project is because the clinic has been around for 50 years without any visual identity …

Restated Brief

The brief for this project was to design a visual device which can be applied to digital and physical materials such as reports, websites, and letterheads.

During the initial meeting with the clients, I found out more about the clinic and their opinions on how it should be represented. We discussed any of the requirements / preferences they had for the visual device, which included:

    • Ensuring the design appeals to both children and adults
    • Create a visual device that works at multiple scales
    • The full name will likely appear next to or underneath the visual device, not necessarily inside it
    • The visual device must use the name in full – ‘Communication, Speech, and Language Therapy Teaching and Research Clinic’
    • The visual device should not use acronyms such as ‘C STAR’

This meeting also helped to identify user needs, so that the design for the visual device is targeted to the audience of:

    • Children (2–8 years old)
    • Adults with speech and language difficulties
    • Students on course / placement
    • Clinicians and staff
    • Wider public / families

We also discussed how the visual device should represent the clinic. Specifically, it should convey community, friendliness, collaboration, caring, feel approachable, and be clear.

Research and ideation

Research for this project was conducted within the clinic, as it is very specific to the University of Reading. I also had a look at other organisations within the same field (see fig. 1).

Fig. 1 – existing Speech and Language logos

 

 

 

Following discussions with the clients, I began by coming up with initial sketches on paper, experimenting with different concepts taking into account the discussion with the client (see fig. 2, 3, & 4).

Fig. 2 – initial sketches
Fig. 3 – initial sketches
Fig. 4 – initial sketches

 

Design Development

The initial designs were then refined digitally, where I came up with 6 designs to show to the client (see fig. 5). From these designs, the clients chose sketch 1 and 2 as the two to develop further. Sketch 3 was discounted because it may seem too much like two people (or a parent and child) having a conversation, and so it does not encapsulate the sense of community in the clinic. Sketch 4 and 6 was discounted because the use of the heart could convey relationship advice rather than speech therapy. Sketch 5 was discounted because it was a simpler design that the two which were chosen, and so they preferred others over this.

Fig. 5 – refined sketches

 

I then developed Sketch 1 and 2 further, adding colour and type. From these designs, the client’s favourites are 1a and 4, however further feedback from the rest of the client team will be given soon. From these designs, I will further develop the colour palette as the visual device need to sit alongside the UoR logo, so the colours should be complimentary. The type in this development is also not very legible, so this will be experimented with further.

Fig. 6 – developed designs

Reflection

This project is currently still ongoing, and will be completed by the end of Semester 2.

Overall, there has been good communication with the client – they have given thorough feedback, enthusiastic about the project, and seem to be happy with the direction of the project so far. However, time between designing and arranging meetings could have been used more effectively. There was sometimes gaps between when the design was completed and when a meeting or email feedback could take place, and so this delayed the process.

Exploring InDesign Tables

Tables in InDesign can be very useful when organising content, making it quicker and easier to understand. Most people will have explored making tables in Word or Excel, but designing them in InDesign allows for more creativity and control.

I was tasked to design and format content into a table. Before this I had never made tables in InDesign before, however I now feel confident in using and explaining the basic features.

Software Tutorials

Since it was all new to me, I started off by reading through the materials given to me on the brief. I found that the information from the Adobe Website was a great way to learn the basics of creating tables. Another tutorial which I felt explained the basics but also went a bit further in giving more detail on styling tables was by Yes I’m a Designer on YouTube.

Design Ideas and Design Process

Initial Idea

Figure 1 – initial idea

My initial approach to the task was for the whole design and timetable to be portrait. The table size used in this design was 5 rows by 2 columns. I felt that the size of the table in this design was too squashed and so it made the information difficult to read as it was quite small. This lead me to think of having a landscape design as this would fit the content better and allow for the type size to be larger, improving legibility!

Final Design

Figure 2 – adding type

I started off by setting up my document with top & bottom margins of 14mm, and left & right margins of 10mm. I then began adding in the information that would not be kept inside a table: the title of the podcast and its description. The typeface for the title is Greycliff CF, and for the body text is Poppins.

Figure 3 – table dimensions

To create the table, I used the following dimensions: 2 Body Rows, 5 Columns; and for now I kept the default table style that InDesign sets.

Figure 4 – table added
Figure 5 – adding table data

I then added in each set of information to the corresponding cells, and used Paragraph Styles to style the text.

Figure 6 – removing table lines

 

 

 

Using the Table Styles panel, I chose to remove the lines surrounding each cell of the table as I felt they were unnecessary for my particular design since the content was already well divided enough.

Design Resources and Articles

Uxcel has some useful information to consider when designing tables. It discusses how to best design tables in terms of scannability, legibility, alignment, and styling.

Learning Throughout the Module

At the beginning of this module I had only just started to become familiar with using InDesign due to a book design project in another module; and before that I had only ever used InDesign once or twice during A levels. I feel that this project has taught me about many different design tools and skills, but has also helped me to become more comfortable when using Adobe software and its variety of features. This task in particular was helpful in discovering how to create & style tables, as well as getting me to make use of paragraph styles.