My workflow consists of conducting research, producing sketches, developing ideas, creating iterations, and finalising outcomes. While this a process I am familiar with and ensures a well produced outcome, I often encounter difficulties that slow down my process, create stress and, therefore, require me to problem solve.
When tackling and completing design projects, I come across struggles such as exporting files and keeping them organised and in one place on my desktop. I switch between desktop and a USB, leading to duplicate files and files saving in different locations this leads to me becoming confused and sometimes losing work or images. To ensure all my images are held within one place, I could utilise tools such as Eagle; this is a website that is able to categorize and organise images in a way that suits the user, I feel this woild be a useful tool within my workflow as it would reduce the amount of time wasted on looking for specific images. I could also make use of tools such as Hazel, which organizes your Mac which would help me keep track of images and files as I could search for the desired file. It also allows for clutter on my home screen to be organised leaving me not feeling overwhelmed when completing projects.
Once given a project or multiple projects, I create to-do lists to keep organised and on track. However, when in the flow of my design process, I forget about the lists, create new ones and never cross things off. This leads to multiple lists on scraps of paper, on my notes app, or on a sticky note on my desktop this makes me forget what I have completed and leads me to assume what needs completing next this means I am wasting time by backtracking through projects to ensure everything is completed. To minimise the extra stress and number of to-do lists I create, I could use apps such as Taskpaper; these would keep my notes all in one area within my desktop, meaning I have something to refer back to constantly during the design process allowing me to stay in my bubble of focus and flow.
