20/4/2026 - 24/7/2026 / Week 1 - Week 14ZHANG QIYU / 0384019
Minor Project / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Lectures
Task 1 – Proposal an Innovative Project Proposal as a Group
For Task 1, our group was assigned to develop an innovative project proposal related to halal food. We applied the Design Thinking process to understand users' needs before proposing a solution. During this task, I was responsible for interviewing a restaurant worker, organising the interview findings, and assisting with the interview summary and problem statement.
Our group focused on planning the user research. We first discussed who our target users should be and decided to interview two different groups: young halal consumers and elderly halal consumers. We hoped that comparing these two age groups would help us understand different dining experiences and expectations.
After deciding on the target users, we brainstormed interview questions together. The questions mainly focused on dining habits, halal awareness, difficulties in finding halal food, and expectations for halal restaurants. Although the questions were still quite general, this discussion helped us establish a starting point for our research.
After presenting our research plan to the lecturer, we received valuable feedback. The lecturer explained that comparing young and elderly consumers might not provide strong insights because their experiences with halal food were quite similar.
Based on this suggestion, our group changed the target users to halal restaurant owners and restaurant workers. Since they are directly involved in restaurant operations, they could provide more practical information about halal management and daily challenges.
After changing the target users, we revised all the interview questions. Instead of asking about dining experiences, we focused on halal certification, supplier management, staff training, quality control, and customer trust. This revision made our research much more focused.
I was assigned to interview a halal restaurant owner. Since I am Chinese, I was concerned that language differences might affect the communication during the interview. Therefore, with my lecturer's permission, I decided to conduct an online interview with a Chinese restaurant owner.
I selected a Muslim-owned barbecue restaurant in China. The interviewee was the owner of the restaurant and had been managing the business for about one and a half years. As the owner, she was responsible for purchasing ingredients, managing suppliers, training staff, maintaining halal compliance, and overseeing the restaurant's daily operations.
During the interview, I gained valuable insights into the process of obtaining halal certification, maintaining food quality, training employees, and building customers' trust. She also shared the challenges of verifying suppliers, ensuring continuous halal compliance, and managing restaurant operations. After completing the interview, I organised the interview transcript to prepare for the next stage of the project.
I summarised my interview findings and organised the key points into an interview summary. I was also responsible for editing the interview summary and helping my group prepare the problem statement. These findings helped us move to the Define stage and develop our user persona and "How Might We" questions.
Task 2 – Empathy & Define Stage in Design Thinking
we continued developing our project by creating user personas. This part was mainly completed by our group leader, Gladys.
After that, we moved into the ideation stage by doing the Crazy 8 activity. Within a limited time, each group member sketched eight different solution ideas based on our problem statement. This activity helped us generate creative ideas quickly and explore different possibilities.
We received feedback from our lecturer. She suggested improving the visual style of our presentation so that it better reflected the halal food theme. We also revised several parts of the content based on her comments to make our presentation clearer and more consistent.
We presented our project to the client. Our final idea was a Halal Smart Analyzer, an online application that helps users quickly identify whether food and ingredients are halal. We also proposed a halal training poster that restaurants could display to help staff understand halal procedures and prepare for halal certification inspections.
Second. We think we can do a poster that can post on the restaurant wall ,that can help restaurants have a easy training and better to face the checking of the certificate
Task 3: Produce Final Presentation of Your Solution
Our teacher suggested that we could start developing our first idea (Idea 1).
However, we needed to confirm that our app was specifically designed for restaurant owners and restaurant workers.
During the app development process, I was responsible for creating the initial sketches for the application design. Based on our research findings, interview insights, and user needs, I explored different layout structures and interface ideas to visualize the overall user experience. These sketches helped our team discuss and refine the app functions, navigation flow, and design direction before moving into the Figma prototype stage. Through this process, I gained a better understanding of how design decisions can improve usability and create a more user-friendly application for restaurant owners and workers.
We continued developing the app. Our group leader was mainly responsible for creating the app interface and layout design in Figma. The app was named “Verigo Halal”, and we worked together to improve the design and user experience.
We received feedback from our teacher and made several improvements to the app design. First, we enlarged the logo on the cover page to make the branding more visible. We also separated the app into two pages, one for restaurant owners and another for workers, to provide a clearer user experience. In addition, we adjusted and unified the colour scheme to create a more consistent overall design.
I participated in refining the colour scheme of the app design and created the UI kit interface. Based on the teacher’s feedback, I helped adjust and unify the colours to achieve a more consistent visual style. I also developed the UI kit to maintain consistency in the app’s design elements and improve the overall user experience.
We started testing. We reached out again to the interviewees we had previously spoken with, and a total of five people participated.
We designed four tasks and collected task feedback from them. We also set a baseline for each task.
These are the results from our Testing
We had our presentation and received feedback. First, regarding our testing, we could present the results more clearly. Second, since our app serves both workers and owners, and the content for the two is not exactly the same, we should include both links .
Project
Figma link：
Project - 1 (week 1 - week 5)
Regarding our Project 1, we need to conduct individual interviews, complete parts of the Define stage, and create a PPT presentation.
This is our Project 1
Contribution：
The remaining parts are assigned as follows:
· Background & Solution & Conclusion – Our leader: Gladys
· problem statement,&project goals, Current problem ：Sun Zijing
· User research Findings & Results – Shi Jiarui & Zhang Qiyu
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Project - 2（week 6- week 9）
we presented our work to the client, covering the empathy, define, ideation, and prototype stages.
This is our Task 2 PPT.
Contribution：
The remaining parts are assigned as follows:
· Background &Idea 1 & User Persona & Conclusion – Our leader: Gladys
· problem statement & project goals,Current problem & Poster idea :Sun Zijing
· Findings & Results & How Might We – Shi Jiarui & Zhang Qiyu
· Conclusion —Ma Xiai
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Project - 3（week 10- week 14）
We presented our whole project ,included 5 design thinking stages:
Empathy , Define , Ideate, Prototype, Test.
Our final ppt:
Proposal by Group3
In conclusion, we sincerely appreciate Dr. Wong Chui Yin and our client for their expertise, encouragement, and meaningful feedback, which have played an important role in shaping the outcome of this project.
Reflection
Throughout this project, I learned the importance of understanding users before developing a design solution. At the beginning, our team focused on young and elderly halal consumers, but after receiving feedback from our lecturer, we realised that restaurant owners and workers could provide more valuable insights. Through conducting interviews and analysing the findings, I improved my research skills and understood how user problems can guide the design process. This experience helped me understand the importance of the Empathy and Define stages in Design Thinking.
During the development of Verigo Halal, I was involved in creating app sketches, refining the colour scheme, and developing the UI kit. Through this process, I learned how to transform research insights into practical design elements. Working with my teammates also helped me understand the importance of communication and consistency in collaborative design projects. The feedback from our lecturer encouraged me to improve the visual style and usability of the application.
The testing stage allowed me to understand the importance of evaluating a design solution before finalising it. By collecting feedback from users, we were able to identify areas that needed improvement and make adjustments to the app structure and content. This project strengthened my understanding of the complete Design Thinking process, from researching user problems to creating and testing solutions. I also learned that continuous improvement and feedback are essential for creating a more effective design.
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