MINOR PROJECT

23/04/2025 - 1/8/2025 / Week 1 - Week 15
Tyra Franchesca Valerie Anthony / 0368223
Minor Project / Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Compilation | Yubari (Expedia) 

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INSTRUCTIONS

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PROJECT

Task 1: Proposal 

Week 1

In the first week, Mr. Mike introduced us to the module and gave seven client-based project options for us to choose from. Having formed our team Group 9, which consisted of seven team members, we went through the project briefs together and chose the Yubari Self-Watering Pot project as recommended by the client, Expedia. We were drawn to this project because it was focused on wellness, nature, and emotional support themes we thought matched our interests and abilities. This was the beginning of our collaborative learning of solving a real-world design problem.

Week 2

This week, we cemented our team members and formally constituted our project team. We also managed to watch the pre-recorded lecture on my Times, which gave us a clearer picture of the project objectives, expectations, and key deliverables. This provided us with a solid grounding on what we needed to do in the future and ensured that we were all on the same page from then on.

Week 3

This week, we conducted our first virtual meeting with the client using Microsoft Teams. The session was informative and helped us better appreciate the Yubari self-watering pot how it functions, about which brand it is, and where the project is headed according to the client. The client also gave us a helpful slide deck that would guide us through the subsequent phases.

One of the key learnings from the meeting was that the client is keen to build a strong brand community rather than selling products per se. As contrasted with story-led brands such as Pop Mart or Labubu, Yubari is not a story-led brand, and this forced us to look for alternative ways of creating emotional involvement. The client challenged us to go deep and uncover an emotional dimension which could form the core of long-term brand loyalty. To achieve this, we began exploring how successful brands build emotional connections with people through storytelling, interactive digital presence, and sustained community engagement. This session set a significant tone for our project and reminded us that emotional resonance is stronger than a message designed to drive sales.

Fig 2.1 Research, Week 3

Once we had the briefing from the client, we moved to the contextual research phase in order to develop a better idea of Yubari's positioning and potential. We went through key details as a team including the tone of voice of the brand, visual identity, product strengths, and target market. My own input was to review Yubari's direction and image as a brand, core values, color palette, USP, and demographic appeal. This helped me explore how the brand could establish emotional connections and a sense of belongingness beyond and beyond the product itself. 

During class, Mr. Mike provided feedback on our initial research. He mentioned that much of our findings overlapped and advised us to dig deeper particularly by studying successful brand communities and figuring out what actually ignites engagement and loyalty. He also asked us to begin thinking creatively about how Yubari might be positioned as a lifestyle product, as opposed to a practical one. And he asked us to remember to research ways of informing the public about this fairly new concept product, because awareness and knowledge will be key when it comes to developing the community. This critique pushed us to consider going beyond superficial branding and begin addressing long-term emotional value, storytelling, and the development of brand identity.

Fig 2.2 Gucci, Week 3

We studied strategic positioning concepts for the Yubari Self-Watering Pot this week in regard to its benefits on both the utilitarian and the emotional levels. We discussed in our group how the value of the product could be best communicated, from explaining the common misconceptions about its functionality, to even using it as a stress management tool, for emotional health, and for a mindful lifestyle.

We organized our results into top-level categories such as influencer marketing, learning campaigns, storytelling, and acquiring user feedback. We also developed positioning themes around emotional responsibility, peaceful spaces, and value delivery changing the product narrative from functionality to lifestyle enhancement. For me, personally, this activity led me to understand how product marketing can be multi-layered. It's not merely about features, but even about how such features can emotionally empower users. This experience also spawned ideas for future campaign messaging and voice of brand that was both pragmatic and compassionate. One of the strongest takeaways was the emphasis on positioning Yubari as "a wellness assistant" rather than simply a planter shifting the brand from product-centric to people-centric.

Fig 2.3 

This week, our team finalized three distinct user personas Farah Y., Bryan C., and Kayla Z.To represent the core segments we’re targeting with the Yubari self-watering pot. Each persona reflected a different lifestyle and level of experience with plants, which helped us identify specific needs, challenges, and emotional motivations behind plant ownership.

I spent time creating and refining content in Miro so that each persona stood out clearly in behavior, goals, and product expectations. Collaborating with my team, I also spent time crafting how the Yubari pot directly addresses their respective aches whether it's Farah's feeling of being overwhelmed as a busy mom, Bryan's plant-care exhaustion, or Kayla's fear of losing her new plants as a newbie plant parent. This exercise made me understand the power of empathy-based design. By connecting real issues to relatable stories, we could design a product and communication strategy that means something to our users genuinely. It was also a reminder that personas are not actually fictional but are what guide every creative and pragmatic decision in the future.

Week 4

Throughout this semester, I managed to experience the entire process of design from initial research and brainstorming to final implementation and presentation. Projects 1, 2, and 3 gave me the flexibility to employ different strategies towards design thinking, develop my technical proficiency, and promote my appreciation for storytelling in visual communication.

The most valuable lesson that I have learned is that good design is far more than appearance. It requires a solid strategic base, emotional understanding, and a clear sense of the audience. Input from Mr. Mike and my fellow group members informed me of the value of iteration and the ways in which constructive criticism can drive true improvement. Group work with my group further honed my teamwork abilities. Effective communication, clearly defined roles, and mutual support among us were crucial to our success. One of the most significant things I learned was observing how much a visually well-crafted direction can influence the tone, clarity, and emotional impact of a campaign. From designing posters, websites, and social media, I saw directly how intent and consistency are key to building a strong message. In the future, I plan to carry these experiences along with me staying open to criticism, designing purposefully, and always keeping the end user in mind. This semester not only helped me improve my design skills but also impacted the way I think and speak as an inventive individual.

Week 5

This week, Mr. Mike provided us with detailed feedback on our user personas. He especially noted that the first persona of a mother needed additional effort to set her apart more clearly from the other profiles. To this effect, we updated the persona so that she would have a more distinct identity so that the three personas captured different lifestyles, motives, and issues.

We also as a team made a decision about the distribution breakdown for our target market: 60% Gen Z, 20% young home designers/Nesters, and 20% female business owners. This helped us define clearly the scope of our design direction and guide our promotional efforts in the correct direction accordingly. Mr. Mike also warned us that our survey questions must be worded specifically for these personas. Following the generation of ideas and input from the team, we completed the draft of the survey and submitted it for his comment. I led the strengthening of the wording and structuring of the questions through our consultation, making them relevant, comprehensible, and specific. As a side project, I also helped to review the Consultation Log for Weeks 3–5 and housed our target audience findings in a collaborative Google Docs document, so the whole team could readily access our demographic study and remain in sync with one another in the future.

Week 6

During the week, our first set of survey questions was reviewed by Mr. Mike and received excellent, constructive criticisms. The main aim of the survey is to find out the things that will inform the creation of a targeted promotional approach one that is friendly to our three user personas and, at the same time, strongly motivates them into looking at the Yubari self-watering pot. To support this, he gave us real-life examples for each section of the survey that helped us understand how to phrase our questions with intent and precision. Under his guidance, we changed the list of questions, ensuring we picked the most critical and efficient ones. Once we made changes, we turned the finalized questions into a Google Form for distribution and data collection purposes. This experience reinforced the importance of intentional research design and that even minute word changes could impact the quality of information gathered for strategic planning.

The link to our survey: Link

Week 7
This week, we began sending out our survey to those people that fit into our predetermined target audience segments. We aimed to capture responses which are allocated based on the intended persona split: 60% Gen Z, 20% Nesters (35–50), and 20% Early Millennials (31–45). Having the correct demographic balance was highly critical in an effort to gather quality insights that would guide our promotional strategy towards Yubari. Since our target audience is Gen Z and I am also part of the Gen Z generation, I went ahead and shared the survey via my Instagram Story and encouraged peers from that group to take it. In order to help reach Nesters and Early Millennials, I shared the form in my family chat group, where they assisted in sending it out to others within the proper age ranges. Our target is to collect a minimum of 50 responses, and we’re continuing to monitor the progress to ensure a balanced and reliable dataset for analysis.

Week 8

Fig 2.4 Data Week 8

This week, we were able to collect our target of 52 survey responses, which allowed us to close the form and begin the analysis process. Two of my team members and I collaborated to analyze and interpret data, seeking patterns, preferences, and pain points that are associated with our three target personas.

Together, we broke down the responses by age categories and behaviors to ensure our insights applied to each segment Gen Z, Nesters, and Early Millennials. This allowed us to better define the emotional motivators and functional needs that might inform Yubari's promotional strategy and messaging.

Fig 2.5 Findings

After completing data analysis, we moved to the insight discovery phase. We were supposed to draw meaningful conclusions from the survey responses and highlight the most relevant trends. Working in groups, we collectively identified and listed down the top five insights that we discovered from the data. They all had a clear connection with our user personas and provided us with clearer insights on what motivates, concerns, or inspires each of them. This was an important step in the development of our future marketing strategy, as it allowed us to make our creative vision based on real user comments and not guesses. The process also served to sharpen our critical thinking abilities and made it clear that data-driven decision-making is essential for design.

Fig 2.6 Insight

Having received approval from Mr. Mike on our main insights, we proceeded and completed the other parts of the Insight Discovery section. From the findings of our survey, we began crafting a clear and focused problem statement that reflected the real pains and needs of our target users.

Week 9

Mr. Mike also positively critiqued our Point of View (POV) segment, requesting us to summarize the content and render it more well-defined. In light of his suggestions, we revised it to align better with our findings and project goals. With POV established, we focused on developing our proposal presentation slides, ensuring that content and visuals clearly communicated our research findings, design direction, and branding strategy. This week worked to impress upon me the importance of clarity and continuity from research to presentation, setting a strong base for the subsequent stages of our project.

Week 10

Task 2: Idea Execution

Week 11

We were briefed this week by Mr. Mike on the essential content that we needed to include in our final presentation. In accordance with his briefing, we began developing both the user journey map and customer journey map so that we could see the experience from different perspectives and identify where there were opportunities for design intervention. These tools were invaluable for informing our design decisions and ensuring that our solutions were addressing user needs at each touchpoint.

At the same time, we also started working on a Gantt chart to map our timeline and balance task allocation effectively as we move towards the date of the final presentation. This helped us to break up our workload into clear milestones and kept everyone in the team on target with their deliverables. This phase reaffirmed the importance of structured planning and allowed us to get off to a solid start with the execution of our final deliverables.

Gantt chart: Link

Week 12

This week, Mr. Mike pointed out that our visual direction wasn't clear and needed to be refined. To resolve this, he challenged us to come up with a list of guiding keywords that could more effectively define the look and feel of the Yubari brand. After a team discussion, we agreed on three key descriptors: "simple," "calm," and "playful." These adjectives capture the essence of what Yubari is aiming to offer emotionally supportive yet approachable experience for users.

Mr. Mike advised us to use these keywords as anchors throughout our design process, helping us maintain consistency across all touchpoints. To reinforce this direction, he also suggested creating a visual poster that embodies the selected descriptors and serves as a reference point for our overall branding. This activity helped align our creative decisions and gave us a clearer vision moving forward.

Fig 2.7 color

Following the feedback session, our group began researching options for the color scheme of Yubari. We considered many, green-based color schemes to express the product's closeness to nature, relaxation, and good health. Each group member put forward suggestions, and we compiled a list of potential palettes to explore.

After presenting the options, we held a group vote to decide on the final direction. The palette with the most votes was chosen as our official color palette, ensuring that the decision was not just collaborative but also met our visual identity keywords of simple, calm, and playful. The exercise synced our design vision and established a strong visual base for further deliverables.

Fig 2.9 Website Design Draft 1 and 2

This week our focus was on finalizing the Yubari website design, and multiple layout and color scheme experiments were created and compared across the team. There was also experimentation with alternations in background colors, typography, layout composition, and visual balance especially in the hero section, product segmentation, and brand introduction part. After we had sketched out the possibilities, as a team, we discussed how each version was conveying the brand's personality: simple, peaceful, playful. We considered how color choices would affect readability, emotional connection, and aesthetic appeal. Darker backgrounds gave an earthy, sophisticated feeling, while lighter versions aimed for a more light, minimalist look.

In doing so, I assisted in creating the layout elements, contrast reading across screens, as well as aligning visual direction with our three personas most especially Gen Z, who have a preference for minimalist intuitive interfaces. We wanted a soft, soothing user experience that makes Yubari's mission something more than a product, but as a wellness companion. This iterative process informed me of the significance of how slight visual changes can impact the tone of a brand, its usability, and its message readability. It also solidified the significance of team criticism and careful experimentation when arriving at the best final design.

Week 13

Fig 2.10 

Fig 3.1

These shots reference the dual appeal of the Yubari self-watering plant pot—as a functional product and emotional well-being friend.

The initial photo captures Yubari in a neat, study room environment, emphasizing its capacity to offer a calm, organized study area. It demonstrates how simply Yubari can become a part of daily routines to foster focus and stability.

The second image, showing a user watering the plant at sunset, captures a peaceful, reflective moment. It illustrates the product’s ease of use and emotional value, reinforcing its identity as a stress-free, mood-enhancing companion.

Together, these images communicate Yubari’s core message: simplicity, calmness, and emotional connection through greenery.

fig 3.2

Fig 3.3 

This round of iteration seeks to enhance the hero area of the Yubari website with a more consistent visual identity. The selected green background with abstract textured lines intensifies the emotional brand tone calm, simple, and playful while rooting it further in its natural undertone.

The "Take a new friend to your home" line stays central, still maintaining a warm and inviting presentation of the product.

Yubari pot hero shot is placed in a central, attention-grabbing position to make the product prominent without overwhelming the design.

A small "Plant Care" CTA button placed unobtrusively invites users to learn more in a non-intrusive manner.

The background texture creates soft visual interest without distracting from the main content and gives an air of calmness and simplicity.

These layouts successfully communicate Yubari’s role as more than just a product it’s a gentle companion designed to support a stress-free, balanced lifestyle, especially for students and young adults.

Week 14

Final Website Design and Prototype

Fig 3.4

Fig 3.7

The final Yubari website design captures the brand's core values of simplicity, tranquility, and playfulness. It's got a simple layout that features a light green color scheme, providing a soothing and nature-inspired setting. All key sections such as the hero banner, product operations, customer reviews, and download area altogether inform and emotionally connect with the target audience.

The site effectively communicates Yubari’s purpose: a self-watering pot that supports stress-free plant care and promotes emotional wellness, especially for students and young professionals. With clear visuals, thoughtful copy, and a cohesive visual direction, the website offers both functionality and storytelling in a user-friendly experience.

Home Page

Fig 3.5

Mobile Phone App

Fig 3.6

Week 15 
Task 3: Final Presentation 

YUBARI GROUP| FINAL PRESENTATION

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FEEDBACK

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REFLECTION

Throughout this semester, I went through a complete design process—from research and brainstorming to implementation and final presentation. Projects 1, 2, and 3 gave me the chance to experiment with several design thinking strategies, expand my technical skills, and learn about the significance of storytelling in visual communication. I learned that effective design is not as simple as it looks; it requires strategy, emotional connection, and applicability to the audience. Mr. Mike's workshop and peer feedback taught me the need for editing work through criticism. I became more confident in teamwork as well, enjoying the need for effective communication and well-defined roles.

The overall lesson learned was the strength of a good visual direction in shaping the tone and functionality of a campaign. From designing posters, websites, reels, or event graphics, I've learned the importance of consistency and intention with every single creative choice. Moving forward, I will hold all of these things close to heart while designing with empathy, being open to critique, and always considering the user first.