Minor Project

21/04/2025 - 24/07/2025 | Week 1 - Week 14

Huang JiaQi | 0371553

Minor Project | Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

---

Table of Contents

    1. Module Information

    2. Project Briefing 

    3. Lecture

    4. Project

    5. Feedback 

    6. Reflection 

---

Module Information 

---

Lecture

Week 1: Module Briefing

• Understanding the marking rubric of the module.
• Read through the module information booklet.
• Select a project to work on as a group.

Week 2: Empathy

• Involves understanding of users' real experiences and needs by engaging them directly.
• Design with empathy instead of assumptions to achieve deeper understanding of users.
• Design thinking promotes innovations across various industries by transcending traditional design fields and emphasizing collaborations.
• Relying on assumptions can lead to failures.
• Stanford's Design Thinking includes empathy, problem definition, creative ideation, prototyping and testing.
• Design Thinking includes desirability, feasibility and viability to create human-centered solutions.
• IDEO's Version of Design Thinking includes inspiration, ideation, implementation.

Week 3: User Research

• Conducting interviews and observations help gather user insights to create personas.
• If skipped, it can lead to less effective products.
• The products should meet the actual needs and preferences of users.
• Not investing in user research early may lead to higher costs and the need for revisions post-launch.
• Avoid assumptions and design for specific user personas.
• Good UX research helps lead to better products and business success.
• Direct engagement through interviews / observations help to uncover user pain points.
• Main goal of effective user research is to gather both quantitative and qualitative data for user needs.
• The final step in user research is data analysis.
• Conducting usability test helps to gather insights on how users interact with the product.

Week 4: Define

• Insights connect what we learn to the real-world problem that needs to be solved.
• Strong case study is needed to support the insights.
• Data relates to raw information collected from research.
• Findings relate to trend of the data but not the reasons behind them.
• Insights explains why to the findings and drives an action.
• Problem statement defines the challenge from the user's perspective.
• User (Who we design it for) -> Need (What do they need) -> Insight (Why do they need it)
• 'How' encourages open-ended thinking.
• 'Might' keeps possibilities flexible.
• 'We' promotes teamwork and collaboration.
• How might we (intended action) for (primary target user) so that (desired effect)?
• Eg. How might we design flexible workout options for people with demanding jobs so that they can exercise consistently?

Week 5: Ideation

• Encourage creativity, generate multiple ideas and motivate collaboration.
• Eg. Brainstorm, Mindmapping, SCAMPER, Crazy 8's
• Brainstorm refers to generate as many ideas as possible, focusing on quantity over quality.
• Mindmapping is used to structure ideas, showing relationships between them.
• SCAMPER refers to a structured approach to improve existing products, services or processes.
• SCAMPER - Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse/Rearrange
• Crazy 8's refers to a fast-paced sketching to explore multiple design ideas in a short time.
• Customer's Journey Map helps to visualize user experience with product service or system.
• It outlines actions, emotions and pain points
• It helps designers to step into the user's shoes.

Figure 1.1 Sample of customer journey map, Week 5 (19/05/2025)

Week 6: Design Proposal

• Defines the project's approach, process, deliverables and timelines
• Ensure credibility and provide clarity on project's expectations and protect both parties.
• A tool for communication to align customer's needs and requirements.
• Proposal includes:
• Contextual Research
• User Personas
• Research
• Ideation
• Branding and Design Direction
• Final Presentation includes:
• Brand Identity
• Customer Journey Map
• Launch and Promotion Strategy
• Design Collaterals
• Presentation Aspects:
• Set the tone
• Be confident
• Make eye contact
• Greet your client
• Establish connection
• Use story structure
• Define problem
• Introduce design as solution
• Explain its impact
• Presentation Slides Aspects:
• Apply "Less is More" principle
• Apply suitable typography
• Set mood with colors
• Apply strong visual hierarchy 
• Use high quality images
• Apply sufficient animations and transitions
• Present clean data, charts, graphs and infographics
• Refine slides and rehearse

---

Project - Fraser's Hill 

In this project, we have been instructed to work as a team to present an innovative concept that introduces a unique solution related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The project proposal should include an executive summary to provide an overview of the project, a brief historical background of similar projects, resources required, a solution to the problem definition, a budget, and a timeline for project completion. The project overview is shown below.

Project Briefing

Executive Summary:

Located in the heart of Fraser's Hill, Malaysia's “European town”, this hotel is one of the region's most iconic British colonial-style accommodations, set in a tranquil valley surrounded by virgin forest. Known for its vintage brick walls, chimney designs and traditional woodwork, the hotel was once a retreat for colonial officials and is now an ideal place for travelers to experience a blend of history and nature.

The hotel is strategically located and surrounded by a wealth of ecological resources (e.g. famous bird watching trails, garden walks, forest reserves) and cultural assets (e.g. colonial complexes, the British Clock Tower, the old Post Office). This offers great potential for the hotel to transform into an eco-cultural composite lodging experience space.

Therefore, the project hopes to attract more environmentally and culturally conscious local and international travelers, increase occupancy rates, and promote sustainable tourism in the region by reinventing the hotel's brand positioning and visitor experience approach in conjunction with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Process:

Firstly, we were asked to do background research on the project topic. Since our group's topic was to enhance the visitor attractiveness of a certain hotel in Fraser's Hill, I conducted research on similar eco-cultural hotels and mountain resorts and organized the collected information in Miro.

In addition, I conducted a SWOT analysis for each case to gain insight into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of these hotels/attractions. This process helped us to see more clearly their specific practices in branding, visitor experience design, and sustainability, as well as their shortcomings in service or promotion - the results of these analyses can inform and inspire the design of strategies in our project proposals.

Question 1: How can we improve the attractiveness of Wyndham hotels to tourists?

(Focus on visitor profiling, feedback, competitive comparisons, brand experience, etc.)

Question 2: How can Fraser's Hill's local resources and community strengths be integrated to enhance the uniqueness of the hotel?

(Focus on community partnerships, local offerings, cultural events, facility environment, etc.)

Question 3: How can we combine ecotourism and cultural heritage to create a sustainable highland vacation experience?

(Focus on environmental protection, cultural preservation, experiential tourism, UN Sustainable Development Goals)

Figure 2.1. Contextual research

Figure 2.2. Contextual research

Figure 2.3. Contextual research

Figure 2.4. Contextual research

From this research, it is clear that the Wyndham Hotel at Fraser's Hill has excellent natural resources and cultural heritage, but there is significant room for improvement in terms of visitor engagement, branding and community connection. By combining eco-tourism, cultural experiences and local engagement, we will further develop specific and innovative solutions to make hotels not just ‘places to stay’ but ‘destinations to experience, learn and relax’.

For the user persona, we created three different personas:

Persona 1: The Eco Explorer

Name: Lena Tan

Age: 29 

Occupation: Ornithologist 

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Marital Status: Single 

Characteristics and Interests: 

Passionate about ecological exploration in the wild and involved in bird migration research all year round 

Prefers a quiet, non-commercialized natural environment 

Focuses on sustainable travel and will give preference to environmentally friendly accommodations 

Motivation for Travel: Looking for locations where I can birdwatch, photograph, and document natural ecology. Looking for places to watch birds, take photos and record the natural ecology, and hope that the hotel can provide ecological guides, forest trails and environmental protection facilities.

Figure 2.5 Persona 1 The Eco Explorer

Persona 2: The Cultural Aesthete

Name: Elina Wang 

Age: 30 

Education: Masters in Art History 

Occupation: Architect 

Nationality: Malaysia 

Marital Status: Single 

Characteristics and Interests: 

Passionate about historical architecture, cultural heritage and visual aesthetics 

Preferred accommodation experiences with a distinctive style, such as English cottages, vintage courtyards 

Frequently share travel photography and spatial design inspirations on social media 

Motivation for travel: want to visit colonial architecture, experience the “slow-paced” cultural town life I would like to visit colonial architecture and experience the “slow-paced” cultural town life. I would like to see cultural exhibitions, AR tours, and architectural aesthetics integrated into the design of the hotel.

Figure 2.6 Persona 2 The Cultural Aesthete

Persona 3: The Luxury & Wellness Seeker

Name:  Ashley Tang

Age: 28 

Occupation: Sales Manager 

Nationality: Malaysia 

Marital Status: Single 

Characteristics and Interests: 

Stressed out at work, often looking for places to relax in the outskirts of the city on the weekends 

Used to booking and clocking in via the internet/social media platforms 

Prefers quality accommodation, with an emphasis on service, Wi-Fi, and amenities 

Motivation for travel: looking for a hotel that offers a relaxing and enjoyable stay, combined with modern amenities Combined with natural landscapes. she is also fond of retro style, which is suitable for the combination of “light literature + light nature”.

Figure 2.7 Persona 3 The Urban Escaper

After conducting interviews and developing three distinct user personas, we created an empathy map to gain deeper insight into the thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and motivations of our target users. This process allowed us to step into their shoes and truly understand what they think, see, say, hear, do, and feel in relation to eco-tourism and their hotel experience at Wyndham Fraser’s Hill.

By identifying their goals, pain points, and aspirations, we are better equipped to design services and experiences that resonate with their values and expectations—whether it's the desire for quiet nature escapes, authentic cultural encounters, or luxurious wellness retreats. This empathy map serves as a foundation for our user-centered design approach in the project.

Figure 2.7  Empathy map,

Based on the data we collected during our research phase, each group member was tasked with identifying five key findings derived from the insights gathered. Below are my individual findings based on the user personas, empathy map, and contextual research.

Figure 2.8  top 5 finding

After compiling our individual top five findings, we proceeded to group them by identifying commonalities across the data. This process allowed us to categorize the findings into key themes. Based on these themes, we then developed insight statements that analyze the underlying reasons behind each theme and explain why these patterns may have emerged.

Figure 2.9 categories of findings

Figure 2.10 Analyze the findings

Afterwards, we discussed about the problem statement after identifying our target audience, their needs and the insights. Then, we created the "How Might We" questions to frame our ideation and proceed with coming out solutions to solve the issue.

Figure 2.11 Analyze the problem statement and creating questions 

In week 9, our group focused on preparing presentation slides. We compiled our research findings, user personas, key themes and insight statements into a structured and visually appealing slide deck to present our ideas clearly and effectively.

Social Media Campaign Proposal - Feel the Roots，作者 nicole eee

We realized that our group had not yet completed the development of User Personas in depth. Although we had preliminary interview data and ideas about user types, we had not systematically organized them into specific, concrete, and concrete user personas that we could complete according to our teacher's feedback.

Figure 2.12 User Personas

Figure 2.13 User Personas

Over the next few weeks, our team's main focus was on completing the final report. We continued to integrate the results of the research done in the early stages, including user profiling, empathy mapping, user journey mapping, key insights and strategic directions, and organized all the contents into a PPT in a structured manner, aiming to convey our concepts and solutions clearly and persuasively in the debriefing.

In the later stages of the project, my teammates (Guan Yu and Hou Xinran) and I were responsible for organizing and presenting two key components: Weekly Planner and Analytics Tracking. These two sections were extended from the Campaign Timeline we developed earlier to make the overall program more executable and evaluable. We also noticed that the three User Personas were initially created by different people, with different fonts, color schemes, and typographic styles. In order to improve the overall visual consistency, the three of us helped to unify the font style, color scheme and icon style of the three portraits, so that the whole display page looks more professional, neat and consistent with the brand and project image.

Figure 2.14 Personas

Figure 2.15 Unify Personas

Figure 2.16 Unify Personas

Figure 2.17 weekly planner

Figure 2.18  campaign timeline 

Art Direction:

Our team began to enter the Art Direction stage, mainly responsible for the planning and implementation of the overall visual style.

Figure 2.19  Art Direction

Theme direction: Forest Quiet × Retro England × Natural Healing

Figure 2.20 color palette 

Fraser's Hill is a rare plateau ecological tourism destination on the Malaysian Peninsula. One of its biggest features is the primitive tropical rainforest, rich animal and plant ecology, and the mountain and forest environment shrouded in clouds all year round. Green tone can accurately convey the images of nature, forest, freshness, quiet, etc., reflecting the core value of "eco-friendly" of the destination.

Green is the most relaxing, safe and decompressive color in visual psychology. Tourists come to Fraser's Hill in essence to seek a healing experience of separation from the city. Green can guide tourists to slow down and enter a soothing journey rhythm from the color level.

Typography Style：

Stage theme: visual unification and font system setting

In the later design stage of the project, our team was responsible for the Art Direction of the whole project. One of the key tasks is the setting of typography style, because text is not only the carrier of information, but also directly affects the overall visual atmosphere and user mood.

Figure 2.21 typography 

Figure 2.22 typography style 

User Journey Mapping :

In the middle of the project, our team began to plan content strategies and output visual content around User Journey Map. We divide the user's overall experience process into several stages such as "inspiration → consideration → participation → recall", and design the corresponding visual content and communication forms according to each stage.

Month 1 Social media post:

Month 1: Arouse interest (Teaser & Emotional Connection)

 Content production:

Social Media Post (social media publicity picture)

The theme revolves around nature, forest, quiet and escape from the city.

Emphasize green ecology and visual healing, and attract the target people who yearn for nature.

Figure 2.23 Month 1 Social media post

Teaser Video:

Teaser Video (Teaser Video)

It's called "Feel the Roots", which guides users to "return to nature" through clip footage and soft narration.

Put it on Instagram Reels + Weibo short video platform for the first time

Use poetic text & wooden texture Logo to enhance the brand image

 Effect Goal: Make the audience interested in Fraser's Hill and remember the keyword of "ecology × tranquility"

Figure 2.24 teaser video

Month 2 Social media post (ADS):

Content production:

Social Media Paid Ads (Social Media Advertising)

Promote with the themes of exquisite images with "light luxury natural vacation" and "short-distance escape experience"

The goal is to attract clicks to the official website or reservation page.

Website Teaser Banner (official website banner)

Show the main selling points of Wyndham Fraser's Hill: history and culture, ecological activities, comfortable accommodation

Join the countdown tip: "The healing journey is about to begin"

Out-of-Home Ads (Outdoor Advertising)

The concept poster will be released around subway stations/universitys in major cities in Malaysia (such as KL).

Forest style using "visual decompression" + poetic short sentence copy to attract attention

Figure 2.25 Month 2 Social media post (ADS)

Figure 2.26 Website Teaser Banner

Figure 2.27 Out-of-Home Ads

Effect goal: Build the brand trust of Fraser's Hill Wyndham and encourage users to "plan + share + recommend".

Ideal Atmosphere  Display

Figure 2.27 Ideal Atmosphere  Display

We created promotional graphics/visual concepts for the hotel to better visualise our vision for the future direction of the Wyndham Hotel. These images combined the natural environment, English architecture and healing atmosphere to help us visually enhance the overall appeal of the proposal.

Month 3 Social media post:

 Production content and purpose:

Social Media Post (Social Media News)

Content direction:

Share the real experience photos of tourists in Wyndham Fraser's Hill

Themes such as "the moment of check-in", "daily breakfast in the mountains and forests", "the moment of meeting rare birds", etc.

Convey gentle feelings with gentle copywriting, such as: "So this is how the forest breathes."

Functional objectives:

Trigger forwarding, collection and UGC (user-generated content)

Improve the reputational weight of brands on social media platforms

Figure 2.28 Social media post

Figure 2.29 Social media post

Figure 2.30 Micro-influencer Reviews

Figure 2.31 Website Teaser Banner

Micro-influencer Reviews (Continuation of Small KOL Experience Evaluation)

Strategic direction:

Invite the content creators who cooperated with last month to release the second dynamic (such as vlog or travel summary)

Show the process of using tourist handbooks, sticker punching, cultural activities (such as honey workshop, flower art experience)

Highlight practice:

Encourage them to join "A Sentence to Fraser's Hill" or "Three Most Recommended Things"

Interact with brand accounts to improve the sense of community

Functional objectives:

Strengthen trust dissemination (peer-to-peer recommendation)

Close the emotional distance between brands and consumers, and raise the temperature of brand people.

Month 3 Stage Core Values:

Focus on the true story

Speak in the voice of a visitor

Let "nature, culture and healing" be transformed from brand concept to actual experience sharing

Bury the second visit & recommend seeds

Month 4 Social media post:

Social Media Post

Theme:  "Roots & Routes" Drop

Focusing on "The Roots of Travel × The Road of Exploration", a set of reflective content will be released to let the audience visually review the journey, while triggering the inner perception of ecological culture.

Content form:

Carousel graphic post: presents the behind-the-scenes perspective (BTS) of the local host/guide, conveying humanity and professionalism

Social-minded Ads: Sharing local community participation and environmental protection actions (such as honey sustainable cultivation, small ecological handicraft workshops)

 Goal: Guide users to raise "experience" to "emotional identity" and form brand memory points.

Out-of-Home Ads (outdoor advertising)

Visual direction: Quoting tourists' reflection quotes + Fraser's Hill real-life background map

Suggested exhibition location: urban transportation hub (let urban people "see far away")

Copywriting example: "What did you bring back when you came back from the mountains?"

The style emphasizes environmental protection, leaving white space and thinking space.

 Goal: Make the brand value visible and impress potential visitors who "have not yet started".

Figure 2.32 Social media post

Figure 2.33 social media Ads

Figure 2.34 out of home Ads

A Reflective Visitor Companion：

Entering the final stage of the journey, our team focuses on providing tourists with precipitation experience and brand memory extension, so that they can still connect with nature, culture and locality after leaving Fraser's Hill. The content of this stage not only emphasizes "reflection", but also undertakes the core of the brand: "slow × ecological × immersion".

Selected Experience Manual: "A Reflective Visitor Companion"

In order to further extend the depth and memory of the journey, our team specially planned and designed an ecological notebook-style experience book - A Reflective Visitor Companion. This notebook not only provides guided information, but more importantly, it encourages tourists to slow down, record as they walk, and establish a real connection between travelers and nature, culture and community.

Figure 2.35 A reflective visitor companion 

Plate I: Nature Tour Page

Theme keywords: ecology × forest × breathing × slow life

Figure 2.36 Plate I: Nature Tour Page

Figure 2.37 Plate I: Nature Tour Page

Figure 2.38 Plate I: Nature Tour Page

Plate II: Historical Tour History Guide Page:

In this part, Guan Yu and I jointly planned the "History Guide" module. We don't just want to provide historical information, but we want travelers to have a dialogue with time while walking. We use warm narrative + free recording to make the notebook a part of the journey, not an external description.

Figure 2.39 Historical Tour History Guide Page

Plate Three: Cuisine Tour Food Guide Page：

Theme keywords: mountain taste × handmade × food memory

Figure 2.40 Cuisine Tour Food Guide Page

This notebook is ultimately not only a tool for tourists to record their journeys, but also becomes a medium for in-depth interaction with Fraser's Hill in nature, history and humanities. We enjoy the planning and creative process in this module, and we also hope that every visitor can write their own clips and emotions through it.

Figure 2.41 Social media post

Figure 2.42 booking confirmation Email 

Month 5 - Community Return Stage: Continue memories with stories and connect roots with journeys

After the tourists completed their ecological experience at Wyndham Fraser's Hill, our team specially planned the fifth phase of the "Community Interaction Continuation Program" to encourage them through a set of Instagram community activity templates with a strong sense of design and low participation threshold. Visitors continue to have an emotional connection with the brand after the journey.

 Activity Objective: #FeelTheRoots Community Diffusion

Our goal is to transform the individual memories of tourists into community content (UGC), form a real and credible brand voice, and further enhance the cultural identity of Wyndham Fraser's Hill in the field of ecotourism.

Figure 2.43 Social media post

Figure 2.44 IG Story Template

Figure 2.45 IG Story Template

We have designed community sharing content and interactive templates to encourage visitors to share their stories through #FeelTheRoots after the journey. The visual style adopts forest green, reflecting the ecological theme. The template provides guidance questions and free filling space to guide users to express and connect with nature, and at the same time improve the participation and resonance of the brand in the post-travel stage.

Month 6 - Community Giving Back Stage:

Theme: Echo of Growth | Growth You Can Feel

After the end of the journey, we hope to continue to maintain the emotional connection with the visitors. Through social media content, we invite tourists to share their memories and growth, emphasizing that the journey brings not only scenery, but also an internal transformation.

Figure 2.46 Social media post

Figure 2.47 thanks you-note 

Instagram Thank-You Card

We designed a thank-you card-style post to express our sincere gratitude to the visitors who participated in the activity and shared, and attached a discount code to return their support to strengthen user stickiness.

Collect real feedback from travelers through community review posts and thank-you card content, and invite them to share their spiritual changes in Fraser's Hill. The journey is not only about returning home, but also about feeling.

Week 15:

In the 15th week, we received the teacher's detailed feedback on the content and presentation structure of our proposal. According to these suggestions, our group carefully modified and optimized the PPT, further improving the visual presentation and logical clarity. After completing the revision and obtaining confirmation, we officially made the final report speech.

It showed the ecological tourism integration proposal we created for Wyndham Fraser's Hill, and successfully completed the whole process of this group project.

The final presentation:

Feel The Roots - Final Proposal，作者 nicole eee

link:Final proposal 

Through this project on Wyndham Fraser's Hill, I not only improved my ability in visual planning, content organization and teamwork, but also better understood the relationship between design and local culture and ecological protection. From the early user survey and the empathetic map, to the later handbook design and community content output, every step makes me deeply understand that a successful design is not only good-looking, but also meaningful and warm.

The final proposal report is a complete summary, which also makes me realize that communication, listening and adjustment between teams are the key to the success of the project. I am very grateful to participate in such a project full of nature, humanities and creativity, and I also look forward to continuing to grow in more realistic design scenarios in the future.

---

Feedback 

Feedback from tutor: 

The overall presentation of the project is logical, with a directional analysis of the Fraser's Hill Wyndham Hotel, and the content is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the consideration of ecological conservation and cultural heritage.

The use of user profiles, empathy maps and user journey maps was very good, showing the importance of user experience. However, the teacher also pointed out that we lacked uniformity in the User Personas section and needed to be consistent in font, colour and graphic presentation to reflect professionalism.

The visual hierarchy of the slide layout could be strengthened, such as more eye-catching titles and more prominent data. In addition, some of the charts are too dense with information and it is recommended that the content be appropriately simplified.

The resulting promotional charts are visually appealing, and the teacher encourages us to continue to explore the use of AI technology in visual communication.

Feedback from students: 

Most of the students found our debriefing informative and clearly structured, especially the perspective of combining eco-tourism with hotel operations was inspiring.

The user journey maps were very detailed and helped them understand the feelings and pain points of different user types during the experience.

Some students mentioned that the Weekly Planner and Analytics Tracking forms we created are very useful and can be directly applied if they are actually executing a project.

On the visual side, the inconsistency in the style of user profiles was pointed out, but fortunately, we've completed the adjustment at a later stage, and the overall sense is stronger.

---

Reflection 

This project gave me a deep understanding of the complete process of ‘Research → Insight → Design → Presentation’ and allowed me to grow on multiple levels:

In Task Collaboration - 

I was responsible for the development of Weekly Planner and Analytics Tracking with team members Guan Yu and Hou Xinran. At first we didn't have too clear idea about the structure of the content, but by reviewing the Campaign Timeline, we fleshed out the strategy content step by step and clarified the key tasks and measurable metrics for each week. This process made me realise that the degree of detail in planning and implementation determines whether an idea can become a reality or not.

In terms of visual expression - 

I was also responsible for generating promotional graphics for the Wyndham Hotel using AI drawing tools such as Midjourney. This was the first time I had actually used AI tools on a real project, which not only saved me production time, but also allowed me to experiment with keywords to control the style and convey a “healing, high-end, natural” atmosphere for the space. At the same time, I also helped the team to complete the uniform layout design of the user profiles to make the presentation more consistent.

In Strategic Thinking - 

Through researching user needs, developing Personas, and creating empathy maps and journey maps, I learnt how to think from the user's perspective. This is not only a design methodology, but also an empathy training. I also realised that the real meaningful strategy is not the idea itself, but ‘whether it can solve the problems of real users’.

Conclusion 

Although the whole project had some challenges, such as time constraints and adjustments in task assignments, with the team's support and constant communication, we were able to complete a structured, solid and visually coherent proposal. This process made me more confident to face more complicated team projects in the future, and also made me understand that ‘details determine experience, and experience determines value’.