Week 2
This week focused on finalizing our group formation and watching the recorded lecture on myTimes to better understand the project expectations and requirements.
Week 3
We had our first virtual meeting with the client through Microsoft Teams, which helped us better understand their expectations, the Yubari product, and the direction they envision for the project. The client also shared a set of project brief slides to guide our development process.
During the meeting, the client clarified that their current focus is not on sales, but rather on building a strong brand community. Since Yubari is not a character-based IP and lacks a defined universe like Pop Mart or Labubu, we were challenged to identify its emotional hook. The client encouraged us to conduct deeper research into what motivates consumers to stay engaged with a brand community. This includes examining how other brand communities foster customer loyalty through emotional branding, engaging social media content, and consistent audience interaction strategies.
Following the client briefing, we began our contextual research. This included analyzing Yubari’s brand direction, identity, and positioning, conducting competitor analysis, studying the product’s design and features, and identifying the target audience.
For my part, I focused on researching the brand’s direction, identity, positioning, and target audience to better understand how we could develop a meaningful emotional connection and community-building strategy for Yubari.
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| Fig.2.1 Contextual Research #1, Week 3, 7.5.2025 |
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During class, Mr. Mike reviewed our research and pointed out that many of us had focused on similar areas, resulting in repetitive findings. He advised us to deepen our exploration, particularly by studying successful brand communities to understand what makes them effective, and how those insights can be applied to Yubari. He also encouraged us to start ideating new ways to promote the brand rather than just the product, and to think about how to educate the public on adopting this new concept.
Therefore, I was assigned to focu on researching successful brand communities. The first brand that immediately came to mind was
Dododots, as I personally follow and have purchased from them. Their success caught my attention mainly because of how effectively they use social media to engage their audience. I began my research by exploring Dododots' community strategies and came across a
website that shared their brand journey. After reading through it, I summarized the key points to better understand how they built such a strong and loyal community.
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| Fig.2.2 Contextual Research #2 ( Dododots), Week 3, 9.5.2025 |
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Week 4
In this week’s class, I received feedback from Mr. Mike. He told us that we need to do deeper research on what makes people stay connected to a brand community. He asked us to explore how successful brands keep their customers loyal and interested—through social media content, fun engagement strategies, and emotional branding.
So, I decided to focus on Dododots, a brand I personally like and follow. I looked into how they use social media, how they talk to their followers, and how they build emotional connections with their audience. This helped me understand why their community is strong and gave me ideas we could use for Yubari. I also analyzed it from my own perspective as a loyal customer, which helped me see things more clearly from a consumer’s point of view.
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| Fig.2.3 Contextual Research #3 ( Dododots), Week 4, 16.5.2025 |
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While I was working on this, my groupmates focused on creating user personas and preparing the survey and interview questions to better understand our target audience. We decided on three main user personas for Yubari: the young home creator/nester, the female entrepreneur, and Gen Z.
Week 5
Week 6
Mr. Mike gave us feedback on our first draft of the survey questions. He reminded us that the questions should help us build a promotional ad strategy or plan that can persuade the three user personas to buy Yubari. He also shared some helpful examples for each section of the survey to guide us in improving our questions.
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| Fig.2.5 Feedback given for the survey questions, Week 6, 30.5.2025 |
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After receiving his feedback, we began refining and filtering the survey questions based on the examples he gave. Once all the questions were finalized, we input them into a Google Form to prepare for data collection.
Week 7
We started sharing our survey form with people who match our target audience. Our goal was to collect responses based on the set persona percentages: 60% Gen Z, 20% Nesters (ages 35–50), and 20% Early Millennials (ages 31–45). We focused on reaching the right people so that the data we collect can help us build a strong promotional strategy for Yubari.
Since our main target is Gen Z—and I’m also part of this group—I shared the survey through my Instagram Story to get more Gen Z responses. To reach the Nesters and Early Millennials, I sent the survey to my family group chat, and they helped by forwarding it to others in those age groups.
Our aim is to collect at least 50 responses in total.
Week 8
We successfully collected a total of 52 responses this week, so we stopped sharing the survey. I was in charge of analyzing the data along with two other groupmates.
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| Fig.2.6 Survey results & Data Analysis, Week 8, 13.6.2025 |
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After completing the data analysis, we moved on to the insight discovery stage. As part of this, we had to list out the top 5 key findings from the data we analyzed.
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| Fig.2.7 Insight Discovery ( Top 5 Findings ), Week 8, 13.6.2025 |
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| Fig.2.8 The Problem Statement and How Might We Questions, Week 8, 13.6.2025 |
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Week 9
We received feedback from Mr. Mike on our Point of View (POV) section. Based on his comments, we refined and improved the content to make it clearer and more focused. After finalizing the POV, we began working on our proposal slides.
Week 10
We presented our proposal to the client, Expedio.
FINAL OUTCOME
Task 2: Idea Execution
Week 11
Mr. Mike briefed us on the required content for the final presentation. At this stage, we started working on both the user journey map and the customer journey map, using them to plan out the design tasks. We also began preparing a Gantt chart to track our progress leading up to the final presentation.
Week 12
Mr. Mike pointed out that our art direction was still unclear, so he asked us to come up with keywords for our project. After discussion, we decided on "simple," "calm," and "playful" as the main keywords for Yubari. Mr. Mike advised us to design based on the style of these keywords. To help us confirm the art direction, he asked us to create a poster as a starting point.
After the consultation, we discussed the color palette. We explored a few green-based palettes and shared them with the group. Everyone voted, and we selected the one that received the most votes as our final choice.
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| Fig.2.9 Colour Palette #1, Week 12, 11.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.10 Poster selection #1, Week 12, 11.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.11 Poster selection #2, Week 12, 11.7.2025 |
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Week 13
Mr Mike mentioned that our customer journey map seems practical and achievable, and our design direction looks good and is moving the right way. So, we continued progressing with our work based on the current direction.
During class, my groupmate Wee Han presented the packaging design. Mr. Mike commented that although the design looks nice, it doesn't match our main target audience — university students. Instead, it looked more suitable for an older age group. He advised us to make it more playful to better appeal to Gen Z. We felt a bit stuck again, so we started discussing and finalizing our design concept.
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| Fig.2.12 Packaging Design #1, Week 13, 18.7.2025 |
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After discussion, we concluded that the art direction for Yubari should embrace a calm, minimal, and nurturing style that matches the brand’s MeTime concept.
After confirming the concept, we refined our color palette slightly by changing the "Ivory Mist" shade to a warmer cream tone.
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| Fig.2.13 Finalised Colour Palette, Week 13, 18.7.2025 |
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We also finalized our typography choices:
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| Fig.2.14 Finalised Logo Typeface, Week 13, 18.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.15 Finalised Body Typeface, Week 13, 18.7.2025 |
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Besides that, we also finalized the design of the Yubari logo. We added a small plant sprout above the letter "I," which visually resembles a plant pot — aligning well with our product and concept.
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| Fig.2.16 Yubari Logo, Week 13, 18.7.2025 |
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We also discussed the features of our Yubari Mood Tracking App, which connects to the smart plant pot. The main idea is to make the pot’s light change color based on the user’s mood. The app includes the following features:
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Sends notifications for users to rate their emotions.
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Changes the pot light based on selected moods (starting with Happy, Sad, Angry, Neutral, and unlocking more detailed emotions like Anxiety or Calm as users level up).
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Tracks plant health and sends care reminders for watering and sunlight.
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Uses AI to suggest suitable light colors and provides emotion and plant diary features, along with personalized tips.
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Includes social features where users can invite friends to join, view shared moods (optional), and get plant health updates.
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Friends can remind each other to care for their plants and offer emotional support, creating a supportive Yubari community.
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Inviting friends unlocks rewards like pot charms, care tools, or app points.
After finalizing the app features and visual direction, we continued moving forward with our assigned tasks.
Week 14
Before working on the content, I created a logo animation to be used as the outro for all our Yubari videos. To match our minimalist and playful style, I used a masking technique to reveal the word "yubari" letter by letter. After the text appears, two leaf shapes pop up one after another to complete the animation.
Progress:
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| Fig.2.17 Progress of making logo animation #1, Week 14, 25.7.2025 |
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Draft #1
Week 15
I came up with a new idea for the logo animation and created a second version. In this version, the letter "i" appears first as a plant pod, symbolizing growth. Then, the letters "yubar" appear one by one, while the plant pod stretches upward from the pot to form the "i" — making it look like the plant is growing out of the logo.
Progress:
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| Fig.2.19 Progress update on my second try at the logo animation.#1, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.20 Progress update on my second try at the logo animation.#2, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.21 Progress update on my second try at the logo animation.#3, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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FINAL OUTCOME
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| Fig.2.22 Thumbnail for each logo animation #2, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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I also created a GIF version of the logo animation, which can be used on digital platforms such as websites or social media posts to maintain brand consistency in a more flexible and engaging format.
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| Fig.2.23 Finalised logo animation GIF ( Light version ), Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.24 Finalised logo animation GIF ( Dark version ), Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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Since I had already created the logo animation, I was inspired by the second version — where the "i" appears as a plant pot and stretches upward like a growing plant. I felt that this concept strongly represented Yubari’s identity, so I decided to develop it further into our application logo. The plant pot idea is simple, meaningful, and closely tied to our product, making it a suitable and recognizable icon for the Yubari app.
I experimented with different color combinations using our finalized color palette.
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| Fig.2.25 Experiment on different color combinations for Yubari Logo, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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In the end, I decided to use
cream as the background color and
Cyber Pear green for the logo, as this combination felt clean, soft, and aligned with Yubari’s calming and nature-inspired theme.
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| Fig.2.26 ( Left ) Application logo, ( Right) Yubari logo , Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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| Fig.2.27 Finalised Application logo, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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After completing the logo animation and the final logo design, I began working on the Instagram Reels and Story content, which were part of my assigned tasks. As outlined in the Gantt chart, our group leader, Kerly, had listed down the types and themes of content each member should work on. I followed the content plan accordingly and started creating the materials based on the assigned direction.
1. Instagram Reels
Reel 1: “Desk Glow-Up with YUBARI” – A before-and-after transformation of a cluttered desk into a cozy space using Yubari.
This reel was shot by my groupmate Tyra, and I am in charge of editing the video clips she recorded. I used CapCut to edit this reel.
Editing Plan:
1. Scene 1 (0–2s)
- Shot: Close-up of a messy, cluttered desk
- Text: POV: When your desk feels as tired as you do…
2. Scene 2 (2–4s)
- Shot: Wide shot of the same messy desk area
- Text: Time for a little glow-up.
3. Scene 3 (4–6s)- Shot: Finger snap transition in same wide shot
- Effect: Scene changes instantly from cluttered to clean
- Text: Snap → Glow. (or no text for a clean moment)
4. Scene 4 (6–10s)
- Shot: Wide shot of clean, cozy desk with YUBARI pot glowing
- Text: One pot. Total peace.
5. Scene 5 (10–14s)Shot: Close-up zooming out from YUBARI pot to show full tidy desk
Text: Dorm life, upgraded. Thanks to Yubari
6. Scene 6 (14–17s)
Progress:
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| Fig.2.28 Progress of editing Reel 1, Week 15, 30.7.2025 |
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Below is the final outcome of this reel.
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