Let the credits roll

It’s the season finale for Team Patent Pending (don’t worry, our Nielsen ratings have been through the roof and we’ve been renewed for the summer) and that means more drama…intrigue… twists and turns… Elon Musk guest-stars and might even shoot us into space…

We know what makes a good finale — it’s tying up loose ends to create a feeling of satisfaction and completion, while also leaving viewers wanting more. So without further ado…

Act 1

The culmination of this semester has been three deliverables that we knew were coming — an interactive website, final presentation, and detailed research report. The audiences and level of depth vary for each so that there’s something for everyone.

“A real crowdpleaser. I’ve got a Dundie with Patent Pending’s name on it.” — Steve Carrell, 2021

This meant adjusting the design elements, voice, and the way information was presented between each deliverable while maintaining a tone that was still “patently” ours (you can thank show writer Aaron Lee for this one).

You can always count on us to have more ideas than we know what to do with. We started with a design vision and ways we could link and bring things back to our overall prompt of TV and future thinking. Sometimes this involved carefully mapping out how we would present our problem and solution statements. Other times, it was five of us on a zoom call vetoing hexadecimals while we decided on a color scheme.

“Blue #6783E6? For a spring research report? Groundbreaking.” — Meryl Streep, on the phone with Patent Pending

We were also defining our “hook,” how we would get both clients and those outside of design and research to engage with the problem space. We weren’t short on inspiration, but we needed to adjust for cohesion and conciseness.

Act 2

*cue work montage*

Our website: It was a bit of a nerve-wracking moment when our team, after creating a mood board of potential website designs we liked, chose the most complicated one to emulate in our design, but we didn’t shy away from the challenge. We were given a prompt related to nascent technology, it seemed like a missed opportunity to create a future-facing website that was woefully stuck in the present. Our website uses 3D interaction, a dark, movie-theater type theme, and renderings of artifacts from research we’ve conducted to tell a visual story about our research process.

“You created a ThreeJS Interactive Website in a couple weeks?”
Phipson Lee, Tech Lead:

Our research report: As the most in-depth part of our final deliverables, our research report focused on communicating as much data to our client as possible as succinctly as possible. A lot of this involved breaking down concepts that we underestimated the complexity of while we were fully in the depths of the project, and explaining human-centered design practices in layman’s terms.

Our presentation: The true finale (presentation) coming May 10th involves easter eggs for our guests, visualizations of current and future states, and time for questions. As a deliverable that functions as both client-facing and appropriate for a general audience, we walked the boundary of being too formal or informal

Engaging but not distracting
Informative but not dry
Fun but not meandering

Act 3

Are you gripped? Are you on the edge of your seat? Can’t wait to see what happens?

“Come with me if you want [a sneak peek at what Team Patent Pending’s final deliverables shaped up to be]” — Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 2: Presentation Day

1. We made our design more uniform across every deliverable, sticking to specific illustration and color styles and using variations to highlight differences between current and future states
2. We brought the focus into deep fakes and synthetic content, since that was a major point of interest for our clients, and brainstormed innovative ways to include this in our presentation, where you might not expect it.
3. We wanted to be as illustrative as possible, by showing potential applications to make these solutions more tangible and how we envisioned tech working behind the scenes

So grab your popcorn, get comfortable (TV is a sedentary activity after all), and tune-in May 10th. This is Team Patent Pending, signing off.

Let the credits roll

And now presenting our host: deep fake Elon Musk

“Wow, love what we’ve seen here today folks. The only thing that would make it better is if I was watching this at a drive-through theater… on Mars. We’ve been waiting all semester to see who’s behind this. Now that we’re close to the finish line, let’s meet this team. They say no one sticks around for the credits, but personally I, Elon Musk, stick around every time. First we have:

Featuring a low-fidelity prototype of Maggie

Divya Mohan
Divya is the research lead for the team and has devoted herself to watching TV for years in preparation for this role. She enjoys dog-walking and sharing her love of Starbucks’ Salted Caramel Cold Brew in the hopes that they’ll one day name it after her.

Gabby Suazo
Gabby is the project manager for the team. She enjoys wavy music and good times. When she’s not vibe-checking the team for positive energy, you can find her curating playlists with her best pals.

Aaron Lee
Aaron is the co-design lead for the team. The sight of soft-serve ice cream sends him spiraling into an existential crisis that can only be resolved by Lactaid or a vegan milkshake.

Phipson Lee
Phipson is the tech lead for the team. Beyond his regular sushi fuku runs he enjoys sipping on his Salted Caramel coffee during the team’s weekend meetings.

Maggie Chen
Maggie is the co-design lead forthe team. Outside of making creative stuff with the team, you can catch her in her free time doing headstands or weird yoga flow at home. Those are the two main sources of joy Maggie has at the moment.