Paper plane design

PAPER PLANE DESIGN ARTIFACT

Research
Look at different designs of paper planes and find one that works really well.

Hierarchy of design
This will be important in the design and layout of all the elements, making sure the information is read first before any action takes place.

Annotations
1. Sender: you are sending a message, make sure it is clear, make sure you read the instructions carefully and understand how and when to throw it. If you don't follow the instructions your message might not get to the receiver. Choose the time of sending very carefully. If you're too late in sending it, the receiver might leave out of frustration! Also, put the receivers name in the box provided. This will ensure the wrong person doesn't take the message.

2. Channel: learn about communication from a sender to a receiver... what the paper plane is for (sending a message and getting feedback, try it out now. It's easy to make, follow the instructions below and send your message!)

3. Message: what do you want to say? Think about this. Bear in mind the receivers cultural background, age, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sex, state of mind etc

3. Noise: watch out for wind, this could send your message to someone else! Will that be embarrassing? Will that make the wrong person angry? Be sure to take in the essence of time-delay. Will your message be old when it gets there? This is not instantaneous communication like speaking face to face.

4. Receiver: be sure to write your message in the space marked 'Feedback' Failure to follow these instructions could result in your message not being heard. Write clearly and preferably with a permanent marker: if it rains your message could become unreadable.

5. Feedback: space for a response to the message. Read the message carefully and think about what you want to say in response. Take into consideration the senders cultural background, age, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sex, state of mind etc

Instructions
The plane will include dotted lines for folding, annotations for reading about communication. The actual instructions will be in the form of an educational video (see VIDEO ARTIFACT)

Choice of material/paper type
This should be robust, waterproof and tear proof, foldable, easy to manipulate, cheap for reproduction purposes

How many colors
The more colors used will make the design harder to read so two colors might be advantageous in prioritizing the information.

Size
If this is to be easily reproducible I think 8.5" x 11" will be a good size most people will have.

How many sides?
If this is to be easily reproducible I would think one sided would make people's life easier. Maybe the blank side could just be colored with no pertinent information on it so that if a copier was used to reproduce this then only one side would need to be copied.

Message and Feedback area
These will be need to be large enough to write in but not so large that they overpower the message and instructions:

Product placement
Will they be placed in a pile or will we make a Point of Sale carton to display them in. Something like, "Fly and airplane and learn about communication!"


VIDEO ARTIFACT

Handy
The video will play alongside the stack of paper airplanes. It will also be available online and easy to share around.

Content
Story boarded from the annotations above: Stage 1: Sender, Stage 2: Channel etc etc

Instructional - paper folding
After some research online, the best way I found to make the planes was to follow an animation or a simple how-to video. This could be presented at the point of pickup. The designed artifact could point to an online youtube video.

Instructional - sending messages
The video might also contain details on how communication works or doesn't work according to noise levels, nature of the receiver etc

Decent paper plane websites:
10paperplanes.com
airplanes.co.uk