For this Module I had a few ideas but settled on focussing on photography and history. These were the ideas I initially thought of

Idea 1. Travelling across Sydney and taking photographs of historical locations and historical architecture and then sharing these photos on a media platform such as Instagram or Pinterest.

Idea 2. Creating a social media page that highlights the threat of disposable coffee cups, by literally going around and taking photos of “discarded coffee cups” whenever and wherever I see one, this idea would be comedic with a funny caption  as well as raising awareness about the rubbish left behind by people.

Idea 3. I love cars. I also love photography, so why not splice them together and run an Instagram page for classic cars I take photos of. This idea is something that interests me, however it would be dependent on whether I go to car shows or club meetings regularly.

After choosing my idea for my digital artefact I have since, submitted by DA Pitch and created an Instagram account. This first module of BCM114 involved Thinking, Observing, Defining, and Ideating our potential ideas and thoughts for our projects.  Since the beginning of BCM114, we have been taught the values of;  Fail Early, Fail Often (FEFO), and Fast, Inexpensive, Simple, Tiny (FIST)- these philosophy’s have helped me design and develop my project. Since the initial creation of my DA, some minor alterations have happened, with the altering of Instagram account names and the format/order I will post images in order to improve popularity and become more “user friendly”.

So, my project is officially called @thesydneyvintage and will appeal to those who love photography, history and architecture all in the same package, this will allow several communities of followers to take interest in my content therefore adding to its utility. 

We began this module with “Thinking”. In this stage of the project I came up with multiple ideas, but choose my current DA topic, with the help of Project Starter.

After viewing the Tips for a Digital Artefact I had been inspired to focus my DA on something that interest me. This  blog post outlines the importance of  enjoying the creation of your DA and not fussing about whether anyone will be interested in the idea because someone out there will be, hence why I choose to focus on history and photography.

Week 3 “Observing” involved planning and the importance of having a clear strategy and plan of where the project is heading- the plan is to develop an online community where people and discuss and enjoy photography, history and architecture.  “An introduction to Design Thinking  PROCESS GUIDE” has also helped by explaining the importance of the Design thinking Process explaining each step. This process is highly useful to find out how my users interreact with the content produced and what I can do to improve my content by focussing on what my users/followers are interested in seeing from my DA.

Week 4 “Defining” required me to define the problem statement in regards to the development of my DA. By creating and starting my Instagram account I have shared photos and information related to my topic and promoted the account through the use of hashtags and ‘following’ other related history accounts (such as one based in Europe and focusing on European history).  This had enabled the project to grow a little without the assistance of any BCM DA accounts or my friends or family, so the hashtags have definitely helped grow this account.

Week 5 “Ideating”  this week involved Ideas of how to improve my project from its initial creation and develop more popularity on Instagram by gaining followers.  I have viewed the insights of activity of my account and have found that it is reaching a fair amount of people, however the follower count does not reflect this, perhaps I need to change the way I present facts/photos or possibly have more of an interesting bio on the account in order to let people gain an insight into why they should follow me. According to a bit of Instagram research related to how to beat algorithms,  users find accounts that feature bright colourful photos with breathtaking scenery more interesting, so perhaps I should focus on improving the quality of the photos I take into something a little more ‘breathtaking’.  So maybe in the next module I should also consider using pinterest and or a wordpress blog?

Here is some insights into how the account has had interactions with instagram users.