Advanced Interactive Design - Reflective Writing

 REFLECTIVE WRITING

This project was one of the most challenging projects I completed this semester because it required me to combine design, animation, interactivity, and technical problem-solving into a single outcome. Unlike previous projects that focused primarily on visual design, this project required me to think about how users would interact with the website and how different elements would function together.

One of the most significant decisions I made during the project was choosing to rebuild the website directly in Adobe Animate instead of relying on my original Figma prototype. Initially, I planned to export the prototype and use it as the foundation for development. However, after importing the design into Adobe Animate, I found that many of the exported assets appeared blurry and did not meet the visual quality I wanted for the final website. Although recreating the website from scratch required more time and effort, it ultimately resulted in a more polished final outcome and gave me greater flexibility when developing interactive features.

Throughout the project, I received feedback that encouraged me to focus not only on the visual appearance of the website but also on the user experience. This influenced many of my design decisions, including the use of clear navigation, interactive resort popups, hover effects, and a consistent layout across all pages. Rather than overwhelming users with information, I aimed to present content in a way that encouraged exploration while maintaining a clean and immersive experience.

The most challenging aspect of the project was the technical development process. While designing the layouts was relatively straightforward, implementing interactions and troubleshooting errors required considerable patience. I encountered several issues throughout development, particularly on the Resorts page where the popup system stopped functioning correctly after working with recovered project files. At one point, buttons appeared correctly on the page but were no longer being recognised by the code. To solve the problem, I had to carefully examine layers, symbols, MovieClips, button instances, and timeline structures. Through trial and error, I eventually identified the source of the issue and rebuilt parts of the interaction system. Although the debugging process was frustrating, it taught me the importance of file organisation, systematic problem-solving, and regularly creating backups during development.

Another challenge involved animation. I initially attempted to use Adobe Animate's built-in animation tools to animate text and interface elements. However, the results did not achieve the smooth effect I had envisioned. Instead of forcing an approach that was not working, I explored alternative methods and implemented certain effects through code while continuing to use motion tweens for decorative floating elements such as the jellyfish, shell, and starfish graphics. This experience taught me that different techniques can be combined to achieve the desired outcome and that flexibility is an important part of the design process.

One of the most valuable lessons I learned from this project was the importance of testing throughout development. Many issues were only discovered when I previewed the website, tested interactions, or uploaded the project online. For example, after publishing the website to Netlify, I encountered responsive layout issues that were not visible during local testing. Solving these problems improved my understanding of how Adobe Animate publishes HTML5 Canvas projects and how websites behave across different environments.

Looking back, I am most proud of the Resorts page because it required the greatest amount of problem-solving and development work. Successfully creating the popup system and resolving the technical issues gave me a greater sense of accomplishment and significantly improved my confidence when working with interactive projects.

Overall, this project strengthened both my technical and creative skills. It improved my understanding of Adobe Animate, interactive design, animation, user experience, and troubleshooting. More importantly, it taught me the importance of persistence when facing technical challenges. In future projects, I will continue to apply these lessons by planning more effectively, testing more frequently, and remaining adaptable when unexpected problems arise.