People Design Technology Brief

As part of our assessment on the course we’ve been given a task to complete. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before but the final outcome of this project will incorporate 3 main themes – people, design and technology. So we’ve been asked to hand in 8 different presentation boards. 2 boards on people – who the project is about, what user group(s) it is aimed at, etc. 2 boards on design – what kind of visual language or tone of voice will be used in the project. 2 boards on technology – what kinds of technology might be incorporated into the final design, what technology might be used along the way with prototyping etc. The last 2 boards are about how these 3 elements relate to each other and what the weighting or importance of each is. The briefing document we were given sums it up like this:

“Each of your projects will involve people, design and technology––in some way. This exercise is about reflecting on and determining your project’s take on each, and the relationship between the three.”

As its still only phase 1 of the project our tutors have explained that the reason we’re doing 2 boards on each element is that if your unsure of what your visual language will be or your unsure who the project will be aimed at then use the 2 boards to convey different ideas – showing each as a possible route to take. However, if you are pretty settled on any of the elements then use the 2 boards to illustrate the choices you’ve made and explore more deeply the thinking behind them and maybe some very slight nuanced differences.

The boards have to be presented to a pretty high standard – “boards you wouldn’t mind showing a client you’ve been working with for a while” and we’ve been given some great examples of previous students work. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what i’ll use each board for but hopefully actually having to put it down on paper will make me think a little more and move my project on further.

Probe to gain user insights (hopefully)

I’ve decided to try and gain some user insights by giving out research probes. What these consist of is basically a container which the participant is to collect their household food waste in over the course of 5 days and an accompanying booklet for them to jot down any thoughts on the process. The booklet contains and introduction/explanation page and 3 main sections – one to fill out before, during and after the 5 day collection period. I didn’t just want to give out a plain box and word processed booklet as I think the more effort I put into making the probe, the more effort the participants will put into engaging with it. And therefore the better the insights I will get back from them. The containers are resealable to try and avoid unpleasant smells and the booklets are printed on high quality paper and supplied with a decent fine liner pen.

Black and white low quality – just to get the spacing and everything right

There is a front cover then the intro page that tells the participants what to put in the box – basically, all food waste (i.e. left overs, out of date items) including unavoidable waste (i.e. peelings, cores, stalks). In the ‘before’ section there are a couple of questions regarding their existing views and opinions about household food waste. The ‘during’ section I’ve intentionally left quite open in order to encourage any insights they may have without pushing or directing them one way or another . In the ‘after’ section theres a few questions about their reactions to the amount of food collected and if seeing it could change their habits in the future. Also theres a question about how much, if at all, they consider food waste to be an environmental problem.

Prints

The container is intentionally clear, with just a label, so the participants can physically see the waste that is being collected to get them to keep it in mind when responding to the questions in the booklet.
I’ve given out one probe package already to a family home, I intend to give another to a student flat with (ideally with more than 3 people living in it) and the other I would like to give to someone living alone – so as to get a good cross section of participants. After I get the responses back I may also print out some more booklets and send them out again.

Final research packs

Timeline and Brief

For the start of ‘Phase 1’ we’ve been encourage by our tutors to come up with a 100 word summary or brief for our project (expanding on the 50 or so words we already had for gurus day). And also some king of visual plan for the next few weeks so that we remain focused and have something to work towards. My 100 summary is:

My project will focus on the sustainability of our food supply – specifically the amount of food that we waste. I am interested in what role other people’s perceptions of our own ‘eco-friendliness’ play in our actions and decisions concerning how much food we use or waste. I am also interested in whether simply being more aware of the amount of food that we waste (and therefore the wasted resources used in producing that food) can change people’s habits and behaviours. The overall goal of the project is to decrease the amount of wasted food on an individual basis.

And here’s a picture of the visual plan that I’ve come up with for the period up until the Christmas break:

Gurus Day – How it went

It’s taken me a while to get round to writing up this post – ‘Guru’s day’ was a week ago today. I’ll start by talking about what I had on my desk and how it was laid out. Basically I had two boards, one which described a bit about the massive problem of food waste in our society and another which had some examples of critical and persuasive design (design which tries to influence or change people’s behaviours). I also had an A4 board which had my 50 word project summary (which i changed slightly between the last post and the day itself) and another 50 words on what I would like to talk about.

*Click the pictures to see them full size.

The layout of my 1/3rd of a desk for Gurus Day

The ‘Gurus’ were Richard Banks, Tim Regan, Paul Greenhalgh and Martin Bontoft. Banks is the head interaction designer for Microsoft research; Regan is also a researcher at Microsoft with a PhD in computer science (he claims he’s not  a designer but he’s been working with them for most of his career and he definitely thinks like one); Greenhalgh is the director of design for Team Consulting (a medical industrial design company) and Bontoft is head of design research at Team who focuses on ergonomics and user centred research. So we had a good mix of highly experienced professionals.

The day itself ran quite smoothly and was a good experience for all of us. From 10am until about 3.30pm we all manned our desks as the gurus made their way around talking to each student about their project so far; areas they found interesting or insightful and where they thought the project could go next. As there are about 60 students over the two courses, I only managed to speak to Richard banks. We talked for about 15 minutes – he was really helpful and gave some good insights into my project. The main insight that i’ve taken away from the conversation is what role other people’s perceptions of your ‘eco-friendliness’ plays. For example: driving a Prius may not actually be all that environmentally  friendly (after all the parts being transported around the world several times) but it certainly makes a statement i.e. ‘I care about the environment’. Is this important to people? He also gave me some pointers on where to go next, such as going to environmental and freegan (people who live off of food disgarded by others) groups to talk to people – one anecdote from someone could spark a specific idea or direction for my project. Whilst the gurus were making their way round I also spoke to some of the masters students (studying design ethnography or service design) who were also really helpful and gave me some good areas to look into.

At half 3 we then had a 1 1/2 hour question and answer session with the gurus and Graham (our tutor) which I thought was probably the most interesting part. Although it wasn’t specific to each project it was good to hear the opinions and thoughts of people who have been in the design industry for over 20 years.