PORTFOLIO PROJECT: year 2 project 1 research/process section

Page 12 in the sketchbook

I just started to plan the video for the research/process sections of my portfolio, and i am instantly realising that the content is simply too long. I really do want to keep the video under 5 minutes long and for it to simply outline the major points of what king of research i took and the things that influenced me. At the moment it is becoming a stage by stage account. What i should do instead is post a short video, with a textual description below it and then simply post a link to the appropriate blog for vieweing in more detail. The content of each project within my portfolio shouldnt take more than 10 minutes to view (all of the videos combined), and should be short and concise.

Below is my current script. I am going to change it so that it is more of an overview and less of a step by step account, which my blog is for!

Designing for real spaces and evolving communities RESEARCH/PROCESS VIDEO

For this I am going to extrapolate images and content from my blog, and the separate it into titles. I have already noted down what I want on each slide, but here I am going to build it. I am them going to write the script below each individual slide, and together at the bottom.

SLIDE 1

‘This presentation will describe how I went about my research, how it influenced my work, what I came up with originally and how it changed in the second outcome.

The project was started at the British Museum, where we were invited to look at various artefacts to try to understand the kinds of communities that created them. Trying to understand a community based on design that evolved through them was really useful as you questioned yourself on the observations that you were making and why you were making them. One of the things I observed were the black folding chairs placed in a corner of the room, and suggested that they were perhaps not just for the older visitors, but perhaps children on school trips who were expected to engage with a specific area for an extended period of time.

What I noticed most of all was the situation of them, however, they were placed at the exit area in a place where they were unlikely to be noticed, obviously intentionally as to not detract from the exhibits. You’d only see them when it was too late, or if it was too late to see them. This made me realise that whilst it is great to design something that slides neatly into the existing space, this is useless when it goes unnoticed or is noticed too late to use.

SLIDE 2:

We were also asked to identify three objects and design useful technological suggestions that would benefit the community that we deduced they were from. One of the communities that I had looked at was the isolated small 1960’s Ghanaian community that had created fantastically detailed coffins for their loved ones. I wanted to make suggestions that would not be patronising or compromise the way of life that they had a right to. I was very conscious of making the assumption that ‘new automatically  equals better’ and that the community I was designing for were probably very happy with their way of life.  I made small suggestions such as roads and basic tools. This exercise helped me to appreciate the collective wants and needs of a community.

SLIDE 3

Next was observing real-life communities, and I chose London bridge. This introductory exercise helped me narrow my focus, and decide what it was that I was looking for. I ensured that I observed in multiple levels of details: to see the community as a whole and as individuals as both are important when you are designing. I observed things such as how much  time was spent in particular areas, general demographics as well as things that were happening to individuals. I noticed the trouble that some parents were having navigating the station, and I decided that I wanted to make something to help them.

I decided to try to reach as many people as possible at once to try to get preliminary responses, and the best way to do this was via online communities. I looked online for applicable webites for my research and whilst doing this I realised just how many resources there were available for single parents, although many were offering similar things i.e. child rearing advice and moral support.

Moving forwards I wanted to observe the community in the real world, and decide to do this in an informal situation where there was a common goal, and my trip to support family at the cancer research 10k run was a perfect place to do this as everyones barriers are lowered by a common aim. 

EDIT: 25 APRIL I have just finished off recording my new research/process script. A transcript is below:

We were given the brief at The British Museum, where we did some exercises to make us think about the function of community within design. From here I identified my chosen community as ‘Single Parents’ after doing some participant observation at London Bridge. It interested me to see how parents behaved in a busy station with their young children.

My first contact with the community was made within the online community where I not only contacted the members directly, but also looked at blogs by single parents to gain a greater understanding of their everyday lives.

I approached the task of designing for my chosen community would by looking at difficult or high-stress aspects of their lives, and then to design something that would make this part easier for them. I soon realised that food preparation and feeding kids took up huge periods of time. Rising food prices and wastage meant that expenses were high. It also requires a lot of effort to ensure healthy, varied meals for them and their children. I realised this not only by sending out questionnaires, but I also designed ‘day maps’ where single parents could fill in what they are doing hour to hour, so that I could quickly identify how their days are structured and how long is spent doing various things.

In addition to the day maps I did myself I also found some online which increased the depth of my understanding and also validated my findings.

 Though the questionnaires I learnt about average expenditure and food wastage to back up my research into national statistics and newspaper articles on the subject which reports huge amounts of ‘avoidable food wastage’.

 I found that parents had trouble finding quick, healthy meals for their kids, and also that a lot of food was getting thrown away as they had no idea what to do with it!

‘Dinnermate’ was created to specifically approach these needs, and once the concept was created, most of my process work was focused on developing the appearance and functionality of it. I engaged with my chosen community to ensure it was appropriate and useful to them.

Now dinnermate is both a website and a physical installation, and I am clear in the context of use. The physical installation would be used by parents waiting to pick their kids up from school, and not only does it approach the food problems, it would also provide a talking point and bring all members of the community together as observers. Parents would search the database or the other sections and then print ut their findings. I have provided two clear interfaces for the two different contexts of use. Dinnermate for the web has the added functionality of a login feature which provides access to a section to upload your own recipes as well as see what your friends are doing and even post in the forums. There are kids activities as well as sale alerts and shopping alerts.

I created the website using a freeware piece of coding software called netbeans and uploaded it to website via Filezilla. I was originally using Dreamweaver as a creative tool, but writing the code from scratch allowed me to develop my HTML, PHP and CSS skills that I had learnt in my other lectures during the year. I even tried some j-query script which I didn’t end up using. During this process, I referred to a website called w3schools as well as looking at online forums.

I feel my process has taken me to a point where I am pleased with the outcome and feel that I have not only developed both my research and ideation skills for design, but also learnt some valuable technical skills. I attempted to push myself to create a fairly functional outcome that satisfied the targets that I had set myself as well as the requirements within the brief.