Week 7 - Tuesday

Going back to uni today was really hard. I still feel so lost with my brief and really worried about how I'm going to move forward with it.
Over the break I really struggled trying to manage my boyfriend's illness and spent most of the first week looking after him, then I myself got run down and have been sick during the second week and still am which has caused me to not give enough time to my project.

My friends are working on a different brief and also struggling to generate fresh ideas. They could see the stress I was under and we came up with the idea to move forward together as a group of 3 in order to get a fresh take on a brief and to support each other.

Class started with a lecture in the Pit and we then moved up into studio to present our homework from over the break as a kind of exchange moment. I really enjoyed the way this was done - we got into groups of 3/4 and presented our findings, then picked our best one and combined with another group to present it, and then the best one from this group went forwarded and presented to the "uber group". After this we moved into studio time for the last hour which was a good chance for us to look at how we were going to move forward as a new group.

Looking at the 2 briefs we decided to continue with the one they had been working on which was called "Sh!t @ social interaction". I downloaded the brief and had a look over it and they told me the avenues of research that they had looked into.

What I gathered is that they are looking at young working professionals who aren't interacting socially outside of their 8-5 work hours, and that our task was to encourage them to connect in order to improve their well being.
The girls have looked into things such as friendable and tinder social but are thinking because these types of apps already exist we need to do something different that might actually make more of an impact and not be "creepy".
Reading over the brief again I pulled out that we need to break their routine of work/home being their only places of being, and how do we motivate them to connect - teach them why it's important, make it the norm.

We spent most of our time going over where they had got to and thinking about how we could move forward especially as we needed to get our idea and prototype it all in time for interim presentation next week. Because the brief was so new to me we decided it would be best to go away and ideate and then come back and make some strong decisions on Friday.

We did make the decision to make a new group combined blog, the link for which is:
http://sasi-sakala.blogspot.co.nz/

Break - homework

Over the break we were asked to present research on
- An individual who is in a specific situation regarding their Wellbeing . . or
- A human made (manufactured or social, etc) experience that addresses a persons Wellbeing

I found this really interesting article on Shallow Interaction Design (something I'd never heard of before) but found really interesting so decided to present this when we return.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/03/getting-disconnected-shallow-interaction-design-deeper-human-experiences/

I prepared 3 slides as per the instructions and wrote myself some notes as to what I was talking about on each slide:

 

I looked at improving wellbeing in terms of connection after being inspired by the article Getting (dis)Connected: Shallow Interaction Design for Deeper Human Experiences by Jes Koepfler & Kieran Evans. It contained a great introduction to the idea of Immersive vs. Shallow Interaction Design.

Immersive Interaction Design promotes deeper engagement between the human and the technological interface and immerses you in the technology rather than encourage you to connect with others in real life. Immersive design encourages users to stay in the application by creating nested content (image).

Shallow Interaction Design on the other hand promotes surface level interactions with technology to minimize distraction. It focuses on getting technology out of the way to support social interaction by keeping the experience and content shallow, meaning the content always originates from a single source point.

The design task that they demonstrated this concept with was their task to create a digital tool that supports a face-to-face roleplaying game for audiences 14 and over around disaster resilience and emergency response. The important thing for this brief was that in order to combine digital and human interactions they recognised that they needed to harness shallow interaction design. As ideas developed and the technological aspects became greater, it was important to reflect on their decisions, and they realised that in a real disaster situation technology and communications are often first to break down so they needed to keep iterating to a point where the technology component was only involved when absolutely necessary, and the iterations for this are still happening.

What I acknowledged could be useful for me to take forward was to keep in mind whether technology benefits the message. This is especially critical in my brief where I am dealing with elderly people. I also took on board the importance of continuing to reflect on and iterate ideas and methods. I compiled a neat list for when to consider Immersive Interaction Design and when to consider Shallow Interaction Design. Immersive Interaction Design is most useful when the primary goal is to connect people with technology, for social experiences that are designed to happen online, and for content heavy experiences. Shallow Interaction Design is more useful when the primary goal is human interaction, for social experiences designed to happen in person, and for content-light experiences.

Break - noticing my environment!

I was walking down a street in Island Bay today and noticed this sign:

It made me think about my idea for the elderly safe zones and how this would have to comply with current government laws/road signs etc.

I had never noticed this sign before but it was really relevant to my idea!

Break - development of ideas

I have been doing some further thinking about my project and talking it through with different people and feel like my window idea isn't really that relevant and doesn't actually help the situation that much, and an ad campaign may be the same - not very beneficial so I have been trying to do more ideation.
I've come up with things like:
* an elderly people walking club
* identified areas that are "elderly safe"
* a council based campaign that incorporates these ideas and my original vest idea whereby it is a campaign that has 3 parts to it (identified elderly safe zones, arranged group events for elderly in the city, and vests produced that are optional for the elderly to have and wear when moving about in the city).
* transport/rides on bikes when moving around the city (think croc bikes)
* travelators - this idea to have the moving travelators at crossings was a recurring one that came up with all the different people I talked to and whilst it seems ridiculous it is also a great idea - just not feasible for this brief.
* elderly tour bus
* a need to change the culture - moving billboards in the city which will catch the eye of the younger generation that encourage assisting those elderly who need a hand and give them the "feel good" factor.
* "if you need a hand to cross the street, it's just a chance for us to meer"
* a campaign designed to re introduce respect for the elderly (elderly need a level of respect for youth and younger generations too though!)

Then I came up with this realisation that technology is one of the major barriers between young and old. How do you fix a generation gap???

The problem with fixing one groups issue is that in doing that you can often cause other issues for other groups.

Maybe Wilma's not the issue - society and culture are:
the city is fast paced, noisy, narrow footpaths/roads make it not very accessible, there aren't enough crossing opportunities, it's not sheltered, large numbers of people, city culture promotes self importance, there are a lot of homeless people, youth that just "lurk" with no purpose, parking is stressful, there aren't enough park benches/rest stops.

Elderly like to have a conversation whereas younger people tend to be in a zone where they have more purpose and avoid 'unnecessary' conversations.

Bus drivers are of a low standard, could a tram system improve this?

Elderly friendly cafes/businesses could show this by having a sticker on their windows?

Seafarer's organise for people to be stationed throughout the city in specific t-shirts to help those from the ships move around the city. Maybe we could have people stationed around the city wearing something to identify them as friendly and helpful towards elderly people?

Elderly awareness days:
- flood the city in promotional material about supporting the elderly
- a day where they know they can go out comfortably
- schools station their kids  around the city and their job is to be of assistance - the incentive for the kids is credits and looks good on their record, this interaction would also then make its way to the parents of the kids hitting a lot of different groups.

Week 6 - Friday

Unfortunately personal circumstances held me back from this studio session again, however I didn't have anything new to present today anyway. I am hoping that over the break I can refresh myself and my ideas ready to kick off second half semester.

Week 6 - Tuesday

We started today in the Pit, but weren't there very long as the computer was ka-put. So we shifted up to presentation D for a lecture on ethics. That was fun in that hot little room! Dry but necessary and glad to have it out of the way.
We then moved into studio time and discussed the ideas we had come up with from the 20 in 20 exercise.
Because of the difficulties trying to arrange a time for Hannah and I to both meet with Lee for feedback we asked if she would mind doing it during class. We were super happy that she said yes and here is our feedback:

Our presentation was deemed “satisfactory” in grade speak “C+”.

Both students were quiet and not confident enough when speaking/presenting.

The presentation was really engaging with the images and simple slides up until the “Ways to Wellbeing” slide where there was too much text and it felt really heavy.

Video/Image is more engaging for audiences and we needed more of this.

Whilst the content was good, the way it was delivered lacked punch.

Our insight was strong and well-defined.

Keep it more visual/simple.

In all honesty, I think this was fair feedback, however I cannot say I'm not disappointed. This project has felt like a real struggle for me in terms of not being able to do what I would've liked, and then compromising my design for my partner, and therefore compromising my result. Lee did say though, that a strong response in these next 7 weeks will mean that I can keep a solid overall grade.

After that I moved up to work with C & D streams as our studio time didn't seem that beneficial.

I really enjoyed moving up and seeing how the other streams were working. They were in the process of presenting their top 3 ideas to peer groups and then we moved through a "pimp the idea" exercise. So I got involved and helped pitch in with everyone's ideas. My own ideas were not formulated enough for me to share, so after completing that exercise I went away to compact them down so that I could present them for some feedback.

From the 20 in 20 exercise I picked my strongest ideas out as:

- A vest to highlight the elderly to make people aware of them. Kind of along similar lines to this NZ cycling campaign (http://www.nzta.govt.nz/safety/driving-safely/sharing-the-road/share-the-road-advertising/). awareness.

- Windows at the waterfront installation that show how your perspective is different at different ages. appreciation, consideration.

- video/poster ad campaigns depicting the deterioration of the elderly.

The feedback I got was that the windows and ad/video campaign were my strongest possibilities and maybe I can find a way to do both?

The interactivity of the windows is a really good way to engage the audiences.

The 1st idea may still make the elderly feel like a burden - why should they have to wear something to be noticed and respected?

My plan from here is to move on and further develop the 2 strongest ideas from today to present for feedback on Friday.

Week 5 - Friday

Personal issues hindered my from making it to class on time on Friday, but when I arrived Lee was very comforting and helped me get back up to speed on the day's session. My class mates also gave me a hand running through what we'd been up to and were kind enough to stay with me after class to catch me up rather than going to Exchange.

I had already chosen my brief before class which was good as it meant I was able to run myself through the 20 in 20 exercise they were completing when I arrived.

I also checked out the video on the Troy library which was really interesting and was nice to see how differently people can approach things.

I have chosen to move forward with the brief: Wilma in the City.
This brief really interested me as it was really different from all the rest - which was a nrefreshing change as a lot of the briefs from the other streams were all student based. Which is interesting as our stream was told to stay away from student targeted briefs as they were too easy.

Anyway, with my new brief in mind I went through the 20 in 20 exercise, but rather than sketching used it as an ideation session to generate ways to respond to the brief.
1. You only had $10 dollars to make it? (cost)
volunteer handouts of Meet Wilma

2. You had to wear your response? (materiality, performance)
tshirts - "WATCH OUT" I'm Old!

3. It had to be inside a shipping container? (space)
Different sense for people to engage with that showed the deterioration that occurs with aging.

4. The whole digital world collapsed and there could be no digital component? (materiality)
Group sessions/conversations between young and old, somehow incorporating the use of the old school round dial phones.

5. It needed three different touch-points to communicate the one message? (narrative)
Video, device, poster all depicting the deterioration experienced by the elderly.

6. The target audience was 5 year olds? (audience)
Relate to their grandparents - holding hands whilst crossing the road. Safety. Also empowers the children as they see it as helping grandma or grandpa not as I'm being held onto a not responsible enough.

7. The primary colour was orange? (semiotics)
Orange in this context to me would be used to symbolise being unsure. Orange lights are really equal to a question mark and everybody sees them differently - speed up and quickly make that light or stop because I can safely do so?

8. Your audience had 1 min to engage with the project? (time)
Video depicting deterioration.

9. The project had to be viewed from the sky—what is it? (perspective)
Coloured strips at crossings for fast/slow lanes.

10. The project could only be used in the dark? (time)
Same idea of lanes at crossing but lit up rather than coloured paint.

11. You had $1 million dollars to make it? (cost)
Make devices so that people can experience the deterioration of being old.

12. You had to use ten screens? (materiality)
At traffic intersections - mirrored screens to show all the other people waiting at the intersection, try and encourage communication and knowledge of your surroundings.

13. You were only allowed to use headphones? (audio)
Audio that exemplified the deterioration in hearing when you get older, and then clarity.
Or pitch test (at this age you can hear this pitch etc)

14. If the response was an interpretative dance, where is the stage? (placement)
Wellington Waterfront - busy area, how do people manoeuvre around the dancing as appreciation vs when manoeuvring around elderly people there is more frustration.

15. The target audience was an elderly widow? (audience)
Create a buddy system for trips to town.

16. The project was a sign on the side of the road with three words? (distillation)
Age Affects Ability.
Young vs Old.

17. The target audience had a full day to engage with the project? (time)
Base at Wellington waterfront where there is an interactive exhibition with guided walks around the waterfront and activities to engage the young with the old.

18. The project was an installation at the waterfront? (placement)
Windows along the waterfront with signs - view at age 5, age15, age 25, age 40, age 80. The view is the same but your perception at each age changes.

19. You had to use 100 drinking straws in the response? (do they make something? do they bring people together? are they used for drinking or something else?)
??? Stumped me.

20. It was at Disneyland? (placement)
An 'elderly' section, like the kids areas.


After this I also spent some time identifying the opportunities I could see having read the brief and came up with:
* transportation - buses
* connection - young/old interactions, buddy systems
* traffic crossings
* waterfront/around the bay
* magic of youth dissolves, and then returns again when you age