Scenario

Summary

Combining the deliverables of the probes, the informance, the participatory workshop and our insights, we generated the main story arc as well as three possible resolutions for the problem that the protagonist confronted. Essentially, the scenario is based on the two scenarios in our informance which illustrate stories of being lonely because of the language issue, the ageing issue, the Internet-addiction issue and the peer pressure issue, etc. However, we wanted to particularly focus on peer pressure, in other words, the social comparison issue in our refined scenario, as it stood out distinctly and could be regarded as an umbrella term of all the other issues.

We first defined the key scenario—the main story arc—using Gustav Freytag’s pyramid for drama, which divides the scenario into five stages: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement. Then, we decided on three possible scenarios which act as the design solution for the main conflict by absorbing ideas generated during the participatory workshop. In the next step, we analysed them, ranked the three possible scenarios and further refined our scenario.

Figure 24

Freytag’s pyramid of dramatic structure

Scenario

- Expositions

Agung is a 29-year-old Indonesian graduate student who has been studying for an MSc Chemistry in Hong Kong for 7 months already. He is kind, independent, introverted, but very driven and goal-oriented. Although studying abroad keeps him away from his family, girlfriend and friends, and takes him much effort to get familiar with the new surroundings, he is still hopeful and sees this as the turning point of his life.

Scenarios