PROJECT PROCESS DOCUMENT
BHAUMIK KAJI I am an Interaction Designer from India. I am studying M. Des. in Design for Digital Experience at National Institute of Design, Bangalore, India. This project was a part an of exchange course at School of Design, The Glasgow school of Arts, Scotland under MDes. Design and Citizenship Specialist Course. www.bhaumikkaji.com http://www.gsa.ac.uk/study/graduate-degrees/design-innovation-citizenship/
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The project was executed under the guidance of Ian Grout, Subject Leader, MDes Design & Citizenship at The Glasgow School of Arts. I am also thankful to the staff and employees of CEX ( Consumer Electronic Exchange store) in Glasgow for their coordination and cooperation in this project. Thanks to Alicia, Kaajal and Nova, my classmates for guiding me and helping me critique the project. Thanks to Irene Bell for facilitating me for this opportunity to pursue this amazing experience.
INDEX STUDY AND DISCOVER [ WEEK 1 - 4 ] Specialism Principles, Lectures, Selection on the organization for project study
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DEFINE [ WEEK 5 - 7 ] Critique, review and understand the existing structure of the organization
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DEVELOP [ WEEK 8 - 10 ] Reconstruct the organization from the lenses of a Citizen Designer and propose design concepts
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DELIVER [ WEEK 11 - 12 ] Final critique, prepare project deliverables and personal manifesto from the project learnings
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INTRODUCTION The course is to understand how may the roles for the citizen designer be understood and further constructed within and for the greater human good. We needed to Locate within your physical location and daily life an organisation to explore. Explore this organisation from the perspective of you as a citizen user and what you experience when interacting with it. Define the research findings and organization structure and stakeholders. Speculate on the existing and potential future roles for a citizen designer within or for that organisation (both existing and future) and make a clear definition of these. Deliver a map showing, in detail, the relationships between the organisation you have explored and its users and a construct of the roles (both existing and future) for the citizen designer specifically within that organisation and for the greater human good.
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PHOTO 1. CEX Flyer and the statement that made me intrigued PHOTO 2. A Typical CEX Store in UK
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STUDY AND DISCOVER As the project started, I remember how different this course seemed. Comparing to the older projects, this project started with a great background of literature and philosophy. When I had to select my organization for the project, I went on a stroll on Sauchihall Street finding inspiration and a hope to meet some interesting organization that could be related to my project organization.
I STUMBLED ACROSS CEX , SEEMS INTERESTING ! The geek inside me fell in love at the first glance of the store. CEX seemed like a perfect place to find some interesting things. I really wanted to comfort my anxiety from being in a completely alien atmosphere and place, so I decided to step in and look around. It seemed like a electronic store with all cool stuff displayed in window displays. But then when I saw that the store was an electronic Exchange store, which made me curious what did this organization do. Baam ! The interaction with CEX started.
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A GLOBAL ORGANIZATION After a brief interaction at CEX store, I decided to find out more about this organization. I was amazed to find out that it was a global organization with its roots from UK. I found out about the two CEX stores in Glasgow and decided to visit both the stores.
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CEX IN GLASGOW
RESEARCH VISITS Insights and design observations
DEFINE
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The Organization seemed appropriate for me to explore it from the perspective of an citizen designer. So soon after the weekly classroom meets I got a green signal to move ahead with this organization critique. I went to the CEX stores and talked to employees and their customers. The designer in me starting kicking in and I started observing various aspects of the store and their business in Glasgow.
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BRIEF OBSERVATIONS The store has a brand associated, so it has branding in place. All the employees wear uniforms and have their id cards ON. The store layouts and sections are identical in different stores. There is a sales assistant in every section of the store. They have an exchange Library feature. Subscription card can be issued for the store for discounts and rewards. Employees were of mixed ethnicity. The buying – selling aspect seemed transparent, it was the same as mentioned in store and on their website. The brand attracts kids, youth and people who have habit of using movie libraries.
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THE SKELETON The organization seemed so global which made me curious how did they manage their organizational structure and line of communication across the organization. Each store has a similar store hierarchy and all these stores are connected with the CEX Corporate in London. It was really interesting to find out how did each employee worked and communicated with the customers.
ORGANIZATION ACCOLADES CEX growth is mainly based on Franchising stores model They claim to have 21 years of experience Recession Proof Sector Huge Potential Market They claim the franchise owner to take the ownership of store in 2 years due to its profit generation Award : CEX won the best newcomer international franchise into Ireland in 2012 at Irish Franchise Awards Award : Best Franchise Award in 2014 by RBS
CEX BY NUMBERS 394 stores Worldwide 282 stores in UK 177 franchised stores in UK 21 years’ experience
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MONEY, PRODUCTS, ECONOMY I wanted to understand their business model and how did their exchange model works. I realized all the electronics are their prices are tied with the economy and the age of products. The essence of their business is mainly Exchange and not the usual Buying or selling of electronics. I found out that mainly customers go exchanging electronics over selling their old electronics. CEX corporate manages the prices of these electronics centralized in all parts of UK. But it was very interesting to find that these rates would changes from country to country as the local economy would change too. I created a matrix of the way the prices of the electronics varied based of various economical and popularity influence.
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WHY CHOOSE CEX ? I identified the factors talking to people why did they liked to purchase or sell at CEX.
Customers can compare and see the actual products from window displays CEX gives additional 1 year warranty on any of the product purchase If product fails, CEX repairs it for free if under warranty Still if it fails, they replace the product with another product from their store
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Even that fails, they reimburse you with store credit or cash CEX promises to buy the purchased item back as a part of an exchange model They test the product completely for any issues before selling it to CEX
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DEVELOP
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CITIZEN DESIGNER AT WORK Being a citizen designer, I really had to have a conflict in my mind on my traditional design ideology. This conflict was good as I got to explore and understand a very new perspective to look at way the organizations interacted and I soon realized that at the end we are doing and making life of people and community around us better not creating a new money churning cog in among the global multinationals.
CONSIDERATIONS
DESIGN
I would like to conceptualize and involve other segments of users and try to identify connections between CEX and people. I would like to re-imagine a different ways of connecting the CEX franchising, which could branch out from the existing growth strategies and which might focuses on some people’s different kinds of necessities. How CEX values help the society and how to improve its existence and make people aware of the social responsibilities it carries.
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VALUES 18 Talking to various customers and employees of CEX I listed all the user groups who went to CEX. But now I needed to bring all the specialist principles in use. CEX seems to have grown to a huge multinational global organization, but the reason I had chosen CEX firstly because it is driven by some of the fundamental strong society values.
Recycle
Exchange
C E X
Reuse
Electronics
Games and Consoles
Music CDs & DVDs
Movies and Entertainment
KEY PRODUCTS 19
Local Residents
Tech Enthusiasts
Video Games Enthusiasts
KEY USERS
Parents and Teenagers
CEX FOR STUDENTS 20 CEX currently doesn’t distinguish between students as a different user group of customers. Today’s students need the internet and a basic laptop/smart-phone to use it for his/her academics. CEX is a crucial connect between student’s modern needs, accessibility and ownership to a smart device. CEX can have special student drive to provide laptop or a phone to student who needs one. A needful student can be identified by having a valid student school ID or any academic association. CEX should have academic tie-ups with schools and colleges to provide a laptop/phone on a needful student for nominal fee. Also, lot of public and private services and stores in UK identify students and allow them discounts on their fee or any purchases
WHY ? There are around 22,99,355 total students studying in UK and not all can afford to buy a laptop to support in their education. All the major retailers and manufactures recognize these student needs and provide discounts on student laptops. CEX is a great connection to be explored and be considered to be an medium to help students get connected with their student requirements.
NATIONAL DIGITAL LIBRARY CEX is always been a content and entertainment stores for movies and games. But they too have a great collection of academic digital content and documentaries as well. CEX can have a student library card for digital content. Students can rent movies cheaper than usual and can access digital content much more profusely CEX has a very successful exchange model, but it doesn’t work as a library. Library is still students best source to get academic information, so there is a big necessity to support a much more accessible and open student digital library
PROJECT TIME RENTING All the projects have digital presentations these days. Being a student it is very expensive to source any projector, TV, laptop, cables for presentations. CEX should have a laptop and projectors on rent service which a student can use whenever he/she need. This is a interesting connect between students as they can save lot of time and money investing on a long term device. Instant renting for a week, fortnight, month can be designed to cater to help students get a laptop for doing their projects
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CEX FOR ENTREPRENEURS 22 CEX is very popular in UK because of its franchising model and their has been lot of appreciations and awards for their franchises. From the studies I had read, I realized that all the young entrepreneurs felt really helped by not only CEX helping them with funds but also with the training and staff management trainings. I wanted to envision CEX as an organization that considers this responsibilities seriously and encourage more young budding entrepreneurs with business and management skills.
+ WHY ? The number of under-35s starting businesses has risen by more than 70pc since 2006, as per research. However, research from entrepreneur network Shell Livewire and Youth Business International last November found that while 18pc of 18-34 year olds in the UK have a business idea and believe they have the entrepreneurial skills to start a venture, fewer than 4pc go on to create a company that pays a wage and makes a profit. - Telegraph UK
CEX NURTURING INITIATIVE One of the key learning from the case studies was that the shop owner was helped by CEX with not only money for a franchise, he/she was treated as equal and received store and technical training too. This really helps a young inexperienced start-up entrepreneur to setup his/her business and achieve what he/she desires from the business. CEX can focus and groom these your entrepreneur with sense of social responsibility and organize more collaborative team building and entrepreneurship events and meets.
CEX CLUBS AND COMMUNITY Community clubs are a great way to exchange thoughts and knowledge with same interest people. Clubs helps to meet new people and encourage oneself to follow his/her passion. CEX delivers a source of entertainment and digital content, so it can act as a interesting meeting place for music, movie, games, documentary, geek cult, etc. As CEX is present in all major cities and towns in UK, it can easily have a communication channel to host and invite people and students to form clubs in CEX.
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CEX DONATIONS 24 CEX as a brand started with the concept of a source and a medium to help with recycling old electronics and can get them exchanged. But with the rapid growth and increase in their monetary assets, the essence of the brand of getting to recycle electronics seems opaque. CEX should plan to revive and increase its efforts to contribute in getting more recycling product and make people aware of the carbon footprint.
WHY ? On average, each person in the UK buys almost three new electrical items each year – or around 170 million nationally. Around 1 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste are generated every year. This is alarming figure at which we are getting carried on to buying new electronics rather than leverage the benefit of second hand products. CEX is already a electronic recycling store but it doesn’t take donations as its responsibility.
CEX RECYCLING VAN
CEX should have a mobile VAN to promote, fetch and showcase electronics. Imagine a mobile flee market of electronics and digital content travelling in the city. Currently someone would realize about the CEX’s efforts to help recycling if they stepped into the store, but there are no forward efforts laid by CEX to make people aware and encourage them to contribute and give their unused electronics. A mobile van is a very accessible medium for people to reach to CEX, as people don’t go to CEX, They would come to people instead. CEX has a great coverage in UK with their stores, so they can really help in creating a much more effective promotion and donation reach with these mobile vans.
STREET AWARENESS AND RECYCLING CAMPS CEX as mentioned before, there are no active events or focused camps organized to help recycling and making people realize that used good are as good as buying a new one. CEX can organize an street stall and spread the word among people to contribute in recycling and encourage them to visit the stores and buy electronics from there. Moreover, the recycling camps can be setup in a finite duration in various cities and people could donate and sell their electronics CD, DVDs, etc. to CEX through those camps.
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CEX TRAVELLERS 26 Being a tourist, it is really important to know places and have information to go to various places. But not always when we travel to other countries, our smartphones or tablet’s internet work. Considering a tourist or an traveller visiting UK for brief duration can get a Tourist Phone from CEX. There have been lot of instances when you are travelling and you forget you phone at home or work and maybe you lose it somehow. CEX is present all across UK which creates a very interesting solution for these segment of people
WHY ? A total of 1,12,60,336 working residents in the UK commuted from one local authority to another for work. Also, with the average person losing over ÂŁ60 worth of stuff every year, billions are being lost. The average person now loses 1.24 items a year and less than half of those are ever recovered. The reason why CEX become a very interesting addition to this concept is that it has a nation coverage and network of stores that a traveller can facilitate from.
CEX FOR TOURISTS A Tourist phone would be an inexpensive smart-phone that has internet accessible for a tourist to access maps and get relevant information while travelling or communicating with local people. As internet is the fastest way to get personal information, such an tourist device can solve a lot of primary needs of a tourist CEX can also have tie ups with hotels and hostels and give their customers a tablet/phone to use during their stay to access all the relevant travel information and use internet on it. Tourist don’t need buy an device, they just pay for the duration of their use and before the leave they have to return the phone/ tablet back to CEX. A tourist can be given an tourist phone on his/her passport and safety/caution fee by CEX
LOST COMMUTERS You can rent a phone from one place while travelling from and can deliver it back to any other CEX store in UK. This helps for people who are in need of spare phone during the time of getting a new phone or if their phone is lost.. Also frequent commuters between cities in UK can use this service and use a travel phone by CEX to use internet or listen to music while travelling
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AcademicsB
B oosts Economy
Waste Reduction
Comfortness
Economical
Confidence
Public Awareness
Information Access
Approachable
Community Spirit
Social Connections
Keeps Connected
Knowledge Sharing
Hobbies and Sharing
Satisfaction
Encourage Tourism
Better Education
Encourage Teamwork
Moral Responsibitily
Avoid Fear of Losing
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VALUE ADDITIONS I imagined myself to be a citizen designer working with CEX during this project. I always kept the core values and responsibilities of CEX being a global organization while designing concepts. I wanted to design and improve some aspects of the organization that can boost stronger communities and make use of electronics much more responsibly. Donation and exchanges are very deep human actions that seems so fading with the promotions and greed to buy brand new products. I believe a organization should be responsible in changing the attitude of materialistic world to be better sharing and resource responsible ‘human’ world.
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DELIVER
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Project Deliverables The production of an encompassing overview of design and citizenship and the construction of a set of roles that the citizen designer may perform within or for a broad context of citizen centric organisations ranging from the public, voluntary and private sectors and the activities that may occur between them as evidenced in a reflective PPJ. • Deliverable 1: The production of a map (story board) showing, in detail, the relationships between a citizen centric organisation and its users and a construct of the roles (both existing and future) for the citizen designer specifically within that organisation for the greater human good. • Deliverable 2: A Manifesto, in general, for Design and Citizenship encompassing and extending the course content as a basis for professional life in the future.
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SPECULATION I realise that CEX has become a very important organisation to link these solutions with people in UK and there is a grave necessity for integration. CEX grows in lot of places and cities in UK which helps making it much more accessible to people and will aid to make these solution a lot efficient if implemented through CEX I speculate CEX to be an organization who in future would grow tremendously in UK and as well in other countries ( mostly developing nations ) through its business model. The organization has shifted from being a exchange recycling store to a big chain of franchises and a money making organization.
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The growth surely works great with the franchising model but its sustainability lies on the renewal of its brand values and having a much more social responsibility toward the recycling electronics and boosting the local economies and giving back to the local communities. There’s where I believe CEX should have much more social model of interaction with people and revive its original value of the organization and make people aware of the used goods and encourage recycling.
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A CITIZENSHIP ORGANIZATION LOGO We had to create a logo or symbol for an organization that we felt as an citizenship value driven in a classroom activity. I started out by mentioning keywords and values important for an citizenship organization. I sketched some of the logo explorations and finally came on to two organizations. A Farmer’s market and a clothes donation organizations. The exercise was a way to explore learning of citizenship principles and values and de-
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THE MAP I tried to show as per the brief : the detail, the relationships between a citizen centric organisation and its users and a construct of the roles (both existing and future) for the citizen designer specifically within that organisation for the greater human good.
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THE MANIFESTO Manifesto was the final deliverable for the project. I have penned my design views and my learning from the citizenship course. I felt very happy to have been a part of this course.
I EMBRACE THE CONSTANT CHANGE OF CIVILIZATION AND HAVE ACCEPTED DESIGN TO BE MY TORCH TO NAVIGATE MYSELF AND EMERGE AS A RESPONSIBLE INHABITANT AND MUCH IMPORTANTLY A ‘HUMAN’.
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REFERENCES https://uk.webuy.com/ http://www.gsa.ac.uk/study/graduate-degrees/design-innovation-citizenship/ https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/case-studies http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22887005 https://www.hesa.ac.uk/stats http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/11133048/More-young-entrepreneurslaunch-start-ups-in-wake-of-recession.html http://www.barclays.co.uk/BusinessBankAccounts/Entrepreneursinnumbers/ P1242621930322 http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/dvc193/ http://mozy.co.uk/about/news/reports/lost-and-found/ http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Manifesto colours : https://color.adobe.com icons : https://thenounproject.com images : https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3435/3387066507_0c99897668_b.jpg http://media.prorl.co.uk/images/imagesource.php?image=10263.jpg&maxwidth=600
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BHAUMIK KAJI - 2015