GENERATIONS OF SHARED HUMANITY: DESIGN AS A TOOL OF INCLUSION Christine Valerio
Dedicated to my grandparents Concetta Altadonna Emilio Altadonna Joseph Valerio Katherine Valerio
Acknowledgements Thank you to my family and friends for endless support throughout this journey, and to my VCFA advisors—Nicole Juen, Geoff Halber and Silas Munro—who taught me more than I could ever put into words.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 01: INTRODUCTION Thesis Abstract 11 Before VCFA 12 Empathy + Design + Action
16
02: CONNECTION My Connection 20 The Need To Be Social 24 Flashes 28
03: PERSPECTIVE A Deeper Empathetic Approach 50 Young is Good. Old is Bad.
54
Survey on Generational Connection
58
Design Ethnography 60 A Change of Perspective 70 Generativity 74 Thousand Fibers 76
04: APPLICATION Design as a Tool of Inclusion
88
Conceptualizing 92 With Me 96 Workshop at Kip Center 110 Workshop Reflection 126 Experience Testing 130
05: CONCLUSION Where I Am Going 144
06: APPENDIX Lexicon 148 References 150
01
INTRODUCTION
8 • INTRODUCTION
ABSTRACT BEFORE VCFA EMPATHY + DESIGN + ACTION
INTRODUCTION
•9
10 • INTRODUCTION
CAN EXPERIENCE DESIGN DEEPEN CONNECTIONS BETWEEN GENERATIONS? While we are all unique individuals with our own interests, likes, feelings, thoughts and values, we all share the same basic human needs—the need to be social and the need to connect with one another. Our fast paced, youth-driven culture of constant digital connection has, in a way, separated us from the basics of personal interaction that our elders are trying very much to hold on to. My work at VCFA focuses on intergenerational connection and integrating older adults deeper into the fabric of our society. I believe that design can be used as a tool of inclusion to help generations connect better than they presently do. The message is to slow down and appreciate the time you have with the people in your lives before the chance is lost. Through my design thinking process of empathy + design + action, I experimented with the emerging practice of experience design to create a system of experiences that encourage meaningful interaction and intergenerational dialogue. It's not about age, it's about our human desire to build meaningful relationships throughout all phases of our lives.
INTRODUCTION
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12 • INTRODUCTION
BEFORE VCFA Coming into Vermont College of Fine Arts as a transfer student, I thought I knew what to expect. I “know” this routine. I “know” I’ll be busy, but I’m used to busy. I’m good at busy. I can just close my eyes and push through the next two years. Right?
Wrong. Very wrong. What I didn’t know was how my life was about to change at VCFA and how much I would welcome that change. Graduate school to me meant being able to teach, which is something that I knew I wanted to do since the first day of my undergraduate degree while sitting in my first design class and watching my professor completely inspire each and every student in the classroom. I can still smell the wood of the old Art Center building at Seton Hall University where I knew something just happened that changed me. That day, I made a mental note— to remember that feeling and to do whatever I could in my being to get there.
So I needed a degree, right? I never had intentions to leave the graphic design field because I have always believed that a good instructor and mentor is one with experience—one who can honestly guide you in the direction that you need because he or she has been and is still there. After all, the profession is changing daily. However, I never had high expectations that I would truly enjoy the work that I was doing outside of the classroom. Mainly because I didn’t know what it was that I wanted to do. I didn’t know that I had the power in me to figure this out and pursue it, and I probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the model of learning at VCFA. In New York, I was following the competition. Everyone around me wanted a small studio job with reputable clients in a nice cushy office. So, that’s what I should strive for, right? That’s what “success” will mean as a designer? I let other people’s goals and expectations for themselves make me believe that it was what I should do as well.
INTRODUCTION
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Echoes of perfectionism haunted me. Be a perfect designer to get the perfect job. Be as polished as possible and hide any imperfections that make you who you are or you won’t get that job. Being at VCFA, success was redefined for me. Maybe a small studio job will be the right place for me again, but maybe not. I now trust the ‘maybe not.’ Success comes from a wholehearted place. It’s an internal feeling that no one can truly judge but you. I’ve always believed that I best see who I am when I’m helping others. Fighting the urge to make an impact is fighting who I am, and I’ve learned that fighting who I am is detrimental to my practice. So I vowed to take on a journey at VCFA to use design as a tool of inclusion—bringing people together and exposing our shared humanity. I also vowed once I got there to begin a lifelong journey of discovering my personal voice in my work—to figure out where that wholehearted place will thrive. At VCFA, I discovered the importance of recognizing the experiences that have brought me to the place I am in now and that will bring me to the next place. I discovered my process, what I want my process to be, how my process influences my practice and how one cannot live without the other. I’ve learned that above all, I want my practice to be authentic— to express authenticity of myself, of the people that I am reaching, and of the community that I am serving. I’ve learned that teaching is not direct knowledge instilled from one to another. It is a relationship of trust and a reciprocal learning experience. Teaching is something inherent within you, and each faculty member showed me this through their love and compassion for each student and each other.
14 • INTRODUCTION
I know now the importance of failure. Without it, you will never grow. Mistakes are okay, they make us human. Perfection doesn’t exist, and it doesn’t have to exist. Certainty is a hindrance to your learning experience. Live each day with curiosity and you will never stop learning. Comfortability usually means you’re in the wrong spot. Embrace discomfort because you will learn things about yourself that you never knew. The more you think you can do, the more you really can do. Trust your process. Trust yourself. And most of all love yourself. Without love for yourself, you’ll never truly understand what you are capable of. Thank you VCFA for opening my eyes.
INTRODUCTION
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e d a Throughout the book you will find a key on the top right corner of the page. This key represents the portion of my process that the particular section falls into. The process was not always linear. Many times there was an overlap, which led me to the realization of how much one part of the process informed the others.
16 • INTRODUCTION
EMPATHY + DESIGN + ACTION Before VCFA, there was something that didn’t feel right about my practice. I was working with clients that I mostly enjoyed, and was for the most part, satisfied with the work that I was producing; however, something was missing. I felt that I was focusing too much on simply designing visually appealing solutions, which many times did not have a purpose that I was proud of. Through my work at VCFA, I started to discover my process and the importance of process to my practice. Form has always been important to me, and will continue to be, but I wanted to focus on transcending my practice beyond that. I wanted to take a closer look at function and the impact that it can have on social good. As a core design philosophy that I will carry beyond graduate school, empathy + design + action is a process that requires me to become fully immersed in understanding my audience as unique individuals before bringing my work into a tangible design medium and before taking action on the societal problem that I wished to resolve.
design ethnography volunteering
listening
empathy
understanding through lens of self
research interviews and conversations
conceptualizing prototyping
design
workshops to spread awareness website to build community
action
creating experiences
individual participants in the experiences
INTRODUCTION
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02
CONNECTION
18 • CONNECTION
MY CONNECTION THE NEED TO BE SOCIAL FLASHES
CONNECTION
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MY CONNECTION I have always felt a strong pull towards older adults—that I understand and relate to them in a way that other people my age may not. I believe that they are an overlooked and under served population who are often misunderstood. Their perspective on life comforts me. Their confidence in their life story intrigues me, and I enjoy learning about the experiences that have brought them to where they are today. I have always felt that the amount that we can learn from our elders is a deeply underestimated part of the American culture. Much of how I feel about this topic is rooted in the relationship that I had with my grandparents. I was raised in a family where our elders were always an integral part of our lives. In many ways, they shaped the person who I became and continue to have an impact on my life even after their death. I was fortunate to get to know three of my grandparents; however, both my grandmother and grandfather on my father’s side passed away when I was seven and twelve years old, respectively. My grandmother on my mother’s side lived until I was eighteen.
My grandfather on my mother’s side passed away in 1981, before I was born.
Growing up, I was very close to my grandmother. Not only was she around for most of my childhood, but I was also lucky enough to live in a two-family house where she lived on the opposite side of my immediate family. I grew up spending time with her each day. Sometimes we would watch TV, sometimes we would play cards, and sometimes we would just sit. It was the simple interactions and the small visits and phone calls that she appreciated the most. She never failed to tell me how much it meant that I was with her and wanting to spend time with her. She was happy. She was funny. She made herself laugh all of the time, which I always thought was one of her most contagious character traits—finding humor in herself and not taking life too seriously. She had an admirable personality—striving each day to protect her family and make us smile.
CONNECTION
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She lived each and every day like it was her last—most of the time because she really thought it was. She didn’t want age to stop her from doing anything, and for the majority of her life she didn’t let it. That changed as time passed and she got older. While she did age physically, her age changed her the most socially. She felt alone. She lived within feet of my family and me and could easily hear our conversations and movements through the wall, but she still felt disconnected from our lives. At times she felt like a burden that was constantly bothering us by needing our assistance. She felt that no one cared. It frustrated me that I wasn’t able to change her point of view and convince her otherwise. Sometimes I wish that I could have done more. I wish I found a way to include her in our lives even more than she already was. I’ve learned that there will always be the “what-ifs” and “couldhaves” but appreciating the time that you have with the people in your life is irreplaceable. Focusing on your relationships and cherishing them, to me, is the most important aspect of who we are as humans.
My work emphasizes this importance in hopes of giving people a little more time with those that they love and encouraging meaningful ways to connect with each other.
22 • CONNECTION
Pictured above are my four grandparents with my parents on their wedding day, June 19, 1976. From left to right: Concetta Altadonna, Emilio Altadonna, Katherine Valerio, Joseph Valerio, Annette Valerio, and Vincent Valerio
CONNECTION
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THE NEED TO BE SOCIAL We are social beings. We thrive on connection. Many times without being fully conscious of how it deeply propels our lives. While we are all unique individuals with our own interests, likes, feelings, thoughts and values, we all have the same basic human needs—the need to be social and the need to connect with one another. When I take time to think about it, every ounce of my being is somehow intertwined with another person. My mannerisms, my thoughts, my perspectives and the way that I perceive the world are a combination of the influences that people—both past and present—have had on my life. We are naturally interconnected to one another, no matter how independent we’d like to say that we are.1 We build our lives on relationships and meaningful connection—needing them to survive, to feel human and to discover meaning. These connections signal to us that togetherness feels right. It’s natural. It’s normal. Isolation is not.2
“ When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings.” — Albert Einstein
Our bodies are wired to work in aggregates, not isolation. When our individual needs for connection have not been met, our wellbeing suffers. Loneliness threatens our sense of security and hinders our ability to find purpose. It distorts our reality.3 We crave relationships built on understanding and love where each person is fully responsive and present to the other. We crave acceptance and fear rejection, needing to know that we belong to something greater than ourselves. We crave safety, and safety comes with knowing that we are not alone. It’s beautiful to think of the impact that we can have on one another and the importance that we play in each other’s lives.
1. Nichtern, Ethan, “The Real Internet,” in One City: A Declaration of Interdependence, (New York: Wisdom Publications, 2011). 2. Cacioppo, John T., and William Patrick, “Lonely In A Social World,” in Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008). 3. Ibid. CONNECTION
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Connection propels dignity, high self esteem and a sense of belonging. Connection is our link to one another. It is the strongest evidence of our shared humanity. It’s what brings us together, despite any physical trait (age, race, sex) that may form exterior separations. AGE SEGREGATION IN MY COMMUNITY What is the importance of intergenerational connection— connection across different age groups? Do we have an innate desire for this as well? How does the lack of it affect our perception of self and of age? The nature of today’s American culture is that we are exposed to an obscene amount of content each second. Through research, fieldwork, and conversations with older adults, I have found that this exposure has sometimes created a separation between generations. Younger generations, including myself, are speeding up with fast paced technology and the culture of multitasking, while older generations are trying very much to hold on to the personal connection that seems to be getting lost in our 140 character messages. Our fast paced, youth-driven culture of constant “connection” has separated us from the basics of personal interaction. In my opinion, intergenerational dialogue does not happen enough. Sometimes I feel that my peers and I live in a separate world from our elders and our paths rarely cross. I don’t necessarily feel that this is anyone’s fault or that it’s intentional. It’s the nature of our society. People tend to be drawn to their peers, people with similar interests, a similar age, and in a similar stage of life. Meaningful interaction between generations is easily lost because our lives are not always integrated in a way that leads to a path of connection. This bothers me. It bothers me because I believe that we’re missing out. We’re missing out on how much we can teach one another and the stronger relationships that can be formed. I believe that we can find a place for connection through design to bridge the gap between generations that exists. My message is that we have to slow down. We need to cherish and appreciate the time that we have with the people in our lives and community before our chance is lost.
26 • CONNECTION
“ Sometimes I think it’s our fault—that we caused this to happen, this loss of connection. But there really wasn't anything we could do about it. I don’t like it, and I think most of us [older adults] don’t like it. It's taken us away from that personal feeling. I don’t want to talk to a machine, I don’t want to see what you have to say in a text. I want to hear what you have to say and see you in person.” — SADIE, AGE 88 “ There’s no person to person communication anymore. It's gone, and that is my criticism with our society. We’re going to have to do something about it because there is an element in a human being that demands interconnectivity. If life is so digital, there is none.” — MATILDE KAPLAN, AGE 93
CONNECTION
• 27
I fear loss. I fear losing people around me and not having the opportunity to say goodbye. I fear not spending enough time with people before they are no longer in my life. I fear not appreciating what I have enough.
28 • CONNECTION
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FLASHES The following pages are a portion of a semester long exercise in slowing down my design process through internal reflection. I used drawing as a form of meditation to reflect on my memory and life-story. I wanted to immerse myself in the process of making without expectations. It was an outlet for me to better understand myself and to further develop my process. It was also an act of remembering. Putting time aside to remember was a truly essential connection to my past. I told approximately 90 stories through hand lettering and sketches. Many of them were fragments of images and sounds mixed with how I remember feeling at the time. My mind jumped from yesterday to 20 years ago. Some memories were clear, some were fuzzy, some might have been combined with dreams or parts of my imaginations. They weren’t exact stories of my life, but instead the re-story 4 of my life—how I retell my story. I compiled them into a book entitled “Flashes,” which symbolizes how my memories were coming back to me—as quick vivid images, or flashes.
4. Randall, William L. and Gary M. Kenyon, Restorying Our Lives: Personal Growth Through Autobiographical Reflection, (Connecticut: Praeger Publishers 1997). CONNECTION
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I don’t want to forget anything. Not the people in my life. Not the places we’ve been or the conversations we’ve had. Not the time we spent together. Nothing.
30 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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But memory is a funny thing. You can try and try to control it, but most of the time you can’t. You can’t always choose what sticks and what doesn’t.
32 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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34 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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I’ve learned to treasure what my memory decides to hold on to.
36 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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38 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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40 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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42 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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And I find other ways to hold on to certain moments that my memory forgets. Many times finding comfort in objects.
44 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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46 • CONNECTION
CONNECTION
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03
PERSPECTIVE
48 • PERSPECTIVE
A DEEPER EMPATHETIC APPROACH YOUNG IS GOOD. OLD IS BAD. DESIGN ETHNOGRAPHY A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE GENERATIVITY THOUSAND FIBERS
PERSPECTIVE
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A DEEPER EMPATHETIC APPROACH Entering graduate school, empathy was a buzzword for me. Using empathy as an approach to my design work felt like the perfect synthesis of art and human needs—two areas that I felt fulfilled my personal goals of making while impacting the lives of others. I am a designer. I know this is what I love to do, but I envy the people in my life who are working to help others every day. The idea of bringing an empathetic approach into my work made me believe that, I too, could be helping others each day as well. My work could have an impact. It was very shortly into my first semester at VCFA that my advisor, Nikki, brought up the word pity to me. She asked me to look into the difference between empathy and pity because in order to understand one word, we must fully understand its opposite. Before this, I never gave the word pity much thought. In my mind, I didn’t pity anyone.
Pity is bad. Right? But, truthfully, this was a belief rooted in denial, and the sooner that I admitted it, the sooner I could move past it. “Vision is a combination of the past, the present, and the future ways we utilize our sight. It is more than observation; it is judgment. Vision is our ability to take meaning from our environment. It is pervasive in everything we see, touch, and do. It is a reflection of our biases, our hopes, and our judgments, all in one package.”5 To change one's vision and how we look at other people, we have to be willing to put aside everything that we know about our past and our experiences. As Marc Grossman said, “Our internal wisdom is mirrored in the world around us, and when we can look beyond ourselves, we will often see ourselves more clearly.”6
5. Grossman, Marc, and Vinton McCabe, “Vision,” in Greater Vision: A Comprehensive Program for Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Clarity, (Los Angeles: Keats, 2001), 25. 6. Grossman, 66. PERSPECTIVE
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Our experiences make us who we are. We judge situations based on those experienced in our own past. It’s natural to judge, to generalize, and to form opinions. So is it natural to pity? Who am I to judge how another person feels or what they are thinking? Watching someone close to me grow older, watching her perspective on life change and watching her independence slowly disappear, I was a victim of the single story.7 Her story is the only one that I knew of growing older—loneliness and loss of autonomy. Yes, I also saw the good, especially during the time we spent together, but it was still the perspective of loss that I began to associate aging with. It took years to pass after my grandmother’s death and a question from a trusted advisor for me to realize that I had biases that were blinding me from truly understanding older adults and the work that I wanted to do. My experiences were affecting my vision, and my experiences were resulting in pity. To pity is to damage. It's the acknowledgement that you are in a better situation than someone else. In pity there is a direct hierarchy. You are above the other person. It focuses on the problem and as a result the other person does as well. It's diminishing to self-acceptance. As humans, we respond based on how others respond to us. We are intertwined in each other's lives and are influenced by each other's thoughts and actions. “How we are looked at and how we look at each other can bring about healing or damage to both parties.”8 Our judgments, our observations, and our opinions can damage. Pity can damage.
7. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, “The Danger of a Single Story,” filmed July 2009, TEDGlobal2009, posted October 2009, http://www.ted.com/talks/ chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html. 8. Grossman, 26.
52 • PERSPECTIVE
In the empathetic relationship, there is no hierarchy. It is a relationship of trust, standing side by side to one another, and allowing yourself to put all of your experiences aside to listen and understand each other. You are joining another person in their life so that they are not alone. Companionship, connection and love spring people to action and give them the will to carry on. Empathy enhances dignity, self-worth and self-love. Empathy propels compassion. “Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.”9 Nikki’s question led me on a search.
A search to gain a deeper empathetic perspective of older adults. A search that has made me realize how damaging the single story can be. A search that demanded me to put aside all of my preconceived notions to listen and learn from those that I was about to speak to. A search that opened me to new perspectives and made me realize that I had to allow myself to change. “Only when you are willing to listen to a new perspective, will you be surprised by a new way of thinking.”10
9. Brown, Brené, “Courage, Compassion and Connection,” in The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed To Be and Embrace Who You Are, (Center City, Minn.: Hazelden, 2010), 16 10. Lim, Seung Chan, Realizing Empathy, (Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 2011). PERSPECTIVE
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YOUNG IS GOOD. OLD IS BAD. We live in a youth-driven culture. Being young is good. Being old is bad. Young is how you’ll be accepted. Young is how you’ll fit in with everyone else. Young is what we all aspire to be.
Right? The shelves are filled with anti-aging lotions that tell you that they can make you look “younger.” Hallmark cards bombard us with jokes about growing older. Magazines fill the racks with headlines about how to look and feel young plastering the covers. Growing older is negative in our culture. It’s drilled into our thoughts from many angles beginning at a very young age.
“ Aging is medicalized like a disease and commercialized as an opportunity to sell anti-aging products to the silver market.” 11 — Ashton Applewhite
The society we live in fills us with assumptions and generalizations about old age. We assume that we’re going to become sick and helpless. We assume that our memory will fade. We assume that we’ll be depressed and lonely. And some of this might happen. Sure. There are some parts of life that we don’t have control over, but isn’t that the case at any age? Yes, when you get older you’ll probably have gray hair. Yes, we might not be as physically capable as we use to be. Yes, we may lose some of our sight and may not hear as well. Yes, we’re going to lose people that we care about. Yes, we’ll probably have—that dreaded word—wrinkles. Yes, our lifestyles will probably have to change. And unfortunately for some more than others. But isn’t life filled with changes at all ages? At 26, I can already classify my life into different phases—different stages, different changes that have taken place, and different perspectives that I have gained as time has gone on. Relationships change, people change, our bodies change; and as a result, we change.
11. Applewhite, Ashton, “This Chair Rocks,” Cornelia Street Cafe, (New York, May 22, 2013). PERSPECTIVE
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We witness aging from the perspective of loss, and we internalize it based off of what we see on the outside. We watch and we absorb the negative because it’s what is most visible to us. All too often, we let our internalizations develop into stereotypes and prejudices. But are these internalizations really what people worry about once they get to old age? Ashton Applewhite, an anti-ageism activist, says “Ageism is pervasive and corrosive and most people can't define it. We have no idea how it's internalized and placed into our culture at large and how it demeans and distorts the life force. Aging has become the new fate worse than death.”12 How can we really judge what another person feels like, and why do we assume that it’s the same process for everyone? “If you know one 80 year old, you know one 80 year old.”13 No two lives or perspectives are identical, let alone an entire population. What about the good that we so rarely hear about? What about the tremendous amount of life experience that people gain through their years? What about the love and pain that they’ve seen and felt, and through it learned more about life than most can truly understand? What about the amount of wisdom that older adults have to share with the world that could only be gained with the addition of many years? What about the social changes that they’ve witnessed that we’ll never be able to fully understand through simply reading history books? What about each individual journey that makes each person who they are and tells the story of their unique lives? Aging is new to our culture. It’s a new part of our lives that we are fortunate enough to expect to experience and that we are just learning about. “For the first time in the history of the species, the majority of babies born in the developed world are having the opportunity to grow old.”14
12. Ibid. 13. Ibid. 14. Carstensen, Laura, “Older People Are Happier,” filmed December 2011, TedxWomen 2011, posted April 2012, http://www.ted.com/talks/ laura_carstensen_older_people_are_happier.html
56 • PERSPECTIVE
Because of the vast amount of medical advances in our society, we now have the capabilities and conditions to help the majority of our population have the opportunity to see many more years than our past relatives. Why do we judge something we all know so little about when it’s something we should be grateful to be a part of? I’m surrounded by negative connotations relating to age. We all are. Personally, I'm tired of it. It's time to change the conversation about aging. We need to diminish the stereotypes that exist and that create negative perceptions of growing older.
“ There is no line in the sand, there is no crossover between young and old for which it is all down hill. That imaginary line threshold damages our sense of self, it segregates us and it degrades our prospects.” 15
15. Applewhite. PERSPECTIVE
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I conducted a survey asking 100 people their thoughts on growing older and generational connection. The responses came from people ages 20-70 years old.
13% While growing up, did you have a close relationship with a grandparent?
yes no
87% If yes, how often did you spend time with them? (measured in number of people who responded)
36 More than once a week 16 Once a week 13 A few times per month 8 Monthly 8 Every few months 5 Yearly
43% Are there any older adults (75 years+) in your life that you are close with now?
yes no
57%
If yes, how often do you spend time with them? (measured in number of people who responded)
5 More than once a week 10 Once a week 14 A few times per month 7 Monthly 15 Every few months 5 Yearly
58 • PERSPECTIVE
58% Are you afraid to grow older?
42%
If yes, why? (check all that apply)
How do you perceive the older adults in your community? (measured in number of people, checking all that apply)
42
I worry that my health will decline
22 I worry that I will be lonely 36 I worry that I will lose people in my life 29 I worry that I will lose my independence 25 I worry that I will slow down
Other responses: • I don’t want to die • I worry about death • I worry that I won't have enough money • I worry that I will miss my children
60 I find that I can learn from them 45 37
I enjoy spending time with them
They tend to have a better perspective on life
20 They tend to be lonely and socially isolated 30 They don’t adjust well to change 29
They become dependent on those around them
11 They can be a burden on others
15% Can you easily relate to older adults?
yes no
15% yes no
12%
If not, why not?
30% 85%
43%
I don’t spend much time with older generations We live different lifestyles I don’t usually feel the need to relate We don't have much in common
PERSPECTIVE
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DESIGN ETHNOGRAPHY “Ethnography is the study of people in their natural settings; a descriptive account of social life and culture in a defined social system, based on qualitative methods (e.g., detailed observations, unstructured interviews, analysis of documents). Design ethnography is a broad approach encompassing several research methods, focused on a comprehensive and empathetic understanding of the users, their lives, their language, and the context of their artifacts and behaviors. It approximates the immersion methods of traditional ethnography, to deeply experience and understand the user's world for design empathy and insight.”16 I needed to step further into the lives of older adults. I needed to meet more people, listen to their experiences and understand their perspective on aging. For two semesters, I spent time reaching out to the people in my community. I observed around my town, I visited local assisted living homes, I spent time in senior centers and I connected with people on the street. I connected with seniors from all different walks of life including those with complete independence as well as those who were home bound.
“ There is nothing simple about determining whom to observe, what research techniques to employ, how to draw useful inferences from the information gathered, or when to begin the process of synthesis that begins to point us to an upward solution.” 17 — Tim Brown
Kip Center became a place that I spent a great amount of time. Kip is a senior center that serves the town of Rutherford, NJ. It is a fun and friendly environment that provides programs, classes, and meals for older adults in the community. During the Fall/Winter of 2012-2013, I spent time volunteering at DOROT, which is an organization that focuses on bringing generations together by connecting older adults with the community. I began to gain a perspective that told me what our society tells us about aging is wrong.
16. Hanington, Bruce M., and Bella Martin, Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways To Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, (Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2012). 17. Brown, Tim, and Barry Katz, “Converting Need Into Demand,” in Change By Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, (New York: Harper Collins, 2009), 43. PERSPECTIVE
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I spoke to people in my neighborhood.
62 • PERSPECTIVE
And veterans as they marched in the Memorial Day Parade.
PERSPECTIVE
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I visited a local assisted-living home where I was warmly welcomed into events and family gatherings.
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Pictured above is my father, Vincent Valerio, with his friend Joan Yuni who invited us to a BBQ at Atria in Lynbrook, NY.
PERSPECTIVE
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I visited home bound seniors for their birthday. Pictured above is Matilde Kaplan, a DOROT member, as she told me about her collection of books on traveling.
66 • PERSPECTIVE
I spoke to people on the streets. When asked if she had any advice to give to younger generations, she said, “The most important part of life is to find love. Do what you love and love those around you.” PERSPECTIVE
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I photographed people walking through the park.
68 • PERSPECTIVE
And spent time with the older adults in my life. Pictured above is my great aunt and uncle, Aunt Josie and Uncle Sal.
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A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE I was noticing a pattern in many of the people that I was meeting. Being appreciative of their lives and their history was a common thread. They had a greater amount of selfacceptance than many of my peers and the younger people in my life have. They held high levels of self-compassion for their experiences and life accomplishments. They were proud of their story. They told it with self-respect and assurance and eagerly invited me into their lives. Spending time with them, I gained a better outlook on life. I developed a better sense of what’s important and have learned to understand myself better. It's not as simple as saying that older people are happier. People are able to take control of their happiness at any age. It's much more complex. Laura Carstensen, Doctor of Psychology and Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, explains that people growing older are able to engage with sadness more comfortably because of the life experience that comes with age. People are more accepting of negative situations. In general, this translates into greater enjoyment and satisfaction in later life.18 We adjust to what life hands us. We do this at any age. We adapt to new conditions, new surroundings, new people and life remains as worthwhile as it previously was. We may be handed new situations to deal with in later life, but our ability to adjust becomes greater than it may have previously been. The changes are grounded in the unique human ability to monitor time across a lifespan. Recognizing that we won’t live forever changes our perspective on life in positive ways. Our time horizons grow shorter and our goals change. When we recognize that we don't have all of the time in the world we see our priorities more clearly. We take less notice of trivial matters. We savor life. We’re more appreciative. We’re open to reconciliation. We invest in more pertinent moments and life improves.19
18. Carstensen. 19. Ibid. PERSPECTIVE
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Data gathered from articles in The Economist 20 and The Associated Press 21 talk about the “U-Shaped Happiness Curve,” which questions happiness across a lifespan and suggests that the happiest we’ll ever be is during the youngest and oldest ages of our lives. With old age, people become more accepting of themselves. You learn to be content with the parts of life that worried you when you were younger. You have a better understanding of your imperfections and you accept them as your own. You are able to better focus on the parts of life that are important to you, while removing those that aren't. You are able to better live in the present and not worry as much about the future because you recognize that life is not infinite and there may not always be a tomorrow. And much to my surprise, the people who I spoke to were not afraid of this. With so much information at our fingertips, and the American population growing older everyday, I believe that it's vital to change the conversation about aging? How can we eliminate the judgments and stereotypes caused by what we see on the exterior. How can we downplay the negative associations that are rooted in our culture and capitalize on the good? Throughout my time at VCFA, I’ve learned that the fears and assumptions that we have about growing older are hardly the fears that take over thoughts in later life. In fact, I’ve learned that in many cases fear decreases and often times happiness increases.
20. “The U Bend of Life,”The Economist, December 16, 2010, http://www. economist.com/node/17722567. 21. “Happiest Americans are the Oldest,” The Associated Press, April 18, 2008, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24201693/?GT1=43001#. Uho7WTm6aR9.
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“ One begins to feel not a shrinking but an enlargement of mental life and perspective. One has had a long experience of life, not only one’s own life, but others’, too. One has seen triumphs and tragedies, booms and busts, revolutions and wars, great achievements and deep ambiguities, too. One has seen grand theories rise, only to be toppled by stubborn facts. One is more conscious of transience, and perhaps, of beauty. At 80, one can take a long view and have a vivid, lived sense of history not possible at an earlier age. I do not think of old age as an ever grimmer time that one must somehow endure and make the best of, but as a time of leisure and freedom, freed from the factitious urgencies of earlier days, free to explore whatever I wish, and to bind the thoughts and feelings of a lifetime together.” 22 — OLIVER SACKS
22. Sacks, Oliver, “The Joy of Old Age. (No Kidding.),” The New York Times, July 6, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/opinion/sunday/the-joyof-old-age-no-kidding.html. PERSPECTIVE
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GENERATIVITY Growing up, my grandparents loved telling me stories about their lives. Much of what we did together led to a story about their past. I never had the chance to ask them why this was. Sometimes I realize that I was too young to appreciate it the way that I would now. What were in these stories? And how much did they mean to them? Why was storytelling such an important part of our relationship? For the past year and a half, through meeting and speaking with elders, the same theme resurfaced. After a while I began to question the people I was meeting about the importance of their stories to them. I’ve found that through the passing off of knowledge, a better sense of identity is maintained and a stronger feeling of self-worth is often obtained. It is a way of teaching younger generations and helping to reinforce meaning in their own lives. The understanding of one's life-story increases with age along with the desire to share that story. Erik Erikson referred to this as Generativity—a term that he coined in 1950 as the opportunity to pass off wisdom accumulated to others and a concern in establishing and guiding the next generation. It is based on two human needs: the need to be social and the need to be needed. Generativity often comes from the desire for intergenerational solidarity and the connection of people of all ages together. “[Older] Adults define themselves and their position in society in terms of a life story that provides life with unity, purpose and meaning.”23
“ My advice. Travel. See the world. It's the most education you'll ever get. Seeing and being in other cultures, the learning is incomparable to seeing something in a book.” — Matilde Kaplan
Today, generativity is no longer understood as a concept “within” the individual but as a relational and multiply contextualized construct that links the person to the social world."24 Successful aging depends on a mutual exchange in intergenerational relationships. The passing off knowledge gained in life experience is a way to remain social and connected with others while also being fulfilling to self perception.
23. Kruse, Andreas and Eric Schmitt, “Generativity as a Route to Active Ageing,” Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research, vol. 2012, 2012. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/cggr/2012/647650/cta/ 24. Ibid. PERSPECTIVE
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THOUSAND FIBERS While my research on generativity surfaced later during thesis research, the desire for older adults to pass on knowledge was a theme that very much guided my work during previous semesters. During my first semester in Spring 2012, I created a website called Thousand Fibers, which celebrated the wisdom and achievements of older adults through stories and memories from their lives. It was intended to be a bridgebuilder for older generations to connect with younger, share their experiences and be heard on a platform where they aren't often found (the internet). The mission of Thousand Fibers was to bring about an inspiring and positive perspective of aging—to diminish the fear of growing older while at the same time putting older adults in the spotlight. Stories were gathered through relatives, on street interviews and a workshop that I held at Kip Center on August 4, 2012. The name Thousand Fibers came from a quote by Henry Melvill:
“ We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and along these fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes and they come back as effects.” 25 The following pages showcase the site design of Thousand Fibers along with handwritten letters submitted for the site.
25. Cacioppo and Patrick, “Sympathetic Threads,” 114. PERSPECTIVE
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Thousand Fibers homepage
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Thousand Fibers “The Project”
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Thousand Fibers “The Collection”
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Thousand Fibers interior page
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Handwritten letter from Thousand Fibers workshop 82 • PERSPECTIVE
Handwritten letter from Thousand Fibers workshop
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Handwritten letter from Thousand Fibers workshop 84 • PERSPECTIVE
Participants at Thousand Fibers workshop
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DESIGN AS A TOOL OF INCLUSION CONCEPTUALIZING WITH ME WORKSHOP AT KIP CENTER
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DESIGN AS A TOOL OF INCLUSION
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Graphic design is a language—a visual way to communicate to an audience. The way in which the audience sees, reads and responds to design is, in many ways, is in the hands of the designer. Through design thinking and the empathy phase of my process, I found that the prominent need that I want to design for is intergenerational connection. I utilized my formal graphic design training to experiment with the emerging practice of experience design, exploring questions such as:
Can graphic design create an experience? Can visual output trigger action? Can a designer's role transcend past the visual and further into the emotional? Even further, can the emotional tie that is created link people together resulting in a shared experience? While the term experience design is still very much in flux, I came to be familiar with it as “the discipline of planning, designing and building rich experiences that encourage certain behaviors, create emotional responses, and leave a lasting impression.”26 Nathan Shedroff, a pioneer in experience design, says that “while everything, technically, is an experience of some sort, there is something important and special to many experiences that make them worth discussing. In particular, the elements that contribute to superior experiences are knowable and reproducible, which make them designable.” Experience design is an approach to developing successful experiences for people in any medium. The boundaries of an experience are expansive and include the sensorial, the symbolic, the temporal, and the meaningful.27
26. “It's All About the Experience,” Forty, accessed August 1, 2013, http://forty.co/experience-design. 27. “Nathan: Experience Design,” Nathan Shedroff, accessed July 15, 2013 http://www.nathan.com/ed/. APPLICATION
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How can I, as a graphic designer, use a combination of form and function to create a connective experience within these expansive boundaries? How can I collaborate with my audience to have them become part of the experience creation? How can my work speak a universal language—being inclusive of all people, pulling at similar desires, wants and needs that all humans have?
“ The mission of design thinking is to translate observations into insights and insights into products and services that will improve lives.”28 — Tim Brown
I believe that design can be used as a tool of inclusion— connecting people together despite generalizations and messages that society tells us—and as a result, emphasize our shared humanity. I began to explore additional questions during my process such as: To what extent can experience design connect people together and what would be left to the individual participants? What would be my role in guiding the participants through the experiences? Where would this role start, stop, and be taken over by each individuals unique interpretation? Meredith Davis's description of The Emmert/Donaghy model of communication says “Emmert and Donaghy describe communicators as being comprised of all the communication inputs, outputs, and mental processing of their lifetimes. In other words, the interpretation of meaning by an individual in response to a single message is influenced by all previous experiences of that individual.”29 Even if created to speak a universal language, each experience would be truly individual. No two experiences could be alike because no two people are like. As much as we are all wired in a similar way, we all have unique life stories and experiences that make us who we are.
How can our individual experiences bring us together and put a spotlight on our similarities?
28. Brown, 49. 29. Davis, Meredith, “Communication Models: Representing Thought and Action” in Graphic Design Theory (Graphic Design in Context). New York: Thames and Hudson Inc, 2012.
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COMBATTING AGEISM Is it possible for experience design to diminish the messages that society tells us about aging? What if design was used as a way to better connect us to each other regardless of age? Living in a society where getting older is viewed as a negative part of life, ageism begins to form at a very young age. Most people are exposed to it their whole lives without realizing because it is so deeply rooted in our culture. It’s almost natural for age segregation and prejudices to occur. How can I play a part in diminishing the stereotypes that exist and that create our negative perceptions of growing older? How can I turn the conversation about aging to become positive?
“ What I've found is that even though you experience positive emotions as exquisitely subtle and brief, such moments can ignite powerful forces of growth in your life.” 30 In my opinion, younger generations don't spend enough time with their elders. We live in two separate worlds that rarely cross paths. It’s very difficult to form your own perspective about aging if you don't have any examples that go against the stereotypes that we see and hear around us. In addition to celebrating our shared humanity, the secondary message of my thesis is an attempt to combat ageism through design—to provide a means for interacting and building personal connection with people of different ages.
My hypothesis is that if younger generations connect with older adults more often, ageism can be diminished. By talking and interacting with each other, connections can be formed and similarities will be noticed.
Can design encourage meaningful interaction and intergenerational dialogue to integrate older adults deeper into the fabric of our society?
30. Fredrickson, Barbara, “Love, Our Supreme Emotion,” in Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become. New York: Hudson Street Press, 2013, 7. APPLICATION
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WITH ME
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I began to develop a system of design experiences with the goal of encouraging people to slow down and spend time with each other. They are simple, straight-forward interactions, in hopes that each person is able to create their own unique experience as a synthesis of their past influences and experiences that they are bringing with them. Each experience represents a different way of connecting with others. It’s not about age, it’s about our human desire to build meaningful relationships throughout all phases of our lives.
With Me utilizes design as a tool of inclusion to deepen relationships between generations. It encourages meaningful interaction and intergenerational dialogue and is intended to help people be present with each other in one space, to celebrate and realize our shared humanity, and to interact with people in a way that gets lost in our busy lives. With Me is a system that bridges the gap between generations and provides a means of connection. It is an outlet to share experiences and learn from one another in order to diminish the stereotypes and fears that are all too often associated with aging to better integrate older adults into the fabric of society.
“ The evolution from design to design thinking is the story of the evolution from the creation of products to the analysis of the relationship between people and products, and from there to the relationship between people and people.” 31
31. Brown, 41. APPLICATION
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Pantone 144C
Pantone 314C
Pantone 2602C
Pantone 376C
COLOR EXPLORATION The color choices were made to evoke specific emotions within the experiences. fun energetic joyful enjoyable thoughtful human approachable meaningful universal
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ICON EXPLORATION
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Words trigger memories, which our lives are built upon. What happens when two people talk together about some of life’s toughest words? Can we learn together? Can connections between generations be discovered? Will we understand each other better?
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There’s something about letter writing. Something personal. Something freeing. Sometimes words are better said on paper than out loud. What happens when two people sit and write to each other? What happens when two people spend time together without actually speaking?
Remembering together brings our memories to life. Sharing our stories reaffirms our shared humanity. Can remembering our past together form a bond in the present? Can it connect our lives together? Will a stronger appreciation grow for all of the experiences that have shaped our lives?
We are all interconnected to one another. We could not live without each other. Being present in the moment allows us to truly experience the connection we are wired to have. What happens when two people are present together and working towards a shared goal? What happens when we build connections together?
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Talk With Me is a set of 20 cards, each containing one word. Participants will alternate picking up a card and talking about what that word means to them. Some examples are love, gratitude, age, change, travel and mistakes.
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Each participant receives an envelope containing a card with a prompt on it. While sitting together, the participants will write each other a letter based off of the prompt.
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Each participant will take turns—on the same blank sheet of paper—writing short phrases, places, people or thoughts that come to mind from his or her childhood. Creating one image of two separate lives.
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Creating a continuous line, each person will connect two dots together building off of the last person’s connection. You may not overlap connections. The game is over when there aren't any connections left to be made.
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Where: Kip Center, Rutherford, NJ When: August 10, 2013 at 10:00am
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I tested the initial prototypes by organizing a workshop at Kip Center with the seniors that participate in their Saturday program and a group twenty-somethings. I was curious to see how the experiences would live in my community and what type of impact they could have on the individuals involved. There were approximately 60 participants—45 people between the ages of 70-98 and 15 people between the ages of 20-30. The space was set up with 8 tables and approximately 8-10 participants at each. The workshop began with a conversation on intergenerational dialogue. People of different ages shared their views on how they interact with older or younger generations. We then shared these thoughts on post-its and pinned them on the wall combining all of our thoughts together. A few people also volunteered to share their opinions out loud. I then introduced the experiences to the group and handed them out to each table, which had a mixture of older and younger people at each. Everyone had about 25 minutes to interact with each other. Some tables worked together as a large group, while others broke off into smaller groups of two or three. I walked around to each table to listen in on conversations. It was beautiful to see people who didn't previously know each other laughing together and connecting on personal topics. When the interacting portion was over, I asked people to share feedback on their experience. Some individuals read their Recall With Me sheets out loud. Others talked about different connections that were made and new things that they learned from one another. The following pages are snippets of quotes and photos from the event.
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Do you think that different generations need to find a way to better connect together? 112 • APPLICATION
If yes, what would your suggestion be?
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“ I think the problem is that young people just don't realize that older adults have gone through the exact same things that they are going through and can provide knowledge about what to expect. They only see the person on the outside and they don't realize that the person in front of them has been shaped by years and years of experience.” – ASHER LHOWE, AGE 26
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“ When my grandchildren were younger we used to babysit and were needed, but now that they're older, they're into sports and we're not needed anymore.” — KATHY, AGE 85
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“ Many of us here have grandchildren. I have grandchildren between the ages of 14 and 27. Young people today (not all, but some) answer back with one word answers. How are we as grandparents supposed to pull these words out of kids? This bothers me and this hurts me when I talk to my grandchildren.” — SADIE, AGE 88
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“ One of the men at my table asked me how old I was (25). He then told me he was 75 but felt 25 at heart. He went on and on about how much he loved life and how he continues to live each day like his last. What a great outlook that many 25 year olds don't follow!” — ERICA SCAVONE, AGE 25
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“ We really enjoyed the games but we found that they mostly served as icebreakers. We got into talking about many different parts of our lives, mostly because the games began the conversation, but it didn't stop there. We talked about where our families grew up in the Bronx and found many similarities between each other.” — MIKE MEDICO, AGE 28
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“ Our favorite game was Talk With Me. We got some pretty tough words to talk about, but it was great to not just have interaction but meaningful interaction where we got to learn about people's perspective and experiences that will benefit younger folks to know about one day. I also think the seniors learned from us younger people about how we perceive certain topics. It benefitted both of us in a big way.” — MIKE LULL, AGE 27
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The participants at Kip Center expressed that connection between generations is something that is often on people's minds as they grow older. Not everyone felt that there was a disconnect, but the majority of the participants—both older and younger—believed that the way that we connect could and should improve. THE EXPERIENCES The workshop was informative regarding what people enjoyed, what portions of the experiences worked well, and which could use revisions. Talk With Me was the most enjoyed game. People were able to relate to it easily because of the variety of topics to choose from. One of the participants mentioned to me that the simplicity of one word on each card allowed everyone to easily express their own perspective to the experience. Write With Me and Recall With Me were also liked, but they became difficult to play with more than three people. I received heartwarming responses to both games from those that participated, but they didn’t encourage as much interaction as Talk With Me. Being that those participating had never met before, people were interested in speaking to each other. I found, through testing at a later time, that these two experiences have a more meaningful result when interacted with by people who already know each other.
“ We were able to talk at ease for a good 20 minutes and really enjoyed each others company. It was as simple as that. We tend to think our generations have a "gap" of interest but in reality we don't. We are much more closely connected than we think.” — Erica Scavone, age 25
Those who played Recall With Me found similarities between generations that may not have previously realized. It was nice to see as they were writing how one person's memory triggered a similar memory from the next person, regardless of age or time that they grew up. Connect With Me wasn't interacted with as much as the other experiences. This experience would need to be revisited. I think the directions were too vague for a large group and an active setting. The feedback received provided detailed insights into what a revised version of the experiences could look like. It was extremely beneficial to integrate real-time interaction into my process.
32. Brown, 58. APPLICATION
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“ The games were great. They're the reason that I sat down at this table, but once we began talking to each other we put them aside. It didn't drive the entire conversation, but I learned a lot and had a great time because of the connection that they originally formed.” — Nathaniel Lhowe, age 28
OVERALL CONCLUSION OF THE PARTICIPANT'S EXPERIENCE While the experiences were appreciated and people enjoyed interacting with them, they served more as an icebreaker than as a tool you would interact with for a lengthy amount of time. People didn’t play them for the entire duration of the workshop. They moved on to other conversations, but it was a way for them to begin the conversations. WORKSHOP ROLES During the workshop, my role included facilitator, collaborator, photographer, art director and participant. As a facilitator of the event, I was responsible for creating the initial experience—the way that the audience connected to the event and how they first perceived it. I was challenged to tell the story of my work through the lens that this particular audience would understand. This had me wondering—how do you design experiences for particular audiences and how do you speak about them to that particular audience? Does this change the experience from one group to another? As a collaborator, I had to be present in the moment and respond based off of what the group was most responding to. While I had an agenda that was previously planned, it became important for me to put that aside in order to collaborate with the audience in the way that best fit the moment. I had to let go of particular portions that I wanted to spend more time with and focus on what their cues were telling me—including facial expressions, body posture and levels of engagement—in order to make the event as successful as possible. As an art director, I guided the videographer and photographer to see the event through my perspective. It was vital for them to understand what was important for me to capture. At times I was directing them to particular tables and conversations that I was overhearing walking throughout the room. It was a challenge because the space was large and there were many people and tables. It was difficult for them to capture everything so quick decisions were imperative.
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At certain portions I took over the role as photographer. While at VCFA, I discovered that I enjoy visual storytelling through the lens of photography. Though I didn't have a chance to spend too much time with this, I wanted this to be an opportunity to delve into photography for a short while. I also felt it was very important for me to be a participant in the experiences so that I could understand them from a first hand perspective. This role was very short. As a participant, I only sat in on one experience for around 10 minutes, playing Recall With Me. Even for a short while, it gave me quick insights into what it was like to interact with the experiences with someone that I didn't previously know, which felt very different than the experiences that I had with those that I previously had a relationship with. My question of where the designer’s role starts and stops within experience design was quickly answered at the workshop. My design role was very much taken over by the participants once they began interacting with each other. Design was important in setting up the experience. It was vital in creating the initial relationship between participants. It played a major role in creating the environment and speaking quickly to human emotion, but it didn’t make the experiences what they evolved into. The participants did.
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The participants at Kip Center were meeting each other for the first time. The experiences served as a time to get to know each other. How does this differ when the people participating already have a close relationship? The following pages are interactions with my parents and myself. I felt that the experiences had both similarities and differences than when participating at Kip Center. Recall With Me had the most similarities. What one person said often brought back a memory in the other in both scenarios. However, it overall was a much deeper connection that was felt because most of what we were remembering and writing together were about shared experiences from our past. In Recall With Me, every memory that I was telling was one that they were a part of. Their memories brought back my memory. It became a time of remembering our combined lives together. In Write With Me, I found myself writing to them what I often do not find myself saying out loud.
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Recall With Me My Mother and myself 140 • APPLICATION
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WHERE I AM GOING
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WHERE I AM GOING What began as a search to better integrate older adults into the fabric of our society, very much became an understanding of our shared humanity and our desire to build meaningful relationships throughout all phases of our lives. With an ethnographic and empathetic approach, my content was able to evolve—along with my perception—and transcend into form and action. Was my message received by those that I was speaking to? Through testing the design experiences, were the participants encouraged to slow down and appreciate the elders in their lives? Since the workshop at Kip Center, I have been receiving feedback from the participants. I couldn't be more touched that the younger people who attended are still talking about the people that they met and the spontaneous connections that they formed. The most exciting part is that they are telling others about it. I've learned that creating an impact doesn't necessarily mean reaching a large audience. Sometimes if you deeply affect a few people, impact will spread organically. “Responsibility is contagious. I call this the responsibility ripple. When someone steps up to change things, others step up and find courage they had not previously found.”33 I do believe that I reached my audience and created an impact within them, and I also believe that my work at VCFA will continue to evolve. Through collaboration with my audience, I was able to quickly see how the design experiences lived in my community and that a place for them does exist. Connection between generations is often on the minds of those as they grow older.
Design can be used as a tool of inclusion to better connect generations together. Graphic design can create an experience that triggers action. It can transcend the visual into the emotional.
33. Izzo, John, “The Five Rows of Responsibility,” in Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything. San Francisco: BerrettKoehler Publishers, Inc., 2012, 10.
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As designers, we do have the power to implement change, whether it be large scale or small. I learned that there will always be constraints, yet many times it's about finding ways to design around those constraints that make a project truly successful. The role that I played in the design experiences was not always controllable. The experience was very much in the hands of the participants and it evolved greatly based off of their past experiences and combined life-stories. In addition to an empathetic approach to my audience, my time at VCFA also led me to a deeper empathetic approach of myself. My work demanded me to become immersed in my process and to better understand how my thoughts, values, and experiences influence it. Through empathy + design + action, I became fully aware of the importance that my process can have to the product and how they are continuously feeding off of one another. I vow to keep authenticity of both form and function at the center and forefront of my practice.
Empathy + design + action is a practice that I am truly excited to continue evolving.
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APPENDIX
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LEXICON REFERENCES
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LEXICON Below are definitions of the terminology used throughout the book. ACTION The different methods that are used to implement the design experiences in the community in order to spread awareness. DESIGN ETHNOGRAPHY Ethnography is the study of people in their natural settings; a descriptive account of social life and culture in a defined social system, based on qualitative methods (e.g., detailed observations, unstructured interviews, analysis of documents). Design ethnography is a broad approach encompassing several research methods, focused on a comprehensive and empathetic understanding of the users, their lives, their language, and the context of their artifacts and behaviors. It approximates the immersion methods of traditional ethnography, to deeply experience and understand the user's world for design empathy and insight.34 EMPATHY The ability to recognize emotions felt by others. The human capacity to experience another person's plight. Empathy exists because of the acknowledgment of death and the celebration of life. It is based on our frailties and imperfections. It is the ability of human beings to show solidarity with one another. To empathize is to civilize.35 EXPERIENCE DESIGN The discipline of planning, designing, and building rich experiences that encourage certain behaviors, create emotional responses, and leave a lasting impression.36 It's an approach to developing successful experiences for people in any medium. The boundaries of an experience can be expansive and include the sensorial, the symbolic, the temporal, and the meaningful.37
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GENERATION GAP A term referring to the societal conflicts causing a disconnect between people in different generations. GENERATIONAL INTEGRATION Connections formed between people of different generations to combat ageism. GENERATIVITY The opportunity to pass off wisdom accumulated to others. Generativity can be defined as “concern in establishing and guiding the next generation.” As such, Generativity is related to but also conceptually distinguished from the concepts of empathy, altruism, and intergenerational solidarity. In our understanding, the term empathy accentuates the “capacity to be affected by and share the emotional state of another,” whereas the term altruism refers to “behavior that benefits a recipient at a cost to the actor,” intergenerational solidarity can be defined in terms of “social cohesion between generations.”38 INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE Conversation and interaction between people of different generations.
34. Hanington. 35. Rifkin, Jeremy, “The Empathetic Civilisation,” RSA Animate, 10:40, Posted May 6, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g. 36. Forty. 37. Shedroff. 38. Kruse and Schmitt. APPENDIX
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REFERENCES ARTICLES Andreas Kruse and Eric Schmitt. “Generativity as a Route to Active Ageing.”
Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research, vol. 2012, 2012. http://www.
hindawi.com/journals/cggr/2012/647650/cta/. Brody, Jane E.. “Advice From Life's Graying Edge on Finishing with No Regrets.”
The New York Times, January 9, 2012. http://wwwnytimescom/2012/01/10/
health/elderly-experts-share-life-advice-in-cornellprojecthtml?pagewanted=all. Leland, John. “Simulating Age 85, With Lessons on Offering Care.” The New
York Times, August 3, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/
us/03aging.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Popova, Maria. “Einstein on Kindness, Our Shared Existence, and Life's Highest
Ideals | Brain Pickings.” Brain Pickings. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.
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VIDEOS/LECTURES Brown, Brené. “Listening to Shame.” Filmed March 2012. TED2012, 20:38.
Posted March 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_
shame.html. Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability.” Filmed June 2010. TEDxHouston,
20:20. Posted December 2010. http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_
vulnerability.html. Carstensen, Laura. “Older People Are Happier.” Filmed December 2011.
TEDxWomen, 2011, 11:39. Posted April 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/laura_
carstensen_older_people_are_happier.html. Frankl, Victor. “Why to Believe in Others.” Filmed May 1972. Toronto Youth Corps,
4:21. Posted May 2010. http://www.ted.com/talks/viktor_frankl_youth_in_
search_of_meaning.html. Goleman, Daniel. "Why Aren't We More Compassionate?" Filmed March 2007.
TED2007, 13:13. Posted December 2007. http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_
goleman_on_compassion.html. Halifax, Joan. “Compassion and the True Meaning of Empathy.” Filmed December
2011. TEDWomen 2010, 13:15. Posted September 2011. http://www.ted.com/
talks/joan_halifax.html. Kelly, David. “Human-centered Design.” Filmed February 2002. TED2002, 17:04.
Posted May 2007. http://www.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_on_human_
centered_design.html
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Lobo, Ryan. “Photographing the Hidden Story.” Filmed November 2009. TEDIndia
2009. 11:20. Posted December 2009. http://www.ted.com/talks/ryan_lobo_
through_the_lens_of_compassion.html. Pachter, Marc. “The Art of the Interview.” Filmed January 2008. EG 2008, 20:55.
Posted December 2009. http://www.ted.com/talks/marc_pachter_the_art_of_
the_interview.html. Ramachandran, Vilayanur. “The Neurons That Shaped Civilization.” Filmed
November 2009. TEDIndia 2009, 07:43. Posted January 2010. http://www.ted.
com/talks/vs_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization.html. Rifkin, Jeremy. “The Empathetic Civilisation.” RSA Animate, 10:40. Posted May 6,
2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g.
Seymour, Richard. “How Beauty Feels.” Filmed May 2011. TEDSalon London Spring
2011, 17:16. Posted October 2011. http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_seymour_
how_beauty_feels.html. Sirolli, Ernesto. “Want To Help Someone, Shut Up and Listen.” Filmed September
20012. TEDxEQChCh, 17:10. Posted November 2012. http://www.ted.com/
talks/ernesto_sirolli_want_to_help_someone_shut_up_and_listen.html. Warren, Frank. “Half A Million Secrets.” Filmed February 2012. TED2012, 11:24.
Posted April 2012. http://www.ted.com/talks/frank_warren_half_a_million_
secrets.html. Weeks, Chris “Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition.” 15:05.
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Posted November 1, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucjtHMOy7e0.
CAN EXPERIENCE DESIGN DEEPEN CONNECTIONS BETWEEN GENERATIONS?