GABI’S THESIS JOURNEY or a survival guide to desperate master students
To Beena, Hannah and Vijeta for taking part in this journey with me
01
When I first started writing this diary, my aim was just to keep record of my research process. However, at some point, I realised that these sheets were like a friend to debate with myself the highs and lows of the journey of writing a thesis. To make it even more challenging, I had a very specific situation in which my need for concentration and focus exponentially increased: I moved back to Brazil before the end of the course. Although I had all the support from LCC and some classmates, it was a much lonelier path. The following humorous words tell you a story of my multinational research, which was shaped in London and finished in São Paulo. The chapters are divided into two big blocks: “When in the grey land of the Queen” obviously summarises my time in London and shows what was accomplished on my research by September 2016.
“When in the green land of the Samba” tells the story of my research already in tropical Brazilian lands. By exposing my journey towards finishing my research, I believe I can help other students in the same situation to see that thesis is not rocket science… unless you are doing a master in Aerospace Engineering.
Icons made by Freepik and Zlatko Najdenovski, from www.flaticon.com
02
London, right? Beautiful city; access to everything, from culture to food; red buses with upper floors so you can see the city; a so-fluffy-that-I-am-gonna-die queen; and a type of rain that doesn’t require an umbrella.
But there was something‌something called:
research project.
Icons made by Freepik, Darius Dan and Zlatko Najdenovski, from www.flaticon.com
03
Ok, ok‌ maybe this is not that scary, but when you are beginning a research, you have so many doubts that it seems like you are never going to define what your work is about or how to conduct it. I had a very good idea about what I wanted to find out, but I still hadn’t found ways to express that. My period in London was about eliminating these doubts and shaping my work towards a perfect research question and suitable research methods.
So there I went through:
05
“These are the ‘how’ of your project. To define your research methods, you must have at least an idea of what you want to do, otherwise you are going to select methods based on anything else in the world but your real objectives.” Gabriela Azevedo
06
07
Just try to keep the balance. I didn’t freak out, not even for a single moment and I explored all the facilities that LCC provides us: academic support, workshops and library, for example.
08
I wanted to revolutionise my methodology. I used to work with Design Thinking before the course and, by using this tool, I was tired of doing only interviews. But, in the end, I needed them. I wanted to find out how home environments affect wellbeing of low-income people in Brazil. How was I supposed to discover this without doing interviews?
I kept asking myself questions like: “what do I know about these people?”; “what if I visited them?”; “what if I observed them walking around their houses?”; “what if I asked them everything I wanted to know?”; “what do I know about interior design?”; “what if I talked to interior designers too?”. These questions led me to three pertinent methods:
09
If I didn’t know much about low-income families in Brazil and interior design, the internet was going to be my BFF. Websites, articles and books would support me in getting knowledge on these themes.
And here I go again with the interviews. But, as I said, I needed them. I had lots of questions that had to be asked to interior designers and low-income people.
Finally, I had to observe these people interacting with objects within the houses. I needed to see their spaces and decoration to capture insights not perceived only with the interviews.
10
With the research methods defined, it was time to elaborate my
research objectives and question. Before writing the objectives, I understood that I had to read a lot to avoid creating a knowledge already available in the market.
And the beautiful name for that is
11
This is the image that best represents a research project
Researches talking about themes related to your project. In my case: home environment and wellbeing
Other studies talking about other themes also related to your project. In my case: lowincome people
What new knowledge are you creating with your project?
12
I realised that lots of people have researched low-income people, lots of people have researched wellbeing and environment, but none has researched the effects of domestic environment on low-income people.
I was looking for
13
With that said, I established three main objectives for my research: To understand how lowincome people consume interior design goods and services To understand the impacts of home environment on wellbeing To build a framework of the main aspects to be considered when assessing low-income people’s environment
Icons made by Freepik and Flat Icons, from www.flaticon.com
14
With the research methods and objectives defined, it was going to be easy to draw my research question. Right?
NO, NO, NO!
The research question should be very specific. After all, it helps keep focus and avoid general findings.
Saying “home environment” was very general. I had to define what I was talking about within this environment. I came to conclude that “decoration” and “ergonomics” were the elements I wanted to research. After lots of conversations with
my tutor and some of my classmates, my research question was defined: to what extent decoration and ergonomics of home environments impact wellbeing of lowincome residents in the state of São Paulo, Brazil?
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DATA COLLECTION PART I
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Ok‌ all done and it was time to prepare myself to collect the data I was looking for. I decided to start with the interior designers. I elaborated the interview script based on the 3 main objectives I had established for my research. I also went through several examples of semi-structured interviews scripts to learn the best
practices when questioning people, such as eliminating bias, avoiding yes/no questions, among others. Although the interviewees were all Brazilians, the interviews happened when I still was in London, through Skype.
18
Four architects/interior designers interviewed: three women and one man. The interviews happened to be amazing! All the questions were fully answered and helpful insights were collected.
“
(…) decoration and ergonomics can turn a life upside down
“
we work with dreams. Our house is our refuge
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
”
19
So far so good, but it was time to go back to
BRAZIL
Photo made by Zemlinki!, from Flickr
20
Brazil, right? Summer practically the whole year; friendly people; the best food in the world (sorry, rest of the world) and Dilma was impeached.
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
21
But the city of São Paulo is different… too big with a crazy rhythm. So there I previously spoke with some people I knew and asked them to introduce me to other people. So I concentrated my interviews in a community in the city of São Paulo.
DATA COLLECTION PART II
Before telling you what went wrong, I want to explain how I organised myself to talk to the low-income people.
My hometown is quite small and my neighbourhood is very diverse. So there I went from door to door ringing bells to find people who were willing to answer my questions.
22
In the first interview I noticed I had a problem. The questions were good, but the interviewees weren’t comfortable. They were too humble or too shy to elaborate the answers in a level I needed for my research. So…
I NEEDED A NEW APPROACH
23
I laid my hands on two simple things:
I ADDED ANOTHER METHOD TO MY METHODOLOGY WORD-CONCEPT ASSOCIATION
A much more ludic method in which people should say their first thought when seeing a determined word on the card
I STARTED HAVING FUN The more relaxed I seemed, the more comfortable my interviewees would be with me and the questions.
Icons made by Roundicons and Freepik from www.flaticon.com
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RESULTS AMAZING
The experience was great. The results were awesome. I succeeded in meeting the most important expectations and concerns of my research and I ended up capturing insights I was not even looking for.
25
I tried to find patterns in the answers and I organised my
FINDINGS by affinity.
Then I connected them to my objectives and research question And I gave suggestions on what to do.
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For example, I suggest an awareness guide to lowincome people with important information and tips regarding wellbeing and home environment. I detected that low-income people are unaware of the implications of their domestic space in their quality of life and/or are conformed to their situation, becoming a nonbeliever of change. I started with a rough prototype and then I moved to a mock up of what the guide could look like.
27
personal
ACHIEVEMENTS
In the end, much more than a certificate, our learnings are the most precious assets when taking a master and writing a thesis.
For being part of a multicultural class, I extended this learning to my field work during my research, since I was coping with people from a reality very different from mine.
Moreover, I commissioned a research project based on design as a discipline, even though I was never a designer, demonstrating the learnings on Design Management.
My academic language was definitely improved.
Finally, my research gave me inputs to explore and develop solutions to lowincome people in Brazil.