Cultural Probes

Loss of Support Cultural Probe - Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

1

Focus Through this research, we are trying to understand how recently graduated students, non-local to the area cope with their loss of independence. By loss of independence we mean, loss of a stable financial support, and new need for reliance on self.

When a person moves to the site of their first job, they have to start earning to support their living.

Responsibilities change, and they find that they must rely more and more on themselves – dealing with bills, living costs, and balancing a budget. The separation from the traditional support network of family and friends along with the new stressful daily schedule can compound these issues. We aim to understand values surrounding this situation.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

2

Subject We chose a subject who had recently graduated and is now dealing with issues of entering the workforce and relying on himself.

Our subject, Joe, is a 26 year old programmer working for IU Bloomington. Having graduated in 2010, he spent a period of months searching for a job, worked for a year in a high-stress consulting position before returning to Bloomington for his current employment.

Joe felt this original job required too much extra time, which didn’t match with his salary. Joe also believes heath is very important, even under such an intensive working environment, and so he quit this job.

Although he is a bit further removed from the postgraduation phase than ideal, he is still, we feel, in this transitional phase that we are studying. His recent experience dealing directly with this led to some interesting directions.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

3

Probe

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

4

The probe itself was presented in a large cardboard box, sealed and wrapped up like a present, addressed “Love, Mom and Dad” - The idea behind this packaging was to present it as a house warming gift of a sort, from the participant’s parents. Also, we want to put the subject in the mind-set of family while interacting with the artifacts.

However, unlike a traditional gift, this one presented you with the parts of independence we don’t usually celebrate - Inside, positioned to directly shock the subject when opened was a chaotic jumble of bills, receipts, and a letter from collections.

Next we’ll go into each piece in depth.

Contents

1. Daily Planners (Task) 2. Greeting Cards (Task) 3. Camera (Task) 4. Story Boards (Task) 5. Blank Checks (Task) 6. Broken Money 7. Tax forms 8. Bills, Receipts, and Collections Letter 9. Piggy Bank 10. Savings Bank 11. Pens, Tape, Glue, and Post-it Notes I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

5

Daily Planners Each of the tasks were wrapped in packets, with guidelines written on them for performing one task each day.

On the first day, the subject was given 3 daily planners, and on the envelope were written instructions reading:

“Plan 3 days on the calendars

1 - Your current schedule

2 - Your ideal schedule

3 - A Balanced schedule”

Purpose

The reasoning behind this was that we wanted to get a sense of the subject’s current work life, what disconnect there was between that and the subject’s preferred/ideal daily life, and then a balanced schedule between the two. Our assumption was that in order to be independent, the subject might have to sacrifice his spare time to work.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

6

Expectation/possible problem

Although the concern arose that a ‘balance’ between ideal and current might simply be the same as the current schedule, we included the third calendar anyway, in case we could discover any difference.

Results

The calendars were filled out nearly the same, with little variation between the schedules. In fact, the only difference between ‘Ideal’ and ‘Current’ was the addition of dealing with taxes during the lunchtime period in ‘Ideal’. Our subject indicated that he had filled out the calendars not as his own schedule directly, but that he had “taken on the role” indicated by the contents of the probe, and had given us a balance between his real schedule and values, and what he felt needed to be done in order to get this imaginary individual’s life back on track.

From the schedules, we can see that Joe actually gives a high priority to carefully structuring his daily routine. He gives careful balance to work, routine, and rest. He is a practical guy. In addition, the ‘Balanced’ calendar includes an additional rest period, in order to deal with the overwhelming stress put on mind and body of dealing with these types of issues (as indicated by Joe). Balanced here meant more of a health-aware balance to stressors.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

7

“Miss You” Cards The second day’s task was to fill out “miss you” styled greeting cards. Instructions were given: “Miss you” cards.

Address them to whoever you want.

Purpose

There were 4 “Miss You” greeting cards given and the subject was asked to address them to whomever they wanted. This was to understand if the subject misses their family or old friend, but more importantly to frame the rest of the probe (and dealing with money) within this familiar social context.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

8

Results

They were addressed as follows: The “Missing You” Card (Flower on outside, “I think about you often, I miss you even more,” on inside.) was addressed to “Hiroshi (pen pal)” The “Birdhouse” Card (Pastoral scene with cows and birdhouses on outside, blank inside) was addressed to “Jeremy (friend)” The “I Love you” Card (“I love you” Written in sky writing by an airplane, with “There, you have it in writing” on inside) was addressed to “Parents” The “I miss you/Beach” Card (“I miss you” written over a beach scene on outside, “Being apart just makes me realize all the more how much you mean to me, how much I love you”) was addressed to “Jenny (girlfriend)”

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Joe did not, however, fill out any of the cards further.

When asked about this, he gave two interesting reasons. First of all, he said that he didn’t entirely see the connection to the rest of the package.

That dealing with stressful financial situations was something he wouldn’t bring back to these people.

In particular, he said though he could envision discussing it with his father, he would avoid asking his mother, as she was prone to worry about him.

Joe also said he would prefer to choose phone calls or Skype to contact his family and friends.

When asked how he would consider going about getting help, he mentioned professional services (such as tax assistance) predominantly.

Secondly, he mentioned that if he had filled out the cards, that they would have been hurried, more angry, and somehow less thoughtful and caring than if he had waited until dealing with the financial issue and then writing the letters after. In fact, this idea of sacrificing self or personal issues in order to deal with what must be done surfaced a number of times throughout the probe and the interview.

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

9

Camera For the third day, the subject was provided a disposable camera, and asked: “Take pictures of things you care about, places you don’t want to be in, etc.”

Purpose

Here the idea was to tie the subject’s personal feelings, especially about physical location, into the topic. Thus, if the subject didn’t enjoy going to the bank, or the post office, that might reveal more of the thread.

Results

However, Joe chose to focus on documenting pieces of the probe itself, and gave us pictures based on what we gave him.

Joe said it was not his habit to take photos, especially when he’s outside his house. He said that were he to have done so, likely local restaurants would have featured heavily.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

10

Story Boards For the fourth day, the subject was given 6 boards with photos of places on them along with a set of paper stick figures. The subject was instructed as follows: Create a story using the scene boards and sticking these figures!

Please mention who these figures are by writing on them.

Feel free to scribble anything on the scenes!

Purpose

Here we wanted to allow the subject to freely create a scene that they felt connected to the topic. As we couldn’t guess who was important to them when dealing with financial issues, The idea to give blank figures was made to allow the subject to create any social situation that they felt relevant.

The scenes were chosen based on the topic. The IU memorial Union and a schoolroom were chosen for the school connotation, and a local context.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

11

The playground was included to evoke memories of childhood, whereas the image of Paris was to get at possibilities of travel (or past memories of travel), which might not be possible under financial strain.

Finally, we had an image of a bank, directly working with issues of money, and an image of a coffin, which directly confronts with issues of loss and hardship.

Results

Here Joe returned with 3 scenes, all with a similar set up. On each of the three scenes (In class, Outside of school, in the bank), he put a stick figure to represent himself, and in each instance he was flanked by two figures which were labeled as “Debt” and “Taxes”. In the school and Bank settings a fourth character was added (“Teacher” in the school, and “Bank Lady” in the bank), but the poem he wrote on the envelope shows the intention of these scenes.

“In class, waiting for the bus, walking to class, the bank is always on my mind.

The cycle of money, the demand over time, it never slows down.”

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These scenes paint a dark picture of the thought process or feelings towards being stuck in this sort of financial situation, and in particular here (during the interview) he said that he could understand how stressful it could be. It would be too hard to relax, given all of the issues on one’s mind, but that relaxation would be important for dealing with the stress of the situation. Joe also mentioned understanding alcohol or drugs as a way to “force” yourself to relax and not think about the problems you’re dealing with in the day to day. Joe also said, after taking off When asked why he did not chose the other 3 scenes, Joe claimed that the funeral was too sad for him to do story telling, and travel in Paris is hard to imagine as he (or this “role”) wouldn’t think of the possibility - simply not enough money. For the playground, Joe said that if he had kids, he would have chosen it first, as these financial stresses would be vastly greater while dealing with children.

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

12

Blank Checks For our final main task 5 blank checks were given to the subject with these instructions: “Write the amount and do anything with the money!

Pay bills, buy something you want/need or anything!”

Purpose

This was to understand the financial constraints that the subject is currently going through and understand how he has lost his financial “independence.” We had assumed that these checks would be filled out according to the subject’s real situation.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

13

Results

Interestingly however, Joe filled these checks out specifically to deal with the bills we had included in the package. We had meant these bills to be more ‘mood setters’, and not necessarily to be acted upon.

These included an energy bill, a collections letter, an over-due rent notice, and several receipts. Four of the Five checks were used to directly pay each of these.

The fifth was addressed to Wal-Mart, and was memoed for the purpose of buying a Sony Playstation 4 and a video game. When asked about this in the interview, Joe said that after dealing with all the other bills, when he found one check left he thought it was fitting that he do something nice for himself. He again mentioned “the character” that he was assuming, and that there was a good chance he’d be in debt again. Given this, he wanted to do something for himself before he was swamped again. However, he mentioned that if he hadn’t dealt with the tax forms in time, he considered using the check on hiring a tax service to aid him.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

14

Broken Money We provided a number of 1 dollar bills, though only 1 was intact. 2 were cut through, and one burned.

These were placed inside the box along with the scissors, glue and tape. These were intended to evoke the feeling of “wasted money” or “lost money”, but also gave the subject the chance to try to put the pieces back together, and save.

And in fact, that is what Joe did. Each of the cut up bills were taped back together and put into the large ‘Savings’ jar. Even the burnt bill, which had no means of fixing, was placed there “just in case”. This speaks to a level of organization, and need to ‘set things right.’

Joe mentioned that he had no idea if the broken money could still be used legally after fixing them, however, he still felt that even if it couldn’t be used that was kind of a thing that had to be done.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

15

Broken Finances Along with the cut-up money came a small task, wherein we asked the subject to put “one dollar per day” towards savings, which came in the form of a large plastic jar. Given the 5 days of the study, we provided him with only 4 whole dollar bills.

However, in addition we also provided a piggy bank, with at least one dollar visible, and a lot of change included to give it weight and for it to make noise when shaken. The idea was that, when confronted with no money left for this task, the subject would need to break the piggy bank (the stopper was super-glued in place), thereby cutting into childhood ideals of savings.

We see this as our second “Broken” object, as one outcome would have been for the subject to smash the bank themselves. However, contrary to our assumptions, Joe mentioned that he attempted to remove the money once, but when he couldn’t, he realized that this piggy bank simply represented a secondary savings to the first, and left it alone.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

16

Tax Forms Initially the tax forms and information we presented to the subject were solely intended to be for the same purpose as the bills and receipts - that is, they were meant only the frame the rest of the tasks within a certain context and mind-set.

Joe took it upon himself to actually fill out the tax forms. He mentioned in the interview that the physicality of the tax forms and bills gave them an added weight and stress. Normally he deals with such things online and automatically nowadays. For instance, he mentioned how TurboTax allowed him to do his taxes simply, in an hour. But that these forms were intimidating, and he could see them adding directly to the stress in a situation where he’d have to deal with many of them.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

17

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

18

His overall approach to the probe was to be very organized and methodical - beyond doing one task each day, his approach was to sort through everything day one, prioritize, and then plan his tasks for each of the next four days. This sort of instinctual need for organization and planning, coupled with The results from our probe were very mixed, but very his stated values of sacrificing personal want for interesting. Our subject in particular (Who afterwards what needs to be done at the moment, may be the main contributing factors to why he, only 4 years self-proclaimed his neatness and organization to out of school, is only a few months away from being an extreme level) may not have been “ideal” for this probe, but we still feel that he had great insights and completely debt free. understanding into the topic space. His success in Finally, he mentioned a closer understanding or this area shouldn’t been seen as a disqualification. connection to those going through similar financial problems. He described how the pens we gave him Likewise, the issue of the “role” he played when were inconvenient, and how something as simple as dealing with the probe can be considered from one that could create huge stress when compounded side to be the disconnect from these issues and his with dealing with taxes. He mentioned that he daily life, and from the other a desire to perform the avoided red pens entirely, because there was “too tasks as we had intended them. However, given the much red”, and that when he had to spread the new interpretations, the basis in his real life, and the materials out on his kitchen table, they quickly insights gained, we guard against dismissing for this overtook the room he needed for cooking, directly reason as well. keeping him from enjoying his meals. These small insights show a deep sensitivity to the stress induced In fact, we consider the probe mostly successful, by financial problems, and are a great indicator at although a wider deployment would undoubtedly just how pervasive and inescapable these problems give us a much wider variety of responses. Joe can seem. mentioned that when he first opened the probe box that he was shocked and even a little panicked.

General Discussion

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

19

Reflection How compelling was your Broken Probe package in provoking the subject(s) into sharing personal and difficult life events?

Although we’re not sure how much useful information was directly contained within the probe when we got it back, it was certainly instrumental in framing the follow-up interview. As we asked Joe about each task and his thoughts, we got a very clear picture of the challenges he’s been through, how he would deal with finances now, and who he feels comfortable with asking for help.

How would you do it differently?

From the interviews with Joe, we found that several items and tasks didn’t quite belong to his real life.

The miss you cards and bills were an outdated technology for him, as he usually uses digital versions. That, perhaps combined with confusion about the package made him think about another role. Whether for this reason, or another several of our tasks fell flat - the Camera in particular. Our attempts to pull his personal surroundings into the package didn’t work.

If we were to design another probe, we might want to interview with the subject (Or subject culture) before we design the package and know as much as we can about their personal life. Our initial understanding of our subject could make our package more personal, and therefore compelling.

Additionally, our probe was great at provoking thought about the topic in the subject. Joe spoke about being more aware and in tune to the daily issues surrounding financial responsibility. Although he himself doesn’t face these problems, he spoke directly about how it could heavily influence his life in many aspects. Here the probe may be a method for introducing empathy.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

20

How does your probe package bring about your own sensibility about the problem space?

Before we delivered the package, we had a short conversation with Joe about his former experience, especially working experience, and found out that Joe cares quite a bit about his job and income, used for supporting his basic life. In addition he also doesn’t like to owe others, even his parents which shows that he is an independent person.

Through the probe, we touched his personal life and circles such as parents, best friends, girlfriend by providing calendar schedules and ‘Miss you’ cards. From the interviews, we learned that Joe lives alone and can only meet his parents once every several months and this is same with some of his former good friends. While this might make him appear to be cut off, in line with our target subject, we discovered that the issues surrounding financial burden aren’t caused by being cut off from this support group. Rather, the disconnect is selfimposed, and becomes a way for focusing self or keeping loved ones from worrying.

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It became clear through the discussion of the probe that these problems are hard to escape from, deeply worrying, and very stressful. As Joe said, it can be hard to turn that worry off and just relax. Stepping back and critiquing the use of artifact probes in general as a method for design research: What kind of insights can be generated? What kind of insights does this technique fail to provide?

The artifact probe is extremely powerful at gathering data and stories from a particular person or culture.

By offering them series of items to interact with, we can get at a wide range of subjective ideas, and is great at inspiring during the design process. It will be a good method to choose just to get to know someone better, as it was hugely instrumental in the interview. Finally, since it is contained in a package, it can be sent anywhere! This could be a huge plus, giving us access to people we might never even consider otherwise.

This method requires quite a bit more effort, time, and materials so that it might be very difficult to deploy at larger scale. Obviously it is hard to get any objective measures through the probe, but that is entirely by design.Also, although we had a great interview after the fact, our probe was not designed to be monitored in action. Our subject could have

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

21

Probes - General Stepping back and critiquing the use of artifact probes in general as a method for design research: What kind of insights can be generated? What kind of insights does this technique fail to provide?

This method requires quite a bit more effort, time, and materials so that it might be very difficult to deploy at larger scale. Obviously it is hard to get any objective measures through the probe, but that is entirely by design.Also, although we had a great interview after the fact, our probe was not designed to be monitored in action. Our subject could have simply done the tasks at the last minute and made up the rest (we don’t believe it.) If we were studying actions in context, the probes wouldn’t be useful.

Although, it may be powerful at discovering core values of our subject in order to study these values in context later.

The artifact probe is extremely powerful at gathering data and stories from a particular person or culture.

By offering them series of items to interact with, we can get at a wide range of subjective ideas, and is great at inspiring during the design process. It will be a good method to choose just to get to know someone better, as it was hugely instrumental in the interview. Finally, since it is contained in a package, it can be sent anywhere! This could be a huge plus, giving us access to people we might never even consider otherwise.

I543 Interaction Design Methods

Assignment 8 - Cultural Probes

Urvashi Gupta, Tianjie Li, Zan Morris

22