YES, MAYBE NOT: A Design Investigation into Young Adulthood by jiani0

BY JIANI LIN

00 INTRODUCTION

Table of Contents

0. Introduction

1. Goals & Objectives

2. Research

3. Audience & Markets

4. Early Exploration

5. Fianl Projects

6. Lexicon

148

7. Looking Back & Forward

152

00 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 0 INTRODUCTION

The story of my thesis

00 INTRODUCTION

As a young adult experiencing the transition to becoming a full adult, the topic of a young adult’s identity exploration is super fascinating to me. I was born in Haining, a coastal town in Eastern China. My primary school, middle school, and high school were all within two kilometers of my home, which meant I could go home every day. My college was a three-hour drive from my hometown, which meant I could return home once a month. So, studying abroad in the United States during my young adulthood was a big decision both for my family and me. With a passion for design and a desire to get to know people coming from different cultural backgrounds, I came to New York City in the summer of 2016. I never thought it would be easy—to study and live in a city where I knew nobody, spoke another language, and cooked for myself (no way!). After spending a year and a half in New York, and talking with my parents and friends, I realize how remarkable the changes were that happened to me in this short period of time. People from different backgrounds come to the US, especially New York City, to chase their dreams all the time. Many young people my age are coming here to see the outside world for the first time, and, in the process, are getting out of their comfort zone, or planning to do so. Three months before my twenty-third birthday, I started to constantly ask myself, “What kind of life do I want to live?” Seeking to find out how others were dealing with the question, I asked a few people what they were planning on doing or had done during the year they were twenty-

00 INTRODUCTION

three. Many gave me a quick answer. Some thought for a while, then narrated their story to me slowly. One person told me the story of how he made unexpected changes in his life direction: he was a chef when he was twenty-three, but now, at his late thirtyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, he was an interaction designer at IBM. The fascinating part of talking with other people about this topic was this: Most people conveyed to me what they saw for themselves at twenty-three based on a point of view that had acquired after they were twenty-three. Some expressed confusion about how to answer the question; others showed confidence. What their answers had in common is that they all expected their life to be better in the future than it was at this age. On the road, on the subway, during parties, in restaurants, and in many different settings, I continued asking people the question of what they were doing or had done at the age of twenty-three. I was so impressed by the ways they addressed this question; I loved listening to their stories, their insights about life. I enjoyed discussing life with peers who were also experiencing a similar period in their lives or were about to. My peers and I discussed what kind of person we wanted to be. In fact, we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop talking about it. Most people had an open-ended vision. A picture of their future selves that was based on the experiences of those who had come before them. Some of their answers were clear, some blurry. The way we pictured our future selves could be expectations we had of ourselves; they could be ideas we took from our role models; they could be descriptions of the influences people had on us; they could be our own very personal goals.

00 INTRODUCTION

“Most young adults expect that their futures will turn out well. At the same time, they may experience anxiety and uncertainty about the way to approach their visions of what’s to come.”

———— Dr. Jeffrey Arnett / Developmental Psychologist

00 INTRODUCTION

The picture was always there, but the picture could change based on each of our experiences. I believe the mental expectations we have of our future selves push us to get out of our comfort zones and achieve a better version of ourselves. What should I do with the current me and the future me? For many young adults, especially during the period when they are in college and for two to three years after they graduate, their vision of their future self is not always clear and changes all the timeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is a self that is cloudy, abstract, and flexible. Most young adults experience a life filled with choices that are exploding in front of them. It is during this age period that young people go to college and then start working, along the way getting a chance to meet many more people than they did before, which also means they have more choices than they ever did. They start to become independent and finally can make decisions for themselves. It is a golden time for them to explore their identities. In order to become a better version of themselves, it is essential that young people better understand the potential consequences of their choices, build a picture of their future selves, and know how to achieve the selves they envision. Jumping out of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comfort zone in early adulthood gives young people more chances to reach out to a world they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know before, to explore their identities, and to experience life. Life always hands us surprises, especially in our young

00 INTRODUCTION

“My mom said life was like a box of chocolates . You never know what you’re gonna get.” ———— Forrest Gump

adulthood, that are full of opportunities and unknowns. According to the research did by Jeffrey Arnett in his book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties, most young adults expect that their futures will turn out well. At the same time, they may experience anxiety and uncertainty about the way to approach their visions of what’s to come. For example, young people might have positive expectations of getting married even as they are struggling with a terrible relationship at the time. My thesis aims to help my peers have a clearer picture of their futures, or even just how to reach those futures. Because getting out of one’s comfort zone is essential to a young adult’s identity exploration, it is important that young adults try new things, even those are not good at or don’t usually do. For example, I encourage college students who are not sure what career path they are interested to take steps to get started on their imagined career path. They might find an opportunity to try out the career they are curious about or talk to people who are already in the industry. Just taking the first steps is more useful than wasting time on worrying about

the future. As a designer, I believe that great design can be inspired by our everyday experiences. As a young adult, adding my personal experiences to my design solutions is a way to help build empathy into my design projects. I’m interested in using design to influence people’s behaviors and emotions and create a positive impact on their lives. My thesis focuses on exploring the shared emotions, behaviors, and experiences young adults have as they graduate college and enter the working world , or plan to do so, leaving their comfort zone behind. I address young adults’ identity exploration on a professional, romantic, and social level with the goal of designing objects, products, service platforms, apps, and systems that can help this generation prepare for the period of life they are about to experience.

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

CHAPTER 1 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

The destination I want to go

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

Identity Exploration Identity exploration happens throughout the course of a person’s life. We can categorize someone’s identity into three categories: one’s given identity, one’s chosen identity, and one’s core identity. Your given identity consists of the conditions that are outside of your control, such as birthplace, gender, family roles, and physical characteristics. Your chosen identity includes the characteristics that you acquire by your own choice, such as occupation, romantic partner, friends, hobbies, and political affiliation. Your core identity is made up of the attributes that are unique to you as an individual, such as behavior, values, skills, and certain items from the prior two identity categories. A person’s background has a strong influence on all forms of their identity exploration. The time, way, and importance one places on a given form of identity exploration vary from person to person and differ according to each person’s background. One might start exploring her[JW1] race, a component of given identity, during mid-age when she moves to another country, even if she didn’t think that much about race when she was in her native locale. One’s exploration of certain roles in his family can be hugely influenced by the number of children in his family and the family structure. The decision to explore chosen identity is usually related to one’s age, and the type of identity exploration one engages in can also be categorized by age. When books, articles, and lectures talk about a young adult’s identity exploration, they are most likely to consider the primary factors to be academic identity, professional identity, and romantic identity. When looking at people at mid-age, these sources often discuss professional and marital identity. Although people engage in core-identity exploration

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

throughout their whole life, it is most specifically affected when they explore their given and chosen identities, which are both parts of the core identity. For example, there are many reasons why someone would be more independent. A single mother might need to be more independent to raise her two-year-old daughter. An international student needs to be more independent to take care herself in another country. In this thesis, I focus on the type of chosen-identity exploration that is age oriented. Society and culture play essential roles in chosen-identity exploration. In the United States, the expectation that a young adult will get a college education and the skills required to find a good job lead 65.9 percent of young people who graduate from high school to pursue continuing study[JW4] . As such, academic identity is always one of the top identities that young people explore in this country. In China, the parental and societal expectation that young adults will get married before they reach their late twenties means that romantic-identity exploration is one of the most important aspects of twenty-somethings. Each type of identity exploration is underlay by a specific process. For given-identity exploration, that process is attempting to understand oneself. To know about what each role of our given identity plays in our life and how we get along with them. For core-identity exploration, the underlying process is trying to improve oneself. Our points of view lead us to behave in particular ways, learn specific skills, or obey certain values. We use our core identity to test and reflect the point of view we believe in, and during the

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

process we improve ourselves. The process underlying chosen-identity exploration is trying. Because there are less facts and evidence to go by in chosen-identity exploration, the uncertainty of this type of exploration is the highest. In exploring their romantic identity, for instance, people might be trying to figure out which person is the best fit for them, what their sexual orientation is, whether they should get married, and so on. Those are questions that people can’t answer until they try several different options. Most people need to date several different people before they can decide whom they want to be with. For some people, it takes several failed marriages for them to realize they don’t want to be married at all. Trying is the most important part of chosen-identity exploration; it’s a step people can’t skip. “Get out of your comfort zone” is the commonly used phrase to encourage people to try something new or do something they are not good at. But not everyone realizes the importance of going beyond his or her comfort zone, or gets sufficient encouragement to do so. The Goal The central claim of my thesis is this: It is only by getting out of their comfort zone that young adults can find their ideal self. The goal of my thesis is to help young adults explore their chosen identities. Here is a metaphor that helps to explain the idea that is central to this thesis: Imagine that young adults are kale. Since there are hundreds of ways to cook kale, which style

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

of cooking it would produce the best version of kale? If we think of this question as an equation, it’s easy to assume the only variable is the style of cooking. But when you think about it, the kale is also a variable, as there are many different kinds of the vegetable. Is the kale from California or New York or somewhere else? Does it grow inside or outside? Is the kale fresh, or was it picked several days or weeks before, and was it possibly shipped from somewhere else? Human beings are obviously much more complicated than kale. Whereas we might categorize kale without applying too many details, for humans, each aspect of life matters in the determination. Although young adults are often classified into different social groups or academic subject areas, when it comes to the individual, it’s impossible to assign her an identity based on a group they belong to. Our historical experience can serve as our reference point but our choices can’t be broken down into disciplines. No one ever experiences another people’s life and no one can tell us what our own life is about. To err is human. I see my thesis as a binary equation with two variables. One variable is my target audience; the other variable is my target audience’s fit identities. The result my target audience wants to achieve is to reach their ideal self. The goal of my thesis is to solve this equation: Young adult * Fitting identity = Ideal self I suggest that the solution to this equation is that young adults should get out of their comfort zone and seek to reach their ideal self. My goal is to use my design work to help provide solutions

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

to this equation for my target audience. Through my design work, I seek to help my target audience as they try to figure out who they are and what kind of identity fits them best, rather than to categorize them and tell them what kind of person they should be or what kind of life suits them best. From Self-Focused to Group-Focused This thesis came out of my personal experience. Basing it my own experience provided me an easy beginning. Because I am not only a subject of this thesis but also the target audience, I put a lot of trust in my own experience for the primary research and design. But at the stages of testing and secondary research, I realized that this is a problem; for at the very beginning I made my mind up that my thesis would be group-focused rather than self-focused. As a designer, I believe in the importance of empathy to the design process, no matter whether the project is personally related or not. But it’s also vital to determine the line between empathy and putting too many of one’s own emotions into a project. Self-Motivation rather than Social Expectation

When I started this project, I decided that my thesis would focus on my target audience’s self-motivated identity exploration rather than the exploration that is driven by social expectations. I didn’t deny the significant role social expectations play in young adults’ exploration of their chosen identity; as I mentioned, I think society and culture play essential roles in leading people to explore their chosen identity during a particular age period. However, it seemed that there was already enough information, resources, and evidence that seek to remind young adults of the

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

social expectations placed upon them. I believe building self-motivation is a more useful and sustainable direction for young adults; it can be a useful tool in their lives for a longer period of time than can be socially directed expectations and probably will even benefit them in the latter part of their life. The Importance of Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone This thesis focuses on the importance of young adults getting out of their comfort zone to pursue their chosen-identity exploration. I further discuss the importance of doing so in chapter 3, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Target Audience and Market.â&#x20AC;?

01 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

02 RESEARCH

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH

The new things I learned

02 RESEARCH

The research for this thesis consists of two parts: the 1st round research, which is a broad exploration of my thesis topic, and the 2nd research, which is specific to my design projects. In this chapter, I focus on introducing my primary research. I started my research at the beginning of the summer holiday of 2017 with the following questions: How do adolescents make the transference into adulthood? Which characteristics are common to young adults during this period? I read books and articles and watched TED Talks in the psychology and sociology fields to learn more about the thinking on the subject. During the first semester of my next school year, I started reaching out to subject matter experts in the areas of psychology and sociology as well as people working with young adults. I also spoke with and organized a workshop for many young adults who were college bound or had completed a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree. What I learned through my research has been inspiring and has become the foundation of my research. Research Channels The sources of research I used for this thesis consist of the following: 1. Books, articles, Ted Talks 2. Subject matter experts 3. Target users 4. My workshop

02 RESEARCH

My 1st Round Research Emerging Adults As proposed by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett in his 2000 article in the American Psychologist, emerging adulthood is the phase of life between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood, encompassing late adolescence and early adulthood. In his book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties, Arnett suggests that emerging adulthood is the period between eighteen and twenty-five years of age where adolescents become more independent and explore various life possibilities. His definition of an emerging adult, especially the five features he outlines, is beneficial to my thesis. Diagram 1 illustrates the five main features of emerging adulthood and sub categorize them according to further life aspects.

02 RESEARCH

“Maybe we can point to current cultural conditions where twentysomethings are mostly patronized and dismissed, and where their identities are often more about being other people’s children than they are about being their own people.” ———— Meg Jay / Clinical psychologist

02 RESEARCH

Twenty-Somethings In Meg Jay’s book The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now, the author suggests that twenty-somethings are the defining decade, a concept that she categorizes according to three aspects: work, love, and the brain and body. Based on her experience as a clinical psychologist working with twentysomethings, she wrote this book to share the actual stories of her clients and students going through this period of life. In her Ted Talk “Why 30 Is Not the New 20,” Jay tells us that just because people are finding their career path, marrying, and having kids later in life, it doesn’t mean those in their twenties can’t start planning for their futures now. The bulk of her book is about her work with twenty-somethings as a clinical psychologist. As I read her case studies, I identified with many of the stories told by twenty-somethings. Jay’s idea led me to do some research on how today’s twenty-somethings differ from those of past generations. Not having much of a sense of how twenty-somethings experienced life a few decades ago, I interviewed of some members of my parent’s generation, who all mentioned their not having had as much choice as young adult do now. “It’s the age to find a job; it’s the age to get married; it’s the age to have a baby; it’s like . . . it came very naturally,” explained one of my interviewees who is in her 40s. She explained that there wasn’t much time for them to make the transference from adolescence to adulthood because they were required to start taking responsibility for their family

02 RESEARCH

and professional career right after college graduation. A similar sentiment exists among the older generations of China and the United States regarding the transition to adulthood. According to research in the United States, sixty years ago there was very little transition time between adolescence and adulthood. At age eighteen or shortly after, most young Americans would enter the workforce or military and often start a family of their own. Even those who went to college usually had a career and family by the age of twenty-two. Today, the median age of marriage for males is twenty-nine, a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s level degree takes an average of six years to complete, and the student debt has increased 56 percent in the last decade alone, making it harder for young people to become independent from their parents. Failure to Launch Navah Steiner, a licensed creative arts therapist currently working at the School of Visual Arts who served as one of my subject matters experts, said she thinks that in some ways today there is more freedom for the younger generation but also more confusion. As she sees it,

â&#x20AC;&#x153;with freedom comes with confusion, as there is less clarity about what one should be doingâ&#x20AC;? She encouraged me to do some research into the cause and result of the phenomenon that young adults nowadays has more freedom than the previous generation. During my research, I discovered the term failure to launch

02 RESEARCH

syndrome. This is the unofficial name for an increasingly common problem among young adults who lack the preparedness or desire to leave their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home and begin the journey toward self-sufficiency. Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health disorders leading to the syndrome, but any number of disorders could also be involved. Many young adults are put off by these labels and may not be open to seeking help. As Eli. R Lebowitz proposes in the podcast, it helps to think of problems like anxiety as they affect the entire family, not just the single member with the diagnosis. Even if a young adult refuses to get help, parents can still have an impact on the problem by taking steps to alter his behavior. For example, a young person living at home may insist that his anxiety prevents him from eating in front of other people. This discomfort may, in turn, be one of the things holding him back from looking for a job. Although his parents cannot force him to eat in front of other people, they can stop accommodating his anxiety by requiring him to come to the family table to eat instead of continuing to serve him meals in his room. By making small, gradual changes in their own behavior, parents can bring about improvements in the larger problem affecting the entire family. A recent study by Dr. David Verhaagen of the Ben Franklin Institute shows that one in four young adults in the United States between the ages of eighteen to twenty-eight still live at home and three in four receive financial support from their parents. For young adults, emotional swings can be an impediment

02 RESEARCH

to taking action to improve their situation, generally considered essential for making progress in one’s life, and can be a big reason for the failure to launch. Independence One of my interviewees, Rob Walker, a journalist covering design, technology, business, the arts, and other subjects, mentioned that it would be helpful for young adults to realize that part of their growing-up process is understanding that they are the ones who are responsible for deciding when they are ready to be independent, not their parents. His statement evoked my interest in how society defines the word independent and what my target users’ understanding of the concept is. Based on the definition from the Dictionary .com, independent means not being influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, and the like. “Independent” is a word my interviewees frequently used when trying to relate their lives to adulthood by distinguish them from adolescence. They described themselves as being independent from their parents and their parent’ financial points of view and having their own life skills and decisionmaking processes. Because most of my interviewees are still in the process of becoming independent, it’s hard for me to tell whether they have achieved independence or not. But what I can recognize is whether people are going through the process of becoming independent as well as whether they are willing to be independent. There are reasons specific to each person that make inde-

02 RESEARCH

“For a person to “grow”, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness, acceptance and empathy.”

———— Carl Rogers / Humanistic Psychologist

02 RESEARCH

pendence irresistible for my target audience. The reason they shared the most frequently is a geographic one: they left home to start their college education, so they have to depend on themselves for many things, even though they do still have a close connection with their parents. Self-Actualization Carl Rogers as a humanistic psychologist who believed that for a person to grow, she needs to be in an environment that provides her with genuineness (openness and selfdisclosure); acceptance (being unconditionally regarded in a positive manner); and empathy (being listened to and understood). According to Rogers, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The organism has one basic tendency and strivingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organismâ&#x20AC;?. Ideal Self and Real Self According to Rogers, the personality is composed of the real self and the ideal self. Your real self is who you are, while your ideal self is the person you want to be. The ideal self is an idealized version of yourself that you mentally create based on what you have learned from your life experiences, the demands of society, and what you admire in your role models. For example, if your parents are doctors who are respected and admired in the medical community, your experience might tell you that to be

02 RESEARCH

happy, you need to be smart and have a high-paying job. Or your ideal self might consist of a person who excels in science, spends a lot of time studying, and doesn’t get queasy at the sight of blood. If your real self is far from this idealized image, you might feel dissatisfied with your life and consider yourself a failure. What follows is a diagram one of my interviewees drew to describe her sense that the process of moving from her real self to her ideal self involves crossing a safety line.

My 2nd Round Research My 2nd round research is project based and consists of three primary areas of focus: social identity, academic identity, and romantic identity. Social Identity Another one of the people I interviewed is Jennifer Wilson, a licensed creative arts therapist currently working at the School of Visual Arts. As Jennifer sees it.

“technology influences this generation’s way of socializing, provides young adults with a sense of physical safety, and allows them to avoid taking emotional risks, which, in turn, makes this generation less capable of successfully participating in social activities.”

02 RESEARCH

My interview with Jennifer is what led me to research a young adult’s social identity. I further explore the topic in my description of my screen-design project “Friendie,” outlined in chapter 8, “Lenses.” Academic Identity and Professional Identity College can be seen as a preparatory period for one’s career as well as a time of self-exploration. College is not limited to study; it also involves self-exploration, social networking, and many other activities. It is during this time that you are required to have enough self-discipline to get yourself to class and complete an amount of work that is much greater than what you had to do in high school. For young adults, the choice of a job has more consequences than it did in adolescence and the stakes riding on the choice become higher, as they are laying the foundation for their adult life. Based on the central question, Which job will satisfy me the most? I focus on the following secondary questions: What value do I receive from my job? What am I good at? What type of job do I enjoy the most? How much are my abilities and desires satisfied by the kinds of opportunities that are available to me? I will further discuss the research I did around these subjects in my experience-design project “Career Day,” which I review in chapter 8.

02 RESEARCH

Romantic Identity A person’s first exploration of his romantic identity usually begins in adolescence and often becomes more serious and enduring during this age period. Most of my research and interviews concern how young adults value themselves in romantic relationships, what they learn from the relationships, and what their attitudes are about romantic love. I review the research I did in this area in my product project, “Polly,” in chapter 8.

03 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

CHAPTER 3 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

The people I want to design for

03 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

Target Audience My target audience for this thesis are young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five who are either college bound or have completed a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree. Following are some categories that can help you get a clearer picture of my target audience. Millennials My target audience ranges from millennials who were born from the mid-1990s to those born in the early 2000s. Although the characteristics of millennials vary by region, depending on its specific social and economic conditions, this generation is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. In most parts of the world, millennialsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122; upbringing was marked by an increasingly liberal approach to politics and economics, although the effects of this political climate are disputed. The Great Recession has had a major impact on this generation because it has caused historically high levels of unemployment among young people, and has led some to speculate about possible long-term economic and social damage to this generation. Demographic My target market is the United States. This country has a

03 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

racially and ethnically diverse population and have large market demanding on this age group. Education As I already noted, my target audience are young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five who are either college bound or have completed a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree. American college education system allows students have more freedom to choose their major than most European and Asian education system. The extensiveness and openness of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s higher-education system lead to young people in the United States being more likely to have the opportunity for an extended educational period than do young people in virtually any other country. Because in the twenty-first century economy, having a college education has become a requirement for obtaining the best jobs, attending college has become the typical experience for young people in American society. No other country in the world has a system of higher education as open and extensive as the United States, with more than four thousand colleges, universities, and community colleges in operation. Attending college, which happens alongside romantic and career exploration, allows young people to explore various possible educational directions that might lead to different occupational futures.

03 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

Race The target audience of this thesis includes a diversity of races. Nationality This thesis’s target audience includes young adults who are native to the United States as well as those from other countries who are currently studying in this country and are living in here right now. Risk Taking Everyone has a different level of comfort with taking chances. Among others things, risk-taking capacity is influenced by past experience, environment, and potential for reward. However, even when they are in similar conditions, two individuals could easily display divergent risk-taking behavior, providing evidence for the considerable role of personality in risk taking. Results show that high-risk seekers don’t hesitate for long before making decisions. Their optimism, willingness to take a chance, and belief that they will win are what lead them to make a decision. Low-risk seekers, on the other hand, find themselves in a dilemma: Should they take a chance? What will happen if they fail? Pondering such questions results in them hesitating before they decide to run the amber light by “pressing the go button.” Choos-

03 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

ing the stop button instead is the safe decision least often resulting in a dilemma. This thesis focuses on people who are low-risk takers, requiring a trigger to help them leave their comfort zone.

Market This thesis’s products focuses on the college market, which is part of the youth market. The college market, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 24, includes the college period of one’s life, during which young adults focus on exploring their academic identity, and the postcollege period, during which young adults transition between school and society. Both the college period and the postcollege period are important periods for love-identity exploration and professional-identity exploration. Since the 1980s, the marketing industry targeting youth in the United States, typically in the age range of 13 to 35, has seen an increase in research as well as an increase in spending. The industry’s budget in 1992 was $6 billion and by 2003 that figure had risen to an estimated $15 billion in marketing efforts. The Internet has ushered in a new digital media culture that allows different forms of media to converge. As early adopters of these new technologies, today’s youth are in many ways the defining users of digital media who are embrac-

03 TARGET AUDIENCE & MARKET

ing this new culture. “The burgeoning digital marketplace has spawned a new generation of market research companies which are introducing an entire lexicon of marketing concepts (e.g., ‘viral marketing,’ ‘discovery marketing’) to describe some of the unorthodox methods for influencing brand loyalty and purchasing decisions.” Having been shown to have a significant influence on youths’ product preferences and purchase choices, youth advertising is an important determinant of consumer behavior.

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

CHAPTER 4 EARLY EXPLORATION

The first step of my design work

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

The first semester of my thesis year provided me with a period to explore my subject matter. During this time, I figured out what I was passionate about by trying out a few different directions, which resulted in me choosing several topics, design products, services, and apps to create. My process for designing products, services, and apps was also a good preparation for the second semester of my thesis year. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to share the process by which I created the products with you as a tool to understand my design methodology, which is what I applied to the thesis work I did during my second semester.

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

The Hope Tote Product Design/Campaign “The Hope Tote” is a tote bag I designed with large letters on the outside that read: “I AM A_______; I WANT TO BE A_______.” Using an erasable marker attached to the bag, the owners can change the words they use to describe their present role and the role they aspire to as much as they’d like. Writing down their current and future occupations forces young adults to reflect on their own lives and show their observations to the public, serving as a representation not only of their own choices but those of the young adult group as a whole.

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

How it works

3 58

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

6 59

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT Branding

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

Research In my research, I found that young adults tend to be attracted to novel experiences and find it hard to choose one single direction to stick with for several years. While people sometimes look down on young adults’ restless mindset, I believe it to be one of this group’s proudest features. For one, changing one’s mind can be a sign of youth and a high level of activity—esteemed qualities.

RESTLESS MIND

Negative

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

RESTLESS MIND

Positive

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT Instagram Campagin Instead of keeping their dream job inside their heart, the act of displaying their dream job to the public gives them more encouragement and a sense of pride.

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

TRY Screen Design “TRY” is app to help young adults get through their career transitions more smoothly by building and leveraging their social networks in advance. The app allows users to plan for events, reach out to experts, and practice their professional abilities, all to help them build the confidence to make their career change. The idea it’s to give young adults a “free trial” of their next career before getting started with it; by completing thirty tasks in thirty days, users will know what to expect in their chosen industry.

04 EARLY EXPLORATIONT

Research During the interviews I did with my user group, many people mentioned that they see their career as an identity. Switching careers is another main theme they remarked upon. In the course of doing my research, I realized these are not just issues for my interviewees but for young adults in the United States as a whole. An online poll conducted by LinkedIn on 1,616 adults in the United States supports this finding.

80%

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80 percent of workers in their 20s said they wanted to change careers

28%

Although more than one-quarter (28%) of 25-33 year olds know what their dream job is, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re unsure how to approach a career move.

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Although more than one-quarter (28%) of 25-33 year olds know what their dream job is, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re unsure how to approach a career move.

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“I always want to change my job. I don’t like the environment of the company I am working in now. I am not interested in my job. I think I am still exploring my interests.”

———— Nina Wu / Statistics Analyst

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“The period of switching my career was very stressful, I left my job and finances were tight.”

———— Alice Mao / Software Development

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BIG DOT Service Design Big Dot is a New Yorkâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;based nonprofit organization that helps young adults who have suffered or are suffering from cyberbullying to rebuild their lives and regain their sense of power by collaborating with artists in making artwork.

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According to a 2015 report by the Pew Research Center entitled “Social Media Usage: 2005–2015,” young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine are the most likely to use social media—a full 90 percent do. We are the generation growing up with technology. The latest research from RMIT and La Trobe indicates that two-thirds of young adults aged eighteen to twenty-four report online abuse. Bullying is an insidious problem in our society that continues to escalate as our social reach grows. Prevention and education is the only way to slow this trend.

The emotional damage caused by cyberbullying is just as painful for adults as it is for children, many of whom will someday be parents. Without awarenessbuilding tools for young people a well as for those older than them, the cyberbullying mentality will not suddenly stop when they start families. Based on expert advice, there are some ways to help us people to recover from cyberbullying. It is recommended that victims reach out to friends, therapists, and experts and that they are open to having others help them deal with their emotions. They should also take care of themselves by focusing on their personal wellness offline and even seeking to help others; for example, by volunteering at a local charity.

People who suffered from cyberbullying have often lost their sense of power. It is important for them to understand that the trolls, former friends, or whoever may be harassing can only gain power if they let them.

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How it works

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THE LITTLE FOREST PEN PAL PROJECT Sustainable Design The little forest pen pal project is a platform to connect college students from different countries. The little forest pen pal project is a platform to connect college students from different countries. I always believe writing physical email is a very powerful way to express emotions, and the study approved that handwriting more thoughtful, memorable and emotional than email.

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My interviewee Feifei Chen told me the importance of building own point of view by knowing and learning other cultures and perspectives. I started to thinking about how to help emerging adults build their worldview in a more sustainable way, my target audience is college students who don’t have enough money to travel to other countries still have the access to build their worldview. The little forest pen pal project is a platform to connect college students from different countries. I always believe writing physical email is a very powerful way to express emotions, and the study approved that handwriting more thoughtful, memorable and emotional than email. This platform will be start with connect Chinese and US’s college students. The platform connect with school’s international student office, and distribute these sustainable pen pal kit to them. To let students have deeper feeling of each other’s culture, I choose plantable paper as the letter, after receive and read the letter, students can plant it into the soil to plant plants which can benefit local’s environment as well as have the beautiful metaphor that plant and spread each other’s culture and their friendships.

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Theory of Change

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CHAPTER 5 FINAL PROJECTS

The designs I am proud of

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This chapter discusses the projects I did in the second semester of my thesis year. At the beginning of my second semester, I had a relatively clear idea of what the structure of my thesis would be. Each of my projects would focus on one direction of identity exploration: professional identity, social identity, and romantic identity. Aiming to create platforms on which young adults could communicate and express themselves openly, I decided to focus on young adults’ significant identities—their professional, social, and romantic identities—as the lense to approach my design solution.

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Professional Identity Defination: The identity a young adult explores in his or her career.

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CAREER DAY Experience Design / Service Design Research: In the United States, college students change their major often. Thirty-three percent of undergraduate students who started college between 2011 and 12 changed their major at least once over the next two years. Almost a third of first-time college students will change the original major they choose at least once within three years.

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How it works I sought to form a partnership with collegesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; career development centers through Career Day. The idea is that a college student would go to their career development center to consult with a career counselor about changing their major, and exploring a different career path. This is how it would go:

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The counselor signs the student up for Career Day.

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The student can access the service for free through their schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portal.

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The student will then receive a Career Day experience box, which will include an â&#x20AC;&#x153;ice-break card,â&#x20AC;? customized pins, a notebook, and a pen. She will also receive an invitation card with details of the experience that is to take place.

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05 FINAL PROJECTS During my user group research, my interviewees Leo and Chai expressed interest in this idea. I connected Leo with Krithi to experience a day of being a singer, and Chai with Anagh to experience a day of being an illustrator.

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Leo

Krithi

Sophomore year animation student

Producer aspiring electronic musician

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Chai

Anagh

Sophomore year Photography student

Illustration MFA Candidate

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Social Identity Defination: The identity a young adult explores in his or her career.

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LYRICS+ App Design Music is always a way to express ourselves. To take advantage of the power of music in creating interactions between young adults, I created Lyrics+, an app that will allow users to explore their identity in the AR world.

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FRIENDIE App Design Friendie is a platform for people to who want to meet potential friends and who share common tastes in food. The catch is you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet your dining partner until you are seated at the table across from her.

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Romantic Identity Defination: An identity young adults explore when they enter an intimate relationship.

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POLLY Product Design Polly is a device that will record your voice and shepherd it, along with your thoughts, wishes, and desires, to your loved one in a soft, dependable way. This message will be deleted after uses listen to it, so, they better listen carefully. By letting couples express themselves in an asynchronous manner, they may be able to communicate better about different subjects.

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CHAPTER 6 LEXICON

The tiny dictionary of this book

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Academic identity: An identity young adults explore during their college years. Comfort zone: A place or situation in which one feels safe, at ease, and without stress.

Emerging adult: The time period between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood

encompassing late adolescence and early adulthood. Emerging adulthood refers to the distinct period between eighteen and twenty-five years of age when adolescents become more independent and explore various life possibilities. Arnett argues that this developmental period can be separated from adolescence and young adulthood.

Four student subculture: A term describing four student subcultures: the collegiate, the vocational, the academic, and the rebel. Developed in the 1960s by sociologists Burton Clark and Martin Trow, the term is a way of characterizing young peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s college experiences.

Ideal self: An idealized version of yourself that you create based on what you have

learned from your life experiences, the demands of society, and what you admire in your role models.

Independent: Not being influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion,

conduct, or the like. In this thesis, I use the term independent to refer to young adults who not influenced by their parents in these matters.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;McJobâ&#x20AC;?: A satirical term for a job in the service sector that is low paying, low prestige, low dignity, low benefits, and has no future.

Peer: A person who is equal to a young adult in terms of education, qualifications,

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background, age and social status. According to the dictionary, a peer refers to “a person who is equal to another in abilities, qualifications, age, background, and social status.”

Professional identity: The identity a young adult explores in his or her career. Risk taking: the act or fact of doing something that involves danger or risk in order to achieve a goal.

Romantic identity: An identity young adults explore when they enter an intimate relationship.

Self-actualization: According to Rogers (1951), “The organism has one basic ten-

dency and striving—to actualize, maintain, and enhance the experiencing organism”. self-esteem: The extent to which we like accept or approve of ourselves or how much we value ourselves. Self-esteem always involves a degree of evaluation, and we may start with either a positive or a negative view of ourselves.

Self-image: The mental conception of yourself that you hold. It does not necessarily reflect a realistic assessment.

Twenty-something: A person between the age of twenty and twenty-nine. Worldview: A particular philosophy of life or conception of the world. Young adult: A person in ranging in age from the late teens/early twenties to the thirties.

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CHAPTER 7 LOOKING BACK & FORWARD

The future I am looking forward to

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This thesis started out as a personal exploration. It makes me happy that I have been able to turn that exploration into several group-focused projects. I see this thesis as a gift to myself and young adults who are my age. This year has been a year of challenges for me, a year of getting out of my comfort zone. This thesis has pushed me to move beyond my existing social network. As I mentioned at the beginning of the book, one of the reasons I came to New York is to get acquainted with people from different cultural backgrounds, and to learn about different points of view. This thesis has allowed me to get to know many people and discuss with them many topics in details. As a result of taking part in several projects at the same time, my brain has been forced to continually move back and forth between one project and another. For me, a person who was not previously good at making decisions, I have been pushed to make decisions for myself during the process. Before writing my thesis, I always put a lot of pressure on myself when making decisions, thinking there were only good decisions and bad decisions. Through the hard decision-making process I went through during my thesis year, I realized there are no wrong decisions, only choices that need to be made. There have been points in the process at which I doubted myself. In October and November of 2017, I was struggling with my thesis topic. Even though I had already decided the target audience for my thesis would be young adults and had done some early exploration about different topics related to them, I still couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make up my mind about

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which topics I would choose. I remember making a promise to one of my classmates one night that I would choose my thesis topic and stick to it for the rest of my thesis year. The topic I ended up choosing, and would stick to, is young adults’ identity exploration. To commemorate this remarkable moment, I invited my classmates to record a video of us singing, “We Are Never Ever Changing Our Thesis Topic .” (Yes, we hacked Taylor Swift’s song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”). Credits to my lovely classmates! Actually, looking back on this decision now helps me to reframe the thesis of my thesis. Before, the thesis of my thesis was a blur and not strong enough in the way I wanted it to be. The interviews and research I did pushed me to keep challenging the thesis of my thesis, ultimately leading me to get out of my comfort zone and decide that my thesis would be about young adults’ exploration of their identities. All the interviews, projects, and feedback I did gradually took second place to my outline for the thesis, which is what allowed me to rethink the meaning behind my thesis as a whole and derive new content from it. I enjoy the process of learning and I intend to keep finding ways to continue learning. Looking forward, I am excited about pushing my projects forward. I am excited to advance my project “Monster” by figuring out the circuit and making a working prototype. For my app, “Friendie ,” I plan to find a partner who is good

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at front-end technology to help me get my app up and running and onto the market. As for me, I will use this book to remind myself, If you are not sure what will happen with something, try it and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop unless you fail!

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00 INTRODUCTION

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