Personal Process Journal Yara Al Husaini
Contents Reflecting Introduce 10 Receive Brief
Understand 12 14 18 20
Define Parameters Explore & Scope Understand Stakeholders Apply Theory
Analyse 26 Make Sense 28 Visualise & Communicate
Ideate 32 Expand & Inspire 36 Develop
Prototype 38 Make & Refine
Present 42 Prepare & Communicate
Final Thoughts
About me When I was younger, I remember rearranging pillows on my bed thinking that it would somehow lead me to becoming a designer one day; I had the idea that a designer is concerned with aesthetics only. I pursued a curiosity rather than a passion when I did my undergraduate degree in Industrial Designer. During my studies I realised that I wanted to be more involved with people’s problems rather than redesigning objects. I will not say that it stems from my belief that design can change the world, but rather in my belief that people can. Fast-forward, I am now undertaking my masters in Design Innovation & Interaction Design, and hope to bring micro changes within my field.
On Collaborating I worked on this project with Finn Fullarton-Pegg, Cong Tan, and Poopak Azhand. Finn has a background in social sciences, Poopak in Engineering, and Cong in product design. The fact that we all from different backgrounds has led us to embark on a unique journey through this project, where each member added invaluable input from their own professions.
Reflecting In this book, I reflect on my personal process of working on stage one project of my Masters in Design Innovation. As an interaction designer in training with an industrial design background, I discuss my work through an analytical lens that integrates my knowledge of both professions, under the umbrella of Design Innovation.
Conve rge
Diver ge
This book was written entirely in retrospect. I do not include every single task I carried out, but rather a filter on how this process led to a final outcome. The visual to the right is an attempt on my part to visualise the design process that I went through with my team, from my perspective.
From Problem to Solution
Receive Brief
Introduce
Define Parameters
Explore &Scope
Undersrand Stakeholdrs
1
2
3
Understand
t P
Team Dynamics Individual Collective Highly Collective Conflict
Change in Perspective Obstacles
Con
e verg
Diverge
Theory through Pracrice
Make Sense
Visualise & communicate
Expand &Inspire
Develop
4
1
2
1
2
Analyse
Ideate
Make &Refine
Prepare& communicate
Prototype Present 7
I use the theory of divergent and convergent thinking1 to reflect on the design thinking that went into the design process. In this case, the former is about expanding in ideas, solutions, and approaches, and the latter is about bringing these ideas to realizable outcomes. I also reflect on the design process through the use of six main stages, which I divided to phases that are particular to our work-flow. This is based on the framework of the design thinking process2. To reflect on these phases, I chose to visualise our work-flow through an abstract map that reflects progression through these phases. In the map, the main circles represent milestones in our process, and the graphs around them convey the process of working. In addition to these theories, I wanted to highlight how our team dynamics had a complex progression that did not follow a typical format -from individualistic to highly collective work-, at least in comparison with the way I have done design work prior to my work here. I think that in my team, we all retained a high level of individualism, which allowed for constant changes in perspective, these are also reflected in the map. Moreover, I tried to show an abstract scale of time spent in each stage through a general linear progression in the visual. Creating the visuals for my personal process journal are influenced by an elective that I took during stage one on information mapping. As for my writing style, it developed as a result of a blog that I kept about the project. 1 (Nessler, 2016) 2 (Nessler, 2016)
Receive Brief
Introduce Upon receiving the brief feelings of excitement and nervousness are at a height. Once these feelings subside, one can begin to focus on the content of the brief. It was the first time that I had received such a complex brief that required extensive research. The Brief asked of us to look at Cairngorms as a place, its communities and organizations as the people, and Blockchain as an up and coming technology that would be incorporated into a design of a preferable future on novel Digital Geographies, tackling issues of ownership and presence, given the former parameters. I had never even heard of the Cairngorms at that point. Starting with a problem with several parameters requires a well planned strategy to be approached. Our tutors pointed out that we would need to focus on the relationship between the landscape and technology, as well as the things that make the place what it is. Our Tutors encouraged us to consider all aspects, from natural history to daily problems people of the cairngorms face. They urged us to use the skills that we gained in our previous project, such as engaging with people, and knowing how to convey certain messages with objectivity, and acknowledging the biases that we might have. They also urged us to keep in mind that the way we approached people would severely impact the way
they responded to us. Keeping these tips in mind from the beginning was certainly useful, as it would constantly remind us to question the results that we obtained from our research.
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Understand Define Parameters
The starting week was a week to start defining parameters, but we had a very vague idea of how one should go about defining the given parameters. The brief seemed to have loaded phrases that we did not really know what they meant, not just in a broad definition, but what they mean for this specific context. Instead of actually trying to achieve that, we were swirling in a pool called the research engine. The process we undertook was very individual and random. It had no real structure, and without having other students to compare our work with, starting off on the right the path was a challenge. It took us up until the week before our first interim presentation to get our minds together and to start researching in the right direction. I think that at this stage it was good for us to work individually, but the problem was that the group had very poor dynamics at the point. Where the group mates were still trying to grasp the idea that they were doing a course in a completely new setting. If I were to do this again, I would still want to work individually, but I would make sure that a better structure is being implemented. Meaning that, even if everyone wanted to explore all sorts of areas and parameters within the brief individually, we would have to come
Mobil Conta unfixe
Geo of th
together and discuss what we found more mind an abstract concept. regularly and lead each other. Here I started reading literature on The problem with random desk research uneven digital geographies and data presI found, was the a person will expand ences and absences. I also came across vertically far too deep, and will tend to the concepts of bottom-up and Top-down get stuck in that area, whereas at this digital geographies, where certain tech point, expanding horizontally is essencompanies have monopolized digital tial. I started off researching what the information through their distribution Cairngorms is. The first time I googled it I means. Most of the literature I read on realized that I would be working on a very the topic was written by Mark Graham mysterious place. The information I found and Heather Ford.3 was very limited. This research heavily influenced the way Naturally I started researching general I was thinking throughout the project, as I facts and figures, which have definitely saw it as the link between Blockchain and been useful throughout the project, as the creation of novel digital geographies. they formed the basis to all the theories I realised that blockchain’s role in the creand hypothesis we derived on the place ation of novel digital geographies could later on. be rooted in the reduction of the influence of monopolising mediators. I explored many topics in the beginning of my research that had to do with new le, Fixed tosocial its models. I researched land reform,Commercialization of open&policymaking, participatory budget-all things Geo ainer (people), Big Data ing, empowerment and engagement. ed from locations
Spatial Network I looked at these Technologies topics within the scope of the UK and Europe. To know about
S tial pa
Dig i
Scotland was ultimately essential to our project, as it led us towards a community empowerment route. A route that everyone will need to adopt if we are to reach compromise and understanding between Approaches stakeholder, thus leading towards progress socially, economically, politically and ographies environmentally.
Mediators
Physical Spaces
these movements in the political scene ainl Geographic Information t
Large Tech Companies
Power
Data & Code
ts en
Digital Geographies
Data Presences & Absen System of Governan System Architectu Code & Algorithm
During this phase, we had an ethno-
rid Environ m Hyb
he Digital
Geographies graphic workshop, and a research tools in Geographies produceddesign by workshop. We were introduced to Produced by the Digital the concept of ethnographic research as a research for designers. We applied thetool Digital Where users go
what we learned through an exercise on liminal spaces, but this was still in my and what they do
Digital Layering
Places as their digital presences & Everyday Spatialities
3 (Ford and Graham, 2016) Visibility & Invisibility Affecting socio-economic 13 development, civic engagement
Explore &Scope
At this stage I realised that finding good resources is key to finding good research that will take you somewhere. Google Scholar, Online libraries, etc, all provide a good base to start from. This is when I found in-depth information on the National Park. The literature I found looked at the Park as a first of its kind as a National Park that contained relatively large communities within it. Literature also looked at possible solutions to current ecological problems within the Park, but they all seemed vastly unrealistic given the communities’ reliance on tourism for the economy.4 This led us to raise one of the first questions of, what if there were other jobs. At this point in our desk research we were still unclear on what we really should be doing. We were trying to find a direction to research further, but that did not come along until after our field research. Our first attempt at field research was our scoping trip. Finn and Poopak were sick at the time, so Cong and I took on the task of carrying out a scoping trip. The scoping trip was a 2 day trip, where we headed to Aviemore and Newtonmore. The choice of place was mostly based on convenience of travel. We realized here that the National Park has poor public transportation, where links and the frequency of the trips are very poor. Aviemore and Netwonmore provided an extreme compare and contrast case, thus leading to our choice to go to Tomintoul on our extensive week long trip. The scoping trip for me was very grounding. All the desk research I had done had to be brought to context in my 4 (McCarthy, Lloyd, and Illsley, 2002)
mind to reality, and that is exactly what happened. The project was no longer as abstract as it was before. The issues I was researching were palpable. This was the second time that I had to speak with people during stage one. Although I had built up the confidence to do so previously with my past experiences, this was the first time that I was attempting to approach a brief from a social standpoint, as I had always been concerned with objects and the experiences that objects provide users with. Here, the theory we learned in the ethnographic research workshop became essential to the way we both conducted and documented our research. It was also my first attempt at trying to document cultural and social symbols. This exercise paved the way for an indepth understanding of our stakeholders. The preparation for our first presentation was a real challenge in terms of group dynamics. We were at a stage where roles had not been defined. Our interests had started to show through conversations, but our work had not been presented yet. I soon realized that I would have to assume the role of the ‘digitiser’, as I was the only one capable of using Adobe Suite in my team. Cong used Coral Draw, and Poopak used Photoshop, but we clearly could not use either as our main go to software.
We presented our findings thus far in our first interim review. At that point we were still expanding in both our thinking and our research. The critiques we received from our tutors led us towards emergent themes that we wanted to explore further. Amongst these were the themes of Land Reform, the environment and its mystery, the post digital, and alternative economies. One way of exploring these themes was creating engagement tools
Scoping Trip
Stakeholder Map #1
This was definitely the first time for me to have to do all the digitising work alone as I had only been studying in contexts where everyone had a range of very similar skills. On a personal level, I was reluctant to take on this role as I knew it would be time consuming, but I know that visual presentation is key to the work that we do, and therefore did not really have any other choice.
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that we could use in our ethnographic research trip to Tomintoul. Designing my engagement tool was driven by my curiosity to explore how people related to the environment around them. How do the people of the cairngorms perceive their environment, and why do they perceive it to be that way. Which factors come into play when people think of their environment, and what defines the way they behave within a certain space? How does the nature of that place thus affect the relationship between man and his place? Hoping to answer these questions, I created a physical Instagram. Through this tool, I hoped that people would visualise their place, not just in terms of how they it looks like externally, but also the way it made them feel when they thought of it. I tested my tool on my peers and a research assistant who seemed to find it playful and thought provoking. The second tool I created was a wind chime. Participants could write words
that described their environment on the Wind chime pieces. The word wind chime was a play on the metaphor of brining the outdoor to the indoor through the creation of words instead of sounds. In Preparation for our ethnographic research trip in Tomintoul, I read literature that explored landscape tensions. One of the readings that have impacted the way I carried out my research in Tomintoul is Nan Shephard’s The Living Mountain. Reading literature on landscape was a first for me, and it certainly helped me frame the information I had been gathering thus far. One thing that resonated with me from this well-articulated book is how the author describes her phenomenological experience in the landscape; she does not need to conquer the mountain by climbing it, she wants to become one with it.5 The influence of these readings shows through the engagement tool that I created in preparation for our field trip. 5 (Shepherd and Macfarlane, 2011)
Creating my Engagement tool
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Understand Stakeholders
This phase of research was about trying to understand stakeholders. When we tried to identify our stakeholders through desk research, I felt detached from reality. This can be seen in our first stakeholder map, where it was an abstraction of who our stakeholders could be, rather than who they are. The constant modification of our stakeholder map at this stage helped us a great deal when it came to creating personas, framing insights, and identifying opportunities. Defining who our stakeholders are was more about the process than the outcome. The evolution of the stakeholder map that we created captures our research process intently. The first stakeholder map we created was a collaboration between the team and a visiting group of artists from Paris. In that exercise, we tried to merge our interests and skills to produce something that appealed to both groups. Cong and I, along with two visiting artists created a stakeholder map that defined the general scope of the project, with an abstract side to the way it was visualised. The second stakeholder map we created was a result of in-depth research on the institutions involved in the National Park and its communities. In this stakeholder map we tried to highlight who and why certain institutions were involved in the National Park. We categorised their interests to be ecological, economical, and social. The third stakeholder map we created was a result of in-depth field research that we carried out in Tomintoul.
The process of creating the third stakeholder map was a very useful exercise that I think I will be taking with me to my next project. We started off by identifying the community groups that we know of and came across with in Tomintoul, we then identified the relationships between them. We used post-its and string to create the diagram. This gave all members of the group the chance to add and modify as we go. It also provided an incentive for us to keep going to complete what we started.
The third Stakeholder Map
After this exercise I took on the task of refining the stakeholder map through digital means. This process added another layer of content to the stakeholder map, where I identified external influences on the inner community of Tomintoul. Refining the stakeholder map also turned it to a reference that we went back to from then on, to remind ourselves of who we are designing for.
Organizational Bodies
Non-Cairngorms Stakeholders
CC try to get tourists to stay
Tourist Find Info
Tourists
Governmental Organizations Funds to help achieve Goals
Economic benefits
Community Companies
Funds to help achieve Goals
Introduce the place
People Outside The Cairngorms
Exchange of Products & Sevices For Money
Local Organizations
Other Cairngorm Communities
Provide Jobs Impose Rules & Regulations on Business owners
The Hubs of the Cairngorms
GOs desperatley want Youth to stay (UHI Project)
Part of CNP
Similarly Sized Communities
Indeginous Business Owners Work Together
Golden Oldies
Are Are
Parents
Incoming Business Men E-Merchants
Bring Family Are
Nurture
Local Artists & Crafters
Children Family Ties Family Ties
Are
Teach
Bring Family
Incoming Foreign Workers
Staying Youth Are
Leaving Youth
Inherited Industry
Are
Are Are
Incoming Retirees
Are
Volunteers
Core Community Members
Economic Competition
Work Together
Crofters
Incoming Community Activists
Conservation is a challenge prodvide uniqueness, heritage, & tradtion
Other Factors
Difficulty in daily tasks Disconnectivty Physically & Virtually
Challenging Environment Conservation Efforts
Public Services PBs depend on connectivity
Economic Dependency
Nature
Natural Resources
Local Industries
Telecommunication
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Apply Theory
This phase of research was about trying to apply everything that we had learned in theory about research in our ethnographic research trip. The scoping trip that we took to Aviemore and Netwonmore led us to the decision that we should be exploring the smaller communities in the cairngorms, as they face a great deal of challenges. In our approach to researching in Tomintoul we tried to take on the observant and the immersed role. The former refers to our search for clues on cultural symbols. The influence of this behavior comes from our knowledge on semiotics, and on ethnographic research through non-participant observation. I found this research method to be of extreme value, especially when it came to idea generation. Social and culture specific symbols aid the designer in bringing the design closer to reality, by making it context specific on a profound level. Our hike between Tomintoul and The Glenlivet distillery served as a tool to both live the phenomenological experience of the landscape, and pick up on clues in the landscape. For Example, we picked up on the use of datums, Cairns and photoposts in the landscape, which was highly influential in our final concept. The latter approach was applied through the use of our engagement tools and interviews with as many people as we possibly could. I found the engagement useful, sometimes I would receive the exact reaction that I had expected, but other times I would receive the exact opposite. Some participants found it to be engaging and easy to understand and use, while others found it too abstract and removed from reality. Also, I had assumed that everyone knows what instagram is, but
that was not true to Tomintoul. However, since everyone is familiar with other social media, people did not have a hard time understanding what the tool is. Making assumptions can sometimes be a dangerous thing, and being open to break Young people leave those assumptions is essential. for better education We will and job oppurtinities always make assumptions, but these can become increasingly more informed with experience.
Aging population & leavingin our research was The roleyouth of interviews a very significant one. I made sure to rePensioners from cord and transcribe my interviews as I had aroundduring the UK the ethnographic research done seeking a slower workshop earlier. The Tensions pace of life we moveconducted in
Land Ownership has positive/negative impacts on societ that are different in the short long run on communities’ daily lives
Ownership of land & Water
Disconnectivity vs. Connectivity Business owners depend on connectivity, and so do the tourists
in The Cairngorms
In our interviews we spoke to different members of society. spoke the Conservation vsWe Tradition Cairngorm National Park Authority, the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Trust, and other locals. takeaway that I would like vs. Sustainability PoliciesOne are imposed on local Tourism making people feelthese like interviews topeople, mention here about less important than the isthey thatarethey made us realise that there is nature around them, and taking Tourism has a high impact on the enviroment, a away lack of fromcommunication their traditions between these but people should be able to enjoy nature stakeholders, this miscommunication thus leads to misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities within society. I specifically made sure to capture the moments that I felt were important; moments that were deeply personal and profound. When I picked on these during an interview I would ask the interviewee about it later to be assured that I had not made an assumption. One moment that still lingers with me was when I conducted an Interview with a local who wept as she spoke about her hometown.
Water Ownership affects many industries, and has a large impact on local indusries
Communities are disenaged from each other and are economic rivals Incomers cannot easily integrate with the local community
Incomers vs. Locals Locals tend to mock incomers, but still need them for vitality Social Political Ecological Economical Technological
And when you are coming into the village.. Its hard to explain, its just a feeling.. I am home’ - Ebeth 23
Here I would like to expand further on my engagement tool. When given the task to create one, I did not find inspiring examples to draw upon, and I did not do a good literature review. With this in mind, I took a risk in the creation of this engagement tool. Drawing on what I mentioned earlier, I had made two assumptions, one being that people know what Instagram is, and secondly that everyone would find it easy and playful. Neither of these were accurate when I tested it in Tomintoul. However, I think that it was successful in drawing attention, and that it was engaging. Some of the results I obtained are shown on the right. The takeaway was that I found that the more people are physically engaged with the landscape on a daily basis the more it becomes their reality, whereas those who are not continue to see the landscape as a view through a window.
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Analyse
Make Sense
The synthesis phase of our stage one project was the most challenging and interesting phase for me. The techniques I learned in this phase were not novel, they were theories I had heard of many times before, but had never been given the time or the facilitation to realise this phase to its maximum potential. The synthesis phase in my previous studies in Industrial Design was a blur between research and idea generation, where the designer becomes immersed researching a problem, and is naturally directed towards solving a particular problem. Given that we had the opportunity to spend two weeks on synthesis with the guidance of our tutors really helped us bring our research forward, thus enabling us to justify our design decisions that we made from then on. My role in building the evidence mainly consisted of my documentation of the interviews I conducted in Tomintoul. The interviews I was responsible for transcribing were done with two locals. One with a retired woman, and the other with an incoming business owner. I also gathered all of the research I had done thus far, and tried to visualise it in maps. In addition, I documented the results from using my engagement tool. I realised that the mobile pieces of information were the most helpful in constructing links between the different peices of evidence. We first conducted a synthesis workshop
where we constructed an evidence wall, and then used abduction, induction and deduction to pull insights. From these insights we identified opportunities, and then moved on to generating quick ideas. These ideas were then mapped on a scale. The purpose of the scale was for us to identify the gaps of where there were no ideas generated, and why that was so. The construction of the evidence wall was a milestone in terms of bringing research forward. Up to that point, we had our research scattered, and constructing the evidence wall allowed for all the research to come together. During the workshop, most exercises were quick, thus the information that was mobile was the most useful when we tried to make links. Meaning that long written essays and very well constructed diagrams were not very useful. We also found quotes from interviews to be very useful, as we started to make connections between what people said, what we researched, and how we viewed the problem.
Evidence wall & Sense making
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Visualise& Communicate
Post the workshop session we decided to take our time in synthesising and visualising our work. We started visualising the stories we captured in our field research on postcards. These postcards represented the moments that we thought were valuable. Some were very simple, some complex with intrinsic meaning. We soon found that this particular exercise would aid us in bringing the rest of our research forward; The story illustrations started off as a way of visualizing significant moments of our research, and have evolved to become constant reminders for us to stay true to our evidence. From there, it became apparent that the main emergent themes of our research were Belonging and Land Management. We decided to map our findings into a few diagrams that would communicate our research as efficiently as possible. To start off we created two flow charts that show the our two emergent themes and the roles that our stakeholders play within those themes. The first diagram we created explores the relationship between man and nature within the Cairngorms. The exploration was done through comparing and contrasting people’s roles in society, their daily lives, and how that affected their perceptions of the landscape. Using the stories we visualized in combination with a measurement scale helped us communicate these complex relationships at a glance. The second diagram we created was a result of us questioning what if there were other jobs in the Cairngorms, and how that might reflect on the practices in the landscape. We tried to demonstrate in this map that current practices are
not sustainable in the long run, and will only have adverse effects on nature, and alternately on the economy. We turned qualitative information into an abstract quantitative diagram to magnify our findings. The third diagram we created was created to examine the relationship between having monetary ownership in place and the sense of belonging to it. This map raised more questions than answers; the issue of belonging is a rather convoluted issue that can be seen through various lenses. The way we looked at it however led us to believe that belonging extends beyond monetary value, and lies in the tensions of socio-political dynamics of people and place.
The rough visuals
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Following this process we boiled down our themes to two levels, park wide, and community level. This reframing was the main ground on which we based our concept later on in the conceptualisation phase.
Belonging Flow Chart
Belonging Old Friend
I think that the process of visualising is not only valuable in terms of communicating one’s ideas to others as comprehensively as possible, but also in the processing of findings that goes on in one’s mind. These findings are hung raw somewhere and scattered, and this process of visualisation picks them up, pulls them together, and transforms them into something that one can understand better, and subsequently, communicate better.
New Friend
family Interaction
Support Tomintoulians
Support
Conserve
Proud
Institutions
Attraction Support Outsiders
Businessmen Support/Attraction Tourists
Attraction
Land Management Flow Chart
Land Management
Resent grow
Crofters
Impose Rules & Regulations own
Develop & Maintain Landowners
Scottish Government Keep
Manage & Conserve
Game Keepers Live & Build
Educate
CNPA
Other locals
Themes Chart
Landscape Engagement Scale Engaged
GameKeepers
Tourists
CNPA
Crofters
gement ana M
Bel o
Land Owners
ing ng
Lan d
Park-Wide
Effecting Value on the Landscape
Emotion Affected by the Landscape
Ownership
Presence
Extraction
Consevation Scottish Government Locals
Scottish Government
Community
Disengaged
Highland Brand Map
Low Impact Adventure Tourism
High Impact Adventure Tourism
Arts & crafts
Arts & crafts
Shooting &Hunting
Shooting &Hunting
NATURE Castles
Low Impact Adventure Tourism
High Impact Adventure Tourism
ECONOMY Castles
Whiskey
Whiskey
Negative Positive
Short Term Long Term
Belonging Chart
People Wanting to Leave
People Living there
Are Are Emotional Connected Have
Game Keepers
Are Are Have Economical Make Money Make Money
Interact Have Ecological Work
Crofters
Visitors
Have Economical Economical
Tourists
Governmental Organizations
Landowners
Investors
Outsiders
Ecological Attract
Economical Attract
Interact
In Town Outside Town Relationships Tensions
Ownership through the capacity for Change Emotional Ownership of Land Physical Land Ownership No-sense of Ownership
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Ideate The progression from research and synthesis to idea generation can be challenging. One exercise that we did to help break the boundaries was to generate as many ideas as we possibly could within a certain time-frame.
Expand &Inspire
Individually, I came up with at least thirteen concepts. Some of the concepts were generated using Concept Sheets. Concept sheets can be a useful tool as they aid the designer in focusing in on the issues they want to tackle through the idea, and the approach they intend to take in tackling those issues. For example, thinking along the lines of exaggerating a problem is very different than thinking of minimising it, and so on. Expansion in ideas before settling on a concept can be useful in terms of identifying the gaps. With primary idea generation, I found myself straying away from research, however, the more I practiced idea generation through scenarios I slowly started to go back to our research question. When trying to answer the research question through concepts, there are no definitive answers. The potential of initial concepts must be explored thoroughly before decisions can be made. In addition, I found that exhausting all ideas initially, ultimately leads to a better final idea to settle on for detailing.
For example, during our idea generation we came up with several ideas that had the same strand of integration into current networks.
Initial Ideas
One of my ideas was about using gates, benches, photoposts that existed in the landscape to facilitate a non-digital recording experience. Another idea was to utilise the metaphor of Cairns in the landscape to create memorials, discussion circles, etc. A third idea was about using participatory planning as a tool to create belonging in place. The Ideas shown in the images are only the ones I did individually.
PArticipatory Palnning Idea
Memorial Idea
Provenance Idea
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Ultimately these ideas of using existing networks, creating memorials, participatory planning, and provenance came together in our final concept. All of these ideas sprouted from the idea of creating ownership and presence in the cairngorms through the formation of a collective identity for its communities. As a team we came to a conclusion that many of the problems that people are facing in the cairngorms stem from the fact that communities do not have a sense of belonging to the National Park, as it had only been established recently.
Robotics Idea Recording Idea
Therefore, bridging the gap between the different communities and the national park authority could be a starting point for the establishment of a better sense of belonging to the Park. This could be approached by magnifying the fact that these communities are living under special circumstances, where they are pioneers in creating a new environmentally friendly way of living.
Cairns Idea
From here we formulated our what if question. We posed the question: What if citizens saw themselves as partners with the Park Authority in Pioneering a new environmentally friendly way of living?
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The two main sources of inspiration for our final concept are Beacons, and Digital Cairns. I came across beacons as I was reading articles on the Internet of things and recent technologies. Beacons are a Blue-tooth Low Energy or BLE technology that communicate spatial information to listening devices. What I found to be very interesting about beacons was that they made information specific to the user and his/her environment, thus making the communication of data more personalised and tangible. The latter inspiration is an idea that we detailed to a certain level, and realised that it was missing an element.
Develop
What we took away from our digital Cairns idea was that it gave users the opportunity to have digital memorials that were present in physical space. The amalgamation of these two concepts produced a system we called LiveDrop. The title of our system is a play on a project called Deaddrop. Deaddrop is essentially a system that was created to question the transfer of data. The system at its core allows people to leave information on drives spread around in urban spaces. Others can view and edit the information left on these drives using their digital devices. We chose this title because it indicates the main idea behind our system, which is about layering digital information that is context specific onto physical spaces, and is created by the people situated within these spaces. The system we created is a temporary project that we envisioned the National Park Authority would implement to open a channel of communication between them
and the communities of the cairngorms, as well as amongst the communities themselves. The system is made possible with the use of 3 types of beacons that we designed, a nature beacon, a business beacon, and a community beacon. These beacons facilitate for users to broadcast and receive information based on the roles they play within society. These identities are registered through C-citizenship; a region wide identification system. Broadcasters can temporarily own beacons that match their IDs, and broadcast messages specific to certain groups/roles within society. Receiver of the broadcasts can then choose to participate in conversations that spike their interest as they pass by the broadcasts allocated to the beacons.
Creating the Service Blueprint
My role in creating this system is blurred as the detailing of system came about as a result of discussions that we carried out as a group. One exercise that we did at the beginning of our detailing phase was creating a service blueprint. Creating this map forced us to think of all the different aspects of our system. This means that we did not only think of the immediate interactions between the products of the user, but also how these processes happened in the background. It also forced us to think of how the different levels in the system coordinated to make a whole. We created the blueprint on two whiteboards with post-its, then I took it, compiled it into one map, and made sure that we covered all the aspects we needed to cover. We refined this map later as we further detailed our scenarios.
1
Physical Evidence
2
Beacons,CNPA’s Website,Poster
3
Registration Confirmation
4
Tutorial
Broadcaster Action Discovers Service
Joins the System
Reciever Action
Front of Stage Interaction Back of Stage Interaction
Posters in Cafes, link on CNPA Website, App pop-up
CNPA Distributes Posters, creates videos, Launches Website and App
Getting Started
Beacons Sniff out Listening Devices C-citizen? Yes
No
Learns how to Use the System
Tutorial Page
CNPA creates promitional video and Demo on App
Continue Toutist ID
Support Processes
Set-Up Beacon Network & Marketing Scheme C-Citizenship is set-up
Register with the system on BlockChain
Website and App maintained by CNPA
5
6
Visible Beacon Alert Screen
Message Screen
Finds Beacon & Claims Ownership
Creates Own Message & Chooses Target Receiver
Passes by Beacon
Views Current Content& History & Reacts
Requesting Ownership
Filming, Writing, Capturing, Recording
Alert Received
Defining Message Interaction
Beacons Sniff out Listening Devices Beacons Match C-Citizenship with Beacon ID BLE Beacons send data to the Blockchain for approval Nature Beacons download media
Matching Media with C-Citizenship & Beacon ID
Data added to BlockChain Nature Beacons wait for internet access
7
Message Board
Tracks New Changes
8
Message Screen
9
10
Alert Notification
Message Screen
Votes to keep/delete
Creates New Message
Meeting/ Voting Prompt Votes to keep/delete
Map Screen
Views all Location Specific Contributions
Recieves Updates
Decide on given options
Message is turned into memory or discarded
Filming, Writing, Capturing, Recording
A Record of Current Activites
App Pulls Updates From BlockChain
The App recognises when an issue is becoming popular
The App recognises when a thread is cold
Matching media with C-Citizenship & Beacon ID
Matching media with C-Citizenship & All Beacon IDs
BlockChain updated by broadcaster & reciever replies
Data pulled from BlockChain
Data pulled from BlockChain
Data pulled from BlockChain
Data pulled from BlockChain
37
Prototype As we progressed in concept detailing, we discussed scenarios until we reached four different scenarios that tackled the insights that came forward from our research.
Make &Refine
To start with, Cong and I developed the visual identity for the system. To do so, we designed the beacons by inspiring from symbols we picked up on in our research. The first beacon we designed was the nature beacon. The nature beacons form is inspired by a capercallie’s tail. In our interview with the Cairngorm National Park Authority, they mentioned that a lot of their work comes back to capercallies, as they represent endangered species because of human activities within the National Park. From there, we created a design language that we transferred to the other designs. Cong and I worked collaboratively on the sketches and the CAD models. From there, we began to roughly define what the scenarios should be, and then my teammates went on detailing these with drawings. I stayed in touch with them by making suggestions on the missing links that I saw. In the meantime, I developed the phone application and its interface in accordance with the scenarios, with help from Cong. I found developing the phone application challenging, as it was a new area for me to explore. I do not have any formal
education in UX Design, and have only read a few articles on interface design. Therefore, the application I designed lacks in the depth of development on that front. What I tried to achieve through the app design instead was to try and give an idea of how our idea could be implemented rather than how it should be implemented. I enjoyed this very much as I realised that I am interested in how digital interfaces are designed, and how these designs direct our behaviours and attitudes towards systems.
Developing the Mobile Application
If I had more time I would have wanted to test our system and investigate its possible implications. Taking it back to the people we aimed to design it for is an essential part of the design process as it allows for improvements as the design is brought to reality, even through a mockup. In my previous projects I would often take a prototype of the product I designed and test it on people. The feedback that I would receive would open my eyes to very simple things that even my tutors could not think of. What this does is that it removes the designer from his/her bubble, and enables him/her to see that the design is not a detached entity, but is a part of a whole.
39
LiveDrop
40%
40%
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
Discover how it works!
Nature Beacon
Let Your Voice Be heard, Connect with Your Community
Business Beacon
C-citizen Password C-citizen
Broadcast a Message about the nature around you and share it with your Community
Nature Beacon
Visitor
Claim Ownership of this Beacon to Broadcast?
Yes
LiveDrop 40%
40%
LiveDrop
No
Community Beacon
Sign Up
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
Ideas Choose how people will react to your broadcast Picnic
Hike
Party
Discussion
Gathering
Knitting
Create a Poll Ask Something
Media
Discussion Poll Which Passers by are you broadcasting this message to?
Name it
Option Option Option
What is the Discussion about ?
Event
Locals Visitors CNPA Business Owners
Locate it
Post
Post 40%
40%
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
Nature Beacon
Community Beacon
Business Beacon
Broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop Main Story
Carol Description for story here
Contributions
Broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast Memory
40%
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
Poll Question asked by broadcaster here ? Option
Option
LiveDrop Location
Event Name
This Discussion is about issue A concerning problem B
Option
Contribute
Current
40%
40%
40%
LiveDrop
LiveDrop
Would you like to Broadcast Park wide ?
This Thread is getting hot! Start a Meetup?
Main Story
This Thread has gone cold!
Discussion 15 Going
4
Interested
6
Discard Story
7
Turn into Memory
Intersted
Confirm Vote
Post
Going
Post
Which Passers by are you broadcasting this message to?
Carol Description for story here
Contributions
Locals Visitors CNPA Business Owners
Contribute
41
Present The strategy we took for our presentation was to roughly plan it and then make the slides as we usually do. Finn took on the task of planning of the presentation; we then sat down and discussed the flow of information as a group. It was the first time that we had to give a condensed fifteen-minute presentation, which meant that we had to be incredibly concise to communicate our work well.
Prepare& Communicate
I then took on the task of making all of the slides, with the exception of one or two, and created a twenty five-page booklet that contained extra information that we could not fit into the presentation. For example, we had created four very detailed scenarios through drawings, but decided to expand on two during our presentation given the time limitations. The booklet also included the system map and the service blueprint for closer inspection. We thought of the booklet as a tool to insure that we were able to answer as much of the questions that could be raised as possible, and that is what it did. In the run-up for our presentation we were thinking of ways to show our scenarios in a visually engaging way that was not just drawings. Cong and I discussed the possibility of making a stop motion clip using clay toys as props. From there Poopak and Cong created the movie and edited it. This task was enjoyable for
everyone who was involved in it, and allowed us to explore our concept in a fun, engaging way. The short clip was also engaging for our audience as it brought humour to an otherwise serious context.
The Handbook
Making the Animation
LiveDrop Creating Ownership and Presence in the Cairngorms
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Final Thoughts Fortunately, projects do not end with presentations; the knowledge and the experience I gained through this project will carry on with me to the next one. On an exploration through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in London, UK, my eye caught a few interesting installations that are particularly interesting to the context of this project. In the photos on the right, are markings of things that happened within the park. The first one from the top shows a make a wish make a donation, along with the names of the people who donated to make the monument happen. The next image shows a script written on a bench to commemorate someone, and is slowly disappearing. The third image shows the type, origin, and the age of an 80,000 year old tree. The last image is of a website that people with mobile devices can access to hear the statue of Peter Pan talk. I found these interesting as they reflect the importance that people place on layering information onto their surroundings. This information is irrelevant outside of this specific spatial context, and is very meaningful to anyone within it. Also the cross between the physical and the digital is one that is only found in the last example. With these examples in mind, I think that if we made the physical element in our system stronger through such means, it could be implemented more successfully. As mentioned earlier, my writing style is influenced by my blogging Online about the project.
Keeping a blog has allowed me to constantly think and reflect on my work. It has made me pay attention to details that I would not have paid attention to otherwise. As a designer thus far, most of my work involved sketching and doodles to communicate my ideas. Utilising text has allowed me to think about my design decisions more thoroughly. This is the second time that I keep a blog for a project, but my approach to it this time can be regarded as personal. I will definitely be taking this habit with me to the next project. Lastly, my experience in creating the group book and the PPJ has broadened my skill range, as I ended up doing all of the layouting and content distribution in the book. Unfortunately this meant that there was a lack in fair distribution of work.
Visit Our Blog
https://gsadiblog.wordpress.com/
This has been a quite a journey of exploration into the realm of social design that I am glad to have been a part of.
Bibliography Ford, H. and Graham, M. (2016) ‘Provenance, power and place: Linked data and opaque digital geographies’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34(6), pp. 957–970. doi: 10.1177/0263775816668857. McCarthy, J., Lloyd, G. and Illsley, B. (2002) ‘National parks in Scotland: Balancing environment and economy’, European Planning Studies, 10(5), pp. 665–670. doi: 10.1080/09654310220145387. Nessler, D. (2016) How to apply a design thinking, HCD, UX or any creative process from scratch – digital experience design. Available at: https://medium.com/digital-experience-design/how-to-apply-a-designthinking-hcd-ux-or-any-creative-process-from-scratch-b8786efbf812#. lssvdf8qq (Accessed: 6 January 2017). Shepherd, N. and Macfarlane, R. (2011) The living mountain: A celebration of the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. Edinburgh: Text Publishing Company. 45
Thank You to my Teammates, Cong Tan, Finn FullartonPegg, Poopak Azhand to our Studio Tutor, George Jaramillo to my family & friends for their support
The Glasgow School of Art 2016 Mdes Design Innovation