Reflective image of the week 6

Laya with a small prototyping friend.

Week 6.2

prototyping

Cross Disciplinary Exchange 2

We met up on Monday

Week 6.1

We had a talk about ethics in design research this morning. The main point that would affect my project is that we aren't allowed to do primary research with children (under 16, or under 18 without parental permission). I am still allowed to do secondary research, and there's bound to be plenty of information on this topic online.

I also have a friend who has studied and works as a primary school teacher (mainly with children aged 5-6) so I may run my ideas by her and get feedback based on her knowledge of child education.

My further brainstorming from today:

Key points:

• This booklet should be relevant to as many different groups as possible; don't assume the child is going to be white, middle class, living in the suburbs.
• Customization of the booklet would allow for more specific activities, rather than trying to make everything generic.
• Give power to the parent to customize the child's experience; they know their child better than you could guess.
• Money - not every parent is going to have it or want to spend it on these activities. Activities should aspire to be $0 and also not rely on travel expenses or already having expensive technology (computers, TVs, tablets)

Reflective Image of the Week 5

Week 5.2

I wasn't in class today due to illness, so here's some research done at home.

Inspirations for getting kids interacting:

• Person bingo - kids go around a class/group trying to find people who fit the descriptions on their bingo sheet. Encourages talking and getting to know others.

• Museum of Me - each kid in a class fills out a set of cards, like the one pictured below, displaying their family, interests, hobbies, etc. These are set up in an exhibit for the class to go around and view to learn more about each other.

[source: https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/7caf2ca22fba47ce81381be7589f61d6]

• Musical Pairs - like musical chairs, except when the music stop the teacher/leader gives a trait and each kid has to match up with someone who is the same as them in that way (e.g. same eye colour, same favourite sport, same age)

More places with activity ideas:

• http://teacherrebootcamp.com/2012/08/20/10-getting-to-know-you-activities-for-kids/
• https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/ice-breaker-games
• http://www.kidactivities.net/post/great-getting-to-know-you-ideas!.aspx

Week 5.1

I've chosen to do Grace and Renee's brief, "New Places", which is about helping children adjust after moving cities and being disconnected from their old friends.

My original idea was similar to one suggested in the brief; an activity book made to encourage kids to get out and explore their new environment and connect with people. Through the quick ideation exercise we did in class, I came up with a few more ideas.

[IMAGES PUT IMAGES HERE]

The ideas I'm most leaning towards at the moment are:

• A shipping container size activity area designed to encourage classes of kids to interact with each other, providing an opportunity for new kids to meet a lot of new people at once.
• Something with a moving buddy plushie (more aimed at younger kids)
• A merit badge based activity system, awarding kids with badges/prizes for completing activities that get them interacting with new people/places.

Reflective Image of the Week 4

Presentation day, featuring our lovely speaker, Sam.

Week 4.2 - Presentations

Today was presentation day! Ours went well, and we were invited to present again to the whole group.

Our presentation video:

Our script:

*Bus rolls across and person chases.*

Who thinks buses are great? [audience response]

Who thinks buses are shit? [audience response]

*Quotes from survey roll.* You are not alone! These are quotes from our survey.

Upwards of twenty-four million bus trips are taken in Wellington a year, and almost 80% of Wellingtonians experience travel stress.

Buses can be stressful for many reasons. Often, this comes down to organizing yourself. 

We think that through design  we can reduce aggravating aspects of using buses as transport.

Through our research we found that being on the bus is not the biggest source of stress, because you can zone out, listen to music, a podcast or talk if you’re traveling with a friend. The hard stuff is more about figuring out where to go, when and getting off or on, especially if you have an irregular schedule.

We found that getting more accessible payment options and real time information about where the next bus is could be helpful.

The average student or worker in the CBD needs a better way to travel by bus, and it is achievable.

How might we give people power over their travel experience and reduce the stress associated with public transportation?

Week 4.1

We spent today finishing up our booklet, making sure it all made sense, was laid out well, and had no spelling errors.

I redid some of the illustrations so they were clearer and matched the text.

We also planned what we were going to say on the day. Sam is the most confident speaker, so she'll be doing the talking.

Reflective Image of the Week 3

Getting feedback and seeing things from new perspectives (it's meant to be a person sitting in a bus seat, for the record.)

Class 3.2 - Critiquing our Visual Brief

Our printed visual brief for this week:

Peer Feedback:

Things to keep:

• Colours are strong; fit the subject matter (buses)
• Clearly laid out
• Readable narrative
• Fitting images
• Concise and believable

Things to change:

• Play with the scale of the images
• More visual information (infographics rather than just written stats)
• Cover illustration doesn't match the style of the rest of the images
• Some of the wording on the "Needs" page is confusing
• More quotes from the public to make it feel more relatable

For next class:

- Make changes to our booklet based on the feedback
- Preparation for our presentation (>90secs) of our visual brief (on Friday)

3.1 Class - Refining our Visual Brief