Walk round East London

I recently took on some of the suggestions from the book in the previous post and went out and explored my local area a bit more.

It's really interesting to see how much is going on in the area, and I ended up stumbling across a few random sights that I wasn't actually aware were so close-by.

Some of the photos can be found on my Flickr page.

Creative collaboration in the community

Our group in the DIR module have been shaping our research proposal. We had originally been looking at the idea of a neighbourhood swap shop, where communities would share and trade skills etc.

Yesterday the idea altered slightly, we are still looking at engaging a community in collaboration however I think it is now more concerned with creativity, and looking at ways to rejuvenate a community through social networks.

I think we are all a happier with this angle, the passion was somewhat down on last week for the skill swapping idea, plus we felt it would be difficult to find an innovative approach as there are already quite a few examples along the same lines.

From doing a bit of research into this new idea, and combined with the general research I've been doing for my 3rd semester project I'm beginning to find some research fields that I'm really interested in. I think it could be really valuable to use design thinking in contexts such as urban/community planning, and also utilise the methods available to involve the people of that community within the process.

I think through community participation and inclusion people can really get a sense of ownership of a space, and this has great potential for expansion into a variety of contexts.

Project sketching

This week in DIR we have been working on our project platforms, and mapping out some project sketches for possible ideas. 

On Tuesday Tom Inns had given an overview of the research study journey. Similarly to others he mentioned the need to know the network around, and what else is going on in your field. I feel this is really relevant to what we are doing in design ethnography as we are currently trying to build up a network in relation to our projects. I'm trying to include a variety of sources including people that I may use as contacts, various literature materials, companies that I have looked and what they are doing that relates. I'm hoping to map out the connections between them all as well, so I'm playing around with a few ideas about how to do this at the moment.

The project in DIR revolves around the theme of Connected Communities, and we have come up with a few ideas for a research proposal. I think the section that I am most interested in is how to engage the community itself within the process. I'm keen to look into methods such as participatory design and workshops which use the community to help generate ideas and give them a sense of ownership in regards to the final outcome.

Design for Social Inclusion

Whilst doing a bit of research into the group project I found a few interesting articles and initiatives. The Public Sphere Project talks about using technology for social engagement of the aged.

I also came across the concept of Telecentres, which revolves around the idea of bringing people in a community together to a physical, public space, which allows them to access information, predominantly through digital means. Whilst looking into them I found this report on the sustainability of telecentres and how to help them adapt and evolve in a changing world. They generally seem to be in countries outside the UK although I feel there may be some relevant information which could relate in how to design inclusively.

Lastly I looked at a how the issue of social inclusion was dealt with by the Best e-Europe Practices (beep) Project. Sometimes I find it a bit difficult looking at initiatives and strategies, as they seem to say what needs to be done without providing real solutions. I suppose this is an issue for a design ethnographer, in that we need to decide how much we look at ideas and solutions, and how much of that is left to designers to work out from our findings.

Mobile Social Interaction

I've been having some further thoughts on my essay and third semester project. Generally still looking at possibilities for mobile interactions.

On the nytimes.com I found this article, in which Jan Chipchase discusses how mobile phones could aid in ending global poverty. In the article it explains how through human-centred research they are finding out insights, particularly in regards to how people are adapting phones to suit their needs. In response to the questioning of wide spread technology, he explains how communication is a right, and how some "people once believed that people in other cultures might not benefit from having books either."

I've also looked at Nokia Resarch Africa, or NoRA, the video showing the Music Project in Nairobi. It presents a way of helping to develop opportunities within a fairly disadvantaged community.

I feel Nokia's Data Gathering is a good example of a design solution created through mobile interaction technology. The mobile data collection "helps to improve the operations and service provided by public and private organisations." It appears to have a lot of benefits over other methods, such as laptops, PDA's and paper.

I also briefly looked at other examples of mobile phone projects having an impact on the Third World on textually.org. A particularly interesting piece, was how people in South Africa could use texting to find out information on AIDS, and it became advantageous as it was discreet.

I think what is most appealing to me, and what I hope to try and tackle in the essay, is how the findings and insights from these approaches are or might be considered by such a large company. I suppose this gets back to the idea of how the research could actually inform design.

Also, how a company can help with social and economic issues in a country, in a moral way, when they are predominantly driven by profit?

Alienation through technology

For our group project this semester in DE we have been discussing ideas and looking to focus our research. We all agree that often technology can alienate individuals or even entire communities. We feel that design has the potential to prevent this alienation, and we hope to look at how people interact with publicly-cited information in order to inform this.

Through looking at and understanding peoples needs and actual requirements, we feel that a design could help prevent this alienation. We are under the opinion that it would be a good idea to concentrate on the elderly as a group. We feel that as a group they are often not taken into consideration when new technology is produced. We also feel they will have a good insight into the community aspect of the project, and there will be a lot of areas to look in to. 

I got a bit ahead of myself and started thinking about how we might present the research. I remembered the paper by the RED group at the Design Council I looked at last year when I was researching how to present my findings. I feel their booklet on ageing is a really good example of how to tell and present the stories of the people we spend time with.

Nokia Open Studios

I've been doing some more research into my essay and ideas for the third semester project. On Jan Chipchase's blog I found the presentation entitled Nokia Open Studios.

It illustrates how they engaged a community in the design process. The broader study was the exploration of "the impact of mobile connectivity within the context of global urbanisation".

The research was done in partnership with Younghee Jung, and the full paper can be found here. I think it is particularly interesting to see the emotional links people have with mobile phones, often the participants wanted their mobile to symbolise something about their personality. Also there were examples of the people presenting a need for the phone to solve problems they have or include functions they desire.

 

The video above shows Younghee Jung talking about the Nokia Open Studios project at the Lift08 conference.