Case Studies: CIRCA

Yesterday we received a lecture from Norman Alm, who had been involved with the CIRCA project. The project consisted of the development of an interactive device, which could promote communication between carers and family members with elderly people with dementia.

The first insight was that they had chosen the project from a strategic perspective. They were aware of the ageing population, and increase in the number of elderly peoplein society, and so considered developing a project that dealt with computing and the elderly. I feel this would have given them leverage in their proposal as, as he mentioned, there's a lot of competition. If you can present something that covers new ground, it will catch people's attention, and give them reason to be interested.

I think Norman is the first speaker we have had that has mentioned the negative side of multidisciplinary teams. Apart from the usual reference to language barriers, he simply said that "you can't work with people you don't like". This is true, it can be difficult to work productively with someone you don't get on with. I've had other experiences in the past, and it doesn't have to be in a project environment, where I've not worked well with someone. It doesn't necessarily mean that you don't get on with them either, you might just not "click". Inevitably you will work better with someone that you are friends with, but I feel it is important to be able to work with people you are not as comfortable with as well. It's fairly likely that I'll have to work with a variety of people in the future, and not everyone is going to get on all the time, but as long as people are clear on the end goal, then surely it is a matter of finding a way of getting past any differences. I liked what he said about seeing team members "as a person, rather than a representation of their discipline" as people will always come from different backgrounds and have different motivations.

Another point that I will need to incorporate in projects is this concept of convincing people. This could be as Norman described by knowing the field e.g. the background and competitors, or by being able to argue the case. It seems that as ethnographers we will often have to convince people of our validity, and this will only be accomplished through knowing the area and being able to back ourselves up with evidence.

Lastly I thought a bit further about ideas for my 3rd semester project whilst Norman was talking. When he described how the people were communicating through the device rather than face to face, I thought about how this could be incorporated into insights for communication design. The areas I covered with joint attention last year could also be relevant, and the notion of collaboration in space as well. This is still a bit vague in my mind at them moment, but I was seeing images of people looking at screens in stations etc.

In the afternoon we also had a session with Kirsty Miller on CVs. I found this quite informative in the end, and realised the need to design it for the specific audience. I'm probably guilty myself of having a CV which is fairly general, although I haven't had much experience in applying for a "real" job. I think the point she made about researching the employer was useful, and although I've considered this in the past, I think that it is important to get a sense of how they work, and if the place you are going to is actually somewhere that you would want to work. It also gave me more ideas for creating a website for myself, as I think I want to document the projects I have done at Uni better, as most of them at the moment are hidden away in folders.

Public Space

After doing a bit of initial research into how people might communicate in public space I decided to look a bit further into concepts of space. Something which came up in the discussions was how people interact and move through certain spaces. I stumbled upon this video of a scramble intersection via Picocool, which I love. It's the sort of thing I can just sit and watch, and observe the flux of people's movement. 

I also got talking to my Dad about the area of my project, and as he works as an architect he had some really useful points and has recommended some things for me to look at. He talked about his own desire to design for spaces. Rather than worry about how a building looks on the outside, he wants to create spaces that are meaningful and useful for people. He talked about visiting the Neue Wache in Berlin, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and how people behaved when they entered the room with the Käthe Kollwitz sculpture. He said that people didn't just walk straight in and head towards the centre, but would move slowly and quietly around the edge by the walls.

Mother with her Dead Son, sculpture in the Neue Wache

Exploratory Design Research

Recently I have thinking about the nature of my 3rd semester project, and I now seem to be coming to a better understanding of what it is I will be studying. Initially I had skirted around mobile interaction and considered looking into future applications etc. After recent discussions, it seems that I will more likely be dealing with how people communicate in public space, and then seeing how this could inform/inspire design solutions.

I see this as a exploratory design research study, as I will be going out and looking at a situation and then analysing it with the hope of finding design insights.

We also discussed today the difference between our aims and our objectives. In the specific research study the aims and the objectives are very important. I consider the aim to be what I want to get of the project and the objectives as what I should be trying to deliver. I feel this is something which needs to be considered at the start of any research project, and will be how success is measured on completion.

Case Studies: Design Against Crime

Yesterday in the Designing Innovative Research module we were initially given a lecture by Mike Press and Lisa Cresswell, who is a research assistant on the Safer Spaces project. It was on the Design Against Crime project, which I have heard about previously on more than one occasion, so I was a little worried that it might be going over old ground. However I was pleased to discover that the emphasis of the lecture was on the process of conducting a research project.

Mike described how the whole project had evolved over the last decade, and gave examples of how they often had to adapt for various situations. He also illustrated a series of "tips" for research, some of the ones which resonated with me I have listed below:

• Say "yes we can" even if you think you can't
• Build tactical and strategical alliances
• Finish a report with "clearly more research is necessary" 

(I particularly liked this statement, Mike referred to it in the context of gaining further funding and more work. However I feel this will often be the statement required after a research study, as it's more than likely that you will not find all the right answers after conducting an investigation and will undoubtedly need to look further. I suppose in ethnographic research this will often be an issue, as there is always something else interesting to look at. It will be a matter of establishing what the designer is looking for and the boundaries of exploration).

• Work with the best people and give them their heads
• Innovate your methods
• Go for targeted audiences
• Keep evolving your research focus
• Interdisciplinary teams work best
• Versatility and adaptability is required.

One of the key principles from the talk, which was referenced in a few of the "tips", was this idea of choosing the right team, and having space to adapt. I am a firm believer in the concept of interdisciplinary teams, and I am always keen to see what different perspectives people from different backgrounds can bring to a team.

Mike also remarked on the subject of knowledge transfer, specifically in relation to the conversations between academics and the MI5 for the Design Against Crime project. Again it reiterated the need to be able to find a common language when communicating with people out-with your own domain.

Lisa made an interesting point in regards to the interview she had for her research assistant position. She said don't tell them people what you "do", but instead convey the skills you have such as communication, facilitation and critical thinking, which can be applied in a variety of contexts. 

We were also given talks from Jamie Henderson from the Innovation Portal and Ken Edwards from the Enterprise Gym. I do try and find the relevance in every lecture we have, and see how I can apply it to my own practice. I did struggle to engage with the content of these two talks, however I do see how they could be useful if I did want to set up a business on my own, and they did make me think about the fact that there is often a business model behind research and it is something to consider at all times.

Traces of Human Activity

Yesterday we travelled through to Edinburgh for the day to conduct a fieldwork activity. We were given the task of observing and recording traces of human activity in the built environment, and we were given some criteria of what to look out for. These were:

• By-products of use
• Adaptations for use
• Displays of self
• Public messages

We were also looking at them within their context i.e. clarification of/by the larger picture. Chris and I walked along Princes Street firstly, before heading through the Old Town along the Royal Mile and the Cowgate. We then went back towards the New Town and walked along Rose Street.

In the few hours we spent on the streets we noticed many examples of remnants of human activity. We were both intrigued by the amount of litter that had been placed down. It appears that people will happily place empty cups, bottles, cans etc. on a wall or shelf. It is as if they feel it is not really littering, as the object almost fits the spot it has been left at.

Traces of human activity in Edinburgh

The image above also shows how people will puts stickers on objects such as lamp posts and bins. Often it seemed that people were more likely to place their sticker somewhere if there was already one on it, giving the impression that people will "break a rule" if someone else has already done so. This also relates back to the people I observed in London, who would hold back and watch how someone else operated a ticketing machine in the underground before doing so themselves, and so picking up on the social cues.

Being Human

Yesterday afternoon we met with Richard Harper, a senior researcher at Microsoft, as well as attending the public lecture he gave in the evening titled Changing Humans. 

It was interesting to hear him talk about understanding how people think, and how this can be aided by developing an understanding of how you think yourself. He related this to the conversations between designers and non designers, and said that it can involve creating a common ground together.

I liked the point he made when describing communication as a human act, as in some environments it can be interpreted as an exchange of data, with humans seen as machines. However he also stressed that neither of these are necessarily wrong, but are simply a different viewpoint.

I thought about this a bit more while we were discussing reflection, and reflective writing with Jonathan Baldwin in the first session of the Designing Innovative Research module. When describing the action of making a cup of tea or brushing your teeth most people will go through the process in a systematic way. We were encouraged to question why you do certain things in order to evaluated and reflect on the action i.e. why do you have a cup of tea? I though back to what Richard Harper had said and realised that often when people make a cup of tea or coffee, they are not doing it because they are thirsty and need a drink, but it is like a performance. They do it to take a break, gain comfort, or even to make a social gesture. People don't go for coffee to drink coffee; they go to have a chat.

I think I would like to relate this to my ideas for my 3rd semester project, and particularly the social interaction aspect of design.

The 11th Hour

In our current People and Design project we have been given the task of envisioning a future society in 2108. We also have to imagine a ritual that our society would partake in and then embody this through design.

We have had a series of lectures to get us thinking a lot about issues such as climate change, and how they will have a large effect on what the world will be like in a hundred years. My group have been doing a bit of research and we have set up a blog here to illustrate our process.

I've been doing a bit of my own research into the area, mainly by watching the two films An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour.

Both of them bring up some pretty astonishing facts and statistics, and I'd say a lot of them are quite disturbing. We have been asked to consider what we think the main drivers of the issues that will affect the future of earth. Even though the glaring issues are global warming, soil erosion, fossil fuel depletion, population growth, from watching these films it is plain to see that the problem is humankind, and our disillusionment that we are separate from nature.  

I am interested to look at the positive side, in the 11th Hour it says that this could be the generation to turn things round and make a difference. I've been looking at sustainable design and how it could have a great impact. Bruce Mau's book Massive Change presents some really interesting thinking, and provides possible solutions for the future.