25.09.15
Mock Interim Presentations
Today Emma and I spoke to Jason about how our project is going so far. He was positive about the way we are going but pushed us to think about how we are going to build up hype before the event and get the students excited for the event so that they don't show up feeling uninterested and bored. We thought quite hard about a solution to this problem and came up with the idea of re-branding 'mindfulness' to make it sound more exciting and appealing to our audience. We have learned through our research that teens are very egotistic so we thought that by promoting our event as being all about them and emphasising that the tools they learn at this event will make them awesome people will appeal to this audience. We quickly came to the idea of branding our event as transforming the students into superheroes; 'become the superhero you'. We thought that before the event we could have superhero cutouts around the school that you could stick you're head through and take a picture to post to our social media page as a way of entering a competition. This would then lead them to our social media page that will have awesome and exciting pictures of past events to add a bit of hype. We thought we could theme the activities at the event also as if transforming the high school student into a superhero, passing levels and gaining essential skills (powers). At the end for a bit of fun we could get a photo of each student in front of a green screen and transform them to superheroes which will be posted on our social media page so they can find themselves and friends and tag themselves. This would be a way of marketing ourselves and getting them back onto our page. We plan to create videos reinforcing the skills they are taught at the event that would be posted to Facebook each week. The videos would be kept light hearted and funny to make them enjoyable to watch but would also be extremely beneficial with the lessons hidden within them.
After we had resolved the above ideas into our concept we then presented our idea to a fourth year. We got positive feedback so we will continue running with our idea. We also got the chance to talk to Sam from Life Hack. He really liked our idea too and he suggested we look into EQ which is emotional intelligence. He also said that instead of just focusing on mindfulness we should look into other wellbeing methods as well, to give the students a wider spectrum of knowledge. We found this advice really helpful to guide our decisions on what our activities at the even will entail.
We had the EX-CHANGE after class which went well. I explained my idea to the group and they said they liked the idea. I didn't really get any feedback on what to change which makes me think we must be heading in the right direction.
Friday, 25 September 2015
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Lesson 17
24.09.15
Think Place + Class Time
Class started with the Think Place team presenting us with food for thought on poverty. They offered us the insights and empathy they had discovered through their research. I personally found it shocking how tough some people have it here in New Zealand and the extent some people have to go just to get themselves and their family the basic necessities. When we split off into groups to discuss something in the food gathering process we would like to change we decided to focus on the struggle of communicating with WINZ as well as varying Food Banks. The time it takes to speak to these organisations individually seemed wasteful and mentally and physically taxing. Our idea is that these organisations need to have a shared database so that they could all access the information about when a person last received support whether it be a food grant or a food parcel. That way instead of going to each individual place to see if they are eligible for support, they can find all of this information at one place and then be directed to the organisation that can help them. We thought that if this information can also be accessed online by the individual in need they could go directly where the help is, without a middle-man involved.
From this exercise I learned how important it is to fully understand someones situation in order to be able to offer informed help that will definitely benefit someone. It also proved to me how important it is to gain insight completely removed from judgement. This is relevant to our project as I have found myself assuming things about our target audience when actually the best way to discover this information would have been by asking the target group directly or using pre-existing research that was created with students not just about students.
Design has a huge role in creating change for social good. The way we are taught to problem solve can be easily applied to real world problems to find creative and practical solutions. Empathy is the greatest tool we have learnt for designing real change for humans. It is only by putting yourself in the shoes of someone else that you can insightfully design something that the user will truly find useful.
During our studio class time, Emma and I created a detailed to do list in order to keep ourselves on track leading up to hand in. We also decided on the name and logo we were going to use. Emma had created some visualisations of how the stalls will look at the event which looked really fun and exciting. We also got some tutor feedback. We were told our visuals are looking great and we had a great idea and explanations for everything we just need to really focus on what the activities at the event are going to be. We also need to narrow down our big idea a little as it is very broad at the moment.
Between now and tomorrow we need to keep trucking on with our visuals and define our idea a little better as well as making some decisions on our event activities.
Think Place + Class Time
Class started with the Think Place team presenting us with food for thought on poverty. They offered us the insights and empathy they had discovered through their research. I personally found it shocking how tough some people have it here in New Zealand and the extent some people have to go just to get themselves and their family the basic necessities. When we split off into groups to discuss something in the food gathering process we would like to change we decided to focus on the struggle of communicating with WINZ as well as varying Food Banks. The time it takes to speak to these organisations individually seemed wasteful and mentally and physically taxing. Our idea is that these organisations need to have a shared database so that they could all access the information about when a person last received support whether it be a food grant or a food parcel. That way instead of going to each individual place to see if they are eligible for support, they can find all of this information at one place and then be directed to the organisation that can help them. We thought that if this information can also be accessed online by the individual in need they could go directly where the help is, without a middle-man involved.
From this exercise I learned how important it is to fully understand someones situation in order to be able to offer informed help that will definitely benefit someone. It also proved to me how important it is to gain insight completely removed from judgement. This is relevant to our project as I have found myself assuming things about our target audience when actually the best way to discover this information would have been by asking the target group directly or using pre-existing research that was created with students not just about students.
Design has a huge role in creating change for social good. The way we are taught to problem solve can be easily applied to real world problems to find creative and practical solutions. Empathy is the greatest tool we have learnt for designing real change for humans. It is only by putting yourself in the shoes of someone else that you can insightfully design something that the user will truly find useful.
During our studio class time, Emma and I created a detailed to do list in order to keep ourselves on track leading up to hand in. We also decided on the name and logo we were going to use. Emma had created some visualisations of how the stalls will look at the event which looked really fun and exciting. We also got some tutor feedback. We were told our visuals are looking great and we had a great idea and explanations for everything we just need to really focus on what the activities at the event are going to be. We also need to narrow down our big idea a little as it is very broad at the moment.
Between now and tomorrow we need to keep trucking on with our visuals and define our idea a little better as well as making some decisions on our event activities.
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Lesson 16
18.09.15
Big Idea
Today we defined what our 'Big Idea' is and this is what we narrowed it down to:
Big Idea
Today we defined what our 'Big Idea' is and this is what we narrowed it down to:
To break down the friend group barriers
between senior high school students. This will establish a stronger school
community and improve the overall well-being of many students.
We intend to do this by creating an event
that provides a comfortable and inviting environment to encourage and
facilitate new connections on common ground.
When then drafted up a journey map to show how our user will experience the event at each stage and how they will feel during each stage.
We showed this to Jason and he thinks we have a really solid idea that we now just have to build up on to make our event amazing. He suggests we need to create an experience so amazing that students can't resist from joining in and to steer away from conventional event aesthetics e.g. marquee, tents etc. He also suggests we design the event in way that enables the students to learn rather then making them learn the content you want them to learn.
This gives us plenty to work with between now and next week in terms of moving our project forward in the aforementioned ways. Emma and I plan to meet up on Monday to futher our project even more before class on Thursday.
Lesson 15
17.09.15
More Prototyping
Today we mocked up the event aspect of our idea and tested it on our peers. We created a mini version of how the event may look.
After talking our testers through the event we asked for feedback. They suggested a few ideas for the activities we could have at the event and suggested we keep the activities quite separate so that students can't get distracted by their friends in a different activity. They also said we need to find a way of bringing mindfulness into the activities rather then just having it introduced at the beginning of the event and then forgotten about.
This gave us plenty to think about for furthering our project. We then did a second prototype to test how students may feel about being split into groups via a questionnaire a few days before the event. We discovered that if the students knew that the questionnaire may split them from their friends you would be less likely to get honest answers. If students didn't know that they will be split into groups they will be more open to it on the day as long as they know one or two people in their group. Students will feel more confident to talk to someone they don't know if they are working together on a project and therefore have something to talk about.
More Prototyping
Today we mocked up the event aspect of our idea and tested it on our peers. We created a mini version of how the event may look.
After talking our testers through the event we asked for feedback. They suggested a few ideas for the activities we could have at the event and suggested we keep the activities quite separate so that students can't get distracted by their friends in a different activity. They also said we need to find a way of bringing mindfulness into the activities rather then just having it introduced at the beginning of the event and then forgotten about.
This gave us plenty to think about for furthering our project. We then did a second prototype to test how students may feel about being split into groups via a questionnaire a few days before the event. We discovered that if the students knew that the questionnaire may split them from their friends you would be less likely to get honest answers. If students didn't know that they will be split into groups they will be more open to it on the day as long as they know one or two people in their group. Students will feel more confident to talk to someone they don't know if they are working together on a project and therefore have something to talk about.
Thursday, 10 September 2015
lesson 14
10.09.15
Prototyping
Today we tested out the questions we are going to ask the students to sort them into groups for our event. Emma dressed up as an iPad and I asked the questions (see image below).
We discovered from our first test that some of our questions didn't quite make sense so we were able to alter those questions for the next test. The second test we made was more interactive and had questions and answers written on small strips of paper that the user could drag to the centre of the table to answer the question. We also had a couple of blank pieces of paper so that the user could write their own answer if we hadn't supplied enough options. We found this test worked really well and there were a couple of answers the user cam up with that we hadn't thought of.
Prototyping
Today we tested out the questions we are going to ask the students to sort them into groups for our event. Emma dressed up as an iPad and I asked the questions (see image below).
We discovered from our first test that some of our questions didn't quite make sense so we were able to alter those questions for the next test. The second test we made was more interactive and had questions and answers written on small strips of paper that the user could drag to the centre of the table to answer the question. We also had a couple of blank pieces of paper so that the user could write their own answer if we hadn't supplied enough options. We found this test worked really well and there were a couple of answers the user cam up with that we hadn't thought of.
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
First Class Back
10/09/15
Lesson 13
Today we spent all of our studio time articulating our idea to others and hearing about their ideas as well. It was really helpful to hear what others have to say on our idea and we were given a few programmes to look into for research. We are getting to the point where we are close to deciding on an idea to run with and I think we will be ready to make that decision tomorrow.
Lesson 13
Today we spent all of our studio time articulating our idea to others and hearing about their ideas as well. It was really helpful to hear what others have to say on our idea and we were given a few programmes to look into for research. We are getting to the point where we are close to deciding on an idea to run with and I think we will be ready to make that decision tomorrow.
Thursday, 3 September 2015
Interview with a Mental Health Promoter
3.09.15
Interview with Hilary Genet
Today I met up with Hilary to ask her some questions that Emma and I had prepared before the study break. The interview went really well we spoke for 30 minutes and she gave me plenty of insight into the topic. Unfortunately I tried to record the interview but there was a glitch and I only managed to record 15 seconds out of the 30 minutes. That aside I have learnt my lesson to not try to record an interview without testing out the app first. I was able to recall a lot of the information and made sure I wrote down as much as I could remember straight after the interview.
Interview with Hilary Genet
Today I met up with Hilary to ask her some questions that Emma and I had prepared before the study break. The interview went really well we spoke for 30 minutes and she gave me plenty of insight into the topic. Unfortunately I tried to record the interview but there was a glitch and I only managed to record 15 seconds out of the 30 minutes. That aside I have learnt my lesson to not try to record an interview without testing out the app first. I was able to recall a lot of the information and made sure I wrote down as much as I could remember straight after the interview.
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