Empathy & Journey Maps

Through doing multiple empathy and journey maps we have started to profile individuals who fit into our target audience and are coming to better understandings of how they might feel/react/think in situations that we have focused in on as being very stressful parts of city life. This will help us begin to think about how/where we can disrupt these routines enough to reduce their stress, not add it. Journey mapping has also helped expose things that we might not have previously thought of as being stressful. We are starting to get a better feel for who our audience is and we are also confirming that the area of stress in the city we have focused in on is actually stressful and could be altered.

Ex-Change Week 2

Today we met up with our Ex-Change groups for the first time. Our group was made up of three VCD students, one fashion student, one textiles student, and one industrial student, so we had quite a good range of disciplines which will be helpful to get a diverse range of opinions as we progress with our projects.

We spent this session getting to know each other. We went around and described our disciplines' briefs and how we were starting to respond to those briefs. We helped each other out by giving feedback on each others initial ideas and also trying to think of at least one design exemplar for each person to go away and look at.

It was nice to chat to people outside of your normal classmates about your project to get fresh opinions about it. It was also awesome to hear what other disciplines are doing and it will be interesting to see their projects develop, as we usually don't get to see what they are up to due to working in different buildings/areas around uni.

It was also interesting to learn about how each discipline/person was responding to the idea of 'Wellbeing'.

Looking At Exemplars

Even though we are not supposed to be thinking of design solutions to our problems/insights yet, I find that looking at exemplars of ways that people have improved people's day-to-day experiences through social or civic design projects helps inspire me to get invested in creating this visual brief.

Interviewing & SLIP Exercises

Over the week individually and as a team we have been doing a lot of interviewing, asking the open ended questions that we produced as a team in class. This helps us get a better understanding of why people may feel stressed in the city, where they feel most stressed, and what they might do to reduce their stress. We have used the SLIP technique to help us compile and condense our information and produce insights to where we could target for our visual brief. Through our initial interviews and SLIP exercises we also exposed gaps in our knowledge and produced new questions that we then had to go back and ask.

Our SLIP exercises helped us find that the thing that makes people the most stressed in the city is getting from 'A' to 'B', the thing people are most likely to do to reduce their stress is taking a moment for themselves, and the reason why people are most likely to not to do something that they know reduces their stress is because they have no time/are too busy.

Secondary Research

I have done a lot of secondary research on the topic of 'Stress in the City' and if/how nature can help reduce stress to help me get a better feel for the topic. I feel really passionate about the idea that having more nature in urban spaces can improve people's mindset and brighten up their day. I have come from a farming background, so it is often strange for me to not be exposed to nature on a daily basis. Although in saying that I do think that Wellington is quite a good city for having lots of parks and natural spaces within easy walking distance of the CBD.

'Stress in the City' Brief

My favourite reading of the three we are allowed to choose from is 'Stress in the City'. I feel like I relate to this one the best and I also feel like it offers a lot of opportunities/a range of pathways depending on what aspect of city life you choose to focus on, what your target audience etc.

Before I came to Wellington for university I had only ever lived on farms in rural Southland. I had never lived in a town before, let alone a city, so I did find the change quite shocking. I often find myself stressed in the city because of the amount of people all trying to move through the same spaces, having to be ruled and surrounded by traffic, the noise, trying to get to places on time on foot, or otherwise having to rely on public transport etc.

Link To Team Workbook

http://georgiahannahfarrenwellbeing.blogspot.co.nz

Defining Labels

Ex-Change = Collaboration, Sharing, Cross-School, Class, Teamwork
Empathy = Brief, Audience, Context, Research, Insight
Define = Synthesise, Proposition, Essence, Perspective, Action
Ideate = Brainstorm, Mind Map, Thumbnail, Wireframe, Prototype, Visualise, Code, Render, Build
Test = Present, Critique, Feedback, Insight