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Research Toolkit Report for Co-Design Methods
- 1. T O O L K I T P R O C E S S B O O K Design Research + Methods Gloria Condy SOCS309-S003 Emily&Emily Toolkit Research Hoda Hamouda
- 2. My project - Emily&Emily - focuses on combining research on Emily Carr the University and Emily Carr the person. This process book is an overview of the tools and processes used to support the co-design process - and further understand the relationship between designer and client. INTRODUCTION
- 3. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Abstract Keywords Research Questions Personas Pre-Toolkit Questionnaire Interview Toolkit Materials Session Script Instructions Diary Love Letter Journey Map Prototype Toolkit Session Test Conclusion 4 8 10 14 30 54
- 4. 44 ABSTRACT KEYWORDS The purpose of this study is to determine how to collaborate with students of Emily Carr to design a series of publication on Emily Carr University, and Emily Carr the artist. According to research done with a select sample of Emily Carr University students, the majority of these students were either unaware of who Emily Carr the artist is, or don’t know a lot about her. This study details the strategies used with a group of University students to understand their experiences with the school, and the artist. The first phase of research involved creating conceptual strategies to determine the content of the books. The second phase involved collaboratively determining visual strategies to design the exterior of the books. The aim of these activities was to engage their understanding through participation. emily carr students university publication INTRODUCTION
- 5. 55 MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION Q1What type of visual strategies can we implement in order to create a series of publications that resonates with the students of Emily Carr? Referring back to the first ethnography process book - through my research I determined the type of publications my target audience (Emily Carr students interested in Visual Arts and Canadian artists) would be interested in. Since that answer has been solved, this document focuses on developing that content into visuals.
- 6. 66 SUB QUESTIONS In order to achieve an answer to my main question, I created a list of sub questions - meant to figure out an answer to my main research question, step by step. Q1a Q1b Q1c If you’ve ever bought anything because you liked the way it looked - why? What are some of the things you look into before purchasing a book? How would you organize the content in a publication? Q1d How can I make a publication visually engaging?
- 7. 77 SUMMARY In terms of co-design and session activities - having these questions meant I was to explore the characteristics and qualities of other possessions the user had because they valued its aesthetics. I framed my session materials on exactly why, how, and where this happened. (Q1a) I also asked them to determine the value of publications. (Q1b) This was the past, and present part of the sessions. After determining why people valued items, I then designed a toolkit to help the users determine what they would do to create value within their own publications. (Q1c, Q1d)
- 8. 88 PERSONAS ANNE ARTY BIO Anne has always had a passion for painting, since she was young. She’s loves to read artists books and in her spare time, researches other famous artists. She utilizes as many school facilities as possible to expand her knowledge inside and outside of school. The library is one of her favourite places to visit. Anne has been looking for another artist’s book to read in her spare time. GOALS • Learn about Artists • Have time for extracurricular activities • Make time at Emily Carr Uni- versity meaning- ful AGE 22 GENDER Female OCCUPATION Student at Emiy Carr LOCATION Vancouver, BC “My mom says I came into this world painting!”
- 9. 99 DENUDA LIBRA BIO Denuda is Emily Carr’s local library. Her passion for learning influenced her decision to become a librarian. She plays an active role in the educa- tion of the students in her library, and consid- ers it the best resource. Her mission as of lately has been to inspire more students to read and expand their knowledge - es- pecially on the history of Emily Carr. GOALS • Get students interested in learning • Have a posi- tive impact on student’s lives • Have a fulfill- ing career as a librarian AGE GENDER OCCUPATION LOCATION 47 Female Librarian at Emily Carr Vancouver, BC “Learning and reading are key to growth.”
- 10. 1010 PRE-TOOLKIT QUESTIONNAIRE Prior to conducting the toolkit, I designed a series of questionnaire/interview questions for my then target audience - Emily Carr University students - to fill out. I wanted to determine the types of publications students were interested in, and to figure out how much they knew of Emily Carr the artist and the school. My findings brought me to conclude that 90% hadn’t learned anything about Emily Carr the artist, nor the University, while attending Emily Carr. 30% didn’t know who she was, and 10% knew anything past that she was a painter. 0% of the people who knew nothing about Emily Carr the artist were interested in reading a publication to educate themselves on the topic. I also determined how many people were avid readers and how many people weren’t. This research allowed me to narrow down my target audience to those interested in art history. I also altered my sub-questions after this discovery, to determine how to engage a reader’s attention through content.
- 12. 1212 INTERVIEW The purpose of this interview was to find out the type of publications my narrowed down target audience (Emily Carr students interested in visual arts publications) were interested in reading. It focused on different types of publications - such as magazines, storybooks, and the Emily&Emily booklets to be created. Afterwards, I did a qualitative analysis on the interview. I coded all of the information, clustered them, labeled them according to themes, and then organized them most valuable to least valuable. I determined that my user would be more interested in a publication with a story-book feel. They preferred fiction and illustration, and cared more about being engaged and entertained with the material than reading solid facts about ECUAD/Emily Carr the artist. You can view more about my ethnography process here.
- 13. 1313 Would you rather read a bibliography about Emily Carr’s art practices or read anecdotes about her life? Would you rather learn about Emily Carr through an illustration/story approach or straightforward facts and history? Would you prefer stories with illustrations or photographs? What other kind of things would you be interested in learning about? (Emily Carr the person/ school) (Family life, art career, origin of school, anecdotes, animals, etc) What aesthetic (clothing style, what colours, art styles) do you associate with Emily Carr the school? What aesthetic do you associate with Emily Carr the person? Semi-formal Interview (Books, Publication Design) • Just a little bit of background on the project I’m doing - for our COMD core we were tasked with creating a series of booklets on the dual identity of Emily Carr the school and Emily Carr the artist. I’m mostly interested in finding out what you’d be most interested in seeing or reading in these publications. Do you currently follow or read any magazines or publications? (Favourite kind - what do you gravitate towards) Have you ever bought or picked a magazine just because you liked the cover? What do you look for in magazines? (interesting articles, news, games like sudoku, opinion articles How about comic books? Storybooks? Would you prefer stories with illustrations or photographs - and why? Would you be interested in reading excerpts of fellow student’s experiences at Emily Carr? Interview Questions
- 14. 1414 TOOLKIT MATERIALS My areas of focus were based off of the research questions I’d determined earlier on. While creating the material I kept the question of how to keep a user engaged in a publication in the back of my mind. In order to sensitize the user to the project, I decided to use a diary study. To activate the user’s memories of the past and the present, I designed a Love Letter, and a Journey Map exercise. All of this was followed up with a group discussion. In order to help them envision a future for the product, I prepared a prototype toolkit and asked them to visualize a cover. The following is the session script for the sensitizing, past and present activities, which all took place in one day - as well as the final, future planning activity, which took place afterwards. TOOLKIT MATERIALS
- 15. 1515 Duration Diary 10 minutes 45 minutes Sensitizing/Preperation activity. Please refer to the instruction street and fill out to best of your abilities Write a letter to a product that you bought off of a whim, strictly based off of aesthetics. Refer to instruction sheet for example and details. The journey you’ll be plotting out is: buying a publication. Plot your journey and interactions on the following map - refer to instructions for more detail. To know your overall thoughts on the experience, and the activities. 15 minutes 15 minutes 5 minutes Love Letter Journey Mapping Final Thoughts Action Activity Session Script. Follow this! Session Script Prototyping 15 minutes Future co-design activity.
- 16. 1616 INSTRUCTIONS I designed simple instructions for each of the activities - and made sure during the testing session to asked if anyone had any issues or needed clarification on any activities. The instructions explain the purpose of each activity on the left hand side, and give an example or further explanation on the right hand side.
- 19. 1919 DIARY I wanted to slowly sensitize the users, to ensure that they were in the right mindset before completing any of past and present framing activities. This diary was more of an exercise to get them comfortable with completing the exercises so they could better answer the rest of the materials. I designed material I thought would let me understand the mindset of the users, and would introduce them to my research goal. During the session, I explained to them what the end goal of my research question was. I also made sure to include the goal and clear instructions within the booklet, as well as on another paper dedicated to instructions for all the session’s activities.
- 20. 2020 DIARY As well as sensitizing the users, I wanted to know how they reacted emotionally and conceptually to far fetched ideas. I put what the purpose of the diary was on the back of the book. Diary. This is a workbook containing a series of sensitizing questions and activities before the following toolkit activities. Diary
- 21. 2121 On the first spread is the research question of the study, and how the user’s participation is contributing to the final design of the emily&emily books. What is this? We’re designing a series of books (booklets) on Emily Carr the artist & the school - combining the two identities as one. The content for the interior has already been written - it is poetry, and has been attached for your reading. The goal of the research is to understand how readers visualize poetry, and to collectively determine a visual identity for the book. Diary, spread 1
- 22. 2222 Visual Imagery What images do you have in your head when you read the poem? Express your visualizations on the right. Feel free to use any format: you can draw, write sentences, single word descriptions, etc in response! a girl, wide-eyed with art as her guide and a passion for adventure around the world her storm unfurled with no regard for censure. “ ” On the next spread is some of the poetry written for the emily&emily books. I asked them to visualize the poetry and draw or write descriptions in the space provided. This activity was meant to both prime the users by introducing them to some of the material from the book, and to figure out how people visualize content. Diary, spread 2
- 23. 2323 Word AssociationWhat is poetry? Draw a line to connect each word to a colour. Think of a poem you’ve read and liked in the past. Try to create a visually communicate that poem using doodles in the space below. adventure home unconventional philosophy nature storm learn red orange yellow green blue purple pink The following spread asks the users to think of poetry that they read in the past, and to create a visual communication of that poem using doodles. At no point during this exercise did I want them to feel pressured or have to think too much - I wanted them to draw anything and everything that popped into their head. I just wanted them to be considering visuals of poetry, as well as visual properties in general, while filling out the next set of materials. The next page asked them to connect words from the poems with a colour. This was to help me understand how people relate themes to colour. Diary, spread 3
- 24. 2424 Love Letter
- 25. 2525 LOVE LETTER Love Letter. Using the space provided, write a love letter to an item you bought on a whim - based purely off its aesthetics. It could be about a book, item of clothing, candy bar, etc. After the Diary exercise, I ask them to fill out the love letter exercise. It asks them to write a love letter to an item they bought on a whim - based purely off its aesthetics. They were able to write about any item of their choosing. I wanted to figure out why they bought what they bought - and get them thinking about the characteristics and personalities of items. This was in response to one of my sub questions (Q1a -If you’ve ever bought anything because you liked the way it looked - why?). As well as being a fun way to gain insight to their relationships with their possessions, I also thought that these insights would be helpful in helping me determine the future toolkit.
- 26. 2626 JOURNEY MAP In order to address Q1b - What are some of the things you look into before purchasing a book? , I designed a journey map. Journey maps are used to see what customers are really looking for - and I wanted to know what the average person’s experience was when looking to buy a book. My expectations for this were that - with all of the priming of the past experiences and sensitizing - they would write about the aesthetics. However after seeing the results, I realized that the way in which I wrote the actions, made it so instead of being about the whys of buying books, it was about how they buy books.
- 27. 2727 Journey Mapping. Map your journey out when choosing a publication to buy. ACTIONS RESEARCH GO TO STORE FIND PUBLICATION BUY PUBLICATION READ QUESTIONS HAPPY MOMENTS PAIN POINTS Journey Map
- 28. 2828 PROTOTYPING In order to address Q1 -What type of visual strategies can we implement in order to create a series of publications that resonates with the students of Emily Carr?, I designed a prototyping activity. In this activity, I included a set of markers, pens, magazines, a cut-out of the poem, scissors, glue, and several sheets or “spreads” of paper. The purpose of this activity was to envision a future spread together by developing a set of visual strategies on which to base the actual spread designs on.
- 30. 3030 CONDUCTING THE SESSION Printed Materials - Diary, Instructions, Love Letter, Journey Map THE SESSION
- 31. Students going over instructions Students filling out Journey Map
- 32. 3232 There were three participants in my co-creation session. The session lasted approximately 40 minutes. I gave them the materials (instructions p15, diary p18, love letter p23, and journey map p24) explained my research question, what their role was, and went through all of the materials with them. I timed all of the material according to the session script - but adjusted the time according to how far along they were with each activity. After they completed the materials, I conducted a group discussion to gain some insight on their answers, and feelings on the activities. This group discussion was recorded with their permission. SENSITIZING & MEMORIES
- 33. 3333 Follow Up Questions How did you feel about the activities? Was anything confusing about them? What did you like about them? Let’s talk about Journey Mapping! Let’s talk about Diary! What influences your choosing of a publication? Do you feel this activity helped sensitize you for the later activities? Share publication What kind of visuals did you include? Why? What kind of visuals do you consider eye-popping or attractive? What do you like best about those publications? How did you feel about writing a love letter? How did you feel about writing a love letter? What kind of observations did you make while writing the letter? Let’s talk about Writing a Love Letter! Does anyone have any final thoughts, questions, or things to add?
- 34. 3434 During the duration of the session, I took notes where people had issues, as well as during the discussion following. • Depending on whether you’re left brained or right brained, you may find this task harder. • Straight forward, no questions asked • Generally positive reactions • All pages filled out • Similar answers for the “Match mood to colour”, suggesting some colours do belong to a certain theme, feeling, etc • Informal • Variety of topics - phone, ring, etc • Variety of reasons • Had more fun with it NOTES Diary Love Letter
- 35. 3535 • Not exactly the results I was looking to explore • Confusing at first, easy once they got into it • Asked questions • Looks of confusion • “less pressure” because they didn’t have to fill all out • Felt easy because they were mostly recalling memories • More task-based than visual - not exactly results I was looking for • Should have discussed after every project as projects were fresh in mind • Generally positive feedback • Have to think of more as co-designers than research “subjects” • Couldn’t ask some of the questions because my predictions were off - more generalized questions • Should have put on music • 15 minutes alotted • Include more gluesticks • Included information not found from poem • Adventure, nature themes, painter, artist • Imagery of Eyes Journey Map Group Discussion Prototype/ Collage
- 36. 3636 DATA ANALYSIS Upon receiving the completed documents, I then analyzed and compiled the data by comparing similarities and documenting my findings. The following is the findings from each activity in the first portion of my toolkit (Diary, Love Letter, Journey Map).
- 37. 3737 Since this was just a sensitizing activity, the activities were designed to introduce them to the context of the co-design session, while probing their memories. Some of the similarities I found were that all participants took the “Visual Imagery” (p20) portion literally rather than conceptually - taking cues from nouns and adjectives from the poem to create drawings. Only participant A took cues from the external world to create imagery, although there were no hints about Emily Carr’s profession, they knew previously Emily Carr was an artist, and drew a woman painting. The “What is Poetry”(p21) section received a range of results, from participant A was an abstraction of the poem, from participant B was a drawing, and participant C did not remember any poems. DIARY FINDINGS
- 38. 3838 Participant C’s Diary Participant C’s Diary (literal visuals)
- 39. 3939 Particpant B’s Visual Imagery Page (literal visuals)
- 40. 4040 For the final section, “Word Association” (p21) I found that participant A, B, and C’s answers only differed when it came to more conceptual definitions of colour. For things like forest - everyone put green. But for a word like adventure - participant A put purple, B put pink, and C put red. While I only designed these activities to sensitize my co-designers, I drew an interesting observation from my findings. That rather than conceptual symbols (i.e using purple to symbolize fear) it’s more universally understood to use concrete, literal symbols.
- 41. 4141 LOVE LETTER FINDINGS Filled out love letter
- 42. 4242 As for my love letter (p23) - no answers were the same. Participant A wrote about their ring. Participant B wrote about their cell phone. Participant C wrote about their pen. All the love letters were comical in nature and quite clever. Although they didn’t write about the same things, some of the content was the same. The love letter called upon them to write a love letter to an object they bought purely based on aesthetics, or looks - yet all of the participants chose to focus on the internal qualities of these objects that made them fall even further in love with them. Although they didn’t go into very much detail - all being very short, 4 or 5 line long letters, one thing I drew from them was that function is just as important as form.
- 43. 4343 With the pen and the Iphone - although participants B and C bought them because they liked how they looked, they note the purpose and use of the items more so than the aesthetics. I think, however, if I was to do this co-design activity again, then I would design it to apply to my research question more literally. My goal was to determine external characteristics of a spread or well-designed cover of a book that were appealing to people - and I thought by asking them to write a love letter to something aesthetically pleasing I would be able to draw similar findings - that would apply to my study. I was afraid that asking them to write a love letter to a well designed book would be more difficult with my group, and wouldn’t get rich results. However this topic was much too broad and unspecific - and as a result there was zero conversation about aesthetics other than the question itself. Although I did discover that function is just as important as form in well designed objects, if I were to repeat this study I would have asked them to write a love letter to a well designed book spread.
- 44. 4444 JOURNEY MAP FINDINGS Filled out journey map
- 45. 4545 The journey map (p24) indirectly addressed the second sub- question, “What do you look for when you’re buying a book?” Although my primary goal was to have this question answered, my secondary goal was to determine if there was any other aspect I should be looking at when designing my publication besides aesthetics. Participants A,B, and C all had either similar, or the exact same experiences, emotions, or answers for every journey mapping slot. The summary of their journey involved using computers to research specific topics of books, going to the store and looking for other books, finding the right book, buying the book based on price, and then reading it. I found that the most common place to look for information was through searching on the Internet - people don’t even have to leave their house to receive books anymore. The map was a good exercise to understand the experience for its users - especially because the results from each journey were so similar. Using a journey map allowed me to create a fuller, more in depth persona of my target audience. I would also use a journey map to determine at what stage of buying publications do people have issues - and how to smooth the journey for them.
- 46. 4646 FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION With the three participants permission, I recorded the follow-up discussion for all the activities. When I asked them what they thought of the activities overall, one (C) said that they found the diary the easiest, while the journey map was more difficult because they had more creative freedom with the diary. Participants B & A thought that the journey map was easier because they only had to work from memory and recite steps, rather than express themselves creatively. The general consensus for the diary sensitizing activity was that it helped prepare them for the past/present activities - by introducing them to the concept and working different parts of their brain - similar to a warm up before heavy exercise. When it came to the love letter portion, they all chose different things to express their feelings towards an inanimate object. Participant C found it easier than B and A, - because it allowed for their own creative interpretation of the prompt. We talked about the origin of some of their items and why they chose them. Participant B stated it was to commemorate a trip they had taken in Japan. Every item had some sentimental value. We then discussed the journey map, again talking about how participants A & B found the exercise easier because it was very straightforward and they were remembering steps they’d already taken before. We read aloud the answers and compared them and they all had basically the same answers - apart from participant B, who also included online means to buy a book, rather than physically going to a store.
- 47. 4747 CONCLUSION Previous to the exercise I had to open up an example for the journey map as some of them had looks of confusion on their faces before filling it out. Upon talking to them, they said initially they had been confused but once they started it was really easy. They also stated they felt “less pressure” to fill out the journey map as I told them they didn’t have to fill every space with information. My initial research question was to determine visual strategies to design a dual identity booklet - but after this activity, seeing the types of relationships the subjects form with items they’ve used in the past, I changed my research question to wanting to design a spread that involved Emily Carr students. I feel as if the strongest way to create a bond and reach my target audience is to include them heavily in the design process. This way I’m able to create work that not only incorporates Emily Carr the University and Emily Carr the Artist, but is meaningful to the students beyond reading the last page of the book.
- 49. 4949 After seeing the results from the previous week’s activities, I designed a prototyping activity for my co-designers to complete. I recapped the sensitizing activities, introduced my research question and project, and made sure to go over the prompt once more, then verbally gave them instructions for the prototyping kit. My purpose since the beginning of the research and now had also changed seeing how each user reacted individually to items that they valued. Initially I wanted to determine a visual strategy to base my designs off of, but after the journey map, love letter, and diary I decided to re-frame my project from only gaining inspiration from these exercises, to physically incorporating their designs into the spreads. I layed out a spread of colourful, patterned magazines, pencil crayons, markers, gluesticks, scissors, as well as one of the poems to be included in the publications. I told them they had complete freedom to interpret the quote how they wanted and to create a spread of their choosing. This activity took 15 minutes overall, and I had 5 participants.
- 52. 5252 Afterwards, we had a quick discussion on some of the aspects that they decided to incorporate into their booklets. I recorded the conversation with their permission, and the following details some of the important aspects of our conversations. I asked them how they liked the activity - to which they all replied it was “super fun”, and then asked if they’d had any problems at all. One of the participants misinterpreted what they were supposed to do with the printed out poems and left it out of their spread, however they still designed the spread with their design in mind. We then looked over each of their spreads, and I asked them to explain the reasoning for the images they chose to collage. Each of the prototyped spreads included imagery of nature and forests - only participant D used text from the magazines. Participant A stated they made a spread that reflected the natural element of Emily Carr. It included visuals of forests and nature. Participant B stated the same, wanting to capture a sense of DISCUSSION
- 53. 5353 adventure, so they included imagery of a person riding a bike outdoors. Participant C had a spread that reflected upon some of the words in a literal sense, including an image of eyes like the line “A girl, wide-eyed”. Participants D and E Included imagery of people, forest- scapes, and city-scapes, representing the girl’s need and want for adventure.
- 54. 5454 CONCLUSION My initial research question was to determine visual strategies to design a dual identity booklet - but after these activities, seeing the types of relationships the subjects formed with items they’ve used in the past, I changed my research question to wanting to design a spread that involved Emily Carr students. I feel as if the strongest way to create a bond and reach my target audience is to include them heavily in the design process. This way I’m able to create work that not only incorporates Emily Carr the University and Emily Carr the Artist, but is meaningful to the students beyond reading the last page of the book. I think the most important thing to take away when conducting a co- design research method is that it’s important to have fun with the people you’re co-designing with. None of the activities really felt like a conversation - with back and forth between myself and the participants. I didn’t have group discussions in between or during all of the activities - only some - so it almost felt like I was a teacher watching my students take a test. Environment and comfort are important elements of conducting a research method, just as important as the materials needed for love letters, or journey maps.