Another Brick In The Wall

I set up a conversation session with Adrienne I work and think best when I’m talking at/to/with a sounding board as opposed to simply thinking in silence or isolation. (Does that make me an extrovert, Meyers-Briggs?)

I came up with the following list of “what we know” about the qualities of the tool:

• Visual and spatial modeling
• Solutions given imperfect information
• Iterative process
• Not “co-design,” but isolated “client” style interaction
• Clear “designer” and “client” roles
• Roles within design team are more fuzzy
• There is an ongoing relationship among the designers
• They are designing tangibles (1.0/2.0 design)
• How do they work together (in-studio, physical, virtual)

Variables Vomit:

• Location
• Role
• Point in process
• Degree of conflict
• Conflict vs. decision-making
• Relationship
• Communication
• Evaluation of success
• Interest specific (personal, designers, argument styles)

Note on levels of interaction:

Design team + Client (project)

/\

Individual designer + Design team (process)

/\

Individual + Self (interest)

I want to explore the following topics:

1. Location
2. Communication format
3. Roles/relationships
4. Conflicts/decisions
5. Success (I’m still unsure if/why I care about this)
6. Interests/styles

(1-3 address Form track, 3-6 address Function track)

Methods of collecting information:

• Probes (cameras, diaries, maps, etc.)
• Scenarios
• Object triggers
• Interview
• Observation
• Generative tools (collage, mapping, etc.)
• Surveys
• Panels
• Focus groups
• Confessional

Given the amount of time I have to conduct research and the degree of invasiveness and richness of information gathered, I am going to develop 2 probes—a camera and a set of cards.

The camera will be used as a group and have the following prompts (#’s indicate which topics prompt addresses):

• Where you work ¹²
• Where you relax ¹²
• Who you interact with when you work ²³
• Your group “working” ¹²³
• Your group “not working” ¹²³
• About your client ³⁴
• Accomplishments ⁴⁵⁶
• Frustrations ⁴⁵⁶

The cards will be used by individuals. One side will have a prompt with lines to answer in a narrative and the other side will have a border framing the space for them to answer visually.

The prompts will be (#’s indicate which topics prompt addresses):

• What positive qualities do you believe your team members and/or clients will bring to this design project? ³⁵⁶
• What difficulties do you think you will encounter in working with your team members and/or clients on this design project? ³⁴⁶
• What is important to you to accomplish with this design project? 6
• How does your group make decisions? ¹²³⁴⁵⁶
• Describe a time when you have been unhappy with the results of a group project—what happened? Why were you unhappy? ²³⁴⁵⁶
• Describe the last disagreement you had—what happened? How did you act? Was it resolved? Were you happy with the outcome? ²³⁴⁵⁶
• Do you think your clients understand what you do and what they will get from you? ³⁴⁵⁶
• Describe the last time you feel like your group accomplished something—what was it? How did it happen? ¹²³⁵

Each group will receive a package that contains one camera with prompts, eight cards with prompts, four argument style surveys, and one instruction sheet. Each package will be color-coded—eight colors, one per team. They will be instructed to complete the camera probe as a group and select two cards per person to complete individually. They will each complete a survey and return all materials to the package for me to collect a week later (is that too much time?).

For my next steps, I need to (sorta in order):

• Design cards
• Design camera cases
• Evaluate and select survey
• Design survey
• Package probes
• Meet with Marcia and Paula to explain process
• Read article Lee gave me
• Read article Adrienne gave me
• Re-think thesis sub-questions
• Prepare meeting materials for thesis committee (probe package, e-mail link to this blog, action plan/schedule, question page)
• Distribute probes