Post 10//Reflection and proposition

Project title 

State of mind

Practice type

Generative System

The issue

Based on my previous research, I have wanted to investigate the connection between the mental and physical illnesses and have tried to narrow down my targets who have suffered from anxiety disorder. Frequent occasions arise when even those with anxiety disorder never know they are ailing because of the lack of consideration for it. Such lack of awareness hinders their receiving a proper treatment. Last but not least, through they are suffering from a disorder that can be completely recovered, they are left out in the cold-groundless reproof, foreignness and discrimination, etc. Anxiety disorder is not a traumatic neurosis. It’s a hideous disease doing a terrible disservice to allover our body, corresponding to the worst results of depression and anorexia. the field of this disease is in its natural state. It’s the most dangerous and serious that we are quite in the dark about causes and consequences of the disease. There is a reason here why we should make various attempts and pay more attention to the new filed. Below is my final research topic.

“How to overcome negative physical responses which can come from anxiety disorder”

 

The details 

This project is showed in the exhibition and it aims to invite visitors to create a personal visual heart rate data with specific colors in response to their state of mind. When the user input their feelings in the platform, they can get several colors rerated to the color therapy palette which has been used in real color therapy fields. Their heart rate bot has been visualized by means of simple devices like touch screen. We produce generate system extracted from colour and heart rate bot data. It’s a sort of campaign like project arousing awareness of mental illness.

 

Week 8 Feedback

It is ambiguous the connection between the color and heart rate. The impact is too weak when we only visualize the heart rate. I have received through feedback an idea on visualizing the system of users’ heart rate on the basis of flowers or other objects.

Refinement

Seeing the last session feedback, I have reviewed the idea, which is a project that can be displayed in exhibitions or vivid festivals. This project will invite visitors to create a personal visual heart rate data with specific colors in response to their state of mind. A big screen is set up inside or outside the exhibition hall. This will cover walls and the whole building not to refer to the screen since images will be beam projected and displayed. A platform is placed in front of the screen to visualize the users’ heart rate. Visitors may extract their heart rate beating using the simple device.  A special object type is in order to visualize their data in the exhibition. Flowers are a shape of my own choosing.  In the computer are inserted abstract concept flowers. First, users can choose the sort of flowers, which increases or decreases in response to the heartrate. The flowers derived from such a process will leave traces on the screen even after their departure.  The flowers made up from the same participants as other users will remain on the screen as well. All the participants’ collaboration will come to complete the big beam project.

 

The aim of this project is to develop and interact an innovative commercial event for museum and gallery visitors to drive personal and digital data collection and test its applicability in new contexts, furthermore to enhance private visitors’ feedback in a public context, and open up new visitors’ experiences, data collection, interpretation and presentation methods.

This exhibition will show the connection of mental health and its values, physical conditions and technologies that structure our lives. That exhibition will come up with a concept that mental illness is not untreatable but only a social issue that we must share in our lives.

 

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4.0 HINT.FM

HINT.FM is not so much a design agency, but a male/female duo of Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, analytic and data visualisation artists who work for Google’s data visualisation group. They have also both previously worked for IBM’s visual communication lab, and have ran their own company ‘Flowing Media’. They’re committed to the act of understanding and simplifying visualisations founded in academic research— to extract insights from raw data.

Martin describes their work as ‘a [visual] technology developed by computer scientists to extract insights from raw numbers. This technique is ideal for investigating a world represented by digital traces, where truth is hidden in masses of information,” The resulting studies take the form of web sites, prints, and videos.

The specific work of theirs that I love, is a piece called ‘Wind Map’, which ended up being exhibited at MoMA in 2012.

The site pulls analytics from the National Digital Forecast Database, and presents the precise wind data in a visual manner over the top of a geological map of North America. The gorgeous aspect of this data is how it’s presented, with each wind value being represented by a single pixel sprite, with a ghosting tail effect to indicate direction and speed of that particular wind data.

What follows is a lively and moving map of North America, where the trails and undulating flow of patterns displayed almost give the data a real sense of sentience. Numbers and wind speed figures gives way to something that almost breathes as nature would. The concept is rather simple, but the execution is so delicately handled, that you truly do get the sense that only this duo could handle immense code and data visualisation in such a way. After looking at the map, you really can’t think of a better more efficient way of displaying wind data, with the added bonus that it looks fantastic. I think that data visualisations grounded in actual efficiency is the strongest.

The design of the website or UI is lovely as well. It’s rather white and arad, which allows the maps themselves to become one large generative artwork.

Post 5: Interview

1. What do you know about asylum seekers and refugees in Australia?

Australian politicians claim that our country is generous to refugees and asylum seekers, but looking at statistics and inside stories featured on the media, I believe this to be a falsehood. Refugees and such are sent to detention centres offshore on Nauru and Manus Island; they supposedly live in horribly decrepit conditions for an indefinite period of time all due to Australia’s controversial policies surrounding this matter.

1. Did you notice any difference of the treatments on refugees and asylum seekers between Australia and Europe?

Europe appears to be much less tough on policies regarding refugees and asylum seekers compared to Australia. Processing and moving around refugees into the various countries in Europe sees to a lot more progress in the eyes of many.

1. Have you heard of any reports about how refugees and asylum seekers were treated in detention centres?

Media outlets and organisations such as amnesty have reported on the deplorable conditions of these detention centres (particularly Nauru) where standard human rights have been completely sidelined. Reportedly, the condition of Nauru is repressive, inhumane, cruel and inappropriate – refugees and asylum seekers live in conditions that are not suitable even for cattle.

1. Do  you think it’s a good idea that Australia is accepting more refugees and asylum seekers? If not, why?

It is definitely not a good idea for Australia to accept more refugees and asylum seekers while these current policies are still in place. Bringing in more people will only overpopulate the already overpopulated capacity of these facilities and detention centres. The sore lack of progress on refugee processing, undermined health treatment and lack of legal services and basic human rights will only worsen the refugee situation in Australia.

1. What do you think the government should act when facing asylum seekers crisis in Australia?

Do not send any more refugees into the Nauru detention centre – it holds no purpose. Process the refugees and asylum seekers who have been waiting; bring them into Australia. Take example of other countries whom have been more successful in controlling the refugee situation.

10 – FINALE (yet, only the beginning)

Reflection + Discussion

After discussing a variety of my ideas with my peers and Jacquie, I gained insight into how to approach my project. The culmination of my research throughout the semester resulted in giving me a range of options to explore within the topic of mental health.

I was initially interested in the issue of funding for eating disorders in Australia. This intrigue was sparked after having read the academic articles in blogpost two. The central issue around which these articles was centred was the issue of not meeting a certain weight/BMI criteria thus falling short of being diagnosed with anorexia. However, the rigidity of these factual articles did not speak to me as much as the articles I had been researching conveying personal experiences and those which invoked these experiences through visual imagery.

What interested me most was the public perception of an eating disorder. Often through my research I would discover that the sufferers from the illness often felt judged and as if the public did not understand that a) they were even suffering from an eating disorder or b) did not understand the severity/nor cause of the disorder. I thought it was important to base my design on a personal approach, as sterile and more factual approaches are harder to connect with and usually a bit dry.

After speaking to Jacquie about two of my proposals she said I needed to visualise them more. Essentially the underpinning was there as I have a clear idea of what I want to achieve with the issue I was planning to tackle. However I hadn’t really solved the problem. With my service design I was just planning on making an educational video. I realised that this was lack lustre as it didn’t connect on a personal level which I wanted my concept to achieve.

I then spoke to Georg in the next tutorial explaining both my ideas. She said that the generative idea design was more solved than the service design.

Project title: I have ___ BECAUSE

(work in progress)

Practice type:

Generative Design

The issue:

Eating disorders are often  widely misinterpreted and commonly not recognised as mental illnesses. The public focuses on only the most commonly known one such as anorexia (and perceives them to be suffering,) whereas eating disorders such as EDNOS or Binge Eating often are unrecognised due to the fact there is no physical manifestation or at least not quite as obvious as with anorexia. The degree of severity that the public accords to and treats people with suffering with eating disorders is often skewed by arbitrary criteria and biased assumptions and too often this attitude and judgment is not based on proper information.

In conjunction with this, negative perceptions are also associated with eating disorders such as they are just a stroke of vanity or a ‘fad’ which suggests that they are not in fact a genuine mental illness thus diminishing the disorder and the sufferers by minimising the condition.

The possible change:

Essentially I want to spread awareness about the root cause of eating disorders, and that these root causes differ in each individual. I also want to show that there are a range of eating disorders all with serious health consequences. Despite the less visible physical manifestation of a Binge Eating disorder it can be just as dangerous as anorexia.

My aim is to overturn assumptions or popular misconceptions that cause an eating disorder irrespective of the form or manifestation of that disorder.

The Design action to support change:

My generative design takes form in that of an interactive website. Essentially I want users to submit their thoughts if they are struggling with an eating disorder. The website will have parts of the screen where you click and it leads you to a trail of assumptions about an eating disorder leading in the words such as “I have an eating disorder because…I’m Vain” as an example. After clicking through a minefield of assumptions such as the example above, a statement will appear in a contrasting/colour/font that states the actual reason for a person struggling with an eating disorder.

1.2 Primitive

Aboriginal Cosmology

“Wherever we find a human society, however primitive, there is a universe, and wherever we find a universe, of whatever kind, there is a society; both go together, and the one does not exist without the other”

There’s a few consistent themes I can apply to my research on Aboriginal Dreamtime, namely— Holy shit, I had absolutely no idea. And, that is truly exceptional, my mind is blown.

Both apply aggressively to this article.

“I’ll just quickly read this article on Aboriginal Dreamti …”

This Article holds many keys I feel affected the extent to which Aboriginal people remained ‘primitive’.

There’s always a connotations attached to the modern definition of that word. We adhere a notion of being ‘underdeveloped’ to the term, as if by not confirming to the general timeline of technological advancement, that a society is lesser than another. This is not the case here. Alternatively, I’d argue that being primitive in this sense, is a positive term tied to the endearment the Aboriginal people had with the land.

If you look broadly at the evolution of man, there’s key points along the timeline that stand out as exemplary in establishing what we are today as humans.

We developed a union with tools, agriculture, a system of time (calendar) to differentiate seasons. We developed a relationship with other animals, whether that be for food or clothing or assistance, and we developed a system of recording events.

These stand out to me as defining point in humanity.

Looking at the general timeline of other civilisations, ‘we’ took those points and embellished on them. Tools turned in technology, technology affected agriculture to the point where we could harvest and no longer needed to roam, instead settled down in locations. Our relationship with animals succeed the point of union whereby species started becoming extinct through artificial human involvement. And finally our systems of recording events developed in the modern notion of History, where we logged and recorded the past so extensively that we could ‘learn and improve’ on the past.

By contrast, the Aboriginal people (to me) found that exact balance point which defined them as conscious self aware humans, at the top of the food chain, while living in total SUSTAINABLE synergy with the environment— all of which extends from their interpretation of the world and forces around them. The Dreamtime.

The branching ideas behind The Dreamtime all stem from the universe, nature, and society being formed at the same moment— The Dreaming. The ancestral spirits who created this world are all still present, however no longer visible. The spirits are not seen as being omnipotent, in the sense that humans, too, are considered to be co-creators, and by extension tasked with the responsibility of maintaining the relationship between natural and cultural forces.

“(Aboriginal) human beings have a responsibility to intervene where they consider intervention necessary and to leave things alone when they consider that necessary. Humans have the ability to adjust the system, as well as throw it out of kilter”

Already this system of religion differentiates itself from traditional monotheistic thinking, prevalent through large portions of Human history. Even when compared to say Buddhism— A religion widely considered as harmonious and balanced, still forms itself around servitude to a single deity. The Dreamtime is different. It’s responsibility based. Morals are based around liability to the land, opposed to fear of discipline.

Furthermore, (and this is the really interesting part for me), The Dreaming is grounded in proven systems. Throughout the life of the religion, Elders learnt to interpret the Sky Dome above them, and read the stars as messages from ancestral spirits, explaining the notion of seasons, and navigation, in a early form of a scientific handbook. The cosmology in the stars is proven and true, and provided a fixed pattern to live by. They observed ecological causes, and studied their effects. When lightning struck, and fire ensued, the burnt ground provided a nurturing nutrient rich blanket for new crops to germinate. A reaction causing an almost equal and opposite reaction. This was interpreted as a lesson in reciprocal land care from the Ancestors in the dreaming above, and passed down the caretakers below, and consequently taught and practiced by following tribes. Backburning— a modern technique of agriculture employing the same technique, was only properly utilised by western society (Romans) a few thousand years ago. Whereas Aboriginal people (reportedly stemming from the Nyungar people) was being employed along the eastern coast of Australia as much as 120,000 years ago. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS.

The most common use of fire in Christianity (the most common religion in modern and ancient world) was [prooobably] to burn witches in the 1500’s… And if you forced an Aboriginal man and a Catholic man to meet in the 1500’s, the former would probably consider himself more advanced of the two.

Your move Aboriginals!

Scrapping the Web

Blog Post 6 by Wiana Inthapanya

TWITTER

The use of data scraping tools are interesting mediums to search for specific content from the internet. Scraping the web for such specific data is useful to see the social outcomes of your focused area and what thoughts are being generated in today’s media.

After my probe, I wanted to explore more about the affects of mental health on university students. From personal experiences, I use to update my social media status depending on my random mood swings of being stressed and under pressure from my years at uni. I actually wondered if I was the only one who did this as a method of relief and procrastination.

Using the advanced search tool on Twitter, I was able to find the current issues on mental health on university students and their social status updates.

 

• I can honestly say that this minor exercise was actually quite an enjoyable one as it opened by eyes to realise that I was not the only over whelmed student emotionally expressing my thoughts to the world. Even though today I don’t express myself on the internet as much as I use to when I initially started uni, these status updates certainly still resonates with me today as I could understand how they feel
• This search provides me with an understanding that factors such as work, personal life, relationships and social commitments are highly valued by individuals due to the amount of anxiety that is expressed in these concerns. These factors may contribute to the stress build up that affects the mentality of university students
• Most of the posts are from students who are about to commence their uni semester and are already under this so much pressure on their first week. This determines the level of anxiety on people and how sensitive they are to stress

From here, I want to further investigate how many tweets there actually were regarding stress and anxiety in university students. To be able to do this, my next advance search of scrapping the web for data required me to download an archiver using Google Spreadsheets that connected to the world of Twitter. This tool allowed me to narrow down my search further with accuracy. Below were my results.

 

This image shows the three main hashtags I’ve utilised to search for the data. All data using the hashtags #university, #stressed and #exams were located on twitter. With such a broad search rule, 8785 tweets were found.

I then narrowed it down to those same specific hashtags, however set the location to Sydney and created another rule where only the tweets that were retweet more than 5 times would show up. This allowed me to further refine the results which interestingly dropped to just 11 data sources! It’s amazing what you can do with advance searches and data tools!

And lastly, I removed the location rule to reveal all the tweets from Australia using the same hashtags. In total, there were 221 tweets regarding university stress. Out of the 221, only 11 tweets were from Sydney alone.

 

program: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/twitter-archiver/pkanpfekacaojdncfgbjadedbggbbphi?hl=en

 

Blog post 10: The ‘Task 3’ Journey

Based on my research journey I had a very distinct idea of the area of my topic I wished to explore further coming into task 3. My research had led me to question something that had appeared in my task from the very first blog post.

I wanted to explore this idea of language and how we selectively choose language, which more subversively shapes our views. Language is also extremely powerful in how it creates these verbal boundaries between people such as us, them or alien. This carefully curated language is what starts to dehumanize a group that is removed from us an unable to tell there own story.

It is almost as opinion leaders like the media and political leaders start to define boundaries through language that the general public becomes more complacent with such language adoption and therefore the subversive meanings of grouping and separating people. From reading the news articles, statements by politicians and discussing this topic with people from opposing sides of the arguments surrounding asylum seekers that you can start to differentiate the language that shape bigger ideas. This plays into ideas of how we associate of a human level to asylum seekers, there right to our land or the right to come to our land.

Originally with task 3 I wanted to attack the problem head on and this idea of the rumor mill where half-truths develop into truths. I wanted to address the misconceptions and half-truths that develop at their source. With this challenge my goal was to create a twitter bot that analyzed isolated language and replied to tweet correcting misused language such as illegal alien in an effort of help re-humanizing asylum seekers. After discussions with Tom left the conclusion that a twitter bot was to clinical and detached making my aim of humanization counteractive.

From here I went back to square 1. Really analyze what I was trying to express in language. This is what brought me back to the articles and an observation I had made about evocative and descriptive language.

Through sound data visualization I have chosen key stakeholders that have played a pivotal role in shaping the public opinion of asylum seekers. These people include Tony Abbot, Peter Dutton, The Australian and The Herald. Creating a database of all language and its frequency used by each individual stakeholder will be recorded. This will be the basis for a verbal iteration; in which the data will be read out. The words will be ranked in order to their isolative and both negative nature. Through a motion graphic using faces of asylum seekers each piece will be labelled by its maker, for example Tony Abbot. With each word that is spoken the face will be visually stroked out with a black line connoting the idea of redacted text which it about the censorship of language. The message of this piece is a representation of how the voice of the asylum seekers is not heard but their story and the media and politicians have shaped who they are which help shape these misconceptions.

In particular this project is about creating mindfulness through awareness of language and its subversive power in shaping opinion and therefore is aimed at being an accessible public piece.

Caitlin Kerr

Post 10 – Reflection and Proposition

From last week I narrowed my proposal to the idea focusing on black out poetry. I was happy to go along with this idea as it was the one I was most intrigued by. However peer to peer critiquing and tutor feedback revealed areas I could further explore and strengths I could further enhance. The critique I received was as follows:

• Questioning what written content I would be exploring. Would it be any articles, poetry, refugee stories or legal documents and legislations?
• How does it target the appropriate audience of 18-24 year olds?
• Consider the location in more detail. Where would the billboards be placed? Somewhere people can interact for longer?
• What are the touch points or he user journey fi they are led to an online platform? Or does the intervention end at the public site?

This feedback has been really important in developing my proposal. Some of them were questions that came up when self critiquing but things I may have overlooked.

In additon to this I’ve been doing research into both black out poetry and the idea of generative poetry. I came across a few websites I found interesting but two in particular stood out, Google poetics and Poetweet. I’ve been trying to look into how I can create more nuanced poems or insightful poetry and its been quite difficult. But I feel like the research has really helped me articulate my thoughts better. And it’s also been fun creating poems with public twitter feeds of Politicians.

So this brings me to my design proposal so far.

Design Proposal

Project: TBC – ‘For those who have come across the seas, We’ve boundless plains to share’

Practice: Campaign / Service Design

Issue: The over saturation of articles and opinions in the media often leads to the inverse effect where a lot of younger Australians, aged 18-24 ignore the information they are being bombarded with. Sometime they do consume it but feel a sense of helplessness towards enacting change. This public campaign seeks to promote awareness towards the issue but also make them aware that there are multiple perspectives towards the problem at hand.

Possible Change: The design will convey the wide discourse around the issue allowing people to discern for themselves what’s happening. It’s not about telling them what’s right or wrong but making them more aware of how the consume information. Furthermore by conveying this through poetry it will intrigue the viewer and also establish a sense of curiosity and perhaps even empathy.

Design Action to Support Change:

The blackout of poetry can be used in two ways:

1. is to use poetry to highlight certain points

2. is to black out words to create the visual metaphor of a maze- the idea of a maze to Australia but one that highlights the refugees journey.

– Drawing on headlines from articles
– Drawing on quotes from politicians
– Drawing on quotes from refugees’
– Inviting public figures and writers to create their own poems

Create poetry with these and impose them on top of an article relating to that topic.

These fill form a series of interactive billboards. they will be timed in terms of blacking out and revealing text but will also give the user the possibility to read it if they wish to.

mute/unmute button

There will be another touch point, where uses can print off the piece of poetry or submit your own piece of poetry to an online archive. It will give you an article to work with and you will use that to create your own piece. This gives the user a place to express their thoughts, a sense of autonomy over what they’ve consumed.

Post 10 – Feedback and Final Pitch

Feedback

Focusing on how to target the app for the age of 18-24

• Have a desktop app for users at home for PC/Mac for the ease of accessibility.

• Less body shaming for users on the app (having the option of allowing users becoming incognito)
  • Incorporate a video that features what people are missing out on, leaving a positive resonance on user’s experience when they become healthier.

• Incentive/reward system for users who reaches a milestone on weight loss (Collaborating with unidays for student discounts)
  • These rewards can be tailored to individuals’ desire/interest. For example, students can choose their hobby (technology, fashion, lifestyle etc).
• Phone camera has the function to scan the user’s body and calculates their BMI taking height/weight/waist circumference into consideration.
• Setting up a physical space to promote and raise awareness for the application

My proposal

Issue

A data collection of the BEACH research program (Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health) Of 1,599 sampled adult patients, 31.5% were overweight, 23.7% obese and 4.7% morbidly obese. One in four (26.8%) overweight/obese patients (BMI > or equal to 25.0) did not consider themselves overweight. Additionally, GP correctly identified 60.8% of overweight patients, but underestimated 35.7% as normal weight. They also identified 60% of obese patients, but incorrectly categorised 37.0% as overweight and 3.0% normal weight. GP’s perception of weight can often be inaccurate due to their low usage of BMI and waist circumference with height and weight documentation. Overall, more than one-quarter (26.8%) of overweight/obese patients did not consider themselves overweight. The combination of this perception with the body plus(positive) movement that advocates for the appreciation of “overweight” men but (mostly) women exacerbated the seriousness of the issue that not only promotes an unhealthy lifestyle, but the ignorance of their weight category and health risks associated may influence their attempt to lose weight.

Practice type and design action to support change

Studies have shown that the documentation of obesity increases the rate of obesity being managed. My proposal is to develop a hybrid of service and generative design that fully re-align the users’ self-perception of their health status by raising awareness and providing accurate data presentation of their weight using BMI which classifies the user as either underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese. Fingerprint and augmented reality will be implemented for the accuracy of the BMI analysis.

In order to minimize fat shaming and encourages users to implement the app, a video format (or a storyboard) will be composed shifting the perception of user’s health and how life would it become should they be of normal weight. This leaves a positive resonance on the user’s experience. Additionally, user’s identity have the option to remain anonymous whilst having the freedom to post and share their stories on their journey. Generative design will include other user’s data who also portrays mal-alignment of weight perception and the ability shares their stories and on their method of weight loss. Weight loss methods will be divided into diet/meal plan, excercise, seeking GP advice, a weight loss program, seeing a dietitian/specialist, over-the-counter product, prescribed medication and lap band surgery with their effectiveness of each.

References

Wong, C. “Accessing Patients’ And Gps’ Ability To Recognize Overweight And Obesity”. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (2016): 1-5. Accessed 27 of Sept. 2016.

 

 

Blog10- Design Proposition: Consume YOUR World

Through the discussion of the draft design proposition surrounding the design implementation of mental wellbeing, it became imperative that I should design an outcome that steers away from the generic motivational cards of mental wellbeing. Feedback received was the general consensus that the tangible action of writing down their thoughts was perceived to be extremely effective. The action is communicated to portray a sense of relief to the individual whom engages with the action. A thought suggested that individuals can engage with the thought provoking action whilst they were waiting for their coffee, to utilise their time effectively.

Although I contemplated this idea, individual thoughts are usually privatised and not to be displayed publically by strangers whilst in transit with their coffee. The act of physically throwing away the thought written on the coffee cup itself was captivating for the responders. However they challenged the users ability to possibly hold onto their thought, instead of disposing it as comparative reference at a later time.

Through the feedback received as well as further research embarked on for mindfulness and mental wellbeing to be optimised, it is imperative for an individual to not ignore or accept a situation but to acknowledge it in its entirety. The design proposition requires an powered reflective element within the action itself.

Design Proposition:

Consume YOUR world
Generative System Design

The issue
The emphasis of knowledge within the spectrum of mental wellbeing entrenched within individuals every day existence is not effectively communicated. Mental health is an individual’s ability to create a rich, full and meaningful life, while accepting the pain/ stress that life inevitably brings. Individuals are unaware that the human mind transitions between two worlds and processes between two filters. The first is a world of Direct Experience, a world lived through the five senses we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. The other portal is the engagement within the World of Language – a construct of words and visualizations that transition through our mind, losing contact with the world of direct experience.

The change
To admit power to individuals perception by identifying their own position of mindfulness. Individuals have the opportunity to actively reflect and enrich their mentality in the immediacy of the present time.

The design action to support change
To create the opportunity of self-empowerment, the evocative package design of Chewing Gum will be the portal for individual’s instant reflection and possible thought altercation. Chewing gum an easy and cheap commodity, is accessible to all 18-25 year olds, usually consumed for social purposes, functional freshness and to cure hunger or boredom- usually resulting to the feeling of pleasure.

Individuals will be prompted by a statement on the chewing gum package that will instantly provoke individuals to reflect whether they are mindfully engaged at the specific point in time within the world of the language or within the direct world of experience.
– Visually represented through a colour-
coded key on the individual gum wrapper.
Individuals will be encouraged to keep the section of the colour wrapper that communicates their present mental engagement – hoping to become a collection of ephemeral and data for the individual to reflect on their mindful engagement through a course of time. The package design strives to be at the bare minim a platform for instant and a non-intrusive process of self-reflection and a possible stepping stone for further self analysis of their attitude and thoughts within the present time.

Blog9-Visual Documentation

Lack of Knowledge is imperative for the current construct of understanding the definition, elements and factors surrounding Mental Health. An insightful realisation gained is the ability to understand that the lack of knowledge upon the topic of discussion has almost become a construct of human choice. It is through controlled sequencing of branches including history, behaviours, environment and people pressures that a misconception of mental health has enthusiastically thrived within the twenty first century.

We further explored the possible controversies into the implication surrounding the lack of knowledge towards the issue of Mental Health. Again as we fleshed out contributing factors, the magnification of human control and the choice factor within it became extremely apparent. Each of the controversies presented two dimensions that constructs an element of lacking knowledge within mental health. It is shocking to be drawn out in such a manner.

The strengths to mapping out the needs verses wants in conjunction to Mental Health what initially is thought to be an issue that requires direct needs and desires for all stakeholders involved it is perplexed to map out. The success into a realisation that Mental Health Wants verses Needs are almost manufactured as a business enterprise that employs a sense of social hierarchy of power with those in relation to Mental Health issues. This collaborative map was a turning point towards the perception of perceiving mental wellbeing as something that needs to be possibly manipulated as a desirable want and not an economic need within individual lives.
The prosperity of establishing the reflective process of mental wellbeing into a commodity derived from this specific exploration of collaborative mapping.

Blog 10. Peer feedback + Design proposal

 

By Ji Young Bang

Goes Around, Comes Around Challenge Campaign. (GACA challenge campaign)

I always learn a lot of important things through peer feedback in the studio tutorial. It has been showing a recent revelation that I though I should share with others, and it has helped me grasp major part of may firm idea.

First, I am going to give the keynote to environmental activity ‘Goes around, comes around challenge campaign project’. My priority is to bring home to people the seriousness of environmental pollution. I have been impressed with ‘Ice bucket challenge’, resulting with many useful ideas. I feel obliged to put as much action into class peer feedback. Interesting items are necessary the way I have focused on the youth aged 18 to 24 years. First of all moving them to follow (incentive) is icing on the cake. Irrespective of the subjects, a strong motivating factor to prevent the worsening of the situation is in order, playing on challenge and movement.

My aim adjusted exclusively to local and foreign tourists has turned over to service design, a sort of campaign play for the youth (18-24) to get advertising impact. What’s more, it occurred to me that Facebook in social media is available to circulate to more people. The reason is that one of the Facebook functions is to let friends tag (#) pictures and videos, consummating its communicative competence. Action that people can follow in a simple and easy way will move toward reducing trash, the main culprit of environmental pollution. It starts with simple food packaging. When we pick up vegetables and fruits used relatively less packaging, we can cut down trash (packaging), bringing about the decrease of carbon dioxide emissions. The challenge campaign beings with one person putting up a food (or meal) picture tagged from Facebook on the subject of GACA challenge campaign. The picture carries simple packaged vegetables and fruits-related ingredients, and another person is expected to tag them in succession.

If we have less packaged food even once a week, we reduce so much garbage. The beginning of the activity campaign may be a petty affair, but it will get bigger and stronger and in the long end, it can be a success example in the near future, 5 years since performers are increasing ones or twos, highlighting the importance of environmental pollution.

Project title: GACA challenge campaign.

Practice type: Service Design

The issue: We must hard down the world natural treasury in Australia to our offspring, not the runs of its majesty. We must enlighten a matter of all humans’ common interest on all humans, time presses. Keen attention is there for a reason.

The possible change: Facebook is everybody’s favourite; nature conservation is everybody’s affair. The beginning can be a dull action, but thanks to multi-level sub-structuring method, participants will grow by geometric progression –i.e. one to two, two to four and four to eight and so forth, as a form of play type. Driven by curiosity in aroused by interest, more and more beholders are likely to take part around the challenge activity.

The design action to support change: When the GACA challenge campaign bears fruit, it is deeply impressed on our mind, and so unconsciously we’ll refrain from handling general waste recklessly.

Will do improvement after week 10 class and tutor feedback

• Will combine with application with this challenge campaign.
• Design will be little bit different then above design proposal but same context.

BLOG 10 — Reflection & Proposal

Poppy Rodrigues 

 

Discussing my revised proposal to my colleague today was definitely a helpful task in raising issues which I had not yet come across. There were still a few areas in my revision which were a little hazy, however, talking about these clarified some doubts that I had and allowed me to define my idea a little more. I came to the realisation that I need to remember that I am targeting a young age group…it was easy for me to trail off from this one or two times. Due to this I also need to review how I target 18-24 year-olds in todays society, a clear direction would be social media yet in my case I still need to determine how I target those who are uninterested in refugees to better educate them so I get my message across. Another point made was to think about using hashtags to reach a wider social platform; this is something to re-evaluate once I refine the final proposal. I also need to keep in mind that I cannot rely on providing facts as research shows this does not always change peoples mindsets and I think with such strong divides on the topic this is a major consideration I will have to make.

Revised Proposal:

Project Title — Undecided at this point in time.

Practice Type — Generative System

The Issue — An increasing number of Australian’s are backing the rejection of refugees and asylum seekers and more recently are voicing their views in being anti-muslim. From my research it is evident that the opinions of these people come from those uneducated about the religion and are only willing to accept the negative. It all comes down to fear.

In a new polling released Wednesday 21st September 2016 found “that 49 per cent of people support a ban on Muslims coming to Australia, compared to 40 per cent who oppose a ban. (The remaining 11 per cent weren’t sure either way.) Young people aged 18-24 were the most likely to oppose a ban on Muslim immigration. Fifty-eight per cent of young people opposed a ban, compared with 28 per cent who supported it. Respondents of the 1000-person survey, undertaken by polling company Essential, were most concerned about Muslims not integrating to the Australian way of life or failing to share Australian values. Just over one in four who support a ban were also worried about terrorism.” (Shalailah Medhora 2016)

The Possible Change — To adapt a generative system which combines those with anti-muslim views and refugees living in Australia, particularly those of muslim decent to create either an indirect or direct connection which educates those with negative outlooks and aims to show how the integration would be of benefit to Australia.

The Design Action to Support Change — The aim of my generative system which is also an experimental process is to identify the fear that Australians hold against the muslim culture and develop a system which can better educate the religion to de-generalise the notion of fear within these people. This may mean breaking down islamic society in its simplest form.

By using social media analytics to track down the people that use key words and phrases which are negative, pop-up advertisements will appear and display factual information to hopefully shift the perception of these people. I can also include analytics and flash cookies from pages such as patriot sites which track the target market. Once the desired audience have been targeted and the advertisements are displayed, the user can click onto a link which will redirect them to a website. This website will be the platform in which negative users can discuss diplomatic opinions and  more importantly, a place where muslims can share their stories (videos included) to hopefully enlighten the negativity and support change.

 

Shalailah Medhora 2016, One in two Australians want a ban on Muslim immigration, poll finds, Triple J Hack, viewed 23 September 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/half-of-australia-wants-muslim-ban/7865630>

THE PROPOSAL – Blog 10

The last two weeks have been very helpful as it has given me perfect insight into an audiences understanding of my work without the context that I’ve developed over the past three months. For example, my data visualization posters make perfect sense to me but, without a key or explanation, just simply look like lots of dots on a piece of paper.

Even before this stage, having various peers that I have been able to balance my ideas of has been increasingly valuable as the service design that I have intended to create for my final proposal inherently will be used by a greater public and audience that neither have the design or technological expertise or knowledge that I do

What is the problem?

The Internet is broken. It was originally designed for private communications within the US army and since its introduction to the general population; it has gone unregulated and has therefore morphed into an uncontrollable force of contemporary media and entertainment. Whilst this has created a unbelievable platform for sharing and freedom of speech, it has created a platform for misinformation, crime and hate speech. Whilst freedom of speech needs to be retained, as the Internet is a free agent, people need to be held accountable for their actions.

What is my proposal?

My proposal is to create a global verification system that creates a platform for people to speak their mind but also force accountability to individuals who abuse their ‘freedom of speech’. The system would take advantage of the fingerprint sensor that is built into more and more devices. When you want to verify your upload, comment or communication just simply scan your finger, which you have already registered with your local government. Similar to the twitter verification system your text will either be highlighted or a logo will appear next to it to prove that you are who you say you are and that you accept accountability for your actions whilst using the Internet and communicating with others.

What change will this create?

This will allow for complete transparency when people would like to be known for who they are and what they say. This also allows for certain sections of the Internet to remain anonymous, which will serve as a catalyst for free speech and other needed forms of anonymous communication such as online journalism and activism. It will also create “safe places” within the Internet where younger audiences such as young teenagers or children will be held to only communicate with those that have verified themselves and view content in which the government is verified is okay.

How I convey this proposal?

This proposal will be presented in a dramatized series of short videos representing the dangers of anonymous communication on the Internet and how that could shift by the use of a global verification system. For example, a man is communicating via text on a phone on a dimly lit street corner. Details about price are exchanged which will lead the audience to believe that something illegal is going on. Then it will cut two facts and information about the proposed a verification system and when it cuts back, it will reveal that the individual is actually just trying to sell a second hand item on Gumtree. They will be created with a short form style perfectly suited for social media use where videos under 60 seconds are engaged with more due to the lack of concentration that users often have whilst browsing their newsfeed. I hope to create one of these videos, which can then be used as a style guide for the look and feel of other videos created within the series with other scenarios.

 

Jack Sinclair

 

 

Blog 10

I began the class with a vague idea concept and some basic sketches. My idea came from personal experience as well as gained insights from my research. What I found was that there are a lot of large scale services and plans implemented by the government for people who suffer from anxiety disorders. However, I found limited resources or services for people in a crisis moment who just need attention in the moment. Whether or not the users have a long term plan or consistent therapy the use of the service design that I have created will generate content for users to clam them down, distract them and help them monitor their illness.

I showed a fellow student who liked the concept and said he saw potential. He suggested having a data bank so that the app could regenerate responses to avoid repetition, or boredom. I liked that idea and agreed with it. The student also suggested a simple design with a modern look, as he said the user will need to be able to navigate easily and to not feel overwhelmed with the design and navigation options. I learned that the app would need to be connected to the user through their internet and social media use, so that it had a personal flair that made the user feel comfortable. My draft proposal was simple and I decided to start creating wireframes and visuals so that I could better understand what direction I wanted the service to go in.

Project title:  Sidekick – A service to support you when you need it most.

The practice type is a service design that is a phone application. The application is user centred and regenerates its responses through a data bank, to allow daily use if necessary. The service design process began by mapping the broader topic landscape of mental health and common health disorders, such as anxiety and panic attacks. Stakeholders were mapped, and there was also an overview of participants involved within the mental health realm. The research attempted to hone in into the issues that are faced by users who suffer from panic attacks and give them relief where possible. The aim is not for the service to be used as a solution for Anxiety Disorders, nor is it meant to be a persons only medium of therapy. It is meant to compliment a plan that a user has to manage their illness and to encourage people to seek assistance and not suffer without support.

The Issue is that Panic Attacks and Anxiety Disorders create a real sense of isolation and loneliness for people. There are resources available for long term plans, but there are not many resources for instant relief. This service is meant to act as a companion. It offers a connection to the outside world if the user wants it, but if they don’t, they can be exposed to an assortment of personalised distractions, meditations and interesting online content.

The application also offers a feature where the user can start the process of self management.  When there are limited resources around, when someone is in a moment of crisis or even just having a bad day, they can record their symptoms, the time of day etc and work out their triggers.

I was made aware that there are technology constraints to consider, such as where and how to source safe data that makes the users feel as though they can trust the application. I have reflected on this and hope to find a solution, where the bank of data is sourced appropriately and regenerates and develops as the user continues to engage with the service. 

POST 10: CB”Z”

Reflecting Upon My Info Vis Obsession (And why it doesn’t always apply)

In creating an initial proposal, I was a little too focused on the info visualisation aspects of the problem space – as opposed to what the proposition was meant to be – a design action to support change. Whilst my initial proposal had elements that were interesting, it didn’t really reach out to spark a debate, bring awareness or explore a niche of the issue of housing affordability. I essentially, in hindsight wanted to map the affordability of suburbs 15km from the CBD – and create a sort of print based “guide” or “pamphlet” that could be used by young people aged 18-24. Essentially categorising each element – distance – areas e.g. “inner west”, suburbs, configurations of properties – and creating a visual style and language to visualise the rental property prices of sydney’s housing market in this snapshot in time.

But whilst I am a fan of print based media –  I was reminded that our age bracket wouldn’t really use something like that or be inclined to pick it up in the first place – therefore the medium of an app would be a more age appropriate reach. And furthermore, this idea was simply a visualisation, nothing that would add value or differ from existing sites like “domain.com.au” or “real-estate.com.au”.

So stressing slightly that I had no idea to go off, I sub pitched a second idea that I had in the back of mind, but didn’t know how I would collate the data for. I wanted to map or create a service design that would highlight not only the most “affordable” suburbs in Sydney, but also the most “liveable” ones. During my probes, interview and general group discussions, people always mentioned that it wasn’t just about the pricing, or the configuration of the home. Everyone had these “dream” areas they wanted to live in, Mosman, Rhodes etc. Places that had a nice neighbourhood, was close to cafes, amenities. It wasn’t just about cost – it was about culture and lifestyle. But because of the housing affordability issue – these places were just out of reach dreams.

THE BIG PROPOSITION

Therefore my proposition would be looking at capitalising on this idea of “culture and liveability”. Because the Sydney CBD is becoming so unaffordable – it was brought up in feed back that perhaps it would be a good idea to create a sort of service design that would make apparent the

• Possibilities of other CBD’s and areas to live that could offer that “quality of life” young people are looking for
• New hubs that can meet their cultural and social needs

There isn’t a lack of property to inhabit, buy or rent. Rather there is a lack of property that ticks all the boxes. So this service would attempt to explore and perhaps get people to examine beyond the boundaries of the CBD – into a debate that discusses the importance of liveability over availability. It could be an intervention to get people out of the city that we know and into other CBD areas that could be more affordable – and more importantly – more liveable. And a social intervention to get people to change the way they look at “housing” and the property market. For example it was brought up that Parramatta has been pushed to become the “new CBD” and that a lot of artistic ventures, government funding etc. could possibly turn it into “the next Surry Hills”. What are the new CBDs? These dark horses at the bottom of the typically perceived “cool” list – Is it time to look at these CB”z”s?

To summate 

Project Title: CB”Z” 

Practice Type: Service Design + (possibly a bit of info vis) 

Possible Change:  An intervention to look at remodelling the perceptions of affordability in the housing market to not just include monetary value – but also a quality of life – that so many young people are seeking. To open up the scope, get people out of this one city, and to reconsider the mindset that moving out or finding your own home is an impossibility because of the current economic climate. 

Design Action: To create a service that could approach the process of “moving out” and finding your own home. Perhaps a campaign that promotes the idea of “multiple cultural CBD’s” that exist in Sydney. Or something that would map aggregate data in a way that emphasises liveability. Possibly filtering this idea of a CBD’s cultural offerings in a comparative manner. 

Post 10: Reflection & Proposition

In week ten class, we have received some feedbacks on our concept of proposal from our tutors. My concept was to design a campaign to increase people’s awareness and positive attitude on their social media platform. Hence, I was decided to produce a video that could support the idea of online platform awareness, based on my conducted survey. I have made a simple draft version of survey & answer chart as a kind of info-graphic format. This will be the first step to draw out my research & journey. My visualization will focus on the idea of copyright issues that has been debated and complained by people (platform users). Like I explained in post 8 and 9, my concept will be based on the survey from my friends and families (and possibly people from outside). From the last week, the feedback on my concept was to conduct a survey and start it from people nearby. Hence, that could produce a mind-map or demo info-graphic, which shows the visualization of my research. Furthermore, I found that I was misunderstanding on service design. I though a campaign of video can be a part of service design yet, our tutor suggested displaying the campaign through an actual format of service such as applications, device or etc…

 

Project Title: # (tag)

Hash tag has been used to identify within shared content, situation and issue in recent social media platforms. I found that this could be used as some kind of visual metaphoric symbol of copyright issues. (however, can be changed)

 

The Issue + Practice Type

From the first week’s blog post & research, I was looking for ongoing problems that every social media platform has. At first time, my motivation on researching data & online privacy was to learn and tell people how data of social media platform works, and being used. Soon, I found that there are some serious problems within the most popular platform ‘facebook’, that is actually have a lot of noises within copyright and ownership on sharing. To simply explain, there are main 5 things that I found and learned from this research process. The first thing was the social media platform has numerous possibilities within infringement of copyrights. The convenience service of ‘Facebook’ provides various functions. One of that is in sharing contents. On Facebook, any types of files, video, images and even artworks can be shared without giving a reference. Somehow, this has become so much popular yet, utilized by sharing full movie link, pornography, harmful images and etc… Through my design proposal, I wish to deliver a solution and create possibilities to control these types of negative accesses.

The Possible Change + Design Action to Support Change

Since when my first proposal concept was gone to the wrong direction, I had to change the format of my service design from campaign video to application. However, based on the week 10 feedback on my info-graphic concept, this was going on a right track. Hence, I will continue collecting ‘Facebook’ data, through interviewing and surveying people. The image below is the very first simple result of my survey from 10 people’s answer. My current task is to understand how to make an interaction between my concept and service design. Based on my mapping, data collection, and my topic (online copyrights) and research, designing a mobile application is the most practical and possible way to create a service design.

 

Visual Example of Survey Question
Link: facebook-infographic

Blog 10 – reflection& proposal

Reflection

During the little conversation with my tutor and group mates last week, I found out that my proposal is sort of boring and people might just throw it away so it kind of wasting resources. To be honest, I am kind of lost a direction of making 3B, the feedback that my tutor given to me is be more specific about my proposal and thinking about how this interactive with people and how people would use this or reading this instead just waste it. Also, thinking about the consequences, the positive results brings to refugees. Finally, is this really work?

Through the conversation with my tutor and group mate, I have some new ideas. I go back to the brief and review the previous blogs that I’ve done, I decide to do the proposal based on refugee’s right.

Proposal

Project name: Story/ Scene behind the refugees

Project type: service design

The issue: Lack of understanding from same of the Australian people if who refugees one.

Problem statement: How to get positive support and treatment of Australian people and arrived refugees?

Possible Change: Understanding of refugees and get connect with the community

My idea is to design an app which suits for everyone in Australia, the app contains different short stories, people could easily read it. The stories that we publish is the stories that already existed. The theme of the stories are talking about the story behind the refugee, for example, what they were suffered in their own country and how tough they come the Australia. Volunteers(people who like to voluntary) will uploaded regularly. Beyond that, we could do something advertisement to make people download the app.

POST 10: Reflection and proposition

After conducting all my primary and secondary research I decided to focus on Factory Farming as it revealed to be one of the biggest causes of global warming and had the least awareness. When I began thinking about my proposition ideas I was trying to sway away from the idea of informing people about the negative side of factory farming and more towards focusing on the positive aspects of not supporting it. When I presented my idea to my colleagues, they were very interested in the idea of showing the consequences of factory farming to increase this awareness and explain what it does to the environment. The first question I was asked was ‘what is factory farming?’ I tried to describe it as briefly as possible “the animals are a product here, they’re all cramped together unsustainably in tiny cages because there’s lots of them and it’s cheap to do this”. I realised then that I needed to include a way of describing exactly what it is in my idea somehow, either in my app ‘Food for Thought’ or in one of my posters.

Project Title: App – Food for Thought

The issue: One of the biggest causes of Global Warming is Factory Farming. Not many people are aware of what factory farming even is. Most people don’t even know that the name ‘factory farming’ even exists as a thing. It is the main cause of deforestation, gas emissions, rise of co2, the huge consumptions of fossil fuels, methane and greenhouse gases.

Design action for change / proposition: To decrease global warming by creating awareness on Factory Farming and getting people to be more consciously aware about their choices with food and the impact of their choices on the environment.

My proposition idea is not to eradicate the idea of eating meat but to decrease this amount and decrease the amount of people supporting factory farms by increasing their awareness of this issue and increase their decision to not support it.

My idea is an app that documents the amount of intake of food with and without meat.
It begins with the choice of two meals. When the user chooses the meal with meat they can check to see if the meat they are purchasing is factory farmed through a map that comes up. The map also shows where there are stores that aren’t factory farmed meat. The next page will show information about this provider / factory farm. It then navigates to a ‘did you know’ page that shows the benefits of not supporting factory farms and through this it will describe what factory farming is. The user will get a choice of how they can help which will be a page that can navigate to petitions, sharing the app or events around them or they can choose to exit the app which will go to a results page of their meals and their added friends meals. When the user chooses the meal without meat it will navigate to a page that will inform them of meat replacement foods as not many people are aware of how to sustain a diet without meat and this is very important. The page will then navigate to the same ‘did you know’ page as above and the results page. Every time the user clicks on either meal with or without meat, it will document this result to create an overall result / statistic of their choices.

After speaking with my colleagues I decided that through my 3 posters in one of them I will inform the users / public of what factory farming is by showing the first person point of view of an animal that lives on a factory farm in comparison to one that doesn’t. I thought it may be a little confronting however poetic and will reveal exactly what factory farming is. The next poster will show the research that lead to my proposition and the third will be information that shows how factory farming impacts our environment / how we can help through our choices.

Above: Wireframe diagram of my app Food for Thought.

Post 10 – Reflection and Proposition

I focus on designing interventions that can change the personal shopping behavior to address the obesity issue. The previous draft proposal is designing a record system that can record/ present personal sugar consumptions in a week/month/year. The system is presented in supermarkets via self-checkout machine. The intention of this design is to showing people the ‘scary data’ of sugar consumption to raises alarm bells in their mind.
I received a lot of feedback from my tutor and my group about the draft idea. Unfortunately, this design doesn’t really work. And my tutor suggested me to come up with other ideas that not conventional. Also, he suggested me to think about the ‘tone’ of the design (do you want it to be entertaining or serious). After the discussion, I decided to think of some design ideas that is more engaging.

I drew a lot of mind maps to help me brainstorming more possible design directions. I firstly came up with designing a digital pad(looks like iPad) that installed in a shopping cart. People can use it to scan food products and get to know the ingredients more easily. Also, it will show healthy/unhealthy tips when you put food in the cart.
The second idea is the ‘healthy-eating challenge’. It is a challenge game that present online via website/app. People can take a 10 days/ 30 days challenge of trying a healthy eating habit. For example, there are 20 days of giving up chocolate challenge. Users can invite friends or family to join the challenge and also be a supervision.

The third idea is based on public advertising. The idea is setting digital mirrors in the snacks/sweet beverages area in supermarkets. When people go to buy unhealthy food, they will pass by the mirror. And the mirror is reflecting yourself, but in a ‘weight-gain’ version by surrounding various of snacks/sweet beverages.

I decided to develop the third idea further:
Project title: “Do you still want a chocolate?” ‘magic’ mirror
-smart mirror reviews possible body changes

Practice type: Service design

The issue:
Personal responsibility plays an essential role in promoting the obesity epidemic. There are already a lot of online information or knowledge that suggesting healthy eating habit; they are easy to access via website/apps. However, a lot of people still seems to care less about dieting habit; they still shop unhealthy snacks because they think ‘well, one chocolate bar, not big deal’. Thus, the fundamental way to tackle the obesity issue due to bad eating habit, is to change people shopping habit.

The idea behind:
Every time we enter the supermarket, we are being manipulated. By design, all the fancy tasty snacks and sweet beverages are present at eye level, and will grab your attention immediately; and on the other hand, food like eggs, healthy cereal are put in the bottom. But could we be manipulated for the better? Design can nudge people a better direction toward food choices. There are a lot of research showing that advertising that included words like ‘healthy’, ‘low-sugar’ and ‘low-calorie’ caused people who were overweight or dieting to subconsciously buy fewer snacks. Seeing those words can remind them to choose eat healthily.

Possible change:
Remind people the shop wisely.
Help people to change people shopping behavior – stop buying unhealthy food.

by Aiyi Wu