‘Hey, mate!’ app for avoid being sedentary

Blog post 10. Reflection and Proposal

Written by Hyunjoung You

Even though I finished writing blog post 8, it was difficult to decide one of five possible design responses. I was considering between 2 design responses as my final proposal. At that time, my peers helped me to choose one of them. They gave me good comments on each design response, and let me go with application service design on the final stage. What is more, the feedback from peers was useful to develop the design because my draft proposal was not enough to understand how the design works properly. They pointed out the things that I missed and suggested to make my design being strong.

Revised Proposition

Project title: Hey mate!

Practice type: Application – Service design

The issue: Being sedentary brings about diverse physical and mental problems such as obesity, lower back pain and depression. People have already recognized how harmful being sedentary is. However, some people need to be sedentary, especially if they do sedentary work. Also, it is hard to change their fixed lifestyle immediately due to the lack of willpower, tired and lazy after work.

The aim: There are no reminders that they need to avoid living sedentary lifestyle for their healthy living. It aims to give not only awareness, but also remind the office workers of caring about their health, and suggest doing some physical actions like simple stretching.

The function and process of application:

Companies can install this application on their employees’ computers to encourage them doing some physical actions during work and after work.

– The application is able to recognize the workers’ computer activities, and interpret that same as sitting hours.

– The application pops up the text with moving images in a window to suggest doing simple physical actions.

– The text is in friendly tone, and the illustration will be humorous to give a little fun during work.

e.g. text: “Hey, mate! I feel so numb! Can you make me feel better?”

Illustration: the butt part with text in speech bubble

– It also shows simple actions how to stretch that part.

Proposal sample.png — Examples of the texts with illustration in windows

The Possible change:

– The office workers can be active during work and after work by reminding them of it.

– They may change their sedentary lifestyle to active lifestyle slowly via this application.

– They may be smile due to the humorous text with the illustration.

After delivering my revised proposition to peers and the tutors, I could recognize what is the strength of my design properly. In addition, I got the idea how I should propose my possible design through the feedback. Therefore, I am going to push the strength on final proposal, and describe the process of using the application by diagram and map.

Post 10 – Reflecting and Re-Proposing

Lily Partridge

Reflection from my Previous Proposal

These past few weeks have felt like a whirlwind. I’d finally grasped the hang of ‘research, map, blog, repeat’, but then suddenly breaking my process out of it’s spiralling trance with a design proposal: I was really unprepared.

The draft proposal that I explored with my peer group explored the idea of negative tone and language used to address the opposite sex in social media. I was really stuck for how to best explore this idea, as I didn’t want to place blame on either sex. I did, however want to focus on males as the victims of what many people feel to be victimless, anti-man rants on social media that generalise and shun men for mentalities and actions that are only internalised by a minority.

Refining this concept with my two group members, they were really helpful in nutting out potential directions for how I could present this information as a proposal. The strongest idea was a a campaign-style video inspired by Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Celebrities Reading Mean Tweets’ that would present people form both genders, but mostly males, reading out tweets that generalised them as a male or female and gauging their response. I liked this idea because it put a face and an emotion to the faceless void of social media and would encourage people to think about how they discuss gender on an open platform. Chris, my tutor, wasn’t as convinced, suggesting that whilst the direction with language and tone was interesting, this probably wasn’t the most effective outcome. I definitely agree, so it was back to the drawing board for my proposal idea.

During the week I did the ‘Asking Why’ methodology to better get to the heart of my problem and to crack me out of a cycle of blinkered ideas. Below (source A) is this method. I came to realise that a much deeper issue that has lead to contemporary gender inequality across various areas is that in the process of building empowered women, men have taken a hit. As a result of generalisations they are attacked for trying to adhere to traditional masculinity paradigms that are often labelled as patronising and sexist towards women, yet on the other hand are also criticised for trying to rationally stand up for their rights in areas such as parental custody, paternity care, and acceptance in female-oriented industries. This process has greatly shaped the revision of my proposal, as you can see below.

Screen Shot 2016-09-27 at 10.38.20 AM.png — Source A: Refining down the issue to the core using the WHY methodology.

My Proposal Outline

Project:
‘Social’ – An online education platform for social, emotional and mental wellbeing.

Type:
Service Design – Website

The Issue:
Our society has reached an unusual impasse in relation to the gender equality movement, the result of a juxtaposition of standards: women are praised for embracing their flaws, but simultaneously males are criticised for fighting for rights and acceptance; gender stereotypes are being challenged, but both sexes are attacked for not adhering to socially acceptable gender labels; we want to reach a place of equal and mutually beneficial access to rights, yet are struggling to fully extend the hand in invitation. Understanding the equality revolution involves a mentality that, as adults, is difficult to adopt due to social stigma and tradition. Shifting a worldview takes generations, however with an issue as complex and subjective as Feminism, it is almost impossible that with so many perspectives we will ever reach a united and informed outcome. We need to break the impasse at the root by ensuring that everyone receives the same social education surrounding behaviour, rights and emotional and mental health, however currently no outlet exists to do so.

The Possible Change:
I anticipate that with this service we can begin to build a strong societal mentality that is unified around a contemporary understanding of gender equality, redefining gender roles and social behaviours. By educating children and institutionalising these themes to instil a feminist mentality that supports a healthy social and mental wellbeing that can be monitored and standardised, we can ensure a faster passage to creating meaningful and beneficial social change as they grow and impact society.

The Design Action to Support Change:
I propose an online platform created by mental health professionals, such as educators, counsellors, psychologists, scientists, etc., that foregrounds social skills as part of the education curriculum. The platform would be integrated into school curriculums as well as be accessible at home for parents. As a website, the design has the potential to be engaging and fun for children to use whilst targeting specific themes such as communication, respect, understanding gender, leadership, conflict resolution, etc. Further, as a web tool, it is easily accessible in most schools and homes, and by involving and assigning activities from the service to the students as tasks, the value that is placed on a social education becomes higher.

This platform can become more advanced as it is catered to older year groups, incorporating story sharing, online counselling, chatrooms, and other services so that this becomes a key tool in subliminally establishing a more healthy attitude towards gender equality and it’s impact upon the individuals and broader community.

Blog Post 10—feedback, research, revision

Feedback

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to work with one of our fellow classmates in order to dissect and critique our draft proposals and thus receive suggestions on how they could be improved. I found this process really useful, particularly because I was paired with someone looking at the same issue as me—climate change—which meant that she was able to share deeper insights with me about the issue than someone who had just general knowledge of the issue.This exercise allowed me to discover flaws and gaps in my proposal that I had not picked up on my own, as well as helping me to think of new ways to approach the proposal.

In response to my focus area looking at the factors that influence a person’s views on climate change, my draft proposal, as seen in blog post 8, laid out a concept for some type of service/generative design that would deliver tailored climate change messages to people, showing them the realities of the issue, based on information collected about a person’s values and experiences. Both my partner and my tutor agreed that it was a very interesting concept, but they gave me some very useful feedback, which I have discussed below:

1. It may be difficult to visualise

Because the concept still seems quite broad, it may be difficult to visualise the service that it is providing. In order for this concept to work, the service it is delivering will need to be well thought out, and really consider the audience of 18–25 year olds that it is targeting. My partner and I brainstormed some possible options in response to my proposal, including an anthology (inspired by Ella Cutler’s work); a field guide; or a climate change ‘package’. I think that whilst all of these sound really interesting, I perhaps need to venture into the digital space in order to utilise more generative design systems, and also a system that can continue to be updated to produce a more accurate response for each individual user.

2. It should definitely be a service design

In my draft proposal, I also suggested the idea of creating a data visualisation which would utilise a visual system to present scientific facts of climate change in a non-biased and neutral manner. Whilst my partner found this idea to be interesting as well, they suggested that it could perhaps also be a service design and be joined with the other proposal. This was an interesting suggestion, and one that I will take on board, as I still quite like the idea of developing a visual system.

3. Everyone brings their own bias to any form of communication

This idea that was raised by my partner is something that I have come to realise through my own research. My partner raised the issue in relation to my idea of creating a visual system that would present information in a neutral manner, and I realise through discussion that people will bring bias even to a visual system. In light of this, it may perhaps be better to focus more on the service/generative design proposal.

4. Come up with some personas

This was an idea suggested by my tutor and I think that it is a method that will help me to determine ways in which to realise my proposal, as well as the types of services that may help different people to understand climate change and its impact.

5. Think about the language that is used around climate change

After reading through my draft proposal, my partner pointed out that it seems very much to relate to the kind of language that is used around climate change. I thought this was a very interesting observation, and I really want to look at how to use language to realise my proposal, rather than using graphs and numbers.

Research and Revision

After Thursday’s feedback session, I came away still unsure about the direction I was heading in, and not confident about the idea I had proposed and whether it was fulfilling the ‘brief’ I had set myself in the form of the problem statement set out in blog post 8.

Prompted by these feelings, as well as a realisation that I perhaps had not done enough research to really be able to define my design proposition, I set out to find some more scholarly sources, in the hopes that I would discover a point of inspiration. Whilst initially I simply looked at more articles discussing the factors that influence a person’s views on climate change, which all cited the factors of beliefs, values and experiences, I soon stumbled across an article by Saffron O’Neill and Sophie Nicholson-Cole about ways of engaging people in the issue of climate change through visual campaigns. This provided me with a revealing insight into the prevalence of fear campaigns in the dissemination of climate change information, “…with the language of alarmism appearing in many guises.” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 358) Whilst using fear to incite action may be effective at first, it has been shown to over time distance people from the issue as they feel helpless and are unable to see any way of taking action. The alienating impact of fear in climate change campaigns I would argue is heightened by the fact that “climate change is temporally and spatially remote from the individual.”(Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009,p. 360) The article concludes that in order for climate change messages to reach people effectively, they need to be set in a local context, and that “communications approaches that take account of individuals’ personal points of reference (e.g., based on an understanding and appreciation of their values, attitudes, beliefs, local environment, and experiences) are more likely to meaningfully engage individuals with climate change.” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 375).

In essence, this article highlighted to me the prevalence of the use of fear in the dissemination of climate change information. Considering my own exposure to climate change campaigns, as a member of the general public, I cannot recall a single one that has not used fear to incite change. The most memorable campaigns to me have been run by the World Wildlife Foundation, which uses fear as its main driver, and I can say that, whilst the campaigns have caused me to stop and think, they have not ever encouraged me to take action because they are so overwhelming. As such, my new design proposal is centred around the creation of a campaign presenting the realities of climate change in a less confronting and more relatable manner.

Because I have altered my idea, I have written a new problem statement, in order that I have an updated ‘brief’ to refer to. This can be seen below:

There are 2 problems that I have identified within the broader issue of climate change, being the confusion surrounding all the varying messages that are conveyed in relation to the issue, as well as the sense of alienation from the issue that is harboured through the continued use of fear as a means to incite change across climate change campaigns. These issues together predominantly affect the general population, but also more specifically the stakeholders who are creating campaigns to convince people of the effects of climate change, and scientists and governments. The main boundaries of the problem are a lack of understanding of how fear, rather than inciting action, actually causes people to feel disconnected and alienated from the issue. Further to this is a feeling of helplessness by the general public as the majority of imagery used in campaigns is of ‘icons’, or “…tangible entities that will be affected by climate change” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 375), which are far removed from the audience, such as polar bears in Antarctica. The problem occurs most predominantly in the representation of climate change, as people come to feel as though any action they take to reduce climate change will not actually have any impact as they can only see the big picture. It is important that the problem is fixed in order that people feel empowered to help in the reduction of climate change, and so that they are not alienated from the issue and unable to interact with it.

My refined design proposal can be seen below.

Revised Design Proposal

Project title:
‘Bringing Climate Change Home’

Project type:
Service Design

The issue:
Through my research, I have come to understand that using fear as a means to incite change in the general population with regards to climate change is not as effective as it may seem. In addition, I have found that a lot of campaigns focus on ‘icons’, “…tangible entities that will be affected by climate change” (Nicholson-Cole & O’Neill 2009, p. 375), which are far removed from the audience, such as polar bears in the Antarctic. Thus people find it hard to connect with the message being conveyed, and feel helpless and as though any action they take will not make a difference.

The possible change:
The aims of my design proposal are:

To bring the issue of climate change into a local context.
To use a means other than fear to communicate the climate change message to the target demographic of 18–25 year olds, amongst others.
To connect with people in their own environment.

In addressing these aims, the intended outcome of the design proposal is an increased appreciation of the realities of climate change within a local context, as well as an understanding of actions that can be taken locally to reduce contributions to climate change.

The design action to support change:
Drawing on both the feedback I received about my previous proposal being difficult to visualise, as well as the extra research I have undertaken since this feedback session, I have created a proposal which could take on 1 of 2 forms in an attempt to bring climate change into a local context in a non-threatening yet instructive and thought-provoking manner.

The first form which my proposal could take is a ‘small square book’ type publication, perhaps accompanied by posters and flyers, which presents through the use of whimsical illustrations both how climate change is affecting the local environment, as well as suggestions of small actions that individuals can take in order to reduce their contribution to climate change. The whimsical style serves to make the user feel comfortable, as well as distancing the book from the emotion of fear which is used in a lot of other climate change campaigns. Through positioning the information within a local context, as well as suggesting small opportunities for action, the book will hopefully engage the reader as they feel a connection through ‘cultural cognition’ (Schrader & Shattell 2013, p. 842), feel positively about the effects of their actions, and again move away from the alienating tone of other campaigns. In order to connect with the target demographic of 18–25 year olds, this campaign would be delivered either to all people within this age range, or placed in areas that people in this demographic visit regularly, such as universities. However, it could be used to target any demographic.

The second form which my proposal could take, which would fall more under the guise of a data visualisation, is a series of posters which would use handwritten statements to make up topographic maps of different areas in Sydney. The statements would either be the views of individuals from the local area on climate change, or facts about the effects that climate change is having on the local area. Through positioning these statements on local topographic maps, the issue is brought into a local context, and people can begin to consider the issue in their own surroundings. The fact that the text would make up the topographic map presents the issue in a non-threatening manner as people will at first just see the posters as normal topographic maps, and will only engage with the deeper message upon closer inspection. Also, the use of words rather than images makes the message more individual as people can conjure their own images in their minds as to what the effects of climate change might look like in their local environment, rather than being confronted by an imagined apocalyptic scenario. This also makes it less confronting as people are not immediately faced with this image.

References

Nicholson-Cole, S. & O’Neill, S. 2009, ‘“Fear Won’t Do It” Promoting Positive Engagement With Climate Change Through Visual and Iconic Representations’, Science Communication, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 355–379.
Schrader, S. & Shattell, M. 2013, ‘“Cultural Cognition”: What Mental Health Researchers and Clinicians Might Learn from the Climate Change Debate’, Issues in Mental Health Nursing, vol. 34, no. 11, pp. 842-843.

Emilie Glasson

blog 10- Reflection and Proposition

By Marcella K. Handoko Kwee

Draft Proposal Feedback

Here are a couple of feedbacks given on service design ideas I have mentioned in the draft proposal. Based on feedbacks my peer has given me, all of my ideas does not really cover up the direction I want to achieve in this assignment, which is service design because my ideas do not involve a person with another person (two interactions or more) but a person with object. She suggested me to look up at examples of service design from lecture notes. Although I did so. I also looked up at the readings in UTS online. I take that service design based app and text message are common ones. However I wanted to make something different therefore, I came up with the idea of phone charger, meditation box and landscape app. I still believe that my ideas can be included as part of service design as well although they might require one-sided interaction only. According to Wikipedia, “service design is a form of conceptual design that involves the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between the service provider and its customers.” My ideas could be really used to serve people and fulfill their needs by motivating them to change their bad habits, providing effectiveness, and promoting body and mind health.

To continue with the feedback, she also told me that perhaps the second idea could have been a good idea if the meditation box was made for public rather than individual. It means that the meditation box should be made more approachable from or accessible to public. Furthermore, the idea would have worked if it was made high-technologically: designed with earphone to listen to nature’s sounds, visual screen to see the nature images.

Apart from the ideas provided in the draft proposal, she suggested me a mute functionality touch button for mobile phone. She enthusiastically told me that she watched a Youtube video about an innovation of mute touch screen button. However in order to do that, the mobile phone users need to download an app that links to the device. The users are able to turn off the notification sounds even when the device is in sound mode whenever they touch the point button. Lastly, she mentioned about an app specialies in reducing the mental health issue. This app allows the users to share about what is bothering them to their social media friends, such as status. The aim is to put the sufferers at ease. Given that some people might be concerned about their names and mental health statuses spreading throughout the platform, users will be given 2 choices: named or anonymous. In this app, whoever suffers the most severe mental issue will appear at the highest position of timeline page, following by some colors to indicate their status of mental health. The top users should be getting the most helps.

The tutor on the other hand, considered all of my ideas was good. She wanted me to look at how excessive usage of gadgets and social media (factor of mental issue found throughout mindmaping session) in association with mental health stigma (main topic of reseach). At first, tutor thought the first idea was good however, she concerned it would cause more problems if phone users were restricted to use mobile phones at night, which means they cannot use their mobile phones even for emergency purposes because the device is made to be chargeable during night hours. Therefore, unrecommended. Last thing is she wanted me to spend some time researching on stress, mental health and social media for 3 poster designs.

Refined Proposition

Faith Brings Positive Change

My research is on mental health issue, particularly on stigma on mental health. However in this task, I would like to work more on particular issue, which is stress and anxiety caused by excessive used of social media. I want to encourage people to get familiar with apps, certain objects and colors that will give them sense of relaxation by being imaginative and putting them into a state of mindfulness.

I can relate the mental health stigma with stress and anxiety caused by excessive used of social media. Nowadays, social media users tend to share contents which mostly they are disagree about. In this modern world, social media users have developed habits of being judgemental in something they have lack of knoweldge about (e.g mental health). Considering that media is a powerful tool and if the media agencies are being irresponsible in their news contents (e.g news headlines: mentally-ill nurse should not be allowed to work in children hospital), the adults or parents social media users would get angry or disappointed then they would share the news to social media platforms full of student and young users who might read their posts and get influenced by. Stereotyping will keep passing down generation to generation. Stereotypes and negative perceptions cause fear in general population and people with mental issue. This fear results in stress and anxiety.

In the case of stigma, the missing point is the lack contents about positive personal experiences dealing with mental issue in media and social media platforms. Public needs to hear accurate information on mental health and it can only come from the experts in the field and people with mental issue themselves.

I have came up with an idea of service design, an entertainment app as well as social media associated stigma, and stress and anxiety. It suits the needs of modern society with a little bit of touch of nature aspects. The aim is to build community supports. This app allows you to build your own imagination of landscape using drag point to position certain elements of nature into the page to share about in where or what environments they wish to be (imaginations of a better world), to post current mental status and feelings, to give advices on others posts, and to share their honest personal experiences dealing with mental issue. They are free to link their account with their social media in order to gain public’s understanding and reduce stigma.

POST 10: Reflection and proposition

The draft proposal workshop was great, and highlighted a number of issues and opportunities with my proposition. Speaking briefly to my tutor I quickly realised that I would be unable to get administrative access to the Visual Communication and Emergent Practice Blog. After this, the workshop quickly turned into a brainstorming and rapid prototyping session. In reading out my ideas from the previous week to my partner we both felt that the application that converted complicated terms of service agreements into plain text would have the most value as a design proposition. We brainstormed some ideas around this, and developed the idea into a browser extension with a set of coloured icons that would reflect a site’s privacy policies in relation to specific areas of online privacy. We were able to come up with this idea much faster than in previous weeks because tasks 3A and 3B were finally explained to us. This was useful, but also extremely frustrating as would have been valuable to have this information earlier so I could have better shaped the research I conducted for the blog. This lack of communication has really detracted from my experience with the subject.

Proposal

Users are generally unaware of how much information they contribute, either willingly or unwilling to online services. To help users understand how much data is being collected about them, I plan to create a service that simplifies deliberately complex terms of service contracts into easily understandable icons similar to those used in creative commons licensing. This icon set will breakdown the key terms that companies often obscure in complex legal documents, to help users better understand how their privacy is being affected. Some possible icons include: collection of personal and activity data, 1^st and 3^rd party data storage, selling of data and data ownership. These icons will be made open source to not only increase awareness of deceptive data practices but also create a framework for protecting privacy in the digital age. In addition to this, the service will also include the development of a website and browser extension designed to popularise the use of the icons. This website will work across desktop and mobile devices to provide an index of popular sites with their privacy policies broken down into icons and short descriptors. What’s more, the website will also act as a portal for users to suggest sites to be indexed and while also providing ways for them to aid in the development of the program. In addition, to this the website, the service will also include the development of a browser extension, which will provide users with real time information about the privacy policies of the site they’re currently visiting. Unfortunately owing to the more restrictive mobile ecosystem, this extension will be desktop only, which is disappointing given the popularity of mobile browsing. Despite this, the service’s icon set and accompanying web presence will help raise awareness within the target market of poor privacy practices while simultaneously providing a framework to promote greater transparency.

POST 10: Reflection and proposition/online privacy

Reflection

This week I have handed my draft proposal to peers and tutor ask for concept feedback. I realise that the idea I come up last week was not strong enough, it still need a clearly idea behind to support the service design. I need to further consider:

What will happen if user don’t use this system?
What the feeling of the user using this system?
How it will interact with other users? is any possible?
How it balance the relationship between users and online business?

I learned a lot from my peers feedback, he gave me suggestion I should focused on how the system can bring positive effect to users – the user experience behind, as well as how it will helps others. Therefore I proposed a map section in the Third Party Platform design. It allow users interact with others through social media and also possible to check the location of data lost.

The process from in class feedback and outside class brainstorming are quite help me to develop my final proposal and find the possible thing to apply action around online privacy.

Revised Proposition

AIMS: Stand on online business side, I decided to design a service design system reflect on a Third Party Platform (app), which aims to help people protect their personal information not be used by online commercial transaction and to regain the credibility of online business. The project called “ Trust me”; it’s engage user prejudge the result of using or non-using the system.

ISSUE RESEARCH / POSSIBLE CHANGE: Business use information in ways that user do not like, users quickly learn about it, and the firms are forced to stop. The research involved lot examples to explain why online marketplace failure at the present stage. Otherwise, young teenagers have become concerned about the disclosure, use, and sale of information which businesses have collected about them through a website. According to the interview task and probe task result that I have presented before, one of my interviewee (22years old girl) explained that most of time she has to sign up the website with right personal information because most of them need to verify your email address which she has no choice. Besides, the probe task shown the result of how many promotion/junk email she got for one week. I picked up NSW as the target area, come out with 3 points of the possible change: help people protect data (Action); Share value information with others (Interaction); understand the seriousness of the issue (Feeling).

ACTION TO SUPPORT CHANGE: Therefore, the concept designed that each website need provide a QR code option, which “Trust me” scan QR code to sing up without submitting any personal information. The thing people need to do is create an account for “Trust me”, which will require you set your email address, security code and username only; once you sign up a new website, you can decide whether you want all the information from this website is managed by”Trust me”; If yes, all the information from the website will directly go into the e-mail and mail inbox; you are able to check all the message here. If not use the scan option: when you click normal sing up option, it will bring you to the social media pop out page ( explain in next paragraph).

On the other hand, the result of how many messages/emails “Trust me” has blocked and where your data has been in danger will show with maps in “Trust me”. It will help you understand what the situation you are in. Share your maps on social media upload with hashtag, you also can see other users posts, check where the data has lost usually and be aware of any dangers.

“Trust me” not only help online companies get the contact information of users (email, username), but also help users protect their privacy and be aware of danger. It has balanced the relationship between users and online business, with this system, people can live in comfortable internet environment and online business will get batter in the future.

Written by Jiahui Li (nancy)

Visual documentation of the brainstorming

Blog post. 9 Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

Written by Hyunjoung You

I was quite enjoyed doing 5’W’ process. This exercise helped me to narrow down to specific one issue, and it also organized my idea in a logical. It was appropriate approach to draw clear problem statement, and identify what I have to look at more and design for it.

brainstorming-possib-b4 — Brainstorming for possible design responses

brainstroming after.png — Brainstorming map after feedback

As you can see two above images, I needed to brainstorming for possible design responses. Our tutors let us divide into three practice types for brainstorming: service design, data visualization and generative system. It made me having diverse types of design response. If it was not divided like that, I came up with limited practice types of design. Other process was sharing ideas to each group member’s brainstorming map. My group members’ issue was also obesity and healthy living, so they all have some knowledge of the subject. They were able to give some more platforms such as magazine and postcard that I could not come up with. However, they do not have deeper understanding of the association between sedentary work and health (my specific issue); hence, it was hard to obtain the contents which would be in design. Overall, it was nice opportunity to draw suitable possible design responses for my issue.

Brainstorming possibilities for preventing from being sedentary.

Blog post 8. Brainstorming possibilities for a design response

Written by Hyunjoung You

After finished mapping and further research for my specific issue, I found that sedentary work could cause diverse disease such obesity, physical and mental problem. In week 6’s tutorial, we started to brainstorm the possibilities for a design response to our issue. Our tutor let us brainstorm via 5‘W’ at first to analyze the problem and draw problem statement.

5’W’ Analyzing problem

The problem : Sedentary work linked to physical and mental health such as obesity, backache and depression.

1. WHO does the problem affect?

People who do sedentary work such as office worker, designer, driver and students are affected by this problem. They usually work using computers and need to sit down for a while.

2. WHAT are the boundaries of the problem?

Lack of willpower

In fact, people are aware of how sedentary lifestyle affects their health negatively. However, it is really difficult to change their lifestyle since they used to live sedentary lifestyle. People are already exposed to comfortable lifestyle; thus, they began to prefer driving car rather than taking walk or riding bicycles; using lifts or elevators rather than climbing stairs. Therefore, people need more reminders to act by themselves for their health.

Work Environment

The employees do not really move their body at workplaces because they are able to work sitting down on the chairs. Most workers might move when they have lunch times. Moreover, most offices have lifts or elevators, so the workers do not have chances to even a short walk. The companies have responsibilities for their employees’ health because working hours are not short.

3. WHEN does the problem occur?

When people do not do physical activities at all, the problem occurs.

– Constantly sitting down

4. WHERE does the problem occur?

Companies / Home / School / University

5. WHY is it important? Why we have to look at it, and why we have to design for it?

Healthy living is one of important things to improve people’s life quality. It does not mean not only physically healthy, also mentally healthy. However, being sedentary affect both of physical and mental health negatively that is why we should look at this issue, and design for it.

5 ‘W’, one of brainstorming exercise, helped me to drew the problem statement.

Problem Statement

How do we make / motivate people being active from sedentary ?

Five Possibilities

I divided into three sections. They are service design, generative system, and data visualisation to come up with five possible designs are based on the problem statement.

Physical activities programs and products (Service design)

Company can provide their employees with some physical activities programs such as morning yoga and after-work team sports. Also, they can offer the products that prevent the employees from being sedentary during work: standing desk, massage chair or running machine with desk.

Exhibition (Generative system)

To give awareness how being sedentary lifestyle is harmful, we can hold small exhibition in public / open space. The exhibition would display photography or art works that are caused by a sedentary lifestyle such as the illustration of obesity, photography of person who suffers lower back pain, or express anxiety. The last piece at the exhibition shows sedentary lifestyle: constantly sitting, lying on the bed, and watching TV, etc. People will realize that sedentary lifestyle brings about lots of problem not only physical problems, also mental problems; therefore, it will help them to remind of it.

Postcard in magazine (Service design + generative system + data visualization)

Government or organizations that are related to public health provide the companies with lifestyle magazine to inform how bad sedentary work is and obtain the data from the survey. We can create infographic design to explain about the problems of sedentary work on one page or more. Moreover, we need to put the postcard in the back, which includes the survey is asking about their daily routine. One of the questions would be ‘how long they are sedentary per day?’ Thus, we can use the results of the survey to create data visualization as a further possibility.

App (Service design)

The function of this application is asking the employees to do some physical activities and care about their health. Company can install the application in their employees’ computers to motivate them to move.

Short video (Service design)

We can create the video to promote physical activities. The video shows how to do simple exercise that office workers can do at their workplaces. The length of video is be about 5 minutes, and it plays before quitting time. Therefore, the office workers can refresh by simple work out before leaving the offices, and feel better.

I am still considering between exhibition and app as my final design response at the moment. However, I already explained more detail about exhibition, so I would like to talk about the application.

Through 5 ‘W’, I analyzed that people have already recognized about the negative effects of being sedentary. However, one of the barriers to not being sedentary was the lack of willpower. Especially, the office workers do not have time to do some physical activities. They used to live sedentary lifestyle, so it would be difficult to change their lifestyle immediately. I found that the better way to motivate them being active during work or after work is reminding them of being active.

Draft Proposal

Sedentary lifestyle brings about diverse physical and mental problems such as obesity, lower back pain, and depression. However, some people need to be sedentary, especially, if they do sedentary work.

My issue is “How do we prevent the office workers from being sedentary?” I aim to encourage the office workers to do some physical actions during work or after work via my proposal. The design type is application (service design). Companies can install this application on their employees’ computers. The application will pop up the text in a window, which is asking to do some physical actions for the workers’ health by periods. The text will have friendly tone, so it might give little fun in their tired and repeated working lifestyle.

blog 8- Possible Ways To Reduce Mental Illness

By Marcella K. Handoko Kwee

The Possibility

There are possible ways to make a difference in mental health issue in range of age between 18-25. People must take care of themselves physically and also emotionally. It has always been a great idea to be aware of what is happening inside the body and mind. In case they notice something wrong with them, people should actively take further steps to help themselves. Daily business can be a great distraction however, there is nothing wrong by constantly checking on themselves. It would be really wise to prevent further damages within mind and body than fix what has already happened.

Early prevention of mental illness must be considered seriously. Few examples of early prevention are:

Reduce time on social media and turn notifications off for a while. Social media notifications might cause people to feel anxious. Furthermore, the usage of mobile phone in the middle of night causes people to have restless sleep.
Build self-confidence/awakeness. Hopelessness is associated with depressive thought. People should try to shift their way of thinking for a bit to get their confidence back and keep moving on, willing to change.
Get familiar with, take your participation or build understanding in meditation app/video that might allow you to touch on particular point or to draw etc, self-help system/tool kit (mental health online/offine test), motivational quotes, yoga session, mental health organisation associated, counselling session, etc. What people would like to achieve from using these services are feelings that get better from the beginning to the end, awareness of mental state and analysis of habits (the good and the bad).
Practice mindfulness (brain training) regularly. Sense of mindfulness can be achieved through yoga or meditation practices. It helps in reducing stress and anxiety.
Get to know yourself, including characters and personalities. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, what you really want to achieve in life (life goals), vision and mission can help building self-identity, purpose. Feeling lost, not knowing what you really want in life and hopeless can be really stressful for people.
Learning about colors. Colors are associated with emotions, moods or feelings. People might try to corporate colors that create sense of calmness, happiness, relaxation into surroundings, such as computer desktop, bedroom wall, clothing, stationaries, garden etc.
Keep journal that allows you to pour out your deepest emotions privately, scribble (draw something) to release stress and anxiety etc.
Try to be more engaged with others, build emphathy towards others: “How do you want to make people feel?”. You should make people feel like the way you want to feel from others’ treatments.

The Proposal

I have came up with a few ideas of service design in relation to stress and anxiety reduction. These service design ideas suit the needs of modern society in this modern era with a little bit of touch of traditional-nature aspects.

dreamwingirls-2015 — (dreamwingirls 2015)

Stress and anxiety are caused by excessive usage of gadgets and social media during the day, particularly during the night hours when we are supposed to get some sleeps. On the other hand, getting familiar with apps, certain objects and colors that will give you the sense of relaxation and happiness can help reducing stress and anxiety by pulling you out of the reality and putting you into a state of mindfulness.

Phone Charger

In relation to the issue of excessive usage of gadgets and social media in this modern world, I have came up with an idea of phone charger. This specific phone charger suits the needs of people from different groups of age, work position, ethnic society, and most importantly those who are required to use communication technology and addictive to games app and social media in their daily basis. This phone charger will allow the users to charge their gadgets (particularly mobile phone) only at night during the sleep hours. Furthermore, this phone charger can be used if only the users put their mobile phone on the charger based tray and in off-mode. The phone charger is linked to an app that can be downloaded on their mobile phones to setting up how many hours will you use your phone for the next day, what will you use your phone for in the next day, how much battery left before you charge the phone etc. The charger will follow up the instructions that you have put in. Therefore, the mobile phone users will not be able to use their mobile phones at midnight, instead they will start looking for something that might be a better option for them, such as books and music.

Meditation Box

the-alternative-daily-n-d — (The Alternative Daily n.d.)

While it is a good idea to put their mobile phones away for a while, there are some alternative ways that they can do to reduce stress and anxiety. I have came up with an idea of a physical design solution that allows you to touch, smell and possibility to see artificial nature design. I would name it a meditation box. This design is targetted for everyone who needs to release the mind and body tension during the day. This object allows the users to touch its surface inside the box with both hands. The surface could be made of sand, rocks, grass etc. It is also designed with ‘fragrance mode’ functionality button, so that the users would be able to imagine like they are in the real garden, beach etc.

Easy Design App

Last thing I have came up with an idea of being mindful through visual color landscape app. This app can be downloaded on mobile phone and other similar technologies. This design is targetted for everyone from kids, students, workers, business women/men who are interested in color and design, games app and technology. This app allows you to build your own imagination of landscape/view, such as lake, garden, beach, mountain and even some kind of fairytales landcscape, such as enchanted forest, castle etc. The app should be easy to navigate because the point of this idea is for the users to be able to focus on one thing at a time, particularly this visual color landscape in order to get away from the overwhealming reality situations. The users should be able to use drag point to position certain elements of nature into the design page. Furthermore, the elements will create sounds according to elements’ real sounds everytime the users drag them into the page.

Post 4: Do not feed the rumour

by Erland Howden

I chose to focus on this interesting service design project out of Portugal for a couple of reasons that are relevant to my broader research into the issue of asylum seekers and refugees.

First, my personal experience living in Germany during the peak of refugee arrivals towards the end of 2015. I met people who had fled Syria, read about attacks on refugee centres and homes by far-right groups and talked to people from different European countries about their respective approaches to the crisis. This sparked an interest in the different ways communities were dealing with “integration”, racism and introducing multiculturalism to hitherto fairly monocultural communities.

Second, my research so far had focused mostly on Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and social and psychological determinants of attitudes towards refugees. I wanted to reach beyond our shocking national situation to places where countries and communities are dealing with the growing number of asylum seekers in more humane and constructive ways – and what lessons could be learnt that might be applied to changing attitudes here in Australia.

‘Não alimente o rumor‘ (Do not feed the rumour) is a project by Amador City Council, a municipality on the outskirts of Portugal’s capital, Lisbon in partnership with the Council of Europe. Its goal is to challenge rumours and misconceptions about migrant communities, which make up about 10% of the local population (Council of Europe 2016). Visual communication design on the project was done by GBNT, a design and communication agency based in Lisbon. The project is research-led, beginning with surveys to identify prevailing stereotypes about migrants and followed up with analysis of how views had changed as the project progressed, facilitated by an academic team from the Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social/Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. (European Commission 2016)

The project has been described as a communication campaign, but has aspects that place it within the service design sphere (Adams 2016). One of the most interesting aspects of the project’s implementation was the choice to train school students in the pilot phase as the key “anti-rumour agents”, so the design of the program is really about designing the process by which stereotypes about migrants and refugees could be broken down – identifying effective messengers for the target audience – i.e. peers; designing workshops that empower the “agents” with the information, skills and confidence to transmit the project’s key messages; and supporting the messengers to follow-through with their commitment. This approach demonstrates how emergent design practices can be significantly more engaged with their audience and sphere of operation than traditional approaches to a ‘communications campaign’ which might have just involved designing and placing advertisements.

The project has now moved beyond the pilot phase to a broader roll-out across the city, as well as being trialled in cities across Spain, Germany, Ireland, Greece and Poland. Demonstrating another aspect of service design, the project has also been turned into a guide by the Council of Europe, “Cities free of rumours: How to build an anti-rumour strategy in my city” (Baglai 2015).

References

Featured image: GBNT 2014, GBNT – Shaping Communication / Não Alimente o Rumor, GBNT, Lisbon, Portugal, viewed 21 August 2016, <http://gbnt.pt/en/works/nao-alimente-o-rumor>.

Council of Europe 2016, Amadora – Anti-rumour agents trained in Amadora’s school, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France, viewed 21 August 2016, <https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/-/anti-rumour-agents-trained-in-amadora-s-school>.

European Commission 2016, Do Not Feed the Rumor: How Amadora City Council is challenging stereotypes against immigrants, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, viewed 21 August 2016, <https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/socialinnovationeurope/en/magazine/beyond-crisis-migrant-integration/collection/do-not-feed-rumor-how-amadora-city-council>.

Adams, E. 2016, ‘‘Migrant crisis’: what can cities learn about new service design?’, URBACT, weblog, European Union, Paris, France, viewed 21 August 2016, <http://urbact.eu/%E2%80%98migrant-crisis%E2%80%99-what-can-cities-learn-about-new-service-design>.

Baglai, C. (ed.) 2015, Cities free of rumours: How to build an anti-rumour strategy in my city, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France, viewed 21 August 2016, <http://pjp-eu.coe.int/documents/6374912/0/Prems+079615+GBRFinal+2587+CitiesFreeRumours+WEB+21×21.pdf/c01ea15a-0195-494f-820f-00ada611f01f>.