top of page
JA Logo.png

170824

REPORT

At the beginning of this week,  I completed my project proposal slides assignment for DES302; refining my presentation slides from week four so that the course coordinators could understand my project's background, problem statement, design process, and ethics. The latter half of this week consisted of me delving deeper into the inspiration phase of 'The Field Guide to Human-Centred Design' by IDEO.org (2015). This phase focuses on engaging my desired stakeholders and communities to get educated on my problem space. Thus, I interviewed my peers at the design studio at the University of Auckland. Furthermore, I conducted further secondary research for the workshop aspect of my plan A scope by finding an anti-racism workshop run by WorldWise Global Schools (2020). Although I have yet to finish my note-taking, the workshop delves into implementing anti-racism and discrimination projects with students, good resources, ideas for raising awareness, taking meaningful action and a case study.

Sadly, I was recently a victim of East Asian racial discrimination. On my break from work, I was entering Countdown when a couple of homeless individuals called out to me, "Oi, it's Jackie Chan's brother!" and snickered amongst themselves. I felt a potent mix of emotions, but the first coherent thought came to me was that I was proving my problem space exists. To add to the unfortunate circumstances, my progress this week was relatively slow due to catching a cold that took me a week and a half to recover. 

RESPONDING

Refining my project proposal slides for DES302 felt like I was given a second chance at completing the assignment from last week. By taking action from my 'Reconstructing' stage from week four's blog, I dedicated time throughout multiple days to work on my slide aesthetics and got feedback from my peers. I was happy with the outcome of the polished content and visuals, and more importantly, I was proud of my work. Conducting the semi-structured interviews during my design studio session was quite interesting. The results that I gathered varied quite heavily and showed me that my research participants' backgrounds had a strong influence on how racial discrimination affected them; surprisingly,  I didn't expect this impact to be so strong. 

Furthermore, I realised that my interview questions could have been better in lay terms, as non-native English speakers mostly struggled with comprehending them until I elaborated further. This shows some adjustments I can make for my next round of interviews. Studying WorldWise Global Schools' (2021), anti-racism workshop video was inspiring and made me feel better about my project. There were clear examples of workshop methods that I could incorporate into my own, and most importantly, they showed me that I was creating something that would improve the well-being of others. 

RELATING

Conducting the interviews with my peers reminded me of my past experiences interviewing my project client and stakeholders for DES100. That paper revolved around creating a solution around my client's problem space and reminded me of how I used to conduct this qualitative research method. Previously, I had never considered ethical concerns with my interviews nor thought about the need to keep my stakeholders' information confidential. Since taking the ethics modules from DES302, I have had a more professional and ethical approach to researching with individuals. Thus, I have picked up new skills and expanded on past knowledge.

Additionally, my recent sickness reminded me that my health greatly impacted my productivity in all aspects of my life. From learnt experiences, this means that the next couple of weeks will require me to pick up the slack from this week's to ensure that I make steady progress on my project. Furthermore, I should keep a healthy mindset and not blame myself for getting sick because it could not have been helped.

REASONING

There were two significant impacts this week. Firstly, completing my refined project proposal slides allowed me to iterate on my project naturally, updating my research objectives and presentation visuals. This process falls under iteration, where complex challenges are tackled not through linear solutions but by continuously polishing a solution until the outcome becomes more desirable (Barnes, 2023). Additionally, I was able to experience the "Fail Fast" mentality of this concept, which treats failure as a valuable source of insight. In my case, I took onboard my stream lecturer Diana's critique on my presentation slides and ensured my pride was not in the way of improving as a design student.

Secondly, conducting my semi-structured interviews showed me the importance of keeping my interviewees comfortable to extract detailed and rich data. Boyce & Neale (2006) claimed that an interviewer must appear interested in the interviewee's words and ensure that the interviewee feels comfortable. Furthermore, this can be achieved by avoiding leading questions, utilizing appropriate body language, and keeping personal opinions in line. The authors delve into probes that I found helpful:
 

  • Can you elaborate on that idea?

  • Would you explain further?

  • Is there anything else?

RECONSTRUCTING

Based on my previous stages, I will ensure that I progress into my subsequent phases efficiently and productively after overcoming my sickness. I will combine my design methodology's inspiration and ideation phases next week, as I still require more research before I can effectively dive into creating low-fidelity prototypes. This means I will keep the first half of next week within the inspiration phase and the latter diving into the ideation phase. Additionally, I will update my interview questions to contain more lay terms and incorporate more probes to reduce the difficulty of understanding for my interviewees and uncover more detailed insights.

REFERENCES

Barnes, C. A. (2023). The Importance of Iteration in Problem Solving. Medium. https://coryabarnes.medium.com/the-
         importance-of-iteration-in-problem-solving-8f1628a7cdfd
Boyce, C., & N., C. (2006). CONDUCTING IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS: A Guide for Designing and Conducting In-Depth
         Interviews for Evaluation Input. PATHFINDER INTERNATIONAL TOOL SERIES. https://nyhealthfoundation.org/wp-
         content/uploads/2019/02/m_e_tool_series_indepth_interviews-1.pdf
IDEO.org. (2015). THE FIELD GUIDE TO HUMAN-CENTRED DESIGN. 
         https://www.designkit.org/resources/1.html
WorldWise Global Schools. (2021). Thematic Training: Anti-Racism [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
         v=hflgCShoKPk​

bottom of page