Week 7 Monday

Encountering problems/barriers and refining idea

Today in class myself and Tallulah caught up and got back on track with where we were heading before the holidays. Unfortunately, over the holidays we were in different cities and working a lot and so could not catch up.

From our sketching up of new app page mockups we realised that our app is working great as a cooking app but not as much more than that. The main idea of this app is that it connects you with either the older or younger generation. Right now there is nothing forcing you to really do that.



In these mock-ups we were really focusing on making the app like a game. We did this because in previous critiques we were questioned why the younger generation would want to do this or keep engaging with this app. Turning it into a game and competition gives incentive to keep going to reach the next level and do more challenges.

(Duolingo app)

Before the break, we talked about getting storytelling as a part of the app somehow. This is a very important feature as getting a relationship to form and making the elderly feel valued is a core outcome we want. We started brainstorming again and as we tried to address more issues and holes in the app we became very overwhelmed and the app was just getting more and more complicated!

]
We have been feeling like we have to address every potential issue within the app. For example what if elderly dont have smart phones? We've been trying to solve all of these but after a talk with Jason we realise we can't address every single issue.

Week 5 Fri

To think up 3 valid ideas we combined ideas from rapid ideation and our own ideas we previously thought of. We didn't hold back here and fleshed out ideas even if they might not be plausible.

Our 3 ideas:

Virtual reality

This virtual reality idea was probably the most out there one which we were unsure if it was possible or not. Basically, it connects elderly and youth who live far away from each other. It focuses on getting elderly to pass on skills and teach the youth. 

Get to know me card game

This solution is based on getting to know each other better through prompts to talk about past experiences, stories or just simple things about them. You get a chance to guess the answer of the other player. Maybe to make the answers more personal the other player has to write down their true answer and the other player reads it out once they have taken a guess. At the end of the game, you should hopefully know a lot more about the other and this may prompt more questions and conversation.

Baking Competition App

This solution was the one we got the most excited about and so we started drawing up the app and potential pages. The app works to connect youth and elderly through cooking and turns it into a competition and a game. The app works so that those who live far away from their grandparents can still engage with it as there is an option for this within the app. We found distance to be a big factor in why people weren't engaging with their elders and this solution address this problem. 

We showed our solutions to a few in the class and some valuable feedback we got were: 

•  We could make the app look different if you were a senior or youth to make the app easier to use. 
• We could combine the card game/sharing stories with the baking app. There is some synergy there. The baking is good to break the ice to then start talking. 
• The virtual reality is a cool idea but unsure how it would work.

While working in class I began to write up all of the questions, barriers or opportunities I could think up if we chose to use this solution. 

Barriers/obstacles

• How many elderly have smartphones?? A big barrier for using an app. 
• It would be a website as well for those who have computers but no smartphones. 
• Maybe the youth gives their phone to the elderly while they are together so that the elderly get to learn how to use more recent technology and the youth can help them. 
• Where does the money come from for the cooking? Do they shop together and go halves? Do they take turns each time? Although the elderly are often baking and cooking (as a stereotype!) anyway so maybe it is affordable for them. 
• Why would youth want to do this?? What makes it maintainable over time? What motivates youth? Free food, its like a game so you want to keep playing. Rewards?  Would youth want to tell friends about it or would they be embarrassed?

Opportunities/ideas

• Assuming the elder has a smartphone then when you sign up you have to say if you're an elder or youth and the app will appear different. Ie bigger font size and easier to navigate, has a zoom feature or speaks to you for those with impaired sight. There could be a quick help button which lets you message your youth partner. 
• Could we combine cooking and storytelling? Questions are part of the process. While you cook questions pop up. you tap them to go to the next.
• Maybe the elderly would like to share with their senior friends? Is there a printing feature where you can print the photos you have uploaded so the elderly can keep them? 
• Can we somehow involve a physical design element/takeaway so it is not all virtual. Add a bit of old school!

EXCHANGE 

Met up with my exchange group from the of design principals. My team had 2 of us VCD students, 1 fashion, 1 spacial and 1 industrial. 

We began by just introducing ourselves and then got stuck into each of our projects. it was interesting to see how other disciplines were interpreting the well-being brief. Some had very broad breifs and had a lot of freedom to interpret the well-being brief as they chose (fashion) while spacial and industrial were much more constricted to a certain area. Industrial were assigned an area to focus on while spacial are all address the same issue. 

At first i found it hard to know how to give my input on a discipline I knew nothing about. But once we got going I just gave my first impression and then it was easier to share my ideas or critiques with them.  

When I shared my baking competition app idea with them I received some good feedback:

• maybe the app could be sponsored by something like My food bag.
• Keep working on why youth would want to do it.
• Liking the idea of sharing knowledge and elderly feeling valued because of that. 
• This problem is really a Western problem because other cultures are very well integrated with their elders. Derek mentioned his heritage and background and how he is in great contact with his grandma through Whatsapp and they are always messaging and sharing photos etc. 
• Is there merch that goes with it?
• Have a leaderboard or prizes. 
• Include tips and tricks and recipes. 
• Challenges could be easy, medium or hard. 
• Is there tutorial videos? 

I was really impressed with how much my group engaged with my idea and were offering a lot of ideas and critiques. It seemed like I got a lot more feedback on my idea than some of the others in the group received. Hopefully, that's a good thing and showed that they were engaged and excited about the idea! 

Week 5 Tue

Tallulah and I have decided to continue with our brief as we are feeling very passionate about the issue and feel it has a lot of potential.

Tallulah and I decided to, off the top of our head, put down on paper any potential ideas we had for a design solution.

Some solutions:

• Social Media: new social media app - Teaching guide about social media - instruction book.
• Storytelling: Card game - 2 truths 1 lie - pen pals - board game questions.
• Advice: Asking the elderly for advice - app - website. 
• Cooking exercise: Youth like going to visit elderly because they often get yum food??
• Job search: Helping old people in their neighbourhood - some reward for youth,
• Pets? - Have read research about pets helping loneliness in old people and instigates human interactions as well. 
• Scrapbooking/photo album making: how to pay for costs though??

We realised that maybe combining some of these ideas could create an interesting solution. 

While we started brainstorming more barries started to arise...

Some barriers:

• Both students and elderly are often poor. Though youth who are working and not students often aren't poor. 
• Lots of elderly are stubborn/dont want to talk/stuck in old ways/have outdated beliefs whihc can be offensive.
• Youth need to be encouraged to visit the elderly. They might feel like there's nothing in it for them.
• Need to remember to try hit all 3 well-being: connect, give, keep learning. 
• What makes people feel valued?? Research.

We did a rapid ideation workshop in class.

(picture of rapid ideation)...

It was a good exercise to let yourself go and think up crazy ideas with no consequences. Although we didnt actually seem to produce many ideas that could actually go anywhere although we probably thought of 1 maybe 2 ideas which could have legs which made it all worth it.

In our rapid ideation, we thought of the idea of a one-day baking competition where you pair up in a youth and elderly group and compete against other groups. We presented this idea to another team and started to flesh it out.

• Elderly could share their past down recipes. 
• There is an opportunity to turn it into an app or somehow make it a continuous activity, not just one day.
• You get rewards for winning. 
• Elderly and youth get to spend time together but not have to think of conversation. Just simply spending time in each others company. 
• Elderly have a chance to feel valued and share their knowledge, feel confident. 

HW for friday:

Choose 3 ideas to flesh out + develop + visualise.  A3x3.

WEEKS 1-4

More layout and content decisions

Well-being spread.

We've decided to have well-being as its own spread because it is important but slightly different from the rest of the content. We've also chosen to put it as the centrefold so when the brochure falls open it lands on an uplighting spread. 

We were told that this handwritten quote was hard to read so we are moving it to the back as something to finish on and using this spread to have more photos. 

We have a lot of info right now on your precedents page. We want a design example but we also want to talk about various cultures and their customs... We need to dramatically cut down the info as we want it to fit on one spread.  

As part of our design aesthetic, we are adding a contents page. This is reminiscent of a novel. And also has function as our brochure is 20 pages long.

The cover.

Our first thought was to have an image of an elderly person on the front cover to make is clear what the brochure was going to be about. 

In exploring this idea we decided if we push the image off the side so the man is cut in half, the back page could have a young boy as the other half of his face. By placing the images there when you open the book the two would be physically separated which speaks to our idea of the separation of generations. 

We tried this out and decided it just wasn't looking awesome. 

Becasue we've added chapters and made the decision to go with a book theme we thought we needed to make it more obvious or the chapter sections might just seem random. 

Added the suggestion of a book spine on the side and kept the front calm and centered. 

I drew a lone grandma walking away with a long shadow to add a bit more tension and break up the centred layout. Her being alone and small reflects loneliness as well as the bare cover. It also shows the grandma getting up from her armchair (on back cover) and walking out into the world. 

To visualise some statistics we gained in our research we chose to show them as a literal pie graph, granny's pie. It fits in with our other illustrations.  We added these statistics because it was mentioned in a critique that there wasn't enough about the youth and seeing as we are wanting youth to take action it makes sense to have more info about them!

Week 4 Tuesday

Today we laid out our visual brief and received feedback...

• We had already decided to change the front and back cover, we werent liking the design. 
• Keep the cover simple the title "Generation Segregation" is the main point, its a catchy title.
• Need to sort out our citing. 
• Make journey map slightly more emotive and add subtle insights. 
• Need to add a few diagrams. 
• Some of the hand drawn quotes are not so easy to read. 
• We want to work on being concise in our writing so there isnt such long paragraphs. 
• Add a bibliography!

One comment says we need to clear in the value of the elderly. We don't want to have to write a paragraph about why you should value the elderly and why they are worthy of not being lonely. It seems a bit unsympathetic and obvious. Maybe it just means that we need to make our journey map more emotive so the viewer empathises with Audrey. Add more photos of grandparents to get an empathetic response.

It also seems like we need a bit more about youth seeing as they are half our audience. We will add some statistics from our primary research about why youth arent visiting their grandparents. 

Brainstorming layout possibilities. Where to put diagrams and in what order. 

Daily life journey mapping

We want the viewer reading the brief to empathise with the elderly target audience. We want to use empathy to show this is a worthy cause rather than persuading the viewer that elderly are important.

To do this we wanted to describe a typical day for a lady living by herself with little interaction.

For inspiration, I had some brief conversations with my grandmas who both live alone and asked what are some things they like to do during the day.  Both listened to the radio for a long part of their day. My nana fussed around the house tidying although she has a cleaner come in once a week to help with vaccumming and cleaning the bathroom. My other Grandma asked if I wanted any more things knitted or crocheted, even though she had already made me a number of things. She said "it gives me something to do".

Started brainstorming what a day might look for "Audrey" an 81 year old widowed woman.
To illustrate this journey map we've decided to have drawings of things you might see around a Grandmas flat. Things that might remind you of what its like to be at our Grandmas. These will be drawn in an old school ink drawing style.

Starting to lay out the day separated into time frames so you can see how long she spends 

doing each thing.  

More Precedents

New old exhibition.

London's design museum hosted an exhibition "New Old" which "explored the potential for design and designers to enhance the experience of our later lives."

https://designmuseum.org/whats-on/pop-up-exhibitions/new-old

Some of the responses were... 

A SOCIAL ROBOT FOR COMPANYIn collaboration with the Israeli startup Intuition Robotics, Behar also recently designed ElliQ, a robot meant to combat loneliness among the elderly. It’s a cute little companion that helps you stay social as you age. Voice recognition makes it easier for non-tech-savvy seniors to navigate the internet, learn, and stay engaged with family and friends.

GRANDMA’S SCOOTER

Designed by PriestmanGoode for New Old, the Scooter for Life is nothing like your average mobility aid. With a sleek pouch in front for storing shopping bags or groceries, the push scooter’s base also folds up so that it can be easily carried on a bus or taken into a store or apartment. With three wheels, it’s much more stable than your average children’s scooter, and it also has the option of adding a seat or a small motor. With this kind of mobility device, public transportation becomes much more accessible for older people who may not be able to walk the distance to a station or bus stop.

Social Oven





"Central Saint Martins' graduate Magda Sabatowska has devised a cooking kit to help isolated elderly female residents of housing estates in Poland socialise with their neighbours."  

Social oven is great in that it is beneficial to more than the user. The designing and packaging are very well made and is a project which is feasible and realistic for us students to achieve. 

Other countries

It's important to acknowledge the assumption that all elderly have the same path...either in a rest home or living in their own home (alone or with a partner) when this is a very western custom. There are many customs around the world where their elderly are treated completely different from those in Western countries. 

Below are some statistics from 1998 (Statistics NZ) relating to Pasifika household types.

• Most common household type in NZ contained three or more generations (49.2%)
• Followed by two generation households (43.6%)
• Pacific people more likely to live in a household with extended family members than the general population.
• 41% of Pacific people lived in extended families compared to 23% Maori, 23% Asian & 6% European people.

How grandparent customs compare across the globe.

• CHINA – Common for 3 generations to live together, with the grandparents being the primary caregivers. NOTE: A recent study discovered that Chinese grandparents are overfeeding their grandchildren and letting them skip household chores. This is leading to obese children.
• KOREA – Grandparents are the primary source of childcare, but they’re paid for their services. A Korean Women’s Development Institute survey found that 73.8% of caregiving grandparents would quit if they could.
• INDIA – Cultural customs vary, but in Northeast India it is common for married couples to live with their parents (Bengali women move in with their husband’s family, and Khasi men with their wife’s). This is meant to increase the wives’ fertility rates.
• SPAIN – Grandparents are basically full-time, fill-in parents. It’s uncommon for them to make wages – or get much respect. One out of every eight grandparents spend more than 9 hours a day in a care-taking role.
• FILIPINO – It is extremely important for grandparents to be treated with the utmost respect. It is common to see grown-up grandchildren greet their grandparents by kneeling before them and pressing their hand to their foreheads.

Style of booklet artist models/ Inspiration

For this booklet we are wanting something that is timeless. Something that emphasises that we are speaking about the elderly. We are talking about a melancholic subject and so a dynamic, vibrant style is not what we are looking for.  

• Our main inspiration was the idea of a book/novel. Books are something that are timeless and suit our concept of connecting youth and elderly as grandparents often read to their grandchildren.

With this inspiration, we started to add "chapters" to split up the segments and are adding a contents page at the beginning. The calm centred layout of a novel is also dictating our layout and cover. 

For our illustrations, we are resembling old etching style drawings...

Reminds me of scientific drawings you would see in old books. 

Old novels often only featured the title on the cover. 

A serif font was also an obvious choice for us. 

Although we are inspired by vintage simple design of old books we still want it to be a modern, well-designed version of this so we didn't try to exactly resemble an old book with texture etc... just suggest it. 

Red is a timeless yet emotive colour and could add a more vivid and eye-catching element. 

Some modern editorial inspiration...

Swirly chunky serif is elegant and eye-catching.

Duotone is simple yet eye-catching. 

A modern twist on a vintage theme and imagery. Again, simple monotone/duotone colour palette. 

A spread with lots of relevant photos would help to gain empathy for the elderly. 

Ideally, if we had more time we might go and find a slightly textured paper that is off-white and even bind the booklet with string or another method to gt a more authentic feel. 

Week 3 Friday

Today we presented our briefs and looked at our peers brief. It was useful to see where everyone else was at and we learnt what works and what doesn't by critiquing others briefs. This helped us to make changes to our own - problems we could only see after seeing the problem in anothers brief.

One thing we have been struggling with is how to differentiate the "desired outcome" from "how might we". Ours have been very similar and a bit repetitive. We need to change our how might we to more specific actionable propositions and desired outcome is general.

The presentation exercise was really useful. It forced us to quickly write down and summarise on a pieces of paper what exactly we meant and wanted to get a across about each point. We were able to concrete our idea further and get to the essence of what we wanted to say quicker.



We presented our brief to another group and some of the feedback was:

• it was clear and interesting topic. 
• it would be a challenge to get the visits consistent. 
• we repeated ourselves in the audience part as we had already stated the audience in the current situation part. 
• they enjoyed that we started off with the current situation as it got straight to the point so they knew what we were talking about. 

Draft of the our brief we showed the class...