Design

Design Ethnography Research Project

/ Harriotte Preston

In my last post I wrote about Ethnography research methods, It can be found here, I am now looking at term two of Design. We were set a Design Ethnography project, this was our second piece of course work that would consist of a group presentation and an individual report. It was the first time we would be working in close nit groups for the duration of the term.

We were required to study a business or service in Lancaster city, and to conduct ethnography research for it, using methods which would help us to look at how a range of users experienced  our chosen business.

My group and I chose the category of Night Life, this allowed us to pick from a range of services from pubs to clubs. We decided on a Bar called Dalton Rooms, which is in the centre of the city.  It is both a Bar and a club in one venue, this we felt would make for a interesting research topic as having both aspects in one building might attract a more varied range of users.

To start off with we identified 4 different categories of user we wanted to base our ethnography research on. These were; Sober Users, Group Users, Impaired Users and Over 25s. We then picked four ethnography methods we would use; fly on the wall, shadowing, field notes, and do it yourself were the ones we decided upon. They would enable us to observe the users as well as take part and emulate them as well.

I conducted the ‘do it yourself’ ethnography method for the sober user. This meant experiencing Dalton rooms as a sober user. The idea being that you not only get to see what it’s like using the space in terms of layout, but also how you felt. This is important as when conducting methods such as fly on the wall, you are watching people.  This may not enable you to pick up on their emotions. Therefore, do it yourself was most vital, it allows you, from a designers point of view, to empathise with the user, and this may change the way you look at the design of the space.

While doing this, I felt much more aware of my surroundings and picked up on things I would not have realised before doing this research, such as the logistics of moving through the bar when you are sober, in a group of people who are not, can be very intimidating. The design of the room inhibited movement of people to and from the club downstairs as they have a karaoke machine set up, this causes people to spill out onto the walk way. Having experienced trying to get through, I realised the problem could be easily solved if they simply moved it to the other end of the room. I believe if they did this it would not only improve the experience for  sober users but that of the impaired among others.

I really enjoyed doing the research from a first-hand view as I did not expect to discover as much as we did.  You start to question and look at the way people interact with spaces much more and this fascinated me.

The end result for our project consisted of us putting together all our research and identifying the user experiences throughout the night.

We created a presentation which we presented to the group.  We were marked on not just our presentation skills, but the methods and results we found as well as the PowerPoint itself. This was a nerve wracking but overall positive experience.We had a good time working together. We then each completed a 3000 word individual report writing up our project.

New Ways of Thinking

/ Harriotte Preston

When I decided to take my place at Lancaster University it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I know many people find it hard to decide what to major in and take as your degree, because it is a decision that will impact on your life.  However, I soon realized that I wanted to take Design; as I wanted to work in a creative industry.  I wanted the commercial side of it, where I could explore areas of product design, graphic design, advertising and many more areas that I had not even thought of yet.  This was important to me, I wanted to be challenged, and pushed into directions I did not even know existed. Fortunately, in my first week at Lancaster this soon became very apparent that I had made the right decision.

New ways of thinking

‘Good and Bad Ideas’ was the title of a Design workshop, it was one of the first that we had. The idea behind it was to make you look at Idea Generation in a new light.

This was fascinating, as most people take coming up with ideas for granted, thinking it’s easy and sticking to their methods of generation. However, we explore new techniques which takes you beyond the initial thought. One of the most creative yet challenging tasks was coming up with the worst ideas you could think of. It’s important to look at bad ideas, as identifying problems is as important as solving them.

We worked in groups of five in the workshop, so ideas were being generated fast. It was fun!  The things people think of when doing the opposite to normal is amazing, gone are the restrictions that you imply when using other techniques, as feasibility and such go out of the window.

Why did we do this?

You may be thinking what is the point of this?  Well really it’s to turn the worst idea that was thought of into the best idea. Ambitious, yes, and we were all a little perplexed at how this happened and how in the world we were meant to do this, but bit by bit you strip the idea down to reach the fundamentals. Surprisingly, it quickly becomes an amazing idea that you would not have considered before. It was also amazing to see how everyone in the group was completely involved.

Creativity existed in abundance, something that was so inspiring to be around. Now I am not saying it was easy because it was not. But it gives you a feel of what working to a deadline and client brief feels like, in a group of people that don’t know each other, then having to create a well thought out idea. I came out of this workshop happy knowing that I made the right choice and that I was so excited to start on the next tasks. But not only that, before this, I would never have looked at a brief that asked for the best idea and approached it by starting with the worst. It gave me a new mindset of sorts, freeing me from the restrictions on my creativity that I had previously placed there.