26.9.09

Design Research week4 ! Universal Discussion Guide!



The white board looks like a Picasso painting......

















We started to discuss about our next interview guide. This is a general list of questions to guide our discussions. During the interview process, more tailored questions will be added specific to the background and interests of each interviewee.


About our probe, we decided to let the interviewee use some pictures to identify which stuff is necessary or unnecessary. And then we make the record. So next step is going to collect the pictures we made in our list!







22.9.09

Design Research week4 ! Right-size and Enoughness Interview!

Today's lecturer is Gary Wolf who talks about Craigslist. He is a journalist and writer at Wired magazine. The lecture he introduces is about how Craigslist works and how people interact with this website. Before I came to San Francisco, I didn't know there's a such big website for Bay Area people. I think there are several reasons for this website to survive for such a long time; one of the reason is that there are enough population to surf/trade/support, the other one is this website is non-profit, and another one is it's really popular. Every time i wanna to search some used things to buy, my friends always tell me go to Craiglist and search in.

Although we don't have this kind of website in Taiwan to trade things, there is a similar website as Craiglist. It is a BBS/Board Bulletin System. This system is same as what Gary Wolf told the people who work in Craiglist use this system as a email. The surface is only words and punctuation marks. Maybe now we don't have that kind website as Craiglist; however, it would be a whole new market for trading in Taiwan.

Also, this week we had 2 interviews.
The basic requirement was we have to interview our friends or family members.
So we choose Tim's uncle and Ryan's friend.
These 2 interviews were really interesting and inspired me a lot.
Not only me astonished through the interview but also Tim and Ryan did.
Actually, Ryan's friend looked like a homeless when she carried all her stuff walking on the street; Tim's uncle liked to collect everything he likes while first glance, no matter it's broken or something who left on the street.







Here's my observation.

The summary could divided into Enoughness and Rightsize.

The first interview: Ryan’s friend

Finding house on Craigslist

she only needs a bed and a little desk

she spent lots of time doing photoshop

Because her mom bought lots of things, she doesn’t want to be like her.

Sleeping on the floor is ok for her and she feels comfortable.

$185 studio

collect army guilds

she is used to live in a small room

she likes old camera and loves to buy it, she said she would keep looking for the camera she liked for a ideal prize even though she saw a perfect camera she wanted but too expensive.

if she has plenty money, she would buy food first. And second one is film. Because she used some film cameras that she has to have films to work with it.

If she has more money, she would save the money first and then buy things when saving reaches to a specific number.

She likes to go to flea market to buy things.

Because her mom bought many things while she was young, it makes her doesn’t want to be like her mom. That’s why she always has a few things with her or in her room. Always carries her whole stuff every time when she goes out. Even a big and heavy scanner! It makes her look like a homeless. She doesn’t have too many things with her in her room because she thinks that would be stolen.

Also, she has packed anything already that she could go to anywhere she wants, even to other countries. (Both Enough and righsize)

For her, she doesn’t have many things that tie her down. In other words, it’s kind of “freedom”. Because people do not have too many properties, they don’t have to worry about what the exactly “enough” meanings for them, or rightsize. This kind of people is like who releases from the “is it enough?” jail. They cherish what they have now. For example, when I was in the military service, we were not allowed to have too many things except the standard provisions and equipment. When you don’t have too many your own stuff, you would start to ignore what you want. Sometimes we can imagine that the homeless people are in this situation, they­ do not have anything but freedom.

Basically, she just needs some typical furniture or stuff to maintain her life and works. Talking about the enoughness, she did have enough things. And in rightsize question, she also gives us an answer, less is more.

The second interview: Tim’s aunty.

Incredible room!

His favorite interest is taking things from street and fixing them.

He thought he didn’t really need it but when he saw a mail box, he just bought it.

He would buy a house if he has enough money

The thing he really need is only for priority.

For enough and rightsize, he thinks that “you own everything but not rent”

Buy things but just using part of it. Ex: use the battery in the little fan because it would be cheaper than buying the battery.

Buy lots of things but just give it to friends or family

If there’s a fire, he would only take his ID and wallet (same situation when go out)

Any kind of bag he would take everyday.

He learns lots from making things by himself.

Move to here for two years.

Daily work: 1. Wake up 2. Doing booking work at pub

Tim’s uncle likes to take things from street. No matter it was broken or good. He doesn’t know why he wants to take this home just because he likes it. We had the interview in his apartment and his room. There’s a lot of things put in his room including a mailbox and one huge poster of Abercrombie and Fitch. He collects every kind of things. When we asked him about is it enough for you? He answered he just "like" these stuff. He buys crazy thing but it’s meaningful; likes things smarter than him that he thinks it’s interesting. Also he did a record for his car when other people burned it.

There’s an interesting thing, he went to Walgreen to buy many little fans which attached with batteries. He found that if you only buy the battery and the prize was more expensive than these little fans. So he bought the fans that he could also use the battery and the fan. Is it rightsize? I think the answer is yes. People who use one thing to make two possible functions also help them to deal with the problem “enoughness”. Although he took so many things back home (even some are other people’s things), he follows the rules: this thing is meaningful, if it’s broken, he would fix it and make it to another form.

For rightsize, he bought many foods or drinks to share with other friends and family members. For enoughness, what Tim’s uncle did is also a better way to save money. It seems he takes too many things home. On the other side, he fixes them and makes them to a new stuff. It’s not only collection but also reusing. It could solve many problem of over-buying.

Talking about the same question of enough and rightsize. His uncle answered, “you own everything but not rent it”. It means people truly have their own things without any deposit or rent. You don’t have to worry about that you have to return it. You can have it without any worries. When you successful complete it, you feel enough.

To compare with Ryan’s friend and Tim’s uncle, I found that people all need to own their things but different size. One she just needs a few stuff because she could go to any place right away, and the other one keep taking things home because he wants something really belong him. No mater which situation, they are different kind of “enoughness” and “rightsize”. Fewer things make people feel untied, collecting things and reusing it help to solve size problem. I am not sure which one is better but I am sure that is useful to deal with “enough” question.

17.9.09

Design Research week3 ! Rightsize!

This time we start to discuss about what is the right size and enoughness.

When I came to America few weeks ago, I found things here have the bigger size. It's really special to me. I believed that it depends on the culture and the people. For example, my cousin ordered a 4 by 4 layers( 4 layer meat, 4 layer cheese) burger in In-N-Out. What a amazing size! I also found people would buy a lot of food at one time and put in refrigerator to store. At least almost everyone has one car. Is this a common situation in USA? or just in California? I am so curious. It will be an interesting question to discuss.






The Size of Fast Food in Different Countries.

Super Size Me is a 2004 documentary film directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, an American independent filmmaker. Spurlock's film follows a 30-day time period (February to beginning of March 2003) during which he eats only McDonald's food.

Numbers tell everything:

1. He consumed an average of 20.92 mega joules or 5,000 kcal (the equivalent of 9.26 Big Macs) per day during the experiment.

2. As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (1¾ stone, 11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230.

3. Experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment.

So here I am going to discuss about the size of food. There are many chain food restaurants in USA. Most of them are also multinational enterprise so we can see it everywhere in the world. But the meals (menu) have little difference between every country. However, the main menu is the same. Seems that the chain food restaurant here is a symbol for food style. We can see that the food here in other restaurant is also a big meal. Also people have their meal by personal, like you order the food only for yourself. So you can eat whole food without sharing. That makes people eat more. In Asia, most of time people eat food together with the meals so that people have to share food fairly. in But why people like to take bigger (or super) size? Why people like to order more portions? Do people really need to take this size of food? If they couldn’t finish the meal, what will they do? Drop it? For next meal? Some people would make this decision just because you only have to pay a little bit extra money then you can get a bigger one! So it’s worthy, isn’t it?

Analyze

1. Compare to the people’s body here, thay may need more food to eat.

2. Paying little extra money can get a bigger meal.

3. The package design would attract prople to buy more.

4. Free meal , ex: McDonld’s free Moca

5. The taste is not bad!

But is it healthy?

Here ‘s some examples:

A.

Here’s also my personal experience with the size about the food.

Customize buger in the restaurant (ex: In-N-Out)

Order the 4X4 burger, 4 layer meat and 4 layer cheese , and I can’t finished it.

B. The cheese steak, the cheese and steak make people want to have next oe.

C. Chipotle

Also the Chinese movie: The Chinese Feast (1995) shows how people eat in Chinese and cuisines.

Source Link

Food and Nutrition:

1. 1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrition#Advice_and_guidance from Wikipedia

2. 2.http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3708.aspx from Institute of Medicine

The Movie:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me from Wikipedia

2. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1432315846377280008# from Google

3. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+chinese+feast&search_type=&aq=f from youtube

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chinese_Feast from Wikipedia

Things and happiness, storage space,

16.9.09

Design Research week3 ! Prototype!

After the brainstorming, our team use post-it to write down our thoughts. We can discover that the ideas are almost related to the people, seller and buyer. No matter the quality is good or not , the most important thing is the communication between people. Also, we heard some opinions from sellers. They said the flea market can also connect people's heart. People come here to have a conversation to talk to other people, not just only bargain the price but share their experiences.

That's why we design a prototype which is a software to provide sellers and buyers a platform(place) to contact/interact each other.


Here I post our prototype process by telling a story to express our thoughts.
Check it~!
Check the website.
Find out the vender.
Read the detail.
Search the product.
Use iPhone application in the market.
Successfully find the vender.
Make a test.
Great deal! Pay it!


9.9.09

Design Research week2 ! Peer to Peer marketing research and interview!


Have extended interviews with vendors!
There is also the flea market in Taiwan but not so popular.
The same kind of market in Taiwan more focuses on handcraft products.
People design their own products and sell in the market, such as dolls, t-shirts, and daily stuff.
After this market interview, these vendors taught me many things. We can see it's a hard environment. If you want to survive, you should be scheming. Some of sellers were friendly, some weren't. Basically, I think the key point to result in this situation is these vendors would consider that if you are wasting their time or not because you may not buy their used items.

Otherwise, it is an open/ outdoor market. All the items are exposed under the sun. You can pick anyone you like or check the item's quality. Some venders do not allow you to test the item. I believe it's because they do not want you know it works or not. Once you find it's broken, then this item would become a trash. They can't sell it anymore.







So Paulina Cioce, Charlotte Cooper and I went to Alemany Flea Market.
the location: 100 Alemany Blvd San Francisco, CA 94110-6221

Our Observation Plan:

1. Attend Alemany Flea Market on Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 10am.
2. Walk around and observe the marketplace as a group.
3. Ask questions, record and take pictures of the selling process.
4. Split up for individual field research and interviews.
5. Reconvene for observation comparisons and analysis.

5.9.09

Design Research WEEK1 ! Whole new world!

Whole new course!
I was major in engineering in undergraduate and after first class I found there's a lot of differences between design and engineering.
Engineering research is more serious and restricted but design research is more flexible.
Also, it could inspire me more!
I like it!


------------------------------

Attendance

Collaboration

Journals is the second grade

Gradings for every projects, journals is the second grade, midterm and peer review

Meeting new people

Seven dirty words: Consumer; anyone, someone who buys things, brainwashed to buy things,

User; anyone, a drug addict, who uses anything, user needs a direct object

Pubisher; businesses or instituues who distribute own materails., people who create and publish cotent, the rise of the emitter class

People as animals; target market, drive counsumers to retail, feed information

People as bpdy parts; mind-share, stomach-share , eyeballs

Mass market; everyone who shops as target, existed in the days when there were only three tv networkàtoday aggregation or smaller groups

Green; Carbon footprint or environmental impact? Milk in cartons or bottles? Local beef or beef from New Zealand? Hybrid or electric cars?

Bonus word: Design; problem-solving, need-finding, desire-creating, delight-producing

What is design research?: design as research1. Through making, materials, …2.

Methodology, steps: 1. Opportunity research 2. Secondary research 3. Primary research 4. Analysis 5. Finding 6. Values 7. Design principles 8. Design 9. Change

More structures reaserch proves lesadsto moere struruurs and stieir –works

Students need the entire travers from opportunitys ….

x-product.com

book: Human center design