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.