Notes on Design Proposal (finished classwork from 3/10/17)
Lillian Rose-Wilen
Review your SJ Hub project progress with these criteria:
How effectively does the purpose/ function of this design proposal connect with the BRB Social Justice Hub’s intended community? Is it empowering and productive? How so? What evidence do you have to demonstrate how well this design aligns with the mission of the space?
I believe that the function of my design is to provide students with free clothes, using the cabinets and shelves in the hub conference rooms as a space where students can take and leave clothing and shoes. I do believe this design aligns with the BRB Social Justice Hub, because it would be a student run, non-profit system that works to extend access to low income students at the New School. I do not have any evidence that it will “work,” because my design shifted drastically when I interviewed Molly Johnson and Kiani Brown late this week.
My identity has definitely influenced my design because it considers climate justice, a concept I am really interested in. I really struggled throughout this project because I felt uncomfortable, as a white, cis, middle class woman, designing for a hub that is for students who DON’T epitomize TNS privilege. This shame and discomfort held me back from researching the hub in a way that was really that deep or genuine. However, at the end of this week, I finally feel like I know enough about the space to design for it. For me, the research process took longer because I had to overcome personal distress before I could really get a full view of the hub. However, I feel pretty comfortable with my design, now. I didn’t get as far as the assignment dictated, but I’m proud of my work.
Challenge yourself to center the Hub “community” instead of simply relying on your own instincts.
Some questions to consider:
How does/ has your identity impacted your engagement in this assignment? Consider the role your race/ gender/ class/ sexual orientation have played in your research, your design proposal and your engagement with the BRB SJ Hub community.
2. How representative of the BRB SJ Hub community is the target audience you’ve selected?
Who is being targeted? Why? How?
The “targeted audience” stated about must refer to who I engaged with my project. I think that both people I interviewed (Molly and Kiani) were probably more knowledgable about the hub, and past efforts at revitalization, than the average hub user. Again, the work I did this week wasn’t a full engagement of my final design. Going forward, the only way I can think of “engaging” people with my design, is to actually fully implement it. It would be difficult to conduct a hypothetical engagement, especially one targeting the intended audience of the hub, without just doing it.
3. How effective are the techniques you’ve chosen to engage your target population?
Was the designer effective in finding their identified target audience? If not, how else might they go about this?
Were the methods used effective in allowing their target audience to engage meaningfully with this design? If not, what could have been done more effectively?
I think that interviewing someone is a pretty good way to get information. But then again, I had a pretty large deficit in information, so any type of meaningful research really helped me out.
4. Does the documentation of the engagement process effectively communicate the value of this project?
Did the documentation process distract participants from engaging genuinely? If so, how could this be done differently?
Are participants able to fully experience this design proposal? If not, what’s missing, and how might they experience that component?
I recorded my interviews with my phone. Both interviewees seemed comfortable with being recorded, and I don’t believe it effected their answers.
5. Which of the Design Justice framework points have you actively adhered to, and which have you not fulfilled? Why is that? How can you fulfill more of these points for this assignment? For future work?
I believe that I did prioritize the design’s impact over my intentions, because I allowed my project to really change when I talked to different people.
I did not fully involve the intended audience in my design process, but I also think that part of that would come in when the resource swap is implemented. Then the design would change because the people using it would be part of the design process. So, in the implementation of my design, I will have to build in a system that allows me to hear the response, and adapt the design in a way that centralizes its users.
