After our interim crit presentation, we found it crucial to regroup and filter out a few of the ideas that we didnโt want to keep. Even though there were a few good points made from our peers during feedback, our tutorโs feedback really helped stir us in the right direction.ย
We immediately called a group meeting and started ideating a few ideas using โthe crazy 8โ technique of drawing 8 different ideas as quickly as possible without thinking too much, and out of those we would choose the 3 best ones. We knew however a couple of things that gave us a slight advantage; one was that we already had a few strong leads which was the transport waiting areas, and empathy in nature, thanks to our tutor and peer feedback.ย
Our group met up at the British Library as ongoing strikes at City meant that the university campus was closed. This proved to be a blessing as being together in a different environment gave us a different perspective of the brief and we remembered that we should enjoy the creative process together.ย ย
Interestingly, we hadnโt bonded as much as a team before we met up at the British Library mainly, I believe due to everyone being quite busy with other modules and their personal lives. And it showed that we hadnโt come together as a group in our last presentation. One of our group members for example had covid, and therefore unable to join us for the final ideation meeting.ย
I had mentioned the British Library to my group as it has always been an enjoyable space and experience for me, whether it was for research purposes or just to have a wonder around and a coffee with friends. I found that being in a different environment gave our group a sense of ease and tranquillity, and we all felt quite relaxed which in turn opened our mind to explore different interesting design outputs.
During our fun crazy 8 sketching session, I had remembered that I had seen an online event called: โDesigning with Empathyโ from the Happold Foundation where many engineers, designers, scientists all took part in this conversation and inspired me to design using data.ย
We didnโt want to just try to find a one solution for all with these concepts, however it was important for us not to lose sight of our main topic of โEmpathyโ or โPerspective Takingโ which was the very core of our values as well as who we intended to design for, such as London commuters.
By the end of the session, we had agreed on two main concepts taken from the crazy 8 sketches: The first, was about raising awareness for London species using data and sound in and around transport areas, and the second was using pollution data and sound around public transport spaces and services. The idea was to use pollution data in heavily affected areas of London and as pollution increases, so would a terrible and alarming sound. The idea however, was abandoned as it would be very upsetting for the public.ย ย
The main purpose of these concepts from this ideation session was to bring some Yin and Yang balance between the man made cold public transport spaces, and the natural world represented by organic sounds of London species, and organic chair shapes to be used to add comfort in these spaces.ย
This seemed like the best response to creating more empathy, after all, empathy is about our relationship with our natural and built environment and with other human beings.
We ended up taking the sketches and translating them to Miro.ย
References and links of interest:ย
https://www.happoldfoundation.org/video/city-conversations-designing-with-empathy/