Assignment 5a

The topic I chose to look at in semester 1 centred on the idea of looking at how new technology can revolutionise how we live and interact with the world today. This was examined through the notion of creating a new product which allows people to business and social network, regardless of where they are in the world. This results in saving time, effort and money.

In semester 1 we looked at secondary research in the form of journals and books. These formed the basis for my research. Forms of wireless communication and connectivity, PDA and other such devices and other factors were some of the areas researched. The ways in which my idea could fit in with contemporary society was also examined. Whilst this search provided a basis for the research regarding the types of new technology available, information gathered using a method of primary research may have added more depth.

Throughout semester 2 we have been looking at alternative methods of carrying out research. These methods are all primary methods of research, which offers both advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages include being able to ask exactly what you want, how you want and it is therefore not necessary to rely on other peoples work. It is possible to interpret the results in the way you wish, which means it is possible to avoid being reliant on other peoples interpretations. Finally, the research will be accurate for the current time and it is tailored exactly to your needs. Disadvantages of this are it is very time consuming and expensive to conduct primary research.

These methods of research include carrying out observations, interviews and experiments.
Reading over my research from semester 1, it shows that the research I found was more to do with new and existing technology that is available. The information I was looking to find would have been more to do with how this device can be used for networking. As my secondary research was not exactly what I was looking to find, the next thing I would do is my primary research.

A method that I would consider which I think would be useful in this topic is carrying out interviews. I would look at interviewing experts in the field of technology relating to my product. I could also look at interviewing businessmen and a cross section of the general public through age and gender as male and females views on the subject may differ. By interviewing experts in this field I would be able to examine how both existing and new technology could be used to innovate and develop my product further.

I would look at interviewing experts in the field of technology related to my product. I could also look at interviewing business people working in this field. I feel by using this particular research method it would enable me to gain knowledge and understanding that would be difficult to achieve from other research methods, as it is first hand, primary research that would be current and valid in the terms of technical information and the needs of the target market. Also by carrying out this interview in a semi-structured format, the responses would be informative and allow me to ask the participant to elaborate or expand when necessary. One limitation of this method is that it is very time consuming as it takes a lot of pre-planning and organisation in order to gather the relevant information. Also you are only finding out information from a very small selection of the target audience, which may make the information difficult to generalise to the rest of the population.

A further research method I could utilize is that of carrying out observations. I intend to carry them out in environments that allow people to interact with each other. These could include social or business networking events and even public places like bars and restaurants. By carrying out these observations it would allow me to explore in further detail the target market that I aim to reach. The observational method would allow me to record peoples body language and behaviour in social situations.

However, like all methods of research, the observation method has its limitations. Gaining consent is one important issue in observational research. For example if I were to carry out this method of research at a networking event, I would require consent form people attending prior to conducting the observation. However, it would be possible to avoid this problem by observing behaviour in situations in which the people being studied would expect to be observed by strangers. Problems can occur if people are aware that they are being observed as this may result in them behaving in an unnatural manner. It would also be necessary to have a checklist to list the types of behaviour to be observed. Although this method would not provide an account of the person’s thoughts or inner experience on the subject, it would be possible to observe how they behave in natural situations.

Having gained all this information it may also be useful to discuss with my peers or even an expert in this field the information that I had gathered. As I think it would be beneficial to hear what they thought and see if they had anything they would like to add.

Within this proposal I have looked at two primary methods of research, each of which has their limitations. In conclusion, I feel that using the method of interviewing people would be the most successful for this particular piece of research, as it affords the opportunity to use open questions, which invite elaboration and would provide a richness of information, which is difficult to obtain from other methods. This would enable me to gather a broad range of information and would provide an insight into how I could then develop the project.

Assignment 1- Swapping photographs

For assignment 1 we were asked to collect a number of photographs from our childhood or our environments and personal spaces and swap them with a person that you don't really know. I swapped mine with a girl in my class. We decided to swap photographs of our childhood.

When I was looking at the photos, I began taking notes. The first photo I looked at is of Laura and a group of her friends. They all look around 10 or 11 years old. They are all standing in a circle with there arms linked looking down at the camera. It looks like the photograph has been taken in a park or someones garden.
In the second picture Laura is alot younger. It is a family picture with her mum, dad and younger sister. They are at the beach and are all smiling in the photograph. This could of been a special day out at the beach.
In the next photo she is sat on what looks like her grandads knee. They are looking at each other and laughing. There body language is open and very relaxed. I think also by looking at this picture that Laura and her grandad have a very close relationship.

The final photo is of Laura standing in her bedroom. She is in fancy dress and has a big smile on her face. From this it shows that Laura has a fun and playful personality. The first thing that stands out in the background of the photo is the decor. It looks like it has been recently redecorated as it looks very fresh and modern. There is also a t.v in the corner and lots of DVDs. Most of the DVDs are chick flicks which shows she is quite a girlie girl. Another aspect that is clear from the photograph is that Laura likes things to be organised, as everything has its place and looks very neat and tidy. There is also lots of photos on her wall. Mostly ones of her with friends on nights out. This tells me that she is a very caring person and that she cherishes her friends.
I think this photo has revealed the most about Laura's personality and what she likes and dislikes. My overall impression of Laura is that she is a very sociable person and loves spending time with her friends, as most of her pictures starting from a young age have been taken with friends.

When looking through the pictures for the first time I felt like I was invading the privacy of someone I didn't really know, but having started taking notes I felt alot more comfortable.
After meeting up with Laura to discuss our analysis of each others photo's we found that most of the assumptions we had made about each others photos was pretty much right except for the odd detail here and there. I felt very comfortable talking about my photos and correcting her on any slight mistakes. I think this is because we found out that we have had very similar up-bringing and that we have similar tastes. Laura told me that she was very close to her grandad and had spent alot of time during her childhood with him. So my assumption was right but you can tell by just looking at the picture they are very close. Also the picture of her with her family on the beach was exactly what I had said. It was a special occasion as it was her little sisters 5th birthday. In the final photo my assumptions were right again but there was a few things that Laura pointed out in the background which I hadn't picked up on. Like there was a teddy on the shelf which her grandad had given to her when she was a baby. Throughout this entire experiment I was fascinated and intrigued to find how much information you can find out about someone. Just by looking at a few photos I found out that Laura has a fun and playful personality, she is a sentimental person as she has kept things from her childhood, she is very neat and organised and that she loves her friends and family and couldn't live without them!

Assignment 2- Experiment

For assignment 2 we were asked to read an essay entitled "The Rhetoric Image" by Roland Barthes. We were then asked to get into groups and identify the key points and to understand how it relates to my own discipline.

The first time i read this essay i was left feeling very confused. Barthes originally wrote this essay in French having been translated into English I found that some of it did not make sense. I also found the language he uses quite complex. But after reading it through for a second time i found it easier to make sense of.
In this essay Barthes mainly looks at how images can have more than one meaning (polysemy) and that these can be interpreted by looking at a number of different aspects of the visual language. Barthes also focuses a lot on advertisement, and by looking at three different aspects of a message, it can be broken down further. He then goes on to talk about the 'linguistic message' which is a written message which can often be in the form of a caption, this is used to stop people asking the obvious. Whilst making notes i tried to relate it to my discipline to make it easier to understand. For example when he talks about how photographs can convey literal information. A photograph portrays 'Spectatorial Consciousness' whereas a film portrays 'fictional consciousness.' He then mentions the use of lexical which is the relating of the words of a language. I feel that this very much relates to my own discipline as it is important to use a visual language and to practise and build on these skills throughout your work. Barthes also mentions Cultural Associations, which I could easily relate to my cultures project, as this can be explored through textiles in many different ways. I then carried out my experiment which really helped my understanding of polysemy.

For the first part of the experiment we had to randomly select three images from a website and then ask a selection of people to look at the images and to say what they thought was going on in them. The outcome should be that they would come up with a story that links all three images. We then had to choose a story then add a fourth image and show a different selection of people the photographs and see if they came up with a similar story to that we had chosen.






Steve-29
You are born, you graduate and
then you have a family

Tom-35
Life cycle of an intelligent person

Graeme-25
Life of an average Joe, grows
up and then joins the rat race like
everybody else.

Kirsty-49
Little boy achieves his childhood
dream of becoming a professional
and last piece of the puzzle is to
have a family.

Gillian-17
Young boy looking into his future,
becomes a young professional and is
deciding on what the last piece of his
puzzle will be.

Target story-
Little boy achieves his childhood
dream of becoming a professional
and last piece of the puzzle is to
have a family.

We then had to add a fourth image to
see if people came up with a similar story
to the one we had chosen.




Ruth-22
Boy grows up gets dream job
and has a family.

Ben-26
The image of a perfect life

Alana-25
Young professional guy grows
up and has a family.

Dean-30
Puzzle is his life, nearly complete
last piece is to get married and have
children.

Our final task was to add a word to each of the photographs. I found even before I added the text to the images, the answers I got were very similar to my target story. By adding the text it relates back to what Barthes mentioned when he talks about how text is used so that people understand the obvious.
I found this experiment really interesting and enjoyed hearing people come up with lots of different stories for my chosen images. Having finished the experiment and written up my results i re-read the essay. I would definitely say that my experiment was a success and agreed with Barthes theory. I also found my understanding of polysemy and the essay as a whole after carrying out the experiment was much improved.

Assignment 3- Observation

This assignment required us to choose a location which would allow the observation of people going about their daily business in an everyday environment. Their behaviour would then be recorded. Initially, I considered going to a place such as the local coffee shop, but I wanted to find a location where it was not necessary to obtain peoples consent and there would be a variety of people. I therefore decided to go to Waverly train station in Edinburgh as this would provide both of these things.

The first thing I did was to sketch out the layout of the train station. This provided an instant overview of the surroundings and was helpful to get a general feel of the place. Whilst doing this I noticed there was a very clear design system in place. On the right hand side of the seating area, people were moving through the barriers towards the platforms and on the left, the railings guided people from the platforms towards the direction of the exits. This is definitely a factor the designers have taken into consideration whilst designing the station as having this system in place helps to minimise congestion.

The next thing that struck me concerned the people themselves as there were people of different age groups, different social backgrounds and from a variety of different cultures.
I sat in a couple of different locations around the train station, and I found I got very different feedback to my observations. From the centre seating area, the station appeared at its busiest. There was an electric atmosphere and it was difficult to know what to observe and which behaviours to ignore. I started off by just looking around and at first glance everyone looked as if they were just rushing on their way, but the more I observed, the more I noticed people’s body language, their facial expressions and the way they were interacting with their surroundings and other people. People appeared to be on edge and seemed stressed, constantly checking their pockets for tickets and looking at watches. One female had her arms tightly crossed, which seemed to indicate that she did not want to communicate with anyone and almost created a barrier between her and the other people close by. I was very aware that the two people on either side of me were very restless and agitated, which indirectly had an affect on my behaviour as I found myself also becoming slightly restless. They seemed to dislike others getting too close to them and moved themselves and their bags frequently. This demonstrates the ways in which other people’s body language can have an unconscious effect on others around them. A further example is when people yawn when aware of another person doing it, or even read about it, or whilst thinking about it. It is an involuntary reaction that comes from our subconscious behaviour.

I then decided to go and sit outside the ticket office. From here I got a good view of the Costa Coffee’ and an adjacent bar. The atmosphere within this area appeared completely different to that of the centre of the station. The people were relaxed and seemed to be at ease in their surroundings. To my immediate left, a couple sat close together. Their body language was obviously intimate and private, as they made lots of eye contact and frequently mirrored each other’s behaviour. This made them seem less aware and therefore less affected by their surroundings.

Several small groups were seated in small clusters nearby. Whilst seated close together, their body language was much more open and casual. They were attending to their conversation but also seemed much more interested and aware of what was going on around them as they chatted. The females in the group showed more emotional expression on their faces as they smiled more than the males. They also played with their hair when they spoke which made them look unsure about whatever they were discussing.

Interestingly, those people who were seated on there own appeared to occupy themselves by playing on their phone or reading a newspaper. On further observation, it was clear that many of them looked rather uncomfortable and even slightly nervous. It could be that having something to engage with or read distracts the person and provides a false sense of security and therefore helps them to feel safe.

Whilst on the train I had noticed an older lady struggling up the centre aisle with a large bag. The train was very busy with no available seats so she stood at the end of the carriage next to the doors. A few minutes later a young boy probably in his mid teens, who was wearing baggy clothes and a baseball cap pulled right down over his face stood up. My initial thought was he looks rather suspect, but then to my surprise he turned to the old lady and offered her his seat. The old lady politely refused and then as he sat back in his seat, bobbing his head to his iPod I noticed the old lady continue to look at him for a few moments with a little smile of what looked like surprise on her face. This was without doubt, my favourite observation of the day as the lady seemed genuinely surprised and touched that this young boy had offered her his seat and this was clearly written all over her face.

I also observed that people sat on the window seats in the carriage but placed their bags on the adjacent seat. It appeared as if they were making a quiet point that they did not want anyone else sitting next to them in their personal space. I found it amazing that this seemed to work as people would look at their bags and walk past looking for a seat rather than ask if they could sit down.

Reflecting on this experience has made me aware of how I felt as I observed others. There were times where I felt a little self-conscious as a few people noticed that I was taking notes whilst observing them. Some people seemed to change their behaviour as a result of being observed which resulted in a feeling of invading the person’s privacy at times. But what I did learn is that observational studies are very useful for recording natural behaviour as it occurs. It provides the opportunity to see many things in everyday life that are usually missed and demonstrates the powerful effect that facial expressions and body language can have on others behaviour. However, it was difficult at times, to decide what to focus on and I found myself distracted by the volume of people around me. I felt that I may have missed certain things as a result. This demonstrates the need for having a clear idea of the behaviour on which the researcher needs to focus.

Assignment 2 Poster

For this assignment we were asked to make connections between design and the book 'The Tipping Point'. For my idea I came up with the concept of a new way of business and social networking.
The concept is very simple, yet incredibly effective and could revolutionise how we network both in business and social circumstances. The idea is it could be a hand held device or an application you can install on your phone. It allows you to connect with likeminded people in either business or social situations maximising your ability to meet compatible people from the get go. The main advantages of this are that it saves you time, money and maximises your efficiency.


Time
Integration
Management
Enhancer

Social
Networking
Automated
Peers

How it works:
Bluetooth PUSH (has to be enabled)
WAP PUSH (has to be enabled)
Application

Business:
Automatically connect with valuable people, be it while walking down the street, attending networking events or even sitting at your office desk.

Share contact information with the touch of a button

Connect according to up to the minute business requirements

Track employers throughout their working day

Enables specific marketing company's tailored to each person’s personal preferences.

Personal:

Meet new friends match to you

Date easily

Connect people

The time automatically detects other Bluetooth and WAP devices- and provided they are enabled will share with the other person, business or personal details who match your pre entered personal preferences.
Application for your phone which will automatically do everything for you.

Advantages and opportunity's of using this?

Business:

Every night you can "sync" the device to feed the contacts into a CRM system (customer relation management) and them contact them to do business

saves businesses time

pre qualifies leads

Assignment 4- Interview

For this assignment we were asked to select a question from a list of topics and then to conduct an interview. The topic I chose to look at was "What does the way someone decorates their living space tell you about them". I initially brainstormed some ideas which allowed me to come up with ideas and questions that would enable me to extract as much information as possible from my participants. Creating the initial questions was quite easy but the difficult part was selecting four key questions which would allow the participants to elaborate on responses rather than provide closed type answers. The three participants included both males and females with ages ranging from 19 to 49 years of age. The interview questions were as follows:

What is your favourite room in your house and why?

Is your style in decorating influenced by anything such as TV programmes, magazines, designers?
-If yes which ones?
-If no what influences your style?

What colour scheme would you say is most prominent throughout your home?
-Why did you use this colour palette?


Would you consider yourself to be brand conscious when decorating your home?


The first question asked if the participant had a favourite room in their home and if so, why. All participants had a favourite but differed slightly in their choice. Two out of the three people declared the kitchen to be their favourite room as they considered this to be the ‘hub’ of the home where the family spend the most time together. This suggests that they have outgoing and sociable personalities, are very family oriented and like to create a space within the house where they socialise with friends or family. The third and youngest participant considered the living room to be his favourite room, as it was somewhere where he would relax and chill out whilst listening to music with friends. This demonstrates how music rather than food orientated activities were important to this participant as he socialised with others.

The second question asked whether the participant was influenced by magazines/designers or television programmes and this produced very different responses. One participant appeared to be little influenced by designers or television programmes, preferring to look through catalogues such as Marks and Spencer's and Next. He stated that he did not follow fashion trends and preferred the ease of flicking through a catalogue and picking out what he likes and considers will be practical in its use but it could also be argued that even though it is not a priority, he is taking a safer option by choosing furnishings which have already been matched for him.

In contrast, the second participant appeared to be very inspired by both designers and magazines having admitted to recently employing an interior designer to redecorate his home to create a more contemporary look. He admitted to being heavily influenced by magazines featuring the homes of celebrities and often tried to copy their ideas. This demonstrates that he is very aware of current trends and likes to keep up to date with the latest fashions in terms of colour schemes. The female participant stated that she was very influenced by the media. Television programmes such as ‘60 minute makeover’ and ‘Home Invaders’ provided her with ideas and often encouraged her to redecorate her home even when it was not necessary.

The responses from the interviews demonstrated differences in taste which may result from the difference in ages between participants. The younger participants were more influenced by current trends and designers, whereas the older participant was influenced by media based information when decorating their homes.

Responses to the third question showed the two oldest participants to have neutral colour schemes throughout their homes. The female participant stated that she preferred pastel colours like soft pinks and blues because she was reserved and gentle in personality rather than being daring and bold. The middle aged male stated that he preferred pale yellows and creams throughout his home as he felt the more neutral pallets created a soothing and relaxed environment. In contrast, the young male participant had his home decorated in bright vibrant colours with contrasting furnishings as he thought that this reflected his outgoing and adventurous personality.

For my final question I asked whether people are brand conscious when decorating their home. Two of the participants denied they were and the youngest male was the only participant to admit to being brand conscious. He stated that he was very brand conscious as he felt this was a reflection of who he was and how much he could afford. He felt that his home provided the opportunity to demonstrate his love of designer labelled items which his friends could identify and relate to.

In conclusion, I found the interview method to be an interesting and informative way to gain information, as the information received is first hand and the questions can be adapted in order to gain the type of information required. However, the interviews were rather time consuming and it is important to consider how being familiar with the participants may have influenced their responses. This may particularly apply to the question regarding the influence of brand names. It may have been that the participants would have been more honest about whether they were influenced by such things if they were not familiar with the interviewer.
From conducting these interviews, I have discovered how much a person’s home can say about them, their life and even reflect their personality. The majority of people want their homes to feel lived in and inviting to others but the interview responses showed how each home expressed individual differences in personality. I also feel that there is a subconscious connection between our mental state and the state of our home and an environment can affect the development of personality. I can definitely relate to this as when my flat is untidy, it affects my personality in that I feel a sense of being unorganised and less comfortable in my surroundings.