Task 1:
- Research three user-centred design processes or tools that can be used to discover a core need or problem e.g. customer journey maps, service safaris, a day in the life, cultural probe, double diamond.
- Select one process and write a short 100-word description to illustrate how it can be used to discover an insight or challenge.
Task 2:
- Research and select one existing campaign or service design project that tackles a social problem and analyse its effectiveness. Please remember to include information about any user-centred design processes that may have been used and the impact it brought about.
- Write a 300 – 400 word description with screen grabs to illustrate your research findings.
For the first task I wanted to choose three areas that I am interested in learning more about but also want to improve my knowledge of through research: Ethnographic research, Success Metrics and User Scenarios.
Ehtnographic research methods are a particular research approach where you fully immerse yourself ina cultural setting, to produce a narrative account of that particular culture. Observing how they interact with one another, alongside their social and cultural environments. It’s a proven way to really understand the needs of a particular demographic.
Success Metrics are more commonly used towards the final stages of design production, but can also be used throughout to test the success of a certain part of the project. The metrics are a set of criteria which define the success of the project or its final implemetation. Different types of data can be taken from either of these levels, meaning when the metrics are defined, that data needs to be appropriately distilled to identify a means of improvement and use it appropriately within the design. Of course, for this to take place one needs to ensure appropriate personas and useer scenarios are in place.
User Scenarios are a valuable tool to imagine how the user (or persona) would interact with your pproduct or service. Personas are a pre-cursor to scenarios, and so need to be accurately and appropriately defined. Scenarios are then created around these personas to understand the users needs and motivations either before creating the service or during to assess the usability.
Chosen Process : User Scenarios
User Scenarios are a valuable tool to imagine how the user (or persona) would interact with your product or service.
Designers might use these scenarios to fully develop an understand of the persona or intended user, but they can also be a valuable too to understand how the product can be used in certain scenarios under different contexts. Scenarios are created to take the user through specific journeys through the service. Personas are a pre-cursor to scenarios, and so need to be accurately and appropriately defined. Scenarios are then created around these personas to understand the users’ needs and motivations either before creating the service or during to assess the usability.
These scenarios act as short stories and take both the user and designer through the process gaining a deeper understand of the exact needs and requirements of either user or service.
Task 2
This Girl Can was created in 2015 to help women break down barriers which were defined during the research programme behind the campaign. Developed by Sport England, it targeted and celebrated active women “who are doing their thing…no matter how the look”. Funded by the National Lottery and backed by the government body Sport England, there is not a commercial aspect to the campaign.
During the initial investigative research, Sport England found that in the age brackets 14-40, 2 million fewer women than men partake in sport regularly. This was due to a number of factors, predominantly fear of judgement, the main barrier for most women who felt unable to partake in physical activity. This being despite 13 million women said they would like to participate in sport and physical activity.
As a result of the 2015 campaign, 1.6m women started exercising and the number of women taking up a new sport is increasing faster than the number of men.
Taking influence from Vladimir Propp’s character theory, the campaign was successful because of the dominance of a hero narrative – the protagonist here is relatable and free of inhibitions.
In 2020, in light of the success of the 2015 campaign, Sport England launched a new “Me Again” campaign, which was later developed during the Pandemic showing the same inspirational women fitting exercise into their own lives in the Covid-19 forced circumstances.
By utilising real women and real stories, and creating powerful personas, Sport England have been able to create recognisable and influential narratives that are relatable. It showed real women defying society’s judgements about periods, menopause, LGBTQ+ and disability inclusion.
One of the main ways the campaign assessed its viability and immediate success was with the hashtag #thisgirlcan, connecting readers to the campaign’s social media pages and to analyse the power of the campaign. Through this, they were able to see that the hashtag was still in use after the success of their first campaign, leading them to recreate the campaign in 2020. Using this success metric, they had immediate access to numbers and figures of real users getting involved.
I feel this campaign clearly shows the power of design on societal fears and judgements and it breaks down barriers that very much existed. This campaign is also a really good example of utilising an existing campaign and following a set process to assess the power of the design. Through the original campaign, they had immediate access to success figures and an existing database of people using the hashtag and completing surveys about the changes to their exercise habits.
Bibliography
The Interaction Design Foundation. (2019). What is User Centered Design? [online] Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/user-centered-design.
Marketing Week. (2020). This Girl Can tackles influencers’ “unrelatable” fitness images in fifth anniversary campaign. [online] Available at: https://www.marketingweek.com/sport-england-this-girl-can-five-years/.
The Drum. (n.d.). Sport England: This Girl Can by FCB Inferno. [online] Available at: https://www.thedrum.com/creative-works/project/fcb-inferno-sport-england-girl-can-1 [Accessed 19 Mar. 2021].
http://www.dandad.org. (n.d.). This Girl Can | FCB Inferno | Sport England | D&AD Awards 2020 Pencil Winner | Established Campaigns | D&AD. [online] Available at: https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2020/231796/this-girl-can/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2021].
This Girl Can. (2018). About Us – This Girl Can. [online] Available at: https://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/about-us/.
Go where women are Insight on engaging women and girls in sport and exercise. (n.d.). [online] . Available at: https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/insight_go-where-women-are.pdf?eYAoAledAKaO0lngZqC6_DFYjF7_rfAI.
Hannah Elizabeth Design 