Interaction Design Phase 1

Group G

2/24/2011

2011Waste Free Events Promotions

Waste Free Events Promotions

Interaction DesignCS4052Phase 1

Niamh Begley 10131256Denis Cronin 10103031Killian Vigna 10129758

Tara Donoghue 10131787

The Brief

In this project we were required to use a number of different research methods and techniques for the specification and design or an interactive system which will enhance the awareness of the environmental issues on campus.

We had to identify an issue of concern and undergo study relevant to this problem. We collected data from all of our research and study and analysed them.

Our work Plan

First thing we had to do was to form our group. We agreed that the four members of our team would work well together as we are all the same age. An advantage we had over other groups was that we all live on campus so it would be easy to meet up during the week. We all found the excessive usage of paper in the university to be a big concern. We collaborated and decided that the excessive usage of posters all over the college was a waste. We are all sociable people and enjoy going out. We all agreed on the topic of making the university “waste free” zone for promoting events. Together we read through the “look”, “ask”, “learn” and “try” research methods and decided which would be most useful in carrying out our research. We will meet during our time of between classes and in the evenings. After carrying out our research we will evaluate and document all of our findings. We chose Event Waste Management, as we all found this relevant in the modern college day life due to the mass amounts of event organising that takes place in and around the campus, also, we each attend an event at one time or another, and have shared our experiences on how we came about them.

The topics we chose are

1. Look•Fly on the Wall

•A Day in the Life•Behavioural Mapping

2. Ask•Camera Journal.

•Extreme User Interviews

3. Learn•Draw the Experience

•Activity Analysis

4. Try•Scenarios

•Paper Prototyping

Research Methods

1. Look

A day in the life

For day in the life we decided to track movements of acquaintance of ours. We informed him that we were carrying out research methods surrounding the concern of environmental issues in the university. He is a first year engineering student who wanted to find out information about an upcoming event. We asked him if we could track his movements as part of our research. He heard about an engineering mystery tour from his classmates and required more information. We used his enquiries to help us investigate the usage of posters in and around the university. He noticed that the posters advertising the event didn’t require information he required such as the date and cost of the tour. This has proven to us that some posters put up around the college are a waste of paper and a threat to the environment. Rory decided to look on social network site Facebook to require the information he needed. He discovered that a Facebook event page had been made which provided him with a lot of information such as the date, time, where the bus was leaving from and the names of his friends attending. Technology is taking over advertising and is more effective in many ways. There is a massive amount of wastage being produced from all of the posters put up around the college and we want to find a way of preventing such wastage.

Data

From our investigation it was obvious that technology is much better for the environment than the excessive printing of posters as it does no use a lot of paper which is rarely recycled in the college when it is finished with. Often we noticed that the posters had fallen on the ground and were being stood on and torn to bits and were being scattered all over the college. With Rory’s help we found that technology is much more effective in spreading the word about events as it is much more eye grabbing than sheets of paper posted on walls. It was obvious that most of the younger students find the student union common room is the focus point of finding out information. We discovered that it doesn’t take long to find out information because it often spreads by technology and word of mouth.

Justification

This method gave us the opportunity to explore the availability of events advertising all over the college from one end to the other. We got to see with our very own eyes how a male student seeks information when eager. We got to spend a day orientated around a male teenager’s life for a day which was interesting and just as fun as it was an effective contribution to our research.

Pictures of Rory during “A day in the life”

Fly on the wall

For this method we chose a place, which we felt, was a focus point for people seeking information through posters. We picked set times of the day to go and observe peoples natural actions. It allowed us to see how popular different places on campus are used and what type of person stops to find information.

Data

We found that the posters were clustered and hard to read because there were so many. It was also noted hardly anyone bothered to stop to find information. The posters that were up were mainly Clubs, Soc’s and bars. We also noted that on average it was males who stopped and everyone who’s stopped was between the ages of 19-21. From our observations we discovered that people put their posters on top of others without any care if they are covering others important displays. It was also noted that if people did stop to observe the information it was in groups who would then discuss their findings. We were very disappointed to see that posters were being taken done by others for their own use or thrown in the bin without any regard for its importance. There were four of the same posters in the one area, we feel this is a massive waste and an unnecessary threat to the environment.

Justifications

We felt that this method was very important as it’s allowed us to observe peoples natural interaction with the displays of posters. It meant that we could see what people’s reactions were without the pressure on them knowing we were watching. It was we felt the most realistic way of finding information about people and posters, for example it is unlikely that a person would cover up others information if they knew they were being observed. This method helped prove our point that there is far too much clutter in the university and this is an area we want to combat and make greener.

C Block hallway where there were a lot of passer-by’s but only few stopped within the hour we spent here.

Behavioural Mapping

For this method we asked a group of students, ranging in age, course, and social interest, to take a map of the campus and pin point the popular places and focal point of where they would go to find information on events. We also tracked the times which were most popular for people to go looking for information on events.

Data

From our investigation it was found that people all go to the same places to seek info on events. The Student unions common room is the main focus for seeking posters and information on events. It was discovered that participants find posters to be ineffective and missing info. It was made very clear that social networking in preferred.

Justification

We felt that this method would give us confirmation on the places that people focus when they are in need of information. We wanted to use this to see if people are happy with the places of information they can access through posters. We also wanted to know who much time is spent seeking information using the traditional methods

On the map bellow we have pin pointed the places within the university where information can be found and where people go to find information.

Red Raisin

SU common room

2. Ask

Camera Journal

Camera journal was extremely useful as we got to find out from a normal user their reactions to the posters that they saw in a normal day of college. We got them to take pictures and write down their reactions to what they saw. All of our volunteers had similar reactions.

Data

From doing this we recorded the fact that while there are many posters posted all over the common room people go to the same spot repeatedly. Most were frustrated with the fact they could not easily access the information on events, and which were expired due to the mass clutter of newer events. We also found out that for most event details, you had to access and join their group/ add them as a friend online through social networks. Our volunteers all noted that it was the posters with pictures and bright colours that stood out to them. They preferred posters which were clear and direct rather posters which had too much writing. They also noticed that there was a build-up of waste being made because old posters were still hanging on the wall instead of being recycled.

Justification

We decided to use the Camera Journal method so we could get a first person insight. They visually recorded how they perceived the mass of clutter of event notices everywhere and their emotional response, also how they feel about having to personally search through posters for what events are taking place.

On the following page is an example of one of the camera journals a student kept for us.

Extreme User Interview

This method allowed us to get in touch with those who promote events. We interviewed friends of ours who are in bands and who DJ. This method gave us a great insight into what ways people find the most effective ways of promoting their events. As we have seen in other methods technology is taking over and posters are becoming obsolete, however even though some people are taking the environmental friendly approach many people still advertise by printing posters and we want to combat this.

Data

When we each spoke to our friends about how they went about organising events, we we’re shocked with the results of both people. We found out that when they organised an event, they mainly set up a Facebook page and linked it to everyone in the local area, and also through friends, the full details (venue, time, date, promo’s) were all listed on this social networking page, as they revealed that they often used very little, or no posters at all, due to the unnecessary expenses, which are usually disposed of by the council, or damaged by weather conditions. Although they used no posters, and mainly networking sites, it was obvious that word had spread quickly due to event requests and pop up demanding the user’s attention, as opposed to looking for events.

Justification

We chose Extreme User Interview as two of our members both knew people who set up and organise events in and around our home towns, this is why we found it extremely useful, to gain an insight on someone familiar with the setup of organising events. We wanted to know what methods they use and why they use them for event managing.

This is an example of a poster an interviewee made. The image does not convey what the posters message is, however sufficient information is provided. The yellow writing stands out.

The big title draws you in and the background images are very effective and portray the theme of the event brilliantly. However it is very cluttered and unorganised so it is confusing what to read first.

The purple and yellow complement each other. The white writing standout out and conveys the main point effortlessly. The background adds to the poster rather than over dominating it. We really like this poster as it is simple but very effective.

3. Learn

Draw the Experience

We asked a volunteer to use the materials we gave them to give us their view of the perfect poster. We gave them a concert ticket, a poster, newspaper clippings, colouring pencils and paper. The result of this showed that they just want basic information like prices of tickets and drinks and they like the usage of bright colours.

Data

We learned that our audience wanted more information than possible to fit onto one poster, resulting in a larger surface area poster and creating more waste. We found that our friends whom organised events would only display basic information on a reasonably sized poster to keep costs down and post it on their social network page to provide more information, and anyone who wanted to know more details, or be notified of last minute changes, could contact the organiser directly. The service of last minute changes, or newer promotions was a great advantage over basic posters needing constant updating.

Justification

We decided to use the Draw the Experience method as a way to understand what people actually see on a flyer for an event and what they would prefer to see on an events poster, whether it should attract their attention or whether it should clearly display the information (Date, Venue, Time, Promotions). Also we wanted to know what the perceiver would like on a flyer that would catch their attention more easily.

• Activity Analysis

As a group we thought this would be a very proactive method. Killian knew the band members who were also students in UL so it was easy for us to organise a first-hand experience of events promotion and actually being part of the event. This method allowed us to interview the band members and get their opinion on promoting events by themselves. The bands were at a disadvantage due to the location so we wanted to see how they would cope with promoting and what forms of communication they would use. The bands had limited funding and therefor were environmental friendly and did not contribute the problem of waste in advertising in UL.

Data

As the event for the guys was on the other side of the country, we had already felt there would be a ruling out on posters to promote. Instead our friends enforced the use of social networking, by posting where and when they would be playing, and requesting for followers from their home town to travel up, also a lot of the members sent a text template to as many people in their phone book whom they felt would be interested and we found from these text it was also spread from word of mouth as most people who received the text brought up to 3 to 4 people.

Justification

We decided to use the Activity Analysis method as we knew a few band members and we felt it would be interesting to gain an insight on how they went about promoting a gig (organised by a second party) they were playing, and how they went about attracting a crowd for support to attend. The band had been asked to play a battle of the bands event in Galway city, and being as it was the other side of the country for them, we found them the perfect act to follow. This was an interesting case, as we wanted to know which forms of promotion the band would use, and which techniques they found most effective.

4. Try

Scenarios

For this method we chose 4 people, 2 boys and 2 girls of different ages and interests, to help us create scenarios to help further the research for our project. We chose 2 different locations, the Common Room and the Red Raisin, which we had previously discovered to be focus points for finding information. We asked them to observe the posters and comment on their findings. While they did this we watched where their focus was, which posters drew them in and how long they spent looking at them all. We recorded their interaction in case we needed to refer to it later.

Data

We found that our volunteers glanced over poster that did not stand out in either colour or catchy slogan. Having so many posters clustered together meant that focusing on one was difficult, without being distracted by the next. The volunteers noted that a lot were partially covered over by other posters blocking information. They also felt that many were badly designed and had too much writing on them, they did not get quickly to the point, which meant the user would lose interest in the event it was advertising. The volunteers felt that poster which had pictures on them were less intimidating.

Justifications

We felt that this was an important method to do as it gave us a clear view of the process that a person would go through when observing a poster or looking for certain information in a poster. It gave us key information like the average amount of time spent looking and the type of posters that people gravitate towards, for example informative, colourful, big or small. All these details help tell us what is necessary and what waste is.

Role Playing

We enjoyed this method as we got to take a proactive approach to our research. We enjoyed each after our own role to play. It was both fun and valuable as it showed us the role of the stakeholders. The two parts to play were the designer and person putting up posters and the person who was looking for information on an event. We decided to take a different approach and have a third character who played the role through an environmental eye. We did this twice each playing different roles and noted the difference of reactions.

Data

From the promoters point of view the more advertisements the better therefor their approach was the more posters the better without a care for the environment. Promoters are competitive with one another and have no respect for other people’s posters and are going to such lengths to cover others up or throw them away.

From the view of the onlooker they found that the brighter coloured posters and newly displayed were their focus of attention. They find the clutter often off putting. They understand why so many posters are used but that is without thinking environmentally.

From the view of the environmentalist the idea of wasting paper on excessive use of posters is a big problem in UL. They feel that a technological approach would benefit the university and would be more effective.

Justifications

We felt this method was essential to understand the reasons behind the stakeholder’s actions. Playing the different roles put everything into perspective and it strengthened our view that the idea of waste free events promotions in UL needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

Evaluation

To portray our project as a simple whole, we were four students, Niamh Begley, Tara Donoghue, Denis Cronin, and Killian Vigna grouped together by choice (as we lived within close distance of each other, and get on quite well for close team work).Our topic of choice was, “Waste free Event Promotion”. We chose this as our project, due to the increased amounts of posters and flyers for discos, gigs, and so on being set up. Due to this, we have noticed a mass amount of clutter on student notice boards in and around the college, and the near endless task of trying to review event posters taking place by a desperate bid to recover them from beneath more modern flyers.When we went about the college buildings, taking photos of notice boards around the stairwells and corridors, we noticed a slight competitive streak amongst event organisers, with such tactics as, freely placing one's poster directly over another’s, or bang on centre of the notice board, and also there was evidence of the use of coloured flyers, and large posters, dominating the smaller surfaced leaflets (as shown).On setting upon making a change in trying to clean up the act in how events are organised and advertised, our first motive was to indulge in a list of research topics we had agreed on as a team. The list of research methods we chose were:

1. Look – A day in the life, fly on the wall, behavioural Mapping.2. Ask- Camera Journal and Extreme user interview3. Learn- Draw the experience and Activity Analysis4. Scenarios and Paper PrototypingAfter many hours and users of research, our conclusions were pretty much being received as the same. Our subjects had each expressed how they rarely perceive and go through notice boards' posters or flyers anymore, because they simple don’t have the time or patience to have to dive right into a mass pile of notice's. According to them, gone are the days where notice boards were designed to catch your eye and give you a brief description on what an organiser was promoting. As a result of modern day students, people are demanding more and more information on venues, times, prices, and promo's, causing an increase in unattractive poster sizes, this is where our real conclusion came in.

ConclusionAccording to the students we based our research on, they declare how most of the events they found out about, are through social networking sites, e-mail, or via text, as they can provide a larger amount of information, and more specific details, also, there is the simple advantage of instant updates, such as new offers, a change in time and/ or venue, also, the matter of whether or not the event goes ahead, these are all basic things, that you won’t find out about from a poster.The reasons for social networking out-doing posters and leaflets, is an organiser can set up an event, free of charge (saving on design and printing expenses), and invite everyone they are friends with, or whom live in close locations to the venue, allowing them the options “Attending”, “Might Attend”, or “Not Attending”. Whoever then decides to attend the event, their friends will then be notified, and so on, creating a long list of endless event requests, all free, and without having to search through for, instead the networker can briefly scroll through their requests, and select the preferred event.

(Displayed are four example Social Network organised event posters used by one of the promoters we involved in our research

Reflection of the methods

We were reluctant to try these methods at the start as we were more incline to try coming up with a solution straight away but we should have looked at the problem first. However as we started this we shortly found out that this isn’t the way to go about this. As we began these methods we found out that there is a lot to the design process and as we continued it was obvious that we got a great insight into what people wanted and even what people felt towards the environment. Also how they felt or even if they knew the extent of waste created through organising an event and the effect it has on the environment.

We also found that these methods added up in their own individual way to give us a true insight into how much events can impact on the environment and also how easy it is to stop this. From going through these different methods such as fly on the wall and shadowing we felt it more appropriated to pick such methods like fly on the wall as with shadowing, we felt that the people were too aware of us there for we couldn’t get a through insight.

We felt fly on the wall the most interesting method as we found out that people don’t even notice or read the flyers or posters most of the time, so it felt as though all this waste was for nothing . Over all we felt these methods really help in this design project as each stage interlinked with each other which worked perfectly.

Examples of notice board and events posters we found throughout the campus

Posters covered up by newer posters resulting in overcrowding which is distracting and messy.

Here we can see the contrast between the small clubs and socs posters and the well-established clubs . We can see the obvious difference from the different budget. There is also a greater amount of information on the bigger clubs while the small clubs and socs only have the basic information.

Here we emailed campaigns and service officer and we were surprised to see they spent up to 70- 150 euro

Roles we played

These are just a few more examples of what we found throughout the collage of different cluttered posters and examples of how different event organisers attract people to their posters

As a group we decided we would meet once a week to check in on our progress. We decided to work on some of the methods as a group and some individually. Firstly we worked on “Behavioral Mapping” as a group this showed us the focal points for where the average student goes to find information on events. Then Tara and Niamh proceeded with the Look methods of “Fly on the Wall” and “Day in the life” as they lay the foundations of our research project. Mean while Killian and Denis worked on the Learn method “ Activity Analysis” as Killian knew a band who spent a lot of time promoting their events. Denis asked his roommates to make up collages using materials they supplied to represent in their eyes, what they want to see on an event poster. As a group we then worked on the Try research method “Role play”, this was a group task that needed all of us to take part to succeed. In the mean time we had asked a few friends to keep an Ask method “Camera Journal” on their interaction with events promotion through out a day. The last two methods were also worked on as a group. The Ask method “Extreme user interview” was one that we all wanted to take part in, as it was a very proactive way of learning important information on our chosen topic. “Scenarios” the Try method required us all to work to together to be able to effectively recreate the necessary scenarios.