naturalreconnection

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exhibition

Looking ahead to the exhibition, I want to book in some more time in the 3D lab to laser cut the final poster and laser cut a new contextual document. I want the cover of my contextual document to be the same material as the poster- the bamboo material. I need to refine my business cards for the event and figure out how I will be presenting my calendar, as I am not allowed to have the posters at the event. 

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reflection of process & outcome

This design process has certainly been my most difficult to date. It took me ages to find my feet and get moving on this project and as soon as I felt like I had a grip on what I was doing and where I was going with it a whole bunch of other commitments got in the way and I lost my trajectory. I over-committed myself this semester and I feel it shows in my process, there were weeks I only managed to get a couple of tests done, and other weeks I crammed in a whole bunch of work. 

I am really excited about my idea, I think it will work, it has feasibility, and it is now a case of refining that further. I think something else I struggled with this project was thinking too broadly. I tried to bring to life every part of this solution, where I could have really refined one aspect and then prototyped the rest. 

One thing that worked really well this semester was my research. This has been my most informed solution I have come up with. It was really awesome to see all of my research come to life in this solution and I have enjoyed the problem-solving aspects of digging deep into a problem and then researching potential ways to solve that. 

I have learnt a lot about time management this semester, and that saying no to things when you don’t have time is okay. I think if I was to do this process over again I would start brainstorming solutions earlier and get into interviews and testing earlier. The more informed you are earlier, the more time you have to refine the solution. 

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My final pitch video for sixty-six days.

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Contextual Document

I wrote this document mainly following the guidelines Kerryn gave us last semester as they were more tailored to UX/UI processes specifically. It was really great having those questions as a guideline to follow, it made it easier to talk about my work. At first, I was intimidated by the thought of designing and printing a publication, as I hadn’t had to think about printing and binding in a long time. I did lots of research into what old school national geographic journals looked like and other almanacs for inspiration for my design. 

After getting into the swing of it though, I quite enjoyed getting to design books again. I wanted to keep my design very simple as I feel that reflected the sixty-six days solution. I also wanted it to be calming and so it had to read well and use easy to read colours. 

The cover I really wanted to laser cut in the same material as my calendar. However, the 3D lab was fully booked and so instead I printed my cover to look like there was a disconnection between the reader & the image. 

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Instagram page walkthrough - to website

I needed to create an Instagram for this solution as social media is the first port of call when it comes to reaching audiences. Especially my target audience of 18-35-year-olds who are one of the most predominant age groups who use Instagram. The idea being that people will find out about sixty-six days through Instagram, this will then take them through to the website where you can find more information and order a calendar for yourself. 

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pitch video

Today I began planning my pitch video as I knew it would take me a while to organise all my assets and plan how I wanted it to work. I began by writing a loose script. I find this helps me begin to plan how the video will flow and how much time I need to spend on each section. 

Script: Do you ever stop & smell the flowers? 

Imagine if there was a form of medicine that had the ability to reduce stress, improve memory, boost your immune system, reduce inflammation & blood pressure, combat depression, improve vision, raise levels of vitamin D and improve your overall well-being. 

Well, I can tell you it already exists. As one of the most underrated medicines in the world, spending time in nature can do all these things, and more! 

The problem we are facing is a total disconnection from our environments, with technology on the rise and the value placed on money and material things going up, the value of nature isn’t being recognised or respected. We are in the midst of an environmental crisis and people are more connected to their devices than ever before. 

People care about what they are connected to and so my solution is to re-connect people to their natural environment, improving physical & mental health as well as the health of the environment. 

There is a big push for getting kids to play outdoors, but there are no solutions for adults who are stuck in a repetitive routine. Adults aged 18-35 make up the majority population and so it makes sense to target them with a solution which they can then pass onto the younger generations. 

Sixty- six days is an interactive print calendar, designed to encourage a connection to the environment by providing a 66-day activity schedule. Each activity allows the user to experience the outdoors in a new way, encouraging a good habit of being in the outdoors. This idea was born out of the study which says the average number of days it takes a person to form a habit is 66. 

The user journey starts on Instagram, followed by a visit to our website where you can see how the calendar works and order one for yourself. The way the calendar works is that it comes as an A3 poster which you can hang anywhere in your house, preferably somewhere you will constantly be looking at it. Each day you complete an activity you peel of the corresponding days' sticker. Once you have completed your 66 days the calendar then turns into a plant holder for air plants which you also order over the website through a code situated on the back of the 66th-day sticker. You are left with a hint of the outdoors in your home, and a reminder of the 66 days of activities completed. 

This solution is designed to give people the keys to unlock their own passion for the environment. Each and every person will connect and experience the environment in a different way. It is not our job to dictate how people experience the environment, just to make sure that they do. The rest is up to the individual. 

Once having written this it made it heaps easier to begin storyboarding. I had a couple of rough sketches I went by; 

I wanted to make sure I covered off the main areas; intro, context, target audience, what my solution is, and why it will work. 

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user testing round 2

For my second round of testing, I had a higher fidelity prototype to test. Unfortunately, with time constraints, I had to test this one differently as I didn’t have time to make more than one with the stickers and plants. What I did instead was have the three users I tested my first prototype to give feedback on this version, what they liked/didn’t like about it and what they think about the website connection. 

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calendar refinement

I spent lots of time thinking about how my calendar could blend seamlessly into any house, be no fuss & no mess all at the same time. To encourage good habits research suggests something physical such as ticking a box or calendar can boost people and encourage them to keep going. As well as having some form on incentive at the end. 

 This took pages of drawings and figuring things out. I did research into interactive print and how best I could encourage these habits through this medium. 

As you can see from a screenshot of a Pinterest board I investigated a few different variations. One I really liked was ‘eco-printing’. It’s basically an environmentally friendly way of printing where you press plants into fabric and coil that around a hot metal rod, which you then boil for a couple of hours. What is left is a stunning imprint of the plants. I initially thought this might be a cool thing to have at the end of the 66 days for the user. They could press their own plants from their garden to make it more personal. However, the process is lengthy and I don’t think it would be utilised the way I hope it would be. 

After numerous scenarios, I finally came up with a solution which ticks the boxes and would be a very unique product. My idea is to create an A3 poster flatpack. This will hang in any area of the house the user is most frequently in. The user will peel off each days activity, each sticker will be biodegradable so there is no waste. Then once completed the user can jump back online for to order the air plants which slot into the poster. This flatpack idea took lots of testing on different materials to get right. 

I tested two different kinds of holders for the plants to fit into, the first requires the poster to fold and sit in the corner, the other pops out and hangs off the wall. The corner idea was my favourite until testing because the material I really liked wasn't bendy enough and the plants didn't fit easily into the holders.

The second design I tried worked much better. The plants fit more naturally in the holes and the bamboo material was able to bend. 

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website refinement

I wanted my website to be a link between the physical and the online and so I created a part of the website which allows you to see all the days and you can click each of them for more information. I also found a really cute royalty-free clip of a bee which works perfectly for the homepage. When I tested this website it ran really smoothly & it was pretty self explanatory which I wanted. 

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week 9

This week I focused primarily on the online - web aspect of my prototype. I needed a space online for people to find the product and have a place to go for more information. I started prototyping in Adobe XD but then decided to move to Squarespace for more interaction options. I needed this website to have both the information and purchasing options. I started on the trial but decided after some playing around that it was worth spending the money on so I brought the subscription and a domain name sixty-sixdays.squarespace.com. I really wanted the website to have a homepage that calmed and questioned. I think my solution is about educating people whilst also giving them some peace of mind. I decided to open on “How often do you stop to smell the flowers” as this makes the user question their connection immediately. For the calming aspect, I found a placeholder video on youtube of drone footage of natural scenes across the world. I will need to replace this at some point but it works for testing so people can get a sense of what I’m going for. 

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week 8

This week I was testing my first prototype. I created this prototype out of paper and I printed a nice landscape image to be the revealed image after completing the activities. The three key activities I wanted to test were; doing the days activity, pulling off the tab, and revealing the image at the end. For this prototype, I only made it 6 days as I needed to test and refine in a short timeframe. There were definitely things I already knew I was going to change before feedback, however, there were a few key insights which were really useful in further refining my solution, and understanding how it works in context. I gave this prototype to three people who each gave really useful feedback I hadn’t thought about myself.

User 1 said:

They liked the picture at the end, it was cool to have

Each task they found relatively easy

It felt wasteful to just throw the activity cards out.

User 2 said:

They forgot to do it a couple of days, after further questioning I learned that they had put it in the kitchen, where they spends hardly any time and so I think they would have been more successful if they had placed it somewhere more useful.

The image felt too girly

User 3 said:

They liked the activities, they were very straightforward and easy to understand

They would have liked to know more about why they were doing a specific activity - what benefit it was bringing them. As this would bring more satisfaction

I took three insights from this first round of testing:

There should be links from the activity tabs to more information so that people have a better understanding of what they are doing and why.

The ‘reward’ at the end of the calendar needs to be suitable for everyone between the ages of 18-35. It needs to be a piece people would value and want to have in their homes.

The activity tabs wastage is ironic considering the message of environmentally friendly. I need to come up with a solution to that.

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Initial Prototype 

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week 7

The first week of mid sem break. I got a surprising amount done this week considering I was away for half of it. I started brainstorming potential solutions that encouraged habit building. I wanted my solution to be something accessible and could serve as a reminder of that habit daily. Therefore I started thinking about what bedroom objects could serve as habit reminders. I considered pillows, plants, a zine, a calendar and a poster. One of the most relevant pieces of research I came across when looking into habits was that it takes 66 days to form or break one. 

The idea I decided to push further and test was a poster. This is because it can be placed anywhere in a room that is most commonly used by the person wanting to form the habit. The idea is that the poster would consist of 66 days which would be ticked off one by one. 

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week 6

This week in class we were presenting our projects to date, but we were also at the beginning of the ideate phase. Once I had my finalised HMW question figured out; HMW create a solution which encourages New Zealanders to connect with the natural environment as a means to improve the wellbeing of both the population and the planet. It was time to begin the ideation process which means lots of brainstorming.

In the image above I am breaking down my HMW question, I find this makes it easier to start to work out a solution. I defined ‘improve the wellbeing’ as improving the state of being comfortable, healthy and happy. A high level of wellbeing means that in some sense, the individual or groups condition is positive. Diverse and interconnected dimensions of physical, mental, and social wellbeing that extend beyond the traditional definition of health. These definitions all gave me a sense of wellbeing which will help me to ideate further down the line.

I came up with 4 different potential solutions; habits, app, advertising campaign & competition/game. I then began research on habits and immediately found answers to my HMW within. In the image above I brainstormed different ways to maintain or start good habits on the right, and then came up with some ideas for encouraging these habits on the left. I think encouraging good habits would be the best solution for my HMW as getting people into good habits will encourage behaviour without forcing someone into it. This will make the solution much more effective. 

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week six presentations. 

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week five

This week I focused on getting my interviews done and pulling some key insights from my research so far, to prepare for next week’s presentation. I got two more interviews done which gave me far more experience and opinion to work with than just my survey alone. I used post-it notes to synthesise my interviews. 

The insights I was seeing as common themes throughout my interviews and survey came under three categories: Education, Time & Habits. 

Education: Information about why the outdoors is so important for our health has been limited to ‘fresh air is good for you’ - a line you mum would often say to get out outdoors as a kid. The real, in-depth information hasn’t been made as readily available which is a problem for those who see no issue with never going outside. 

Time: People feel time is their biggest obstacle in getting outside. The culture we live in is so money-driven it doesn't give ample room for our own health & wellbeing. 

Habits: One of the issues with our disconnection to outside spaces is that we have built-in habits which coincide with time, of doing everything indoors. Building healthy habits could be the key.

These insights make it easier to begin to work out what kind of a solution I could create. After coming up with insights I needed to deepen my HMW question, to reflect the knowledge and research I have now done. 

In this activity, I tried to deepen my HMW question by asking questions such as why? and what’s stopping us?

The HMW question I finished on was: How Might We create a solution which encourages New Zealanders to connect with the natural environment as a means to improve the wellbeing of both the population and the natural environment. 

Then, with my finalised HMW question I began to brainstorm potential solutions which would solve my problem. The three I believe would be most successful at this stage are; An app, an advertising campaign and a habit encouragement tool.  

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week four

This week was focused on preparing for interviews. I wrote my interview script and came up with a list of people I want to interview. I want to talk to people who live in the city, work full time, and then talk to a psychologist and teacher about their views. The main things I wanted to find out from the people living in the city was how much time they did spend outside and just some of their habits/ accessibility. For people working full time, it is more about how much time they have available and when. From the psychologist, I want to find out more about the ‘green prescription’ and whether that's something they discuss with their patients. I then conducted my first interview which went really well, I decided to add a couple more questions