#afterhyper

[getaroomyouheck]

I'm trying to have a modicum of hope this'll make more sense but I'm kind of afraid to get burned again haha. Sorry I'm being very negative I know, he was just a huge thing I was excited about and I'm bummed that it seems the most obvious simple handling was given to him (I'm still confused as to why they introduced a whole new fighting style tbh, it seems pretty pointless now, I like to think maybe he'll exist in some form though) thank you again for answering and your patience and calm.

nah dude i completely understand its honestly not what i wanted either. i expected/wanted him to be like a creation by mundus or a golem or hell even like fucking sparda. i just feel like making him vergils human half was a bit of a copout + a bit of a waste of new character design and gameplay design

i just dont really wanna make full concrete statements cause that leak obviously left out important info and context that im almost certain will be in the game itself. hell they even said in an interview that we learn about V mission 12, im certain that mission would be filled with lore about how hes a split of vergil and why he exists and all of that and it’d make sense. but nah it was just dumped on us without any prior knowledge

and thank you, i think im pretty calm right now cause along with afterhype tiredness its also 3 am too, so im exhausted lol

[hyperislandunicorn]

Emotions post Service Design Jam ‘17

Sweetbabyjesusthatwasamazing. I’m left with all the feels after my first Service Design Jam and I MUST reflect. I can only think of the word ‘connection’... that’s what I think the Jam’s outcome was. Connection between people and topics. Regardless of background or day job. For my own sanity, I must break it down... What did I just do?

1. Fiona, Radina and I did a workshop on Behavioural Personas

We volunteered, as Common Good, to prepare a workshop and facilitate in this year’s Service Jam in Manchester - an event that is part of the Design Festival and sponsored by the Coop. It was brilliantly organised by Kathryn Grace, a wonderful woman, full of drive. My responsibilities here were to: 

Show up at 9am on a Saturday

Design a 40min workshop about behavioural personas and deliver it 4 times to different participants

Answer questions about design methods and processes

I came back home after that first Saturday on a high. I had to go for a run.

2. I spoke in a panel discussion about the capabilities Manchester needs in order to design 21st century services

I was lucky enough to sit next to Dan Hill (Head of Arup Digital Studio), Emma Collingridge (Digital by Design Programme Manager, Stockport Council), Emer Coleman (Technology Engagement Lead, Co-op Digital) and Ben Terrett (Design Director, Co-op Group) who was hosting the discussion and talk design, cities and ideas. I read about 3 books in preparation for it and bothered all of my close friends to discuss the topic in advance, to understand it better. It was less stressful than I thought it would be (hyperventilations aside)... probably because everyone was lovely around me. I felt I could decently be part of a conversation about Manchester and human centered design... me! An ex advertiser! Fantastic feeling.

3. I was a facilitator at the Service Jam Day 2

I volunteered to be a facilitator and help attendees respond to an almost self generated brief. They didn’t know the topic or what to expect but my god did they enjoy themselves. I ended up doing the following:

Wore my unicorn hoodie, always exciting...

I picked a team to facilitate and helped them through

Got them to be the first team out of the building

Shared loads of techniques like the ‘tap me in the shoulder’, how to define users, super quick service mapping, crazy eights, dot voting...etc

Suggested to role play the service and let them go at it

The role playing solidified the concept and helped them iron out the details of the service

Panicked when they picked up and went to a train station to show the role-playing to strangers

Pretended to be a cat for the sake of the prototype

Quickly shuffled to the team next to us to get them off their chairs and onto making something - which they did

Walked around the space to see if I could bother anyone who wasn’t feeling it... only to discover everyone was high on collaboration 

Winning the facilitator-of-the-day award! I got an emoji coin thing! I don’t know how to use it but it’s lovely!

What do I take away from this experience...

As an extrovert with facilitation experience I know I get my energy from people. I know that putting myself and others outside of our comfort zones (as best I can) is an instant bond-maker. Vulnerability (i.e. showing yourself as you are, no masks) creates connection. A service jam is the perfect place for vulnerability. In it, people are welcomed to squeeze rubber chickens, learn by doing and decide whether or not putting a paper bag on their heads is a good idea... or not. It doesn’t matter - but the option is there.

Unlike any other activity in the recent months, I found myself play-making again, no strings attached. My team in particular was designing a solution for commuters who suffer delays - using live data. Complex. This was much more than paper bags and cats. This groups of people had just met and they spent only a couple of hours to design a feasible, viable and desirable system that connects people in and outside a train when a delay occurs. They key is that they spoke to people in the tram, train and bus stops...to get their insights. No real users, no point.

My key takeaway from all of this is that I can enable some serious play-making. I knew that before, but the difference after the Service Jam is that I now want to use it immediately and locally. Having met awesome humans that live here now, and having spoken to eminencies about this city... I feel the plan is clear. I should figure out:

How might I use what I know (and the spare time I have) to enable unicorn play making towards positive change around me?

Full of feels and purpose, I leave you now. If you want to help me, please get in touch. Thank you everyone involved! 

[remcothys-blog]

Evaluatie van de dag, door fotograaf van de dag #afterhype #leme #lekkerdansen #dikkebeats #interface #captainflash #fuzzmagazine (bij Bazel)

[jlwonghyper]

Under construction. Editing underway to publish a layman version of my Hyper Island Masters thesis. Stay tuned as the chapters roll out!

[milkandthewolf]

CIRCUMCISION |  GIF#08

[gloruiz]

Embracing the UK life again hahahaha #manchester #afterhyper #backintown #chavitabien

[jialiangwong]

My Hyper Island Journey

Haven’t heard of Hyper Island? Follow me as I share my experience as a pioneer member of Hyper Island’s MA Digital Experience Design crew. 

Learn more

[hyperislandunicorn]

Que no sea por pedir... 

#welovemcr #checkingin #afterhyper #manchester 

[jlwonghyper]

30-50% Completed

What happened which affected me: 

Some days left to IRP submission deadline and I am at the 5,400 word mark.

One more workshop to run this evening - it’s the final one, and I hope there would be a good mix of immigrants and locals today. Will there be many no-shows today? Will I be able to seed at least one idea for real and watch it develop into something meaningful?

IRP aside, I am also applying for service design positions in dream companies. How would my next career look like? I feel some tingling excitement at the prospects of tackling new challenges - after IRP is over, I wanna rest my mind for a couple of days, and then look at my list of side projects and start initiating some independent work while looking for a paid opportunity to arise. I hope to be able to apply some of my IRP insights too and deliver a solution in some form in the real world.

So much to do!

What did I learn about myself?

The above captured my fascination with the wonders of the world, and amazement at the possibilities all there to explore, I just gotta to start somewhere, and keep the curiosity going instead of just being busy. Often times, like now, I would be so narrow-minded on IRP or whichever seemingly huge task, and either lose sight of other things, or go into “drift” mode when overwhelmed - either extreme was not productive. 

At times, I also now realised more that there were more than simply forces of good and evil at play. “Good” and “evil” were subjective terms. People had different interpretations of what was just - and I have mine certainly. Pushing my brand onto others simply won’t work, and I should not “kill” myself if things did not work out my way. I need to be an effective altruist, through a strength-based approach, and be kind while trying to make social impacts.

What would I do differently next time?

Continue resisting the lures of procrastination and set clear goals to achieve for the week or day. I started adopting the Pomodoro methodology (thanks for Nat) and it has been helpful. Using the Business Calendar on Android helped give me a clearer sense of time nowadays. 

On a longer term basis, I need to start defining what areas I would want to focus on, and work towards that in a semi-structured way. The Grounded Theory and Action Research approaches seemed to reflect my style of living / discovery, and I would like to apply those research approaches into my life too.

Gearing up for the journey ahead.

[jlwonghyper]

IRP Status Update #1 (Oct 2015)

It is great and reassuring to have someone prolific like Dr. Emma Jefferies to be my supervisor for my Industry Research Project.

For my project topic, in general I am trying to promote altruism in communities by using digital tech as an enabler. I tried to narrow it down, and came across the refugee crisis, so I wondered whether I could possibly benefit anyone working in that space through my experience design research.

Currently I am in New York. I have contacted International Rescue Committee New York, and expecting a reply from them by this week on possible collaboration. The only significant good news so far was enlisting the help of Dana Klisanin, a New York-based psychologist/designer who worked on the topic of digital altruism to be my mentor for this project.

I am feeling anxious, as I am taking longer than expected to find a partner organisation, and my time in US is running out in another 66 days. So on the side, I have also started exploring other spaces than the refugee issue.

More details in the project status report here. I also write about my experiences in New York here on this tumblr :)

[jlwonghyper]

21 Oct 2015. New York Nonprofit Mixer.

Lots of non-profit representatives turned up for this event. The interactivity part of the event was self-organising ourselves into groups of 3-4, and getting to know one another. There were questions to guide our small group discussion, such as why would non-profits be vital to solving big problems, what drove people to work in non-profit.

I met people from CMP and Ripple Effects too. The Ripple Effects lady was Jessie, whom I met at the Effective Altruism NYC chapter meeting previously - what a coincidence! 

[jlwonghyper]

19 Oct 2015. Skype with Shian Wei.

Had a Skype call with Shian Wei, a Singaporean designer whom I met at SDGC15. He was working with Toshiba’s Healthcare Division in Tokyo. It was a short call, but interesting to hear the perspectives from a fellow countryman working in healthcare and in an interesting work environment like Japan.

[jlwonghyper]

12 Oct 2015. Reached Avigail!

There’s hope again. 

I was stunned to learn that IRC was open for operations today. Was previously informed that today was Columbus Day and IRC office would be closed. I quickly fired an email to connect with Avigail and Milagros. I also belatedly decided to try my luck popping by IRC office again to see if I could meet either of them. Which turned out to be a futile attempt again.

But on the train to IRC, I recalled David’s advice to have a prototype on hand to show and tell. I quickly worked on the train to create a simple Powerpoint for presenting and discussing with IRC. So even though I didn’t get to meet them, now I had a proposal on hand.

Voila, on my way back, Abigail replied via email! With ready materials on standby, I shared my plan with IRC. Hope to hear positive news tomorrow *fingers crossed*

[jlwonghyper]

11 Oct 2015. Housing Solved. Visa Resolved. Topic Set. Hypers Connecting.

I solved my housing problems today. Move-in date set, and interim accommodation for the week settled - thanks to the wonders of Airbnb and my POSB savings.

Visa issues clarified too - it’s basically bad news. From my conversations with Maya, Kelvin, and Renee, I learnt that the J1 visa for trainees could be applied only after I graduated from Hyper; the same for the special H1B1 work visa for Singaporeans too. So essentially I won't be able to find paid work by any employer in US during IRP period. I am checking with Emma to see if she had other work arrangements. 

I also decided to narrow my IRP topic down to help refugees in New York integrate into local community. It was an extension from the workshop at SDGC, which I found to be meaningful. A potential local partner organisation was in place too, so it would be a realistic opportunity. I am contacting the NGO involved (International Rescue Committee), to see if I could partner with them on this. 

My plan now is to work on this, hopefully with IRC, and deliver a solution by 29 Dec, when I need to leave New York.

I will return to Manchester and link up with like-minded groups to see if the same solution could be applied in Europe. I am in the process of linking up with a small group of Hypers in New York and Europe. I must remember to link back to XD. I think it would include prototyping for a service/process, and creating a new experience for refugees. I hope there would be new knowledge created in the field from this project somehow too.

Time and money would be my biggest risk factors for the weeks ahead.

[jlwonghyper]

10 Oct 2015. House Search II.

House search was difficult. Even though I managed to secure a room, the move-in date was uncertain. Maybe 18 Oct, maybe 12 Oct. Maybe a couch was available meantime, maybe not. Depending on whether house mates were ok with it, depending on whether the previous occupant was moving out early.

Amidst the uncertainty, I had to check out of my hostel on 10 Oct. I waited for cancellations, hoping for one to happen so I could stay for the weekend. But I waited too long, and got charged for late check-out instead. Thankfully a cancellation did occur later, and I got to stay another two nights at the hostel.

I realised that many young people were hard at work and led busy lives to get by in New York. They wanted to care, but just could not. So I must be prepared to look after myself.