Hot group workshop at Konstfack

Two designers one nurse and Emma my second advisor was participating in a workshop session last night. The aim for this session was to quality check the synthesized version through a role played experienced prototype. I made this version as a very rough paper prototype for the participators to feel comfortable to co create and criticize freely. They were each given roles of either the two children, their grandmother or their mother, in a visit.

The session was very fruitful and after we discussed the activities and experience in a qualitative way and made some crucial decisions for me to be able to move on in the process.

Outcome: The symbol page, map page, game page and post page was considered the most relevant and suitable for the situation and they have all been refined more on detail level of the experience and in function. On the game page the rules and start/goal was taken away. It is better and funnier to make up your way of playing and your own rules. That also go in line with what the 8 year old girl preferred. On the word and symbol page we decided to merge the shape page together and instead having different versions for this page. More symbols was required. The map page was just a blank outlined shape of the country. I had a couple of ideas but wanted to take the opportunity to co create the activity around it in this role playing session. They spoke about an animal park, where they live, where friends live, where greece is, skiing vacations, where we were born, were grandma lived before.

The format of the object got a bit smaller on height to 80 cm instead of 100cm amd the format is now 80x100cm.

 

Main synthesize

This last two weeks all interviews and workshop outcome have been synthesized and embedded into the concept. The new ideas where refined and I have been working with the graphics a bit. Had a feed back session with a good graphic design friend over skype screen sharing and got good feed back.

 

I made a character for the concept. It’s an aniangel.

Interview with 8 year old girl and testing of a game

I had an interview with an eight year old girl in her room. This setting is very different from having a workshop in a kindergarden or in a school. She showed me her room, toys and we talked about play. Her favorite toy is the pet shop. She showed them to me and how she plays with them. She groups them in families in colour scales. When she plays with a friend they play with the pet shops or craft and draw. We talk about what is important when you play and she says that the most important is that everyone thinks the game is good and that you can be many to play not just two people. She has put a lot of work into a making a post box that she shows me. It has one big slot for big mails and a small on the top for small letters. The post box have now been embedded in the concept.

I brought a very rough prototype of a game idea. There were a lot of input from the children, special pedagog, physiotherapist and teachers I wasn’t able embed in a smart way until this idea came up. We started the  session by drawing our own characters. The game is built up with small tasks and questions aiming to create discussions and an exchange of personal information. E.g one task is to guess how many teeth you have and one is to tie a rosette. After the game we discuss the game and if there is anything she wants to add. She wants to add a task about drawing a self portrait and a question about best friends.

 

 

Workshop nurses

Today I facilitated a workshop at Axlagården. The aim for the workshop with the staff and nurses is mainly to get their insight on the activities people do today when they visit. The first task was to list ten activities the patient and the relatives do together during a  visit, the completing with artifacts and finally problems or constraints in the situation.

The second task was to suggest ideas for what could be done for a patient and its relatives if they had unlimited resources. We used post its and every time someone had an idea the would say it out loud.

As a last task we used the method ‘Predict next years headline’ (IDEO 2009). I have been wanting to use this method for a long time curious in what outcome it could generate when applying it with people in their special field. I saw it in the IDEO Method cards a long time ago and for the workshop with the nurses I decided to use it. I used Dagens Nyheter as foundation and changed some of the content and left out white spaces for text and pictures.

Workshop part III – 14 primary school children

Why? The aim for this workshop is get primary school children’s input on how they like to play, what they think is important when you play and how you play with someone who is older. The outcome of this workshop will be lists of different games and activities and drawings of how Rut and Karl could play.

The workshop with the primary school children has a slightly different set-up as they are both older and a larger amount of children. 14 children participated in the workshop. We are also limited to one workshop opportunity and I decided to take out the book section and just focus on play and how you can play when someone is in bed.

This session is more focused on writing and less crafty but their first task was to cut out the badge and then fill it in.

We are still dealing with the main subject of play. In three different ways; list of top 10 games, what is important when you play? and how do you play with someone who is 60 years of age?

To suit the amount of children I created some workshop sheets to work around for this first part.

To start the role-play session I read the narrative with Rut and Karl, now slightly changed to fit their games and interest. The children were asked to write and draw their suggestions for how Rut and Karl could play. Some of the children were participating in the role play and some were watching. We ended the session by everyone saying their suggestions and showing their drawings.

What worked?

The workshop set up sheets were suitable for the amount of children. 7 year old children are well able to write and draw by themselves if the have clear directions. The children were very generative and had so many ideas and suggestions which was so cool. They engaged and liked the tasks. The children loved how the narrative was hinting at them and they were listening very carefully.

What didn’t work?

It is impossible to facilitate the workshop with 14 children and document in a satisfying way at the same time. I could have left out the role playing bit also. They understood the narrative very well and it would have been enough to just draw and discuss it I think. The printer didn’t work in the morning which resulted in that I couldn’t hand over the diplomas. This didn’t feel good at all.

What did I learn

Never ever trust technology! A printer simply doesn’t work when you want it to. Always, always, always have a back up in black and white. It always works out. It might not be perfect but in some way it always turns out to be a ok in the end and it is always fun when you work with children!

Workshop Part II – How could you play around the bed?

Why? The aim of the next workshop session is to get more specific input on how you could play if you had to play when one is situated in bed.

How?

As the previous workshop the children are initially asked to fill in the special sign with their name and age. This time I made the signs white so that they could color them in themselves.

To facilitate this session a narrative with two persons are initially presented. The two characters are created from the previous session to fit their insights on how to play with someone who is older. The story is about Rut and Karl and goes like this:

I want to tell you about Rut and Karl. Rut and Karl are good friends. Karl is almost always wearing his dotted scarf and Rut her red hat. Rut is 62 years old and Karl is 5 years old and they play together often. The play a little bit of everything. For example drawing, play games, lego  and read or look in books together. They think that is fun! Karl likes Star Wars and animal books and Rut likes to count things in the books.

When it was cold outside, Rut fell and broke her leg. Typical! Rut has a plaster and has to stay in bed and rest for 3 weeks. Karl and Rut have a problem now and they need our help. It is not as easy to play when one has to stay in bed. Do you know how they could play if one is in bed?

Jag vill berätta för er om Rut och Karl. Rut och Karl är bra kompisar.  Karl har nästan alltid på sig sin prickiga halsduk och Rut sin röda hatt. Rut är 62 år gammal och Karl är 5 år och dom leker ofta med varandra. Dom brukar leka med lite allt möjligt. T.ex. rita, spela spel, leka med lego och läsa eller titta i böcker tillsammans. Det tycker dom är kul! Karl tycker mest om Star wars och djurböcker. Rut tycker om att räkna saker i böckerna.

När det var halt ute ramlade Rut och bröt ena benet. Typiskt! Nu har Rut gips och måste ligga i sängen och vila benet i tre veckor. Karl och Rut  har ett problem nu, det är inte lika lätt att leka och de behöver vår hjälp. Hur kan man leka om den ena måste ligga i sängen? Har ni några förslag på hur man kan leka när den ena måste ligga i sängen?

After the narrative the children gave their ideas of what you could play. doctor, make up a new game, hairdresser, play still/ calm games, play games, nintendo, petshop game, svart petter (card), draw on the cast, finger dolls and chess.

Like a role play session we are then all imagining what it is like to have a broken leg or to sit around the bed. This workshop discussion is taking place around a sofa. Props are used for this session to create excitement about the characters and empathy of the situation. We are using a red hat and dotted scarf and a cast that you put on when you are Rut or Karl. The cast prototype is made from soft fabric and filling. By using a couple of selected toys or we are taking turns and acting out how this could be solved in a suitable way.

After their expert contribution they all received a medallion which they appreciated very much.

Outcome:

The narrative and props worked very well. The children was very engaged by the similarity in the story and themselves. When we started the role play they were all very excited and at times a bit too excited and we had to constrain it a little bit to two children participating in the role play at one time and then taking turns. Also the value of making some concrete tasks and some loose is crucial for a good dynamics. I have learned so much from these two sessions. Kids are the best collaborators! Tomorrow I will have a new workshop with 18 primary school children. We will handle the same topics but in a slightly different way.

 

 

 

Workshop week 9. 1,5h x2 (pre school children and primary school)

Why? The aim of the workshop is to get inspiration and ideas from children on how the like to play and what is important to them on this matter, as well as to find out what they think about books.

The workshop is planned to be a dynamic mix of discussion and tasks. To make them understand that their insights are very important the warm up is to fill in and complete special signs with name, age and to put it on our shirts. They are the extended and most important team members of this project and it is important to treat them accordingly. The aim for my set up is to “make them feel like experts” and to “treat their views with the same respect you would show an adult research participant” as suggested as one of the basics in working with children in the IDEO Method Deck Junior Cards (IDEO 2010).

How?

• Introduction: Jag heter Stina och jag är 28 år gammal och jag jobbar med ett topphemligt projekt som handlar om lek. Jag har fått höra  ni är väldigt bra att leka och jag är här för att få er experthjälp.

• Name tag making, expert….name….age? (10min)

• What do you like to play? (5 min)

• Could you get that artefact or show that play? (15 min)

• What is important when you play? (5min)

• How do you play with a grown up? (10 min)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….t

• Could you tell me what a book is? What do you do with a book? Favorite book? How and where do you read that book? (5 min)

• If you were to make a book, what would it look like and what would you do with it? (5 min)

• Task: Could you draw/make it? (20- min) papper och tyg i olika färger och massa pennor

 

Circuit components-receiver-radio

It was a while since we were building these type of things. Tricky but fun!

Building the nest!

We are working on building the nest now me and Emma.We have known for half a year we were to make this prototype and now we have three days to build and make technology work. Why don’t we ever learn?

Chickadee birdhouse

Me and Emma are working on a birdhouse for a special type of chickadee; the. As they are endangered in urban spaces, we are making a housing for the them to facilitate their stay in the city. Shaped as a note you can hang the nest almost anywhere and the bird can move in. The sound of the bird is taken up and through a FM receiver you can listen to your local bird in your radio.

Hi! This is my nest. You can hang it where you like and then I can move in. The architecture suits my style, I’m a modern bird!

 

I stand on the porch in the morning before I leave and sometimes I do qi gong.

It is bigger than you think, you can easily fit two in the one room apartments.

When I sing you can hear me in your radio as my tones are taken up, I am your local bird!