As an exercise, we were asked to identify a social problem, assess that problem with user research, create a design brief, and propose a solution — all in the space of 24 hours. On the first afternoon, we walked around South Kensington and noticed the confusion and pedestrian hazard that local road work was causing. We interviewed a cafe owner who said that his profits had dropped fifty percent since the construction started in January because of accessibility and noise issues...
While this design was created extremely quickly as an exercise, it was inspiriting to see anthropology and design work so well together. I've never felt more grateful for my training in sociology, and it surprised me how much we didn't see without [our contacts] perspective. Only through her eyes were we able to fully understand... that the solution is as simple as color-coding existing meshes.
This quick, but focused project escalates my interest in "problem-solving." Things I'm loving right now:
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(more of this post to come).
