Week 3
On Friday I handed my report in which looks like this. Unfortunately I got stuck in a massive rain storm and sacrificed myself to make sure my laptop and reports were left dry and unharmed. After handing the report in, my tutors gave me some feedback and we spoke about what my next steps are. One of the main things they told me was that I had to define my users ASAP. In my report and like I've mentioned before, I began to identify some user groups I could design for (elderly, visually impaired, pedestrians, school children etc). During our chat I made the decision to stick with the visually impaired because I feel like they are one of many groups of people who get almost left behind in the modern age, with technologies striving to out-do each other but not always focusing on certain demographics. By focusing on a user group it helps me carry out more specific research and to contact people with more defined questions rather than broader ones.
My plan for this week is to contact as many groups and people as I can and to hopefully arrange some meetings and phone calls and to do a lot of learning. My tutors suggested that I should carry out some empathy research which would involve something simple like me putting on a blind fold and setting myself a task or a small errand to run in Dublin. I would be able to document my feelings, document other peoples reactions to me and the different difficulties as well as opportunities I may face. Of course I'd have a buddy with me who could guide and supervise me but it could be an effective way of seeing what it is like for visually impaired people, especially very soon after a diagnosis.
Having an Architectural background, right now I am considering designing something within the built environment rather than a device or some sort of technology. But this could also change with research and time.
Some groups that I have identified and have contacted are NCBI in Dublin who are Ireland's national sight loss agency. Cities Unlocked and Future Cities Catapult in the UK have had experience working with visually impaired and I am interested to learn about their research processes and how they came to the device they designed. Intel and Microsoft are heavily involved in Big Data and Smart Cities. The Future Cities Research Centre in Trinity College do what their name says - they work with data and sensors and seem to have a lot of experience in the area of Big Data and Smart Cities. Dublin City Council, Dublinked and Smart Dublin are setting out challenges and are doing really cool things at the moment involving Future and Smart Cities and it would be fantastic to get some of their insights. Universal Design are "dedicated to the principle of universal access, enabling people in Ireland to participate in a society that takes account of human difference and to interact with their environment to the best of their ability" and they are someone I think who would be able to give me some great insights into their world as well as some guidance for my project.
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