Final major project by Emma Powell

Final Major Project Transforming Social Care Information

Emma Powell

Content

Brief

Proposal

4-7

Planning

8, 9

Research

10-20, 28-34

Meetings

5, 42, 63

Analysing

21-27, 62

Task

35-41, 43-52

Ideas

53-57

Idea Development

58-61

Conclusion

Bibliography

Brief

This unit has given me the opportunity to undertake a self-initiated design project that explores and investigates a particular area of personal interest within graphic communication design. Using the proposal unit that established the theme of information services in the public sector as a starting point, I have produced and presented research and development work that demonstartes project outcomes that reflect my professional and academic ambitions within the creative industries. Initially I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t focus on one area of design to use as my final project. Whilst in my local gym and swimming pool I noticed that there were many leaflets produce to advertise local services. This started me thinking about the quality of these pieces of design. I wondered if there was a way that I could use everything that I have learnt over the last 3 years to help the professionals / volunters involved in publicising their services reach more people. There was information that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to be on the leaflet as well as areas that needed to be more focused to save space. I decided to look into the amateur market of information design, as it was clear that some of the posters and leaflets were not designed professionally. After a number of discussions with various tutors, I came to the conclusion that this project needed more focus. I was asked to think about a target audience. While talking to a director of my local authority I discovered that there was a new service about to be launched. This service is called Transforming Community Equipment Services. This service is going to change the way that equipment is provided for the residents within Redbridge. It would

allow elderly and disabled people to chose how they get hold of their equipment to aid independant living, as well as what the equipment looks like. The main aim for this service is for the servce users to become more independent and have choice and control over their lives. This was an interesting focus for me, it would allow me to see how these services are advertised to local people as well as the people currently using the services provided by the borough. I would look at the graphics produce and the process that the designers would go through. Firstly I needed to understand why this service was being introduced. I needed to read, search and talk to people involved to gain a better understanding of this service. I had to produce a proposal that was clear in terms of objectives and outcomes that would be effective in improving understanding and be attractive to the service users.

Proposal Research

Transforming Community Equipment Service Looking into this service was interesting but also slightly hard. This was due to the fact that it was in the process of being introduced rather than a service that was already well established within the borough. I contacted the senior occupational therapist that was organising this service. She was very helpful. I arranged a meeting with her to talk about the future of the service and the plans that she had for improving access to the service users. Before I went to meet her, she provided me with numerous helpful pieces of information, including documents about the pricing of the equipment and their comparisons.

This number is huge and the supply of equipment will need to be greater, which in turn would effect the standard of care. This new service will provide easier access to equipment and is designed to help the borough cope with the increased demand and vast need.

After looking over all of this information, I had gained a better understanding of what the service was about and how positive it would be for the local people struggling with everyday tasks. One of the key reasons that this service was being introduced was that in 2036 there will be 150% more people nationally over the age of 85 than there was in 2006. Total Increase of 70% 65 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 74 up by 57%

E n g la n d D e m o g ra p h ic s - O ld e r P e o p le

75 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 84 up by 59%

2006 - 2036

85+ up by 150%

Demographics 2006 - 2036 65-74

75-84

84+

2036 2031 2026 2021 2016 2011 2006 0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

This service also interested me in a personal way. Both my grandparents struggled with everyday activities of daily living near the end of their lives. They needed many pieces of equipment to help them live to the best that they could. However they were both used to a society where by you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask for help and was grateful with what you got given. If this service had been introduced then, they could have got these pieces of equipment without losing their independence. That would have really made a difference. Although they both died at home and were well cared for, I know now that there would now be so much more that could have been done if they had access to new equipment that has recently been developed.

Meeting Shangle Khanom

Occupational Therapy Team Manager Once I had gone through all of the information provided by Shangle Khanom, I went to meet with her. This meeting enabled me to ask questions as well as for her to inform me about time scales for implementation and at what stage the borough was at introducing this service. During our talk she explained the process that Redbridge is currently in. They were at the beginning of the process when I started this project. They were getting different departments together to discuss what roles they could each take and how they are going to work together to produce the service. There are other boroughs around the UK that have already put this service into action. Redbridge was at the planning and production stage. They had got the important council sign off to proceed and now they were trying to produce the best service possible for the service users. The Redbridge vision for this service was derived from many partners contributing to the programme. Vision for Transformation of the Community Equipment service. Our existing equipment service offers service users little if any choice and it is, therefore, important that the system for delivering equipment be modernised... This process will increase the level of choice and control enjoyed by service users, and efficiency is also achieved once the solution for delivery of complex aids is fully implemented. As part of Redbridge Councils vision of ‘A better place to live’, proactively convey one of its key aims for Redbridge to become ‘A better place for care’

Working Together - Our Communication Commitments A strong and holistic approach to communications is vital to enable us to achieve our aims and objectives to support the wider Adult Social Services function. Promotional Material Produce service users’ information pack developed in partnership with the service users involved in the project through the customer journey-working group. Develop new service specific leaflets providing information on the re-designed services Letters/e-mails to the provider market describing the up-coming changes Meeting Shangle was interesting and informative, it was good to get an understanding of where the borough was within the planning and actually implementing the service. I had to produce a proposal for this project and now I had gathered enough information to know where it was starting. Next Step

Who?

Maintain the sponsorship and momentum gained through ongoing stakeholder management

Shangle Khanom

Ongoing

Follow through with Health engagement to ensure visibility at Polysystem Board is achieved/ maintained

John Powell

30/04/10

Explore and provide requisite assistance to Dr Sharma (Head of Loxford Polyclinic) to achieve Accredited Retailer status

Shangle Khanom

End June

Arrange weekly meetings with the National TCES Programme Manager

Shangle Khanom

ASAP

Buddy with Sam Saunders & Gill Perkins to share learning and leverage off their experience

Shangle Khanom

ASAP

Maintain the strong partnership working developed with the Department of Health

Shangle Khanom

Ongoing

Validate commitment of team resources and sign Team Working charters at launch event

Working Group Leads

25/03/10

Get Working Groups to agree initial plans at launch event

Working Group Leads

25/03/10

Plan and schedule Working Group Leads meetings

Shangle Khanom

25/03/10

Monitor working group members attendance levels and escalate if commitment becomes an issue

Shangle Khanom

Ongoing

Introduce a ‘Delegating Upwards’ scheme to ensure that agreed resources deliver to project timescales

John Powell

ASAP

Proposal Title

Context

Appraise and design a public information campaign for Transforming Community Equipment Services (TCES) within Redbridge.

The context that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m looking into is the elderly sector and the use of equipment that is provided by the local government. The image of elderly people will be the focus, looking at how the local government can change the image to a positive one. In the future the average age of elderly people will increase, which in turn means that the need for equipment and support will be more. The local government are aware of this and by introducing TCES, hopefully this will provide a service for the need. This service is hoping to make elderly people independent. The future model is Independence and putting people first. People looking after themselves is key to the future of adult social services.

TCES - The department of health have developed a model which puts community equipment users at the heart of the service. Its about enabling people to live as independently as possible, Enabling people to exercise choice and control over the support they receive and designing local solutions for national policies.

Objectives Personal goal : To use my experience and knowledge to create an information outcome to make my target audience aware of a new equipment service available to them. Rationale : Inform the target audience about the new service available to them. Graphic Communication purpose: Creating a soft marketing campaign, (not like traffic/smoking adverts), subtle, leaflets, poster. Target audience: Older people (Majority) , Disabled adult

Focus Theme: Information design, typography and the way that information is expressed. Research Question: Given the push to develop the retail market for provision of equipment for old and disabled people, what information design will stimulate the public to buy, and therefore stimulate the market.

Research I will look into where information of current services are located and available to the public. Where they supply them is important to understand. Whether this impacts the amount of people using the service. The TCES is a service that the local borough is producing for more and more everyday public use. I will look into the providers of the services and question them about the current and future services and the way that they want TCES to be represented. As well as looking in depth to information design and ad campaigns.

Outcomes After looking into and understanding information design and ad campaigns I will produce the information that they want advertised in the best medium possible. Leaflets, posters, web info, The current web information available is very limited and is the first information the public would interact with. The public are influenced by what they initially see, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an area to look into.

Proposal Action Plan I am going to: - Look at a range of information provide by the Borough and Department of Health. - Talk to current users. - Analyze current methods of informing the users. - Look at different points of view (Retailers, clients, providers). - Breakdown current leaflets and posters and see what are effective elements. Elements that have to be taken into consideration of the client, (large print, different languages). Bibliography - relevant sites and talking to local government departments, especially Department of Health and the Redbridge Borough contacts.

Planning

Once I had pitched my proposal I then had to organise myself and make sure that I knew what I had to do to get the right information and use all the resources available to me. I started by making a list of the research methods I could use and people that I could go and talk to. This project had a starting point, it was open to go where it needed to, once I had gathered the information.

Audience

My target audience would be focused on older people. I have chosen this group, due to the fact that the services I was looking at would have impacted on my grandparents and this was interesting to me. Also, members of my family work in the adult and older people sector. Having established the audience now I needed to think about everything that I associated with older people as well what other people thought about when older people was mentioned. Clearly there are stereo types which are not always represented in reality and so keeping an open mind throughout the project was vital.

Research Redbridge Borough

To start off my research I needed to gather as much information as I could that the borough provided to the service users. I did this by looking on Redbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website and found their Advice Centre. This is where I knew I would get the information that I needed. I wanted to see how information was provided for the local people. I visited the centre looking for information particularly on equipment. Within the Centre that I visited there were many leaflets, each explaining the different services. They were colourful with images and text. They also had phone numbers and website addresses available. There was also people at the Centre to talk to. All of this was more than I thought that I would find. This Centre was a good resource for this project. I then decided that I would compare what other boroughs provide to inform their service users with what I had found in Redbridge. I would do this in a graphical way by comparing their leaflets and any other communication media that I was able to find.

Research Local Boroughs

Here is a map of inner and outer London. All the boroughs are numbered for recognition purposes only. The coloured in shape is the borough where I live, Redbridge. I looked at my surrounding boroughs, such as, Waltham Forest, Havering and Barking & Dagenham. I did research on the internet and gathered information from each borough and I visited the Centres, Libraries, and Doctors to get as much information as possible from the boroughs with coloured text below.

6 32 30 31

11 29

26,27,28

20 17 14 22

21 20

Havering (10) Hillingdon (11) Hounslow (12) Islington (13) Kingston upon Thames (14) Lambeth (15) Lewisham (16) Merton (17) Newham (18) Redbridge (19) Richmond upon Thames (20) Southwark (21) Sutton (22) Tower Hamlets (23) Waltham Forest (24) Wandsworth (25)

12 Brent (31) Barnet (32) Camden (33) Westminster (26) Kensington & Chelsea (27) Hammersmith & Fulham (28) Ealing (29) Harrow (30) Barking & Dagenham (1) Bexley (2) Bromley (3) City of London (4) Croydon (5) Enfield (6) Greenwich (7) Hackney (8) Haringey (9)

Research Barking & Dagenham Borough

My first borough that I visited was Barking & Dagenham. Their website was very helpful and provided a number of places that I could visit and gather information. I visited these two in particular. The larger building is Dagenham’s town hall. The other smaller image is the ‘one stop shop’. This term is used for an Advice Centre. I visited both of these locations and was disappointed about the lack of information available. After visiting Redbridges Advice Centre, where there was a leaflet for nearly ever service, Barking & Dagenham had a small amount. Another way that I could gain information was by waiting to talk to someone. I was given a number and told to wait which was a bit frustrating but at least avoided arguments. I came out of the one stop shop thinking that if they had information on show that could be self selected it would have been easier. The leaflets that I did find weren’t as strong visually as Redbridge. There were many leaflets about complaining but not about the services. I was left feeling that hopefully other boroughs would have a bigger range of leaflets to advise the public.

Research Waltham Forest Borough

Waltham Forest is a large borough and has a number of Advice Centres “one stop shops”. These are located in different towns within the borough. I visited a Centre in Leyton. I walked in to find many people queuing or being talked to. There was a very small leaflet rack that had a few leaflets on. Many were about benefits and how to find out what you were entitled to. I queued up to talk to someone, to see if they had leaflets behind the counter and the women just gave me the telephone number and the web addressfor Waltham Forest. If I look at my target audience, which is older people, they very rarely have access to the internet, providing them with a web address would be irelavent to them. Once again I was shocked, at least within this Centre a women came up to me to ask if needed any help. None of the other Centres spoke to you unless you spoke to them first. Where as Barking & Dagenham had a couple of leaflets, Waltham Forest didn’t really have any. Once again there wasn’t much to compare with Redbridge. Which in turn ment there was no information about equipment, I would have to look on their website for that.

Research Havering Borough

Lastly I visited Havering Borough. This is further away from London. Their Advice Centre was at the top of a shopping centre. I have visited this shopping centre many times in the past and I never noticed that the Centre was there. I went in and spoke to someone behind a desk. They didn’t really have anything to give me and there wasn’t any leaflets sitting around. They sent me down the road to another building, it wasn’t the easiest to find. Again I went up to the counter, due to lack of leaflets within the room. The women behind the counter told me that there was only the leaflets that were around, which are below. Comparing these leaflets to the other boroughs, these were the least identity driven. The name of the borough was shown but no consistent colours or type was used, where as Redbridge uses the same colour and type every leaflet they produce. They want the local public to know that the information is provided by them.

Research

After visiting the boroughs, I had a lot to think about but not much to show graphically. I had high expectations after visiting the Advice Centre in Redbridge and was really shocked by the lack of printed information available in the other three boroughs. Even though this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t provide me with enough examples of graphic communication, this showed a gap within the market. I did think that maybe I was looking in the wrong place but I found the Advice Centres the same way anyone else would and so I am certain that I have not missed anything significant. The next step was to look at all the different ways that these boroughs communicate with the public.

Communication

Research Communication

There were five key areas that the boroughs used to communicate to the public, website, leaflets, telephone, mail and posters. All the boroughs had strong websites, that showed their identities and the information available. The telephone and email addresses are simple and are there for anyone that wants to communicate with a person. As shown on previous pages there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t many leaflets available. There also wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t many posters available. Posters are used mainly to communicate key messages.

Websites

Leaflets Telephone & Mail

Posters

Research Telephone, Postal & Email

Here are all the boroughs contact details. They provide a key address but they also provide different addresses depending on the service within the website. There is a telephone and sometimes a fax number. These have different numbers depending on service. Lastly there is an email address. This is more and more the way that people communicate with each other, however an older person or someone that could not get access or be able to use a computer, would not be able to use the email address either.

Barking & Dagenham telephone: 020 8227 2446 fax: 020 8227 2449 email: cds@lbbd.gov.uk

Address Community Service 2 Stour Road Dagenham RM10 7JF

Redbridge

Waltham Forest

Havering

telephone: 020 8708 7333

telephone: 020 8496 3000

telephone: 01708 434343

fax: 020 8503 8198

fax: 020 8496 3001

email: info@havering.gov.uk

email: community.care@redbridge.gov.uk

email: wfdirect@walthamforest.gov.uk

Address Aldborough Road North Newbury Park Essex IG2 7SR

Address Waltham Forest Council, Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road, Walthamstow E17 4JF

Address Collier Row Library, 45 Collier Row Road, Collier Row RM5 3NR

Research Leaflets

Colours used within leaflets

Here is some examples of leaflets that I found not produced by the boroughs themselves but they are supplied by them to the public. These leaflets are produced by Help the Aged, Age Concern and a number of other organisations. These leaflets have used images of either older people or the product that they are selling. I also looked at the colours used within the leaflets. During this project I have kept looking at the information and reflecting on the graphical elements, which has been a challenge because they appear to fit the stereo type rather than being representative of real people.

Research Posters

Another area of communication that is used within boroughs are posters. I have struggled to find any whilst I was driving around but I found some that have been created by other boroughs not part of my sample four. They need to be bright and positive, drawing the audience in. They need to have enough information on them but not covered in information, however borough posters are different from advertising companies. Adverts for products need to entice the audience to buy the item or use the product but mainly with borough posters its about informing the audience, either about the information or where to get the information from.

Research Websites

Technology is the future and most people within my generation know how to use a computer and surf the internet. If we want to find something out we goggle it or Ask Jeeves. It’s quick and mostly correct, it takes seconds to find what you are looking for. Every borough that I have looked at has a website, it has most of the information about what is going on in the borough and the services that they provide. This is great and most boroughs are proud to send you looking onto their website. However this isn’t a great resource for the over 50s many can’t use a computer or know how to surf the internet. Waltham Forest when I visited sent me to look on the website. Older people can’t always rely on the internet to get what they want to know. This will be a challenge for me as I have grown up using the internet to get the information that I wanted. However my research has shown that in the design area of this project I will need to create ideas without using the internet alone.

Analysis Leaflets

Once all the different communications areas had been researched, I needed to breakdown the graphical elements. I went back to the main focus which was leaflets. There were three elements used within Redbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s information leaflets. These were identity, images and text.

1 3 3 2

Identity

Images

Identity is important for the public to know who is providing the information and the service. It is normally kept consistent. There is usually a logo as well as recurring colours that keep the identity united. The image provides a focal point and an insight into the service. It is normally a positive image to encourage the public to want to find out more.

Text

Text is important to inform the public what they are looking at. The text is used within the identity as well as they keep the same typeface throughout everything. It also needs to be the right size for the service user.

Analysis Images

Borough Images

General Images

Images are important to draw people in. Napoleon Bonaparte once said â&#x20AC;&#x153;A picture is worth a thousand words.â&#x20AC;? This quote is true, the image sets the scene, within service information providing an image is important to show a positive service that the public could benefit from. All of the images provided by Redbridge were positive and also action shoots. They had people using the services. These are not models they are real people, which is important, the public can then relate to them. The other boroughs in my sample had very few images on the leaflets that I could access which in contrast to Redbridge was disappointing.

Analysis Identity

Identity is important to any type of advertising or design that communicates with the public. It allows the public to recognise the borough just by looking. Redbridge has a very strong identity. They are developed over time to be used on many items. Such items as vans, bins, boundary boards, websites, letter heads, leaflets and many more. Keeping the identity simple and consistent allows the information to be recognized. With Redbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity, they keep the logo the same and even use the colours within the logo as their borough colours. Redbridge also has a number of slogans that are used for each department, shown on the right hand side of the page. Below is the typeface that Redbridge uses constantly within any of their communications.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Myriad Pro Regular

Analysis Identity

Redbridge provided me with a document that contained all of their branding and identity. It shows everything from the logo and how it can be used in different situations, to the identity of the library signs and borough signs. This was a useful insight for me, I was able to see how Redbridge broke down their identity and made it usable for anyone who worked within the borough. This document provided the measurements of the publications and typefaces used with their sizes. These pages to the right and below were helpful to me as they were Redbridges leaflets. The document also provided the body text within the leaflets as well.

Analysis Identity

I briefly looked at the other boroughs identities as well. It was harder with these boroughs due to the lack of leaflets and other resources. Barking & Dagenham and Waltham Forest have strong logos that are used within these examples. I also noticed while driving around to collect the leaflets that in these boroughs, the identity is there. These colours and logos are used on publications, bins, offices, borough signs and other elements link to the borough. It is interesting to compare the boroughs, they have really used what represents the boroughs well, even if a little clichĂŠ. Waltham Forest has used green and a tree, but it has worked for them. Whilst looking at the other boroughs identities, as well as Redbridges, I have noticed the branding more whilst driving around but also appreciate how important it is to have a strong identity. The identity is what makes to stand out from the others. But also provides a great communication tool when designing for the boroughs.

Analysis Text

Text is a vital piece of communication. It allows the public to know all the information available to them. It can sell a service if presented right. Designing text is a complex task. The designer has to think about what best suits the target audience. In my case, for this project I have to look at text that will be best for older people. This on its own has a number of issues. These issues would be, the size of type, is it large enough for the client to read it, is the style of the type right, can it be read simply or is it too complex to read. There is also an issue with the colour of text, whether it be black on white or white writing on a coloured background. These elements have to be thought about. Something that Redbridge as well as other boroughs does which is really useful is to provide a facility whereby members of the public that speak a different language, need larger print or braille can request to be sent the right leaflet for them. This facility can be used if needs be but helps the borough not to produce unnecessary leaflets that will just sit in a cupboard.

Analysis Text

I have learnt that the text needs to be clear and right to the point. The services users donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be baffled with long difficult words, they want to be able to understand the service and what they are going to be provided with. Information talking to them, rather than at them, is also important. Sizing is an interesting area. Depending on who you are designing for changes the size of the type. As a graphic designer I have needed to consider the needs of the service user in this project and I am aware that age and eye sight play a significant part. At the same time it is important not to patronise the service user by always printing large images and text. It has to be informative but also appealing and attractive to ensure that they become engaged. Again I have had to be mindful of stereo typing and I have reflected this consideration in my work later in the project.

12pt body text and 14pt Heading

Research Service Design Companies

During the research stages of this project I have tried to gather a better understanding and as many resources as I could. This was hard for me, as I had never looked into service design before. I knew how to design leaflets and magazines but never looked into this design area, especially within boroughs. I found that there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a huge amount of external examples of service design, mainly due to many boroughs using in house design teams. However, I was able to find a couple of design companies that focus on service design. I was able to meet up with Joanna Choukeir who works for Uscreates. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Uscreates is an award winning behaviour change consultancy that uses collaborative and creative approaches to improve public behavioursâ&#x20AC;?. Given that I had difficulty finding examples of external companies doing service design it was really helpful to talk to someone who understood the business but could also point me in the right direction. Joanna and I was able to talk through a number of key points that were important to help me focus my research even more. As a result I have grown to be excited by this area of work and I now have a genuine interest in it for the future. It has made me realise that I would like to be able to use my design skills to help people understand key information in the Public Sector.

Here are a few other service design companies...

Definition: Service Design Design for experiences that reach people through many different touch-points, and that happen over time. Service design can be both tangible and intangible. It can involve artefacts and other things including communication, environment and behaviours. Whichever form it takes it must be consistent, easy to use and have strategic alliance.

(Gillian Hollins, Bill Hollins, Total Design: Managing the Design Process in the Service Sector)

Research Books about service design

While researching, one of my initial ways to gather as much information as I could, as well as a better understanding of the topic is to read what other people have discovered. Service design was an area that I didn’t know existed until I started this project. It is also an area that doesn’t have much written about it. This was hard for me, I wanted to see if there were rules to service design or ideas that I could try out. Whilst talking to Joanna Choukeir from Uscreates I mentioned lack of printed resources and she mentioned a couple of good books, mainly looking into research methods. Due to lack of published resources I needed to break down what I was looking at, identity, designing leaflets and any other publications. I then looked more deeply into certain areas, such as colour and typography. I wanted to see the relationship between the design and the client. The typography book had useful points about legibility and using the right typefaces. Colour has a big impact on the look and feel of a piece. After reading the colour books it made me think about the relationship between colour and the client. The paragraphs on the right hand side of this page is what I read that made me focus my attention more on the colours used, it gave me some ideas that I then went on to try out.

“Memory, experiences, intelligence, and cultural background all affect the way a color’s impact can vary from individual to individual. This is not to say that the color will be perceived differently, but that the perception will mean different things to different people.” Colour, Edith Anderson Feisner, p5. “Colors can change their meanings over time with fashion, changing social awareness, and familiarity.” Colour, Edith Anderson Feisner, p120.

“Color is the first thing to be noticed and will be remembered for longer than written copy”. Colour, Edith Anderson Feisner, p155.

Research Past & Current Advert colours

After looking into the colour area of design and the impact that it has on not only the design but also the audience, this passage stood out whilst I was reading Colour by Edith Anderson Feisner. “Memory, experiences, intelligence, and cultural background all affect the way a color’s impact can vary from individual to individual. This is not to say that the color will be perceived differently, but that the perception will mean different things to different people”. This made me think about my target audience and what colour means to them. A thought came to me, what about using colours that older people would recognise from their past, say when they were 20 years old. I thought that the best way to gather that information would be to look at past and current advertising. This would show not only the change within use of colour but also the change in style of advertising. The style would also have an impact. It was an interesting turn in my research. I hadn’t thought about it until I read that book. Once I was looking at the adverts there were a few noticeable differences. Firstly looking at the colour. The use of colour in the past has been subtle and dull, this may have been due to the expense of ink or the accessibility of colours. A number of the adverts don’t have any printed colour except black. The adverts in the past had more of a painted look, where as now they are like photos, even if they are illustrations. That just shows us how much technology has evolved. In the past if there was any bright colours they seemed to keep to primary and secondary colours. Now we mix different pallets together to make the right colour. This was an interesting piece of research for me, later I would test this theory out to see if it was actually worth using.

Current Past

Research Past & Current Advert colours

Below are strong examples of my theory. They represent mainly the food industry, which I would have assumed needed to draw people in to buy the product. The use of colours is great within these adverts. The bottom three are past adverts and the top are current. The top adverts are bold, colourful, bright, playful. The bottom adverts have duller colours used, they are more illustrated and have 100% more text on them, where as now, there is hardly any text used, it all relies on image to sell.

Research Past fashion and magazine colours

I not only looked at adverts of the past for colour but also current fashion themes of that era, 1940â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. The colour use within fashion was also a good representation for older people to recognise. The colours were also dull like the adverts, the price of inks and dyes where more than they are now which ment that different colours were used. The colour pallet below shows the colours used within the dresses. I not only looked at dresses but also colours used within magazie covers and flags that were around in that time period. The magazine covers had a little more colour within them.

Research Past Service leaflets

During research about past colours and the use of them, I wondered whether there would be past information leaflets that could also have influence my target audience. I would use the colours and styles as a reminder. Would they relate to these types of styles and colours more so than our current bright colours and simple styles? I wondered whether they needed more information rather than a nice image or illustration that said all the advert needed to say without all the text to explain. The images of the right hand side of the page are travel leaflets and also leaflets that advertised how to live life differently. The colours are once again simple and mainly one colour is used. The text is informative and larger fonts have been used. There is overlapping and outlining, which shows that design has been focused on more than just informing. This was a time after the wars where the information could be played around with rather than the best way to tell the public. The next step was to test this theory out. I wanted to see if using past colours would be more affective when designing for an older clientĂ¨le.

Research

PAGE FOR TASK

All of the research I had done, had taken me into areas I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even thought about at the beginning. It started off looking at leaflets about equipment and more onto the areas within designing for a leaflet and target audience. After looking at the use of colour and the impact that I can have, I wondered if designers were using the right colours and typefaces and imagery for the right target audience.

I created a few tasks that would be shown to a group of older people, but first I wanted to test it out on some of my fellow students. This would, not only give me comparison but also see whether I needed to change any elements of the task before trying it out on the older group.

Task

Tasks Colours

The first task that I had created was a colour task. The idea of this was to choose colours that either stood out to you or that you liked the most. After the research with the colours used in the past and current colours, I created three groups of colours. Dull colours that I had collected from the past adverts and fashion. Bright colours that stood out and were playful and the last were a pale verson of the bright colours. There was a variety of colours to choose from. This task would have hopefully shown what colours people like the most. I was happy with the stereotype to be right, that you should use bright colours to draw people in but I wanted to test out my theory about using colours people can relate to.

Tasks Typefaces and weights

I then went on the look at typefaces and what is the right size for them to be. I picked 9 typefaces that I thought some of the people would find easier to read and recognise. Looking at them now I realise that there are a few that are very simular, which to a designer, would recognise the differences but to a member of the public, maybe not so much. I knew that when designing for older people, it needed to be kept simple and readable. Something else I felt might have been linked to sterotyping was the size of the fonts. When designing for an older target audience did it always need to be large font, or could older people read smaller than we think? These were questions I was interested to find out answers to.

Typeface

San Serif

Serif

Typeface Typeface Typeface Typeface Typeface

Typeface Typeface Typeface Typeface

8pt

Typeface

10pt 12pt 14pt

Typeface

18pt

Typeface

24pt

Typeface

I printed out the typeface, I kept the initial typefaces a size 48pt, these were used to see which typeface the audience found easiest to read. Once they had chosen the typeface I then moved onto the size that they could read.

30pt

48pt

Tasks University Students Colour

Once I had sorted out the tasks and what I wanted to achieve from them, I decided to test them out on the students within my tutorial group. First off I asked them to pick the colours that they liked the most. They found this slight hard as there was so many to choose from, they also asked me how many. They could pick as many as they liked and this, I feel was too open, they needed to have an amount. I realised that when trying this task out on the older group I would need to set an amount. It was interesting to see what they had picked. There was a mixed variety. Some went for the dull colours and others there was a mixture of bright and pale. The relationship between male and female was interesting also, as expected the males went for stronger, duller colours and the females went for bright pretty colours, yet another stereotypical outcome.

Hyejee - age 22

Pearse - age 23

Carly - age 21

Adam - age 22

Luca - age 22

Tasks University Students Typefaces

The typeface task was an insightful task. Due to the fact that all five of these students are graphic designers, they were very picky about the typefaces they liked and let me know the typefaces they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like. I found this really interesting. Typefaces used within service design or for the general public are picked due to there simpleness to read and there universal ability. When the students picked the typefaces they chose fonts that they would have used. In the end I did narrow it down to what they felt could be read easiest. This then gave me the results below.

Luca - age 22

Typeface Gill Sans

Adam - age 22

Typeface

Carly - age 21

Typeface

Arial

Gill Sans

Pearse - age 23

Hyejee - age 22

Helvetica

Times New Romans

Typeface

Tasks University Students Size of Fonts

Once the students had finally picked a typeface I then asked them to pick the size of the font they felt was best to use for a heading and body text. The results below are the males choices. These varied, which was interesting. I have learnt that choice of typefaces and size, where a designer is concerned is a personal choice. The males used on average the same size body text, which was quite large compared to what I would have thought they would have gone for. I did, however ask them to think about designing it for a leaflet, and they knew the target audience I was looking at, so maybe this had an influence on their decision.

Luca - age 22

Heading

Adam - age 22

Heading

Size 30pt

HeadingEm do dignim dolore Size 14pt vulputpat, con hent exer se vel in erilla aliquisl iusto commod tat. Duisim at ad el ullan ut dipismolenis nos numsan ullaoreet la feugueros nim vulput vent praesto dolore dolor in utat lumsan elenibh et do odipit ad esequatin

Pearse - age 23 Size 18pt

HeadingEm do dignim dolore vulputpat, Size 12pt con hent exer se vel in erilla aliquisl iusto commod tat. Duisim at ad el ullan ut dipismolenis nos numsan ullaoreet la feugueros nim vulput vent praesto dolore dolor in utat lumsan elenibh et do odipit ad esequatin ut nullametummy nim do od etum ad min hendre tie consenibh et nonse faci te vel dio duis niatet dunt lutat vel et aut

Heading

Size 24pt

Size 12pt

Tasks University Students Mixed Fonts

The females on the other hand added a new choice into the task. They decided that they wanted to mix typefaces together. They used one San Serif and a Serif. It was interesting to see that they did the opposite from each other. It works really well mixing the two, however for the public or my target audience maybe mixing the two would confuse them. They may think that it was two different pieces of information. I think that they also may have thought about the target audience when they chose the sizes, they have larger ones than the males chose.

Carly - age 21

Typeface

Gill Sans Size 30pt

Hyejee - age 22

HeadingEm do dignim dolore vulputpat, con hent exer se vel in erilla aliquisl iusto commod tat. Duisim at ad el ullan ut dipismolenis nos numsan ullaoreet la feugueros nim vulput vent praesto dolore

Typeface

Baskerville Size 18pt

Gill Sans Size 12pt

Times New Romans Size 30pt

HeadingEm do dignim dolore vulputpat, con hent exer se vel in erilla aliquisl iusto commod tat. Duisim at ad el ullan ut dipismolenis nos numsan ullaoreet la feugueros nim vulput vent praesto dolore dolor in utat lumsan elenibh et do odipit ad esequatin ut nullametummy nim do od etum ad min hendre tie consenibh et nonse faci te vel dio duis niatet dunt lutat vel et aut lobor sed magnim aut in utat in eugiam, vero

Meeting Sylvia Dawson

Service Manager - Redbridge Care and Shelter During the project I had kept Redbridge as the focal borough, going back to the proposal which was looking at communicating a new service to the target audience. I felt that I needed to see different types of my target audience. With that in mind I visited an Extra Care Housing unit, that not only provides flats for independant living but also accomodation for people that need extra help. It was where my granddad lived for the last four years of his life. It is a great homely environment without being a residential home, with so much available to the tenants. The building has a positive and welcoming atmosphere which the manager and team have worked hard to achieve. I went to talk to Sylvia Dawson to see how her tenants receive information about services that are available to them. I also wanted to speak to her about the task that I had created. She was great to talk to and she had a lot of information to give me. She helped me think about things I hadn’t even thought about. Her service and homes use information to their benefit. Sylvia stated that the clients benefit from being informed and it is important that they know the information and be comfortable with it before talking to someone. The unit has a leaflet which explains what different services they provide and answers any questions these clients may have. She mentioned that the clients don’t use the internet, they don’t know how to and don’t really want to learn, which in turn means they need other ways to get the information. Providing the information for the client allows them to discuss it with the partners or spouses first before getting to over whelmed with the details.

I spoke to her about the research that I had gathered and my idea about relating the leaflets back to the clients past, with the colours and look. She thought that the idea was a good one but wouldn’t work. The tenants that she has at Oakfield enjoy bright coloured posters and leaflets with positive images on, which have older people doing positive tasks. Larger font is needed, its not that they can’t read smaller fonts, it makes it easier for the clients but also more noticeable for them. It was a really useful discussion and she was interested to hear what my research had found. We also discussed some ideas of ways that information could be produced for my target audience. She mention that a lot of these older people struggle with knowing which questions to ask, whilst on the phone to the Advice Centres and Occupational Therapists. I had an idea of creating a check list that would be provided by the borough, that contained all the questions that are the internet and more so that the older person could get all the information before making a decision. These would allow the older person to feel independent but also in control of their own life. I really benefited from going about talking to Sylvia, she was very helpful and answered all of my questions. I got a better understanding of what the borough are doing to inform the public. I also got a better understanding of my target audience and how they don’t want to make a fuss but they should be able to enjoy their life and not worry about the details that don’t get mentioned.

Tasks Improvements

The meeting with Sylvia Dawson was really useful and it made me think about the task that I was going to do with a group of older people. I have realised that I may have too many typefaces to chose from. To me as a graphic designer they are all slightly different and should be used for different pieces of design. But to an older person or someone within the public with no graphical knowledge there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a difference. So I have changed the choice. There will only be four options, two San Serifs and two Serifs. This way there is a difference between all of them, where as before there were some that would be seen as exactly the same. The type faces that are staying are:

Typeface

Comic Sans MS

Typeface

Helvetica

Typeface

Courier

Typeface

Times New Roman

I think that these four best represent the different styles. I think that the Times New Roman will be recognized more and that the Comic Sans MS will also be preferred due to its simple, playful look. The one typeface I think wont be chosen much will be Courier. For readable text I think Helvetica will be chosen most, it is clean, simple and readable at most font sizes.

Tasks Images and Activity sheet

Another area of my task that I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t finalised was images, as well as considering where older people get information from. I had however already gathered a number of images of older people for my proposal which I used to represent negative and positive imagery of older people. I had created image sheets to show the elderly group who were going to do the task. I then realised that I would need to be organised whilst talking to them and also make the tasks as easy as possible. I learnt from testing the tasks out on the students that I needed to know what I wanted to gain from the tasks. I decided to create an answers sheet. This would have an explanation of the task and room for the answers. Hopefully this would explain the task and make it easier for me to gather the answers. Getting the age and gender of the people interviewed would also enable me to see if there were any differences between them.

Negative

Positive

Age : Gender : Colours Pick colours that you like and write down the number thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on the back.

Where do you get service information from?

Typeface Which typeface do you find easy to read? (Name on back)

Size of type Which size do you find easy to read?

Images Do you prefer a positive or negative image on information ? Please tick one. Positive Negative Where do you get service information from?

I asked the above question at the end as I have been looking on the internet and whilst traveling around these boroughs at places were service information is provided and I need to know where older people themsleves would like to access information to compare with the reality that currently exists. My considered guess is that the two will not completely match up.

Tasks Chingford over 50s Bowls Club

Chingford over 50s Bowls Club allowed me to interrupt them for a morning to try out my task on them. They were a lovely group of mixed aged people, who loved to get together and talk, drink tea and play indoor bowls. They all made me feel very welcome and didn’t hesitate to take part in my task. They were great to sit and talk to and they all had opinions about lack of information and they spoke to me about how they got information. I was able to visit this group due to the fact that one of the younger members of this group helps out at my youth group at the church I attend. I was discussing with her one night about this project and the information or lack of information that I had gathered. We were just talking about her experiences and other people at the bowls club experiences. I mentioned that I would love to talk to some people and if they were willing try out a task with them. She suggested the bowls club and she spoke to the women in charge. They were all so helpful and even let me have a go at Bowls and said that I could come back anytime! I learnt a lot from visiting this group of people, both personally and also for this project. I felt for them, due to the fact that they had been asked to leave the last place that they played bowls in. The building was being renevated and once this had finished the borough wanted around £80 a week to use the space. They only charge the members £2.50 at the moment, which is just enough for these people to play once to three times a week but if they were to use their old location they would have to charge more and in doing so, lose more members. This was something that came up a lot in conversation with them. The hall that they use now is not ideal for the game of bowls. The floor slops in different directions at different parts. Each mat has to be played on differently. Its a shame but they carry on and play three times a week for 3 hours a day.

Tasks Bowls Club Results

I was able to ask the members of the bowls club the questions for the task but I had to fit it in around their games. That was fine, maybe a little rushed but I was able to get the information that I needed. Apart from the colour and type questions I was able just to have a nice conversation with most of them. This was great, they spoke to me about where they get information and where they wouldn’t think to look. Most of the members that took part in my task where between 62 and 86. The 86 year old looked just as young as the 62s. I was shocked when I asked them their age. Most of them stated that they may look old but inside they were much younger, which you could see. I had to be very organised whilst talking to them. When I was doing the tasks I didn’t have much room to space the colour squares or typeface out in. The members helped me to stay organised and tidied up the task once they had finished. They helped each other. I had to think about my wording, which also something I learnt whilst I was there. They didn’t need all the ins and outs they wanted to know basically what I wanted them to do. The results were just as surprising as their ages. My theory was proven wrong. I felt that they might prefer colours from their past and really they love the colours that they are surrounded by now, bright and pastel colours. Even some of them picked colours that they were wearing.

While recently reading more on colour I found a couple of paragraphs that backed up the results that I found. It stated, “Designers must always be aware of the problems of those who are color blind, have age- or illness related degenerative vision, or who have limited sight. Elderly people see colors differently... Aging also reduces the amount of light reaching the photoreceptors. All colors will be dimmer... When they are designing for elderly people, designers use bright colors and make sure that brightness contrast is especially high.” Colour, Edith Anderson Feisner, p133. These statements make sense and now I understand why designers use bright colours and why most the colours picked by the members were bright. For the question about imagery, I ask the first 4 members and they all said the same thing. The preferred the positive image of older people. They didn’t want to be reminded of the negative future of them. They would like to see more images of people their own age taking part in clubs, like the bowls club. There are a number of clubs and groups around and it wonder how many older people are becoming the negative image of older people because they don’t know clubs like the bowls club exists.

Tasks Male Results

Below are the results from the men that attend the club. There are more women that play at this particular club. All the men were lovely, there was a wide mix of ages but they all got on really well. If they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand something they would help each other out. They also did the task together, rather than one at a time. Once again these men didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look like their age. The were great to talk to and they were happy to share information with me. Blue was a colour that I thought would be picked a lot by the men but it was only chosen once. They went for bright colours, they took a little longer to chose their colours. Surprisingly they could see a smaller type size than the women.

Age 86 Male

Typeface

Age 64 Male

size 24pt

Age 73 Male

Typeface

size 30pt

Age 80 Male

size 18pt

Typeface

size 18pt

Tasks Oldest Female Results

The womens results were also interesting. They did the task individually but they were there to help each other. They would ask what there friend picked, rather than deciding on their own. They werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afraid to say what they thought, they spoke a lot about the bowls club being moved and how they would get information. The colours chosen by the women were more varied. They would chose pale and bright colours, there were a couple of dark colours and more blues than the mens choices.

Age 85 Female

Typeface

Age 86 Female

size 24pt

Age 80 Female

Typeface

size 24pt

Age 83 Female

size 48pt

Typeface

size 24pt

Tasks Female Results

The typefaces really varied between each of them. They chose these as their answers on how easy it was to read. There was a difference between what they could read and what they liked. Helvetica was chosen a lot which I thought might happen. Many of them mentioned that they hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t got their glasses on and that the size of font would have changed if they had put their glasses on. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want them to use their glasses, I needed a general view rather than an aided view. They were all really helpful and spoke to me about why they had chose the colours and typefaces.

Age 62 Female

Typeface size 24pt Age 77 Female

Age 72 Female

Typeface

Age 62 Female

size 48pt

Typeface

size 18pt

size 30pt

Tasks Colour Results 72

Once I had spoken to the members and the club had finished I then had to work out all the results. I enjoyed this part, it was good to go over everything I had collected. As I have said before, the results didn’t support my theory but that was okay, I was happy to have looked into it and found out that, even though it was a nice theory of using past colours and styles it didn’t work in todays society. The result found out some interesting facts. The colour purple and green were the most chosen, I did wonder whether the colour green had been chosen due to the fact that the bowls greens were green. There were a lot of colours that weren’t even chosen, many of the dull colours didn’t get chosen and if they were they were in the red and brown spectrum.

14 16

17 18

26 29 32

60 33 59

57 56

68% of the women preferred bright colours. 18% of those women chose N°60 when picking a colour. 37.5% of the men preferred Bright colours but 37.5% also chose dull colours. 37.5% of the men chose N°18, 32 and 65 when picking a colour. 40% of the colours were chosen.

53 52

Colour numbers that were chosen

Tasks Type Results

The type results were interesting as well as disappointing, I was hoping that actually older people could see smaller type sizes, however I know that they could read a smaller size but were happier reading a larger size. In the end its about them being comfortable with what they are reading rather than the overall look. The choices of typeface didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t surprise me, Helvetica and Times New Roman were the easiest to read, they were the clearest. I have started to design with these size typefaces and it is a large size to incorporate and fights with the designer in me, which makes me appreciate the design of the previous leaflets and other publications that I have interacted with.

42% of the women found Helvetica easiest to read. 57% of the women preferred size 24pt when reading. 75% of the men found Times New Roman easiest to read. 50% of the men preferred size 18pt when reading.

Times New Roman

Helvetica

They felt that this was the easiest size font that they could read comfortably without their glasses.

24pt

18pt

Tasks Information Results

Where the members at the bowls club get their information from? This was one of the most exciting parts of my trip, I was able to talk to the members and get their opinions as well as simply making time to listen to them. On this page there are the main points that came up whilst talking to them. A lot of these members get information from each other, they talk to each other and recommend things to each other. This was a key point for me to use later in the next stage of this project. Many of the members didn’t visit places of advice, they preferred to have it through their door or recommended by others. Most of them stated that they look in the local papers to get information about groups and clubs that are being held. This also started me think about all the older people living in these boroughs that don’t know about these great places to meet people and get out and about. I big key question that I asked them all was whether they would use the internet to get their information, all the information is on the boroughs website so is that a good resource for the over 50s. The answer every time was ‘no’. They didn’t know how to use the internet and they weren’t interested in learning how.

Libary

Word of mouth

Local Paper

Through the door Advice Centre

Development Research

Now that I had gathered all of this research, tried it out on the target audience, spoken to people in the industry and listened to what the clients would want, I needed to do something proactive and productive. After talking to people like Sylvia and the members at the bowls club I took on board what they had said and started brainstorming ideas.

IDEAS

I started this project expecting to find a lot of information sources already in existance and thought I could simply critic the material for services like the new equipment services. After going out into the boroughs and finding that there was not a lot of resource I needed a new angle and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why I was flexible and reviewed the direction of the project midstream. Now I am at a point where I have to use the information I have collected and design something new!

Ideas

When I started this project I thought that I would be producing leaflets at the end. Throughout this project I have had idea after idea, they have changed a lot over the time, this is due to me being more and more informed. I have learnt a lot throughout this project and my research skills and the importance of research has grown. I had a brainstorming session after visiting the bowls club. The term â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;word of mouthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; kept reoccurring time and time again whilst talking to the members. All the information is available on the internet but they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have access to a computer or internet, also they feel that they are too old to understand it. They have lived their lives so far without it so they can continue not to use it. So what could I design to make this information available to them. One of the main purposes of the Transforming Community Equipment Service is to make people more independant. I feel that the way the information is provided should also aid their independence. If they have ways that work for them to spread information or good services why not use that.

Ideas Leaflets & Checklists

A key idea that was thought up during a meeting with Sylvia Dawson Service Manager for Redbridge Care, was a checklist that the residence as well as general public could have when asking for information about any of Redbridges services. An issue that came up often was that the elderly people didn’t want to make a fuss or question what they had been given. Many of these elderly people lived through a time where you didn’t question what you were given and also you didn’t ask for anything. These are people that are sitting at home in need of support and friendship but don’t want to trouble anyone, or on the other hand don’t know what they can get or need. This checklist would provide them with contact details and have all the questions they would need to ask to understand the service. It would be A5 size with a weighted paper, there would be a tick box for them to tick off the questions they had already asked, this would allow them not to forget to ask a question. The checklist would be for the elderly person to give them back some independence but there are also spouses and children involved in their parents care. An idea for them would be a small card that could fit in a purse or wallet that would contain important contact details of the people that provide the care within the borough. It would contain telephone numbers as well as email addresses and it could also have web links. The other side could contain a step by step guide of what to do in situations, who to contact first. I have realized that the step by step would change depending on situation so that would need some working out by the authority who have the detailed information. As a rule people said that they prefer actual named email addresses and phone numbers of a person rather than a corporate contact point with no ownership by a person who can get back to them.

Ideas Word of mouth

The word of mouth idea had come up a lot over the tasking section of this project. I think that it is a great way to spread information and people rely on other peoples opinions. Word of mouth can work differently with different target audiences. If we were looking at my generation or younger, you could give freebees away that had a web address on or email address and we would visit the site, however an older audience that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have access could not. This then restricts the size of the items. With the websites, I think of pens, badges, postit notes, etc but when you have to put more information on it has to be bigger which raised a challenge for me. The first way that people talk to each other would be over a cup of tea, but all my ideas for the tea, resulted in information being printed on a tea cup or saucer which wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be easy to get to someone else, it would be costly and eventually out of date. Then I had to think slightly smaller, it had to be able to fit in a hand bag or something that could be on someone at all times. This made it slightly harder. The postit idea came back, I thought that maybe some of the information could be on the postits and then there would be room to write on them as well. Size became an issue with that idea. If I used the results for the task, the typeface needed to be at least 18pt, which is rather large on a postit.

One of the last ideas I had for the word of mouth was a small fold out leaflet that could fold down from an A4 to about A8 size. This would be small enough to fit in a purse or bag, it would be the right size to give to someone. It would have too sides, one with information the other would have a weekly activities list. There would also be space for notes.

Whilst I was thinking about word of mouth, drinking tea came to mind. The bowls club loved their cup of tea in the middle of the games. It allowed them to sit there and chat to each other. I wanted to use this an a way to tell each other about the services, so I came up with the fold out that could be given out with a tea bag. It would be called...

Have a cuppa tell a friend.

Ideas Activities sheet & Magazine

Lastly an idea that developed from the back of the word of mouth leaflet, as well as talking to the members of the bowls club, would be to have an activities magazine or leaflet. These clubs are great to help the older people socialise, get out of the house and enjoy their time. The women mentioned that there isn’t really any way of finding out about the clubs, unless you have been before or you know someone that goes to it, which brings back the word of mouth. One of the members mentioned to me that her area doesn’t have anything going on for the over 50’s and so she goes out of her area. The idea of the magazine has been done in other areas so why not with over 50’s activities. To make it even easier there is the leaflet idea, this would be put through peoples doors every week showing what activities are going on in their area or other areas. This could also have information on the back about services that are there to make their lives easier. I was told by members at the club but also other people I have spoken to about the project, that there are a lot of older people that don’t leave their house or just do the same thing everyday because they don’t know activities like the bowls, or WI or tea mornings are going on. Many of the members of the bowls club have very busy weeks with clubs taking up everyday and some of these clubs go away for weekends, but they only know because of word of mouth. There are so many possibilities for older people out there they just don’t know about them. The internet is great for my generation but what about the older generations that are still here.

Ideas Developed

The checklist was a way for older people to be able to ask the right questions without causing a fuss, whether it be on the phone or in person. It would allow them to follow the process and ask all the questions that they would need to, to gain a better understanding of the services provided. The checklist would provide them with a tick box, where once they had asked the questions they could tick it off and move to the next. During the design of these checklists I looked back at not only my research from the bowls club but also the identity research. I was able to use the colour scheme that Redbridge use and also their slogan, Redbridge a better place for care. The colour scheme for this particular department is gold and so has been used around my design. The design of the checklist would allow Redbridge to produce different checklists for different departments, they would just have to change the slogan and colouring each time. For the text I have looked back at my results from the bowls club and I have tried to use what they had said. The most preferred type size was 24pt or 18pt. These are large sizes and even though the members could read these sizes better, graphically it’s harder to design with. However I was able to design the questions at size 18pt. I would really like to see this idea being used in the future, after talking to the people over 50 and the way that they don’t want to make a fuss makes me feel that simple tools, such as the checklist could add more independence to their lives and cause less stress to them when it comes to finding out more about information.

Questions to ask about Community Meals

• What is community meals? • Who can get the meals? • How much does it cost? • How do I access the service? • What dietary, cultural and religious needs do you cater for? • If I am going out on a particular day, can I cancel my meal? • How much will I have to pay to move into a care home? • What happens if there is no answer when my meal is delivered?

020 8708 9101

Tick off

Ideas Developed

Word of mouth was a strong message that kept arising during my talks with the bowls club and other members of the public. It’s the cheapest way to gather information. People love to talk to each other and share experiences and knowledge. This was one of the hardest ideas to develop. I have been brought up in a generation that relies on the internet to gather information, it is my first port of call. For the over 50s it’s not. They rely on recommendations from friends and family or by information provided for them. This is were I had to think of an idea that was small enough to fit in a hand bag or a wallet but also have enough information on. I thought about pens and postits but they could only hold an email address or website, not pages of information. This was a challenge but I was excited by it. Having to think harder about other ways of communication other than internet was useful. I finally created an idea that was not only small and portable but would also contain all the information needed. The fold out word of mouth leaflet would be printed on an A4 and would use both sides. It would then fold up to an size A8 that could fit into a wallet or bag. Older people could use it and then pass it on to their friends and neighbours. On one side there would be service information with also a section for note taking. For example if an older person had particularly found community meals useful and wanted to tell a fellow bowls player about it, she could give the word of mouth leaflet to the other member but also write down helpful telephone numbers or useful contacts with the note section. On the other side of the fold out would be a week plan of activities that are being run by the borough. This would allow the older people to not only have all the information they needed to about services but also have the information to get them out and about.

The printing of the fold out would be cheaper than a booklet or leaflet, however the process of folding it would be a complication and would take some time to research. This idea, I feel could be a strong one after the production and printing cost had been worked out. It could also be adapted to any borough or service, which is one of the unique points to it. Equipment and adapations

Word of Mouth

Community Care Advice Centre

If you are finding it difficult to manage in your home with daily living activities, an occupational therapist can help by giving advice and suggesting equipment to improve your independence.

All the information that you need to know at any time

Ley Street House Annexe 497 - 499 Ley Street Ilford Essex IG2 7QX

Who is the service for?

The service is for all adults who have a disability or a longterm medical condition and those who have problems with daily living tasks.

Community meals What is community meals? Community meals (meals on wheels) is a delivery service of ready-made meals, direct to your own home. Everyday of the year including bank holidays. The hot meals service is delivered between 12.00pm - 2.30pm.

Who can get the meals?

The service is for people in the community who wish to remain independent in their own homes and are finding it difficult to prepare melas for themsleves.

What help will I get? The therapist will look at all aspects of your daily life including: • getting in and out of bed • preparing food and drink • washing and bathing • getting on and off chairs • climbing steps or stairs They will be able to help overcome difficulties by advising you on ways an everyday task can be done differently to make things easier by lending you specialist equipment

How much does it cost?

A hot and frozen meal costs £3.05

How do I access the service?

If you think that you will benefit from the community meals service, we will need to carry out an assessment of what your needs are. If you are eligible then the community Those with special dietary, cultural and religious needs are meals team will contact you to set up the service. catered for.

Word of Mo

uth

All the information that you need to know at any time

How much will I have to pay? Equipment is provided free of charge. There may be a charge for major adaptations to your home. Those owning their homes will be means tested. Council tenants are offered a free service.

Phone Number: 020 8708 7333 Weekends & bank holidays: 020 8559 0516 Email address community.care@redbridge.gov.uk

Notes

Ideas Developed

This idea has been developed from the previous fold out. The activities sheet on the back was an interesting concept. Whilst talking to the members at the bowls club and seeing how much they get out of meeting three times a week to chat and play bowls, I felt sorry for all the older people within the borough that didn’t know that clubs like the bowls club existed. Seeing the enjoyment on the members faces made me appreciate that its not the end once you reach 50 or 80 you can still enjoy yourself. Many of the members have at least one club a day and go away for the weekends. I wondered as a graphic designer what I could produce to tell other people about what’s going on within their area. This idea developed from the idea of getting leaflets through the door. Why couldn’t there be a leaflet that was delivered weekly to the older members of the borough, that listed the weekly events. It was design simply using the research I had gathered. Once again for this example I used Redbridge’s colours and typefaces. The size of type could also stay larger. This for me was the most playful of the ideas, it showed positive images of older people having fun and taking part.

Tea Dance 1:15pm Sir James Hawkey Hall

Barn Dance 2pm to 3.30pm St Andrews Church

£4.00

£3.00*

Walk and Tea 11pm to 1pm Parkside Community Centre

£3.00*

Short Mat Bowls 10am to 12noon Wanstead Youth Centre

£2.70*

Bingo 6pm to 7.30pm St Andrews Church

£3.00*

Ideas Developed

Finally I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to forget about the families of older people. Even thought this project has been about communication and making my target audience more independent I shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget the families that have to support their mothers and fathers or grandparents. The information provided for them is also sometimes harder to find. Whilst talking to people that are going through changes within their parents and the care that they need increasing I learnt a lot about how they would like to be able to access information, especially the right information. Some suggestions have been to just have simple telephone numbers or email addresses of the right people for the right care. This would save a lot of time and hopefully provide the right care for their families without the frustration of being bounced around from officer to officer in the council. Using this feedback, I design a small card that held the telephone and email address of the important people within different services, as well as an easy step by step guide of people to talk to and when. This has been harder for me to design as I only have access to the details provided on the internet. A designer with the borough would have access to the right peoples contact details as well as understanding who to see when. The card would use the borough colours and would be small enough to fit into a purse or wallet, which would allow the family member to carry it around with them at all times. Hopefully this would provide easier access. I went back to the people that I spoke to, to see whether this item would help them to care for their family member. They were excited by the idea and felt that it was such an easy answer to a difficult and sometimes distressing time. They were willing to have the card bigger to fit on more numbers, this was useful feedback as I struggled to provide room for all the numbers needed.

Co De ntac tai t ls

Feedback

Going back to the bowls club provided me with a chance to show them my ideas and get feedback about whether the ideas worked or not. First off the idea of the checklist went down well, most of them liked the concept and stated that it would be helpful to keep them calm and not get confused. Many of them said that sometimes on the phone, using the automated dialling confused them and they couldn’t remember what they had asked, this tool would allow them to remember and stay in control. They felt the type size was right and could be made slightly smaller. The liked the images and contact details on the back. The colour and identity didn’t really mean much to them but they did recognise the Redbridge logo. This I felt was a positive result, it could be adapted easily for different services and different boroughs. The next idea that I showed them was the fold out leaflet. They loved the concept or sharing information with each other. Some of them had difficulty opening it but once shown they got the idea. The space for the notes was a hit, they liked the idea that they could write down what they wanted to share. There was a lot going on the page, with a lot of colours and they cause some slight reading issues but on the hole it was well received. The back of the fold out was some of the member’s favourite bit. Being informed of the activities going on, in such a simple manner was a big bonus. Many commented on the difficultness of finding that sort of information out. Having it all on one sheet that they could keep with them to remind themselves was a big success. This idea went down really well and I was pleased with the feedback.

The fold out with the activities lead nicely onto the activities leaflet that went through the door every week. This was a good idea especially for the older people that don’t leave their houses or don’t know what facilities are out there for them. The members preferred the activities sheet on the back of the fold out but could see the benefit for other older people. Then mentioned that I could increase numbers that attend the clubs and possible in the future cause the boroughs to provide more services. They like the use of colours and the use of positive images. These elements encouraged them to want to know more about the activities. Over all I was really excited and pleased with the feed back, it was nice to know that all the research and development hadn’t gone down the wrong path. I don’t know whether these ideas will be used in the future but I have met with the Communications Manager for Adult Social Services in Redbridge and he is interested in getting me involved within the Redbridge communication meetings. This was as a result of sharing my research and outcomes. This will provide me with important development opportunities after I have finished my degree and when considering my career options.

Meeting Mass Pugliese

Communications Manager, Adult Social Services Throughout this project I have stayed in contact with officers at Redbridge. Meeting with them and receiving information from them has proven to be an asset to the development of this project. Different officers have given me new contacts, which I have followed up. My last meeting was with the Communications Manager for the Adult Social Services within Redbridge. Mass Pugliese has been given the role of heading up the communication group for the Transforming Community Equipment Service. At the beginning of this project Transforming Community Equipment Services was my main focus but due to a lack of equipment information or any general information about the service, the project widened to include all aspects of providing information to older people. Ending this project by talking to Mass allowed me to reflect on the research I had gathered and ideas that were developed and generated due to my experiences. This meeting was very helpful and being able to talk through the whole of my project helped me to see how much I had developed the brief. I was also able to see whether my research would be useful within Redbridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s communication processes, especially for the new Transforming Community Equipment Service. Mass also raised points that I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought about as well as agreeing with the majority of my findings. Some of the ideas that I have developed could have financial constraints but I was pleased that he acknowledged the concepts that I had come up with as outcomes. There are also branding restrictions within public design, however I am convinced that you have to design what best works for the audience and adapt it to work within the corporate branding.

Due to my ideas and passion for the service as well as all the research I had gathered, Mass has invited me to attend the monthly meetings that he holds to provide some real life experience for me whilst seeking employment. This opportunity will allow me to experience public sector communication design in practice, as well as further build on my skills and experience gained by completing the degree course.

Evaluation This project has been a challenging and exciting journey for me. I had taken a risk for my final major project and chosen an area of design I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know much about. I am so pleased that I went for the challenge. I have developed and learnt so much as a person not only in my research and design skills but also within my confidence. This project was strongly governed but contacting and visiting people, which I have previously struggled with. I now understand the importance of speaking with these people. I enjoyed listening to them as well as learning about their backgrounds. Service design is all about the people, whether they are young, old, disabled or frail. Service design is about designing the best outcome for their individual needs and not whether the typeface is to large or the wrong colour has been used. I have learnt through talking to people, performing tasks with these people, but also listening to them, when they say design is important but getting the message across in a clear and positive manner is the main goal. Throughout this year I have gained a better understanding of why research and analysis is so important. Understanding your target audience, what has been done previously and whether it worked or didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t are all key factors. All these points can really impact your final outcome as well as change the journey taken. I started this project focused on the new Transforming Community Equipment Service, my initial research was to visit neighbouring boroughs to see the competition within the information sector. Once visiting these boroughs and discovering that there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t any competition or any information available at all, I needed to change my plan for the term. I needed to look into the design of information and understand it before I could design and develop my final ideas for the Transforming Community Equipment Services. Throughout this project I learnt more and more about

the lack of information available as well as learning and understanding more about the services available to the public. I felt frustrated that there were members of the public struggling without these services, due to a lack of information provided for them. I wanted to understand my target audience more and find out what they would like to see available to them. This was a great experience and I have gained a new appreciation for the older generation as a result. I was able to use what these people had said to create user friendly information pieces. The main focus was on word of mouth and this was a challenging idea, due to the fact that the internet could not be used. My target audience would not get information off of the internet so it was not an option when designing. This provided me with a new restrictive area of design development. Even though I have used the Redbridges identity throughout this project and have communicated with them at length it is important to say that none of this material should be attributed to the borough. I simply would thank them for their support and allowing me to use their brand to demonstrate my outcomes. I feel that this project benefitted from my previous knowledge but also from what I have learnt over the last six weeks. This experience will enable me to use the outcomes within future job applications and for that I am grateful. I have met some inspiring people within this project as well as people passionate about their jobs and the difference it makes. I hope to have shown as much passion and enjoyment for this project as they do. I will use this in future projects and hopefully experience more interesting people and carry on learning from them.

Bibliography Books

Websites

Ambrose, Gavin, (2005), Typography : n. the arrangement, style and appearance of type and typefaces / [design and text by] Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris, Lausanne : AVA

http://cms.redbridge.gov.uk/social_care_children__health/adult_social_services/community_care_advice_centre.aspx [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/leisure_and_libraries/leisure/ get_involved_and_events/healthy_lifestyles/weekly_activities.aspx [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.westminster.gov.uk/contact/ [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.dhcarenetworks.org.uk/csed/TransformingCommunityEquipmentService/ [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Socialcarereform/Communityequipmentservices/index.htm [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=4470092 [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.guardian.co.uk/service-design [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.livingmadeeasy.org.uk [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.guardian.co.uk/service-design/social-innovation [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://scr.csc.noctrl.edu/multimedia/ColorTheory.htm [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.directory.londoncouncils.gov.uk/directory/redbridge/officers [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.servicedesign.org/glossary/service_design [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/130/mission-critical.html [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.participle.net/projects/view/5/101 [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.participle.net/categories/show/ageing [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.uscreates.com [Accessed March, April, May 2010] http://www.jamjarprint.co.uk/artworkinfo.asp#folders [Accessed March, April, May 2010]

Brenda Laurel, editor, (2003) Design research : methods and perspectives, Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT Press. Coleman, Roger, (2007), Design for inclusivity : a practical guide to accessible, innovative and user-centred design / Roger Coleman ... [et al.].Aldershot : Gower. Feisner, Edith Anderson, (2006) Colour : how to use colour in art and design, 2nd ed, London : Laurence King. Frascara, Jorge, (1997), User-centred graphic design : mass communications and social change / Jorge Frascara ; with contributions by Bernd Meurer, Jan van Toorn and Dietmar Winkler and a literature review by Zoe Strickler, London : Taylor & Francis. Mijksenaar, Paul, (1997), Visual function : an introduction to information design, Rotterdam : 010 Publishers. Papanek, Victor J, (1971), Design for the real world : human ecology and social change, with an introduction by R. Buckminster Fuller, Toronto ; New York ; London : Random House.

People Contacted Shangle Khanom - Occupational Therapy Team Manager Redbridge [visited 23rd March 2010] Amanda Simpson - Senior Implementation Lead Department of Health Sylvia Dawso - Service Manager - Redbridge Care and Shelter Redbridge [visited 26th May 2010] Mass Pugliese - Senior Communications leader Redbridge [visited 2nd June 2010]

Places Visited Redbridges Community Care Advice Centre (CCAC) Havering Public Advice and Service Centres (PASC) Waltham Forest Direct: Shops London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Chingford Over 50s Bowls Club