WONDERLAB FALL 2011 Luci Laffitte and Manuela Kind
STARTING POINT As a starting point, we randomly chose cards with one word each. They had a service, a location, a group of people and an object. We used these words as inspiration to go out and have new experiences and wonder about our world. We decided to just jump in and go bowling, get waxed at a beauty salon, eat chicken nuggets and meet adrenaline junkies playing paintball, to see what we could discover in those places. We captured our adventures with cameras to document what we experienced.
Emotions and reactions at the bowling alley
BOWLING ALLEY We went to the bowling alley with a
It was also interesting to see, that
group of about nine people. Some of us
Manuela‘s dad who doesn‘t speak any
played better, others were “unlucky”, but
English, was as much part of the group
everyone enjoyed the outing! We were
as anyone else, as the communication
intriqued that each player had their own
during the game was mostly based on
routine, style of throwing, and way of
gestures and facial expressions.
showing their reaction to the the row.
Sharing stories at paintball
ADRENALINE JUNKIES We arrived in a bus with other students
cited to share their stories from what
and once we got there, we got instruc-
happened during the game and show
tions for how to play the game safely
off their battle wounds. We found that
from a scary ex-marine. It was very inte-
throughout the day, the individual cli-
resting to see how at first the group was
ques melded into one big group.
quiet and seperated, but after just one round of play everyonewas really ex-
Getting waxed!
EYEBROW WAXING Monday morning at nine, we arrived
xing itself was very relaxing, even though
at “Judit”, a beauty-salon in Southside
it was painful. We wondered about how
for our appointment to get our eyeb-
much pain people, especially women,
rows / arms waxed. We entered a very
are willing to take on in order to fit into
carefully decorated room with little figu-
society.
res, flowers and lots of little beauty supplies. The whole procedure of the wa-
Analyzing chicken nuggets
CHICKEN NUGGETS We decided to eat some chicken nug-
read about it and eat the nuggets at the
gets very attentively. Before preparing
same time. Usually we tend ignore the
them, we read carefully what‘s inside the
truth about what we out in our bodies.
nuggets we were about to eat. Although
We questionned – why do we eat Fast
everyone knows that eating chicken
Food, even if we know how harmful it is?
nuggets is not healthy and that it‘s not only chicken in there; it was weird to
CONCLUSIONS As we started to analyze and try to un-
to dive deeper into how we act/interact
derstand the experiences we had over
in certain situation and and with certain
the weekend, we realized how much all
people.
the things had in common, even if they seemed to be very different at the beginning. All of them we‘re somehow related to how people interact which eachother or society and the norms in it. How do we act in certain places? Why do we pay for experiences that can be painful, hurtful, or unhealthy for us? When do we decide to really engage in something and behave that way? How much a part of an experience are the people around us? Would we act differently, if we were with other people? Why would we act that way? We decided that we wanted
QUESTIONING To synthesize deeper what we had ex-
still enjoy it that much, even when we‘re
perienced, we rearranged all our pictu-
“grown up”? Do we interact different-
res and sticky – notes. We tried to figu-
ly if we play the same game with our
re out, what all those experiences have
closest friends than when playing with
in common and how can we break this
our buddies from the soccer team?
common ground apart to very concre-
When is it appropriate to play, and are
te questions. A very interesting moment
there people with whom we can never
seemed to be the point when people
play a game? How do we make that
switched between certain behaviours.
choice?
Where do we decide in playing paintball, that this is just a game and has nothing to do with real war? How can we get really emotional about the score in a bowling game, even if there are so many more things to care about? Why is it important for us to be able to play? What do we gain from a game? Why do we
DRAW US A PICTURE … After all those questions emerged, we decided to go out to discover people‘s opinions about their behaviors with regards to groups. We went to different places in Squirrel Hill and on CMU Campus to talk to people from a lot of different age groups, cultural background and genders. We asked them to draw us a picture of the groups they belong to, what they do with each group, and what their role is in each group. It was interesting to see that people were very willing to participate. A lot of the people we talked to told us that they had never really thought about what groups they‘re in until then.
TRYING TO FIND AN ORDER After recieving more than 25 responses
to groups when they get older, because
from people from age 16 to 55, we tried
of their responsibility to a family or job?
to arrange them in a meaningful order.
It was also interesting to see, that the
We hung themup based on age and also
roles that younger people defined for
seperated them by gender. We listed
themselves were rather superficial, for
the different types of groups that people
example: “I‘m the funny one” or “I‘m the
listed on purple sticky-notes and all the
well dressed one”. We also found that
roles that they think they have on pink
the 40+ crowd tended to describe their
sticky-notes. After a little while, we dis-
role in a more functional way, such as
covered, that age really affects how peo-
“I‘m an electrician” or “I‘m the mom”.
ple see their own role in a certain group.
While, people in their 20s were more
First of all, the older people were, the
likely to use specifics and personality
less groups they listed. It seemed as if
traits. We wondered about how our un-
they chose to only draw the more im-
derstanding and awareness of our own
portant ones — or maybe had become
role changes over time?
to focused or busy to be part of more groups? We wondered – do people really have less time or interest in belonging
th e d e c is io n
the
maker
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CREATING A TASK
disa
gre
er
qu th e id e a esti maker on do eve n‘t ryth ex p be ing lain p you be ersuas re b e f s er ive pic n ky t e l f b e i o rwar th in ki n g m ake h e l i s d e al is ti c p et an d c re at sp ople d e le g at iv e ea k ret e dir hink ectl n ‘t b u il d the classd oclown y s tu ff y o u se lf i n g se e t h e b ig p ic tu tive r y t h th re tten e a v e e in k abs st d b n a ra t ct ly d ea im ders co tical u tm u n ic at e i u n pentertain people athe abo d e as talk em e e l b p e be charming and clever peo k a e m win people over udg ea s n id n‘t j d o don‘t contribute to the task estio u q d t n‘ inde d o be relentless n-m ope b e make it fun bring the party
org
mak
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ia k ater wor e it th m t wi mak n e m peri tly ex n c re m ak e i k co me n i t w o rk h t u t co o n e xp e ri o s u o c m e n t w it i s n h m at e ri f o scus th in k co al it di m i n cr e tl y l mediator fo cu s o n o u tco m e li m it d is cu ss io n
uild s u re n‘t b t i f u n gather opinions do den ven onfi e c , t e b inan think neutrally dom ering be av w act rationally n ents u ctly e m b e d i re dg i o n be empathetic e ju n i k p a o m your stay calm and friendly ea k sp dly u o l p l e connect and compromise lk o a e t p ver be curious lk o ta
her
op inio ns ne u t ra iona lly lly ath etic m a nd frie ndly nd co m p ro mis e
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the disagreer
question everything don‘t explain yourself be persuasive be picky make people rethink speak directly r
idea the
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g inkin tive arth c rea w r d o n f a e c b i t alis ide f be usel ate g ff yo e l stu d l de i u re n‘t b ig pictu do b the y l t e c e a r s s abst i d ea ink ate th u n i c the organizer m m co
be structured make it run smoothly make a plan tell people what to do oversee the situation keep it clean and in cont
er
We spent a lot of time discussing how
mates, we realized that we might
people take on roles in different groups
not be able to gain that much informa-
and how these roles work together. How
tion from this activity, and that our idea
do we define our role in relation to other
was too dependent on the task itself to
people and their roles? We realized that
really gain insights about the behavior of
we stumbled on something really inte-
people.
resting and decided to create an activity to gain more information from people. What would happen, if people were told to take on a different role? We tried to develop a task that would be taken on by a group of strangers with roles given by us. Example roles- “the mediator”, “the disagreer”, or “the decision maker”. We created a list of attributes to help our participants get into their new roles by surveying our peers. But after we trying a test-run of this activity with our class-
e
GIVING ROLES We decided to stay on our path, but we
funny to see how much people enjoyed
had to change the way we approached
to do this, and that all twenty tags were
the probe. Should we really make them
distributed after a few minutes. Howe-
do something specific and fullfill a mis-
ver, there were some undesirable roles
sion, or would it be more interesting to
that people didn't want to wear even if
see, how they behave in the “real world”
they knew that it was just for fun and
on a saturday night? We invited friends
didn‘t really represent their actual per-
to go out with us after a dinner at Luci‘s
sonality. But mostly, the decisions were
house. Before we actually went out to a
made very easily, and soon we were rea-
bar, we pulled out a bunch of name tags
dy to go out and observe what would
that people usually wear at first mee-
happen next.
tings or group gatherings. But on our name tags, we wrote roles and stereotypes like “listener”, “artist”, “foreigner” or “the flirt”. We had our friends choose tags for eachother, with the proposition that the tags didn't have to exactly match each person's personality. It was
TAKING ROLES Only a few minutes after arriving at the
while the person wearing the “out of
bar, we realized that our simple name
control“-tag even got kicked out of the
tags got a lot of attention. People that
bar by the end. We also noticed that
weren‘t involved showed a lot of reac-
some people that participated hid their
tions to it. These ranged
from “Hey,
tags after entering the bar or changed
what‘s this?” to “Why would you wear
it during the night because they found
that?” and “Can I have one, too?” We
their tag to be unfavorable or embaras-
were surprised how much feedback we
sing. How could those little name tags
got. In some way, people seemed to
cause so much action?
believe in what the name tags said. A stranger wentup to the person who was wearing the “Pushover”-tag and told her, that he could totally see that in her. Another person, wearing the “Princess”-tag, got handkisses from strangers, and the nametags seemed to actually affect the service at the bar. The person wearing the “do-gooder”-tag didn‘t get a drink,
CONCLUSIONS We got back from this roleplay excursion
surprisingly easy for everyone. We
with a lot to think about. Obviously, we
found that people really enjoyed taking
had hit on something that resonated with
on the roles, even if we didn‘t tell them
people. We tried to split up the evening
specificly to act in a different manner.
in three parts: 1. What happened when
3. What were the different kinds of re-
people could define roles for eachother?
actions that we got and how did those
People had a lot of fun, picking roles for
reactions affect us? We noticed that the
eachother and discussing if this was a
tagged people got a variety of different
good choice or not. Even if the role was
kinds of reactions. And obviously, the
supposed to be the opposite of the acu-
reactions and potential judgements from
tal personality, often there was still some
outsiders influenced how comfortable
spark of truth in the role that the per-
people felt wearing the tags. Somehow,
son got. 2. What happened, once they
people were also very ready to accept
started to get into that role and played
and believe in the roles …
the game? Once people got the nametag slapped on, they started to experiment with what they could act like... if they would really be like that role. It was
it‘s not good for my kids
if it‘s not cold enough, i won‘t take it
i should get my picture printed on it
if it‘s «diet», it won‘t be that harmful
CREATING A TOOL Now we reached the point where we wanted to show what we learned from our experiences, and how other people could benefit from them. How could we apply our new-gained knowledge to a useful tool for designers? Our experiment showed us, that people are willing and able to take on roles, and believe in it to a certain degree. What if designers could also take on different roles, and through this gain new perspectives on the product they are designing? We decided to work further in this direction, and try to develop a kit that would help design teams who are stuck on a project, to change their point of view and gain new approach to their work in a fun and playful way.
W H AT
WHo
is iT
is iT for
A plAyful WAy To reseArcH And find inspirATion.
projecT TeAm THAT is sTuck And needs To discover neW perspecTives.
HoW
WHen
iT Works
T o p l Ay
escApe from your usuAl perspecTives by selecTing neW roles for eAcH TeAmmATe. imAgine HoW your neW self inTerAcTs WiTH your projecT.
leAve THe office An Hour eArly And HeAd To THe neAresT bAr. slAp on THe TAg before you depArT And leAve your old self AT THe door.
WHere
WHy
To go
iT Will cHAnge your life
pick A plAce WHere you HAven‘T been before And geT inspired by THe environmenT, seen THrougH neW eyes.
design isn‘T jusT for you. Try To see your projecT THrougH THe eyes of An user you mAy noT HAve considered yeT.
CREATING A TOOL If we wanted to create a tool, we first had to answer a few questions to ourselves, to better understand what we were creating.
PREPARING THE FINAL PROBE To make sure that our idea could actu-
prepared with more than a hundred name
ally function in a space that we couldn‘t
tags and lots of curiosity, we went to a bar
control, we decided to re-run our expe-
in Shadyside and set it up.
riment and try to get strangers involved. Maybe our first try was just lucky or our friends only participated because they wanted to do us a favor? We set up a board full of prepared name tags with roles on it. We also posted simple instructions: “Pick a role. Pick a friend. Slap it on”. We wondered what would happen if we just set it up and watched. Would people be curious about it? How long would it take until people started to play the game? Would people get bored of it, or would it just need one person to start, so that others can “catch fire”? Well
TRY OUT IN PUBLIC Only a few minutes after we arrived at the
board and ask what it was. People seemed
bar and started to unpack our project, the
to enjoy it a lot, to pick tags for eachother
first person came and asked us what we
and the feedback was very positive. We
were doing and why. She immediately de-
couldn‘t believe that after only two hours,
cided to participate and took three name
almost all of our nametags were gone! The
tags to slap on her friends. We started to
few leftovers were all unfavorable roles e.g.
make the rounds, carrying a few name tags
“over-confident” and “unhappy”. The name
with us, slapping them on random people
tags seemed to be a real icebreaker – peo-
to gauge their interest and reaction. At the
ple wearing the tags started conversations
beginning, a few people even asked if they
even if they didn‘t know eachother before.
had to pay for it. It was interesting to see that most people enjoyed being “involved in something”. On the rare occasion that the first person of a group that we approached didn't want to participate, the rest of the group often didn‘t want to either. After a while, we just let people pick and play, and waited for others to come up to the
THE TAG TEAM KIT We packaged our probe in a kit that could be distributed to or purchased by design teams. The kit contains name tags, a sharpie, a disposable cameras, and instructions for use.