Mega Project Blog 1
Goal: Mega Project Problem Exploration
“Hand painted pots for relaxation and calming oneself as well as creating a natural and fresh surrounding around yourself”
Problem: Mental or anxiety issues and lack of fresh air in surroundings
What are the possible root causes of the problem?
The possible root cause of the problem is the unawareness regarding the significance of plants or good environment around us or the lack of acknowledgment that nature and art or color can play a huge role in helping us deal with our mental problems or calming ourselves as humans are part of this ecosystem as all organisms are connected to each other and through these connections we provide comfort and calm to each other for eg; Going on a walk in a Park with a lot of greenery after a long hectic day at office or university. We conducted a research through Google forms or online surveys and found that most of the people were unaware of even the plants situated around them, they were unaware of the significance of plants and how they are root cause of cleaning the environment making it sustainable for us to live. We learned that most of the people don’t go out often in nature such parks ,gardens etc.
Who are the people affected by the problem, and how exactly are they affected?
The people we are targeting are mostly the people who are living in big cities are most impacted by this issue, people who are either living in the close apartments where they don’t keep lawns due lack of space or scarcity of parks or green areas in the city. The students who are living away from their homes and can’t keep big plants in their dorm rooms and and they can’t even go to parks due to long distances or transport issues. As a hostelite they also lack the color or feeling of home so they often struggle with homesickness. Through this project we are trying to solve multiple problems of mental well being or giving awareness about plants or environment as well as helping people especially hostelites to overcome feeling of home sickness through art/color and plants.
Details on the demographic of the target population
We created a Google form and conducted a survey asking the target audience about their demographics, their preferences, major challenges and frustrations, detail of the problem they are facing and how they think that our idea would help them solve their problem.
Some of our group have lived, and some are still living in hostels, so they have a direct experience with the problems a hostelite faces. They shared their problems and challenges and the problems others have been facing around them.
Upon research, we found that a person living away from home in a hostel faces many challenges including mental and physical hygiene, lack of hobbies and sometimes loneliness and boredom. Their diet is unhygienic as compared to the people living in their homes. They face mental stress due to excessive academic burdens, lack of privacy in a shared space inside the hostel, lack of liberty in doing what they want when they want, and of course uniformity in the routine and no hobbies. They are away from home which makes them emotionally sensitive and vulnerable.
After we did our research on the problems our target population faces and how our idea can help them tackle it, we found that people really thought that by adding hand-painted plant pots into their hostel rooms, they could help themselves relieve their mental stress, make the place look good, and use the plants for multiple purposes. They thought that the addition of plants to their space would replenish them and their surroundings.
This data helped us analyze our target audience. as it can be seen, most of the responses lie within age group 20 to 22 hence the university and hostel students were targeted. Another factor which supported this was the educational qualification of the audience which is mostly from Bachelors to masters.
What is already being done to alleviate the problem
There are a few organizational departments working on this cause in order to overcome this problem. PLANTS FOR PAKISTAN also known as 10 billion tree tsunami, is a five year project to plant 10 billion trees across Pakistan from 2018 to 2023. Before it, in 2014 campaign of green Pakistan was launched and also allocated budget funding from the PSDP. It also raised awareness of harm of deforestation and how important a healthy life is. As we know life begins with plants, Shifa Foundation being a dedicated Non profit Organization is contributing to the environmental cause by organizing plantation drives in the capital. Shifa foundation has till date organized four tree plantation drives in Islamabad.
Learning personas
Keeping in mind these factors, the plants we will start from will be the aloe Vera plant, the snake plant and rose plant in colorfully hand painted pots, to help them overcome their problem and have a meaningful addition in their room.
Plan of action
