Lois Kim | Spring 2018
Scope —
I’ve recently become passionate about a sustainable life style. As a college student, its often times difficult to carry out. I saw this studio as an opportunity to explore this opportunity. I’m working with Jasper Tom!
The mail art activity made it very clear to me that sustainability is a theme that I believe design can make an impact with.
Research —
- What do you do with your plastic bags after you return home/put the product away?
- If you save it — why? (ex: I know people will save supreme bags)
- How much do you care about the bag after its initial use?
- Do you follow any sustainable habits?
- When do you remember to bring a reusable bag? What prompts you to bring one?
- Whats your favorite brand, and why?
Sean, 21
- 6 — I think compared to most people I try to turn off the lights more. I don’t eat a lot, I don’t get a lot of stuff that gets throw out. I eat with my hands a lot.
- Provided, I throw them out.
- Zero — cause its a plastic bag. It’s like the epitome of garbage. *Laughs* its probably the most garbagy thing ever.
- Sometimes I keep the shoe box, because you want to keep your shoes in there. They fit your shoes nicely. grocery bag to tend to your groceries.
- Theres this organic chocolate milk we get at whole foods. we keep the bottle. and refill it there. we get $5 if we bring it back. it was a cool incentive. its glass. it feels worth doing the whole system requirement.
- glasses usa. no — i like them cause they’re cheap. i do like sustainability, but i can’t think of any that do it. i would prefer if they were nicer to the environment
Fatima, 22
- I carry a few in my car in the trunk.
- BEING CHARGED FOR PLASTIC BAGS.
- —
- No way, jose — I’m never thinking too deeply about it. Its kind of an unconscious act. (Throwing out bags)
- Again, being charged. And I always keep in my trunk to forget doing so.
- I like brands that let me express myself through their items — so like Muji. They have different ways for me to decorate their products.
Literature Review / Third party sources:
As micro-moment behaviour — where people instinctively turn to their device to act upon a need — becomes the norm, consumers’ expectations of value, convenience and immediacy of response from brands are becoming increasingly demanding. -Unilever
Looking into third party resources to see whats already been accomplished, and becoming a foundation for our work.
Our interview an expert, Jonathan Chapman:
Jonathan was an awesome person to talk to! He gave us several resources for inspiration and provided us some questions to look further into. For example: the idea can work great for the consumer, but will it be applicable to the business/manufacturing process?
Interviews with consumers:
To get a better understanding of how people interact with bags, I conducted interviews with multiple users. Those who are living eco-friendly lives, and to those who have no care to live a green life. The questions were centered on how their habits towards sustainability, and how they felt about it.
“Cultural Probes”/Activities:
I created two different activities for participants to complete within a week. I’m hoping to learn more on people’s habits, their relationship with bags, and where my biggest design opportunity is. These totes were given to college students in varying years and backgrounds.
Cultural Probe (Canvas Bags) Returned:
Observations:
- Participants wrote the object itself, excluding the brand. Or they used the branding to describe the objects they carried.
- Placement of where the objects were written was sporadic. Users communicated they held the written side on the outside for the public to see.
- The canvas bags provided use in their daily routine/lifestyle.
Design Opportunities/Takeaways:
The participants were proud to wear their bags! My assumption was that users would try to conceal their markings on their bags, but the opposite had occurred. Unconsciously or deliberately — they wore the bags with the markings to show to the public. This activity has confirmed I want to move towards the path of consumers taking control of what their “shopping bag” will look like.
It was interesting to note how some participants wrote the object itself, and some users used the branding to describe their objects. This is clear that the participants built an emotional relationship with the objects that interacted with the canvas totes.
Feedback from Kristen:
The fidelity of the markings were the result of the fidelity of the bags I gave. This was something I did not account for initially. The goal of this activity was to understand how participants would document their purchases/owned items. Moving forward in future projects and activities, I plan to take this account. At this point, Jasper and I have realized we want to split ways. We’ll still be working together to bounce our ideas back and forth but will be moving forward with different concepts.
Slam Poetry —
It was nice to take a moment to reflect down to the root why we were doing our individual projects. It reminded to take a step back from“micro actions”. I appreciate the different lectures being incorporated to the studio. It gives us different food for thought. Below are the notes taken from that class.
Brain Storming —
Round Robin (2/28/18)
I was paired with those also interested in sustainability. This included: Lily, Faith, Alex, Ty, Noah, and Gilly. I loved having the time to chat and critique with those also who wanted to use the power of design to change how we currently interact with sustainability.
I presented a brief background to my research and where my concepts currently stand:
“Imagine you’re done checking out at your favorite store and you bring out a clear bag to carry your new purchases. After the transaction, you can customize your clear bag with the stamps that are provided by the store. You have full freedom to display the brand.”
The feedback I received had confirmed this is the route to move forward with. Ty had mentioned this reminded him of pins and patches which is a strong way that consumers today customize their bags/totes/backpacks. The pins align with concepts they identify with, or brands they support. Faith had also mentioned that the way people customize their laptops is something to look into. Having the same base (usually a clean MacBook), covered with stickers that users identify with and believe represent themselves.
Alex then brought up “Yea, I love to use my reusable bags but I always feel awkward bringing a different brand into the store I’m entering.” Ex: Trader Joe reusable bag into Whole Foods. An interesting experience Gilly brought up was when she shopped at Trader Joes, she brought 4 totes BUT 1 was from Whole Foods. The Trader Joe baggers stuffed everything into the 3 other ones, and did not use the 1.
They then went into their own discussion at how the concept I presented would solve this issue. (While this is an extremely niche problem, it was one I didn’t account for. Which was nice to hear!)
Feedback from Molly (2/05/18)
It was great to hear from Molly the different inspiration pieces I could learn from. It was refreshing to see the different existing projects.
Round Robin 3/21/18 —
Meeting with the rest of the sustainability groups was great for me to see where I stood process wise, allowing me to decide where to move forward with.
- Alex, Faith, Gilly, Noah, Ty: The children’s exhibition group had fleshed out the paper pulp activity. It was nice to see their idea of a loop being completed through the activity. The feedback that Kristen and Molly had given was to think long term. What will other activities look like? Whats the long term effect/impact of this paper pulp activity? I thought this feedback translating to my project as well. I have a blueprint of the initial interaction and flow of my service/idea. But what happens next?
- Lily: Lily has moved forward by narrowing her scope down to a social media presence. By creating a platform where she shares how to mend items, and educational pieces — she hopes to create change that way. I think instagram is a perfect medium to do so. I find myself “saving” videos from instagram that I later want to learn from or do the activity being shown (ex: a gym exercise.)
- Jasper: Jasper has decided to move towards a satirical approach to the “sustainability/bag” problem we both started off with. I appreciate the different approach, it’s refreshing to see a design problem being handled in not such a “i’m going to save the world through service design” attitude.
My Concept: My service provided to different brands will reduce their production of paper/plastic shopping bags. In return, customers will build more of an emotional attachment to their reusable and unique totes/bags.
The process starts with the user either bringing their clear, eco-friendly tote (if this isn’t the first time they are interacting with the service.) Upon arriving at the store of their choice — they will carry out their shopping needs. Once they arrive at the check out process, the cashier will place the purchased items in the reusable tote. Or the user can purchase a new one, if this is their first time within this process. From there, users can head over to the decorating kiosk. There, users can find stamps unique to the brand and stamp their bags however they wish.
What I hope to accomplish through this small change would be:
- Consumers build an emotional connection to what is usually deemed to be garbage — a shopping bag.
- This in return reduces the number of bags produced. This not only helps the environment, but can greatly cut the cost of bag production.
Feedback: The group had a lot of great things to contribute to my idea. They saw this a huge opportunity for brands to move farther than what is currently the standard for branding. This gives me the chance to experiment with what those hypothetical stamps would look like for different companies. Lily had mentioned I could do a small photoshoot with concept bags to show how this could be incorporated into daily wear. I thought this was a great idea to visually show my concept.
Silent Crit 4/2/18 -
- Link to slides I placed on my desk: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/131UiLsr0L3GH0pwEXYBiQhT9sf6stOfTX7kmwkss4uc/edit?usp=sharing
I got great feedback, and I loved the fact this was silent because I was able to create my own thoughts. This also showed in the feedback I received due to the variety of opinion.
I was able to divide the feedback into different categories that will turn into action items for the future.
To communicate better next time:
- Why shopping bags are an issue, and why I decided to focus on them specifically.
- How my concept returns back to being sustainable. Ex: Calculating the math of how much companies spend on shopping bags vs. my concept.
- Who is the audience/target group. I AM NOT TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD WITH MY CONCEPT* Its a small step and a direction towards how consumers actually want to behave.
To build:
- Prototypes of the stamps (3d printed)
- Prototypes of bags (with clear vinyl)