Design Research Studio
Fall 2017
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8.28.17 Class Reflection
For our first class we took a look at transitions design and how the semester is going to play out. Here are some things that stood out from our three instructors:
- The designed world exists within the context of our natural environment, so it is necessary to keep in mind how our decisions impact the world around us. It is also necessary to be aware of social and interpersonal relationships.
- “The thing I love about design is that I keep having to learn new things in order to do it.” -Terry Irwin
- Be comfortable with ambiguity. Design is a dance. At some times you will lead, sometimes you will follow, and often you will have to pivot.
- Transition Design is about systems. We are so embedded in systems that we don’t even notice them, but we must learn to design for system level change. Systems are holarchic: nested within each other while also being semiautonomous. It’s important to now how to navigate between the layers.
- With socio-technical systems come wicked problems. When you combine living, unpredictable systems with human made systems designed for control, you get complexity on a large scale.
- In the transition design process, it’s important to wait and observe. Don’t intervene too quickly, and don’t tackle problems on your own.
I’m excited for this semester! This class motivated me to want to get involved in solving wicked problems and feel validated in my choice to become a designer. We really can make a difference! I know there’s some uncertainty with how the course will go, but I’m willing to go with the flow and make it the best experience I can.
8.30.17 Leverage Points, Places to Intervene in a System
Donella Meadows
In this paper, Meadows writes about leverage points, places in a complex system that can produce a impactful change. She presents 12 different interventions in order of effectiveness, which she admits is a work in progress. They are:
12. Constants paramenter, numbers.
11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows.
10. The structure of material stock and flows.
9. The length of delays, relative to the rate of system change.
8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impact they are trying to correct against.
7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops.
6. The structure of information flow.
5. The rules of the system.
4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure.
3. The goals of the system.
2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises.
1. The power to transcend paradigms.
8.30.17 Class Reflection
The first half of class we talked about eight different problems that Pittsburgh faces such as access to clean air, access to clean water, gentrification, affordable housing, access to quality affordable food, access to quality education, access to affordable public transportation, and reduction of crime. We’ve talked about some of these issues in classes here and there, but it’ll be interesting to dive deeper into them. I like the idea of doing projects directly related to the city we live in, because as a student, sometimes it’s easy to stay in our college bubble and never venture out. Hopefully we can learn more about Pittsburgh (which from the game I realized I don’t know very well) and be able to create something that can make a difference, even if it’s small.
Our topic is gentrification, which seems really big and unchangeable. There are so many different factors at play, and it will be interesting to see where we go with it. My initial thoughts on the topic and complicated. I really like seeing areas get “nicer”, old buildings get repurposed, and neighborhoods getting safer. I’ve definitely been one to try that new restaurant in Lawrenceville or East Liberty and to check out up and coming neighborhoods. However, it is sad to know that in order for these nice things to pop up, people are often displaced from their homes. Is it possible to have a city with people of mixed income? Is it possible to make an area nicer without making people leave? What is the root problem of all of this? I guess we’ll see as we research this weekend.
9.6.17 Ojai Reading
Starting this reading, I’m again reminded of the complexity of Wicked problems. Now that we have our assigned themes, it’s easier for me to see how all of these attributes of wicked problems are true for the issue at hand. All of these points are true of gentrification, and that’s a scary starting point. However, it’s comforting to know that there is some sort of framework/process out there to help us get started.
- Mapping the Wicked Problem
Starting with mapping to come to a shared understanding, distinguish between root causes and consequences to find leverage points, keep track of projects and initiatives, and see opportunity spaces. - Map Stakeholder Relations
Address conflicting agendas and ideas, and see opportunities for collaboration. Look at fears/concerns and hopes/dreams - Envisioning the Future
- Envision a future where the problem has been resolved. It’s also more effective to envision lifestyles over solutions. Solutions are most effective when they connect to other solutions, support behavior change, and benefit all stakeholders.
- Sustainable Lifestyles: “Ways of living that allow people to meet their personal needs and aspirations, while allowing current and future generations to do the same. Meeting our individual needs and desires within the limits of available resources is our collective challenge.”
4. Backcasting: Creating Transition Pathways
- start with the vision, then create a transition pathway back to the present. “Forecasting takes place within a context of justification, whereas backcasting takes place within the context of discovery”(Dreborg 1996). Something that stuck out to me here was the idea of creating desirable futures and how important that is to get people on board.
Thoughts:
There are lots and lots of tools and diagrams that seem useful for the future. I’m excited to see how we’ll incorporate some of these processes as we go along. This class also reminds me a lot of Futures, and it is helping me see the value of that course a bit more. I’m not quite sure why, but I think I feel more engaged on the topic of futures in this course rather than last Fall. It could be that now we have an actual project/theme to use as a lens for our learning as opposed to lectures. I do like how it’s all tying together though.
9.6.17 Class Reflection
Today was mostly a work session where we looked at how other groups are mapping their post-its and worked on rephrasing our problem statements.
Our group has been writing positive aspects of gentrification alongside our problems, just because we feel like our issue is so multifaceted. I was a bit confused and frustrated by our conversation at first, cause I wasn’t sure what was wrong with our post-its. At first it seemed like the problem was that we were focusing on benefits, and then it sounded like we were wasting time, then it sounded like our thoughts were too high level. Eventually it came down to the fact that we could’ve worded our post-its with more context and examples, but it took a long time for us to get to that point. I feel a bit better now that we’re moving forward, but it was confusing at the time. I think another issue is that we were moving towards categorizing too fast, when we should’ve just focused on our problem statements.
9.8.17 Group Meeting
I wasn’t able to be there for the whole meeting, but we re-wrote our problems and put them on the map that was given to us. Here were the two topics I looked at:
- Shift in Community Culture
Re-write: Gentrification often shuts down local businesses and breaks apart neighborhoods that are central to the existing community’s culture and identity (East Liberty, Hill District)
Related Links: East Liberty, anti displacement efforts in the Hill District, Tale of Two Cities, Pittsburgh’s response to deindustrialization - Schools Shut down, expensive ones built
Re-write: Since wealthier families are more likely to send their kids to private school, existing public schools in gentrifying neighborhoods shut down due to decreased funding and decreased enrollment. (Wilkinsburg, North Side)
Related Links: Northview School closing, population shifts’ effect on schools in Allegheny County, Wilkinsburg school closing, gentrification’s effect on public schools
9.11.17 Capra Reading: Deep Ecology — a New Paradigm
Interesting points:
- More and more problems are systemic: interconnected and interdependent.
- Solving these problems requires a shift in perception. Our worldviews are outdated. Culture is undergoing a paradigm shift.
- We need to shift towards an ecological worldview, where we recognize that all things are connected, and that we are all “embedded in the cyclical processes of nature”
- Shallow ecology is human centered, whereas deep ecology is earth centered and recognizes that humans are just another part of the natural environment. The nature of deep ecology is to ask deeper questions.
- Western industrial culture has overemphasized self-assertiveness, and overlooked integration. There’s more of a desire for power. However, Eastern cultures are much more focused on community and cooperation.
- Are the advancements and decision we’re making ethical? It’s time to have better standards to protect our environment.
Thoughts:
This piece seemed oddly religious to me? There was a lot of talk about interconnectedness, awareness, lifestyles, spirituality, etc. I guess I’m not used to this type of language in a more philosophical paper. It also felt very socialist in the ways that it talked about equality and cooperation. It’d be great if everyone could see each other as equal and treat everyone fairly, but I don’t see how it’s possible to get there. I may be pessimistic, but human self-centeredness is not going to go away anytime soon, and thus we cannot transition all of society to a deep ecological worldview.
9.13.17 Mapping Stakeholder Relations
Today we worked in groups to write out the hopes and fears for three different stakeholders and see which are in alignment and conflict. It was a fun process, and I feel like we gained good insight on the groups involved. It seems like most of the conflicts are between lower income existing residents and the developers and most of the alignment is between existing residents and more well off people moving into gentrifying neighborhoods. These could be things to capitalize on in the future.
9.18.17 Block Reading- Community, the Structure of Belonging
Interesting Points:
- To belong to a community, one must act as a creator and co-owner as well as be a part of it.
- “Being is our capacity to find our deeper purpose in all that we do. It is the capacity to be present, and to discover our authenticity and whole selves.”
- the shrinking of our world because of the connectedness that comes from technological advances does not mean that we feel a greater sense of belonging.
- Our culture emphasizes independence and individuality, which causes us to be more fragmented and isolated.
- A community’s well-being depends on the quality of its relationships or social capital, the extent to which people are hospitable and affectionate to one another.
Thoughts:
I really liked this piece because it reminded me of the way my parents raised me and my sisters. They always emphasized the family over the individual, and taught us to care about others. I do see the ways in which technology has affected us more negatively. Where we used to sit around the dinner table and talk, now we just eat in front of the TV. We text a lot more, but we don’t see each other as often. It’s challenging to have more meaningful experiences together and with other people. I’m a leader in two organizations, and I felt that this piece was helpful for me to see ways in which I can create a better, more caring community that people want to be a part of.
Jungk Reading- How to Create Desirable Futures
Interesting Points:
- The future belongs to everyone, but not everyone has as much say or influence.
- A futures workshop should have a preparatory phase, a critique phase, a fantasy phase, and an implementation phase.
- People move from apathy to action when they feel like they can actually be a part of the planning and decision making process
- Is it really true that people don’t know what they want and need to be told?
- I like how Jungk started a conversation by talking about frustrations and asking questions like: As children did you play as you liked? Did you ever tell your parents your dreams? To what extent did adults meddle in what you were doing? Did you make up your own fairy tales? “In this discussion we relived the shattering of children’s worlds and the entombment of their imagination.”
- We need more social inventions, not just technological ones.
- Effort hasn’t been put into “socially oriented creativity” because we see problems as the result of human failures instead of deeper issues, we are traditionalists, those in power are worried about sharing power, and social scientists are wary of social innovation.
Thoughts: This reading made me a bit sad to see the ways in which people do not feel valued or heard. It was interesting that Jungk noticed that people’s ambivalence was caused by deeper issues, and I was reminded to not be too turned off by others’ negative emotions. Usually, there’s something underneath the surface. Someone once told me that anger is a secondary emotion, and that it usually means that someone is feeling another primary emotion like sadness or frustration causing it. I hope that as a designer I can see those secondary emotions hiding underneath, and to empower people to be a part of what I’m working on.
9.18.17 Class Reflection
Today we performed our skits for the class. Overall, I found them fun to watch, and I thought the surprise group discussions were helpful to get us to adopt our personas in a different way. Afterwards, when people said that the skits felt a bit disrespectful, I had to pause to think, because it wasn’t my immediate reaction. Maybe that’s because I still feel distant from our topic or that the persona I adopted (a young person moving into East Liberty) is not too far off from my own situation. However, I was uncomfortable during our group’s discussion in front of the class because my persona felt so spoiled and not understanding. I had (and will have) a stable income, and was trying to claim that money is still a concern with me, when other people were struggling to make ends meet. It felt weird to voice concerns as someone who seemed like they had it all. I think that dissonance was helpful in understanding some of the real life tensions and problems that come with gentrification.
Haikus:
We don’t speak with words,
but talk through signals and screens
and feel quite alone.
We desire comfort.
Their goal is to provide it,
but only to some
9.18.17 Dator Reading- Caring for Future Generations
sick :(
9.20.17 Class Reflection
I was sick so I missed this class. Julia told me that Stuart talked the different types of futures (Transition, Collapse, Discipline, and Grow) and that we started working on a scenario for 2050 while looking through one of those lenses. We met up on Thursday night to flesh ours out. We have collapse as our future, and we’re imagining what it would look like if technology became almost fully autonomous and got hacked, causing society to turn upside-down. More to come…
Here is the link to our scenario. My role was consolidating all the separate STEEP paragraphs that my teammates did into a coherent narrative.
9.25.17 Candy, Dator, Dunagan Reading — Four Futures for Hawaii
Thoughts:
This reading helped with the assignment we did over the weekend. It was also an enjoyable read since it just felt like I was reading a story. Maybe that’s why this exercise is helpful, because it really helps you visualize a scene. While reading, I could picture what these different types of futures were and try to imagine myself in those scenarios. A lot of them seemed crazy or far fetched, but I have to remind myself that a few years before computers, that seemed crazy too! Who knows what could happen in 30 years?
9.25.17 Class Reflection
This week we listened to other people’s scenarios and reflected on these questions. Different aspects of these seemed plausible, but they still seem pretty far off. An interesting thing was that our scenario was really similar to the Transform one in our half of the class. It’s just that our society went a degree further from theirs, imagining collapse.
9.27.17 Ideal Futures- 3 Horizons
9.27.17 Ideal Futures
Here is our description of out ideal future. Again, I was the one who consolidated all of our paragraphs. I tried to make it a story written in second person so that it would be more immersive and bring someone through a day in the life, while also addressing all the STEEP factors. Something we may need to address more is issues of class. Also, after presenting, we realized that we may need to be more gentrification specific. So, our team spent the first part of the timeline exercise writing out some more specific ideas.
10.2.17 Ideal 2050 Timeline
This is the timeline we made after that discussion. It was a fun process, and something that came up is the questions of what motivates people and society to change. We realized that there can’t just be good events, but there also may need to be some bad ones. Then they can cause people to band together to move in a different direction. For example, we didn’t think that politicians would pass any legislature regarding climate change unless something bad happened to them. So, we have an event on the timeline where Washington DC has the worst snowstorm it’s seen, and some politicians die.
After talking with our group in class, I had somewhat of a crisis. It seemed like our ideal future was so narrow and only represented one worldview. It didn’t seem like we were making an ideal future for everyone, and ours was very liberal. What would this exercise look like if the six of us had more different upbringings or points of view? I’m also curious to see how this exercise would turn out say with people who were more conservative on the political spectrum. After talking to Stacie she reminded me that this is only one of many possible futures and that it’s impossible to dream up one that encapsulates everybody’s hopes and dreams. I just wish that there could be. None of our ideas seem very possible or entirely preferable.
10.4.17 Neef’s Human Needs
The 9 Universal Needs:
- Subsistence
- Protection
- Affection
- Understanding
- Participation
- Idleness
- Creation
- Identity
- Freedom
Each of these needs are finite and universal, and the ways they are satisfied are infinite and diverse. I like this model for looking at needs. It reinforces that all people deep down are the same, and many of our conflicts are a clash in cultures (which can determine how we go about satisfying needs).
For class, we were supposed to bring in diagrams of two designed products/experiences and the needs they satisfy/inhibit. I chose to look at Fitbits and CSAs (community supported agriculture). I forgot to take a picture of them, but I chose Fitbits as the one which satisfies some needs, but also has many unintended consequences. For CSAs, I felt like they had very little inhibitors because it was self sustaining and benefited all members of the program.
After looking at everybody’s diagrams, we shifted towards thinking about gentrification. We looked at the needs of two communities, the long-time existing residents, and the ones moving in to a gentrifying neighborhood. Then, we spent a long time trying to write out the needs clearly, and we also made note of if those needs are currently being met. After that, we categorized the points by 5 themes: housing, accessibility, political influence, relationships, and economic security.
10.8.17 Interventions
For our 6 interventions, I chose to focus more on increasing political involvement and influence.
Goal: for community members to become more knowledgeable about policies and issues relevant to them and to be more active in the political process
Concept: Restructure the public high school gov and econ curriculum to better equip students to be more informed and active citizens
Specific Components:
- Econ classes should have an added focus on topics related to everyday life (ie. housing, taxes, retirement, loans, credit)
- Teachers should help students understand how current policies influence them at a personal level
- Part of the senior year gov course should be helping students register to vote (can pre-register if younger than 18) and to stage a mock election.
- Go on service field trips to give students real world exposure to certain issues (ie. visiting a pawn shop to talk about high-risk loans)
- Look at policies through a local lens by showing how they are relevant to the city
My hope is that through helping students see how issues relate to them and giving them assistance, they will make their voices heard through voting. Right now, society is run by money, and people with more of it have the most power. I was trying to think how people without as much money could have more power, and it came to mind that they have power in numbers. However, that resource is under utilized, and one way they can be heard is through voting. Often though, they don’t.
Above is all of our interventions together. Here is the doc of our ideas.
10.9.17 Service Design
After Molly’s lecture we did a short service design workshop where the prompt was to design a service that facilitates the sharing of music. First, our group did some brainstorming, and then we clustered our thoughts into themes. The theme that stuck out most was one about meeting new people and showing them what music they have in common. Then we made a scenario for our service idea.
How the service works: If two people have the app and meet for the first time, they get a notification from the app which shows them what song they both enjoy listening to in order to help them form a deeper connection with each other. After connecting on the app and going separate ways, they can send each other music and continue the conversation. Also, whenever one of them listens to their “mutual song” it notifies the other person. Another use is if multiple people have the app and are at a gathering together. All of their music preferences can be factored in, and a playlist will be made to play in the background of whatever event they’re at (perfect for parties!)
10.11.17 Service Design cont.
Julia, Jasper, and I worked together to design a service as an intervention for gentrification. We decided to create a company/program that connect large companies with middle school students in order to get companies involved in communities and provide more opportunities for students.
10.16.17 Social Innovation
10.26.17 Class Reflection
Today we looked at each other’s proposed interventions and formed groups. I was most interested in the ones that I had created which focus on home ownership or education. It was a bit hard to find people, but eventually I found Chris who was interested in home ownership/mortgages as well. We then added Jasper and Juliana. Originally, I proposed the intervention to be a micro-mortgage company that assesses risk more thoroughly/ compassionately and helps lower the barrier to home ownership for people of lower income. I proposed this because, after all the research we’ve been doing, one way to help people not be displaced by gentrification is to help them have control. When they are renting from someone else, that outside party has the control and can up the prices each year, eventually forcing people out. If people own their home, then monthly mortgage payments would hopefully be more consistent over time.
Right now, I just feel like I don’t know enough about the topic, though I feel like it’s ripe with opportunity. I want to tackle the broad issue of finances, because it’s a major part of everyone’s life, and seems to have high impact.
10.30.17 Class
Our group’s senior plan: https://docs.google.com/a/andrew.cmu.edu/document/d/1XwlggYTpN0HmzGTi_UotKPLMvj69eHX5R6pw3yzWTp0/edit?usp=sharing
11.1.17 Class
During class we spent some more time solidifying our intervention idea. Our idea was to create a platform where people in a community could contribute small(ish) amounts of money that will in turn become a significant amount of money that would go towards someone’s downpayment on a house. Over time the home value hopefully appreciates, and when the home gets sold, people will get back the return on their investment. This would function as a crowdsourced shared equity mortgage platform. When we talked to Stacie, she told us that we’re too much in problem solving mode, where we should still be in the learning and researching mode. She framed our proposed intervention as a hypothesis, and what we should have for the end of the semester is a way to test it. So, basically, we’re designing more of a research method. This helped us scope the project a bit better, and I’m feeling a bit less overwhelmed. I also feel a bit better about our lack of knowledge on this topic, because now the goal isn’t to solve, but to learn. So, this weekend we’re going to try to rewrite our project plan and come up with new intervention ideas.
From this point, I wasn’t very good at documenting things from the day-to-day, so I’ll group my thoughts on the last month by themes
Cross Group Collaboration
The group we talked to most was Section 8. Both of us were looking at housing, but they were focusing more on the rental process than home ownership. We spent one class diagraming how each of our proposed intervention would work to see if there were any overlaps. It seemed that our target audience was pretty different, but our interventions also sit on different points of a timeline. Someone who is renting (which Section 8 helps them do) can eventually become a home owner (which our system would help with) under the right financial circumstances.
Solidifying the Plan
It was a bit challenging trying to figure out what we should actually do for our final deliverable. I wasn’t sure if what we were making was supposed to gather data, or just spark conversation. Was it supposed to change people’s attitudes or figure out what their current attitudes are? Were we supposed to present it as if it was from the future or the present? I think I’m the type of person who gets stressed by ambiguity and tries to work things out to the best of my ability. I was a bit frustrated that my search for clarity often hit dead ends. However, we were able to find direction eventually. We back tracked and remembered what were the things we wanted to learn. Those were:
- Do lower income people see the value in investing money?
- What would motivate them to do so?
We felt like it would be more valuable for us to observe behavior rather than have people answer these questions since “actions speak louder than words.” It’s easy for someone to say that they would do something with their money, but another thing for them to actually do it if it came to it. One way that we thought we could observe people’s behaviors was through an activity. Our next challenge was to figure out how we could design the activity to abstractly simulate things like down payments, shared equity, home value appreciation, community investment, etc. We decided to make a game, and I took the first stab at writing some sort of rules.
Initial Game Design
Above was my initial stab at some sort of game design which focused on players investing their income in things that benefit both themselves and the community. Here’s how I thought this would address our questions:
- People have the option to invest in themselves and the community, so we can observe what they choose. That could tell us what they value.
- Since it’s a collaborative game we can listen to their conversations and see how they ask for help from each other, how they collaborate, where the tensions are, and how they respond to scenarios.
- After the game, we can ask people questions about our crowdsourced shared equity thing, which they’ll already be sort of primed for.
I envisioned that each player would have an identity card and a house card that they would have to make payments toward. In the middle is a round tracker and a community value slider, which would be affected by the calculation in my rules. People could also choose to invest in community projects in the middle of the board. I got feedback that my draft was too calculation heavy and imbalanced, so Chris tried to start from scratch and diagram the game play flow. We ended up with a game that was mostly similar, but a bit more simplified.
Speed Dating
Our presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gCvF0P-yiRZqikjUPUb7hL4hkxOF4IDFhp21tO__rb8/edit#slide=id.p
Jasper and I were paired together for the speed dating activity. It was really helpful and forced us to consolidate our thoughts. Here are some things that came up:
- What does the workshop look like with branding and such?
- How do you get people to the workshop? If the board game is a small part of the larger picture what does that look like?
- What is the incentive for playing the board game?
- Will this game cause stress?
- Would this behavior translate to the real world?
- How much transparency is there?
- Can the game be tailored to different levels of knowledge?
Overall though, after we explained the gameplay and how it related to our questions, people felt pretty positive about it and thought that it got at some more serious topics in a more casual and abstract way. I left the session feeling good about where we were at, but supposedly the other two in our group got more negative feedback. I think that was partially because we weren’t on the same page and were presenting different things. We had to spend some time ironing that out.
After speed dating, Chris and I met up to make a stronger set of rules, and we play tested with paper. We had gotten feedback that we should have more conversation prompts built into the game, so we made note of where to include that. From this point we also fleshed out what we wanted to create in the timeframe we had left. The way we first divided the work was that Jasper would take care of the invitation and before-workshop materials, Chris and I would make the game itself, and Juliana would visualize our longer term shared equity idea and create a take-away item. Before break, we also decided to rename ourselves, since Pay It Forward had connotations that we weren’t so sure fit our idea. Some other ideas were “bond together” and “all for one and one for all”, but we settled on “The Common Wealth” since it brought up thoughts of neighborhoods and the common good. (Thanks Jasper for a fun play on words!)
Making
After break we started making and designing our final game. We got some inspiration for the visual style and decided that we wanted colors that were fun, but not too saturated or modern, so that they wouldn’t be too associated with young people or something. We wanted to illustrate houses and agreed to do it in a vector style that would be simple, but clean looking. We also wanted the game to be an enjoyable tactile experience, so we new that we wanted to create game pieces that were fun to interact with and that added to the experience.
From there, I took a first stab at developing a sort of visual style. I illustrated a house that I felt was very “Pittsburgh” with the brick and strong verticality. I thought a cursive script font would help things have a more personal/hand-made quality, add some energy to the type, and all convey the interconnectedness of communities in our proposed future. I chose Gotham as body text for its large counters and higher x height. I didn’t want to use something too condensed or sharp, and this felt right next to the Nickainly script.
After that, Juliana illustrated some other houses for us to use later, and I decided on a color scheme for us to work with. I felt that the Pittsburgh was a warm color place since there’s a lot of brick, nature, and earthy building materials. I also went for some more muted colors since Pittsburgh also has a more industrial and gritty past.
Final Touches
Chris designed the templates for the house boxes that would hold the chips. I put my artwork onto it, and he assembled them. The images below are the assets I designed for the game.
Reflection on Show
At the show, we got generally positive reactions and feedback! People seemed initially drawn in by the game’s design, but I was happy that people actually wanted to play it and that it held their attention. Some interesting things came up:
- Some players felt that there was a stigma against pulling from the community pool and said it felt better to receive a chip from a player directly. We might have to think about having a balance of anonymity and personal connection between givers and receivers.
- Some players wanted to have more control and asked for more methods to prevent fellow players from getting kicked out of the game. They seemed willing to make sacrifices to keep them in, but didn’t have the means to.
- Some people suggested that after people initially pay off their house they can have the option to add to it, maybe with “expansion cards”
- Someone also suggested that we have card decks of different levels of difficulty to see how that affects the game play.
- There are some kinks that we would have to figure out with the game play, especially about how to keep things exciting and still challenging after the initial housing payments are completed.
Overall, people seemed to grasp the concept that helping each other was beneficial to everyone, and it was encouraging to see people get involved in the game. We had good conversations and also had fun!
