HPW The Discarded

Repurposing unwanted goods on campus

Observation: The Giving Wall

Outline

I. Research Plan
II. Observations
III. Insights
IV. Next Steps

I. Research Plan

Method

Observation, fly-on-wall

Where

The Giving Wall @ basement of the UC

Who

Community who uses it

What

Objective is to gain a better understanding of the current situation surrounding the Wall including:

• People: who uses the wall? students? faculty? staff? Pittsburgh locals who happen to pass by?
• Frequency: how often is this used? every day? never?
• Action: what do people do there? simply browse, leave, or take items?
• Change over time: how is the wall influenced by the above factors?

When

• Upon research proposal feedback, end of October

How

• Sit by a table with a good view of the wall and observe, record notes, and take photos at multiple points throughout the day for a week

Why

• Interested in investigating The Giving Wall because it’s one of the few currently available spaces on campus to recycle goods, suggesting a potential area of opportunity
• Specifically chose the fly-on-the-wall method because this method is unobtrusive and allows us to observe the natural setting and interactions as they are
• This is especially important considering the stigma surrounding the Wall and taking donated goods
• Collected data will be analyzed, combined with those from the other two methods
• Then insights will be pulled from all three methods in triangulation, which will guide our next steps

II. Observations

Throughout the past week, Oct 28–31, I sat at a table in the UC basement at different times throughout the day and observed the wall, took notes, photos (Pixel), and time lapses of the Wall (iPad). I intentionally separated myself form the recording device to lesson people’s feeling and pressure of ‘being watched.’

Labeled UC Basement Layout

Captured Photos

Left: Gif of the wall over the span of 3 weeks* (*first photo taken on 10/12 before the ‘observation phase’ officially began) // Right: Labeled, most common item categories

By observing the left gif, you can notice right away that there is minimal change in the items at the Wall. You can notice some shifts in items, like the bright pink sweater from one shelf to the adjacent one, and the box from the top shelf to the bottom one. In fact, over the 8 hours I spent observing the wall, I only saw two obviously intended interactions with the wall–both of which involved leaving items behind, brought to the wall in a box. By ‘intended,’ I mean that these interactions were planned, and that the person wasn’t simply doing so just because he happened to be passing by.

‘Rare’ Intended Interaction

Person leaving leaving books and tiles(?) to the Wall, carried in a box; after chased down and impromptu-interviewed

Realizing this rare incident, I ‘casually’ followed him to the stairs and stopped him and asked some questions. Turns out he’s CMU staff who works in the building (vagueness to respect privacy) and brought down those items because they were being unused. This isn’t his first time doing so, and noted that the books in particularly seem to get shifted around often.

The second rare incident occurred when a student left a box of stuff to the Wall. I immediately noticed a relative increase of interactions–few moments in, a few people stopped and looked through the box to see what was in there. Was it curiosity that motivated their behavior?

Summary of Observations

• People: who uses the wall? → mainly staff (people in recognizable UC uniforms), but there were still some student interactions (those with backpacks) and elderly (unidentifiable)
• Frequency: how often is this used? → daily, but not excessively or extensively and only by a few individuals
• Action: what do people do there? → mainly glance at the wall with their eyes as they pass by, minimal touching of items (< 10 sec interactions), rare incidents leaving items, no incidents taking items
• Change over time: minimal (Time Lapses to be added)
• Other observations: people didn’t give much notice or attention to the iPad that was labeled with a blue post-it note saying that it was recording for a research project

III. Insights

1. As assumed, the Wall doesn’t seem to be used to its full potential and mission to encourage sustainability of goods–instead, it seems to have adopted a reputation as a space where people ‘dump’ unwanted items; few items like the conspicuous seemingly dirty socks can strongly deter people from approaching, suggesting the importance of framing the space and reputation.
2. There aren’t that many students or let alone people who pass by the Wall, suggesting that the isolated location in the far side of the basement may not be the ‘ideal’ location for such a service; in other words, low discoverability → low usage. This raises the question of marketing or repurposing the Wall.
3. More people seem to be motivated to touch and look more carefully when the nature of the items are concealed or hidden (like the book title or goods in a box), suggesting that organization and presentation of goods influence people’s behavior with the Wall.

IV. Next steps?

As a group, consolidate findings from the other two research methods - interviews and online search, and pull collective insights to guide our next steps.

Some remaining questions:

Why is the wall not attracting students? Is it because…

• of the stigma against donated goods?
• students who pass by are busy/on their way to somewhere?
• don’t notice the wall?
• know that they don’t need anything so don’t bother looking?
• students are in the middle of the day so they don’t want extra things to carry?
• are repelled by the socks (like me)?

Socks??? Why???

Who monitors the Wall?

• (I will shortly send some emails to find out more)

Overall, it’s yet unclear whether the Giving Wall could be the physical solution to our project to improve the recycling of goods on campus, but this would require further brainstorming and ideation.