DESIGN METHODS: GRAFFITI WALLS

After developing an understanding of the different design methods in my previous blog post: Implementing Design Research – Design Methods, I will now talk about specific methods I used in one or a few of my projects. This post is dedicated to the “Graffiti Wall”.

In the beginning, we had no idea this method is called the graffiti wall. It was a hard task to name some methods in order to communicate what we did. Luckily, I found more about it in the Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions.

Here is a definition from the book:

Graffiti walls provide an open canvas on which participants can freely offer their written or visual comments about an environment or system, directly in the context of use.

The graffiti wall method was highly effective when conducting research at ALBA campus. All we needed is a large-format paper, a wall or a surface, markers, and a camera to document the progress. Because of its easy application, the method helped us collect baseline information from students who are always on the move at the campus. We put the posters in common spaces where students would have a little bit of time to contribute to the research, such as at the entrance of the cafeteria, inside the elevator, or directly next to the elevator.

Some posters were blank and others had guiding-questions. The posters grabbed the attention of a few students. In one poster, we were engaging students to understand what kind of rewards would make their student experience at ALBA. Our goal was to come up with a list of rewards for an app we were working on. The poster had few options that we generated from a previous poster where we asked students to identify the most rewarding and struggling experiences at ALBA.

In another poster, we wanted to understand what community means to students and faculty members. On the poster, we asked them to name a community they are part of and assign three characteristics from the list on the side.

The graffiti wall was a beneficial tool that helped us engage people at a certain location. It was more time efficient than doing individual interviews. However, our presence was needed sometimes next to the posters to engage more people to participate.