Community: Phase 2
Design Brief & Revisions (Process from Weeks 1 to 4)
Project Scope Shift & Update | Feb. 3rd, 2020
Who: Asian Americans at CMU hold the biggest stake in this project.
What: Our issue is the stigma surrounding mental health within the Asian American community. Statistics show that “The adults most likely to use mental health services in the past year (17.1%) were in the group reporting two or more races. This group was followed by white adults (16.6%), American Indian or Alaska Native adults (15.6%), followed by black (8.6), Hispanic (7.3) and Asian (4.9%) adults.” — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Why: This problem is important because Asian Americans are not getting the psychological help that they need.
So What: Merely increasing the number of asian american students who seek CaPS is not our desired outcome. Because CaPS is not a student run service, there are limitations as to what we can change from their end. Based on a report done by Mental Health @CMU, a facebook group for CMU students to share their struggles and seek advice/empathy, CaPS typically schedule appointments 2–3 months out when the situation is not deemed an emergency. Our intervention will take place during the waiting period.
How: By fostering relationship communication between student to student @CMU, we hope to open dialogue about mental health stigma, while improving mental health concerning depression and anxiety within the student body.
Possible Design Ideas
- Monopoly-like board game (chances and choices questions): to collaborate and facilitate conversation
- Task in which people build and create something together
- Space when people brought in a multicultural experience
- AR cards that reveals more info when scanned
Talking to CaPS: After reframing/shifting our project scope, we felt a important resource we need to talk to is CMU CaPS (Counseling and Psychological Services) in order to further help define our problem statement. Some of the questions we came up and hope to interview someone at CaPS are:
Based on your experience, do you feel that fewer Asian Americans come to CaPS/willing to share private details? Do you feel like there is a difference between non asians and asian americans?
Do you think it’s possible to develop a mentorship program between students while meeting with a therapist is not available?
Do you think it would be possible/helpful to develop an online service platform as a part of or in addition to the current CaPS?
Do you think the current CaPS scheduling system is working well?
How do you usually encourage students to speak up and be more open to therapists?
Currently, we scheduled to talk to them on Feb. 5th.
Update | Jan. 30th, 2020
Revising our initial design brief after conducting more research, we have decided to focus on the common problem of lack of understanding of meaning and promotion behind Asian-culture related activities at CMU due to stereotypes and prejudice. We believe that this is an important problem due to the fact that current CMU culture organizations have set reputation and cliques, and as a result, the consequences are that students are less likely to show up to general body meetings when the activity does not seem fun to them or meet their interests, or are intimidated by the organization as it seems too exclusive due to the difference level of understanding despite having interest in the Asian culture. Our main stakeholders are currently targeting Asian-American female freshmen students at CMU, and hope to partner up with CMU on-campus culture organizations and create an impact through influencing and helping these organizations change in hopes of achieving the goal of creating an environment which Asian Americans at CMU feel able to connect to their cultural identity through raising awareness and understandingof the mix-culture background away from home. To evaluate the system and catalyze potential solutions, our team is currently planning to partner with CMU culture organizations, conduct survey to help us analyze members’ feelings and understandings, evaluate organizations’ current activities in meetings and events, and design and develop possible implementations for the meetings and events. Potential solutions we have in mind right now include a board game for collaboration and conversation facilitating, a space/event which people come together to share multicultural experiences through facilitating a way in which people can tell share their personal cultural related stores, or a task in which people build and create something together.
Problem Scope Exploration | Jan. 27th, 2020
Current Idea: Partner with CMU on-campus culture organizations
Common Problem: Lack of understanding of meaning behind culture related activities
Goal: Help organization/institutions (in this case CMU culture orgs) change
Impact: Increase cross-culture group communication
Possible Execution Idea: Culture event marketed towards “meet new people” for freshmen during 1st semester of college
Knowing and Understanding Problem from Multiple Perspectives/Points of View
Setting Goals
Mapping and Collecting Inventory
Design Brief Revision | Jan. 22nd, 2020
Project Scope: Based on the comments we received on our design brief, we clarified the goal of our project — to encourage self-understanding (beyond the surface and existing stereotypes) in order to help people who are transitioning into college (new environment) better cope with bi-cultural negativities. We wanted to approach the issue/deal with the problem from the inside (Asian American women) and foster changes in human interactions and relationships through out project.
Project Impact: Based on anecdotes, personal experiences, experiences of friends and surrounding people, current popular groups in Facebook (Subtle Asian Traits, etc), and further secondary research, we hope to create an impact by possibly facilitating a way which people can tell stories through a game or platform (in a more fun, enjoyable, and interactive way). A way to measure impact can be through:
1. The quality and honesty of conversation
2. The quantity, as more conversation or stories told = encouraging more self expression
People to Talk to: Possible partners or collaborators we currently have in mind are:
Prof. Sunkee Lee (Can talk to him about people, social interactions, personalities)
Design for Educational Games Professor (or his TA)
ASA alumni
Pittsburgh restaurant owners (talk to them about their kids if they have any)
Community: Phase 02
Design Brief | Jan. 20th, 2020
Topic — East Asian Diaspora Experience at CMU
Target Audience — CMU Female Freshmen Asian American Students
The local design opportunity our team identified is East Asian diaspora experience in Asian Americans. Specifically, we are targeting CMU female freshman students, to tackle the issue of Asian American’s lack of self-identity, sense of belonging, and pride in the mixed cultural heritage. Can we help the participants self-observe and connect with their two cultures?
Background & Current Issue — Throughout history, Asians have been identified differently in America based on their culture (ex. ABC — American Born Citizen, FOB — Fresh Off the Boat, whitewashed, BOB — Back on Boat, Twinkie and Banana: Yellow on the outside, White on the inside, etc). By being identified by these certain terms, it has become an insult to Asian Americans if they were “too Asian” to be in America so they would change their appearances to seem more “white” to others.
Reflecting on key relationships/partnerships that have been influenced to date, on the positive side, Asian Americans use their dual identities to their advantage. For example, friendship among subcultures within the Asian American community are formed. However, on the negative side, there are also Asian Americans who face micro-aggressions, racism, lack of empathy from their peers, feeling as an outcast, and have trouble assimilating.
Through this project, we hope that Asian Americans could accept themselves for who they are without having to compare themselves to others, and help Asian Americans self discover, understand, accept, and feel proud of their mixed cultural identity.
Research Plan — For our research methods, we are planning to conduct interviews and surveys in the beginning. In addition, we are also planning to conduct secondary research on the problem space that we are working on, such as various case studies and articles from the internet that will support our topic.
Guidelines and Constraints — Our target audience has a bicultural background, and may prefer another language over English. First and second generation AAs have unique experiences travelling back and forth between America and their motherlands; so we face a geographical barrier. Our main assumption is that Asian Americans continue to grapple with making decisions from different cultural standpoints as they enter the college experience.
Time is a constraint when allocating time to research, leaving less time for design implementation. Telling the child of immigrants story can be very emotional and personal; there may be only so much a interviewee is willing to disclose. We hope to find participants who stay from the research phase to the making phase.
Cultural Significance — CMU’s student population contains 18% of Asians, where as the overall Pittsburgh population is made up of roughly 5.7% Asians (based on Pittsburgh demographics study).
Pittsburgh’s local identity tend to be American culture focused (as we are in the United States) and celebrates majorly western festivals and rituals.
Local Collaborator and Potential Partners — To keep the scope of the project within close proximity, possible local collaborators and potential partners we identified are firstly, culture related organizations at CMU (ex. CSA, ARCC, TSA, KSA, KASA, JSA, SIAM), and secondly, the CaPS counseling service where students talk about personal concerns. Some of the other influential stakeholders are the OIE (Office of International Education, CMU Activities Board, and SLICE (Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement) division of student affairs, as they tend to support intercultural environment and engagement.
Policies and laws are not related to our project scope. The champions need to be AAs themselves, because no third parties can force a change on to a community they do not identify with.
Impact—Advantages to being bicultural such as having a greater number of social networks, being aware of cultural differences, taking part in the life of two or more cultures, being an intermediary between cultures, and so on. Recent research shows that biculturals are also characterized by greater creativity and professional success.
The capacity and willingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of competing perspectives on the same issue, on the one hand, and the ability to forge conceptual links among these perspectives, on the other. It is a capacity that involves considering and combining multiple perspectives.
Preliminary Survey —
Stakeholder Map —
Territory Map —
Schedule—
Brainstorming | Jan. 15th, 2020
