Other’s Story // Week 4: Task 1
Exploring the interplay between storytelling and empathy.
We have spent the first two weeks of class looking into our own backgrounds, habits and mindsets to prime ourselves for the work of the coming months. This exploration of self has been a critical starting place for the challenging work of fostering change in others. In part because it makes us empathize with how complex this work can be. We now have an embodied sense of: how committing to change is only half the story, how our intention to change can be stifled by limiting beliefs we hold on to, and that our chances of success are increased if we can identify the right triggers.
Still, this is a new field and there is much for us to learn from the work that has come before us in other disciplines and much we can learn about what design might have to offer. This outward-facing assignment is focused on how we might explore the role of materiality and storytelling for going below the surface. To feel real empathy for the people we are designing for we need to look beyond their observable behavior.
As we prepare for engaging teachers and students we need to consider strategies that will help us get inside their heads and hearts to understand the experiences they have had and the challenges they face. In chapter 3 ofConvivial Toolbox Saunders and Stappers offer a framework for the different ways we make sense of working with others in this space. Beyond the table above, they identify three activities: Do, Say, Make. This is their language for talking about what we observe, what people tell us and what we learn from creating with them. The chapter is here on Trello.
Particularly relevant to our work is the way Saunders and Stappers put forward this idea of the relationship between the past and future. This illustration communicates how the experience of the present moment is connected to past and future. I am a sucker for visual communication, so I love the simple way this illustrates that the act of making offers a moment in the here and now to connect to peoples memories (past) and dreams (future). The arrows show how they believe that beginning with the now is an appropriately soft starting place, before revisiting the past to identify underlying layers that are key to moving forward in the future.
This image may guide us through our work. Reminding us that the potential of design is it’s pre-occupation to look back to move forward. Other professions are better equipped to do the work of learning deeply from the past. We are not therapists and we are not here to interrogate past experiences. Design as a practice is all about possibilities and creating more preferred futures — so think of our role in this work as unlocking new mindsets for the future. Our question is in what ways the material world of design and experiential practices of making can lead us to embodied ways to illuminate our memories in ways that shine light on our potential.
The assignment
You will create a design-led tactical response for “interviewing” researchers, teachers or students. This is a discovery exercise in that you want to learn as much as you can about the issues that surround your project. Be intentional in what insights are best gained from meeting one-to-one with people. For example, read a researchers work before meeting with them so you can use the time to get past the academics. Also pay attention to how introducing props, mapping, storytelling may help to disclose deeper insights. Your goal here is to empathize with the interview subject — to understand the pain points for them and the opportunities for the project.
Method
In class you will be introduced to 5 methods for engaging people in conversation. Future scenario (playmobils). Question framing. Metaphors. Empathy Maps. Narrative Structure. You are encouraged to use or adapt at least two of these strategies. You will need to be mindful of how to ‘read’ the interview and people’s comfort level with different modes of engagement. Your flexibility and capacity to even redirect the interview mid-process will be invaluable.
In all cases you will practice active listening, with a focus on the whole self/story that the person has to offer.
Requirements
Making time for interviews is not an easy thing. Break into 2 pairs, with 1 interview each pair. That’s 2 interviews per group. If you can do more all the better.
You will document the interview process as well as content. One person will take the lead facilitating the interview, the second person will observe how the various props and prompts influence the process.
The 2 interviews will be completed and transcribed before October 14. Follow up interviews can be later.
Schedule
September 30 — experience various discovery methods in class
October 07 — in class focus on refining interview strategy (plus final case clinics)
October 14 — bring completed interviews to class, ready for synthesis
