Evaluation, Career Planning and Enterprise 2

Our discussion today was something I definitely needed in order to kick start me and make me realise how little I knew about different agencies and areas of design I could go into.
I HAVE to start looking now, work on my portfolio and build relationships in order to have any chance of achieving the best I can in this industry.
Design agencies to look at:

• Cartridge Levene
• North
• I Love Dust
• See
• Made Thought
• Graphic Thought Facility
• Pentagram
• Browns
• Farrow
• Spin
• NB Studio
• Poke
• Rose Design
• Parent Design
• Ideology
• Bright Blue Day
• Type Foundry

I need to look into these well known design agencies to help me determine where it is I fit into within the graphic design industry.

Survey 2

I have decided to conduct a more focused survey which will give me relevant feedback in order to produce various experiments and spark initial project ideas. I need to make a start as soon as possible as everything will need thorough planning and proper feedback throughout the course of my project.

Below are the questions asked in my latest survey:

1. Are you:

• Male
• Female

2. How old are you?

3. How did you feel when you first moved to a new place?

4. Have you ever/do you suffer from depression?

5. What colours do you associate with the word depression?

6. What colours do you associate with the word happy?

7. What do you do to lower your stress levels/cheer yourself up?

8. What things do you find triggers stress/low moods?

9. How would you visualise depression?

10. How would you visualise happy?

I am currently gathering my responses. I hope to get a range of 100 to broaden my thinking and to reach out to as many people as possible.

Critique Feedback

General comments:

• Find a nugget to explore
• Experimentations are needed in order to push your project in a direction, there's room to go wrong at the moment; eg. Colour charts, abstraction - work from raw data
• Get something through practice
• Lead to outcome instead of having something pre-determined
• Distribution of data
• What are the misunderstandings?
• Interviews are useful - primary sources
• The use of language needs to make sense to your target audience
• How can you represent different words?

Comments regarding my presentation:

• Think about the USER - want to avoid getting caught up in ethical situations
• Perhaps aim your target audience to non-sufferers as a pre-warning?
• Record different events that may cause a turbulence in people's lives, choose one to associate these feelings to?
• Be clear in what you want to do
• Pick one event to develop a target audience instead of pin-pointing a particular age group
• Be careful for ethical issues that may rise

I feel my feedback was really helpful as I did struggle to find a focus where I could completely avoid an ethical issue. I now need to expand on these points and define exactly what my target audience is and how I will achieve this.

Survey 1 Results

[Click on the image to Enlarge]

These results do not include the self reply answers. Due to the type of survey I applied for I was only able to receive 100 answers, this was still an amazing response and enabled me to see a broad range of replies to this topic area. 

The majority of the people who participated in my research was students - this is good as it is within my target audience age range, so their feedback is important for my project. 

46% of people thought that the most common age group to be effected by depression is 26-40, it is infact 11-25 (my chosen target audience).

77% of people understand that depression does not need a particular cause in order for someone to suffer from it and a huge 85% of people don't think enough is being done to promote the awareness of this illness.

79% of people luckily know it is an illness, however it means people still believe it is a weakness or a phase that everyone goes through - this is not the case! There is a difference between feeling depressed and suffering from depression. 

33% of people think only 40% of people find anti-depressants ineffective. Although it entirely depends on the individual, results have shown that a massive 70% of people find these drugs ineffective. Which must mean there's room for another way to help?

84% of people realise children can get depressed, it is usually harder to spot as parents often label it 'their difficult time', however this needs to be communicated that if they have the symptoms, it is likely they are depressed.

Luckily 84% of people understand that depressed people shouldn't just snap out of it, because they can't. It's a good sign people are aware of this.

I found my results informing about how people think. From this I can try to find a loop-hole and build a project focus around this problem.

User Centered Design: What is it?

Wikipedia definition:
In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a design philosophy and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of an interface or document are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process. User-centered design can be characterized as a multi-stage problem solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use an interface, but also to test the validity of their assumptions with regards to user behaviour in real world tests with actual users. Such testing is necessary as it is often very difficult for the designers of an interface to understand intuitively what a first-time user of their design experiences, and what each user's learning curve may look like.
As a designer I need to remember these important points:


Purpose:

• Who are the users?
• What are the users' tasks and goals?
• What information do the users need, and in what form do they need it?
• How do users think this 'thing' should work?
• What are the users experience with documents like this, and how can I improve them?

Visibility

Accessibility

Legibility

Language

Audience

Purpose

Context

These are all really important things to consider when designing for my target audience. Constant feedback will be needed to ensure that I am producing something worthwhile and effective enough to help and create a solution to my problem.

General Feedback from a Counsellor and a Doctor

I have recently spoken to a counsellor and a doctor in order to gain better insight when approaching someone who suffers from depression. As it was more of a discussion as opposed to an interview I will be recording the valid points below:

Counsellor:

• (With regards to the current flyers that exist) I asked if people would take more interest if the flyers and leaflets were designed better in order to create an eye-catching piece of information as I believe it is something that needs to be brought to light. Her response "I see what you mean, I guess if it doesn't affect you, then there is no interest there unless you've had a subjective experience".
• There is a big difference between experiencing spells of depression and being diagnosed with depression.
• When asking for help, she found she was always approached by the person suffering from depression/symptoms rather than teachers or other fellow students.
• The circumstances justify the feelings of depression.
• There are various symptoms to look out for, the symptoms are generally the same across any type of depression.
• Worth looking into how people experience anti-depressants as they have a place within the treatment. They are supposed to narrow the emotional band and help keep things on an even keel to make everyday life less of a challenge.
• The experiences of anti-depressants differ depending on the individual.
• They provide short-term counselling.
• Usually the GP is approached, it is common to prescribe anti-depressants and a counsellor is usually recommended.
• Clinical depression = the person becomes really ill with it.
• There's definitely a place for goals and objectives, however depression involves a lack of motivation.
• They NEED a structure.
• Dorothy Rowe = Author who specialises in depression* (look up)
• My particular client group generally present the moods and emotions related to depression, they are a complex range and factors could become obvious during life turbulence. It's only after the turbulence you can differentiate the depressed from the non-sufferers depending on whether they steady back down or get worse.
• Year 11 onwards is generally where the turbulence begins.
• Always a danger with people labelling themselves 'Depressed'.
• Look up Biochemistry*
• BACP Organisation.
• Finds that talking therapies are the most successful.

Doctor:

• Usually if someone is in a low mood for longer than 3 weeks, they are diagnosed with depression.
• Before prescribing anti-depressants, the patient is usually suggested exercise, weight loss, talking therapies and computerised CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).
• Depending on the individual - Anti-depressants tries not to be the first option.
• People generally approach the doctor when they are feeling low. (BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T APPROACH)*
• It is unusual to see children, however depression is most common from teenage years onwards.
• No awareness campaigns thought of.
• THERE WAS ALSO NO AWARENESS/ADVERTS REGARDING DEPRESSION WITHIN THIS DOCTORS SURGERY. WHERE ARE PEOPLE GETTING THIS INFORMATION THEY NEED?

Preparation for Pin-Up Critique

Visuals are expected at this weeks crit, however due to the huge topic choice I feel I need to engage in more research before I can make any decisions about experimentation. My project needs to be based around user-centered design, meaning I can not just fully rely on my design choices as it could result in a misunderstanding or confusion of messages. To ensure I am keeping within ethical guidelines I will need a lot of feedback from my target market themselves.
I have produced four posters to help explain my project to my group: