Pulling Work Together [Week 2]

Timeline

When I had gotten to class on Thursday and chatted to my stream buddy, I realised that I had structured my weeks wrong. As our meeting time was now in the later half of the week I was supposed to have completed my Week 2 tasks by now, so after talking about our work I got to pulling that together. Luckily, but interestingly, I was confident that I could complete my tasks in a day or two. Upon reflecting on my work ethic, I believe I can plan more tasks for the weeks that come ahead.

Week 1's Tasks

Sent a message out in the discord server to encourage peers to be a part of my co-design team. This was ideal for me, to ensure that it was a volunteer role. However, predictably, no one responded.

My message in the 301 'Discussions' channel, Own image.

This brought me to my secondary plans. I could contact my design friends and ask them to be a part of this team, knowing some of them would say yes. However, to practice ethics, I didn't want to put anyone in a pressured position. Alternatively, I could focus on the practice of the co-design approaches and enlist different people each week. My stream buddy thinks that the latter decision is better to avoid pressure. I added the to-do list task 'Involved Feedback' to Week 3's tasks and intend to do some form of generative or group discussion session.

As well as this, I attempted to amend my proposal to the feedback I had gotten after the grade was released. However, due to the volume and topic of feedback, I decided against it. The feedback was great and required me to do some revision and extra citing, however, didn't seem relevant to the development of my project for 301.

Week 2's Tasks

My tasks included finishing my project-specific timeline, creating most of my hypothetical vision, and planning the scope and limits of my project. At this point the timeline was done. For my hypothetical vision I curated some content from my proposal and worked through the suggested tasks that I liked. I didn't like how text-heavy my Miro was, however, it worked well with my process. I made sure to put crucial parts of research text in bold so that it was clearer to readers. I also I included some images of Yeonheebot, a case that influenced my vision heavily due to it's relevance to my project. This was suggested by the tutor who graded my proposal.

Yeonheebot Concepts, From Simple and Steady Interactions Win the Healthy Mentality: Designing a Chatbot Service for the Elderly by H. Ryu et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.1145/3415223

I also created a mood board that showed images of respectful chatbots, brain-exercises, and older adults. When my stream buddy and I met with our supervisor our stream was strapped for time, so there wasn't much time to talk. The supervisor suggested that my app be used to talk to other people within a care home, based on anecdotal evidence about her father. This was a sweet suggestion, however, wasn't relevant to my idea. My vision held my app's chatbot communication in less of a friendship regard, but as more of a respectful mental care resource with small talk capability.

Volunteering

At the end of the week I attended an orientation at the care home I was volunteering in. I met an assistant volunteer coordinator and another volunteer, and we were shown the space. The residents were watching an interesting event, showing me the benefit of varied experiences for wellbeing. I also got time to chat to a few of the residents, one in particular I talked to for 15 minutes. I believe that this experience will continue to show me some perspective and humility about older adults, particularly those with reduced functioning. The 80+ adult demographic is not my intended one, however, I still value the experience.

References

Ryu, H., Kim, S., Kim, D., Han, S., Lee, K., & Kang, Y. (2020). Yeonheebot Concepts. https://doi.org/10.1145/3415223