Elena Manfredi

A project of Elena Manfredi

The design process can be described as or divided into a se-ries of 6 steps: discov-er a problem, delve deeper into it, define your thinking and app r o a c h , d eve l op ideas and prototypes, deliver proposals and outcomes and, finally,

This book gathers my process of research and design in response to the Strategies and Visual Research project undertaken be-tween October 2011 and January 2012. This unit focused on the learning of a range of design research methods and applying them to solve a social issue that affects our daily life. The project has been carried through as it was a real life brief. We were work-ing as service designers, using our pragmatic thinking process and creative abilities to solve a problem in a visual and innova-tive way. During the tutorial times, rather than being divided in small and fixed groups, we were working in big groups, and we received feedback from each other all the time. Outside this time, the FDA studios were constantly used by a few of us, working in the same room and exchanging opinions about this project with other colleagues. This way of working is called Problem Based Learning and it implemented my critical thinking and creative skills, strengthening my ability to use my design knowledge in solving contextualized social issues with meaningful solutions. We were expected to present our work in a visual and effective way in front of tutors and colleagues, considering it as a pitch to present to our client, in that we had to convince them to invest money in our project. We have been pushed to go away from our computers, go in the streets and meet the problem that we were tackling in real life.

A project of Elena Manfredi

01/DISCOVER >INTRO>CHOOSING THE PROBLEM >SIX THINKING MEN>DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE>DETERMINE THE CLIENT>CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES>GARY HUSTWIT> VISIT TO LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM>OBSERVATIONS

02/DELVE>INTRO>PHOTOGRAPHIC OBSERVATION>ONLINE SURVEY 1>OBSERVATIONS

03/DEFINE>INTRO>DATA ANALYSIS>CONCEPT CHALLENGE>ONLINE SURVEY 2>RSA BRIEF >20 IDEAS IN 20 MINUTES>OBSERVATIONS

This book is divided in five main chapters, and a final conclusion at the end. Each of the chapters is colour coded and pattern coded. Clicking on each of the subheadings of this page will take you to the chosen information. As an example, these two symbols below will not only determine the title of the chapter but also, if clicked on, will take you back to this page.

SIXTHINKING MEN

> CHOOSING THE PROBLEM

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04/DEVELOP>INTRO>VOTING 3 IDEAS >DEFINING GOALS AGAIN>6 THINKING MEN>APPROACHING THE USERS>ONLINE SURVEY 3>LIVE PROTOTYPING>RECORDING COMMENTS>CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES>LOGO VOTING>LOGO WITH RISOGRAPH>PATTERNS CHOICE>VOTING 2 FORMATS>OBSERVATIONS

05/ DELIVER>FINAL OUTCOME>TESTING ON USERS

CONCLUSION

01>INTRO>CHOOSING THE PROBLEM >SIX THINKING MEN>DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE>DETERMINE THE CLIENT>CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES>GARY HUSTWITT.VISIT >LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM>OBSERVATION

DISCOVER

01The discover phase helps to determine the problem, the people involved in this issue, who are called stakeholders (clients, users, partners etc), understanding the needs of the users and how the designer with the specific skills can solve the problem.

Thinking about my daily life and what affects it, the problem chosen among a vast array of social issues proposed by the tutors, it was the miserable and stressful underground journey. This phase of research was undertaken by a mix of primary and secondary research. I started with the secondary research, to define my client. Users were defined thanks to a constant observation during my daily journeys with the tube. Other primary research methods employed were visiting the London Transport Museum and the chance I had to listen to Gray Hustwitt at the London Typo conference.

INTRO

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Littering, pollution, violence, homelessness, vandalism, fly-tip-ping, binge drinking drug abuse noise, racism, anti-social behavior, lack of social integration, teenage pregnancy, sexual health, youth crime, poor education, traffic, sig-nage, built environment, housing facilities, dominance of high street chains over independent traders, poor care/ facilities for seniors citi-zens, lack of support for families, lack of childcare opportunities, is-sues with schools, green areas, playgrounds, employability...

Littering, pollution, violence, homelessness, vandalism, fly-tip-ping, binge drinking drug abuse noise, racism, anti-social behavior, lack of social integration, teenage pregnancy, sexual health, youth crime, poor education, traffic, sig-nage, built environment, housing facilities, dominance of high street chains over independent traders, poor care/ facilities for seniors citi-zens, lack of support for families, lack of childcare opportunities, is-sues with schools, green areas, playgrounds, employability...

Improve the underground journey for the Londoners

IMPROVE THE UNDERGROUND JOURNEY OF THE LONDONERS

No time for smiling

My everyday life is affected by the underground journey. The journey is extremely boring and the people around me are sad,angry and with thoughtful faces. The environment is full of tension and worries.

Creating a solution to this prob-lem with my visual communica-tion design skills. Finding a way to improve the beginning of the day of each of the users of the under-ground to make them more hap-py, relaxed and sociable.

CHOOSING THE PROBLEM

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SIXTHINKING MEN

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Diverse mix of genre, nationali-ties, ages, cultural background. Mainly people between 18 years old to 60-70’s, apart from 2/3 p.m., time in which some kids were ac-companied by their mums.

DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE

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TFL was created in 2000 and is the integrated body responsible for the Capital’s transport system.

Its main role is to implement the Mayor’s Transport Strategy for London and manage transport services across the Capital for which the Mayor has responsibility.

DETERMINE THE CLIENT

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THE ART ON THE UNDERGROUND GOALS

— Present the best international contemporary art for our unique audience

— Increase the users knowledge of contemporary art

— Advertising already famous and new artists

— Contribute to the artistic landscape of London

— Grow the TFL reputation

1 2

4 3

5

CONCUR-RENT ACTIVITIES

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1

2

3ACTS OF KINDNESSMICHAEL LANDYInteresting project that involves the people and underlines and celebrates the everyday generosity and compassion in the tube. Landy will collect the stories of exchanging kindness and after selecting the best, will put them on them on the Central line.

+ Land is fascinated by the way we tend to disappear into our own bubble on the tube

+ Interest on the kindness between people

? Is it making people’s journey better?

- No in all the stations

POEMS IN THE UNDERGROUND- Some poems are quite difficult and lengthy to understand, considering the fact that a lot of people don’t speak English as their mother tongue. Even for those ones that are, it might result tiring to read an old poem after a long day of work.

- The ones printed on train carriages are nearly impossible to read. Also the poems inside the carriage, when the train is busy, are hard to read too.

-The typography is overlooked and unstimulating.

WHAT IS THE CITY, BUT THE PEOPLE?JEREMY DELLERJeremy Deller created this booklet full of quotes and distributed them to the underground staff. This is to encouraged them to insert them into their daily announcements.

+ Humor

+ Unexpectedness from public

+ Great response from the public

- Temporary

- No in all the stations

SMILE FOR LONDON

This project’s aim was to bring a bit of happiness on the Underground screens and promote emerging talents through the show of selected videos

-The idea was nice but the videos that I saw were not toofunny

-Just for two weeks

-Not in all the London undergrounds

KNITTING CIRCLE

Awareness campaign happened on the 13th of March on the Circle line to raise awareness for Breast Cancer survivors and The Pink Pom Pom Project.

+Fun and different

- Limited to one day

- Not everybody can knit

SERIO-COMICK-BOMBASTICK-OPERATICK INTERLUDEMATT STOKES

Multi screen videos influenced by the Victorian “Penny Gaffs”, temporary theatre in which the audience could be entertained just for one penny. Invited by the artists, local performers could show their acts.

+ Love the historical reference to Stratford theatreheritage

+ Good mix of music and play link

- It’s a shame that there were just videos, it would have been great ifthey were live performances

POSTERS IN THE UNDERGROUND

+Some of them are really beautiful and clever

?Will it really make people journey better?

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5

6

7

6

7

GARYHUSTWIT

>LONDON TRANSPORT MUSEUM

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Gary Hustwit is an independent filmmaker based in New York and London. During his talk at the London Typo conference he showed different DIY design projects in which citizen designers are taking action to solve social issues. From gardens projects in Detroit to pocket plants in Toronto, it show how much cities can be shaped and improved by the collective actions of theirs citizens.

Apart from learning the history of the London Underground from its origin until now, understanding the travelling issues of the past and the ones of today, it was interesting to see the exhibition “Sense and the City” .

The Art in the underground projects seems to satisfy the personal curiosity and need of expression of the artist rather than solving a problem. With the other above listed projects that happen only for a limited period of time and even more remarkable, not in all the stations. Furthermore most of the projects done so far also limited the target audience, without targeting the whole of the underground travellers.

The Gary Hustwitt talk was interesting, as seeing him talk about something that I was working on at that time. It confirmed to me the extreme importance of how much design is a service to make the world that we live in a better place, with the involving of the people that are part of it in any project. That was an incredible push to really leave the computer at home and go out and talk to the people for which I was designing for.

From the London Transport Museum I had the chance to learn the issues of yesterday and today of travelling in the tube, and the broad range of new technologies that can be used to improve a service which might be useful to solve my issue.

OBSERVATIONS

02>INTRO>PHOTOGRAPHIC OBSERVATION>ONLINE SURVEY 1>OBSERVATION

DELVE

To delve more into the understanding of my issue, I had to first of all observe and record the behavior of the underground users. Following this observation, thanks to Survey Monkey, I had the chance to form some questions, which came out of the six thinking men process answered by a large audience of Underground Users (nearly 80 people answered this questionnaire).

The delve phase consists on discovering any existing projects made around the issue, discovering answers to questions and talking to people involved in the project. Some of the possible research methods at this stage are self-ethnography, video/photo ethnography, journals, cultural probes, concurrent activities, day-in-the-life, qualitative and quantitative surveys and observation.

02

INTRO

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WHAT DO WE WANT TO FIND OUT?

Unbearable behavioral patterns of the underground users inside the Tube, architectural obstructions/unpleasant elements that could make people nervous and stressed.

KEY QUESTIONHow can we improve the underground journey to make people happier and relaxed?

THINGS TO DOAlways analyze all the touch points in each of the stations 1- Entrance - Oyster Card top up machines - Information points2- Escalators3- Waiting platform4- Inside the carriageEach of these locations must be observed at least during three different times of the day

TOOLS USEDSketchbookPenCameraWatch

WHERELimehouseBankKings crossLondon bridgeElephant and CastleOxford Circus , all from 9 AM till 8 PM

PHOTO-GRAPHICOBSERVA-TION

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4.5/5 absent faces, lost in their thoughts

4/5 were listening to the I-pod

4/5 were reading the newspaper

4/5 were sitting

1/5 were talking

1.5/5 were eating

1.5/5 were sleeping

1/5 were reading a book

1/5 were using the smart phone

2/5 were looking at the ads

OTHER ACTIVITIES

How long have you been using the tube?

More than 5 years: 17Between 1 and 5: 45Less than a year: 19

What do you do while you are travelling?

Music: 55Play mobile: 27Newspaper: 27Book: 27E-book: 2Looking around: 41Sleeping: 5

Satisfaction of the service

-Dissatisfied:25-Neither satisfied and unsatisfied: 15-Satisfied: 30-Extremely satisfied:10

37 MALE44 FEMALE

Do you prefer your own music or more public music?

Own music: 57Public :16

What do you like most of the underground?

Quick, efficient and easy to use: 37Warm in winter: 3Sexy people: 2Watching people: 2Newspaper: 1

What do you dislike most of the underground?

Over crowded: 15Expensive: 2Closure for delays: 6Smell: 3Hot: 10The others: 3Dull and dark: 4

ONLINESURVEY NUMBER 1

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OBSERVATIONS

I am undertaking this project to improve the underground journey as I hate it because usually stress me. But when I undertook my first day of observation, I was not stressed. It is the first time that I am on the tube for the sake of it. I guess people get stressed because they have many things to think about and the underground environment doesn’t help to not think about them. So my final goal is to distract people from their problems. My survey also shows that people are stressed and hate the underground journey, because of the quality conditions that the travel causes (overcrowdedness, the smell etc). As a designer, I cannot change the size of the carriages or reduce the numbers of people travelling, but definitely I can change the mood of these people through some device/ happening/ thing that since the early morning can revolution the whole day of the Londoners.

03>INTRO>DATA ANALYSIS >CONCEPT CHALLENGE>ONLINE SURVEY 2>RSA BRIEF >20 IDEAS IN 20 MINUTES>OBSERVATION

DEFINE

The define stage was a key moment for the project development. After analyzing all of the data and brainstorming with my PBL group, I could identify some essential questions that helped me to unlock my ideas into defining a design problem.Following a second questionnaire directed to some family and friends, I had the luck to find a brief set by the RSA student award which helped me to define my goals even more. After this I sketched 25 ideas with some people of my group, to get the ideas out of my head and onto paper.

03The define stage works as a filter of all the research and data, through a review and analysis of them. From that, it will help define the research question focusing on a specific need or gap in the chosen social issue, that can be addressed with communication design skills.

INTRO

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WHAT PEOPLE DOAttracted by moving images Read a lot newspaper during the peak timesDo not have anything to do during the underground journey

ALSO FROM THEOBSERVATIONInterior design of underground is quite coldUnderground benches are really uncomfortableReally silent placeMost of the people travel alone, Mostly in the early morning and after work at 6

HOW CAN I USE MY DESIGN SKILLSMore artMore funMore colorful and comfortable environmentMore interactivity

DATA ANALYSIS

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So I might concentrate my design skills on:

Moving imagesNewspaperInterior design of the tubeMaking people busy with something more fun to doMaking people do something that they can do alone

WHAT PEOPLE DO NOT DOLook at the advertising postersRead many books in the undergroundTalk early in the morning

So I will not concentrate my attention in producing either advertising posters or books

This step was essential to unlock my ideas. After presenting the research done so far to my group, including the analysis of the data, and my opinion on the topic, we spent twenty minutes brainstorming on some possible solutions to my issue. FUN was the main word around which we were working, followed by USERS INTERACTIVITY.

CONCEPT CHAL-LENGE

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10 MALE13 FEMALE

Because I have got my thoughts

Because I would not know what to say/Shy

Because I am afraid that the others would not appreciate that

Fun RelaxCommunication

YesNo

53%

32%

78%

22%

15%

They are free

Don’t have anything else to do

Their content is interesting

0%

56%

44%

61%

27%

12%

ONLINE SURVEY 2

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Why do you not talk with people in the underground?

Do you read the free newspapers inside the underground?

If yes, why do you read them?

What more would you like in the underground?

RSA BRIEF

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“In his book Bowling Alone, Rob-ert Putnam cites long commuting times as one of the most robust in-dicators of social isolation. He posits that every 10 minutes spent com-muting results in 10 percent few-er social connections that make us feel happy and fulfilled”

From the RSA briefTo define my brief even better, I had the luck of finding the RSA brief “The good journey, make people look forward to their daily commute”. How might a design solution or intervention enrich the commuting experience or make better use of commuting time?

I gave myself 20 minutes to come up with 20 different ideas to solve my issue, I sketched them and wrote a small description of them underneath. I went to the FdA studios and I asked around to pick up three of these ideas. The most liked ones were: interior design, pictures from the users on big screen and the happy news.

20 IDEASIN 20MINUTES

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Summarizing the data gathered during the previous stage helped me to understand better the areas on which I should concentrate and the ones that I should leave behind. The second questionnaire was important to determine what people wanted more from their underground experience. Fun and relaxed were the main concerns of most of the interviewed. During the observation I also noticed that a lot of people were reading the free newspapers. This got my attention as I am a person that never reads them, as I find the content quite boring and depressing. I wanted to investigate why people read the. Interestingly enough, most of the people were reading them mainly because they did not have anything else to do during the journey, and because they were free. This is an interesting point that made me realize that I need to create something free that would keep people engaged and entertained during their commuting time. After the brainstorming with my PBL group and 20 ideas in 20 minutes, I had three different concept to bring to the voting session.

OBSERVATIONS

04>INTRO>3 IDEAS AND VOTING>DEFINING GOALS AGAIN>6 THINKING MEN>APPROACHING THE USERS>ONLINE SURVEY 3>LIVE PROTOTYPING>RECORDING COMMENTS>CONCURRENT ACTIVITIES>LOGO VOTING>LOGO WITH RISOGRAPH>PATTERNS CHOICE>VOTING 2 FORMATS

DEVELOP

Finally with a more clear idea in my mind I could concentrate my activities in ideas generation, prototyping, testing and prototyping again. After the voting part, my colleagues and tutors helped me to choose the best idea and I worked on that. Following another survey, I prototyped the newspaper ideas. The feedback from the people interviewed was essential to develop an outcome which has been tested again before the delivering of the final solution.

The main activities of the Development phase are prototyping and iterating one or more concepts that have been chosen to solve the issue in question. These activities are executed to refine these concepts and produce an outcome which would look as close as possible at the end product.

04

INTRO

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PROTOTYPING AND VOTING

Following what has been said in the Concept Challenge brainstorm session and from all the research so far I concentrated on 3 concepts that might change the journey of the people:INTERACTIVITY/FUN/MORE COMFORT. The most voted idea was the second one

>IDEA NUMBER 1UNDERGROUND ART? YOU MAKE IT!

Monthly competitions directed to the underground users: each month a different theme, with which people should answer to a brief with any visual outcome (not just photography, but anything that can be photographed). Aside from an underground jury, underground users will be enabled to choose, voting on a website, what they would like to see in the underground corridors and platforms. Real frames that contain a screen which would change the images every minute. The image contained will be produced by the underground users that would upload it on the website.

VOTING 3 IDEAS

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>IDEA NUMBER 2POSITIVE FREE DAILY NEWS FOR HAPPIER TRAVELLERS

It is a newspaper/leaflet/publication to freely hand to the underground users every morning. Each line of the tube will have its own newspaper/leaflet. This newspaper/leaflets purpose will be to positively change the starting of the day of each passenger.

IDEA NUMBER 3FEELING AT HOME

Transforming the underground interior design to make the atmo-sphere more cosy and relaxing. Using the heritage of the underground to make patterns for the wallpaper so each of the stations would have its own one. Therefore each of the underground tube stations would tell something about the English/London history. Reducing advertis-ing space in certain areas of the tube. Giving the chance for people to show their art and ideas in different frames around the tube. More art from the underground users!

DEFINE THE GOAL AGAIN

MESSAGEEnrich underground journey with positive and fun news to make people relaxed and happier.

HOWThrough a positive newspaper/publication.

CLIENTTransport for London

TARGET AUDIENCELondoners from 18’s old to 90’s

After the voting part I could define my project with more precision

6 THINKING MEN

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Hi everybody,

For the people that answered my previous questionnaire, thanks so much. For the ones that did not, it does not matter! I know how busy we all are,but I hope this time you can make it, it would be really helpful for me.As you know I am trying to improve the underground journey of Londoners. The daily news are always negative. Is that the only reality that we have to be aware of daily? My idea is creating a free daily newspaper that would enrich peoples lives thanks to its positive content. This would be made of positive thinking which will encourage the user to believe in himself/herself and improve their life. Positive and interesting stories of normal people that manage to have success in their life reaching their goal through a positive attitude, jokes, news about humankind’s positive achievement, anniversary of the birth of some human being that had changed the world making it a better place and being a user generator, having a section of it where the users can tell their own positive stories. I am doing my second and last questionnaire on this project and I would be really grateful if you could spend five minutes of your life answering a few questions.Thanks for the attention!

Have a nice weekElena

APPROACH-ING THE USERS

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From what I heard from last years students and others friends, making people answer your questionnaire seemed an impossible mission. The three questionnaires that I have sent around showed me the opposite of this opinion. From this experience I believed that if you are confident of what are you saying, polite, positive and mostly have an interesting idea and introducing it to people in a clear and exciting way, most of the people will answer you. Below is an example of a introductory letter to my second questionnaire.

Finally! Such a good idea, I am ready to kill myself after reading the underground newspapers!Stuart Doodley 23

1-

What kind of colours would you use for this newspaper?

1- Black and white

2- Duotone

3- Duotone using tube colours 4- Duotone with bright colours5- Full colour

Do you think my project of a positive newspaper for the underground would positively change your underground journey and your day?

1- Yes2- Maybe3- No

I am thinking to insert inside the newspaper information about what is going on in different lines to change and improve the day of the user offering alternatives to the monotony of everyday life. How would you find this?

60.3% 19% 20.7%

0%

50% 21.4% 0% 50% 14.3% 21.4%

21.4% 21.4% 50%

ONLINE SURVEY 3

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1-

As this newspaper will be partly user generated, and will have a section which gathers positive stories of underground users, where would you like to have the chance to write your own positive story:

1- On the back of the newspaper (then tear off the last page and leave it in a box outside the Underground entrance)

2- Both

3- Online (with a code to scan with the I-phone that directly links you to the blog where to write your own story)

4- I do not like this idea

How would you like the format of this newspaper?

1- Classical newspaper format but smaller hand size/Quirky layout/Fun and colourful/quite different from any other newspapers

2- Different format (like a leaflet or similar)/colourful/different layout from the classical newspapers

3- Classical newspaper format/Classical layout/Beautiful images/full colours

1- Useful 2- Quite useful 3- Do not really care4- Waste of paper

0%

0%

21.4% 35.7% 42.9%

92.% 14.3%

7 MALE7 FEMALE

Inside one of the two prototypes, it was written roughly the different sections of the newspaper so people could have a quick understanding of what was going on. I approached people in LCC, in front of Elephant and Castle tube station and some of my flat mates. Without explaining what I was offering to them, I just asked if they could understand what were they testing. Most of the people understood the general concept. Following this I gave an introduction to my project, asking for any feedback and improvement to my idea

LIVE PROTOTYPE ON 22 PEOPLE

LIVE PROTO-TYPING

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“I love the idea, I would like to have it daily, have something nice, to keep. About the two format, I like the second one, as it looks like a newspaper, but it definitely gives you an idea that is something different, thanks to its small format”

Hali, 19 years old Graphic Designer student

“I stopped to use the underground to go to work three months ago, but if this project was real I would probably be using it again(smiling). About the format, the second one is better for me. It reminds me of a newspaper and is handy to hold, without occupying too much space”

Leandro 27, Bartender

“Quality idea. World reflected in Guardian and Metro seems to be pretty grim. Between the two format, I would go for the second one”

Wojtek, 29 Graphic Designer

“The most interesting part of this idea is the fact that you are giving away daily suggestions of things to do in London. To make it user generated I would do more of a web space rather than on paper. Everybody knows how to browse the web and soon we will have wi-fi access inside the Tube. People will be able to write their own story straight online while they are travelling”.

Katya, 36 Teacher

“Do not make it too different from a newspaper. Remember that not ev-erybody is a designer and ready to experiment new formats - I would go for the second”

Ingmar 30, Graphic Design student

RECORD-INGSCOMMENTS

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CONCUR-RENT ACTIVITIES

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I have spent quite a lot of time researching the contemporary journal/magazine design. As the initial idea was producing a newspaper, I deepened my research into the most famous and successful Newspaper in the world. This first stage of this research helped me to confirm the willingness of most of my interviewed people: producing a publication which would not look like a classical newspaper look, full of articles, advertising, small pictures and quite stressful and busy layout. So I went more for a journals/magazine look and feel, concentrating on black and white images, beautiful typography, patterns and quirky design.

Din

TAmperzand

Clarendon

Officina Sans

Deadwood Doublewide Heavy

Asking to an audience of 17 graphic designers (colleague and non) from LCC, the most voted was the last example

LOGO VOTING

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I wanted my logo to have a more organic handmade feeling, which would reflect the organic content and hand generation by the users. Thanks to the risograph machine I could produce exactly what I had in mind, a non-even colour logo with a quirky look and feel, contemporary, simple and positive looking.

LOGO WITHRISOGRAPH

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PATTERNSCHOICE

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From the first questionnaire, few people mentioned the desire of the abolition of the seat patterns in answer to my question: what would you change of the interior design in the Underground? What if instead of the abolition, would happen a recontextualization of these pattern in a more contemporary way? With Adobe Illustrator I traced some patters and made them more contemporary. After that, I gave them the same treatment which I gave to the logo, using the risograph machine.

ABOLITION OF THE SEATS PATTERNS?

VOTING 2 FORMATS

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Another choice determined by the willingness of the people. I created few spreads of my journal, similar to eachother - but different. The main gap consisted in the use of the chosen patterns and the typography. On the first example, they are more solid and colorful, on the second one, lighter and minimal. The colour will change monthly, reflecting the colours if the 12 lines (the 13th is the Northern line which is black). Most of the people chose the second one, so I went for that.

This stage was the most active and exciting of all of them.. I have been in contact face to face with many people, and the general feedback received was more than successful. Talking with strangers about my idea and seeing the approval in their words has been a great success. Many suggestions have been given to me and every new step in the development of my project was put under discussions with others people. From my university colleagues, to close friends, to strangers: many people helped me to get to the end of this project. The designing part was like a breath of release and it came out so spontaneous after such a long time of researching.

OBSERVATIONS

05DELIVER>FINAL OUTCOME>TESTING ON USERS

FINAL OUTCOME

>This publication is an alternative to the usual bad news that is offered to us daily. Reality is important, but what is given to people seems a partial vision of it. Life is beautiful and apart of the bad events, a lot of amazing news is happening right now. This publication aims to bring a glimmer of happiness in the everyday life of the London underground travellers. It will encourage you to believe in yourself through a positive attitude, jokes, news about humankind’s positive achievements, anniversaries of the birth of some human beings that changed the world by making it a better place, real stories of success of normal people like me and you and much more.

Every day is the anniversary of the birth of somebody that has done something great for the humanity, or the anniversary of some events that have changed the world in a positive way...Enjoy it!

As Roberto Benigni said in one of his interviews: “The duty of art is making bearable something unbearable” Art and culture have done so many good changes to the humanity. Past and contemporary artists have being using their creativity to represent the reality and change it. Here we tell you something about it.

In this section we tell you stories of incredible normal people which have inspired and motivate people from all walks of life through their actions, words and presence.

Did you always dream to have one of your pictures published and showed around to thousands of people? Now you can! Bring us some of your happy masterpieces. Make us smile and we will do the rest of the job for you. At the end of each month the best picture will be selected by the other users, prized and exhibited at the end of the year in the London Transport Museum

Laughing is contagious. Travelling in the underground and looking at people laughing by themselves as they are reading something fun, it makes most of the people more relaxed and even start to laugh. This section is just made for that. I laugh and you laugh!

You are the only person that can change your life. Tell us your story, or the one of someone that you know and managed to succeed, whatever definition you will want to give to this word. You own your success, believe in that and tell us all about.

Are you travelling on the DLR and you have an hour break but you do not know what to do? “London is awesome” is a three page section in which we will keep you up to date on what is going on around our beautiful city...Arts, food, theatre...and much more. Take a break, enjoy London!

Write your story here, take a picture of that and upload it on our website. Or type it straight it at www.dailysmile/yourstory.co.uk

TESTING THE FINAL OUTCOME

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“I think it is a really nice project. I take the tube everyday to go to work and I deal with news daily for my job. I would like to read some different kind of news in the 20 minutes that I use to go to work.

Pete, 27 years old, Financial journalist

“I think that what you are doing is brilliant. I do quite a serious work, and when I am in the Tube I usually do not pick up the free newspaper as all the news is quite depressing.” Sam 29, PhD in chemistry

“This is such a lovely idea. Will you try to make it real? I hope so, I take the The Tube everyday for more than an hour per day, I hate the usual newspapers,, but this one looks nice and the con-tent is lovely”

Jennifer 27, Sale Assistant

The beauty of this project has been the fact that when it started the final outcome was a faraway goal, a mystery lasted until the Develop stage. This allowed me to concentrate on learning and applying some of the design research methods introduced during the first term of this year. This enabled me to enjoy the process, without the need to rush to an end. During this period I learned how to formulate a questionnaire, how to schedule and manage my time properly, how to approach people and make them engaged with my idea. This has been possible thanks to my enthusiasm in what I was doing, but also thanks to the confidence that I had in what I was proposing, confidence that I would not own if I did not spent so much time in the research phase. People are the core of any design project, and their cooperation in my project has been vital for the end results. It has been an enjoyable and enriching experience sharing my progress with others, receiving feedback and talking with designers and non designers about my ideas. The five minutes pitch that we had to do in front of our colleagues and tutors from time to time, helped me to overcome my embarrassment on talking in front of an audience, a skill that I am aware I will need in my future career. Even if the final outcome was unknown until the end, I ended confirming my interest in editorial design again nd producing the happy journal.

Bibliography

Lupton, Ellen. Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2011. Print.

Web

Service Design Toolkit – Improve the Quality of Your Service with This Hands-on Toolkit. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://www.servicedesigntoolkit.org/

“Design with Intent Toolkit 1.0 Now Online | Design with Intent.” Design with Intent | Design and Human Behaviour. Web. Oct.-Nov. 2011. <http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2010/04/10/design-with-intent-toolkit-1-0-now-online/>.

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/cebe/themes/pbl