We’re back for the second semester and diving straight into a new brief. This one feels quite big and a bit different from anything we’ve done before, courtesy of our new lecturer, Maira. The project is focused on the "period of handover", basically what happens when a person is released from prison and the systems that are (or aren't) in place to support them.
We had a chat with Dr. Ruth Graham, who is really involved in the prison system and deals with these issues every day. She’s going to be helping us throughout this project, along with some "mentors" who work on that side of things. My initial thoughts are that this is much less about just making a digital product and more about systems thinking. It’s about how we can leverage existing systems or bridge two different systems together to solve problems that usually go unnoticed.
Dr. Ruth Graham gave us a great example of this "leveraging" idea through a system she worked on called "Ask Him." The issue was that prisoners often had access to things like doctors and dentists but didn't actually know how to use those resources.
Instead of building something complex from scratch, they looked at what was already there: the prisoners. They asked for volunteers to become mentors for other prisoners.
This really stuck with me, the idea of reorganising or restructuring what already exists because it requires way less development. It’s a much more efficient way of creating a new system.
We looked at the grade weightings, and it's the usual setup: most of the marks are for research and the final project, with the rest for supporting notes and professionalism.
We’ve been put into groups for this one. I’m with Holly, Paul, Christopher, and Grace. We haven’t done group work in a while, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. Group work can be a bit frustrating at times, but I guess it’s just part of the preparation for the real world.
To get ahead of things, I’ve already set up a Slack channel and a Miro board for us so we can stay in contact and keep everything up to date. On the Miro board, I’ve started a brainstorm and asked everyone to jot down their thoughts. I’ve also colour-coded each person, so we know exactly who is contributing what. I think this will be really useful when it comes to marking at the end.
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It’s good to be back, but Year 2 is definitely keeping up the pace. I’m really intrigued by this brief, I didn’t expect this module to take this direction, but I’m finding myself more and more drawn to the research and "systems" side of design rather than just the visual output.
Hearing from Dr. Ruth Graham was a highlight. Seeing how a simple shift in how people interact ,like the "Ask Him" scheme, can be more effective than a high tech solution really captures what motivates me. I’m a little apprehensive about the group work side of things, but I think setting up the Miro board early with the colour-coding will help keep everyone accountable. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.
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