Mind map showing a plethora of ideas from all kinds of different topics

With initial ideation I cast my net wide in the desire to catch as many diverse topics as I could to get inspired.

It’s the module we’ve all been waiting for: UX Design! As someone with a design background but not a graphic or art-based background, I’m a little nervous about this one, but we’ll see how it goes!

Kicking off with a brand new brief, I found myself needing more motivation. The suggested topic is based on charitable giving and how more people from specific underrepresented groups can be encouraged to spend more. Either monetarily or with time and effort. While I definitely believe in the worth of charities and have given money to many causes, giving money to charity doesn’t solve the root problem (whatever it might be). An app to help people volunteer at a food bank will not change the social conditions that make food banks necessary.

Mind map showing the pros and cons of four ideas

After I had a pool of ideas, I reduced them down to four where I broke down the pros and cons of each.

As an ardent supporter of value-sensitive design, I wanted to keep the spirit of the brief and develop my own, still heavily grounded in human principles (Friedman et al. 2013). I began with a mind map, my favourite tool for ideation. I jotted down all the ideas floating around, including a basketball court tracker (“I am not the user”) and a building regulations visualiser (a pressing gap in the construction industry). For further inspiration, I browsed the current news and found an article from Candice Chung, who had emigrated from Australia to Glasgow (2024). In the article, she discusses building a community in her new home and the difficulties of finding good Cantonese food. This got me thinking.

Social isolation and loneliness are reported as significant experiences in the lives of migrants and return migrants (Barrett and Mosca 2013). Reflecting on the topic further led me to write the following brief for the module:

Moving to a new country or city is an exhilarating experience. Everything is different and fresh; you can’t wait to get out there and soak up all the new experiences. But moving can also be crushingly lonely. Suddenly, nobody laughs at your jokes and friend groups are already tightly established with seemingly no wiggle room.

People choose to move for many reasons; a gap year, a better job or a new experience to name just a few. However, the struggle to find your feet in established communities leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Within the queer and transgender community (Q/T), this is especially pertinent. Found family is touted by many as “a signature of queer experience” (Jackson Levin et al. 2020: 1) and refers to a non-biologically related group of people that subverts the traditional ideas of a family unit. But the way a found family functions in reality means different things to different people. They can be huge with official gatherings or just a few friends coming together (Blum 2022).

This brief hopes to bridge that gap between loneliness and community building by helping individuals find their feet in new places. My goal is to reimagine the tools that will empower queer and trans people of all ages to find their families wherever they are.

A lopsided mind map showing the potential areas for exploration in a product for new migrants

I jotted down initial ideas on the different facets this type of product could have with the intention of spotting my own assumptions.

Looking for some peer feedback, I shared the brief on the student discord server. While I didn’t get any direct commentary on the brief, other students reminded me how Facebook used to be the place to be for this purpose. I will send the brief to my tutor to get more feedback to see what he thinks can be improved.

Reflecting on my ideation process, I spent too long on the initial mind map. I didn’t set a time limit on idea generation and found myself waiting for lightning to strike the perfect idea. Once I realised that I was dawdling, I took my four favourite ideas to explore them further. Jotting down ideas, pros and cons of each very quickly clarified which idea would be the strongest for the context of this module.

Looking forward, I will research the concept of found families and the impacts of loneliness on migrants. Before writing this brief, I had never considered that returning migrants must also rebuild their communities. To immerse myself in different migrant experiences, I will read sikfan glaschu, a book of poetry that explores identity and authenticity (Wai Keung 2021). I will also further investigate inclusive language more thoroughly (Scheuerman 2020).

References

    BARRETT, Alan and Irene MOSCA. 2013. ‘Social Isolation, Loneliness and Return Migration: Evidence from Older Irish Adults’. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 39(10), 1659–77.

    BLUM, Dani. 2022. ‘The Joy in Finding Your Chosen Family’. The New York Times, 25 Jun [online]. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/well/lgbtq-chosen-families.html [accessed 27 Jan 2024].

    CHUNG, Candice. 2024. ‘My Big Move: Leaving Sydney for Glasgow, Suddenly I Was an Old-School Migrant Again’. The Guardian, 25 Jan [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/26/my-big-move-leaving-sydney-for-glasgow-suddenly-i-was-an-old-school-migrant-again [accessed 28 Jan 2024].

    FRIEDMAN, Batya, Peter H. KAHN, Alan BORNING and Alina HULDTGREN. 2013. ‘Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems’. In Neelke DOORN, Daan SCHUURBIERS, Ibo VAN DE POEL, and Michael E. GORMAN (eds.). Early Engagement and New Technologies: Opening up the Laboratory. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 55–95. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7844-3_4 [accessed 8 Dec 2023].

    JACKSON LEVIN, Nina, Shanna K. KATTARI, Emily K. PIELLUSCH and Erica WATSON. 2020. ‘“We Just Take Care of Each Other”: Navigating “Chosen Family” in the Context of Health, Illness, and the Mutual Provision of Care amongst Queer and Transgender Young Adults’. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(19), 7346.

    SCHEUERMAN, Morgan Klaus. 2020. ‘HCI Guidelines for Gender Equity and Inclusivity’. MorganKlaus.com [online]. Available at: https://www.morgan-klaus.com/gender-guidelines.html#About [accessed 28 Jan 2024].

    WAI KEUNG, Sean. 2021. Sikfan Glaschu. Glasgow: Verve Poetry Press. Available at: https://vervepoetrypress.com/product/sean-wai-keung-sikfan-glaschu-pre-order-free-uk-pp-due-apr-21/ [accessed 28 Jan 2024].

     

     

    German vocabulary of the week

      Design – Gestaltung