Exploring Interaction

It a hard knock life

Report by Terry Brochard 1526677

Introduction
This is the report of the Exploring Interaction course from the Industrial Design Engineering faculty on the TU Delft. This course 1. 2. 3. is divided into three cycles: Ideate Iterate Demonstrate

This report is the closure of the second cycle. In this report the following will be presented: Design goal and working title Design and research explorations Interaction vision Rough design models Product concept

The subject of the studio is the social city of tomorrow and my personal subject is: the homeless people in a city.

Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard

Where were we?

At the end of cycle 1 the following was my conclusion and starting point of cycle 2. The report of cycle 1 is in the appendix.

Homeless
There are 2 types of homeless people: o The prototype drug and alcohol addict. These people do not really care about their position and do not want to be helped. o The unknown homeless. These people are people just like you and me only they do not have a home. These people get prejudiced all the time what gives them a low self-esteem.

Non - homeless
Only knows one type of homeless. Are willing to help, but do not want to give money. Do not know how to help.

To make the current situation more clear the following visualization is made.

Want money and do not care Feels misjudged and rejected

Do not know about

Do not trust them You can see 2 different cycles. One is the prototype homeless and the non-homeless. The second is the unknown homeless and the non-homeless. The second cycle is the cycle I will focus on. Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard 3

What the unknown homeless person needs is: The agencies to work harder. Understanding from the non-homeless. Personal motivation. Positivity.

I believe that the personal motivation will come if they are more positive. I also believe that the non-homeless people can give that positivity, but therefore they need to understand the situation of the homeless. So three of the four need can be handled. The agencies to work harder is a whole different problem and not relevant for this project. I want to connect the homeless people to the regular citizens. So If I now focus on the second cycle only it will look like this.

If the homeless can tell their story(share knowledge), people will understand them better and will not think bad of the homeless. Therefore people are more willing to help, what leads to positivity toward the homeless. Then the homeless become more motivated to get out their position. Regular will people will see that and will start to think even better of the homeless. This gives the homeless even more motivation. This way the cycle will strengthen itself.

Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard

Cycle 2 Iterate
In the beginning of cycle 2 I looked at the cycle of knowledge and positivity again. What is knowledge and what is positivity?

Knowledge
What is the knowledge that should be shared by the homeless or by me? - Not everyday is a junk. - Information, facts - Personal stories I believe that the product of this project is in the knowledge transfer. The positivity transfer will come on its own. So I will focus on the knowledge part.

Positivity
What do I mean with positivity? I want people to have: - Awareness - Understanding And with that have a more positive look on homeless.

Existing projects for inspiration

To get an inspiration of how to transfer the knowledge I looked at existing project on homeless people.

Underheard in New York. A project in NY where 4 homeless people got a twitter account. Became a great success. The got more and more followers every day. New York got to know the story behind people on the streets.

Robbie Hance was a contester in the UK version of the X-factor. He also was homeless, but in this case it didnt was something negative. He didnt show up in the next round. He became a big hype in the UK and the homeless got a lot of attention.

Straat monologen A Dutch theatershow on the life of homeless people.

Stinkend Rijk & Dakloos A program on Dutch television about 4 rich people living likes homeless persons for one week. Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard 5

The non-homeless
It is also important to look at the non-homeless people. What do they want to know; what do they NEED to know? I asked non-homeless people, what homeless people should do to change their opinion on them. Most people answered that the homeless people should show for themselves that they are not as everybody thinks of them. But at the same time the nonhomeless do not want to get in direct contact with the homeless people.

Concepts
Now it was time to come up with ideas. I had a lot of different ideas. From a homeless-restaurant till a crayon-action on the streets. Or a action were homeless people must where shirts with the text: Im homeless, dare to speak with me. But those ideas did not really fit the conclusions of my research. In the end I had 2 main concept directions.

Concept 1: Information boxes

At the beginning of the project I said I did not wanted to end up with a new poster action. But after working on this project for a while I found out that the key factor is information. People just do not know about the homeless. Now the question was how to inform people in a new and interesting way (not a poster). Then inspired on the home of a prototype homeless ( a box) I came up with the info-boxes. The idea is that these boxes are placed in public places. Form the outside you do not know what the box is for. But is says: QUESTION. On one side there is a whole trough which you can see. If you do that, a question is asked. For example: What is the percentage of homeless that are alcohol- or drug-addicts? The next step is to write your answer on the box and then check your answers trough the whole on the back of the box. This way you inform people in a new way. And because they have to write the answer on the box, they first think of it for themselves before we give the actual information. Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard 6

Concept 2: Homeless elections

I was very inspired by the example of Robbie Hance. This gave me two ideas. Robbie became a sort of role model for the homeless. If people in the UK heard the word homeless they thought of Robbie and not the dirty homeless they normally think of. What if we could make a homeless role model? And in a talent show people vote on their favorite person. What if we could do that? Those ideas combined became the Homeless person of the year election. In every region a few homeless people will start a contest against each other and will start a campaign. In the end people have to vote for their favorite person. By voting you have to think of which one you like the most. This is the opposite way of how people think of homeless persons now.

Concepts test
The boxes To test the boxes I made 2 models with some facts about homeless people and placed them near the coffee-corner of the Industrial Design faculty and observed it for an hour. During that hour a lot of people walked by an most of them notices the boxes, but not everybody pick them up. In total 25 people looked in the boxed in that hour. The people who looked into the boxes talked about the boxes for a while and than continued with what they were doing. I talked with a few of the people who looked in in boxes. This were the main reactions: - Nice way of a questionnaire. - Nice box, but now what? - I did not know I had to write something. - I could not read the question properly. - But why are they homeless, that I want to know. After the test I hung the boxes in the elevator. The next morning the boxes were removed. The election I did not test the election, but instead I want back to the homeless-center to discuss the two concepts with one of the employees. She was very enthusiastic about both ideas, but the conclusion was that according to here it was best to first use the boxes, to create some awareness and

Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard

Concept conclusions
The two concepts are very different from each other. Both are not the best solution yet. With the boxes you give people knowledge by facts and numbers and with the election you make the homeless to show themselves from their best side. Both concepts just did not feel good. It felt like I was a bit stuck. So I took a step back and looked at my goal again. What is it that I want to reach with my project? What is the message I want to tell?

Back to essence
In the end I want to create more awareness and understanding. I want to do that by getting peoples attention, make the topic discussable and inform them by giving examples and information. These goals I placed on a time line, from current till goal.

Looking back on everything Ive done and learned so far I have two main goals. Learn people that homeless people are not always junkies. Homeless people are just homeless people and junkies are junkies. Yes, there are homeless people who are addicts, but not all of them. Show that homeless people are also just people. I want to give them a face and let them explain their situation; let them tell their story.

Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard

Final concept
Because in the end I have 2 main goals, my final concept consists out of two parts.

Homeless are not always junkies

You can summarize my first goal as followed: Homeless = Junkie Homeless = Homeless Junkie = Junkie Since this is the message I want to spread, why not spread this message and get some attention. I know this is only one of the prejudices about homeless people, but is the most common one. This slogan is spread in a city by posters and stickers and by a large statue with this slogan. This statue is inspired on the I amsterdam-statue that travels trough Amsterdam. This statue should start the discussion among the people who see it. Maybe some interaction will be added later, but Im not sure yet. This statue is linked to a site, which is the second part of my concept.

Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard

Let them tell their story.

The second part of my concept is a website. This site will be a platform for homeless people to tell their story. Tell who they are, why they are homeless and show that they are more than just homeless. On the internet I found a site with an article with the favorite books of homeless people(see pictures). This shows that homeless people are also just people. These kinds of articles should be on the site. The main goal of the site is to let people get acquainted with homeless people and learn about the life of a homeless person, how it happens and what problem they deal with every day. What the content of the site will be exactly I do not know yet. That will be my next step.

Exploring Interaction | Terry Brochard 10

Detailed product concept

Not every aspect is thought of yet.

Interaction

Low. Just for attention.

Low. Just for attention.

A simple interaction. It should not be hard to find the information. Informative. Mind changing.

Experience

Huh, whats this? Start to think about the text. Trigger to go to site. Big. Scream for attention. Eye-catcher. Cant miss it.

Huh? Start to think about the text. Trigger to go to site. I like the idea, that a homeless person wrote on it.

Appearance

Simple.

Aesthetic expression

Technology

Non.

Non.

It is a website

Materials

Plastic. Wheater proof. Vandalism proof.

Paper and stickers.

The content should come from homeless people and interviewers.

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