Happy New Year!
This week I have been working in Dallas, Texas. I have been spending time with my road trip partner and best friend Matt Weiss. We travelled from Raleigh, NC – Atlanta, GA – Gulf of Mexico (in Mississippi) – New Orleans, LA – Chappell Hill, TX – Austin,TX – and Dallas,TX.
I am reflecting and refocusing to prepare for the next and final semester. The trip has been a nice time to relax, but also to spend time talking about participatory design and other similar subjects- as we are both connected with the College of Design (Master of Architecture & Graphic Design). He has relocated here for a Americore Program called Building Community Workshop, an architecture and city planning organization with a focus on sustainable community development.
Having an ongoing conversation about the role of design and it’s influence on community is an exciting extension from my academic life at NCSU. It is a reflection of my 5-10 year plan to establish and interdisciplinary practice with Weiss and other practicing designers & non-designers. (I think I have already met a sociologist and seasoned project manager.)
As I have been moving closer and closer to my return to NC, Weiss and I have begun sharing stories about work. Reflecting on these conversations as well as my mid-reviews, I am left with a few main points to provide guidance for next steps:
+ Introducing qualitative aspects to the everyday calendar: The universal digital calendar has a quantitative organization of time which helps keep track of time commitments according to allocation of time. How might I develop an addition to this calendar that is driven by a qualitative organization of values in order to influence time commitments?
+ Define a specific audience/circumstance: The feedback in mid-term reviews was to choose a specific audience that this tool would be designed for. Right now I had defined my audience as a person who experiences work-nonwork conflict. Another suggestion I had from professor Amber Howard was to focus my design on an emotional circumstance, such as gratification or playfulness.
+ Existing Models: I would like to find models which have been developed to help the negotiation of values and time commitments. Could a model which helps us think about broader goals and values influence the way we perceive and plan our daily activities?
alexandria jarvis 