I’ll admit to not really understanding this assignment in the slightest. I’m guessing it was an attempt to make us more aware of our own environment, or maybe to get us to go somewhere new. Were we supposed to make an actually useful map, or is it just supposed to be sketches of stuff along our way? I ended up making a somewhat useful map, but its definitely just sketches of stuff that I encountered along the way. One of the most amusing things about the trip is that I started at my front door, and surprisingly I never actually left my apartment complex except for a very few brief seconds. I did find myself along the way making conscious choices to not call certain places “decision points” in order to make my trip a little more interesting, as well as a single instance in order to not walk about an extra full mile which would have put me really far away from my apartment. Twice I actually just got stuck in a corner because of the directions, which still makes me laugh. So in the end, I’m not sure what I’m intended to get out of this mapping assignment, but I did have a nice walk around my apartment complex.
Greg, you’ve done this right, it’s kind of a “no right or wrong” type assignment. This is a polarizing one: sometimes the experience can be extremely eye-opening, other times it can reveal nothing. This is probably the most “out there” Exercise.
That’s both good and bad news Jesse. Good because as you just said, “you’ve done this right,” but bad news because I still don’t really feel like i got anything substantial out of it. Maybe I’ll try it again when i visit my field site, and see if I get something useful. Or maybe that’s the thing I got out of the assignment, a desire to try it again.
Hi Greg, I was also unsure about the same things as you:
1. Why are we doing this?
2. Should I leave the apartment complex?
3. When should I turn? Should I time it? Should I base it on the distance walked?
4. Should I map everything I see?
5. Should I highlight everything that I see?
6. How much detail is to much detail?
I also had many more such questions
After doing my walk, I’m realizing that perhaps the goal of this exercise is to:
1. Sensitize us to our environment
2. Help us observe closely
3. See things in a new light
4. Be conscious of our biases (what we do vs what we don’t do; what we report and what we leave out etc)
5. Make us realize the subconscious choices we make when we are interacting with our surroundings
6. Dwell upon these choices and try to think what might be the motivations behind these choices we make so that we are aware of our bling spots (For example, I think I seek contrast. That is my observation bias. I need to be aware of it.)
This learning is also going to help me in the User Needs course and the research and interviewing I’m doing there.
Why all this?
May be becoming more observant of our surroundings and of ourselves can potentially help us in becoming a better designer. Because a good designer is a good listener and observer (thus has more empathy?) and that’s why s/he is a good innovator and visualizer too? A good designer is at peace with herself/himself and that is why s/he is able to observe and understand more?
What do you think?