Georgia's Major Project Workbook

Expanding Theory Lecture Notes: Researching theory and applying it to your design ideation - working with other peoples texts that are going to help push your ideas along When quoting an author or artist use the full name the first time and from then on just use their surname Identify the author's field and italicise their key theory terms (if they are unique theories) What if? Think of how to best reach your audience, perhaps in new ways that are the most attention grabbing - "If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got." Research Question Workshop: We're at the stage where your project is starting to come into focus How? Method? How will you do what you want to do? NOT MEDIUM YOU WILL USE Why/So what? How does that help? What does that achieve? Why is that interesting? I’m thinking about that --- I will do this --- To achieve this Statement/Proposal --- Communication Action --- Vehicle (Medium) A statement of intent Mo...

New ideas after chatting to Mum: Why do horses need to be on the road? Ask Invercargill City Council where horses are allowed? History of horses on roads, swung from main mode of transport to being a hinderance. Still people alive for whom a horse and cart was the only way to get around. http://www.duarte.com/perspective/ When design goes beyond words and pictures, it becomes a transformative experience. Where I'm at this week: What - I want my project to raise awareness of the risks horse riders take on roads and educate/persuade drivers to behave more safely around horse riders.  How - I will do this through the sharing of horse riders' personal stories and experiences that create/encourage empathy and compassion. Perhaps also delving into relevant history? Why - I want to humanise the horse riders so that drivers see them as people not just obstacles and are persuaded to treat them with more respect, making road riding safer for horse riders. ...

One of the obstacles I have come across when explaining my major project with others is that it seems if the person I am talking to is not a horse rider (or doesn't have an immediate family member or close friend who rides horses) then the main question they have is: why do people need to ride horses on the road anyway? Not only do I believe this is quite a selfish thought, it also shows just how much the motorist mindset has taken over, that less than 100 years of cars has decimated the thousands of years that horses were the primary mode of transport. What follows are my arguments for why I believe horses do have a right to be on the road and why riders continue to use the road even with the risks it poses. Fun A big part of why I ride and drive (horses in harness) on the road is because, aside from the danger that uneducated drivers pose, it adds something fun to a ride. Believe it or not, the majority of people who own horses do not own sprawling farms to ride across...

'Ride and Seek' App: "Uses GPS technology to alert drivers to the presence of vulnerable road users." "Once downloaded by the motorist, it flashes up the position of anyone who is also running the app. The smartphone can be left in a bag or on the front seat while the app is running, and it also issues a verbal warning of other users’ presence, so the driver does not have to look at his phone." "Mr Backhouse, 25, does not ride himself, but his mother does, so he said he is aware of 'the risks riders take when they go out on the roads'.  His own experiences of driving near his home in rural Lancashire also led him to create the app, initially with riders in mind." "He admitted the challenge now is to increase the number of people using the app, as both drivers and vulnerable road users have to have downloaded it. 'It’s a chicken and egg situation,' he said. 'It needs both to be using it to work. It would be good if t...

What is Empathy? "In a general sense, empathy is our ability to see the world through other people's eyes, to see what they see, feel what they feel, and experience things as they do. Of course, none of us can fully experience things the way someone else does, but we can attempt to get as close as possible, and we do this by putting aside our own preconceived ideas and choosing to understand the ideas, thoughts, and needs of others instead." https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/design-thinking-getting-started-with-empathy The Power of Storytelling: How to Build Empathy with the Right Narrative "There’s some really interesting science behind why stories are so good at fostering empathy. Researcher Paul Zak found that stories change our behavior by literally changing our brain chemistry. During one study, Zak and his researchers showed participants a story about a dad and his young son, who had cancer. The father is grappling the fact ...

Narrative Theory Notes: "Communication never just ‘communicates’, ‘represents’ and ‘expresses’, it also always and at the same time affects us. The two cannot be separated. Even when communication seeks to do the opposite, the very fact of negating materiality affects us – by failing to engage us affectively."(Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001, p. 71) A story makes us imagine the experience A reader interprets the story and comprehends the contents Although Caroline's lecture was more speaking to those in our cohort who are thinking of doing game design, comics, storybooks etc I still found parts of it I could relate to my project and the direction I am leaning towards with collecting and disseminating stories. Advisor Session With Tristam Notes: My problem space is awesome and my summary is fantastic but I am steaming too far ahead, I need to pause and consider the different aspects of my idea and be open to going down different avenues. Explore and experime...

What I want my project to do is to raise awareness of the risks horse riders take on roads and educate drivers on how they can behave more safely around horse riders. I will do this through the sharing of horse riders' personal stories and experiences that create/encourage empathy and compassion. I want to humanise the horse riders so that drivers see them as people not just obstacles and are persuaded to treat them with more respect.

To Think Or Not To Think: Exploring Two Routes to Persuasion By Richard E. Petty, John T. Cacioppo, Alan J. Strathman, and Joseph R. Priester "The purpose of this chapter is to describe a theory of persuasion that maintains that not all attitude changes that look the same really are the same. This theory, called the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), states that the amount and nature of the thinking that a person does about a persuasive message (e.g., an advertisement) is a very important determinant of the kind of persuasion that occurs. By the end of this chapter, you should have a better understanding of why not all ratings of 8 on a 9-point scale are alike, and you should also have a framework for appreciating why certain variables (e.g., a person’s mood, the expertise of the message source) have the impacts on attitude change that they do." (Page 82) "To understand the ELM, it is first important to understand an assumption that the model makes about the n...

During my research I stumbled upon a PDF produced by Worksafe NZ about working with horses (presumably for farm work horses, sport horse stables or trekking businesses etc) but I found a section within it for riding horses on the road which contained information that might be useful in regards to my project. "HAZARD: RIDING HORSES ON THE ROAD Road accidents involving horses and motor vehicles happen every year. Horses are easily frightened by noisy, large vehicles and other things they don’t normally meet in a stable or paddock. Often motorists do not understand horse behaviour and drive too quickly and too closely to the horse. Horses and motor vehicles should be kept apart. However, sometimes horses have to go onto the roads to access trails, or when training either horse or rider. MANAGING THE HAZARD: To reduce the risk: Avoid busy main roads as much as possible.  Give clear and accurate signals, and remember other road users.  Avoid riding in fa...

This is what the Offical New Zealand Road Code (produced by the NZ Transport Agency) has to say about people riding horses on the road: " Sharing The Road With Horse Riders Please show courtesy when sharing the road with horse traffic. Horses can take fright easily, so adjust your driving as soon as you see horses on the road ahead of you. Safe driving near horses: Slow down and pass carefully, giving the horse and rider plenty of room. Don't sound your horn, rev your engine or pass at speed, as this could frighten the horse. If the horse and rider are on a bridge or narrow road, be very careful – slow down or stop. If the horse appears frightened, stop. At night, dip your headlights when approaching a horse. Two vehicles should avoid passing near a horse. Important! Be careful around horse traffic. If you aren't, you could be charged with careless or dangerous driving." https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/roadcode/about-other-road-users/shari...

https://www.ted.com/talks/sisonke_msimang_if_a_story_moves_you_act_on_it#t-45911 "The power of stories/storytelling" "Celebrating the flourishing of so many voices" "Are there limitations of stories in terms of social justice?" "Stories can bridge divides" "Firstly, stories can create an illusion of solidarity... You haven't done anything. Listening is an importantbut insufficient step towards social action." "Sometimes, it's the messages that we don't want to hear,the ones that make us want to crawl out of ourselves, that we need to hear the most." "The most important stories, especially for social justice, are those that do both, that are both personal and allow us to explore and understand the political." "But it's not just about the stories we like versus the stories we choose to ignore. Increasingly, we are living in a society where there are larger forces at play, wh...