After brainstorming the topic I have come up with a few questions which will be the outline for my interviews. I plan to enquire further into my subject answers whilst carrying out the interviews, I feel it’s a better and more natural way of getting information out of someone making them feel more comfortable rather than having specific regimented questions. It allows for more thorough answers. These are the questions my interviews will be based around...
Is there anything which you have accumulated over time, whether it is consciously or subconsciously and why do you think this is?
What are your passions or hobbies?
What is your occupation and how big a part of your life is it?
Who or what are your biggest influences in life, be it the media, family or friends?
How would you feel if any of these items which you have accumulated were lost, damaged or stolen and why?
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My research is currently ongoing and I don’t feel I have enough information as yet to make any conclusions. I will post my findings up shortly.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Assignment 4a - Brainstorming
For this assignment we were asked to choose a topic from a list of questions we were given which we were to base interviews on. The purpose of this assignment was to interact with people and use tactful questions to get the answers that I wanted out of the subjects so that I could come to a good conclusion on my chosen topic. The question I chose to base my interviews around was...
‘How do people accumulate “stuff”?
I brainstormed the subject to give myself ideas of what it was I was trying to find out from my subjects and what questions I would need to ask to get useful information from them. The image below is a record of my brainstorming. (Apologies for the image, would not let me turn it around but I will get it fixed shortly)
‘How do people accumulate “stuff”?
I brainstormed the subject to give myself ideas of what it was I was trying to find out from my subjects and what questions I would need to ask to get useful information from them. The image below is a record of my brainstorming. (Apologies for the image, would not let me turn it around but I will get it fixed shortly)
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Assignment 3 - Design Safari
People-watching. Oh yes! So this assignment was all about observing people in their surroundings (a public place of our choice in this case). Thinking about how they act, how they go about using services, taking notes about how they interact with people and things as well as observing their behaviour and why they do the things they do. I think this must be the most enjoyable & satisfying assignment yet! People-watching is a secret passion of many people, I’m sure, and for myself this time was no exception.
I decided a good place to do my observations was in my workplace as I could easily take notes in between serving customers and smiling until my face hurts! I work in a Dundee restaurant which is regularly very busy, which gave me the opportunity to observe a wide variety of different people and hopefully make it easy to see any trends occurring throughout using this service.
Something I had noticed in my own experience of visiting the restaurant prior to working there as well as observing customers for myself was that walking through the entrance of the building people immediately seemed alert and aware of their change in surroundings. The atmosphere throughout the restaurant was “buzzing” and very lively, not particularly warm, welcoming, nor was it very homely or enticing at first. I had noticed that when people entered the restaurant their first reaction was hesitation, unsure whether to approach the desk or wait for a member of staff to approach them.
There is no specific 'landing strip' as you enter the restaurant, meaning customers do not have much time to adjust to their new surroundings. They are immediately faced with their role of being the customer. There is a few metres from the entrance to the bar/till area but no signs to indicate if customers should wait to be ‘seen to’ or spoken to/greeted by a member of staff. This seemed to be an obvious design flaw and seemed to cause unease and slight hesitation, not helped by the fact that the environment they have just walked into was very busy and lively. The bar and banisters etc. Are particularly high which I would imagine gives the customer a feeling of being blocked off and creating, in theory, a wall between the customer and staff. The interior is random and cluttered with a mass of objects crammed into every nook & cranny which can be a bit intimidating to the majority of people when beginning their dinning experience although through their experience they seem to become accustomed to the theme and perceive it to be more homely as many of the objects found in the restaurant, on the walls and shelf’s, are things you may find at home. There are a lot of old fashioned items/artefacts around the restaurant which reminded me of things maybe my grandparents may have owned a long time ago. If I take this from the objects around the restaurant it’s highly possible others took the same from it, giving them a feeling of familiarity and homeliness.
Something which baffled me was the toilet situation. On entering the building ahead of you there is quite a large sign, lit up saying ‘TOILET’, above an open door. Now you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a perfectly clearly indication that to get to the toilet you would enter through this door, but I soon realised that this is an obvious design flaw. When entering a restaurant the first thing you are looking to do is to be greeted by a member of staff to ask if there is a table available, generally it is not to identify where the toilet is or for that matter go straight to the toilet, therefore, although there is a fairly large sign telling the customer where the toilet is it is being ignored as it is in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the only sign throughout the restaurant indicating where the toilet is situated and I found myself many a time explaining to the customers where to go.
When confirming/asking the manager about seating customers for example, a customer was asked to wait for a minute or two whilst the waiter/waitress speaks to the manager and the customer seems happy to wait. I also noticed that when approaching a group of diners on their entrance into the premises, there tends to be a ‘leader’ of the pack whom will normally stand at the front of the group, as the organiser. For example when a group of two adults, a woman possibly in her late 30’s and a gentleman, dressed quite professionally, maybe in his mid 40’s accompanied by three children around 6-7 years old, entered the restaurant the waitress approached the male. I would understand this as the gentleman seems to be again the ‘leader’, the one in charge.
On a busy weekend night asking them to wait at the entrance can cause it to get cluttered with people making customers feel cramped and uncomfortable, people like their own personal space and when this is invaded they become uneasy and anxious. I noticed that when there are too many customers standing at the inside entrance, potential customers approach and then walk off thinking that it is far too busy to get a table. To help ease awkwardness of the personal space issue, customers are seated at bar tables while they wait on a table becoming available. Staff take their drinks order which makes the customer feel more at ease and feel like they are actually getting nearer to getting their table and that they are not just being ignored or neglected.
When being seated the waitress asked to take the customers jackets and hang them up, most customers said no politely and hang them on back of their chair (they seemed to get some sort of comfort from this, they don’t want to part with their possessions, maybe at t his point they are still unsure of their surroundings). The customer settles into their seat/table, they may look around a few times to check out who is in close proximity – if it’s a big loud group of people they seemed more uneasy with this than they would do with maybe one or two people at the tables around them. They want to know who are surrounding them, who are in their personal space, and whether they are likely to be a threat. ....
When they are seated comfortably and have decided on their order the usual diner adopts an unwritten rule which is “they have a little chat once they are ready to order”, “close the menu or stop paying attention to it”, “looking around” (maybe at staff to get eye contact and indicate that they are ready to order or checking out where the toilets are for future reference) or “deep in conversation with the person/people they are sitting with”. These are all well known rituals and are quite amusing to witness. Another quite amusing ritual is when the customer wants attention... they raise their neck and chin into the air and raise their eyebrows once eye contact has been made with the waitress. Another is “the discreet nod” this is to beckon the waitress and indicate that they want your service/attention and that they are ready for you now.
By this time the diner is quite happily tucking into their meal and is now in a more relaxed state, it is at this point they are more likely to attempt to have a conversation with the waiter/waitress and the response they get usually determines the size of the tip if any the diner will leave. Of course the size of monetary gratuity makes no difference to the dinning experience the diner is offered as they are all treated the same.
Big groups are slightly different; they become bolder and more rowdy in a pack. To begin with staff get ignored more and they show signs of ignorance but as the group become more accustomed to their surroundings and drink is flowing freely they can get more out-of-hand, especially groups of same sex diners tending to flirt with the waiter/waitress and can get a bit mischievous although the manager is usually at hand to put them in their place.
I also noticed that, when the manager talks to the customer, maybe about a problem with their meal for example, he will crouch down beside the customer, using his hand on the table to balance. It seems as if the manager is allowing the customer to believe they have control, that he is lowering himself to show the that he is listening to what the customer has to say. The customer is always right, as they say, where as if the manger was to stand, towering over the customer whilst speaking to them it may be intimidating for them. After all our job is to service the public and keep them happy.
“Paying of the bill” is another quite amusing ritual to witness whereby the following takes place. The diner has decided its time to pay, and here they use the “airborne cheque signing routine” this is signalling to the waiter/waitress by scribbling on their hand (which is usually raised in an uncomfortable manner) as if writing an imaginary cheque when actually they are commanding that they want their bill brought over to them. With cheque writing more or less obsolete I doubt diners would enact the “pretending to punch digits on a chip & pin machine” as this could easily be misrepresented as rude pointing. Waving politely and simultaneously mouthing “can I have the bill please” is another tactic adopted by diners. All are acceptable but amusing for any onlookers to witness.
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I have still to add to this post :) ...
I decided a good place to do my observations was in my workplace as I could easily take notes in between serving customers and smiling until my face hurts! I work in a Dundee restaurant which is regularly very busy, which gave me the opportunity to observe a wide variety of different people and hopefully make it easy to see any trends occurring throughout using this service.
Something I had noticed in my own experience of visiting the restaurant prior to working there as well as observing customers for myself was that walking through the entrance of the building people immediately seemed alert and aware of their change in surroundings. The atmosphere throughout the restaurant was “buzzing” and very lively, not particularly warm, welcoming, nor was it very homely or enticing at first. I had noticed that when people entered the restaurant their first reaction was hesitation, unsure whether to approach the desk or wait for a member of staff to approach them.
There is no specific 'landing strip' as you enter the restaurant, meaning customers do not have much time to adjust to their new surroundings. They are immediately faced with their role of being the customer. There is a few metres from the entrance to the bar/till area but no signs to indicate if customers should wait to be ‘seen to’ or spoken to/greeted by a member of staff. This seemed to be an obvious design flaw and seemed to cause unease and slight hesitation, not helped by the fact that the environment they have just walked into was very busy and lively. The bar and banisters etc. Are particularly high which I would imagine gives the customer a feeling of being blocked off and creating, in theory, a wall between the customer and staff. The interior is random and cluttered with a mass of objects crammed into every nook & cranny which can be a bit intimidating to the majority of people when beginning their dinning experience although through their experience they seem to become accustomed to the theme and perceive it to be more homely as many of the objects found in the restaurant, on the walls and shelf’s, are things you may find at home. There are a lot of old fashioned items/artefacts around the restaurant which reminded me of things maybe my grandparents may have owned a long time ago. If I take this from the objects around the restaurant it’s highly possible others took the same from it, giving them a feeling of familiarity and homeliness.
Something which baffled me was the toilet situation. On entering the building ahead of you there is quite a large sign, lit up saying ‘TOILET’, above an open door. Now you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a perfectly clearly indication that to get to the toilet you would enter through this door, but I soon realised that this is an obvious design flaw. When entering a restaurant the first thing you are looking to do is to be greeted by a member of staff to ask if there is a table available, generally it is not to identify where the toilet is or for that matter go straight to the toilet, therefore, although there is a fairly large sign telling the customer where the toilet is it is being ignored as it is in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the only sign throughout the restaurant indicating where the toilet is situated and I found myself many a time explaining to the customers where to go.
When confirming/asking the manager about seating customers for example, a customer was asked to wait for a minute or two whilst the waiter/waitress speaks to the manager and the customer seems happy to wait. I also noticed that when approaching a group of diners on their entrance into the premises, there tends to be a ‘leader’ of the pack whom will normally stand at the front of the group, as the organiser. For example when a group of two adults, a woman possibly in her late 30’s and a gentleman, dressed quite professionally, maybe in his mid 40’s accompanied by three children around 6-7 years old, entered the restaurant the waitress approached the male. I would understand this as the gentleman seems to be again the ‘leader’, the one in charge.
On a busy weekend night asking them to wait at the entrance can cause it to get cluttered with people making customers feel cramped and uncomfortable, people like their own personal space and when this is invaded they become uneasy and anxious. I noticed that when there are too many customers standing at the inside entrance, potential customers approach and then walk off thinking that it is far too busy to get a table. To help ease awkwardness of the personal space issue, customers are seated at bar tables while they wait on a table becoming available. Staff take their drinks order which makes the customer feel more at ease and feel like they are actually getting nearer to getting their table and that they are not just being ignored or neglected.
When being seated the waitress asked to take the customers jackets and hang them up, most customers said no politely and hang them on back of their chair (they seemed to get some sort of comfort from this, they don’t want to part with their possessions, maybe at t his point they are still unsure of their surroundings). The customer settles into their seat/table, they may look around a few times to check out who is in close proximity – if it’s a big loud group of people they seemed more uneasy with this than they would do with maybe one or two people at the tables around them. They want to know who are surrounding them, who are in their personal space, and whether they are likely to be a threat. ....
When they are seated comfortably and have decided on their order the usual diner adopts an unwritten rule which is “they have a little chat once they are ready to order”, “close the menu or stop paying attention to it”, “looking around” (maybe at staff to get eye contact and indicate that they are ready to order or checking out where the toilets are for future reference) or “deep in conversation with the person/people they are sitting with”. These are all well known rituals and are quite amusing to witness. Another quite amusing ritual is when the customer wants attention... they raise their neck and chin into the air and raise their eyebrows once eye contact has been made with the waitress. Another is “the discreet nod” this is to beckon the waitress and indicate that they want your service/attention and that they are ready for you now.
By this time the diner is quite happily tucking into their meal and is now in a more relaxed state, it is at this point they are more likely to attempt to have a conversation with the waiter/waitress and the response they get usually determines the size of the tip if any the diner will leave. Of course the size of monetary gratuity makes no difference to the dinning experience the diner is offered as they are all treated the same.
Big groups are slightly different; they become bolder and more rowdy in a pack. To begin with staff get ignored more and they show signs of ignorance but as the group become more accustomed to their surroundings and drink is flowing freely they can get more out-of-hand, especially groups of same sex diners tending to flirt with the waiter/waitress and can get a bit mischievous although the manager is usually at hand to put them in their place.
I also noticed that, when the manager talks to the customer, maybe about a problem with their meal for example, he will crouch down beside the customer, using his hand on the table to balance. It seems as if the manager is allowing the customer to believe they have control, that he is lowering himself to show the that he is listening to what the customer has to say. The customer is always right, as they say, where as if the manger was to stand, towering over the customer whilst speaking to them it may be intimidating for them. After all our job is to service the public and keep them happy.
“Paying of the bill” is another quite amusing ritual to witness whereby the following takes place. The diner has decided its time to pay, and here they use the “airborne cheque signing routine” this is signalling to the waiter/waitress by scribbling on their hand (which is usually raised in an uncomfortable manner) as if writing an imaginary cheque when actually they are commanding that they want their bill brought over to them. With cheque writing more or less obsolete I doubt diners would enact the “pretending to punch digits on a chip & pin machine” as this could easily be misrepresented as rude pointing. Waving politely and simultaneously mouthing “can I have the bill please” is another tactic adopted by diners. All are acceptable but amusing for any onlookers to witness.
-----
I have still to add to this post :) ...
Assignement 2e - Adding Text
So after adding images four and five, which I though was quite successful.. I decided that I would add one word on each of the oringinal three photographs which i think may be a stronger influence on the subjects to all give the same story. These are the images with the words which I used...
The final stories I gathered for this last part of the experiment...
Male 19 Barman Glasgow
I was going up the stairs when I was distracted by a pigeon which was falling on top of a mouse.
Female 20 Waitress Fife
Leaving the underground station the woman paused at a pigeon sitting on the roof looking down on her, she light heartedly pondered what it was that the bird was planning or thinking. It wasn’t until she got back to her office computer that she received an email about diving pigeons attacking commuters. She smiled and considered herself lucky.Female 46 Clerical Dundee
As I was going up the escalator I was suddenly distracted by this silly pigeon walking about outside that I tripped and fell over the mouse that someone had dropped accidently
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Personally I think that having literature next to an image definitely influences the subject to tell a particular story. Although I have no particular evidence of this from my experiment I plan to ask about more and collect more stories based on this part of the experiment. For the part a, b and c of the assignment when asking subject to tell a story linking the photographs, quite a few didn't understand completely what they were being asked to do where as when adding text it puts words into their heads almost telling them to think a particular thing! I don’t feel my experiment was particularly successful I feel it would have been more so if I had collected more stories and more evidence, which I hope to do if I can find the time.
Assignment 2d - Adding Images
I didn't find that there was any particular re-occurring theme with the stories in part c, so I decided to randomly pick one of the stories which, by adding a fourth image of my choice, was hopefully going to get this same re-occurring story when asking different people. This is the story I chose ...
Person 4 - Male 57 Unemployed Dundee
Hurrying up the esculator not paying attention, I was looking at a strange pigeon in the corner and I trip over a computer mouse that someone had dropped.
The fourth image which I chose to add was of a man falling..
Male Sales assistant 19 Dundee
One day a pigeon came bursting into a subway, the security guard had to duck rather abruptly and eventually fell down the escalator. He finds himself consulting his lawyers and they told him about a claim for injuries that happen at the workplace (which is where the mouse comes in).
Male Student 20 Glasgow
One day you we on an escalator, a metaphor for your imagination and within your imagination you thought about your life ambitions, your love for birds, textiles, computers and design etc. Before you reached the top of the esculator (your imagination) you fell out of your day dream and fell off the escalator.
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Summerising these stories, I feel like adding this photograph was quite succesful in bringing the element of the person falling. This was a re-occuring theme although I feel like I need to add maybe a fifth image to bring in the other elements of the story. Here is the fifth image which I had added...
Female 17 Fast food restaurant Insture
One day I went travelling and I had to travel up the escalator. When I reached the top I saw a pigeon which made me shocked, I then fell all the way back down the escalator and got hit on the head by a mouse.
Female 21 PR Forres
On my shopping trip I was pretty tired and couldn’t be bothered taking the stairs so I took the escalator. When I got to the top I wasn’t looking and out the corner of my eye I thought I seen a pigeon. I was so shocked to see the pigeon that I didn’t even take my feet off the escalator so I feel over, it was then I realise the pigeon was in fact a mouse.
--------------------
I felt that adding these two images was quite successful and that it did make a difference, encouraging the 'subject' to tell the story that I wanted them to. I think that adding text would be more successful in this case as the story involves details which can be confused by the order of the photographs alone such as... "I tripped over a computer mouse that someone had dropped". The order of the photographs can vary, influencing different 'subjects' in different ways. Does the man trip over the mouse or does the mouse make the man trip over?
Person 4 - Male 57 Unemployed Dundee
Hurrying up the esculator not paying attention, I was looking at a strange pigeon in the corner and I trip over a computer mouse that someone had dropped.
The fourth image which I chose to add was of a man falling..
These are the stories which I gathered from the part of the experiment...
Male Waiter 19 Glasgow
I went for a stroll into town via the underground, when I got to the top of the escalators I saw a pigeon. I freaking loved that pigeon so I went to the nearest internet cafe and creped on the pigeons Facebook then fell in love with the pigeon.Male Sales assistant 19 Dundee
One day a pigeon came bursting into a subway, the security guard had to duck rather abruptly and eventually fell down the escalator. He finds himself consulting his lawyers and they told him about a claim for injuries that happen at the workplace (which is where the mouse comes in).
Male Student 20 Glasgow
One day you we on an escalator, a metaphor for your imagination and within your imagination you thought about your life ambitions, your love for birds, textiles, computers and design etc. Before you reached the top of the esculator (your imagination) you fell out of your day dream and fell off the escalator.
--------------------
Summerising these stories, I feel like adding this photograph was quite succesful in bringing the element of the person falling. This was a re-occuring theme although I feel like I need to add maybe a fifth image to bring in the other elements of the story. Here is the fifth image which I had added...
I rearranged the photographs a few times to prompt the story teller to give the correcct stories and see if a different combination worked better. The stories I collected after adding a fith image...
Female 20 Student Glasgow
I was walking to the tube and coming down the escalator when a pigeon flew at me from no where. I dropped my bag that had my laptop and mouse inside and when picking the mouse up I tripped and fell.
Female 17 Fast food restaurant Insture
One day I went travelling and I had to travel up the escalator. When I reached the top I saw a pigeon which made me shocked, I then fell all the way back down the escalator and got hit on the head by a mouse.
Female 21 PR Forres
On my shopping trip I was pretty tired and couldn’t be bothered taking the stairs so I took the escalator. When I got to the top I wasn’t looking and out the corner of my eye I thought I seen a pigeon. I was so shocked to see the pigeon that I didn’t even take my feet off the escalator so I feel over, it was then I realise the pigeon was in fact a mouse.
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I felt that adding these two images was quite successful and that it did make a difference, encouraging the 'subject' to tell the story that I wanted them to. I think that adding text would be more successful in this case as the story involves details which can be confused by the order of the photographs alone such as... "I tripped over a computer mouse that someone had dropped". The order of the photographs can vary, influencing different 'subjects' in different ways. Does the man trip over the mouse or does the mouse make the man trip over?
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