Designing Opportunities for Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a step-by-step participatory design workshop kit created by Kati Hyyppä and me for  and with SAFER, a Canadian NGO that aims to empower sexual violence survivors with socio–economic opportunities. The workshop approach is hands-on, and the kit includes a workshop guidebook and tangible discussion tools for visualizing scenarios. The workshop is a design and research tool that aims to evoke mutual learning between SAFER and the workshop participants.

The workshop kit aims to provide (a) inspiration and space for the participants to reflect on their identities and aspirations; (b) understanding of the challenges and opportunities to guide the design of a craft trading concept, which aims to facilitate sustainable futures; (c) design ideas and realistic scenarios for the concept and its use; (d) visual documentation that can be used to communicate the conceit to developers, funders and the other interested parties.

Guidebook and one of the tangible communication tools.

The workshop consists of 5 steps: (1) Introducing each other, (2) Mapping the Situation, (3) Visualizing Scenarios, (4) Filming the Scenarios, (5) Closing the Workshop. The guidebook briefly describes each step, including explicit outcomes and straightforward tips for facilitators. Further, tips for documenting the workshop and space for taking notes is provided.

Testing the tangible discussion tools

The situation of the Congolese women, whom the workshop is intended to be facilitated with, was carefully considered in the design of the workshop kit. While it was important for SAFER to document the workshops and their outcomes, it was questionable whether the participants would provide their consent about being filmed or photographed. Hence, we developed the tangible discussion tools, which may be used to better communicate challenges, aspirations, hopes, skills, available tools and community structures. Stories that may be visualized using the discussion tools could be documented without filming the people. // Why we chose tangible tools for discussion and the particular visual style (staging situations, filming anonymously, language issues, playful approach etc.)

The tangible discussion tools were designed to include Congolese women, children and men, traditional food items, different vehicles, tools for craft and traditional craft items. The discussion tools were created using illustrator and cut out of 4 millimeter thick MDF using the laser cutter of the Aalto FabLab.

All guidebook and the tangible discussion tools are available for free use and re-use. They are licensed under CC-NC-BY-SA

• Guidebook for print (PDF)
• Guidebook for viewing pleasure (PDF)
• Tangible communication tools (Illustrator file)
• Tangible communication tools (Coral draw file)
• Multipurpose use for the visual elements and providing materials in different formats (tangible kit, digital files, reusability aspects)

We did not have experience in designing in the context of the DRC, so we tried to understand the situation through the interactions with Cathy and Naomi, who had expertise in the particular situations and could provide tips on the sociocultural context. Nonetheless, we do not know yet how and if the workshop kit yields any further insights in relation to the concept design, under the local circumstances. Cathy and Naomi have left with the workshop kit this week. We are wishing them all the best for their workshop facilitation and are looking forward to hear their feedback soon.

DESIGN PROCESS

The design process of creating the workshop kit was participatory. Cathy Nangini and Naomi Matsuura of SAFER closely collaborated with us in the design of the workshop kit. 

 
(3) Participatory prototyping of the guidebook and the discussion tools

 

 (5) Printing the guidebook / Laser cutting the discussion tools

LASER CUTTING: LESSONS LEARNED

- use RGB colours
- remember to document xy-coordinates
- no cut: power to 0 and speed to super fast
- don’t work with masks
- join lines to make selection easier
- digital designers: remember that when scaling images it actually scales them
- make sure that the correct MDF is available

Visualization of design Ideas: Forums front page

As part of my voluntary activities at the Howard Rheingold University (HRU) Alumni Community, I facilitated four Participatory Design (PD) sessions using online collaborative tools. The sessions were facilitated from Helsinki, which alumni from the U.S. and Belgium participated. It was the first time I facilitated PS sessions online. It was a fun and rewarding experience.

Visualization of design Ideas: A forum page

Together, we identified design challenges of the Social Media Classroom Forum that the Alumni are using for online discussion. These included, invisible personal browsing history, limited social interactions, and getting an overview is time-consuming. To design appropriate ways to address these challenges, we recognized existing practices and motivations of community members as design opportunities. Building on those, a wish-list of design ideas that could be implemented through programming, and a wish-list of practices that could further encourage further participation was created. To visualize the wish list, I created illustrations (see above).

Screenshot of a PD session in Blackboard Collaborate

Session 1 `Testing the Waters´: We met in Google Hangouts and used video, audio and chat functions were used to communicate. Documentation was done on a separate google document. Apart from documenting challenges, opportunities and ideas, we noted improvements for the online PD sessions. Such as: (a) being especially mindful to ensure equal distribution of speaking time, (b) remind participants to concentrate on the expression of the experiences and challenges rather than solutions, and (c) collaborative documentation, visible to all.

Session 2 `Engaging Discourse´: Using Blackboard Collaborate (also all following sessions), 6 people participated. An active core stayed throughout the session, some joined late, or left early. This supported the conversation flow, oppose to disrupting it. In the session, we addressed three main areas: (a) forum use and experience thereof, (b) existing practices and forum functions, and (c) hopes and motivation. The session was collaboratively documented.

Session 3 `All about Motivation´: 5 people participated in this session. Unlike other sessions, the conversation was structured. People took turns. Although less energetic, the session was productive and focused on more detailed descriptions of the participants motivations for taking part in Alumni activities. First, the activities and findings of the previous sessions were presented. To get everyone talking, everyone introduces themselves and spoke shortly about their most recent activities and contributions in the forum. This lead into a brainstorming of motivations of being in the forum, which was followed by moving from Blackboard to the collaboratively created google document (this document), read the challenges and opportunities that were formulated at this point, and rephrasing them. Lastly, concrete ideas were listed below the challenges and opportunities. It was planned to visualizing rough interface suggestions of the design ideas using the Blackboard whiteboard, but the limited time did not allow for that.

Visualization of design Ideas: Forum thread page

Session 4 `Filling the Wish-List´: During the last Participatory Design session, the 4 participants further rephrased the design challenges and opportunities of this document, and made the design ideas more concrete. This included separating the wish-list items into programmable ideas and practices. Although it was intended to visualizing rough interface suggestions of the design ideas using the Blackboard whiteboard, as already planned during session 3, the discussion focused on the way practices could be implements.

After the sessions, I created illustrations to visually present the design ideas that were created collaboratively. Above is the illustration of the Forums Front page, and a Forum page. Here  and below visualizations of a Forum page and a Thread page.

For more detailed information about the sessions, including description of the identified challenges and opportunities as well as concrete deisgn ideas the report can be downloaded.

Please download the slides that I am planning to use to introduce today’s PD session: SMC-PD-1.2.pdf

Anna is rehearsing the Demo Day presentation

The Hacker’s Guild of Bonsai Pruners is a proposal for an NGO for environmental awareness, assisting in de-association (making selective cuts) aspects of the burgeoning data-entourage that people accumulate in their daily activities. We note the increasing number of surveillance systems in physical and digital spaces, increased concern about privacy, and that we are not aware of all our connections within these environments.  We imagine a group of trusted people, with a mission against large data-bodies, a seal of quality, and professional ethics to perform ‘data-pruning’ of undesirable accumulations of self-and-other-generated data branches. Alternative growth and re-association with human, non-human and other environmental subjects is encouraged.

This concept was created by Anna Keune, Panu Kontkanen, Reettakaisa Neittaanmäki, Raisa Omaheimo, Andrew Paterson and Abhigyan Singh during the Design Research Seminar by Lily Diaz at the Media Lab Helsinki in 2007. The concept was presented at the Media Lab Helsinki Winter Demo Day in 2007. Based on the project, Abhigyan, Andrew and Anna also acted as guest-curators of a Clip Kino, “a self-organized screening events of short video clips and documentaries found online”, at Helsinki’s Kirjasto 10 (Library 10) in March 2008. We shared clips to start a conversation about tips for ‘data-pruning’. The clips are listed below.

These are the steps that lead to the service concept of the “Guild of Bonsai Pruners”.

1. Divergence: Brainstorming
We spoke openly about the topics that we were curious about at the time.

2. Transformation: Analysis of Interconnected Decision Areas
We looked for connections between the ideas that were mentioned during the brainstorming. The connections were: (a) awareness of self in relation to the environment, (b) participatory elements of environment, (c) self as a data object

3. Convergence: Selecting criteria
We decide on criteria that an artifact should have to be recognized as an acceptable design. The criteria were: (a) awareness of our connections with the environment i.e. both in material and electronic worlds, (b) pruning our data entourage towards more environmental associations.

The Context of Surveillance
We considered that we are living in both material and electronic worlds, and that there are surveillance systems in both spaces, for example, Google Ads keeps track of search topics and content of e-mails, our online activity (comments, tags) gives a view to our identity and our digital footprints remain, close-circuit cameras and mobile tracking systems are equipped to document our daily activities. We are not aware of all of our connections with our environments.

Bonsai Metaphor and Hacker’s Guild
We imagined our data entourage to look like to the branches of a bonsai tree. Similar to the way a bonsai tree needs to be pruned to stay alive, fresh and clean, our data-entourage needs to be gardened. We wanted our service concept to provide a change towards a more healthy, natural and environmental development of a person.

We asked, how to de-associate aspects of our data entourage and re-associate oneself with subjects? For this, certain information connections need to be cut. Cutting means separating created data-objects with intentional and/or inadvertent actions.

To make these selective cuts, we imagined the formation of a guild of “free independent master craftsmen”, in form of a non-governmental organization with technical expertise. A hacker is seen as trustful person, with a mission against large data-bodies. As data-pruning is considerate and delicate, including questions about what data-relations one wants to de-associate with, and how much of their data-identity one wishes to reveal, a seal of quality and professional ethics is needed. For example, “You decide the focus of the Hacker’s attention”. Much like a counseling service, the Hacker’s Guild was considered to include empathic listening and interventionist approaches, consensus agreement on what branches to cut, and encouraging re-associations to humans, non-humans, or environments.

Hacker’s Guild of Bonsai Pruners – Clip Kino playlist

A social network for two: a modern love song [01:27]
How to Grow Bonsai Trees : How to Plant a Bonsai Tree [3:00 only]
Privacy and Social Networks [02:39]
Google Search Privacy: Plain and Simple [04:28]
Privacy Issues, Photos, and the Internet [04:04]
Visual search > Former riya.com – company creating a visual search engine [02:30 only]
How RFID works [02.31]
A dubious documentary: Zeitgeist The Movie: The RFID [start at 02:50]
Ad for implanted RFID chip [00:31]
Google Master Plan (good looking but also goes slightly off) [03:14]
Google Search Privacy: Personalized Search [04:12]
Facebook Killed the Private Life [04:09]
Animation of Large Social Network [00:53]
Getting a data ‘haircut’: How to Grow Bonsai Trees : Bonsai Maintenance [03:20]
Video Sniffin’ #1 The Commercial [01:52 – REMOVED BY USER]
Facebook Hack (XSS) [03:11 – REMOVED YouTube TERMS VIOLATION]
I see – now more than ever – paths of least surveillance [03:00]
Funny: Facebook Song [02:51]

Screenshot of the Art University Copyright Advice wiki space

As part of my work at the Designium from november 2010 to February 2011, I closely collaborated with Maria Rehbinder, LL.M, Legal Counsel (IPR) of the IPR Services of the Arts Universities Consortium and designed the Art University Copyright Advice wiki information architecture and appearance. On the wiki space copyright information, particularly aimed at artist and designers, is explained in relation to seven areas: (1) University Studies, Research and Teaching, (2) Music, (3) Work and Business, (4) Computer Programs, Games and Databases, (5) Design, Architecture and Graphic Design, (6) Theatre, Dance, Drama, Film and Other Audiovisual Works, and (7) Fine Art and Photography. The pages further include articles on Licensing Strategies and Design Competition Guidelines (ICSID), as well as a Copyright Glossary.

The online copyright material was compiled with support of the Ministry of Education and Culture. The project’s steering committee included representatives of the Aalto University, the Theatre Academy, the Sibelius Academy, and the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. The online content was initially compiled and written by Jukka Jäske, Tiina Nevanperä, and Maria Rehbinder in Finnish, and later translated into English and Swedish. I edited the articles for structural coherence.

As a board member, I actively volunteered for Aalto Social Impact (ASI) association, from the founding date of the association in March 2010 until March 2011. With the aim to create a better world, ASI is a platform for people from industry, academia and the third sector to collaborate across academic disciplines and work cultures. People at ASI “envision a seamless world where research is engaged with society, and social change is achieved through informed action.” ASI organizes events, university level courses and connects people to work on hands-on projects. More information: aaltosi.org

I got involved with Aalto Social Impact after pitched my Master Thesis research findings at the Aalto Social Impact Kickoff Event. Here is a selection of my activities at Aalto Social Impact:

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]]> http://www.annakeune.com/blog/aalto-social-impact/feed/ 0 http://www.annakeune.com/blog/naive-position-paper/ http://www.annakeune.com/blog/naive-position-paper/#comments Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:34:38 +0000 Anna http://www.annakeune.com/?p=1019 Continue reading →]]> Aus Fehlern wird man klug (English: We learn from our mistakes).

To kick off my Master Thesis, I wrote a – from where I stand today – very naive position paper in 2009, describing some of the findings of the Nokia.Expand research. Surprisingly, it was acceptable enough to grant me entry to the ‘Children and Embodied Interaction: Seeking Common Ground’ workshop at the Interaction Design and Children (IDC 09) conference in Como, Italy.

At the conference, I had the chance to connect with many creative minds who’s work I highly admire. The connections set me straight on a lot of misconceptions. So, although I am certainly not proud of the position paper, it represents an important learning curve for me. Photos of the workshop documentation  are on Google Plus.

This short video introduces LeMill, a web community for finding, authoring and sharing open educational resources. LeMill was developed by the researchers and designers of the Learning Environments research group of the Aalto University School of Art and Design. I created this video in context of my work at the group.

In April 2011, Kati Hyyppä and I  facilitated a one week visualization workshop for and with researchers at the Meraka Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in Pretoria, South Africa. The workshop stood in context of the South Africa-Finland Knowledge Partnership for ICT (SAFIPA). The connection was established through Teemu Leinonen.

Visualization created for the Internet of Things research group; Illustration by Kati Hyyppä

To kick off the workshop, we gave a lecture on the use of visualization in scientific research, emphasizing stakeholder communication, clarifying data, and collaborative design. We presented an overview of visualization techniques in information design, data visualization, audiovisual storytelling and collaborative design, and pointed out concrete steps for deliberating benefits of the visualization techniques.

Visualizations were created during the workshop week for two of Meraka’s research groups, the Internet of Things and the National Recordal System. A participatory design approach was used to produce the visualizations by engaging both research groups in ideating the visualizations with us.

1. Understanding         2. Developing ideas   3. Collecting visual      4. Computer drawing
the context                                                            inspiration

1. Understanding         2. Developing ideas   3. Visual inspiration   4. Creating animation
the context                                                           and script writing

'Wizard of Oz' prototyping of the interaction design

Havis Amanda, an Art Nouveau statue sculpted by Ville Vallgren and situated nearby Helsinki’s old market, is annually crowned with an over-sized hat by Finnish students during the Finnish spring festival ‘Vappu’.  For the Havis Amanda- Mon Amour group exhibition, celebrating the 100 year anniversery of the statue, the Helsinki City Museum asked us to create an installation though which visitors could experience crowning the statue and learn about its history.

We created an interactive video installation, in which museum visitors could watch archive film material of the statue and its surroundings triggered by crowning a virtual statue with a paper hat. A static image of Havis Amanda was projected on top of film footage, and by moving a paper postcard shaped like a traditional student hat in front of a projection of the Havis Amanda statue, the video footage changed, showing people gathering around the statue. When a museum visitor moved the postcard onto the head of the projected statue,  the crowning ceremony film footage started.

Here is the PDF of our project report: Havis Amanda Documentation

The installation was exhibited at Jugendsali, Helsinki from May 1-31, 2008.
Programming and interaction design: Anna Keune, Kristine Visanen, Abhigyan Singh
Video editing: Suvi Kitunen, Juha Kronqvist, Mikko Pykäri
Exhibition set up: Aleksi Hyvönen, Sonja Krogius
Project leader: Lily Diaz