Where should our focus as a group lie? What is more important? - the behaviour we want to change, or the different methods and ways in which we, as designers, can achieve that change?

GROUP WORK WORKSHOP:

AS A GROUP - 

How do you find working in a group? And what are some issues that you could face?

• Its usually relative to the group and the task at hand
• Poor communication is at the root of all issues when working in a group
• Either too much personality, need co-mediation
• Dominance vs. passivity
• People not pulling their weight /or/ taking too much control - extremities
• Need for balance of work, flow, and credit
• No one listening or having motivation
• Inflexibility in ideas

What has been the best experiences of group work and why was it so?

• Regular check ups and meetings
• Liking one another as people - professionalism and friendship coexisting
• Healthy and fair negotiation
• When everyone has an equal role - inclusivity!
• Communication and community
• Shared passion and enthusiasm
• Focus !
• Open to alternative perspectives

What have been the worst experiences of group work and why was this so?

• Not getting along
• Lack of focus
• Pettiness
• Selfishness
• [other issues mentioned in the first question]

INDIVIDUALLY - 

What have I been not so good at when working in groups in the past? Why was this? How might I improve my responsive to these issues in the future?

• I often dominate conversation - quite extroverted as a personality - I should instead ask more questions towards others in my group that make my point but also open discussion, and I should listen more !
• I struggle to make firm decisions - I will focus on collectively pushing towards deciding what the project will be and who will do what role. We could create task sheets as a group, divide each roles to play to each of our strengths, and listen to one another, frequently communicating and collaborating our ideas.
• I find it difficult to work to an appropriate pace - either too fast or too slow - I should be honest about this to my group, and keep checking in to see how far along with my individual tasks within the group I should be to match the momentum of other group members. 

FEEDBACK ON INITIAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

- make it more apolitical? -- near impossible because anything founded on the topic of capitalism is political, whether inadvertently or purposefully. Take a stance and be strong with it.

- what aspects of consumerism will we specifically focus on? consumerism is a broad concept.

- invite people to change behaviours rather than alienate certain groups of people who are more prone to overconsumption. 

- "minimalism"? -- the term has misconceptions, and in trend society today is used in the wrong context to bring negative connotations to it. You can buy lots of things that look "minimalist" but actually don't abide to the lifestyle. Somewhat a culture/trend that has a tendency to look down of people who aren't following it.

- NEED PRIMARY RESEARCH ! - look deeper at sources, make observations on ourselves, chart my own consumption, and compare as a group...

- [suggested reference]: 9 step how to deal with climate change illustration ((cannot source))

- WHAT ELEMENTS OF MY LIFE WOULD I WANT TO CONSUME LESS ON? WHAT IS TOO EXCESSIVE IN MY LIFE?

• personal change and how to combat the feeling of powerlessness
• charting guilt with personal consumption/wastage links to the idea of "climate guilt" and universal feelings towards the issue.
• shame plane.com - shows through simple graphics how much artic ice you contribute to melting calculated by the distance of your flights. Provides alternative lifestyle changes to be carried out for 1 year that will balance out the environmental impact of your flight, e.g. eating vegetarian, only using LED lightbulbs, using a reusable bag, etc.

Making and doing...

this week has greatly been about prototyping, experimenting, and striving for more practical movements within our project. The making of our outcome has started, but strong individual presence in the group has made making decisions a challenge, as we all have such strong visions for a solution to a problem that we all care so deeply about... 

Dividing roles and interventions between group members was great for trying things out individually and reflecting as a group, accelerating the "progress" of our project, however it means we've all become a bit independent again. I think it would be better if we spent more time working as a unit. 

ultimately, the project is progressing slowly towards a united goal and outcome...

REFLECTIVE WORKSHOP - presenting your work in crits...

1. PREPARING

create outline of presentation - what's the story?

divide aspects of presentation between members to speak about

create a timeline/plan amongst ourselves

• How did you arrive at the project?
  • we charted our own bad habits in terms of environmental impact.
  • we also split up subtopics within capitalism/climate change to research in depth
  • we picked one of these ideas thereafter
  • developed from overconsumption to capitalism to a combination of the two. aiming at supermarket shoppers as a target audience was the next step, developing to the specifics of changing behaviours at the point of sale.
• What did you learn and change as you designed the activist project?
  • we learned to assess the nature of our project in terms of topic to not contradict the project as an outcome.
  • we went from designing physical spaces/events/active interventions to designing a virtual space as an app. - more accessible, adaptable, useful and engaging.
  • We learned about the psychological attributes to changing people's behaviours - studying the education and extrinsic (punishment/reward) behaviour change models. This shaped our design strategy and pushed the incentive of our app - to change peoples consumer habits towards more eco-friendly actions.
• How might it be improved?
  • thinking about working with specific movements or stores to promote customer interaction from existing and loyal customers

2. PRESENTATION TIPS

• have something to say
• simple points - be clear
• know script beforehand
• rehearse
• try to anticipate questions
• time your section - be fair with speech time distribution, everyone needs fair assessment and opportunity to talk
• what are simple messages for each slide?
• visuals are for the audience, not you
• fake it till you make it, be confident...

3. GIVING AND RECEIVING FEEDBACK

How does feedback make you feel?

Sometimes feedback (when it is good feedback) makes me feel motivated to do more, improve, and go further with my project. Poor feedback, or pure criticism makes me feel insecure about my work. Thats why criticism should be constructive. I enjoy receiving feedback, because I like to know what others perceive my work to be/mean/communicate.

Think of one positive and one negative experience of feedback.... reflect .....

MAKE IT CONSTRUCTIVE !

valuable to make notes, even for other groups' feedback and presentations, because problems and solutions are transferable, if not now then later

conflicting opinions/feedback - what you do with the feedback you receive is your responsibility ! reflect on your own feedback ! choose and prioritise !