Women Who Play Study || Women Who Play Probe Design
Women in their 20s Secondary Research || Blux Magic Bag Probe Design
Blux Interviews || Blux Magic Bag Probe Analyses
Women Who Play Study
M5 || Summer 2007 || Thesis
I am conducting a study of women in their twenties who play video games. Women Who Play began in the fall of 2006 with secondary research and initial probe designs. During the summer of 2007, ten women where recruited, probes produced, interviews conducted, probes returned and analyzed.
Women Who Play is one (large) part of my thesis goal of building a practice as a Human Centered pre-Design Researcher. Along with conducting the study, I am also critically analyzing my methods—looking for better ways to conduct research. Here are some preliminary outcomes. In the fall a comprehensive summary of the study will be completed.
As Boehner et. al., among many others, have pointed out, there are many ways of thinking of this kind of design research and probes. I use a model similar to Bill Gaver at the RCA and the Media Design Program's approach—that the researcher and the participants are engaged in a metaphorical conversation, where each has a place for their own voice and interpretations, and where the search is for inspiration not truths.
Ten women where recruited from the Los Angeles area. They had all responded to an add on Craigstlist and filled out a preliminary survey. From the surveys of over thirty women I choose those to participate, trying to ensure a wide range of game preferences and behaviors as well as education and backgrounds. Four of the women allowed me and my sometime assistants to interview them in their homes and photograph their domestic space. These have proved to be much more valuable interviews than the others.
After conducting the interviews and receiving the materials back, I began a process of 'working' the material. The first step is getting the information up on walls and in a form that is digestable. Raw data is hard to grok. On previous research projects, where I was one of many researchers, it would be typical at this point to divide the material up and dive deeply into each one separately. In my study, however, I had the opportunity to look at all of the material as a whole for a much longer amount of time. From this I found many trends that stretch across multiple probes / interviews that I might not of found otherwise.
I am now diving deeper into each of the probes, using my skills as a designer to find inspiration and meaning in them. Please check back later for more details.
Women Who Play Probe Design
M4 || Fall 2006 || Thesis
M5 || Summer 2007 || Thesis
Probes are sets of tasks and questions sent to subjects for them to do in the course of their daily life. They are a human centered research tool, popularized by the work of Bill Gaver at the RCA, that have been used by many research groups. These probes where designed for my thesis project an investigation of women in their twenties who play video games. Less ambiguous then Gaver's style of probe, my probes are nonetheless open-ended and meant to provide material for later investigation through design as research. Their focus is not what specific aspects of games women prefer, but rather, they are meant to capture a slice of the women's life that includes why they play games and how they feel about it.
Women in their 20’s Secondary Research
M4 || Fall 2006 || Thesis
This Secondary Research Findings Book is the first project for my masters thesis. For my thesis I am building a design research practice built around human centered research, design as research, and communicating those findings to different audiences. In terms of my actual thesis, I am researching women in their twenties who play hard core video games. This book is my first project summarizing my brainstorming and secondary research. The next phase will be interviews and domestic probes sent to the women
in the study.
Blux Magic Bag Probe Design
M1 || Fall 2005 || Super Studio
Project with Miya Osaki and Linda Yoon
In the Fall of 2005 the entering MDP Super Studio class began our year long work researching 6-year-old-boys and then building a transmedia system for them. One part of the research phase was the design of probes to send to the boys. 6-year-old boys posed a special research challenge in that they can't read, write or draw well, which forced us away from more typical probes. The Magic Bag probe was intended as an investigation into manliness through the use of cards and sorting. The probe was done over a series of three nights. Each night the boy was asked to pack a special magic bag for a person imagining that the objects put in the bag would become real and help that person the next day. On the first night they packed a bag for their mother, the next night for their dad, and on the final night for themselves. Each night they where given a new set of 54 cards. More+++
Blux Interviews
M1 || Fall 2005 || Super Studio
As a part of the 2005 MDP Super Studio project Blux, we conducted interviews with twenty two 6-year-old boys. I personally conducted half of the interviews with the boys. The interviews were conducted in dyads (pairs) made of boys we had screened for and a friend they had brought with them. Along with a series of probes the interviews where are primary research gathering tool. The entire Blux project is was well documented by the class at Blux.la.
Blux Magic Bag Probe Analysis
M1 || Fall 2005 || Super Studio
Project with Maria Moon
The results we received back from this probe where quite massive and complex. Through a process of Design as Research, that is looking for findings by analyzing the returns with design based skills, we found patterns in how the boys selected the cards. Those patterns led to the classification of four distinct segments of 6-year-old boys. More+++
