Gabrielle Dickson

Information Design Student 

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COMM 4650: Learnings from a disagreement filled conversation

My family is very politically divided. By that I actually mean all of us are relatively in agreement except for one of my grandparents. There is an unwritten rule in my family that none of us bring up anything even mildly political when this person is present. This is necessary for us to keep the peace and keep Christmas a conflict free time. When someone decides to be brave, or irresponsible, and not follow this rule, a fire is most certainly started.

Compared to the rest of my family, this person is quite conservative. I wouldn’t say that they are extremely conservative in the grand scheme of things but lets just say they are probably Stephen Harper’s biggest fan. As you can imagine, a lot of tension was created in my family when Trump was elected. I think that we all had a moment where we felt extremely disconnected from this person. When they were not present, we would talk about how we did not understand how this person could possible agree with what Trump was saying. However, I don’t think that any of us were actually making that much of an effort to understand where they were coming from. I decided to take this opportunity to try to understand where this person is coming from with their values.

Recently, this person brought up politics with me. Instead of immediately changing the topic, as I would usually do, I decided to simply listen to what they had to say about why I should be a conservative. This lead to an extremely interesting conversation that provided me with insights into why this person’s politics are the way that they are. They told me about how their parents raised them to be a liberal and in their young adult life they did subscribe to this value system. However, over time, they realized that their values actually fell more in line with those of the conservative party. This seems to be largely because of certain kept, pivotal events in their life.

This conversation really helped me to understand why a person might hold such conservative values. It allowed me to learn about this person’s background and the reasons that they believe in conservatism. After the conversation, I reflected on the differences in this person’s life and my life and the reasons for our differing politics were clearly illuminated for me. I think that considering what has happened to a person in their life time is essential to understanding why their values may be so different from yours. I also realized that this person did not have evil intentions, but they just had differing ideas from me about how to create a safe and prosperous Canada. Ultimately, we have the same goal, we just have very different ideas about what a safe and prosperous Canada looks like and how we achieve that.

Overall, I did not find it difficult to have this conversation. I am practiced at not engaging in debate with this person and I have already accepted our differences. I am also extremely averse to conflict so I do usually just let people that I disagree with speak with out responding to their ideas. The difference in this instance was that I intentionally tried to understand where this person was coming from instead of just letting what this person was saying go. I do think that there are certain things that this person could have said that I would not have been able to help myself from responding to. If they started attacking women, which I know they have done in the past, I think I would have felt compelled to defend myself and my gender. I think the reason for this is that in the conversation we had, all of the things that this person was talking about were general or did not apply specifically to me. While I disagreed strongly with what they were saying, they were not attacking me at all.  I also think that this is because I feel very strongly about gendered issues but not so strongly about economic issues.

I think that one of the key things that allowed for this conversation to result in learning instead of argument was that I really intentionally approached it with a focus on learning and making this person feel heard. I also made very careful, strategic comments that made this person feel that I was open to hearing what they had to say. I was careful to never make them think that I agreed with them though.

In conclusion, I am glad that I had this conversation. Ultimately, I think that it brought this person and I closer and I am happy that it happened. I think that this Christmas may just go smoother because of it!

[gabrielledickson]

COMM 4650: Entitlement and the Fear of Change, a response to Colour Code Ep. 8: Eggshells

I found this episode of Colour Code to be extremely interesting.

I am finding this reflection to be extremely difficult to write. I have sat down to compose it several times and each time I feel like I don’t quite know what I want to say or how I want to say it. I recognize race as an extremely complex issue in Canada and I find it difficult to speak to because I feel like as a white, English speaking person born in Canada, I don’t know enough about the experiences of people who are not in the same position as me.

My grandfather is very interested in genealogy and always talks with us about the history of our family. This has kept me very aware of the fact that my family immigrated to Canada. I know that my experience is different because my family has been here for many generations, but I don’t feel more entitled to live here than anyone else who wants to immigrate here. My ancestors came here in search of a better life because things weren’t so great in the UK and I think that we should provide that opportunity to as many people as possible. I do not understand how people of European descent living in Canada forget that.

On the topic of diversity, I think that diversity is our strongest asset as a nation. While I think it is essential for us to all agree on a few key values as a society to unite us and follow some standard systems to maintain order, I see no reason to ask people to abandon their culture and language when they move to Canada. I actually think that having a wide variety of cultures and traditions represented in Canada creates a unique opportunity as it allows us to consider many different ways of understanding and doing things. As long as people are not hurting others and are following our laws, I don’t see a reason for them to have to change. It is hard for me to understand people who do not see immigration this way.

When I was listening to the interview, I did my best to try to understand where he was coming from. While I do not agree with what he was saying, I can see how people living in Canada may be upset if they feel that their way of life and norms are being threatened. Usually, people do not like change and if they see immigration as causing change, they may reject it. If he feels that people moving to his neighbourhood are changing the language of his area from English to another language, I can see how this may make him uncomfortable because he might feel as if he is going to loose his ability to communicate with others.  While I do not think that this is an accurate representation of what is happening, I can see how this could be an unsettling thought. I think it is crucial for him to separate his fears from what is actually going on. Listening to the interview, I felt like he was speaking based on his fears not based on reality.

I also wonder how gender played into this conversation. The part of the conversation that made me feel like gender really influenced the conversation was when he was saying that he felt like people in line with him at the grocery store should talk to him. I can not imagine why he feels entitled to have people talk to him. I wonder if women would be likely to make a similar claim, I know that I would never.

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COMM 4650: Micro Design Intervention 5 - Plastic Bottle Usage Awareness

Something that I am extremely passionate about it conscious consumption. For my final intervention, I decided to create a design inspired by this theme.

This week, I created a poster that showed how many plastic bottles a student might purchase in a semester if they consistently purchase bottled water. I then compared that to how many reusable bottles they might use over the course of their entire degree. Finally, I added the text ‘The choice is yours’ at the bottom of the poster to remind the viewer that they have the power to choose what they consume. 

I attached the poster to the front of a vending machine that sells mainly bottled water on main street. I left the sing there for about 20 minutes beginning around 3:20 on a Tuesday.

My goal in doing this micro intervention is to prompt people to think critically about their consumption decision when purchasing a plastic bottle of water. Ideally, I would like for them to reconsider and change their behaviour to use reusable bottles.

This is important to me because I think it is critical for people to consider the implications of their decisions. Each bottle that they purchase may not seem like it is that important but repetitive habits can add up.

During my observation period, several people looked at the poster before they purchased a bottle of water. One person looked at the poster and decided not to buy a bottle of water. I think that this would be most effective if I could provide users with the option to purchase a reusable bottle immediately. When people get to the point of purchasing bottled water, they need water and do not have a reusable bottle with them. While this intervention may not affect their immediate decision, I think it might prompt them to reconsider their future decisions and switch to a lower consumption habit.

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COMM 4650: An Info Design perspective on The Yes Men

The movie “The Yes Men Fix the World” illuminated a lot of the complexities of critical design to me.  In the movie, I fee like they were using a tactic in line with critical design to spread their messages. While I think some of the stunts they pulled were probably effective in bringing attention to certain issues, others seemed too over the top and like they simply distracted people from the issue at hand. I think that the most effective example from the film was the announcement they made on the BBC on behalf of Dow. In this case, they actually convinced the public that it is possible for a company to be responsible. Once it was exposed that they were fake, it brought up an important conversation about why the company was not taking an action like this. Additionally, they brought a lot of attention to the issue.

However, there are other examples in the film that I do not think were effective. For example, the candles that they distributed at the oil and gas conference in Calgary. I think that in this case they chose a stunt that was so drastic that it prevented anyone from taking them seriously. This undermined their credibility and derailed the conversation that they were attempting to start.

I think that as an information designer this is an important thing to observe.  In all of my endeavours moving forward, I need to consider whether the design or intervention that I am proposing is drastic enough to draw attention but tame enough to be taken seriously. This movie showed me that this is a fine and essential balance to achieve to actually elicit change and draw awareness.

Additionally, this film made me keenly aware of how difficult it can be to get a message out if another group does not want it to be known. This showed me how strategic you have to be when trying to call out a large and influential body on something that they have done wrong. I think it can be difficult for the public to fully understand issues like the ones discussed in the film and what they can actually do to influence them. This underscores the importance of information design to me. Depending on how information is presented, it can empower a group of people to take action and potentially elicit change. When a larger and more powerful group is trying to suppress a message that would lead to that change, well presented information is even more necessary to evoke change.

Overall, this film left me feeling discouraged about the power of any effort to keep large companies or bodies accountable for their actions, let alone an information design effort. However, I do feel optimistic that information design can help to change public opinion, which may in turn create larger changes in society.

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COMM 4650: Micro Design Intervention 4 - ISSC Signage

I volunteer with International Education in the International Student Support Centre in e140. My role as a volunteer in there is to answer questions about international education that students have when they come into the ISSC. The problem with this is that no one ever comes in to ask questions. I think that this is because no one knows that that room exists or that there are volunteers to talk to in there. For this weeks intervention, I attempted to bring awareness to the room.

I posted a sign on the wall on main street near the E wing during my shift in an attempt to let people know that our office exists and that there are volunteers in there who are a resource for them.

My goal in doing this was to increase traffic to the ISSC as it is a valuable but underutilized  resource on campus. I also did this because I am frustrated that I spend so much time in there every week and don’t actually end up helping anyone because no one comes in to ask questions.

Unfortunately, nothing happened as a result of my micro intervention. Still, no one came into ask questions during my shift. I think that this is because it was a hand written sign and because people tend to be hesitant to actually go talk to a live person immediately. I think that it would be more effective to run a larger poster campaign promoting the ISSC over time.

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COMM 4650: Micro Design Intervention 3 - e157 Signage

For this week’s intervention I created a sign to increase awareness about our dedicated information design studio space in e157. I wanted to communicate two sets of information to students using this poster. First, the purpose of the space and how we may use it as information design students. Second, when the space is open for student use. To do this, I wrote these things down on a sheet of paper and hung it on the door to the room so that students would see it as they entered the room for class.

My goal in completing this intervention was to increase students awareness of the potential of this space and when they can actually access it. I think it has great potential but is extremely under utilized.  Personally, I would love to see this room transform into some type of co-working space for information design students and I think that the first step to completing this aim expanding the way that students think about this space. I chose to title the poster ‘Welcome to our Info Design Studio’ as I want them to feel a sense of ownership over the space and like they can use it in any way that is respectful and beneficial to their learning. I also want them to feel a sense of community in this space and like they belong there.

In completing this micro intervention, I realized that the desired outcome is too big to observe in the scope of this assignment. While I did notice that students looked at the sign, I don’t know if it affected how they think about the space or whether they will choose to access it more in the future.

I am interested to do more micro interventions related to increasing student use of this space as I currently feel like it is a wasted resource.

[gabrielledickson]

COMM 4650: Reflection 1

On privilege: Discussing my privilege and my blind spots to privilege.

It is difficult for me to define exactly where my privilege lies because I feel like it permeates so deeply into all aspects of my life.

To begin, I was born in Canada to two parents who were both excited about and dedicated to being parents. I am an native English speaking Canadian so I do not face discrimination in most provinces based on my language. I am white so I do not face discrimination in most instances based on my race.

I have been raised in a middle to upper middle class household for my whole life. I have never had to worry about being able to eat or afford anything necessary. Even if something were to happen to my immediate family that would impair our ability to provide for ourselves, I have a caring and strong extended family who I am confident would step in to help us.

My parents are both very involved in my life and since birth have advocated for me and taught me how to advocate for myself. My mum stayed at home with my sister and I when we were young and my dad was always there on the evenings and weekends when he was not at work. My family always spent quality time together. My parents have always treated me with respect and have taught me that I am capable and valuable. They have also encouraged and supported me in all of my endeavours.

They are both extremely intelligent and university educated. My mother with a teaching degree and my dad with both an undergraduate degree in engineering and a masters degree in business administration. They both understand school well and were always able to ensure that I was not only getting the best education available but also that I was having the best experience possible throughout my schooling. They could always help me with my homework and ensure that I developed the skills that I need to be successful in and out of school. It was always a given that I could attend as much school as I wanted for as long as I wanted and that they would support me financially so that I would never have to go into debt to obtain education.

In elementary school, when my teachers thought I might have a learning disability, my parents were able to have me assessed by a private psychologist to ensure that I could begin receiving the help I needed in school without delay. After being diagnosed with that learning disability, there were not only able but engaged and willing to ensure that I got all  of the supports that I could possibly need to be successful in an academic setting. Additionally, they never made me feel like I was less able than any other student.

We have always lived in a safe city and neighbourhood. I have always felt safe at home. I have been able to obtain good, well paying jobs that never threatened my safety.

As a straight, cis, feminine presenting  person I have never felt judged or discriminated against for my sexuality.

I recognize clearly that I am incredibly lucky to hold all of the aforementioned privileges. This exercise was extremely valuable to me because it helped me to evaluate both small and big instances where my privilege affected my life.

When I think about the privileges that I have, I am keenly aware that a lot of these privileges did not come out of no where. I have many of them as a result of the actions of those in my family who came before me. Most of the privileges I outlined above were not experienced by my grandparents and even more not experienced by my great grandparents and those before them. However, they all worked hard to ensure that my life is easier than their life was just as  I will do for my children and their children.

I think that I have many blind spots as a result of my privilege. I think that I am blind to what the privilege of being white, upper middle class, straight, healthy, physically, and cognitively able, Canadian, and a native English speaker actually provides because it is just my normal. Studying abroad last semester and talking with many other people from all different backgrounds helped me to become a lot more aware of a lot of the privileges that I hold. Just because I am aware of them does not mean that I am not blind to their daily implications though. For example, when I was away I was travelling with another Canadian. I never felt nervous crossing boarders because I have always been treated well as a Canadian and I assumed that he would feel the same way since he holds a Canadian passport. In contrast, my friend had a hard time at most boarder crossings as he was born in Egypt, looks Arab, and has a non-European sounding name, despite the fact that he is also Canadian. This opened my eyes to the fact that having a Canadian passport is not enough to actually enjoy the privilege that I enjoy as a Canadian. There are many other things that affect how one will experience, or not experience, that privilege that I don’t see.

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COMM 4650: Micro Design Intervention 2 - Abstract Gendered Washroom Signage

For my intervention this week I decided to examine the impact of gendered bathroom signage. To do this, I covered the gendered signage on one set of bathroom doors in the E wing of the Lincoln Park Building with simple geometric shapes- a right side up triangle for women and an upside down triangle for men. I did not want to create chaos and I wanted to be able to carefully monitor what was going on around my experiment so I conducted it from 3:45 to 4:15pm on a Tuesday. I chose this time because the school is not too busy and chaotic yet there are still students present.

In conducting this experiment my main goal was to prompt users of the washrooms to be aware of the signage we use and possibly be prompted to think critically about it. I also wanted to replicate the experience a non gender-binary person might have when confronted with a choice between two symbols that they do not immediately identify with.

I chose this intervention because gendered bathrooms and signage is currently a contentious issue for some people. I think it is important for us to be aware of the experiences that people who are different from us might have and I hope that this provided some insight to users about the experience that non gender-binary people might have.

Observations beginning at 3:45pm

- Woman looked carefully at sign as she entered the bathroom - Male student told me I should look up the college humour video ‘why hipster bathroom signs are the worst’ - Female student looked carefully at bathroom signs as she walked past - Woman looked carefully at sign as she entered the bathroom - Female student looked carefully at sign as she entered the washroom - Woman didn’t even look at bathroom door as she entered - Female student looked carefully at sign as she entered the washroom - Female student looked carefully at sign as she entered the washroom, looked back over her shoulder at the sign again as she walked away from the washrooms - A group of male students walked by and said ‘why is there a blue triangle there?’ another male student said ‘because it’s blue…’ - Woman entered washroom and looked quickly at sign - Woman entered washroom and looked quickly at sign - Woman entered washroom and didn’t look at sign - Woman puts hand on door handle but hesitates as she looks at the sign before opening it. Eventually she opens the door and enters. - Male students looks at signs on both doors and continues to  next washrooms rather than using the ones with the blue triangles on the doors. - Male student goes to open bathroom door. Stops, takes step back, looks at over head sign and other wall mounted sign, then proceeds. - Male student enters washroom without hesitation. - Woman enters washroom without hesitation. - Male student goes to enter woman’s washroom. I tell him I’m sorry and just so he knows that is the woman’s washroom. He turns around and enters the men’s washroom. Afterwards we talk briefly about the experiment. - Woman enters washroom without hesitation - Man enters washroom without hesitation - Man enters washroom without hesitation

Observation ended at 4:15pm

Overall, I found that most people did not have an issue with the altered signage. I think that people are so used to which washroom that they should go into based on its location that they don’t rely on the signs to tell them where to go so they were not confused or inconvenienced by the change.

I would consider this experiment successful because I saw many people take a moment to look at and think about the different icons.

[gabrielledickson]

COMM 4650: Micro Design Intervention 1 - Surface Near Comm Lab Entrance

I noticed that people struggle to hold all of their things while finding and swiping their ID cards to enter the comm lab. This is the problem that I attempted to solve with my first micro design intervention.

To solve this problem, I brought a small, plastic, Ikea stool to the school and placed it under the scanner where you must swipe your ID card to enter the comm lab. I placed the stool there at 9:30 on a Tuesday morning and removed it at 4:00pm that day.

My goal in placing the stool there was to create a spot where an individual could set down their coffee, backpack, or what ever else they are holding while they locate their ID and swipe it to enter the comm lab. While not having somewhere to set down your things is a minor inconvenience, I think that if we could easily solve this problem it would be nice to remove this inconvenience for people.

I went to the comm lab to observe my intervention twice. Here is what I observed each time:

Uses between 9:30 – 10:00 on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - Female student put backpack on stool while she found her student ID inside - Two female students came in together and did not set anything on stool. One held the other’s things while she found her student ID. - Male student wearing backpack entered without setting anything on stool. He retrieved his student ID from his wallet in his pocket and did not have anything extra in his hands. - Male student wearing backpack entered without setting anything on stool. He retrieved his student ID from his wallet in his pocket and also did not have anything extra in his hands. - Female student set wallet on stool while swiping her card

When I got back from my class there was coffee dripped on the stool that wasn’t there when I left so I know that at least one person used it while I was in class.

Uses between 3:30 – 4:00 on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - Two female students enter comm lab, one sets water bottle on stool while she finds her student ID card - Male student entered without setting anything on the stool - Group of three female students enter comm lab, one student sets down binders and coffee on stool while she searches for her card

My conclusion from this experiment is that a surface in this location for people to set their things on would definitely be used. I did find that it was primarily used by female students as they tended to have more things in their hands or needed to retrieve their student IDs from within their backpacks rather than pockets.

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A final selection....

For my infographic, I will look into both sedentary behaviour and activity levels among Canadians and the health repercussions of each. 

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Some interesting things I found on the Stats Canada website

5 stats:

At all levels of education, women in Canada made 72-76% of what men made. http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/a26

In 2011, only 1,714,700 people in Canada used transit to commute. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?TABID=2&LANG=E&A=R&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=01&GL=-1&GID=1118296&GK=1&GRP=0&O=D&PID=107643&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHOWALL=1&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=96&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&D1=0&D2=0&D3=0&D4=0&D5=0&D6=0

On average, Canadian men perform better than Canadian women on financial literacy tests. This difference is most prominent between university educated men and women at a gap of 8%. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-006-x/2016001/article/14464-eng.htm

Between January 2007 and December 2012, food prices in Canada rose by 19%. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-626-x/11-626-x2013027-eng.htm

On average, adults spent 9 hours and 48 minutes of their waking time being sedentary. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-625-x/2015001/article/14135-eng.htm

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Choosing quality in a disposable culture

“Choosing quality in a disposable culture”

I feel that this sentence best represents my article as it captures the main idea of valuing quality even though this is not the norm in our culture. It is broad enough to encompass the entire process associated with running the brand depicted in the article (design to material selection to production to sales) while still being specific enough to convey the main idea. It is also important that it emphasizes that along the process, quality continually has to be chosen – especially by the consumer, without including the cliché associated with ‘selling’.  I think that the juxtaposition of the quality and disposable creates interest to draw the user in.

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Ehses Illuminating Connections

This article has helped me to see many connections between different things that we have learned so far in this program. Specifically, it brought together things that I have learned in Gil’s rhetoric class, our communication theory class, and this class. In rhetoric, we learned about crafting messages that are impactful and memorable so that they may deliver a message. In communication theory, we learned about semiotics and how signs may be used as a tool for communication. I am now a little bit sad to admit that it took reading this article for me to clearly see how those two things, along with what we have learned so far in this class and many other bits and pieces we have learned along the way come together. I now see more clearly how we can combine all of the tools that we have been given to create pieces that communicate a clear message.

One of my favourite ideas from this article is that rhetorical tools are not specific recipes but are tools that can spur thinking and help designers to make the best choices. I think this is a really interesting way to look at rhetorical devices, as many people would see them as a finished product. I fear that taking them as recipes or finished products would end up inhibiting people’s creativity and result in the creation of many repetitive concepts that were not engaging for viewers. However, viewing them as springboards for other ideas allows designers to create even more innovative ideas that are engaging and continually showing viewers something new. I am really excited to employ this idea in my own design process to help me push myself further. I also really like the term ‘best choices’ as I feel that this emphasizes that everything in design is a choice that should be explored and never just made.

My other favourite part of the article was the quotation by J. Shadbolt on page 53 that said “The psychological problem was what slowed down the process. I would read the actual play, consider carefully its overall impact, and then try to convey with the totality of my design something of that precise import. It's easy to make an elegant decoration, but quite another thing to evoke exact implication.” The remark about the psychological problem being what slows down the process resonated with me as I often feel this way – usually, once you create a good idea it’s comparatively easier to realize it, but understanding the objective and coming up with impactful content and visuals can be the most challenging part. I think that this speaks to the discussion that we were having in class about the importance of a design having tension in both its idea and its form as he discusses this in connection with difficulty creating something that is not just a beautiful decoration.

Overall, I really enjoyed this article and appreciated how it helped me to connect a bunch of ideas that had been fairly disconnected in my head before.