How Did I Research within PRO-ACT, The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania?
September 2015, I started collaborating with front-line staff at PRO-ACT, a recovery support program of The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, to develop a tool kit to support individuals in early recovery of substance abuse.
This project is an example of using design to address social problems. It diverges from consumer based design in both its end and its methodological focus on user input.
As a human-centered designer, my field research involved a lot of observation and user engagement. I applied user experience research, visual thinking and visual communication during my field research. These methods helped me build empathy and understand the context more comprehensively, which in turn helped me discover unarticulated desires and challenges.
Volunteering as an Observation Opportunity
When I introduced my thesis project to Fred, project coordinator of PRO-ACT, and John, volunteer coordinator of PRO-ACT, expressing my need to communicate with other staff and volunteers and PRO-ACT, John said: “What is a better way for you to research something than being a part of it?”
Recommended by Fred and John, I started volunteering in PRO-ACT. By receiving volunteer training, attending, co-facilitating and facilitating group discussions, I gained the opportunities not only to interact with a lot of the other volunteers, but also to observe and understand the environment by experiencing it on my own. I also attended as many staff meetings as possible, which empowered me to understand the challenges of not only the individuals but also the organization.
Observing the Organization
I volunteered in PRO-ACT for the opportunity to observe the structure of the organization, services provided in the organization, the context of the community and character of deferent individuals. By staying in the organization, I was able to dive deep into details about the situation around the individuals and the organization.
Experiences and Empathy
Being a volunteer also empowered me to experience being in the community as a member. It allowed me to feel how the other members feel and to learn how they communicate, which in turn allowed me to research more effectively.
Building Trust and Relationship
My constant attendance in the training and discussions built reliable trust between my stakeholders and me. This provided me chances to invite my stakeholders to describe their specific real-life stories, which helped discover shared values among the community and shared challenges.
Objectivity
I was aware during my research that becoming part of the subject of my research may influence objectivity. This awareness enabled me to maintain objectivity. Additionally, being an individual without the history of addiction made it easier for me to stay objective.
Co-Design Research Tools and Prompts
Collaborative design is a design strategy that includes users in the design team. In a co-design team, users rapidly evaluate the design and actively provide opinions. It is widely applied by human-centered designers. In this project, this strategy is not only used to develop the design, but also used to improve my research.
Involving Staff in Prompts Design
Prompts designed for the interviews are brought to the staff for suggestions. We communicate about the expectation of the interviews and how we expect the interviewees to tell their stories. The staff have deeper understanding of how to speak appropriately and effectively to recovery community. As a result, they provide powerful suggestions for the prompts.
Individual Interview
In this project, many of my research findings and insights are learned by interviewing my stakeholders individually. I learned from my observation that in this particular community, an individual discussion is more likely to avoid interruption, focus on a particular topic and learn about one person comprehensively.
In each interview, I invited the interviewee to describe his or her story before and after becoming a part of the recovery community. I ensured adequate time length for the interviewees to tell the stories deep enough. In this way, I was able to uncover not only facts, but also values, opinions, desires and challenges.