This was the most hectic and knackering day out of the whole week. It was techincally our last working day, as tomorrow we are giving our final presentations in the morning.
We began by being asked by Louise Valentine, to protoype without making, and simply just by answering the following questions:
Does our project increase everyday behaviours?
How might we design products and services to prevent mental illness?
How might we design activities that build resilience and promote mental health?
How might design help people to embed positive mental health activities as part of their daily lives?
We found this to be a useful exercise to really make sure we were all very clear on our concept and the practicalities of it, and so myself, Beth and Abbie went out on to Perth Road to our prototypes to the test. It was an interesting experience once we managed to get the images up on to street signs (all of us being 5ft wasn't entirely practical). We found that a lot of people, including young men which surprised us, turned their heads as the walked past it and smiled. A lot of older women even gave some "aaaaaw" sounds which was exactly what we were looking for.
After lunch, 4 of us visited the children's hospital at Ninewells to ask some of the children if they would help us out by drawing for us. We were overwhelmed by just how positive an outlook these children had, and really put the project into perspective for us. All the play specialists were very interested in our concept and said that they were really glad that they could help.
Some of the team also prototyped some more so that we can show everyone how our drawings and quotes will work as an advertisement campain, we have street lamp signs and bin signs, just to reiterate the idea of getting the message out throughtout Dundee.
Unfortunately, we missed the Petcha Kutcha Presentation in the afternoon due to the hospital visit but our other team members took plenty of notes to ensure we knew exactly what was required of us. So tomorrow we have to present a 20 slide presentation, with 20 seconds talking time for each slide. I'm quite nervous but with all the feedback we've had I am fairly confident that we will do just fine.
