Week-4

Trying to find real-world application

I started to realise that I was going quite slow, it is week-4 and I don't have a starting point. So I started looking for some real-world application that could inspire me. One of the projects that I found online was The Sandbox Experience at Singapore Discovery Centre. This was a great example for me for immersive and purposeful storytelling for hearing from the citizens to know their understanding of what Singapore’s future looks like.

Further Research

I feel so far I may have more clarity, just one question to ask myself - Is it going to be a research question or a topic that I want to work on? I was a little interested in ‘Immersive storytelling for educational purposes’. But it still seems a bit broad.

While researching about Immersive storytelling for educational purposes I came across this website about the future of learning with Immersive Storytelling. In this I learned about something known as Interactive fiction where users become active participants in the narrative. I have often come across games like BitLife - LifeSimulator, a game which is particularly about making life choices. This made me think that maybe I should change my second pillar from 'immersive' to interactive.

Developing Research

While brainstorming further I thought of an idea - An interactive narrative that raises more awareness about work-life balance. Many of us in college sometimes get so lost in our college work that we forget about the other things that are there in our life and one of the most important ones being self-care. ‘Me-time’ is equivalently as important as giving out time to our work, friends and family. A project that reminds everyone of the importance of ‘me-time’.

I am currently right now wondering if the Idea in the above thought dump could become a project. I don’t know how yet but this does feel like a starting point. Is it important that it be interactive? Am I getting confused again? Maybe I should just stick to ‘Design and Education’. To properly define the three pillars of my concept I thought first it would be great to revisit the list of keywords and get the keywords straight first, as a starting point for my RPO.

1. Keyword 1 - Storytelling in Design

2. Keyword 2 - Interaction Design

3. Keyword 3 - Design and Education

Current question - How can interaction design be used in storytelling for educational purposes?

Weekly Consultations

It seems like I have been thinking too big. I have been thinking about differentconcepts at the same time, and I was not able to channel my interests for the research topic. I was struggling to get an entry point. It honestly felt like I was stuck and confused and I just couldn’t find an entry point towards my idea and it was a little stressful. So at first I decided to clear all my thoughts, stop thinking about any deadlines or submissions or anything else and just focus on my thoughts regarding my research direction.

By thursday all of us had to make mind maps and I had decided that storytelling was definitely gonna be the core of my research directions. And was also planning to use cartooning as a visual mode of communication in my works, which I thought could be another research point. Now what I was really looking for was a purpose, like what could these be used for?

Brainstorming

So I just took out my book and started writing any keywords or thoughts that would come to my mind: I started with ‘Data Comics’, a JSTOR article that I had found when I was looking for visual storytelling. After that I just started writing anything that came to my mind.

Mindmapping-1

There was actually quite a lot going on in my mind, there was a point where I even started thinking about ‘cognitive overload’ and finding a design solution but then I ended up thinking about stress and loneliness that can be caused by it and then I refined my mind map a little. I did have some things in mind but I was not able to put them into words.

During Class

During class we all put our mind-maps on the table and we looked at each other's mind maps and marked any part(s) of their research that we find interesting. The stickers portray what part of my concept seems interesting to my peers. I frankly didn’t expect much stickers and I actually didn’t know what to perceive out of it.

During class, I shared with Andreas that I was struggling to find words to describe what I had in mind as a vision. So he asked me to write a page long text about my vision.

Mindmapping-2

For the third pillar, I kept it for purpose and solution and asked myself a few questions that may help me find more clarity for the third pillar of my research. First I started researching about emotional challenges being faced by students where I came across a case study (link here)

The case study was conducted in a university in the US. It talks about mental-challenges faced by emerging adults. While talking about its findings, the case study also gave me an insight into my target audience and a research question. The study showed that a lot of students avoided seeking professional help because their problem was labelled as “normal” and not a problem by people around them. Which inspired me to direct my research towards “Raising awareness about emotional challenges faced by emerging adults (age group - 18 to 29 years old)