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Sabba Khan, multi-disciplinary artist shared her journey to becoming a writer from an architect and gave us an in-depth look at her process for writing her book "The Roles We Play" which was 5 years in the making.

Her progression into becoming a published writer started off with voluntary participation in zine festivals and novel competitions. Her entry into a competition with Myriad in particular was a pivotal moment as they later offered her a publishing deal. Sabba was drawn to Myriad as opposed to other publishers because of their intense focus on social justice.  She responded to the publishing deal with her graphic novel "The Roles We Play", a collection of 30 short stories based on her and her family's lived experiences as British Pakistani migrants living in London.

Sabba shared bits of the extensive research she undertook to create content for her novel. She was constantly asking herself how could she relate information back to familiar structures and things people already knew. For example, to describe the Land of 5 Rivers, she thought about what else has 5 parts and ended up illustrating the rivers as a hand.

Her visual research included sources like Google Facebook groups, YouTube drone videos, Bing 3D and visual references e.g. photos of her mom praying (with her permission of course).

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Summary of my research from attending R&D Events and conducting independent research as well as reflections on how my observations influence me from a UX/UI Design perspective.

Diana Song | UX/UI Design Year 2

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I visited the Waste Age exhibit at The Design Museum to learn about the different ways designers are creating momentum for positive change by using waste as an input for making something new. It was an extensive exhibit showcasing a wide array of products that were created from discarded or excess materials including furniture, fashion, packaging,...there were so many innovative and inspiring ideas. The exhibition raised awareness on how we urgently need to build a circular economy to address the climate crisis and create a sustainable future. One of the important messages, for example, was that we are living in a "throwaway culture"  and that "boredom has replaced convenience with 24% of people who throw out clothing stating they are sick of wearing the same things" - a sad truth that applies to a lot of us while some people do not have the luxury of becoming tired of the few things they own.

Experiencing the exhibit helped me to pause and think about how I want my future role as an experience designer to reflect the values I believe in which include conscious consumption and  limiting excess and waste. I do not want to work for brands that do not contribute to building a sustainable future.

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The first part of the exhibit showed pictographs to represent the plastic waste generated by industrial sectors. The pictograms started on the walls and in some categories extended across the ceiling which gave an impression that one was surrounded by the impact of the waste. From a user experience perspective, I thought that this was a clever way to evoke emotions/reactions from visitors.

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One of the things on display at the exhibit was this Bin Burger menu which was a large interactive screen. The menu shows how much organic household waste is needed to make one 45g burger patty and how long it would take to collect all this waste from one household. Recycling organic waste to create new burgers reduces their environmental impact. Browsing through the burger options on the menu reveals the demands on our livestock and crops.

I thought that this bin burger menu was a very clear, visual and interactive way to give visibility to the environmental impact of producing a burger. It also gave me food for thought as to how I might be able to design an engaging experience to raise awareness about climate change and tailor it to something specific (such as a burger) - the topic doesn't need to be broad sweeping. A narrow focus actually can be more relatable in a personal way.

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Other examples of interesting ideas I saw was the WaterLoop, a chair 3D printed from old fridges, and a seaweed cup.

The WaterLook diagram shows a circular model for urban sanitation. The low-cost design solution to sanitation and scarcity of water uses a closed loop of rainwater collection and exploits the nutrients from human waste to grow food. Adaptable for different sites, it is designed for Hyderabad, India, a city where only 50% of sewage is treated and which has water shortage during the dry season and extreme rainfall during monsoon. The modular structure provides free public toilets that are maintained by the profits from a local cafe.

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Related to the topic of designing to address waste and environmental impact, I looked into apps such as OLIO that tackle food waste and other items that would otherwise be binned. OLIO allows users to post food and other things they're giving away, and other users can arrange to collect them. Another example of an app that takes waste is TooGoodToGo where users can reserve a a 'surprise bag' at a fraction of the original cost of the food and collect it so that the food does not go to waste. These are some examples of the types of positive social impact experiences I would like to help design and implement.

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Danny Bav and Ange Huang, senior UX Researchers from the XD Studio at Deloitte Digital, co-presented information on the services XD Studio offers and a behind-the-scenes look at the type of work/projects they do. XD Studio sits under the Customer Strategy and Applied Design branch within Deloitte Consulting services. Within XD Studio, there are 5 main departments - Research, UX, Strategy, Concept, and Visual Design. The UK team is comprised of ca. 180 people out of 800 worldwide.

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XD Studio's vision or to quote one of the partners, is about "elevating the human experience". So for example, if they are working on a digital product for a coffee shop, they go in-depth with their research to not only understand what coffee people order and at what time (quantitative data), but also what type of lifestyle and behaviour are driving these coffee purchase decisions (qualitative data).

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Create a system for your story e.g. is it a linear narrative, are they interconnected stories centralised across a theme or concept

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Chrissy Levett (Director & Founder of Creative Conscience) delivered a really moving presentation about how we can use design for positive change. During the talk, there were several moments where we were asked to reflect on questions like "who wants to be on the right side of history" and "what would you do if you could change the world" which really helped us engage in developing a mindset for positive impact and to drive home the point that every contribution towards making the world a better place matters. She said that out of every negative thing that happens in the world, there is an opportunity.

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Learning what different methods of research entail

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Understanding types of research activities for each stage in digital product development cycle

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The Deloitte Digital session was very helpful in prompting me to think more about what area of UX Design I would like to focus on. Prior to attending the talk, I was thinking I would work in a role that encompassed all of the aspects of end-to-end experience design from research through to visual design and prototyping. After Danny and Ange shared information XD Studio organisational structure and how one can specialise in one particular part of the experience design process, I started thinking about possibly focusing on one area such as research. For my app project as part of the Rave UX/UI course, I conducted interviews and collected data from a survey. I haven't had experience yet in several of the other research methods Danny & Ange mentioned so looked into a few of these to further my understanding.

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Relating 5 rivers to a familiar structure - hand with 5 fingers

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Chrissy also spoke about how at the start of COVID, the mainstream press spread fear ('fear mongering'). In response to this, Chrissy's colleague hacked into St John Hopkins' data and created technology to show live on screens, total recovery rates of people around the world. Chrissy and her team were asked to help pull together a campaign to spread this positivity. The resulting campaign (created by a Leeds student) was shown on big screens in Ireland, and in 10 sites at Times Square (one of my favourite examples that Chrissy shared on spreading hope and positivity).

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In A/B testing, two different versions of a design are compared to see which performs the best. One classic example of A/B testing is where companies split their mailing lists and send out different versions of a request and see which version solicits the most responses.

In thinking back to the app prototype I created for the UX/UI Design course, I had used this type of testing to see which visual design was more appealing to users. One version used images that were tinted to create a consistent look. Another version used flat vector illustrations which turned out to be the version everyone preferred and found more visually appealing to interact with.

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Multivariate Testing is a design-optimisation method that looks at which combination of design choices results in higher conversions.  To understand the definition of a MVT (multivariate test), one must first understand the terminology.

-Variable is a UI element (e.g. image or headline)
-Variant is a version of a variant
-Variation is the resulting design containing a variant of each variable to be compared with other variations

Full definition of a MVT - "a design-optimisation method in which multiple variants of specified variables are tested in a user interface, with the goal of maximising a specified conversion goal"

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A/B Testing vs. Multivariate Testing for Design Optimization

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Ethnography is a qualitative user research method during which the researcher becomes immersed in the culture and behaviour of the environment they are researching. The researcher observes the behaviours and interactions of the community and writes their observations in a document which is also referred to as an "Ethnography".

Ethnography is time-consuming and requires long-term immersion. Some believe that bias is unavoidable due to the researcher being in one place for an extended period of time. It can be challenging to maintain the necessary independence when the research is embedded within the group he/she is studying.

The researcher can take an active role where they are participating in events like any other member of the community, which can help them assimilate better into the group. One disadvantage of this type of role is that the researcher can affect or disrupt how the community normally functions. Conversely, the researcher can take a passive role, where they only watch as a distant observer, which creates more space for them to observe and take notes. The studied group may feel uncomfortable with someone watching them though, so this method may affect the community's ability to act naturally.

Thinking ahead to one of the briefs for UX/UI Design Year 2, Term 3...one unit will cover improving service design for a chosen or assigned brand. I believe the ethnographic method of research will be very useful and relevant to this project as it will be valuable to understand what is working well in the store/place of business is designed and how it can be improved by observing how people are currently interacting with the interface(s) and various digital/physical touch points.

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Card sorting is a UX research method in which study participants group individual labels written on notecards according to categories that make sense to them. This method reveals how the target audience's knowledge is structured and informs how to create an information architecture that matches users' expectations rather than the company's conceptual model.

The general process steps are:

1. Choose a set of topics e.g. 40-80 items that represent the main content on a website. Write each topic on an index card
2. Ask the users to organise topics into piles/groups
3. Have the users name the groups which uncovers the users' mental model of each topic
4. Debrief the user and ask them how they came up with the groupings which will help you as the researcher understand their rationale
5. Repeat the process with 15-20 users to detect patters in user's mental models
6. Analyse the data, look for common themes, and if items were often not placed in a group, determine whether the label on the card was not clear or the content did not belong.

This is another example of a UX methodology that I haven't used yet, but depending on the type of product being designed, it may be appropriate apply this research practice.