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For our probes we decided the main question we wanted to cover under the theme of 'Privilege and Design' was whether or not privilege had an impact on (our) student experiences.

In order to do this we decided to cover a set of identical questions as a group, first covering the possible privileges someone might have (such as race, gender and disability etc.) and then to bring those together in two longer questions: whether or not the interviewee viewed themself as privileged or not, and whether or not they thought their privilege (or lack thereof) had an impact on their student experience.

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Initial/Opening questions:
Gender
Disability
Class
Religion
Country of Origin
Sexuality

Main Questions:
Do you think of yourself as privileged?
How do your privileges, or lack of privilege impact your student experience?

Final Questions/Just for fun:
Three Likes and Dislikes

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For the actual probes we decided not to post them since we all live relatively close to one another and, for the most part, avoided using printing in order to reduce project costs and also because accessing printers was difficult in the current climate, although this did limit us to what was available 'at home' so to speak. While we decided on the questions as a group the way we laid out the probes was decided on an individual basis though they retained the same organisational structure.

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This was some information found on research probes found by Christina

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Some examples of probes found online by Emily

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This is Imogen's Probe, completed by Emily, it contained fill-in-the blank style worksheets and made use of stickers.

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This is Christina's probe before it was sent to Amy. It contained questions in flashcards a pen and a wipe. It was all contained in a plastic bag with some gathered together with string.

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This is the completed flashcards from Emily's probe finished by Imogen. The flashcards were double-sided and had a cover and was sent in a cylinder, meant to resemble a series of old-fashioned postcards.

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This is Amy's probe, completed by Christina. It contained worksheets and a couple of longer questions on blank sheets.

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We did our interviews in pairs, with one person from each group who swapped probes (Imogen and Amy interviewed one another and Christina and Emily interviewed each other), and used the same set of questions.

How did you find the experience?
AMY — Really enjoyed it and found it really engaging as there was so much to interact with
CHRISTINA — It felt fun to be a part of something
IMOGEN — It was nice to note it down, and share an experience, but could become unintentionally insensitive if we hadn’t carefully chosen the questions/decided what we were comfortable with as a group
EMILY — Definitely my favourite of the briefs so far

Was there anything you didn’t like/didn’t enjoy?
AMY — I didn’t enjoy the final, less interactive, question
CHRISTINA — Didn’t like the contrast of one question which was more ‘essay like’ than the others which were more fun
IMOGEN — No
EMILY — No

Were any questions particularly difficult?
AMY — The last question ‘are you privileged’ and the question on origins
CHRISTINA — The map for where she’d travelled to and the disabilities and origins questions
IMOGEN — The ‘do you think of yourself as privileged?’ question as it’s easy to compare privilege to others and wonder if you are actually privileged or if it’s just in certain circumstances
EMILY — The question on disabilities as I’m chronically ill but not technically disabled

Would you do the project again?
ALL — Yes

If you did this project again what would you do differently?
AMY — Would like more time as there would be time to include more interesting things
CHRISTINA — Change the organisation of the actual probe and maybe the layout
IMOGEN — Would really like to include a disposable camera because it’s less ‘editable’ and would be interesting to show how someone would ‘document’ their life
EMILY — Would really have liked to take the entire semester for just this one project, would’ve had more time to make something really interesting

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From our interviews we found that we all enjoyed the process of creating the probes and swapping them as well as finding out a little more about one another as we all know one another but each found something new about the person we swapped probes with.

We did, however, feel that we would have preferred this to be a semester-long project perhaps after learning more about different research methods in the first couple of weeks as we would have liked more time to create more insightful questions without jugging deadlines for other classes.

It would also have given us more time to figure out a more interesting way to present the more 'important' final questions as some people didn't like the switch to what almost felt like a more essay like format in the final one.

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How does your privilege/lack of privilege affect your experience as a student?

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How does your privilege/lack of privilege affect your experience as a student?

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This was the main question we wanted to look at with our probes and all of other questions led towards this, meaning the person using the probe would already be thinking of how their privilege affects their daily life/if they have any so this question would be easier to answer in more detail. They would also be able to refer back to other questions to give a clearer understanding from the interviewer of their point.

AMY — From my results, I can see that as students we are privileged. Our way of life, what we get up to in a day, where we have been has impacted our uni experiences. As students you don’t need to worry about finances as much as you would a working adult, this is a huge privilege. And with money we have freedom as students to spend it however we like. With no disabilities and freedom to express your gender and religion it allows one to freely move around without restrictions and avoids any kind of discrimination. As women I think there is not as much discrimination compared to the real working world. I think once you enter into that world, there is a level of gender inequality that isn’t present in students, so, therefore as female students we are privileged.

CHRISTINA — I find it hard being a student here because I don’t have the same educational background as my classmates because I’m from a different country and curriculum so I tend to need to put in way more effort and learning to catch-up. And plus the teachers become more harsh because of it.

IMOGEN — I’m pretty well off in priviledge way of income & background. I think my only lack of would be mental health. But is anyone sane in the head these days? Another would be living experience, I stayed in uni halls in first year & for the last 2 years sheared with non-course friends. It is great but living in cheap HMO flats can be worrying with own bills and damage that might appear. I am privileged to have my own flat but I wish I had the privilege to stay in nice student accommodation, no winter bills or fixing damage myself.

EMILY — I’m from a working class background, so I’m without financial support, and can’t work due to my chronic illness so money is always a concern, especially when it comes to ‘extra’ things like printing and software. It often feels as though I don’t quite ‘belong’ at uni because there is a certain expectation that students just leech off their parents money and have no cause to worry about their finances. My chronic illness also makes attending class difficult, paying attention with chronic pain is difficult, and it doesn’t help that the only accommodation I was offered to ‘help’ was to leave, since “university isn’t for everyone”.

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As a group our main focus with this probe was to find whether or not privilege had an affect on our experiences as students, the overwhelming response was it did, especially when it came to finances as concluded by Imogen. Amy also concluded that as students we have the privilege of being in a female dominated environment and while not everyone in the group identifies as women it is an advantage over many workplaces where gender imbalance may negatively affect our careers as AFAB people. From Christina's findings it is also important to note that students from other countries face difficulties and sometimes negative experiences from the need to adjust to a different curriculum style. Negative experiences also come from ability, as noted by Emily, and, while we may be privileged in some aspects, it is the ones we aren’t which hold an affect our student experiences, often putting us at disadvantage against our peers.