What's the Problem? (Asynchronous Session)
Community Design and Transformation of Narratives: When Low Tellability Becomes High Tellability View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jen Yoohyun Lee, Peter Hasdell
When working with local narratives in community design, are different forms of narratives taken into consideration? How important is the source of narratives in community design? How does local narratives influence design process and vice versa? This study looks into why design process should care about the moments when narratives with low tellability becomes narratives with high tellability. The concept of “tellability” was first developed in conversational storytelling analysis by Labov in 1967, as an evaluation device to avoid a “so what?” reaction from the audience. It basically gauges the noteworthiness of telling. This has developed over the years with a focus on when and why something becomes tellable – how emotional significance and cultural meaning is cultivated. It also highlights the different poles in conversational narratives of highly tellable accounts, which commonly involve one active teller with passive listeners, on one end and moderately tellable stories on the other, which are co-constructed by several tellers with uncertain fluid stance. What this study investigates through ethnography and narrative analysis is the transformation of narrative tellability among the community members, and its significance. The aim of the study is to understand the existence of different narrative forms within the shared understanding in a community, how different forms of narratives determine tellability, how this specific aspect of narratives can influence the community design process, and ultimately why understanding the transformation of tellability may shift the orientation of community design all together.
Assessing Graphic Variables and Design Criteria Used in Emergency Overdose Kits: A Visual Analysis View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gillian Harvey
Since 2016, Take Home Naloxone programs have become an essential component of Canada’s response to the national opioid crisis. Through these programs, naloxone - a life-saving opioid agonist medication - is distributed to citizens by regional health authorities, pharmacists, and harm reduction agencies across Canada. While increased access to these kits have been widely successful in reducing fatal opioid poisonings, the efficacy of this intervention is dependent upon the legibility and usability of the contents of the kits. Sets of visual instructions included in the kits vary widely in terms of information sequencing, hierarchy, legibility, requisite reading level. The sets of instructions included in these kits are typically produced by healthcare professionals with little to no training in visual communication. By attending to the visual information included in the kits, these instructions can be designed to save lives. Following a review of literature in participatory design, health literacy, and emergency communication, we identify a set of design criteria for visual instructions. Using these criteria, we conduct visual analysis of twelve sets of Take Home Naloxone kit instructions in use across Canada. From this analysis, we propose a framework for visual infrastructure in emergency health communications. The implications of this research are broad from an academic to a social audience. This work enriches public discourse, cultural outcomes, and educational outcomes. The framework applies to the development of other emergency instructions and contributes to discussions related to public health, representation, and stigma.
‘Chhaupadi’ Bring Awareness to Menstruation Taboo Using Design Strategy View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Riva Nayaju
In the Western part of Nepal, in remote Himalayan villages, menstruating girls and women are banished to a faraway shed or dingy-huts because people believe that they are untouchable. This custom is called ‘Chhaupadi’, Chhau meaning, menstruation, and Padi, meaning women. Formal education about menstruation is not provided in schools until grade eight; by that time almost all the girls already have their periods. These topics are stigmatized even among family members. Just some outcomes associated with Chhaupdi include infection, suffocation, snakebites, malnutrition, rape, and even death. The Supreme Court of Nepal banned Chhaupadi in 2005 and criminalized it in 2017. But the ingrained tradition is still alive. After the huts and sheds were demolished by women’s rights activists, girls and women are banished to forests and caves. The goal of this project is to address this issue through meaningful visual design. The power of a strong visual can help viewers develop empathetic understanding. The first target audience of this project is young girls and boys in western Nepal. Two illustrated storybooks covering this topic has been designed in both Nepali and English language. To introduce this topic to the general audience and to raise funds for future research and contribution; website design, motion design, and collage series are incorporated as another major part of the project. An extensive exploration of the mixed media collage has been used in all the projects for visual storytelling.
Towards the Alter-Person: A Species-neutral Definition of Personhood Through Design View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zeynep Kiris
This thesis seeks to investigate the essence of anthropocentric frameworks, explore and challenge humans' perceptions of nonhuman forms of intelligence through symbolic, expedient, or advocatory representations, and study the effects in understanding nonhuman personhood and ethical frameworks these perceptions have. As a better understanding of the connection between exposure to and awareness of nonhuman persons is gathered, it aims to adjust existing paradigms and potentially introduce new ones in hopes of creating design approaches that are species-neutral. This thesis ultimately intends to explore ways to modify the behaviors and viewpoints of humans' towards nonhumans and bring forth a broader acknowledgment of natural and synthetic interdependence through design. The issues of empathy towards nonhumans, nonhuman rights, and design for nonhumans are also of interest to the scope of this thesis.
