Abstract
Creative students and professionals often struggle with choosing a project/brief due to the lack of a supporting and defining framework for said selection. Should they be oriented toward reflecting on how each of the possible projects to choose from can become a more or less impactful activity in the short, mid and long run, maybe the project selection would become a less anxious moment and the engagement with the project activities more relevant and meaningful to them. That may be particularly pertinent when these users can anticipate different levels of impact that range from their own life to a wider community. In this paper, the Impact Plan is proposed to simplify the moment of choosing a project, by matching the projects’ anticipated impact with the users’ motivations, capacities, ambitions, and perceptions of value. A prototype was designed and tested with a group of students enrolled at a Master’s degree, studying a Design-informed module under the UK’s first 2020 lockdown restrictions. The tool proved helpful in supporting the students’ decision making when having to select a topic to be developed in the context of a communication design project, and to which they were able to align their personal interests, career ambitions and the way they perceived themselves as contributing to a better world. Since this is a cyclical experience, both in the course of a design learning environment, but also in design practice, the Impact Plan configures as fully replicable in other professional contexts too.
Presenters
Catarina LelisSenior Lecturer & Erasmus Coordinator, Department of Communication and Art, University of Aveiro, Ards, Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Back to Life: Seeking Vision and Purpose in Principles and Practice
KEYWORDS
Canvas, Design Thinking, Impact Assessment, Purpose, Project Selection, Speculation
