My (new) Gap
(Since Week # 2)
See the section: 'Reasons for shifting from the first gap' at the end of this page for notes
How do I design a mail-box or some such mechanism whereby I ensure that mail addressed to my residence is not lost or late or delivered to the wrong person in the building?
The current mail-box in the building not in use (due to its inaccessible location). Other residents in the building face a similar problem, yet choose to let the postman simply leave their mail near the gate. Since with important mail, one cannot eventually depend on human kindness or chance, this gap calls for an artifact.
How this gap fits the criteria for the course project:
This is a problem that is shared by all the residents of this building. So there are at least five other persons who face the same problem. Besides, it appears to be one which has just the right degree of simplicity/ complexity for me to be able to solve with ideas and material in the few weeks ahead. Importantly, it needs an artifact or a deliberately devised/designed mechanism since it seeks to work against chance (e.g. loss of scattered mail) and human error (e.g. neighbour forgets to hand over mail meant for you).
(Since Week # 2)
See the section: 'Reasons for shifting from the first gap' at the end of this page for notes
How do I design a mail-box or some such mechanism whereby I ensure that mail addressed to my residence is not lost or late or delivered to the wrong person in the building?
The current mail-box in the building not in use (due to its inaccessible location). Other residents in the building face a similar problem, yet choose to let the postman simply leave their mail near the gate. Since with important mail, one cannot eventually depend on human kindness or chance, this gap calls for an artifact.
How this gap fits the criteria for the course project:
This is a problem that is shared by all the residents of this building. So there are at least five other persons who face the same problem. Besides, it appears to be one which has just the right degree of simplicity/ complexity for me to be able to solve with ideas and material in the few weeks ahead. Importantly, it needs an artifact or a deliberately devised/designed mechanism since it seeks to work against chance (e.g. loss of scattered mail) and human error (e.g. neighbour forgets to hand over mail meant for you).
My (old) Gap
In the college where I teach, the library has a ground floor reading-room, near which a new block of classrooms has come up. Students passing by outside the reading room (to or from this new block), or sitting on the steps near it, talk or make noise which disturbs those in the reading-room. However, since they are technically outside the library, the Librarian is reluctant to issue any rule to stop them. Moreover, one cannot always have a person standing there reminding students to be quiet as they pass by (as some readers try to do with limited results). Simple notices demanding 'SILENCE' or 'Library Zone' outside the library are unlikely to have any effect on the students either (I teach them, I know!).
How can I design an artefact or design/organise a series of artefacts in that small space between the reading-room and the new block, that would, in an interesting and appealing way, persuade students or others to respect the silence that readers need in that room, and make as little noise as possible, as they pass by that short stretch?
This gap meets the course project criteria because: It is a problem that pains or annoys me as well as many other users of the reading-room. It is a problem that cannot be satisfactorily solved by conventional methods of rules or verbal warnings. It is a problem of sufficient complexity: involves appealing to a limited set of users/ audience (say, 500 students). I have authority to access/modify that space. Importantly -- it needs a fairly permanent artefact: direct human intervention is not practical every time the problem occurs.
How can I design an artefact or design/organise a series of artefacts in that small space between the reading-room and the new block, that would, in an interesting and appealing way, persuade students or others to respect the silence that readers need in that room, and make as little noise as possible, as they pass by that short stretch?
This gap meets the course project criteria because: It is a problem that pains or annoys me as well as many other users of the reading-room. It is a problem that cannot be satisfactorily solved by conventional methods of rules or verbal warnings. It is a problem of sufficient complexity: involves appealing to a limited set of users/ audience (say, 500 students). I have authority to access/modify that space. Importantly -- it needs a fairly permanent artefact: direct human intervention is not practical every time the problem occurs.
Reasons for shifting from the first gap (and an interesting complexity: who is the 'User'?)
The gap from Week #1 on designing a silence-zone outside the reading room of my college library has been replaced for the moment -- at least as a project that can be completed well in time for this course. It ran into an unexpected and interesting complexity which I hope can be discussed in one of our class forums: unlike the artifacts demonstrated in the lectures which were oriented towards one kind of user, this gap led me to a problem where devising an artifact would need taking into consideration two very different kinds of users with no direct, positive relationship (unlike the postman and the residents in my new gap) or a single kind of primary user (unlike a user of an ice-cream scoop or urban cart).
Here, the first set of users (U1) were users of the library space -- who need silence in the passage outside so that it is silent inside (the aim of our artefact). The second set of users (U2) are passers by (who may or may not also be users of the library) who make noise and need to be kept silent (the aim of our artefact, again). Now, how do I take stock of user 'needs' vis-a-vis an artefact that addresses such a gap?
- Would I be looking for responses from U2 as to what they would 'need' in such an artefact to encourage themselves to be quiet?
- Would I be looking for responses from U1 as to what they would 'need' to keep that zone sufficiently silent?
- How do we go about determining user needs for artefacts with such 'dual-user' and 'dual-space' (inside / outside) orientations?
This problem will be taken on further oustide the course project on 'The Library Problem' at jimtiazmore.weebly.com
A discussion thread on it has been opened in a class forum https://class.coursera.org/design-003/forum/thread?thread_id=289