Final Cultural Probes

I have designed a pack that will allow one to find out the who, what, when and where of a particular anti social behaviour.  The pack contains a box in which 4 cards are stored.  On each card there is a different task for the participant to carry out.  They are first asked to write down an anti social behaviour that affects them the most. Then they are asked to either draw or stick thing to the silhouette provided, in order to see who the perpetrator of there anti social act is.  The next card allows the participant to show on a map exactly where the behaviour takes place.  The final card allows the participants to show what time of day the anti social act takes place, by setting the time on the clock provided.

How I designed them and why

I spent a large amount of time thinking about how to gather the information from the participants, in particular how to get visual information back
The where card in particular proved to be difficult at first.  I originally was going to put a map of Dundee in the pack and get the participants just to stick dots on the areas where their anti social behaviour took place.  However when thinking more about this I realised that I didn’t just want to give my cultural probes to people who lived in Dundee.  I then thought about putting a camera in the pack to allow the participants to take pictures of where it happens. Again this idea just didn’t seem to work as I felt that tit would not be possible for the participants to photograph where their anti social behaviour happens. 

I then returned to the map idea and decided to create my own map.  This meant that it was not unique to one particular area and could be used by anyone.  I made sure to keep the map quite general allowing for all the possible types of anti social behaviour that may be chosen.

The packaging for the cards derived from wanting to keep the cards in order.  I decided that by making a box that could contain all cards, it would not only make it easy for the participants when undertaking each card, but also for me when to evaluating the retrieved information.

For all my cards I could of just got the participants to write down the answers to my questions.  However I thought the information would be best suited visually as my end result is an advertising campaign.

When it came to actually making the cultural probe pack I felt that I should put a lot of effort in to how it looked.  I feel that if the pack looks like a lot of effort has been put in to it then the participants are more likely to put more effort in.  Also when it comes to photographing or displaying the end results, I am left with something that is not only informative but also aesthetically pleasing.

Who will be given them?

I am hoping to give my cultural probe packs to a variety of people to find out what anti social behaviours affect them.  I intend to give my cultural probes to various age groups and areas in which them live.  This is to see if age or the area in which they live in fact affect what type of anti social behaviours they are effected by.

As my cultural probe packs are quite time consuming to make I am intending to make at least 10 complete packs.  If I find the information particular useful I will then make some more but only consisting of the cards.