13th November - 19th November
Group C: Ana Garcia Villanueva, Ziyou Yin (Ines), Luchen Peng, Kate Chernysheva
Research Methods: Storytelling & Artefact Analysis
Brief: Design an experience that externalises the nature of memory
Similarly to previous briefs this one left us with more questions than answers.
Memory is a term referred to the essential faculty of our brain that is responsible for acquiring, storing and retrieving knowledge. In this brief we have explored memory in the context of a bilingual brain and created the game that helps to understand bilingual minds.
DESK RESEARCH
During our first meeting, we aimed to conduct some desk research and gather some information on memory, how it works, its features and more. Upon listening to the podcast ‘The Art of Memory’ we mapped out some of the most interesting ideas mentioned there.
Mind map created by Kate while listening to the podcast.
What was new to us is this notion of forgetting which is explained through the Ebbinhghaus's forgetting curve (see below). Without it, we cannot truly understand how our memory works. Furthermore, throughout our search, we have explored the different stages of memory, storage types as well as notions of muscle and music memory.
The Ebbinhghaus's forgetting curve. Image taken from an online source included in the bibliography.
'Ballerina with Alzheimer's remembering Swan Lake'. Image taken from an online source included in the bibliography.
Notes taken during research
initial idea
Our initial idea revolved around the three stages of memory which we wanted to represent through creating an obstacle course experience where individuals would go through three stages of encoding, storage and retrieval by solving related puzzles or problems which is explained in a sketch.
Some of the other ideas that we didn't go through with. Sketches made by Kate.
Some of the other ideas that we didn't go through with. Sketches in the top left, bottom left and top right created by Ines. Sketch in the bottom right created by Ana.
Sketch representing our initial main idea. Made by Kate.
While we had an initial idea, it was important to conduct some primary research through the suggested methods for inspiration.
research method: storytelling
We started with conducting some research through storytelling which involved lots of conversations. We each spoke to at least 3 people about their interesting stories. It started with a question about an object that surrounds them and then asked the crucial questions: What? Why? How? When? Where?
My notes created during interviews.
Transcripts created by everyone.
Research method: Artefact analysis
Upon analysis of our storytelling, we have picked out different objects mentioned throughout.
A mind map of objects mentioned through out interview, from the object that began the story. All images for the mind map taken from online sources. Mind map made by Kate.
We analysed them using different questions such as 'What material is this made of?', 'What function does it serve?' Later on, we formed it into a mind map.
Mindmap pieces with the artefact analysis. Made by everyone.
After we finished the analysis, we realised that the framework we have used for analysis was not the most reliable and correct, which taught us and developed our understanding of the method. However, as we had very limited time for the project, we decided to each make a note of how to use this method correctly and moved on to ideating.
Feedback
Upon presenting our ideas to the class we have engaged in a discussion where we mentioned an interesting discovery we made through brainstorming. Why is it that bilingual people remember their phone numbers in their native language but struggle to retrieve it in another language they speak freely? Everyone immediately related to this and encouraged us to push this idea further.
bibliography
Tate (n.d.). The Art of Memory – Podcast. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pierre-bonnard-781/art-memory. [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
CrashCourse (2014). How We Make Memories: Crash Course Psychology #13. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6&v=bSycdIx-C48&feature=emb_title [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMbrASDmXXk&%3Bt=657s
CrashCourse (2014b). Remembering and Forgetting - Crash Course Psychology #14. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVWbrNls-Kw. [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
Marc-Oliver (2018). UX Schema Cards – a better way to predict user behaviour and model experiences. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/the-versatile-designer/ux-schema-cards-a-better-way-to-predict-user-behaviour-and-model-experiences-c6935592cf3d. [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
Gravitz, L. (2019). The forgotten part of memory. Nature, [online] 571(7766), pp.S12–S14. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02211-5?code=d08e3638-479c-4278-bf31-340b4c98e5f5&error=cookies_not_supported. [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
www.basf.com. (n.d.). The nature of memory. [online] Available at: https://www.basf.com/global/en/media/magazine/archive/issue-4/the-nature-of-memory.html [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
Images:
Ballerina:
https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5faa5eb42400002c20b03fce.jpeg?cache=EYUFRui2zI&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale
Forgetting Curve:
https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/the-forgetting-curve.png