MiDLRI

Affective Storytelling to Build and Empower Community

DESIGN STUDIO

MiD@uArts

Janurary - May 2012

Lonnie Petersheim

Studio: Liberty ResourcesAffective Storytelling to Build and Empower Community

Published by

211 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102

Copyright © 2012 by Lonnie Petersheim

Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Lonnie Petersheim

Photography credits:All photography created by © 2012 Lonnie Petersheim unless otherwise noted.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced–mechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying–without written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Lonnie Petersheim

Book design by Lonnie Petersheim

Masters of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts212 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102

First printing April 2012

06 Chapter 1 | Introduction

10 Chapter 2 | Research + Synthesis

46 Chapter 4 | Prototype + Test

60 Chapter 5 | Presentation + Recommendations

70 Chapter 6 | Bibliography

Table of Contents

06 | 72

R S P TRESEARCH SYNTHESIS PROTOTYPE TEST ITERATE

RESEARCH SYNTHESIS PROTOTYPE TEST & ITERATE

The Design Process

Gathering qualitative data with a human centered design approach by considering ethnography and outliers.

Making sense of the qualitative research gathering through abductive thinking, visualizing information, and sorting data. This process allows for producing generative thinking.

Develop a concept that was informed from synthesized research into a model or system that is able to be tested and observed.

In this step we observe the successes and failures of the prototype in a real situation that may reveal that more research or synthesis is needed. Then take the observations from testing and develop a new informed version of the prototype.

Introduction

The Designer

LONNIE PETERSHEIMGreencastle, PAMaster of Industrial Design

NANCY SALANDRADirector of Independent Living Services

NORMA ROBERTSONDirector, Specialized Transitioning Services

JOEL MOFFATTDesigner of Communications & Development

The Clients

GARY ISAACAdvocate of Liberty Resources

08 | 72

February March

Research

Project Timeline

Last

sem

este

r wor

kD

iA &

AD

APT

Kick

off m

eetin

g

Stat

e R

ally

Afte

r Act

ion

Repo

rt

Mid

term

pre

sent

atio

nM

eetin

g w

ith N

orm

a &

Nan

cy

Sprin

t 2

Introduction

Synthesize

Follo

w u

p m

eetin

g w

ith N

&NM

oral

Pol

itics

Kony

201

2C

omm

unic

atio

n M

ap

Sprin

t 2

April May

Prototype

Test

Idea

tion

& Sy

nthe

sis

Prot

otyp

e 1

Prot

otyp

e 2

Bra

inst

orm

with

N&N

Dist

ribut

ion

Prod

uctio

nM

eetin

g w

ith J

oel M

offa

t

Fina

l Pre

sent

atio

n

Kony

201

2C

omm

unic

atio

n M

ap

Fina

l mee

ting

with

sta

keho

lder

s

Mee

ting

with

Nor

ma

and

Nan

cy

Mee

ting

with

Nor

ma

and

Nan

cy

The

Cam

paig

n

10 | 72

RESEARCHSYNTHESIS

12 | 72

Past WorkThis semester project was a continuation of last semester, where I worked in a group consisting of four other MiD students; two other first year students and two second year students. We believed that by leveraging Liberty Resource’s powerful stories as tools, and sharing them to the right audiences, we can affect positive change for people with disabilities. This semester I wanted to continue working further with Liberty Resources by focusing on one key interaction, which is building the community at Liberty Resources.

We spent last semester doing much research trying to understand who and what Liberty Resources is as well as we collected many stories from consumers, who are people with disabilities that are moving our of nursing facilities, by interviewing them. These stories then informed our decision making process when rapidly prototyping. We finished the semester with five prototypes, with two being more developed and three being less developed.

This book is a continuation for last semester and is the second volume of the project book series. Meaning, to better understand this project your must first start by reading the first semester project book, LRI and MiD: Affecting Change Through Storytelling.

R S

14 | 72

Path of the marchPublic speech at the Capitol1 2

Research and Synthesis

State RallyFebruary 29th marked the State Rally event held by Disabled in Action and Liberty Resources. The plan was to march to the Capitol, of Harrisburg, and advocate for disability rights. Then march to Governor Corbett’s Mansion. The rally consisted of over 100 supporters, many of which had disabilities. The flood of people took over the entrance to the building and the group blocked off access to the stairs as well as access to the elevators.

I observed the supporters and believe this event empowers the individuals greatly. They feel powerful and their voice is heard. However, they still lack the hard evidence and the ability to tell their story. Some members had signs and there were chants like “erosion of consumer choice” or “restricting eligible consumers from services and creating waiting lists.” None of these really capture the meaning or main issue. I don’t believe the Governor will listen until it truly affects him first hand. It will take something inspiring or personal before he might acknowledge the facts. He will only become defense by marching to his front door.

I believe the only outcome of the rally is that the media covered the action that Governor Corbetts staff barricaided his office to keep the advocates out. The media expressed that this eventually reached the federal level and was criticised by several individuals. The Capitol is a public building and should be open to everyone.

R S

16 | 72 Research and Synthesis

Gary - “We need to show the numbers, they won’t listen to what we have to say until they understand.”

Nancy - “The press likes easy issues and our issues are hard to understand.”

I observed that the rally empowered the consumers and individuals who participated. However, while participating and empathizing with the people with disabilities, I found that the media and other audiences had a tough time understanding what we be spoken of. The problems and issues are far too complex and wicked to just have a public speaker talk about stories. They needed a way to inform their intentions and visualize them to the public. A quote that represented the Liberty group is “Nothing about us without us.” This quote does not simple express a clear idea. The quote represents that people with disabilities should have a say in what policies are in place and they should influence the decisions being made. But they feel that their voices are not being heard.

State Rally

R S

18 | 72

20 | 72

22 | 72

Moral PoliticsI came across an interesting article and philosopher named George Lakoff in search of understanding Corbett and how to frame my decisions for prototyping for Governor Corbett attention. The article speaks about the differences between conservative and liberal political views. They both relate back to how we are raised in the family. A conservative view which is of a family with a strict father and a progressive which the parents are nurturing. The conservative and progressive views are both modern (conservative) and post-modern (progressive). A strict parent raises their child by teaching them that the world is bad and the child needs to be safe and protected. Where a nurturing parent raises their child into a good world in which the child must help anyone who is in need.

By understanding conservative views I can better understand how Corbett sees the world. I know that conservatives use vocabulary very differently than progressives. I also know this language frames the world around family and security. The world is bad and you must fight to survive. Where a progressive thinks the world is good and we must help others.

R S

Research and Synthesis

24 | 72

The left wing are the progressive views. Lakoff describes theses views to come from nurturing parents families.

Research and Synthesis

The right wing are the conservative views. Lakoff describes theses views to come from strict father families.

26 | 72 Research and Synthesis

Kony 2012The Kony 2012 campaign is a project produced by the company Invisible Children. The project is well known because it brings up very controversial issues and most importantly blew up into a world wide effort to find and capture a guerilla leader in Africa. The sole video collected over fifty million views within the first week as well as receive large funding that informed federal decisions to try and find Kony. My concern with the campaign was to understand how and why it received so much attention.

I began by first watching the video which is almost an hour long. Videos at this length very rarely receive great feedback from Youtube viewers.This became my main concern early; to try and figure out why the video holds its audience. My understanding is that it tells a very clear and simple story. Meaning it is very easy to follow as well as it is easy to relate with the characters. In the video, a father speaks to his son about who Kony is and why he is bad. The father overly simplifies the story for his son allowing any and every viewer to be able to follow. It also states a clear villain and hero. Kony being the villain and Invisible Children are the heroes. This is a traditional storytelling method of good versus evil.

In reading more articles about the project I found that the campaign as been running for several years and there has been much effort in trying to gain

R S

28 | 72

Kony 2012attention from the general public and legislation. The main reason the video blew up so quickly is because the campaign already had a support structure of several thousand supporters. Meaning, when the video was released the campaign was able to get established and in a grass roots way, expand like wild fire.

This campaign informed my final decisions greatly and gives a well grounded support into understanding how to design a campaign for a non-profit organization. I still needed to do more research into understanding why story telling works and how it can be done more successfully.

R S

Research and Synthesis

30 | 72

Made to StickWhile researching for my semester project with Liberty Resources, I came across an excellent book called Made to Stick. Chip and Dan heath are two brothers that have studied what makes ideas memorable. They looked at current trends like Subways Jared campaign to old folklore. Their discoveries are six main categories. The best ideas all have these same six things in common. Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotion, and Storytelling. If you take any great idea that you can think of, I bet you can write a check next to each of these six categories.

Simple — find the core of any ideaUnexpected — grab people’s attention by surprising themConcrete — make sure an idea can be grasped and remembered laterCredible — give an idea believabilityEmotional — help people see the importance of an ideaStories — empower people to use an idea through narrative

The book compares an urban legend story about a man who loses an artery after a woman buys him a drink at a bar and a story with numbers and issues. The urban legend story will be more easily remembered than the story with numbers. I believe many people could use this book as a tool and it is very helpful when thinking about telling a story.

R S

Research and Synthesis

32 | 72

Liberty Resources

Internet

Press

Social Media

BlogLinkedIn

TwitterFacebook

Youtube

AdvocacyWebsite

DIA ALFIEADAPT

Website

Department

Journalism

FMS

QM

HR

HCBS

IT

ILS

LHDC

Ways to communicateTelevision

Radio

Consumers

OLTL Government

City Council

Local

State

Septa / CCT

Coalitions / Collaboration

Universities

Internships Projects

TBVLVisitability

PHA

Groups

Nursing Facilities

Maximus

Federal

Mayor

Governor

Staff

Press

Research and Synthesis

CommunicationThe communication visual was informed by ideation for a sprint within the semester. My professor gave the class an assignment to create a prototype that would be useful to use with our overall design studio projects. I began the sprint by synthesizing on a whiteboard with a classmate to ideate what would be most important to my project at the time. We concluded the brainstorming session with a communication map. Liberty’s communication has never been mapped out before and I felt it would be helpful for both my clients and I to better understand how Liberty communicates. By using a semantic zoom method I would be able to understand and visualize Liberty’s network and how they communicate through this network.

The visual also imforms the direction or alternate directions for how to distrbute a prototype through Liberty Resources. The prototype would start in Liberty’s departments and work its way to the internet which would be distributed through social media sites. The visual will allow the users to have a shared understanding of what needs to be done and how to do it. A visual on the next page better explains this explanation.

R S P T

34 | 72 Research and Synthesis

Liberty Resources

Internet

Press

Social Media

BlogLinkedIn

TwitterFacebook

Youtube

AdvocacyWebsite

DIA ALFIEADAPT

Website

Department

Journalism

FMS

QM

HR

HCBS

IT

ILS

LHDC

Ways to communicateTelevision

Radio

Consumers

OLTL Government

City Council

Local

State

Septa / CCT

Coalitions / Collaboration

Universities

Internships Projects

TBVLVisitability

PHA

Groups

Nursing Facilities

Maximus

Federal

Mayor

Governor

Staff

Press

The visual would later inform distribution decisions in the prototyping chapter. It became very useful having a visual to use and create a shared understanding while working with the clients. Here you can see the path or direction to take when distributing a prototype through the map. The user chose to use the internet as a form of distribution. Then they decided through which media to send the prototype.

36 | 72

BrainstormingThe agenda consisted of an outline of how the session would go along with time constraints for each section. I only had an hour with them and it was necessary to keep us on track.

We began by reflecting on what happened at the state rally from the week before. Nancy gave some insight about how she thought the rally went and I opened up about what I thought. Next I had each person write down, on post-its, what issues exist right now at Liberty. I later asked them to prioritize what issues they felt are of the most concern. Nancy chose Governor Corbett’s budget cuts and Norma chose OLTL’s (Office of Long Term Living) approval services. We ended up spending much more time than I had planned on the issues because it took time to understand the issues more clearly. This seems to be a reoccurring theme. The issues that Liberty deals with are wicked and cannot be easily affected. They take a much deeper and clear understanding.

The next step was to figure out who our audience is for these topics. We spent a couple of minutes coming up with the main audiences and prioritized the key ones. Nancy chose Governor Corbett and Norma chose the consumers. The consumers she referenced are the people with disabilities living in nursing facilities. The two topics and audiences are very easy to relate and compare. They kind of go hand in hand. My plan is to create a prototype that will affect both issues. We

R S P

Research and Synthesis

38 | 72

finished the session by brainstorming some design ideas. This section was cut short because we spent more time on the earlier sections. Furthermore, because of the time constraints we had trouble coming up with ideas. It took some time to let go of our social filters and think freely. I did not get as many design ideas as I had hoped. Therefore, I decided to follow-up the session on my own and produce more. I later emailed the list of ideas to Norma and Nancy and asked them to rate each and chose the best. My next steps are to compare and develop better prototype ideas. Possibly connecting two or more ideas into one. Then I plan to have a follow-up meeting to visualize the designs for Norma and Nancy and come up with a promising prototype.

Through this process with the client we found that the key issues are a part of a bigger complex wicked problem. To solve a wicked problem you must provoke change by affecting it at a granular level. I realized that first a grass roots level needs to be built and no one will listen unless there is more support under Liberty Resources. They must have a larger supported community to provoke change and get the legislatures and medias attention.This understanding informed my point of entry in this project.

Brainstorming Cont.

Research and Synthesis

Key Issues• Governor Corbett’s Budget Cuts

• Office of Long Term Living Approval Services

40 | 72

Audience• Governor Corbett & Staff

• Office of Long Term Living Staff

Research and Synthesis

Design Ideas• Film of consumer stories (commercial)

• Mobile news app for consumer awareness

• Consumer Toolkit

• Photography storybook

42 | 72

44 | 72

Point of Entry

Liberty Resources must build a base community support structure before taking the necessary steps to provoke better change for people with disabilities at a high level.

46 | 72

TESTPROTOTYPE

48 | 72

The “I am” project is a storytelling campaign created for Liberty Resources to affect positive change by building a community who can discuss, communicate, and understand people with disabilities better.

The Campaign

The goal of the project is to give people with disabilities the right to live independently by telling the stories of the people who have made the transition to live in the community of Philadelphia.

50 | 72

Prototype 1Liberty Resources has recently faced a large employee cut and their environment reflects the emotion they are feeling. Work is still being down but a sense of community has diminished slightly. Last semester our team at MiD finished with several prototypes that all incorporated storytelling. This semester my hope was to continue diving deeper into affecting change through storytelling. After a successful brainstorming session with my clients we had a chance to come up with some great ideas. Continuing, I synthesized what I gathered and I decided to take a certain direction which consisted of a poster, video, and toolkit. The idea is to empower Liberty Resources’ employees and create an even larger sense of community. The campaign was created to keep in mind the rules of Made to Stick, a book by Chip and Dan Heath.

The campaign begins with a poster prototype. I created a plan to create, developed, and distribute the posters. The poster is very simple and I chose red, thinking about accessibility because of the strong contrast. The significance is to allow Liberty Resources’ consumers and employees to write one word that describes them on the poster with a black Sharpie marker. My hope is to prioritize the message being sent from the poster to the user. It will require the person to think deeply about what they want to say since they have limited space.

P T

Prototype and Test

I am .

52 | 72 Prototype and Test

Prototype 1I plan to spend a day at Liberty and have individuals write their message on their own poster. Once the messages are collected I will then hang them in the entrance to Liberty Resources. My hope is for the employees and consumers to begin communicating and connect from the posters. Hopefully creating a community around the messages being sent.

54 | 72

Prototype 2The process to make the video can be broken into these categories. Storytelling, Pre-production, production, and post-production. My synthesis this semester lead me to this campaign design and through doing research about storytelling I was lead to “Made to Stick.” My frame of storytelling changed and was refined when reading and understanding about good ideas and why they are good. Made to Stick would become a frame for how I planned to tell a story with the video.

My next steps were to work in collaboration with my clients Norma and Nancy to get their view. Therefore, I planned a meeting with them to discuss what they thought the video should say, show, and ultimately affect. This is where the idea came to show individuals who live in the community. We wanted to show the viewer that people with disabilities live in the community and everyone needs to be more aware of their communities. Once the video was designed and mapped out it was time to organize everyone who wanted to act in the video.

Production lasted about 3 days. I spent time in the studio recording voice overs and arranging times to meet with the actors. I spent an entire two days traveling around Philadelphia shooting the video and recording audio for the video. Several shots were take close to Liberty Resources which was a very

P T

Prototype and Test

56 | 72

April

Pre Production

Production

Post Production

Idea

tion

& di

scus

sion

Plan

ning

tim

es to

sho

ot

Plan

ning

with

N&N

Stor

yboa

rdin

gSi

te v

isits

Fina

lize

and

itera

te s

tory

Fina

l mee

ting

N&N

abo

ut s

hoot

ing

Nor

ma

and

Vinc

ent 1

1:00

Kia

4:0

0R

icha

rd 1

0:30

Virg

inia

12:

30

Editin

g vid

eo

Find

mus

ic

Mee

ting

with

Joe

l

Fina

l mee

ting

May

Voic

e O

vers

Org

anize

con

tent

Book

let

Prototype and Test

Mee

ting

with

Joe

l

Fina

l mee

ting

Book

let

58 | 72 Prototype and Test

useful location to shoot. Several shots were taken further out of the city at people’s homes.

After shooting the video I came back to the studio and spent a day editing the voice overs, video, and text. Post-production is a very time-consuming process however it is a great place to design. Editing video and audio is very complex and takes much organization. I find that this step is by far the most time-consuming.

Prototype 2

60 | 72

PRESENTATIONRECOMMENDATIONS

62 | 72

Final PresentationMy plan of action to finish out the semester was to have a final presentation to my clients and facilitate a discussion with them. In this meeting I explained the campaign more deeply and explained to them what my intentions and ideas are of the video and posters. My hope was to pass on my knowledge of my semesters work and leave them with a direction to take.

In the meeting I received vital feedback from Norma and Nancy about the video. They explained that the numbers about the problem of the State budget cuts we hard to understand and they felt it should be simplified evern further. Joel’s main concern was how to distribute the video through social media. The project came at perfect timing because currently Joel is working on building Liberty’s social media sites out further. He explained that the video would be perfect content to have for the site. The visual of Liberty’s communication became very helpful here when I tried to explain how to distribute the video and who it should reach.

The discussion brought up some more great points. The first being concentrating on accessibility. A person who is deaf would need subtitles or some who is blind would need the video to be narrated. Accessibility is always a common problem when designing for Liberty and it is necessary to be conscious about when designing.

P T

Presentation and Recommendations

Agenda May 7, 12Building Community Through Social Media

1. Introduction and Updatea. Meeting with Joelb. Communication and Network Map

(Handout and explanation)

2. The Videoa. I am Campaign (Empowering Liberty)

i. Wall of Posters1. How are they coming2. What are possible future steps?

ii. Video1. Show the final video2. Discussion and criticism3. Scenario4. Distribution ideas and

brainstorming

3. Conclusiona. Next stepsb. Booklet of recommendations

64 | 72

RecommendationsThe next steps will be for Liberty Resource’s to distribute the video and hang the posters. An important part to distributing the video will be through social media. The project is not done here and the campaign will require much more effort. My hope is to pass on the material and knowledge onto Liberty in hope they can manage the campaign themselves.

The first step will be the design a splash page for the Liberty website. This page will consist of the video as well as facts about the current problems that Liberty faces today. The next step will be to direct the traffic from the splash page to a Youtube channel where Liberty can begin packaging videos made by consumers. Youtube has an accessible option to automatically add captions to the videos. However, this brings up accessibility and design issues like, managing the content, usability, and access. The users will need the necessary structure and scaffolding to be able to build their own videos and stories. It would be great to make the material accessible on Facebook to design a facilitate a conversation and feedback between the users and Liberty. A possible further iteration would be to add a fund raising aspect to the site. Once the community and support is built we could bring in more users who are willing to support Liberty Resources.

P T

Presentation and Recommendations

1

2

3

Splash page to Libertyresources.org. Allows to Liberty direct traffic in two directions. To the main web page or to the I AM campaign. If the users decides to see more about the campaign, they will be directed to a fact page about the project.

The fact page can have a brief overview of the project as well as more information about Liberty’s complex problems. Possible solutions for this page would be to use visual explanations or numbers/data about the issues.

Finally, the user can be directed further if they choose to tell their story. From here the user could make a video and read more about making a video. Or they could decide to write their story using software like Google Docs.

66 | 72

I am .

Visit www.libertyresources.org

LibertyResources.orgFind out more or continue on to

1

I am .

Visit www.libertyresources.org

LibertyResources.orgFind out more or continue on to

“I am ____” is a storytelling campaign created for Liberty Resources to affect change by building community. The goal is to give people with disabilities the right to live independently by telling stories of people who have made the transition to live in the community of Philadelphia.

Tell us your story

2

68 | 72

A simple instruction video on how to make a video and how to post it to the Youtube channel.

3

70 | 72

Bibliography“Kony 2012.” Invisible Children. Web. 09 May 2012. <http://www.kony2012.com/>.

Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die [Hardcover].” Amazon.com: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (9781400064281): Chip Heath, Dan Heath: Books. Reed Business Information. Web. 09 May 2012. <http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287>.

Lakoff, George. “Moral Politics : How Liberals and Conservatives Think [Paperback].” Amazon.com: Moral Politics : How Liberals and Conservatives Think (9780226467719): George Lakoff: Books. University of California, Berkeley. Web. 09 May 2012. <http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Politics-Liberals-Conservatives-Think/dp/0226467716>.

Bibliography

72 | 72