joostdesign

1. Who are you designing for?
We decided to design for creatures of the night, specifically for homeless people. We renamed them as houseless people because being without a home is being without a place to be yourself, and we think there are still houseless people who can be themselves in a certain place, but just don’t own a house.

2. What is their relationship to the collection?
We thought of the works as a mental support for the houseless people, to connect them to each other, to find likeminded people around them, because that is also what makes us feel at home and appreciated. To be together with people in a situation helps with coping with the problems that they bring. Probably houseless people do not specifically look at artworks with great appreciation yet, but can see it in a more practical way such as a sleeping place. So it is my job to make these artworks attractive and mentally useful for these houseless people.

3. Which content are you ‘interfacing’?
Artworks in the public space, we need to make an interface to present these artworks to them in an attractive way and show them that these works can actually have a purpose to them too. Some of these works are about hope or future or protection, these works are the most likely to be connected to our user group.

4. What type of interaction is fitting for this?
The interaction of going to the work, meeting like-minded people there, or finding recognition in the works. The main goal is to make the artworks interesting in the mental way to the user group. To do this I need to find some kind of promotion material that fits the group, and I need to find places where to put or present this material to the user group. What is also a possibility is that I try to let the work be the connecting element between multiple houseless people. And do this by for example adding a “meeting-stimulating” element to the artwork.

5. What type of medium is fitting for this?
Probably print material, because it is not that nobody has a smartphone in the houseless community, but some of them may not, so to not exclude anybody from the community it is smarter to use print. Maybe I could use digital advertisement in places such as shelter locations or on displays in the street.

6. In general: what are you trying to accomplish through the interface you want to design?
Trying to give houseless people the feeling that they are not alone and that there is other people around them who feel the same. Also I would like to connect the multiple houseless people to eachother, to get interaction between them and stimulate them to talk about their experiences, which sometimes could help with coping with the problems or processing them.

7. Which visual design elements have you already collected/designed that can be useful for this?
I think doing something with a shopping cart would be interesting, just as using earthy colors, not too bright because that might look to clean. Maybe think about offering them a place to share their feelings and feel connected to other houseless people. Such as a kind of diary for them to write down what they experience with the artworks.

Mental support
Artworks bkor
How can artworks support?

I need to inform these people about the advantages that these works can offer when related to them mentally

A book that gives opportunity to the houseless people to write their experience of the artwork

But then how will i adress this to only my user group?
Maybe by writing a cardboard sign and putting “for homeless people” since this will prevent other people from interferring with it

Put a lot of these books in a shopping cart in front of one of the artworks and add a map of all the artworks in the back and instructions to the reader, to explain to them that they need to find artworks that give them inspiration and then write about it, and put it back in the shopping cart in 3 days or so.

Next to this shopping cart I should make a poster to inform the houseless persons (or people who voluntarily want to contribute to the project) about the goal of the project and route.

I want to have the experiences of the houseless people gathered in a book, and then for example put it next to the artwork or bring it to a Salvation Army location.

How do I just adress my user group?
I think by putting down something with written confirmation that it is for homeless people, will be enough since the people who are not homeless will not feel the urge to belong to this specific group. I will try to make the journal appealing or familliar looking to homeless people.

HOW DO I SEE THE PRESENTATION OF THIS JOURNAL?

-I think there should be an introduction about me in the beginning, in order to connect better to the user group since we do not have a connection yet at all.

-there should be a map of rotterdam including all the locations of artworks that are free to visit and have something to do with personal issues, connection or feelings of loss.

-Then there should be a page for each work with the space to write about it, in case somebody doesn’t want to move, or isnt able to move.

-there should be a page with a few questions about people their lives, which are free to answer.

-Then there should be a page where they could write their stories if they want to.

- All text should be in Dutch.

-explain the purpose of it, and that it will not be published but shared inside the community of homeless people.

WHAT KIND OF PAGES SHOULD THERE BE?

WHAT KIND OF MEDIUMS WILL I USE?

I am going to make:

-A journal with the map and ability to write some stuff in there.

-a sign to put next to the journal(s) to tell houseless people that there is something for them there.

-A stickering system which connects the journal to the artworks.

WHAT KIND OF TYPOGRAPHY DO I WANT?

I think the main choice would be something that doesn’t look too neat and straight, but maybe even choose something that looks handwritten or slightly corrosed. Such as typewriter stamps. Also I think easy readability is important because I am asking something from a person who doesn’t have much, so losing the attention for a split second will already be fatal.

For the headers I think something bulky and handmade-looking like these fonts would suit:

For the body text I think something better readable, yet still not looking too fancy is suiting like these ones:

The aesthetics and looks of the journal should be simple, not expensive looking and it should look as something you could have in your backpack all day. It needs to be easy to understand and visually calming with an easy message. It should emit a feeling of trust to make the user feel like his writings are in a safe space. I am thinking of using unbleached paper and other methods to make it feel more natural and further from modern and sleek.

ABOUT THE VISUAL APPEARANCE

What I discovered when printing, was that I need the book to be hard cover to make the writing outside easier. I also need to think about if a pen needs to be included.

DESIGN ADJUSTMENTS AFTER TESTING

I added the way of adressing my user group on the cover so that it is clearer who the journal is meant for. I also added a strap to hold a pen, because it would be annoying if you want to write but don’t have a pen, so now you can take it everywhere. I also changed to a hard cover for the sake of easier writing outside.

I made sure to explain the book and it’s principles clearer in the first page, I also moved the sticker page to the front so that it is more understandable and findable.

I tried to make the map more clear by keeping the red color in the pins so that they are easier to distinguish from the map

in this page I decided that it was better to connect to the map with a little part of it besides the picture, and a little description of which landmarks are closeby.

The sticker part of the journal changed from connecting to the outside world by sticking them next to the work to a connection between multiple journals. The people that contribute to your journal get a sticker of yours and the other one with the same pattern should be sticked next to the page where he or she wrote.