ANNA PYYLUOMA - JANNE ILLI - PETRA LEINO - YURI FUKAMATI

INTRODUCTION
In this portfolio we propose a design concept for an
open platform culture festival. Named Sharing Cultures
- SHE, the aim of the concept is to bring together
women of the Muslim community and the Finnish original
population and encourage them to learn and share
experiences with each other and thus increase dialogue
between the cultures.
The festival is presented as a possible solution for
a broader design problem that is how to make
environments more inclusive towards different cultures
without it becoming exclusive. In this portfolio we
present the design process in all its stages and finally
outline the final concept for the festival.

PROJECT TIMELINE
This timeline illustrates our design process from the early
stages of research to finally formulating the concept,
followed by the timeline plan for the festival itself. The
timeline flows through the hexagons, guiding you in
connecting the puzzle pieces in the correct order.

Research

Experience
Machine

Content
Ideas

Values Chart

Design Themes
& Arguments

Brief

Rebrief

Proposal

Story

Data
Analysis

Building the
Festival

Collaborators

Teaser Video

Concept
Ideas

Feedback

Future

Marketing

Funding

The Festival

Experience
Machine

THE
EXPERIENCE
MACHINE
Suppose there was an experience machine that would
give you any experience you desired. Super-duper
neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that
you would think and feel you were writing a great
novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting
book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with
electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug
into this machine for life, preprogramming your life
experiences? [...] Of course, while in the tank you wont
know that youre there; youll think that its all actually
happening [...] Would you plug in? Robert Nozick:
Anarchy, State and Utopia, 1974.

Quite contrary to the Experience Machine

thought experiment, we wanted to tackle a
real world problem with a real world solution
instead of creating a superficial surrogate
reality where everything is perfect. We didnt
appreciate the idea put forth by the thought
experiment that designers should dictate which
experiences would be worth experiencing - we
want to use design to enable and empower
people to create their own experiences.

Brief

Rebrief

BRIEFREBRIEF
Our first research question was:
How can designers influence stakeholders to create
services that are more inclusive and accessible to
everyone?
Our idea was to influence the decision makers (urban
planners, funders etc.) in putting more effort in making
sure that the services and products they offer are
inclusive and accessible. However, after further analysis,
discussion and feedback we realized that this question
was too vague. The next step for us was to come up
with a research question that was more tangible, more
precisely formulated and more focused.
The next iteration of the research question became:

HOW CAN DESIGN INFLUENCE PLACES

LIKE ITIS TO EMPATHIZE MORE STRONGLY
WITH LOCAL MUSLIM WOMEN?

Brief

Rebrief

FOCUS GROUP
We decided to choose women as our target group since
involving and educating women empowers them to
become independent thinkers and agents of change in
their societies. We also wanted to encourage women to
get to know other women from other cultures because
through women we can reach children and the rest of
the families.
UN Women. Empowering Women to Change the World: What
Universities and the UN Can Do, 2011.

The effect that helping women has on societal well-being

has not gone unnoticed globally. Empowering women
and breaking down oppressive societal and cultural
structures is slowly becoming a trend and such approach
has also been adopted by many Finnish immigrant
organizations:
Usually the (immigrant) organizations - especially
those whose operations are partially planned by native
Finns - aim to break such ethnic and religious traditions
that are considered oppressive towards women (for
example the tradition of female circumcision) or
restrictive to the human agency of women. In those
cases the organizations aim to encourage women to
participate in areas of life forbidden to them, such
as exercise, because according to the organizations
physical exercise - especially in public places - has been
considered to associated with the masculine world.
Vestliitto (the Family Federation of Finland). Translated from:
Maahanmuuttajanaiset. Kotoutuminen, perhe ja ty (Immigrant
women. Integration, family and work), 2007.

Research

RESEARCH

Research

RESEARCH
METHODS
We went to Itis on two different days to interview muslim
women. On the first day we performed observations and
tested out our interview material on six people and then
made a few changes based on the feedback, making
the questions more open ended to avoid affecting the
interviewees with our questions.
We also wanted to use a tangible visual prime to help
people be more creative in their answers, so we decided
to use picture cards (pictures of different buildings,
spaces, activities, people, moods, atmospheres) to
inspire interviewees and let them draw images.
Practicing the interviews on the first day also allowed
us to be more confident and act more natural when
approaching possible interviewees on the second day.
On the second day we had 12 people participate in the
visually primed interviews, some of the participants also
drawing pictures for us. In addition to gathering a lot of
raw interview data we also obtained a lot of insightful
metadata about our own working methods, attitudes and
approaches.

Research

NORAS DRAWING

Research

RESEARCH
PROCESS

Research

INTERVIEWS

Research

INTERVIEW
SUMMARIES
A lot of the interviewees find Itis good as
it is and are happy with the services in and around
Itis
Theres no place to take the children while
shopping
A need for a prayer room was mentioned a
few times
Itis is a good meeting place, because the
muslim demographic there is larger than in other
malls
Some interviewees had experienced racism,
prejudice and even violence in Finnish malls

Research

CARD SORTING

Research

METADATA
We selected the interviewees based on them wearing
a hijab, even though not all muslim women wear it
We tried to overcome the language barriers by using
card sorting and drawing as tools to get data
Being in a hurry was often used as a reason or an
excuse to not take part in the interview
We found it difficult to break the ice and dig in
deeper: politeness prevents criticising the situation,
even though we interviewers arent connected to the
mall.
People interviewed with friends or family were more
open for the situation, loners were harder to talk
to (maybe because there were at least two people
doing the interview)
Visual tools to collect data brought out surprising
information on general values and preferences of
urban environments

Data
Analysis

DATA
ANALYSIS

Data
Analysis

FRAMING
ACTIVITY
Based on what we gathered from our interview notes
we built an affinity diagram. Four main themes emerged
from the raw data:
Accessible services nearby Itis for the muslim
community
Itis caters to a wide spectrum of needs
Issues and concerns regarding the muslim womens
experience in Itis
How to improve muslim womens experience in itis
Those themes were then used to develop further ideas
and concepts.

Design Themes
& Arguments

DESIGN
THEMES &
ARGUMENTS

DESIGN
THEMES

Design Themes
& Arguments

Based on our hitherto research we formulated the

following design themes to answer our research
question:
How can design influence places like Itis to empathize
more strongly with local Muslim women?
1. Through design encouraging and activating more
interaction between different users:
Playful
More dialogue
Facilitating interaction through design:
inviting users to share their stories and ideas,
more dialogue.
2. Making Itis inclusive and accessible without it
becoming exclusive:
Providing services for all user groups
Considering the wide spectrum of
users and theirs needs
Both material and social needs
The context: cultural, social, time
3. Create a safe and caring environment that actively
addresses issues of harassment
Making people aware of the issue
Giving people concrete tools for dealing with
the issue
Getting rid of the bystander effect

Design Themes
& Arguments

ARGUMENTS
From our design themes arose our design arguments:

1. Since communication brings understanding and

empathy, design should encourage interaction

between different user groups. During the interviews
we noticed that our presence by itself caused
spontaneous conversations between different users.
However, we want to design interactions that dont
require facilitation but rather happens naturally.

2. Design should enhance inclusiveness and

accessibility, since we, as human beings, are

different and come from a wide spectrum of social
and cultural contexts. Our interviews indicated that
Muslim women have multiple needs which were not
met at Itis. However, one should avoid creating a
solution which is exclusive in other aspects.

3. Since environments should be safe and caring,

services should actively address issues of

harassment. Several interviewees reported that
they had experienced harassment in Itis or similar
locations. However, one should concentrate on the
positive and not scare people off by giving too much
attention to the threat of harassment.

Story

STORY
Based on the interviews and analysis of the
data we created the following story to illustrate
the experiences of muslim women in Itis and
concretely present the problems they face

Story

ts a cloudy spring afternoon. A young muslim

woman, Faizah, 18 years old, is waiting for her
friend, Nadimah, at Alanya market in Itkeskus.
Nadimah arrives, the friends hug and head to Itis
shopping mall. This is an exciting day: they are going to
go shopping for dresses for their high school graduation
party.

Story

The friends go into one of Itis many clothing stores. The

dresses there seem a bit short for their tastes so they
decide to go find another store. There they bump into
two of their high school friends, Tiina and Laura, and
decide to continue shopping together. After a lengthy
shopping session they all have finally found their perfect
dresses and Faizah suggests that they have a sit down
and something to eat. They agree on going for pizza
and head to restaurant Momento.

Story

Having finished their meals and spent way too much time
at Itis the girls decide to head home. Leaving Momento
an older muslim woman with a toddler in a stroller
approaches the girls. She asks whether they know of a
place to take her child while she goes grocery shopping.
She mentions that there used to be a playcare place but
it seems to have been closed. The girls think about it for
a bit but dont remember seeing such a place in Itis. The
woman then goes on her way.

Story

Just as the girls are approaching the exit, an angry

looking bald man walks towards the bunch. Nadimah
tries to make way for him, but the man bumps his
shoulder into her, seemingly on purpose. Nadimah trips
and the man keeps walking, shouts profanities at her. The
girls are shocked, and Faizah decides to act. What are
you doing! she yells at the man, following him, while
Laura and Tiina pick Nadimah up and make sure shes
okay. An older woman steps in the way of the man and
scolds him.

Story

The man tries to leave but another man grabs a hold

of him by the shoulder. Faizah, the old woman and the
man all have a word with the bald guy and ask him to
apologize. He seems a bit embarrassed but refuses to
even look at Nadimah and finally manages to break free
from the crowd and quickly walks away.

Story

People seem to empathize with the girls and apologize

for the man, telling the girls that some people are still
scared of and angry at people from different cultures,
seeing them as a threat to what they think of as Finnish
culture. They have a short discussion about it and agree
that these kinds of harassments are luckily getting more
and more rare as people become more familiar with
people from other cultures. The girls are starting to feel
better and decide not to let one idiot ruin their so far
great day. They thank the strangers and leave Itis. The
clouds outside have shifted and sun is shining.

Values Chart

VALUES
CHART

We structured our findings into a chart that

visualizes the key elements of the issue of
inclusivity versus exclusivity in our case.

Values Chart

COMMUNICATION

Understanding

Empathy
Caring

ACCESSIBILITY

Need
Fulfilment

INCLUSIVENESS
VS.
EXCLUSIVENESS
IN ITIS

Less
Barriers

Safety

Feeling Welcome

Prejudism

INFORMATION

INTERACTION

Concept
Ideas

CONCEPT
IDEAS

In our project we attempt to bring about

something that we feel would create more
inclusivity in Itis, which is at the core of our
chart and which is dependent on the four major
aspects of whether a space is inclusive or not
-- communication, accessibility, information and
interaction.
Therefore the aim of our design concept is
to improve Itis on all those four areas of
inclusivity. We came up with four design
concepts as possible directions where to take
the project.

CONCEPT 1:
TELL IT
FORWARD

Concept
Ideas

Share your story = get a

coffee + someone elses
story.

Take it with
you.
Post it on social
media with a
hashtag.

Place it on the
wall.

CONCEPT 2:
THREAD
STORY

BEST BUNNIES @ITIS

#relaybunny

MAPPING OUT THE STORY

Concept
Ideas

GAME
Viestijuoksu
Message run
Get the object.
Start a story.
Post a picture.
Pass the object from
one person to another.
See whats going
on through the hashtag.

HAVING COFFEE
WITH #relaybunny

CONCEPT 3:
INTERACTIVE
WALL
Writing down messages, stories,
meaningful events and hanging them
on the wall for others to read.

Concept
Ideas

CONCEPT 4:
FESTIVAL

Concept
Ideas

Stories

Connecting Finnish women and

Muslim women.

Henna tattoo

Food!
Clothes

Make-up

Different ways
to wear a
scarf.

THE
PROPOSAL

Proposal

The problem that we wanted to address with our design

project was the lack of inclusiveness in Itis and similar
places experienced by the Muslim women. We argue
that this issue is manifested in feelings of insecurity,
lack of services, lack of communication between Muslim
women and Finnish original population and therefore,
lack of understanding. We also wanted to improve upon
things that the Muslim women enjoy in Itis, namely the
sense of community and good variety of services.
There are also many scientific papers on the topic of
familiarity and contact with another culture breeding
empathy towards them, a recent example being Racial
bias in neural response to others pain is reduced with
other-race contact by Cao et al., 2015, published in
Cortex. Based on this we strongly feel that increasing
communication and getting to know the other culture
would cultivate empathy and feelings of community
between the cultures.
We realised that out of the concept ideas that we had
the event/ festival would allow for most diversity and
variety in terms of demographics and activities and
would help us invite a wide range of partners and
visitors. A festival would also be more of an open
and evolving concept that would foster co-creation
and active participation in planning, organising and
attending the festival. As benchmarks we used festivals
and events around the world such as: Festival of Muslim
Cultures in the UK, World Culture Festival in Blacksburg,
Virginia, Maailma Kylss Festival in Helsinki, events on
International Womens Day, Tyttjen Piv/ The Girls
Day events organised by Plan.

Proposal

The solution we propose is an open festival platform

that facilitates sharing ideas, stories and information
through different activities such as hosting events,
workshops and exhibitions with the purpose of creating
dialogue and understanding between the different
cultures.
The platform goes by the name Sharing Cultures
Festival, SHE, which would be held on the International
Womens Day in Itis. The SHE Festival would be built
collaboratively with Itis, the collaborating stores and
restaurants of Itis and Itkeskus, volunteer organizations
and winners of the Open Idea Competition where
anyone could propose content ideas for the festival and
the winners would be then participating in the festival as
organizers (see HKLs Taidelinja project for an example
of such idea competition, www.taidelinja.fi). We aim
at creating a platform, a frame for an event rather
than a ready designed concept. We provide ideas
and suggestions for activities and methods to help our
cooperation partners and participants to come up with
their own content and develop the concept further.

Teaser Video

TEASER VIDEO
We created a campaign video to advertise our
chosen design concept, the Sharing Cultures
Festival - SHE, and encourage participation.

youtu.be/iVJpzUtI0kU

Content
Ideas

CONTENT
IDEAS

Content
Ideas

ARTS & CRAFTS

Workshops
Exhibitions
Techniques classes:
drawing, painting, video,
collage, crocheting,
knitting, sewing,
photography,
performance,
environmental art
Lectures & Discussions

LITERATURE

Book swap
Poetry
Writing classes: poems,
short stories, fiction
Book clubs
Book reading
Illustrations, comics
Translations: guests,
discussions, interpretations
Poetry slam

MUSIC & DANCE

Contemporary, traditional,
classical, alternative, hip
hop, fusion
Dance lessons
Dance battle
Concerts
Workshops

FILM

Documentaries
Family films
Fiction
Short films
Indie

FOOD

Workshops
Cooking classes
Recipe swapping
Dinners
Food culture
Mushroom/berry/herb
picking

CLOTHES & ACCESSORIES

Styling
Makeovers
Remaking/ Customising
Repairs
Clothes swapping
Flea market

BEAUTY

DIY cosmetics
Make-up lessons
Body art
Pampering
Beauty salon

Funding

FUNDING
There are multiple possible sources of funding for this
project. We have outlined a list of possibilities:
Grants
City of Helsinki
Kulttuurirahasto
Koneen sti
Kordelinin sti
Kansan Sivistysrahasto
Jenny ja Antti Wihurin rahasto
Taiteen edistmiskeskus
Iran Heritage Foundation
EU
UN: United Nations Development Fund for Women
Unicef
Muslim community
Helsingin Muslimit
Suomen Islamilainen yhdyskunta
Collaborators funding channels

Collaborators

COLLABORATION
For our project we need many partners to collaborate with, the main
one being Itis allowing us to use their facilities and other necessary
resources for organising such a project. The stores and restaurants
of Itis and nearby Itkeskus area are also important collaborators.
We would also like to involve volunteer workers and a wide range of
non-profit organisations.
Our idea is also to hold an Idea Competition where participants
would propose content for the festival, after which there would
be a public voting which would result in the best of these ideas
getting chosen by the festival organisers to be actually realized in
the festival and awarded their necessary resources. Some of the
collaborators would assist in holding the festival, others would help
with the marketing.

The list of possible collaborators we have thought of:

ITIS
Accessory shops
Clothing shops
Day-spas
Restaurants
Cafes
Alanya Market
Make-up, cosmetics stores
Hair Salons
STOA
Itkeskus Mosque
Cajsa centre
Facebook communities:
Meill on unelma
Minun Suomeni on kansainvlinen
Muslimi Siskojen Jorinoita
Ruskeat Tytt

Suomi Says Welcome

Mndag for marketing
Suomen musliminaisten foorumi
Helsingin Muslimit
Suomen Islamilainen Yhdyskunta
Plan
Marttaliitto
Suomen Ksityn Ystvt ry
DODO ry
Kaupunkiviljely
HiMO Club / EtnoFitness
Tyventalot
Schools
Experts: scarf-expert Julie VanSuch,
braid-expert Matti Airola, etc.
Netflix

Collaborators

INCENTIVES
FOR THE
PARTICIPANTS
What kind of value will the festival offer to cooperation partners and visitors?
Raising awareness, gaining more and better
understanding of other partners and visitors
Information: Gaining more personal
knowledge about the other culture, creating
dialogue and understanding through different
activities
Networking & Interaction: Between Muslims
and the majority, different organisation &
other stakeholders
Promoting cultures and different aspects of
culture
Cracking prejudice, taking a stand, bringing
down barriers between people
Promoting actions and values of organisations
and individuals
Promoting equality
Common well-being
Promoting a better sense of community
many cultures creating a community
Celebrating diversity

Collaborators

Partners:
Good publicity, promotion
A lot of customers
New people new customers
Hype & activity to the area
Standing out by providing personalised
service a very topical and fresh approach
Giving to the community, improving the
feeling of community
CSR (Corporate social responsibility)
A facelift
Visitors:
Meeting new people
Learning about another culture
Being heard and understood
Sharing experiences
Sharing and flaunting skills
Having fun

Marketing

MARKETING
We aim to use multiple marketing platforms to reach out
to as wide and diverse demographic as possible, using
everything from social media channels and print marketing
to TV commercials and advertisement in public places.
Our collaborators marketing channels would also be
utilized. Also the Idea Competition would bring publicity to
our festival. The SHE web page would play an important
part in informing people about the event and would
be mentioned in all the marketing material in different
channels, as would the SHE festival mobile app, which
would be used to both give information to festival goers
and to collect feedback.

Marketing

MOCK-UP CAMPAIGN

Marketing

MOCK-UP CAMPAIGN

Building the
Festival

BUILDING
THE
FESTIVAL
The festival would be organized with Itis and its stores,
the partner organizations, Idea Competition winners and
volunteers. In fact, building the festival becomes a part
of the whole festival experience and is also aimed to
build dialogue between the different cultures - realizing
the goals and values of the festival already at the
building stage.

The Festival

THE FESTIVAL

The festival is advertised

in various mediums to
get as much visibility as
possible.

The Festival

Save the date of

International Womens
day to go to Itis and
experience the festival.

On March 8th, the SHE

festival would be held in
Itis.

During the Festival everyone

would be able to share
skills, stories, tricks, watch
documentaries, and
experience different cultures.
By the end of the festival
people would be able
to share their thoughts,
comments, and suggestions
on the feedback wall and
through social media.

After the festival the

organizers would gather
and analyse the feedback
to understand and iterate
on how the festival could be
improved and developed in
the future.

Feedback

FEEDBACK
An important part of the festival experience would be
giving and collecting feedback. For this we have designed
a feedback wall that is a multi platform canvas that would
function both as a physical wall where people could put
their experiences, thoughts, stories and feedback on paper
notes, and a virtual feedback space on the SHE webpage
and mobile application.
The wall serves multiple purposes: its a way for the
festival goers to share their experiences with one another,
it creates continuity to the entire festival as an anchor
between all the festival events and last but not least, it
allows the festival organisers to collect important user data
and feedback to further develop the festival in possible
consecutive iterations.

Future

FUTURE
The festival as a concept is an open platform, which means that it
can and should be developed further after each iteration and allows
and leaves room for experimenting, expanding and changing the
content. The first SHE festival in Itis would focus on the dialogue
between the women of muslim and Finnish original populations
cultures, but would be meant to function as a pilot of a project
which could later be applied to other places and cultures.
We as designers would participate in creating the initial platform but
would then step back and watch the concept grow and evolve on its
own and be freely adopted by other people and organizations in
different environments and locations.

THE
LETTERS

After the project we had to reflect on our

process and write a letter to a friend who is
considering attending the UID course.

Dear Talita,
I remember you mentioning you would like to enroll in the UID course next fall
and were asking for my opinion it. I have just finished it and could give you some
insights on the course!
The UID course covers a wide range of subjects and allows one to experience the
different stages of the design process. First, we focused on research and how there
are ways to use it to actually get closer to users, and not just from the distance
through a computer screen. We were introduced to ethnographic methods, the
importance of collaborative design and its processes, and the values of empathic
design. Not only we were introduced to these subjects but also, we were also able
to experience them in our own group project.
In the group project we applied all knowledge we were learning, thus making
our project more well rounded. We used co-design in different aspects: working
with students from other majors and schools within our own group, by interacting
with different communities to better understand them, and also, by discussing our
projects with the other groups in the course.
An important aspect of this course was the translation from all the data we were
collecting through ethnography, co-design, interviews, observation and empathic
design into solutions and concepts ideas. Throughout the UID course we were
able to use different design methods to help us converge into a meaningful design
solution.
You should know that this course is very demanding and challenging. I often found
myself having to chose between my group project and the individual work we also
had to do. However, I will apply all the methods I have learned in this course in
my future as a designer. UID helped me further my knowledge on the importance
of connecting to people in order to create change. Focusing on people, especially
those less privileged, and understanding them is what human centered design is all
about. Furthermore, my definition of designer changed a little, from an expert to
a facilitator.
I hope this will help you!
XX,
Yuri

Hi!
I heard you were thinking of enrolling on the UID course next year. Good for you!
I took the course this fall and boy has it been a ride. The course gives a lot but
also takes a lot - be prepared to free up your calendar for the work the course
requires.
As you might remember my major is cognitive science in the University of Helsinki,
and learning the repertoire of a designer has been both interesting and immensely
challenging for someone with a strict research background. The first thing I noticed
having difficulties with was the intangibleness and abstractness of the questions
and concepts in design. Im used to easily operationalizable research questions
with tangible, numeral data as results, and being in a world where there werent
necessary right and wrong answers was a bit overwhelming at first. This was most
evident at the first stage of our design project group work, where I sometimes felt I
spoke a completely different language than the rest of our group when attempting
to formulate a research question. Luckily I found myself bit by bit reorienting my
thinking processes to better suit this field of work and at the end of the course I
feel actually quite confident that I have a grasp of the design process and the type
of thinking it requires.
I have always enjoyed teamwork and found the group work the most interesting
part of the course. Getting to know people from different backgrounds was
eye-opening and fun and my team members are great persons. The group work
process went quite well even though our group experience a lot of obstacles with
people getting sick one by one - I got sick too, and going through a nasty flu when
the group work was going on full steam and not being able to participate for a
week was extremely frustrating. During that time I did what I could on my home
computer but the course work being so intensive it really doesnt allow for much
absence for any member of the group. My problem was also that I had to work at
the same time, and it didnt make scheduling meetings any easier. But in the end I
feel it all worked out fine.
The course taught me a lot about the how user inspired design can be used to
tackle even the difficult social and cultural problems and have an impact on
the world in a way that makes it a better place for everyone. I think that being
empathic towards your stakeholders is one of the most important attributes
of a designer and the user inspired methods certainly have that empathic
design philosophy. Being user centered also means creating something that the
stakeholders want or need, not just creating an alluring but ultimately superficial
product or service and trying to milk as much money as possible out of it.
Im sure you will enjoy the course as much as I did. Good luck!
Yours,
Janne Illi

Hey!
How are you? I heard that you were
thinking of taking the User Inspired
Design course next year and that you
might be interested in hearing from
someone who has taken the course.
The UID course was a real learning
experience. The course was
divided in two parts: theory and its
implementation. As a whole we were
guided through a design process from
the initial structuring of a research
question up to developing a concept
proposal, by using user centered
design methods. We used ethnographic
methods to gain a first contact with
our chosen focus group and different
co-design approaches to get more data
and to develop the concept further.
The theory part of the course was
mainly readings and lectures by visiting
lecturers. Both of those gave inspiration
and insight, but also tools for the
group project. Im not that well read
in design philosophies, so much of my
efforts went into understanding the
different methods, but I feel I still lack
a deeper understanding and capability
to compare the different discourses. The
presentations and especially comments
from peers were very valuable for our
group works process, but also very
valuable in the individual work. Its
good to see and hear of other projects
in similar development phases because
the comparison can also give you a
lot of insights. The most I learned from
my fellow group members. They all
had different kind of backgrounds and
experiences, and I learned a lot from
their way of working and thinking.
Schedule-wise the course was quite
demanding. There were weekly group

tasks, a lot of presentations and some

surprise elements to tasks. This all lead
to the week filling up with mainly group
meetings and less time went to the
theory part of the course. Of course
that was also a conscious choice on my
part of where to put my energy and
efforts. One group member was out
of the game nearly every week due to
illness, but we managed to pull through
a concept proposal, that Im quite
happy with.
Overall the course taught me that a
good designer is a good group worker,
interested in gaining an understanding
of the kind of social and cultural issues
that should be targeted by designers,
but also understands that surprising
outcomes and design opportunities can
rise from the most mundane subjects.
He or she doesnt overlook without
carefully inspecting and manages to
hold back until careful research and
analysis has been put to place. There
are times to wildly ideate, but one must
also be ready to re-visit and reiterate
older stages of development. A good
designer is interested in the subject
theyre working on and knows how to
overcome their own biases.
I ended the course with a strong
positive feeling that us designers can
make a difference. As banal as that
sounds, it is a big thing for me, because
from time to time I question if design
does more bad than good. But taking
along empathy, a curious mind and a
set of methods to help connecting with
people can lead to insights that will
make a change for the better.
Yours,
Anna

Dear imaginary friend,

You told me when we met that you are
considering enrolling in the UID course
and would like to know more about it
before you make the decision. Here are
some of my thoughts following the course:
The course can be considered as an
introductory course to the different
approaches and methods of human
centred design. The schedule of the course
is very tight and the aim is to cover a wide
range of topics thus the course is very
intense and inevitably ends up scratching
quite a few surfaces. I had already
studied human centred design and worked
with projects where I had the possibility
to test the methods and implement
them in real life cases so I was already
familiar with most of the topics discussed
during the course which helped a lot in
navigating in the information overload.
The course is divided into two parts; the
theory and the practice. It is structured
so that the theory part is mainly covered
by lectures with varying topics by visiting
lecturers and the group work is done
very independently in groups of four. The
groups are given weekly assignments that
are presented to the whole class at the
end of each week. During the classes the
groups can get tutoring and feedback
from the teacher and the other groups. I
think this is when you should listen very
carefully and observe what the other
groups and your classmates are doing
and saying since youll most probably
end up learning the most from their
ideas, thoughts, projects and feedback.
In general I would encourage you to try
to find opportunities for discussing your
work with people from other groups for
me sharing and hearing other peoples
perspectives was most fruitful.
Doing both parts of the course is quite
demanding since the schedule is so tight
and the practical part requires a lot of
arranging with the group. For me it felt
very natural to prioritise the group work
which meant less time for and more stress

about the individual work. However the

most valuable part of the course was the
group work and thats where I learned
the most from. Our group worked really
well together and managed to keep up
with the schedule even though at least
one of us seemed to be sick every week.
The theme/ the case we chose to work on
was very challenging which is probably
why we succeeded in learning a lot from
it both in theory and practice and ended
up with a result that I believe could be
developed into a real concept that would
actually address the issues we aimed at
addressing. It was a pleasure to work with
the people in our group and I learned a
lot from them. Im really proud of us and
of what we achieved in such a short while.
As with every course at this level to get
the most out of this course Id encourage
you to be brave and trust your instincts
and remain true to your values and to
who you are. Dont pretend to know
things you dont, ask if you are uncertain
of something, be curious and have an
open mind. Be ethical and honest, respect
the people you are working with. Be
critical; challenge the teachers, the course
material and people you are working
with. Challenge the assignments, question
their relevance and suggest improvements,
be empowered. You are studying and
learning, this is the time to test things out,
take risks and learn; ergo, dont be afraid
of failing or doing something wrong.
Challenge yourself in the group work by
trying different roles, taking on tasks you
may not be previously familiar with etc.
Be ambitious but try to remain a certain
level of realism; you dont need to do
everything in one course and everything
does not need to be perfect. Reserve time
to do the course, but remember to take
care of yourself and make sure you still
maintain a life outside the school, in other
words; take the course seriously, but not
too seriously. Enjoy yourself!
Yours sincerely,
Petra