to our writer friends,

Outi and Tuomas

Dear Reader,
You are holding in your hands the outcome of weeks of intensive and inspired work. The process started with a will to understand
the stress and cognitive load factors associated with writers work. We soon discovered that a writers life consists of more variety in
moods, environments and tasks that we ever could think of. We embarked on a journey of discovery that resulted in this book.
Part one will give you an idea of our work process during these weeks. It contains six chapters, each one representing one phase.
Chapter one (Invitation) shows our first formal contact with the writers. Having found two versatile professionals, we used several
methods to harvest knowledge about their work and its effect on their lives, presented in Chapter two (Staging). Chapter three
(Story) is the fruit of our direct collaboration with the writers, inspired by the personal confidences they shared with us. After this
inspirational phase, we took an analytical approach to model the whole of the writers work process and factors affecting their
mood and performance. At this point, it was evident that the focus of our work had to move from recharging and combatting stress
towards maintaining and awakening motivation. The model is presented in Chapter four (Chart). This work lead us to invent several
tools meant to enhance motivation during the writing process, the best of which is shown in Chapter five (Image). Chapter six (Proposal) presents our service concept based on this idea: the Wonderwall.
Part two is about our collaborative work process. It documents some of our work process from the point of view of our collaboration
both with the writers and inside our multi-disciplinary team, as well as the methods and analysis tools that we used.
At the end of the book, you will see sample images from the Wonderwall videos. Another sample of images can be seen when you
turn the book. You will find actual sample videos on the DVD in the back pocket. Attached are also personal letters from our team,
reflecting on our learning experience. Although they are addressed to our personal contacts, you are welcome to read them, if you
havent already done so.

enjoy!

part 1

artefacts

1.1

invitation

Dear Writing Professional,

We would like to invite you to participate in a workshop on Monday 21.9 at 09:00. In the workshop we will have a
group discussion about the role of stress and how you deal with it, an activity to help us understand the different relationships between stress and environment, and of course there will be coffee and snacks. The workshop will take between 1
and 1.5 hours and take place on the Arabia campus of Aalto University. The results and data from the workshop will be
used for the research and may be published later. All your answers from the workshop will be handled anonymously. All
the participants of the workshop will receive a small gift as a token of our gratitude.
We are four MA students from Aalto and Helsinki universities and for our course, User Inspired Design, we are researching the different ways that you wind down and relax after a stressful and overloaded day at work so that we can fully
understand the topic.
Here are some of the questions we are really interested in finding the answers. What does it take to wind down and
recharge after a day of work or even during it? What really are the demands that your work and work-related activities
impose on you? What do you need to function at your best? What kinds of environments are conducive to that end?
What happens when you wind down? That is what we want to know. We want to understand your life so we can design
environments that best serve it.
If you have any questions of the course or the workshop, please don't hesitate to contact us. Our emails are laura.salmi@
aalto.fi, maria.huusko@aalto.fi, joseph.savage@aalto.fi, sami.huuskonen@aalto.fi
Thank you for your time, and we look forward to working with you.

1.2

staging
This chapter shows the artefacts we used to stage
co-design activities with the writers. This phase
of the process was about understanding
the writers as professionals and human beings
in their own context.

Instructions for the workshop

Introduction:
We will describe the course and our research, what are we interested in and what is the timetable for the workshop.
Who are our participants? To hear about their jobs and stress levels or ways of battling them.

First session: CARD SORT

"Here we have a set of cards with words, pictures and colors. Organize the cards together in any way you like, in groups or
categories." We have a set of cards that include words, objects and colors that in the theme of stress and relaxing. We have
chosen the cards to find out more about the exhaustion writers have to face and the ways they do relax. We give the cards to
participants and ask them to organize them how ever they like. In the first session we follow and record the process of
categorizing the cards, listening how they discuss the categories and choices. Coffee break and snacks

Second session: EMPTY ONES and REASONING

"With the empty cards you can add any terms or objects you think are missing or you think are relevant. Label the groups and
categories you created and explain the ideas you had while putting those together." After the break we ask the participants to
add some more things to the empty cards and add them to the categories or groups they created in the first part. They can add
for example something that has been missing and we would like them to give the groups some headlines/titles. We will also ask
them reasons for the groups and how they decided what goes where. Connections between the groups and relations. And also
questions on their thoughts on relaxing: -What happens when you relax? -How do you behave when you're stressed? How do you
notice it?

Wrap up: discussion and THE MOOD DIARY

-Participants' feelings now? -Did they see things differently? Did they receive new perspectives? After discussing the thoughts
we'll introduce the mood diary that we'll ask the participants to fill in for one to three days. In the diary, the participant first
need to define a stressed-relaxed scale with symbols of their choice, and then mark up their mood hourly. They can also make
written notes of their mood. After rating their mood, the participants should take a photo on their phone about their surroundings
that relate to the mood.

Cards used by the participants in a card sorting activity in the workshop

Mood diary given to the writers to fill using their own coding system,
illustrated with photographs they took at moments of their own choosing.

1.3

story

"

ne month to go", thinks the author. The

publishing agreement is in the bag; now
it is time to start the writing process. He
wanders all around the city, observing people
and activities. He browses books and articles on
the internet, looking for inspiration. His faithful
notebook starts to fill and an outline begins to
shape itself. He hangs out in bars and restaurants,
finding humour and insight in the little details
that make people alive. He chuckles quietly and
proceeds to write everything down. His freedom
engulfs him with joy: "I can write what pleases
me!"

Days are flying by while the author finds peace

and quiet and concentrates on his laptop. The
deadline is looming and the publisher is expecting
to see the first draft soon. Writing is becoming
more frenzied than ever and frequent breaks are
needed. "As soon as I finish this section, I'll brew
some coffee." While he is savouring his cigarette,
missing pieces suddenly materialise in his mind
and he has to rush back to the laptop to capture
the fleeting words.

The phone rings. His child is sick and needs to

be picked up from school. "I really need to finish
this today." This is going to be one of those long
nights. In the dim moonlight his mind finds clarity in
the breath of fresh air he catches on the doorstep.
It is one o'clock and time to go to sleep. He goes
to bed, but his mind is not finished editing. Finally
he falls into a deep sleep. In the morning, after
a cup of coffee, he barely has time to open his
laptop before the words start rushing out.
"I can make this work. This is my time to shine."
Notes and impressions fall into place in the text. It
is two days to the deadline and he knows exactly
what he is doing.

1.4

chart

Amount of
External Inputs

Nature of
Immediate
Environment

Observation
Experiences
Readings
Other Writers

Amount of
Feedback

Amount of
contact
with Editors

Feeling of
Support

Mood &
Concentration
Level

Level of
Inspiration

Choice of
Environment

Degree of
Motivation

Amount of
External Demands
Deadlines
Private Life
Financial

Frequency
of Rewards
Stress
level

Need for Rewards

Precise Level of Structure/Schedule

Coffee
Rest
Cigarrettes

Frequency
of Breaks

Number of Tangible Goals

System model showing the factors affecting writers motivation

1.5

image
We created an image for Wonderwall, an inspiration machine for the writers'
process. The image shows how the content could be used while working.

1.6

proposal
We developed the idea of the Wonderwall further into a service concept. This
chapter shows the elements of that concept. You will find sample videos demonstrating the idea on the DVD in the back pocket of the book.

Wonderwall:
Random videos
cause surprising
and unexpected
associations.

Filtered video
clips from
different
databases.

wonder
wall

Watch on any device.

How to use:

Expectations
wonder
wall

Flight

Danger

Future
Log in online.

Write some keywords

on the topic you are
working on.

play
Start watching
& get inspired!

Skip, pause, mute or ask for a writing prompt.

Check
the DVD
for videos!

part 2

evidence

2.1

academic
We used both social and personal methods of involving
the writers with the design process. To capture the holistic nature
of their work, we provided them with a platform to convey their
experiences and communicate with us while they were immersed
in their daily life and activities related to their work.
We used a variety of methods for data gathering, analysis,
creativity and continued processing, alternating diverging and
converging approaches.

Card sort activity in the workshop with writers

Affinity diagram used to process the input gathered from the writers at the workshop.

What if writing was augmented reality?

Or like skydiving? What if writing was a game?
Organized like a kitchen?

Idea creation based on the data, using analogies.

2.2

emotional
We selected our co-design participants on the basis of their wide and varied experience
in the field, representing different approaches to the profession of writing. Throughout
the process, we showed them respect by emphasizing their role as experts we were seeking to learn from. At the same time, we tried to maintain an atmosphere of confidential
conviviality by keeping in touch, providing the writers with an outlet for their concerns
and a listening ear to the stresses of their everyday life. We also gave them time at the
workshop to get to know each other and share experiences about the writing life.

"Mood diary is weird, because it reveals how my mood swings

all the time and I had thought I was stable :)"

We planned the collaboration so that it would be

easy, pleasant and beneficial for the participants.

All data was handled

confidentially, which was made
clear to the participants.

We worked together as a multidisciplinary team,

accepting each others limitations and respecting and utilizing our mutual
areas of expertise. We maintained active and constructive communication
along the whole process. We were flexible in taking into account
our respective needs and personal situations.

Our discussion online was lively.