Communication Design is more than a Pretty Poster

As I was writing the field of study section of my thesis, I found defining what the term ‘Communication Design’ means a lot more challenging than I expected, as it is most often dismissed as ‘Graphic Design’. Here is my attempt at mapping this complex yet uncharted field.

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Defining Communication Design

The field of study that this research is concerned with is ‘communication design’. Unlike other more established fields in science, engineering and education disciplines for example, communication design has not been as clearly charted. This does not imply that there have not been many discussions and writings around this field, but that the term ‘communication design’ itself has been interchangeably used as synonymous to terms such as ‘graphic design’, ‘visual communication’, ‘visual communication design’, and ‘graphic communication’, and that its definition has not been distinguished from, or at least its overlaps identified with, the terminologies of these other fields.

One of the earliest mentions of the term ‘communication design’ – within the context intended in this research – was in 1983 by Patrick O. Marsh, in his book ‘Messages that Work: A Guide to Communication Design’. Marsh wrote that the communication design model consists of a source, a message and a receiver, and he devised a 21-step systematic almost mechanistic process to designing effective communications. He based his model on:

… a synthesis of several diverse disciplines, theories and points of view. Chief among these are concepts contributed by McLuhan (“hot” and “cool” media, 1964), Shannon and Weaver (mathematical information theory, 1949), Shroeder, Driver, and Streufert (“environmental complexity,” 1967), Neisser (cognitive psychology, 1977), Miller (“Information Chunk,” 1967), and the rich tradition of classical rhetoric… (Marsh, 1983, p. xvi-xvii)

However, it wasn’t until 1997 and onwards, that communication designer Jorge Frascara, extensively and meticulously mapped the terrain of ‘visual communication design’ as a sub-field within ‘communication design’. He achieved this through a series of books, articles, conferences and teachings conceived in the course of his academic and professional life. Therefore, as a starting point, this research takes Jorge Frascara’s theoretical framework of the field he refers to as ‘visual communication design’, and expands on it to define the more general field of ‘communication design’. According to Frascara:

The term “visual communication design” is subject to a long series of interpretations. The different definitions of the word “design” in everyday language have contributed to a lack of precision in understanding the job of the visual communication designer. Design is generally understood as the physical product derived from the activity, but the activity itself is often overlooked. (Frascara, 2004, p.1)

Jan Van Toorn expressed a similar concern around the popular perception of design, at the Design Beyond Design symposium in 1997:

People have become so obsessed by the shell of the product that the complexity of the action of design in production, distribution and consumption is reduced to the order of the decorated egg. (Toorn, 1998, P.156)

Frascara therefore proposes the following definition:

To propose a working definition for now, I would say that visual communication design, seen as an activity, is the process of conceiving, programming, projecting, and realizing visual communications that are usually produced through industrial means and are aimed at broadcasting specific messages to specific sectors of the public. This is done with a view toward having an impact on the public’s knowledge, attitudes, or behavior in an intended direction. (Frascara, 2004, p.2)

Within this context, the field of communication design would only differ from that of visual communication design in the produced outcomes, which might be visual, but could also cover a broad spectrum of sensory channels such as auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, or any combination of these.

The following is a simple example of this. the National Awareness and Early Detection Initiative (NAEDI) commissioned Bristol Social Marketing Centre to field trial a range of communication approaches in four different areas to determine the most effective and efficient in increasing early detection of lung cancer. In area 3, the communication design approach relied on traditional visual channels including leaflets, posters, beermats and billboards communicating the message that if a man aged 50 or older has a cough for over three weeks, he needs to get it checked with his doctor. In area 2, that same message was communicated through a different channel:  A Fun Day coinciding with the World Cup Final 2010. The Fun Day invited residents from the area for a free barbecue, World Cup Final screening, skittles tournament, and other activities. In addition, a number of volunteers were present communicating the 3-week cough message through brief chats with those attending the Fun Day. The 3-week cough message was also communicated on the volunteers’ T-shirts, food flags, the skittles trophy, balloons and so on. On evaluation, men’s awareness of the 3-week cough symptom and its relation to cancer increased by 9% in area 3 and 31% in area 2. Although interventions in both areas were designed with the same communication aims, the apporach in area 3 was purely visual and so falls within the specific field of visual communication design, while Area 2 included a range of sensory interventions as well as the visual and so falls within the broader field of communication design. (BSMC, 2010).

Now that the communication design field has been defined, the following will discuss in more detail each aspect of the definition: the process, the communications, the messages, and the sectors of the public. It is important to note here that these termed are framed specifically in relation to communications design for social rather than commercial challenges.

1 The Process

Every decision that a communication designer makes, when developing communications in response to a communication challenge, should be grounded and informed by a design process and the research methods investigated within it. When Patrick O. Marsh’s design process for conceiving communications was criticized for being too formulated with not enough space for creativity, he argued:

Let me say that those who learn and use the process seldom make that complaint. I maintain that there is plenty of space for creativity within the process. It is true that the process systematically reduces the number of design possibilities available. The reduction of “over-choice” is, to my mind, a virtue. But such constraints do not reduce creativity. On the contrary, I suspect they are prerequisite to creativity. (Marsh, 1983, p.xxvi-xxvii)

Most design professionals and academics today still base their design processes on the Bauhaus ideologies of the 1930s, when the clear separation was set between the commercial artists and a multitude of focused design specialisations. Despite the fact that the Bauhaus school embraced objectivity and the popular modernistic motto ‘form follows function’, the design processes it advocated were not structured in such a way as to ensure that the ‘function’ is effectively achieved in the designed outcomes. This is how Dietmar Winkler phrases this notion:

Although the school [Bauhaus] wanted to be perceived as having a democratic view to society, in fact it imposed its ideology without consultation with or concern for those who had to live with its experiments. It did not question the impact of its design on the users, whose agreement was simply taken for granted. (Winkler, 1997, p.131)

To address this issue, Frascara views that “the design of the research method and the design of the design method are tasks of a higher order than the design of the actual communications” (1997, p.33), and his recommendations for an effective communication design process can be summarised under three key principles: (1) a collaborative approach with stakeholders and end users, (2) and interdisciplinary research approach, and (3) an extended process that includes problem identification in the beginning and evaluation in the end. The following are extracts summarizing each principle briefly.

First of all, Frascara writes that “it is in situations of partnership where the best talents of everyone concerned are pooled” and “where complex and ambitious projects become realizable” (1997, p.18). This partnership is not only concerned with the client and other experts, but also with the target audiences. He believes that “if there is no partnership between the message producer and the public in relation to desirable objectives, attitudes will not change” (1997, p.18).

Secondly, Frascara acknowledges that design is centered around people, and that design processes need to draw on the expertise of other people-centered disciplines such as psychology, social science and education, to develop a better understanding of the attitudes and behaviours of the audiences that the communications are targeted at. He sees the designer as a coordinator in this interdisciplinary process:

Fundamentally, the designer’s job is that of a coordinator… Communication designers coordinate research, conception and realization, hiring specialists and using information related to the needs of each project. Given that the job of the designers includes interacting with other specialists, they must have an ability to work in interdisciplinary teams and establish good interpersonal relations. In the final analysis, designers are specialists in human communication… (Frascara, 2004, p.4)

Finally, Frascara promotes an extended communication design process. He views a much broader spectrum than the popular perception of a design process starting with a briefing from a client and ending with a delivery for production. Frascara maintains that it is the responsibility of the designer to initially actively identify a problem area where communication design can play a central and significant contribution (rather than merely reacting to a client’s brief) and to finally evaluate the performance of the communication outcomes (1997, pp.20-21). It is only through measuring the impact of a communication design intervention on the audience’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that it’s success or failure can be evaluated. Unfortunately, these two stages are rarely integrated into a design process. Desmond Rochfort and Rosalind Sydie once commented:

The initial question: “Why design?” and the final question: “What is the impact/consequences of the design?” are simply not part of the design equation. (2002, p.222)

2 The Communications

Communication outcomes based on mediums and styles that reflect a designer’s personal taste, skill, or assumption, are unlikely to affect the change intended in the target audience. This is because changing public behaviours and attitudes is a difficult objective to achieve. Frascara says:

Complex social problems do not get solved by just doing things; things have to be done well. This requires effort, intelligence, cultural and ethical sensitivity, resources and institutional support. The design response to a social problem cannot be conceived as the production of a few posters and fliers that tell people what to do and what not to do. (Frascara, 1997, p.22)

This heavy reliance on popular mediums and styles of communication has rendered the word ‘communications’ synonymous with a drop-down list of specific standardised outcomes, and has therefore led to two consequences: the disappearance of other traditional communication mediums known historically, and the hindering of creative opportunities for conceiving new forms, styles and mediums of communicating. It is in those missed opportunities that “communicational efficiency has been historically maintained.” (Frascara, 1997, p.14)

Therefrom, the chosen style, content and medium of a piece of communication need to be embedded within the specific context of its objectives, and customised to reach the specific audience it is targeting, to make the desired change.

It is however important to note that communications alone may have limitations in affecting social change, and that they sometimes need to be integrated within a wider range of supporting interventions to make an impact. Nevertheless, it is the role of the communication designer to identify opportunities where other interventions are needed alongside the communications. Frascara states that:

Although communications are essential to foster processes of change, they cannot generate those changes alone, without appropriate changes in legislation, enforcement and community participation. (Frascara, 1997, p.5)

This is why designers have to become more involved in the whole process; they are more opt to know where communications can help, and when something else beyond communications will be needed to achieve the desired outcome. (Frascara, 1997, p.24)

Here is an example to illustrate this. On a drinking and driving awareness campaign I worked on with Uscreates, the client clearly affirmed that Stoke-on-Trent was an area that had relatively higher drinking and driving incidences than other regions in the United Kingdom, and that a communications campaign would help address this issue. Conversely, the research process we applied at Uscreates identified that residents had high awareness levels of the restrictions to drinking and driving, and that the offences were not the result of a knowledge gap, but of the lack of transport alternatives to driving after a drink or two, because the bus network – the only public transport method in the area – does not operate after between 10pm and 7am. Therefore, the messages in the developed communications focused on highlighting existing alternatives to drinking and driving (taking a taxi with friends and splitting the cost, allocating a designated driver who would not drink, drinking at home, drinking in a bar or club within walking distance to home, etc.). But in addition to the communication solution, the response to the brief included recommendations for a service design intervention that should aim to either provide night buses, extend the operational times of existing buses, or offer another public transport alternative to commuting in the evenings and early mornings. If this recommendation is taken forward, then additional communication design interventions would be required to inform residents of the new nighttime transport service.

3 The Messages

This research is specifically concerned with the communication design field that produces messages with social aims as opposed to commercial aims, because both practice and theory is lacking in the former, and abundant in the latter.

There  are enough market-driven designers to keep the economy going, but there is a great need for talented communicators… to demonstrate to governments and the private sector how much benefit there is to be collected from intelligent communications in this field, even financially. There is also a need to urge good designers to promote the potential value of communications in this front and to make work in this front profitable, not only to governments and the public but also to themselves… Communication design has to strengthen its concern for what really matters: life, death, pain, happiness and the welfare of people.” (Frascara, 1997, pp.31-32)

It cannot be denied that many designers today still produce work with a stronger focus on aesthetics at the stake of lucid messages. This design approach to ambiguous message production was highly influenced by the postmodern design movements of the 70s, 80s and 90s such as new wave, punk and grunge. Frascara emphasizes however that “communicators owe to the public the creation of understandable messages” (1997, p.15). He writes that messages should be prioritized under three aims: To make life possible, to make life easier and to make life better (2002, p.39). This research for example, explores design that communicates messages around social integration, which implies that its messages would meet the third aim: ‘to make life better’.

Communication design focused around these life-changing messages can alter the whole perception towards the communication design field, from being a superficial aesthetically driven expenditure, to becoming a significant investment make lives possible, easier and better.

The public good must be the most important objective of design activity, and it should be sought with the best resources, being understood as an investment with high returns affecting hidden dimensions of the economy. (People-centered Design: Complexities and Uncertainties by Frascara, 2002, p.35)

4 The Sectors of the Public

In communication design practice I have been exposed to over the past 10 years, the importance of a targeted audience is often overlooked, or described as ‘the general public’, or ‘as many people as possible’. Frascara warns that “generic communications that intend to reach everybody actually reach only a few, particularly when it is intended to affect the attitudes and the behaviours of people” (1997, p.8). To enhance communications, better audience targeting would require their segmentation according to a range of common attributes depending on their relevance to the communication problem at hand. Examples of segmentation models could include geographic, demographic, psychographic, socioeconomic and so on. In this research, although the case study takes youth in Lebanon as an audience for the case study, insight from the research methods would need to segment this audience into more specific groups, and produce a range of different approaches to communication design customised to each segment. This segmentation could be based on their geographic location in Lebanon, on their social integration behaviours (e.g. their level of readiness/willingness to integrate), or other attributes.

To offer an example, as part of my work with Uscreates on an alcohol awareness campaign aimed at improving the public’s knowledge of alcohol units and limits, the client insisted that they would like to target all drinkers in Stoke-on-Trent. However, these drinkers are from different demographics, and this impacts their drinking behaviours. So a one message fits all approach is practically impossible. Faced with this dilemma we eventually produced a series of communications featuring a range of local residents across different segments, each portrayed in their own local drinking environments, and with their most preferred drink. This approach allowed for customised variants of the communication message to reach out to each segment of drinkers individually.

Alongside segmentation, another major reason for this campaign’s success was the significant role that the target audiences played in the communications. Being ‘real’ members of the audience photographed spontaneously rather than ‘models’ recruited for a photoshoot, rendered the message they are communicating positive, believable and viral. Including their real name, age, area and the popular locations where they are were being photographed only improved the message’s impact. Frascara is a promoter of this audience-driven approach to communication:

The producer has to speak a language that the audience can understand (Frascara, 1997, p.17). The more colloquial and personal tone of the speech works as a better reminder. (p.37)

From the late 90s to the present, more and more designers are advocating this approach. In 2002, Elizabeth Sanders believes that the rules of design have changed in such a way that transforms hierarchies into networks, builds collective influence, and invites all the people who have a stake in the process to ‘play the game’ (pp.1-2). Desmond Rochfort wrote that “design is moving from being simply designing for users to being one of designing with users (p.160). Over the past 10 years, this approach has been popularly referred to as co-design, or collaborative design. Although it has been practiced in a range of design fields such as industrial, service and product design, it is still very much remote from the communication design field. In discussing this, Rochfort agrees that:

Surprisingly, all too often design is still viewed as maker-centered and not user-centered, a creative variant of art, but with utilitarian overtones. (Rochfort, 2002, p.163)

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook predicted in a 2010 interview that “over the next 5 years, most industries are going to get rethought to be social, and designed around people” (min.17:05). He believes that it is this particular approach that led to the revolutionary evolution of Facebook as a communication platform.

Communication Design: From Theory to Practice

In 1997, Frascara made a vital call towards design practitioners to practice communication design within the framework described above:

The effort that we need to make today is to bridge theory and practice, so that theory does no remain self-referential, and practice moves beyond intuition. Methods form that bridge. (Frascara, 1997, p.35)

It is necessary for designers to recognize the needs of the social and physical environment within which they work and to which they contribute, and to take conscious steps to define the future direction of their profession. For this to happen, designers will have to develop new tools, engage in interdisciplinary teams, initiate projects, and generate new information and share it. This will empower more designers to engage in socially significant projects. As a result, we can expect a strengthening of the relevance, the opportunities and the perceived value of the design profession. (Frascara, 1997, p.19)

Unfortunately, more than 13 years later, this call has barely been heard, and today only a small handful of companies – most of which springing from disciplines such as social marketing, service design, and social innovation rather than communication design – practice this design framework. Examples would include IDEO, Think Public, Engine, Uscreates, The Hub and Doors of Perception. Additionally another small handful of educational institutions graduates students equipped with the skills and competencies required to work within this framework. Some of these are Köln International School of Design in Germany, Design Academy Eindhoven in The Netherlands, Parsons The New School of Design in New York, the Department of Design at Goldsmiths in London and the Design Studies Graduate Program at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Through the case study of Lebanon, this research aims to contribute to the small body of practice – specifically academic practice – that demonstrates the worldwide social, cultural and economic benefits of this communication design framework. In Lebanon particularly, this holistic interdisciplinary and user-centered approach to design is virtually non-existent (Toutikian, 2010, p.89).

References:

Bristol Social Marketing Centre (2010) A Report of Field Trials of Social Marketing Interventions for Early Detection of Lung Cancer in Men. Bristol: University of the West of England.

Frascara, J. (1997) User-Centered Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change. London & Bristol PA: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Frascara, J. (ed.) (2002) Design and the Social Sciences: Making Connections. London & New York: Taylor & Francis

Frascara, J. (2004) Communication Design: Principles, Methods, and Practice. New York: Allworth Press.

Marsh, P.O. (1983) Messages that Work: A Guide to Communication Design. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications.

Sanders, E. B. N. (2002) From User-Centered to Participatory design approaches. In Frascara, J. Ed. Design and the Social Sciences: Making Connections. London & New York: Taylor & Francis.

Toorn, J. V. (1998) Communication Design: A Social Practice. In: Toorn, J. V. ed. Design Beyond Design. Amsterdam: Jan Van Eyck Akademie, pp.153-167.

Toutikian, D. (2010) Design Education in the Middle East. Thesis (MA). Köln International School of Design. [Internet] Available from: <http://issuu.com/doreentoutikian/docs/masterthesis> [Accessed 27 November 2010].

Uscreates (2010) Empowering Society. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.uscreates.com> [Accessed 29 November 2010].

Winkler, D. (1997) Design Practice and Education: Moving Beyond the Bauhaus Model. In: Frascara, J. ed. User-Centered Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change. London & Bristol PA: Taylor & Francis Ltd, pp. 129-135.

Zuckerber, M. (2010) Interview at Web 2.0 Summit 2010. California, 17 November. [Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of Facebook]. [Internet] Available from: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czw-dtTP6oU&feature=player_embedded#!> [Accessed 18 November 2010].

Road Trip Around Lebanon

I have been away from this blog for the past couple of months because I was busy getting married! Finally after 4 years with Youhanna, we decided to tie the knot and held two spontaneous and simple weddings, one in Lebanon and one in London a month later.

When considering honeymoon ideas, we thought that since we spend more time outside Lebanon than inside it (and although Lebanon spends more time inside my head than I spend in it), it was legitimate to have a honeymoon in Lebanon rather than abroad.

So where in Lebanon? Everywhere! And this is how our honeymoon ties into my PhD research. One of Safia Saadeh’s barriers to social integration is geographical immobility. The Civil War restructured an unofficial physical geographical segregation in such a way that every major social group now dominates at least one area: The Druze in the Shouf, the Shiites in the Bekaa and South Lebanon, the Sunnis in Tripoli and Sidon and parts of North Lebanon, and the Maronites in Metn, Keserwan and parts of North Lebanon. Three decades of geographical segregation led to the growth of young individuals isolated from their counterparts in other social groups (Saadeh, 1992 pp. 79-81).

Through the Explorations and Expressions Corner research methods I carried out as part of this PhD, I was able to identify that very few participants across Lebanon have traveled around Lebanon, and know more than the area that they are living in or were brought up in. This denotes that the barrier that Safia Saadeh wrote about in 1992 on a theoretical level, is still applicable today on a practical level.

Throughout my work with Uscreates, we try to ‘practice’ what we ‘preach’, and to place ourselves in the shoes of the target audience. We have even initiated the Uscreates Comfort Zone blog, where we try out things that we expect target audiences to change about their lives for the better. For example we would try to do 30 minutes of physical activity a day, or eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables a day.

So going back to having a honeymoon in Lebanon, this gave me the perfect opportunity to move myself outside my comfort zone, and move myself around other foreign areas in Lebanon; areas I have never been to before. The rules were:

1. We have one week

2. We can’t plan in advance

3. We can’t go to a place we have already visited before. So Tripoli, Tyr, Baalbeck, Beirut and both of our hometowns were out of the question of course, but we had the green light anywhere else!

We visited the Ministry of Tourism in Hamra, and explained our plan. The staff were very helpful, and gave us a bag full of leaflets, brochures, booklets and interactive CDs showing the multitude of touristic destinations around Lebanon – but no road maps. So we borrowed a Satellite Navigation device from a friend, hired a car, and hit the road! The Sat Nav backed up with lots of stops to ask very friendly residents for directions worked magically! We arrived at every destination with no trouble at all, and realised that lack of knowledge around roads and regions was definitely not a barrier to discover new places in Lebanon.

The map below shows the routes we took and the regions we visited. Because the journey was unplanned, our itinerary doesn’t look very intuitive: From Faqra down to Mtein and further down to Maasser El Shouf, and then back up to Taanayel and back down again to Jezzine. It actually looks pretty damn stupid! But it was fun. And although it meant driving more than four hours every day, that was the best part; going past roads we’ve never been on and seeing beautiful scenes and villages we never knew existed in Lebanon.

We spent only one day in every place, and stayed overnight in places we found out about through a brochure we had from the Dhiafee Programme. This is a programme that compiles a database of low-cost temporary accommodations around the country; from guest houses, bed and breakfasts and convents to eco-villages, charities and family homes that have an extra room to rent out! The Dhiafee Programme was an ingenious service and all the information and contact details were up to date.

So here are a few highlights of what we found out from this road trip:

• All the residents we came across from wherever in the country, were equally and genuinely nice and helpful! Of course we didn’t expect people to be hostile, but we did think they might not be very welcoming, as we did look quite foreign in most places we visited. The first questions were always: ‘Which region are you from?” and this question of course helped them locate the social group we belong to. But apart from that, and surprisingly, most people were very happy and proud that we were interested in their region, and were wonderful at pointing out all the pleasurable things we could do and see to enjoy our stay to the fullest. We shared meals, drinks and stories with them, and promised to visit again.

• Lebanon is tiny in surface area but enormous in diversity. We traveled short distances, 15-20 minutes sometimes between two villages to find that they are completely different in different ways and that they signpost that difference quite clearly: More churches or mosques suddenly, people dressed differently, different dialects, different photos and flags of political leaders and parties, etc… The shift was so sudden that sometimes in one hour we would have driven through villages denoting at least four different social groups.

• Some regions obviously receive more attention than others from governmental and non-governmental organisations. This was evident either in terms of regeneration, development, education or environmental and cultural preservation and restoration. We felt this was a real shame as it reflects non-equal opportunities controlled by varying influences that political leaders from different regions have.

All in all this was a wonderful learning experience that I will repeat in the future. There are a lot more places to discover especially in the north and south east regions. I would definitely recommend it to others, and I’m happy to share the leaflets and brochures I have from The Ministry of Tourism!

Link Tracing Helps ‘expressions corner’ Tour Lebanon

I have been silent… but BUSY. ‘expressions corner’ has toured every governorate in Lebanon, and in some cases quite a few districts in the governorate. It is almost incredible that from a handful of close friends, relatives and colleagues, I established links that span through a wide network of social activists and designers who were able to help me organise ‘expressions corner’ in their local area. Their help involved finding a venue, scheduling a day, recruiting participants and/or putting me in touch with someone who could help me better than they can.

To establish these connections, I relied on a method that we often use at Uscreates. This is Link Tracing, and it is a snowballing method which involves relying on your contacts to build more contacts, and then asking these new contacts to provide you with even more contacts, and so on until you reach the right person who is willing and capable of hosting ‘expressions corner’ in his/her local region. I refer to these hosts as ‘gatekeepers’ as they provide me with access and insight into their communities. Having only ever used this method in the UK as part of my work at Uscreates, I was dubious as to whether it would prove efficient in Lebanon as the two countries have various behavioural and cultural differences. Additionally I was concerned that long distance communications may not be reliable in Lebanon as I would need to liaise with contacts that I have never met or seen, through the only mediums I could use: Email, Skype, Twitter and Facebook. Nevertheless, the method has proved surprisingly successful, and this might be a result of the favour-exchange and socially active culture prevalent in Lebanon. The gatekeepers were not only willing to offer their time and contacts for ‘expressions corner’, but (being social activists themselves) they were also genuinely interested and passionate about this project aligning with their social integration aspirations.

Below is a Link Tracing diagram illustrating the initial contacts I had (in black), and the links established from there to finally reach the group of participants engaged in ‘expressions corner’ (in red):

Here is a quick update on the 43 participants who have expressed their views in ‘expressions corner’, and following is a mapping of the regions covered and those in progress:

7 February 2010: Tyr – 6 Participants

7 February 2010: Shouf – 1 Participant

6 March 2010: Tripoli – 4 Participants

11 April 2010: Nabatiyeh – 2 Participants

17 April 2010: Mina – 5 Participants

16 May 2010: Zahleh – 8 Participants

12 June 2010: Batroun – 3 Participants

4 July 2010: Metn – 4 Participants

11 July 2010: Sidon – 5 Participants

17 July 2010: Keserwan – 5 Participants

I am still hoping to host ‘expressions corner’ in the following locations, and any help in finding a venue and participants is much appreciated:

Shouf, Beirut, Bsharreh, Zgharta, Akkar, Baalbeck, and any other regions in the South east and Beqaa areas.

I would like to thank all those people who have contributed to this project, and particularly William, Hanane, Habib, Tonnie, Maya, Laurice, Fouad, Sarah, Roy, Mireille, Nahi, and Suhair. Your have been so amazingly supportive. And finally the biggest thank you must go to my dear brother Cedric who has helped facilitate most of ‘expressions corner’ sessions and who has proved to be extremely reliable and efficient. Strangely he had studied Hotel Management and I, Graphic Design, and somehow many years later our interests collided with this project.

An ‘expressions corner’ lunch will be held in August in Beirut, and will bring together all the individuals who were involved in Link Tracing. This is an opportunity for myself to finally meet and thank collaborators face to face, as well as for them to meet one another and share their common interests within this topic area. The lunch will also help gather feedback on ‘expressions corner’ and find out about other similar projects happening in the regions.

Presentation on Scoping Methods

My supervisor Prof. Teal Triggs invited me to deliver a presentation on my research methods; which I did this past Wednesday to MA Design Writing Criticism students at the London College of Communication. Other presenters were Dr. Claire McAndrew, Dr. Yoko Akama, and Sheila Pontis. The presentations were a great way to share some of our work with the MA students and stimulate questions and conversations, but it was also great to listen to the presentations of peer researchers who are working along parallel lines, or within the same discipline.

Presenters (L to R): Sheila Pontis, Joanna Choukeir, Claire McAndrew, Yoko Akama

My presentation covered scoping methods, i.e. methods used in the first phase of a behaviour change methodology. The methods presented were a mixture of practices developed as part of my work with Uscreates, in addition to a more in-depth overview of ‘Explorations’; a method within my PhD research. A podcast and slideshow of the presentation is available below:

A Wordle of this!

At Uscreates, we’ve been using Wordle as a tool to analyse both websites and content, and it’s been proving very useful. What Wordle does is create a hierarchical visualisation of a website or any piece of text by making the words with the highest occurrence largest, and those with the fewest smallest. Simple.

I decided to create a Wordle of this blog and this is what came out!

What I like about the results is that Participant and Participants are massive! This is great because I really want my research to be participatory, a joint collaboration between all the parties involved, and I guess a lot of my writing is focusing on that. Some other great results are:

Lebanon – Of course my case study

Methods – Of course because it’s a practice-led research

Different – I love this one, because that’s the main problem I am trying to tackle; how can I design things that help ‘different’ people integrate?

Dialogue – Great, it’s a social integration method

Social/people – At the heart of the research

Visual – Looking at the problem from the perspective of how visual methods, communications contribute

Camp, Explorations, Probe – Of course, my latest fieldwork

Now what is slightly worrying is how small Communication and Design are, when these are the first two words in the PhD title! I know that I am now at the scoping/insight stage, and have not started developing any communication design yet, but I still need to boost my reading and writing in this area. A definite task for the near future.

I can start seeing how Wordle can help me map my literature review, and the best part is it only takes seconds!