Visual Brief - Text + Alternate

Visual brief text one

(1) Audience Profile:

Mildred Murphy needs to get to work, she is sick of the people on the bus and their behaviour. She want’s a new system which caters to her needs being an elderly woman whom can’t afford to stand on busy buses.

(2) Situation/Context:

Every day Mildred spends close to an hour on the bus from Petone, this has a detrimental effect on her the experience on the bus is often surrounded by rude and disrespectful people. As Mildred has to use a cane she struggles to find seating in the priority seating as the bus is full by the time it gets to her, this situation isn’t positive for Mildred’s wellbeing, resulting in her getting grumpy at other people on the bus creating a ripple effect onwards to others.

(5) Provocation:

How might we made Mildred’s morning commute to suit her needs?

This could take the form of an initiative encouraging better public transport etiquette , a new mini-bus system or even a car pooling initiative with like-minded people.  

Visual brief text two

Satina

(1) Audience Profile:

Motivations

Mildred is elderly but cannot retire due to lack of money and a mortgage. Her license has been revoked therefore she is forced to rely, currently, on buses and trains. She cannot afford a taxi and doesn’t know what uber is. She wishes young people would have more respect.

Wants

A safer commute, where she gets to sit down without trying to force someone out of their seat and making a scene, on the bus to work and social events such as bingo.

Needs

To get to where she needs to without risking her health and well-being

(2) Situation/Context:

Every week day Mildred spends close to an hour on the bus from Petone to the city centre where she works. Her commute is having a detrimental effect on her health, as she is waiting for knee surgery and requires a cane to walk. The bus is often full by the time Mildred boards, she struggles to find a seat. Currently there are two pairs of seats facing each other dedicated to elderly, prams, morbidly obese and people in wheelchairs, these are often occupied by perfectly able bodied passengers who require prompting to move, or simply ignore Mildred altogether. This experience infuriates Mildred and creates a tense atmosphere on the bus, ruining her mood and other passengers for the rest of the day, thus creating a ripple effect.

(3) Insight:

Surprisingly, Mildred is actually quite a social woman, although not the most positive, she enjoys interacting with polite, well-mannered people. It is the busing experience that is souring her mood before she even gets to work every day, making her co-workers nickname her “Cranky Pants” and avoid social interactions with her where possible. If presented with a more positive experience that caters to her needs, her dreaded journeys would become favourable, which improves her well-being through connecting with others.

(4) Need:

Mildred needs to be surrounded by respectful people on her commutes around the Wellington region, particularly from the Hutt Valley to the CBD. The opportunity presents for a travel initiative which encourages like-minded people to travel to their desired destinations together, improving the overall satisfaction of the journey.

(5) Provocation:

How might we make Mildred’s commute into a positive experience?

This could take the form of an initiative to encourage better public transport etiquette, an app or an event to promote car-pooling, or an entirely new form of transport i.e a seniors only car on the train, a seniors bus or social mini-bus.

Kristen

(6) Response:

There are physical and digital design precedents which could inform positive interactions on busses. Currently the bus stop where Mildred’s journey begins is boring and plainly painted, there is plenty of advertising space here, there is endless possibilities for design to influence Mildred’s ride - an app which encourages acts of kindness for a virtual reward or an app which is a carpool with like-minded people leaving at the same time from the same place for the morning commute. There are options for things on the bus, the seats which could improve and be categorized for different people - social or quiet, the bus is often plain with absolutely no advertising even the poster holders empty.

Initiatives currently enforced overseas are a campaign by Transport for London which targets the commuting ‘criminals’, the people who don’t respect others, who behave in an unruly manner annoying and irritating other commuters. The campaign is a poster campaign which uses poetic humor to shame the people whom don’t act courteously on public transport. There is also a similar campaign by NZ bus which uses characters to enforce ‘pet hates’ from people and remind people to not become one of these people.

(7) ‘Five Ways to Well-being

This brief has the biggest potential to address a majority of the 5 ways to wellbeing - give, giving for people who are on the bus, not Mildred but the people who can gain from doing something positive for someone else.

Keep learning - Learning about bus etiquette and what things can be done to improve the commute for many

Connect - through helping someone else you would connect with them and feel a boost mentally from your connection through helping that person. Connecting by giving Mildred the sense and other commuters the sense of community on their journey.

Take notice - taking notice and realising the actions of others around you, if Mildred was helped by someone and she noticed they got up for her, simily by recognizing this and thanking the person these is a positive connection occurred. Taking notice of their needs and showing they care, a positive way to well-being.

Visual brief text four - My refinements

Abstract

Mental health is a rising issue within suburban communities due to the large number of people dealing with the stress of commuting to the city. 

The focus of this brief is to improve the well‑being of commuters, by creating a more positive journey in and around Wellington city and the Wellington region. 

Current Situation

Currently, there are two pairs of seats facing each other dedicated to elderly, prams, pregnant women and people in wheelchairs. Often these priority seats are occupied by able–bodied passengers who require prompting to move. (reference!). 

Mildred regularly gets ignored by these passengers, who are too busy on their cellphones etc. to take notice of other passengers needs – or simply don’t see why they should give up their seat. This experience infuriates Mildred and creates a tense atmosphere on the bus and train. This atmosphere creates a ripple effect, souring not only her her mood but other commuters’, for the rest of the day.

Wants

Mildred wants people to be respectful and aware of others needs on her commute, creating a more positive experience.

Needs

Mildred needs a safer commute, where she gets to her destination without risking her health and well‑being. 

Insights

Surprisingly, Mildred is actually quite a social woman, although not the most positive person. She enjoys interacting with respectful, well‑mannered people. It is the busing experience that is putting  her in a bad mood every day, before she even gets to work. Her co‑workers have nicknamed her  “Cranky Pants” and avoid social interactions with her where possible. If presented with a more positive experience, which catered to her needs, her dreaded journeys would no longer negatively impact her mood. This would improve her well‑being by affording her the opportunity to connect with others.

Opportunity

In this brief there is an opportunity to transform a dreaded experience into a positive one, for a large number of people. 

Currently the bus stop where Mildred’s journey begins is plainly painted, providing ample advertising space. 

The bus and train themselves also hold many opportunities for seats and decals on windows, doors, walls and floors, to advertise a positive messages. 

The opportunities for design to impact well‑being on public transport are endless.  

Provocation

This project could take the form of an initiative to encourage better public transport etiquette, an app or an event to promote car-pooling with like‑minded people, or even an entirely new form of transport i.e a seniors only car on the train, a seniors bus or social mini-bus.

This project could even take the form of a kindness initiative. The ultimate goal is to improve the overall satisfaction of the commute. 

Response

There are endless possibilities for design, both physical and digital means, to positively influence Mildred’s ride. 

For example, we found campaigns promoting bus etiquette through poetry, song, websites where you create your own character to win prizes, and through the anti‑nostalgic embodiment's of

bad behaviours.

We also found, options for improvements through designated seating areas and priority boarding. 

Visual brief V.2

This was produced collaboratively, to develop a base style that was much more visual then our first try where we had focused more on the wording.

Refinements:

• Photo on the cover, names on the back, and use of accent colour to break the grey
• full page photographs depicting Mildred's journey, accompanied by a journey map device on the bottom of the page, turning our brief into a narrative.

• Pull Quote to add importance and visual
• Title bars for hierarchy and diversity

• Restructure so you are not overwhelmed by the huge facts page, incorporate facts throughout document, bite sized chunks of info
• Incorporate attributes into boxes scattered throughout
• More friendly image to show she isn't always "cranky pants", better resolution

• refined text, re-structured order

• Different layout, utilizing travel device

• Emphasizing the provocation how might we

• Utilizing the journey map motif

Visual brief Alternate Spreads

We both worked together on producing a more visual brief than our initial one (see V.2), developing a more image based layout. We proceeded to then make refinements separately. These are my refinement. NOTE: Kristen is set on using Futura as the typeface and I don't have access to that, so the fonts are some kind of default version and Univers, despite packaging it and it saying it is Futura.

Refinements:

• Lightening the travel motif to draw less focus to it (the circle and line), aligning with text to draw focus to the start of it
• Having the title in caps to make it sit nice and even within its block
• having the title block exit the edge of the page, stylized
• font size of title smaller thinner, more refined look
• Using an orange block for quotes for accent, to draw attention
• Making the quotes not caps, for ease of reading and so you don't feel like they are screaming at you
• making the quotes size smaller and thinner, this is a small document plus things dont need to be so large to be readable or have impact
• removing some of the leading from the quote to keep it cohesive 

• Adding opacity to the attribute boxes so they are easier to read
• changing the handwritten attribute typeface to one more legible
• making the attributes orange to give them more importance
• putting the facts into a circle to differentiate them from the attributes, and using large numbers to draw out attention, and identify it as a fact instantly
• a black overlay on the photo to break the monotony of the grey/blue tone
• leading in the table to make it easier to read
• shortening the journey sticks so the labels are less intrusive on the photo
• thinning, making smaller, and using black on the journey labels to decrease their importance and refine their look
• aligning the journey label sticks to the centre
• used a thinner type for the text

Visual brief V.3 Feedback
The group we got feedback from was really helpful, from their document I would guess they are taking editorial, and re-enforced some of my comments on hierarchy and accent colours.

They really liked the journey map, and thought the text was well written and succinct 

They also suggested:

• Facts be on fact page because they thought the picture was too obscured, but liked the bubbles just not on the image
• orange under the titles to keep the accent colour up and improve hierarchy
• put more emphasis on Mildred's attributes
• re-order the sections opportunity, provocation then how might we