What smell is this?
SENSING
Reading books is not an interesting activity for some children, especially when they have to memorize those vocabularies. From my observation and interview, I found out that this is a problem that children are facing. They tend to not concentrate on the books and it is difficult for them to recall the vocabulary. The research shows that human remembers things easier and faster through senses, therefore, to stimulate the brain's memory system, I came up with a book that contains the smell, objects to touch, and pictures for children who are struggling in memorizing the vocabulary.
Observation
After I decided to focus on the topic of education, I began the project by observing the stakeholders in the real situation instead of creating a design challenge. Doing this would shape my understanding of the context and help to identify a problem that occurs in the current situation. Later, I went back again for doing an interview.
The 2-hour observation took place at the student's house, where my friend has an English class with the two students who are in kindergarten 3. I was welcomed by their parents to observe and learn their behavior during the class.
At first, students were afraid to talk to me as I am a stranger so I gave them chocolate bars that I prepared for and introduced myself as one of their classmates. We played Lego together and they started to talk to me and asked me to study with them in the next class.
To record the experience, I used the experience tour from NESTA to identify an overall observation I had and it helped me to think critically about what I saw and pay attention to important details that might be helpful for the design such as students' reactions on certain things
The observation gave me an obvious problem that both students faced which is vocabulary memorizing. They seemed exhausted and bored to read the vocabulary and answer the teacher the definition. However, their emotions turned oppositely when the teacher said something about playing games and drawing.
Design Challenge
" HOW CAN I CREATE A DESIGN OR TOOL THAT HELPS STUDENTS TO MEMORIZE VOCABULARY? "
I keep the insight from the observation as to my main challenge and moved on to frame the idea through problem definition and frame idea challenge so that I would what kind of information do I want to explore in the interview.
Problem Definition from NESTA helps to analyze the problem by reflecting on the issue. An interesting part of it is when it asks me to think of this problem in different ways; this expands the area of thinking to not only focus on one particular area because there might be other factors that play roles in this problem.
Frame Design Challenge from IDEO provides a tool to organize thoughts into sections starting from the problem to the possible solutions. It allows me to think ahead to the final impact I wanted to make and what will it take to achieve it.
Interview
After I have the main focus of the project,
I launched an interview with the same teacher with the prepared interview guiding questions.
I wanted to talk with the students as well, but they were on vacation and I did not want to delay my plan, so I decided to interview children in my village to see how prevalent this issue is.
Preme ( 6 years old )
I walked into her house after I received permission from her parents to do an interview. The interview was 30 minutes long and the environment of the discussion was informal and flexible. I got insightful information from my young interviewee, Preme.
I approached her by giving cookies and started a conversation about her drawing. She walked me through her perspective of studying and her interests which gave me new ideas to see about the issue.
Pawinee ( 21 years old)
Pawinee is a part-time teacher that has been teaching for almost 2 years. The most challenging subject in her experience is English. She pointed out that making students understand and memorize the vocabulary is as hard as grammar.
The interview took around 45 minutes in a coffee shop near her house and I treated her for lunch as compensation for her time.
Let's hear from stakeholders
It is not easy to make them memorize the word and able to recall it when they see it outside the class. Students tend to remember the words that connect to their daily life.
Pawinee
Data Analysis
After gathering all insightful data from the interviews, I clustered the data into 3 themes and came up with 3 insides on each theme. Then I picked one inside from each to create How Might We questions.
How might we combine senses with a book to stimulate the memory system of their brain?
How might we make students enjoy and want to read a book without external influencers?
How might we present an obvious character of words for student to differentiate?
Secondary Research
To develop on the How Might We questions, I did secondary research on the internet in order to prepare for brainstorming the design. The information I got are elements that will be combined as ingredients to create an outcome, which is the design.
Types of Books to Read to Young Children
Children tend to enjoy reading books that contained colorful pictures, participation parts the children can engage with, and the discovery part that allows them to explore by themselves.
Smell and Memory
The olfactory bulb is a part of brain that processes and passes the smell to other areas, one of them is a limbic system that controls memory and emotion. Therefore, smell plays an important role in memory and emotion system.
See And Touch
The research of the University of Iowa shows that people tend to remember things they see and touch rather than auditory.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/02/28/improve-memory-_n_4874504.html
Brainstorming
After gathering data from the primary and secondary research I brainstormed the design based on the How Might We questions and information from the secondary research.
The final idea of the prototype is Vocabulary book that contains
Touch: Fruit skin to touch
Smell: Smell of fruit
See: Picture of fruit that made from words
Creating a Prototype
It requires graphics and designs to create a book that looks attractive to children. Personally, I have learned how to use Adobe Photoshop, however, only Photoshop itself might not be convenient to draw or arranging the book format; therefore, I found out the program called Adobe Illustrator (AI) that is specialized in graphic designs and used by many artists.
The duration of creating the prototype is five-day long. I created a plan that divided tasks and time in a week so that things would be organized and I could set the time of borrowing my uncle's laptop to work on the program which is unavailable on my laptop.
Learning Tips and Steps of Drawing in Adobe Illustrator on Youtube
Monday
Testing
It's time to test the prototype to the users. The criteria for choosing users are children who have difficulty in memorizing and do not like to read books. Therefore, I talked to people in my village who have kids and asked for their permission to test the prototype to them.
" It is interesting that I can touch the skin and smell of fruit; it will help me to recall the word next time I smell or touch the object like this. "
Grade 4 student
" I like the pictures that made from words, it makes me capture not only the pictures but also words and how they spell. I personally like to smell things, so if my school has this kind of book, it will be more fun to study.
I bet my friend will like it. "
Grade 2 student
Conclusion
This book is built on the observation and interviews that I gathered from the participants, which showed the problem of memorizing English vocabulary that, therefore, leads to discouragement and boredom in reading books among children. In the final design of the prototype,
I came up with a book that helps to grab children’s attention and stimulate the memory system in their brains by opening the senses of humans including see, touch, and smell. The feedback from users proved that it is working, however, there are rooms for improvement such as the design and additional functions of incentive that can be added. This is just the starting point, I believe that in the future, it can be applied to other filed of knowledge to create an effective experience in education to many people.
Shopping Consultation
Author's note
Hi, this is CK. It is my first time working on an individual project. It is quite challenging and new for me to go through the processes alone. Normally, when it comes to working as a team, there will be a voting system, sharing ideas, throwing some crazy thoughts that eventually became the final solution, or pulling each other up when someone feels exhausted. However, it is an opportunity to unlock new experiences by working alone as I got to fully talk or approach to people and I learned how to deal with my emotions when the environment became stressful. Lastly, it is about the technical skill that I gained from this project, Adobe Illustrator. I have learned the basic functions that can create a fantastic design, which I will continue practicing for the benefit of using this program in my future project.
Tips from me
Song is the best medicine
This is my playlist that I listened to while I was working. It was cheerful and peaceful. Here is the link, if you want to try on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/user/4grso2zu7n6ngndi3kg73bfa7/playlist/2zZ9gQ7cFIQduHZ3TZhrUj?si=ubtCrsrFQd27H0inBaLr8w
Change a working environment
When it is difficult to think of ideas, try to sit in other places not only in front of the desk. For me, sitting in my house’s terrace and breathing in a soft wind while doing the work is the most effective way to come up with ideas and be relieved.