Today I talked individually with Emma about my brief and design criteria, and we had a helpful discussion about research methods. I'm interested in the cultural probe. It would be a kit of postcards, maps, journals, cameras, recording devices, text and imagery etc. which is sent to participants and designed to inspire the participant to consider personal context and circumstance, and respond to the design team in ways facilitated by the materials. This qualitative method will generate insights into key patterns and themes that might emerge from the participant group.

Emma talked about a previous student who had used a cultural probe and gotten some valuable, insightful information from it. This particular student asked participants to name 5 hashtags that they thought were relevant to a particular topic, which the student could then search for on instagram, twitter etc. to find even more information. This would be useful for my project. She also suggested that because my project is interested in slow design and encouraging people to be contemplative, I shouldn't overload participants with information, and so should restrict their space to write, the number of activities included in the kit etc.