EXPLORATORY RESEARCH/ GENERATIVE RESEARCH

Research and Design with Culture 

We are living in an open and global world. Different races, nationalities, and cultures influence what we do and how we do it. Designers have a responsibility to our community.  As a maker and creator, I believe I have a unique opportunity to use my skills and methods to positively impact people’s lives.

 

This project contains two parts:

1. Exploratory Research (Team Project) 

We did research about multicultural communities and came up with insights about their needs and behaviors. These findings informed areas of opportunity for design.

2. Generative Research (Individual)

I collected input through participatory research, generated concepts, and ultimately recommended a solution that I felt should be pursued.

Client / 

CCA

 

Instructor / 

Amy Bickerton

Lauren Ruiz

 

Key Role / 

Design Research

UX

 

Team Members/ 

Karen Song

Melissa Kim

Shelly lee

 

Year /

2016

 

Length/

 6 weeks + 4 weeks

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Exploratory Research 

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 

The purpose of the study is to connect with a specific pool of multicultural people—specifically, people who have lived in more than two countries and have been immersed in and influenced by the different cultures around them.

 

We aim to understand how multicultural immersion influences their identity and explore key factors that influence people’s national identity.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

From Anthony D. Smith's book National Identity, we found out that values, beliefs, customs, conventions, habits, languages and practices can influence people’s sense of national identification. It also mentioned that community, culture, language, beliefs are important for national identity.

 

 

 

6 PEOPLE

 

Female : 4

Male: 2

20 - 25 years old: 3

26 - 40 years old: 2

41 years old + : 1

Student : 3

Work : 3

 

 

 

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8 COUNTRIES​

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America

Thailand

China

Taiwan

Italy

Canada

Germany

South Korea

 

 

INTERVIEW

 

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INSIGHTS  

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DIMENSION & DIAGRAM

MODES

TCK(Third Culture Kids)

International Students

Raised in one place for a long time, 

but moved across different countries for certain purposes

Raised in one country as a kid

Worked in one place for 20+ years

Local 

CLEAR

(NEUTRAL) 

STRUGGLE 

CLEAR

PAIN POINTS 

Raised in a culture outside of their parents’ culture 

for a significant part of their development years

Expectation

Reality 

V.S.

V.S.

V.S.

Outside perspective

Inside perspective 

Not home 

Expectation

SUMMARY

Multicultural people love talking about their experiences with culture. 

Generative Research

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 

This project builds on the insights from our exploratory research to create a product or service for the “Third Culture Kids” community (people who were raised in a culture outside of their parent’s culture).

 

Through co-creating concepts with the TCK community, I aim to help multicultural people share their stories and connect to others like them.

OPPORTUNITY AREA

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How might we help multicultural people connect to others like them?

PERSONA

CONCEPT & SCENARIO

M2 is a new subscription based service and product for multicultural people. They can voice their stories, exchange stories with someone, and subscribe to them in just one step.

CO-CREATION & PROTOTYPES