Example of a current Implication!!

In Iko Iko today I spotted some inspirational cards with quotes from various authors and leaders.
I thought they were so inspirational, even for myself!! And they are illustrated beautifully.

6 of the small cards shown below:

Top left illustrates: "What should I be but just what I am?"
– Edna St. Vincent Millay

Top middle: "Live! Live in the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing."
– Oscar Wilde

Top right: "Whatever you are, be a good one." (My fav!!)
– Abraham Lincoln

Bottom left: "Wisdom begins in wonder."
– Socrates

Bottom middle: "May you live every day of your life."
– Jonathan Swift

Bottom right: "With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"
– Oscar Wilde

Adulthood Survey/Questionnaire Questions

1) What is your age?
2) When you were in high school what were your perceptions of where you would be now?
3) What pressures do you feel pressure to be a well rounded grown-up?
4) Where do your life expectations come from?
5) Where do you fit yourself in the world and why?
6) What are the top 3 things you value most in your life right now?
7) Where do you feel you are in life at the moment? Do you think that you are at the stage you should be in life whatever this is?
8) In an ideal world, describe what would be happening in your life right now?
9) How do you measure your success?
10) Do you believe that you will be happier later on in life?
11) Are your expectations of what you want or what you feel others want you to do?
12) What’s stopping you doing the things you want to do?
13) If today was the last day of your life, would you do what you're about to do?

Draft problem statement

20-30 year olds are feeling lost and a sense of failure, needing a way to embrace this exciting stage of life and be reassured that they have not failed because surprisingly  20s has developed into to a new stage and period of human life that in previous generations was not there due to the changes the 21st century has brought.

Survey Questions

1. When you were in high school did you have any perceptions of where you would be now?
2. Do you feel pressure to be a well rounded grown-up? What pressures do you feel?
3. Where do your life expectations come from?
4. Where do you fit yourself in the world? Why do you feel like that?
5. What are the top 3 things you value most in your life right now?
6. Where do you feel you are in life at the moment? Do you think that you are at the stage you should be in life whatever this is?
7. In an ideal world, describe what would be happening in your life right now?
8. How do you measure your success?
9. Do you believe that you will be happier later on in life?
10. Are your expectations of what you want or what you feel others want you to do? 
11. What’s stopping you doing the things?
12. If today was the last day of your life, would you do what you're about to do?

Week 6, Session 2 (Group Established)

21st August                                 Brainstorm and Mind Mapping

Find out reasons why: people feel the requirement and need to conform [to society?]

Initial Idea's, Organised & Grouped

First draft of our understanding of the audience and their needs.

We dissected the brief into two options, as we were going off on a tangent and it was seemingly too broad a topic. Our Target audience/demographic is now 20-30 years olds (young adults from any walk of life eg studying/working?). The two options were:

1) Living in the now by appreciating the day-to-day, just being. 

2) Confidence in following your own path. (prevention/direction for future)

And so, we have agreed collectively on number 1).

Intentions RE: Research

some IDEO tools/cards we could use are:

• photo's

• Documentation

• Inclusive, anonymous writing answers to questions on paper in public

• 5 Why's

• Draw the experience

• Loosely structured interviews

• Card sort/card pick

• Surveys and questionnaires

• word concept association

• Personal inventory

• Camera journal

• Character profiles

• Cross-cultural comparisons.

MAYBE's

* fly on the wall/shadowing/A day in the life

* Narration

* Try it yourself

* Activity analysis

* Behaviour sampling and Archaeology

* Cognitive maps

* Behavioural mapping

* Collage (draw, use what's there?)

* Conceptual landscape (draw)

Jason also mentioned Jacob Nielson's practices which we could research. Nielson advises that one does not need to research any more than 7 people to get the whole picture/enough info, because this is when you start getting the same answers.

Below is an example of a public exercise to ask questions/survey. 

Could come under the IDEO tool: surveys and questionnnaires.

Just a few possible solutions at this stage

• Who Are You? campaign where individuals can say exactly what type of person they are and express their passion for life?

• Installations

• Inspire through journeys

• Story journals from real people (participants) which can then be collated together and shared and dispersed by print and/or digital media.

• Sharing

• Experiences

• Video - Stories shared from real people. 

•Campaign aimed to inspire and encourage.

Reverse Brief & Notes from Jason

REVERSE BRIEF

Emerging Adults
In Westernised cultures, 20-30 year olds go through an ambiguous waiting period where there is a transition from adolescence into adulthood.

(We could perhaps personalise this with a character/feelings eg; Sam is a young adult and is not sure about...")

Audience Needs
Understanding of the term or transition 'emerging adulthood' and shown that they are not fully matured/accomplished adults yet, but that's okay. They have not failed, there is just a new stage in life and their transition/process is longer; brought on by 21st Century changes.

• Understanding, reassurance, embracing & understanding the journey they are on.
• Help our Target audience to understand and navigate this ambiguous time in their lives and help them to feel alright about being in this stage/space in time.
• Create a movement that aids to facilitate those who are in the period of 'emerging adulthood,' to celebrate and embrace the exciting and ambiguous time they have to live in the moment, and simply life life for life.

(could we add this) We aim to generate a diverse campaign that is not a 'one size fits all' approach?


–––
Jason has suggested we perform research through as many means as possibly, because this is something that is not talked about often, or commonly heard of day to day. The research will give us a much more comprehensive understanding from a spectrum of individuals, even if this may be 7 in total. Ask as many open ended questions as possible (questions that do not have a 'yes' or 'no' answer, but more of a 'what pressures do you feel in society or amongst peers' etc. which they can say 'I dont feel any' or explain.)
He also feels we shouldn't over-complicate anything. 

Some key causes that may contribute to delayed EA:
• Lack of independance
• Not wanting to try new things, because they are scared of the unknown.
• Outlook on life and their upbrining.

Reverse Brief.

Peoples response to emerging adulthood.

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  These comments that I found on line from people who read about emerging adulthood and have found reassurance of the ambiguous nature of this space acknowledges to us just how important this brief is and how we are onto a key issue. 

  
  

  http://allgroanup.com/featured/what-is-emerging-adulthood-and-why-it-explains-your-twenties/

  
  

  
  

  This definatley describes the situation. My parents won't let me out but I hope to go to university out of the province in September. When I took a semester off school, and was looking for school one of the stores I was thinking of applying to I noticed a older women at the desk (a store I thought of being for young people). At my first job I'd rather be with other young people. Currently, I'm in college and don't have any friends, which I hope will change when I go to the university. One of the things, I wouldn't like is to be alone but its understandable that this group is 2nd after the seniors.
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  I am 25, have a high paying job (right out of school), single, and just bought a house.

  Stil have no effing idea what I'm doing, and feel more and more lost everyday!
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  I'm 23 and in school at the moment been out my parents house for a year..... This really kinda helps put everything into perspective. Tells me I'm not alone.

  
  

  
  

  
  
  

   
• Great article! Really puts my situation into perspective. Moved out of my parents house, have had about 5 different jobs in the last 3 years, and the question "why am I here?" keeps popping into my head. Looking forward to reading more of your articles..

  
  

  
  
  
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  Wow! My wife became aware of this while attending a teaching seminar in Auburn, AL. She was fascinated since it so accurately depicted our son, and to some extent, our daughter. She passed this link on to me, and I found it a brief, down-to-earth explanation for the "theory". As I look around at all the younger people in our small hometown, I see it everywhere. This isn't the same generation my wife and I grew up in. We were expected to either go to college and get right on into a job, get married and start raising a family, go to work right after high school or go into the military. (We're in our late 50's).

  
  

  
  

Emerging adulthood.

Red = Research.
Black = My thoughts/How it effects project.

I stumbled over the concept of emerging adulthood and it is exactly what our brief is talking about and trying to help those transition through.

Emerging adulthood is the stage after highschool in which an increasing amount of 20yr olds are feeling at a state of loss and confusion due to the changing 21st century and modern world.


A study found that over 60% of those aged 19-29 believed that  "adulthood will be more enjoyable than my life is now."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/wellness/story/2012-07-30/Emerging-adults-18-29-still-attached-to-parents/56575404/1

This statistic from a wellness journal is exactly what our brief is based around and what we are trying to do. This perception that life will be better when one is an adult is a horrible way to live yet with the changing world the period between finishing school and becoming an adult ( ones 20s ) is growing into a whole new space and period of a humans life that in previous generations was not there.

As I look around at all the younger people in our small hometown, I see it everywhere. This isn't the same generation my wife and I grew up in. We were expected to either go to college and get right on into a job, get married and start raising a family, go to work right after high school or go into the military. (We're in our late 50's).

This is what an older man said in response to emerging adulthood.

It is interesting how he managed to establish that it is a different world and a different generation to his, yet those whom are navigating this emerging adulthood just feel as if they are lost and unsuccessful due to them not being at the same stage in life in their 20s as their parents were.

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, Ph.D is the leading scholar behind Emerging Adulthood, which in a nutshell suggests that the majority of twentysomethings in Westernized cultures go through a specific sort of ambiguous waiting period between the transition from adolescence to adult. The typical “adult” markers of leaving home, getting married, and having children, are no longer the indicators that you have boarded the Adult Train.

Why Humans find it so hard to live in the now.

Personally I feel so grateful at night time when I am in bed and its raining but I have a roof and blankets.With this fast paced uncertain world we all forget these little things and forget to be in the space and time we are in with appreciation of what we have.

The reasons behind our lack living in the moment and living life for life even in everyday situations steam form human traits that differ us from other animals.

It is uncertainty in life that stops us from living in the moment and embracing the stage we are in in life.Instead we push and push to get too the next stage, assuming this will be better.

One of the downsides of the mostly awesome phenomenon of human consciousness is the ability to worry about the future. We know the future exists, but we don’t know what’s going to happen in it. “In other animals, unpredictability or uncertainty can lead to heightened vigilance, but I think what’s unique about humans is the ability to reflect on the fact that these future events are unknown or unpredictable,” says Dan Grupe, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. “Uncertainty itself can lead to a lot of distress for humans in particular.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/how-uncertainty-fuels-anxiety/388066/

Meet 1 . Defining.

Our group did not come together as a group until the last Friday before break.This was due to illness and the ambiguity around what we were facing in selecting a brief and becoming established/understanding a whole new brief.

We all felt a bit lost and confused about what we were meant to be doing and also very rushed into a new brief which made it take more time for us to find our feet as a group.

Starting fresh we all wrote up what we felt the key parts of the brief were and did some individual brainstorming, bringing with us the work we had done while not a group.

Britt:

I resonate so much with the brief ( your name here ) which is why I chose it yet it is a very wishy washy brief in which a lot of generalised statements are made. 

I am looking forward to researching further and really figuring out where and why young people feel like this with more scientific supported studies as this will hopefully direct the project further. 

The Brief