The problem we identified was that there were vast amounts of empty shops and space in Leeds that we thought could be put to far better use.
To evidence this we took photos around Leeds, looked at previous studies into empty spaces in Leeds and looked on google maps to find a specific area within the city to focus on.
We used secondary qualitative research from the Internet to get initial opinions and thoughts about the empty shops in Leeds, for qualitative primary research we created interactive poster designs to gain feedback and opinions from the Leeds public as well as forums and facebook pages that were accessible for anyone to post their opinions. Sources 1 and 2 show feedback from posters and forums.
The secondary quantitative research initially came from the Internet, using facts and statistics to back up and educate our ideas. For primary quantitative research we studied the area we had decided to focus on for our project and collected numerical data, such as the amount of cars / people going past to get an idea of how busy the area was and what might be the best use of the empty spaces. Sources 3 and 4 show some of the recordings we made during this study.
The research that I found particularly helpful was the primary qualitative information gained from the interactive poster designs and forums, it was specific to our project and gave us a really good idea of what the public would want from these empty spaces and proved to be an essential part of our final design practice and context work.
We looked at this information about what people wanted from the space, and realised that a majority of people wanted the building to be knocked down, many of the other opinions were unrealistic in the time scale we were working under, and that would have to be passed onto someone else to be achieved. This made us conclude that it would be far more effective to improve how the building looks and try to inform people about issues related to wasted space in Leeds through a range of poster and flyer designs posted over the building.
The main area that was problematic was getting people to put their opinions on the posters, initially we wanted to leave pens on the posters waiting for people to notice the posters and write their opinions on them, eventually we realised that we would have to stand there and ask people to tell us what they though Leeds needs. This did however mean we got a better idea of who was leaving us their opinions and what kind of people would you would expect to see round this area.
Other research that we could have carried out, that could have proved more useful would be around whom we could send our primary quantitative and qualitative research to, especially the opinions of the public for what they wanted from these space, so that something could be done with these spaces rather than our slightly more temporary solution of improving the buildings physical appeal.
5 Things I have learnt about the design process through this brief
- The value of a range of appropriate research, including primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative
- How working properly as a group can have a huge affect on the amount and quality of the work and research produced
- The importance of sufficient planning for presentations
- The importance of correctly researching and justifying choices, whether this be based on chosen colours or typefaces etc
- How useful the use of pantones can be to allow a consistent and appropriate colour throughout a groups designs
5 things I will do differently next time
- Create a wider range of initial ideas to leave me with more options if my chosen idea doesn’t go to plan
- Think about a long term solution to the issue raised
- Complete more secondary research into previous projects and design work to influence of my own
- Try and work as a group from the second we are given the brief, rather than all completing design sheets and focusing on a few individuals ideas
- Explore a range of processes to improve my skills and knowledge of graphic design, eg screen print
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