Gurus Day

We have just had Gurus day, a pivotal turning point in 4th year. My gurus for the day were Craig Murdo, Social Digital Alumni, Jo Hodge PHD textiles researcher at DJCAD and Norman Alm. I hoped to get the most out of this day and It was extremely useful!

For my PDT box I used a 3 drawer bedside table, each drawer being People, Design or Technology. 
 

Being quiet deep in my research I found the People drawer the easiest to fill. I recreated a Social Anxiety sufferers Heaven and Hell, heaven being their bedroom where they can escape, and Hell being a party with lots of people.

Technology was a tricky one; with not really much clue as to where I am with a concept I wanted to iterate that I was interested in creating a handheld device. This reason for this being you can often find that mobile phones will drag people within themselves and not give them an opportunity to speak out.

Design was also challenging, with technology I am still a bit a bit in the dark with it.  As I wanted this to be handheld I thought I would show the book of Anthropometrics.

100 words

People who suffer from anxiety live with anger and fear, feelings that can control their lives.  These feelings continue, building up inside the sufferer’s head. This build up leads to autonomic responses, shortness of breath, being paralysed or frozen – a panic attack. Finding out how people not only react to their anxiety but how people get over it has been key to my project. When people know they need help they go to counselling, but panic can strike at any moment. I believe there is a space to build something that can aid counselling, breaking the dependencies people may have towards their counsellors and letting them get on with their lives.

The big question I had for the Guru’s is how do you carry out research with a sensitive user group. The guru’s advice was golden, Jo Hodge made a good point about looking closer to home, go explore the counselling service here at the Uni. Norman Alm said it is best to deal with people who are willing, reach out to people and hope for a response. Another interesting point he made was to contact the experts; this will give you insights into people’s lives from the people who help them. They can give you information about the biggest problems they face when trying to help people and how can you help these problems.

I gained loads more valuable information about progressing with my research project. Craig Murdo spoke to me about how I need to look at things that you do that would seem very normal that people would get very anxious about.  Jo Hodge also brought up triggers, saying that I should explore into peoples personal triggers.

Overall Gurus day was a success for both my project and me and I feel I have a lot to take away from and have helped me steer my research project in the right direction