Thursday, October 9, 2008
Sketch Ideas for 18-20s
Assuming I take the route of designing a promotional campaign (like Nelson suggested in last week's presentation critique), here's some ideas:
Interactive Survey stand at Granville Island Public Market
So I was at the Public Market on Monday buying apples to make my mini apple pies, when this caught my eye:



It's a survey thing. Incentive: win a free basket of food. The interface and aesthetics is dry and ugly, but the placement is good. It's in a open space area nearby the food court. Quite noticeable and as such, I saw more people providing feedback there than I've ever seen at the VPL, which is zilch. I filled out the survey. No instructions that I can remember and it took me awhile to get used to the system. For example, I didn't know how to go back one step to correct a mistake and so, I had to figure that out on my own. Nonetheless, the placement is eye-catching.
Questions included things like: how often do you visit the island, how much do you intend to spend, how ofte do you visit the island, what is your annual income, age, gender, what do you do at the market, do you intend visit other places like the Net Loft after the market, do you come to the island because of the...(prices, variety, convienence, etc), what is your occupation, etc etc etc. And they said it was a 5 minute survey. Simple multiple choice.
It's a survey thing. Incentive: win a free basket of food. The interface and aesthetics is dry and ugly, but the placement is good. It's in a open space area nearby the food court. Quite noticeable and as such, I saw more people providing feedback there than I've ever seen at the VPL, which is zilch. I filled out the survey. No instructions that I can remember and it took me awhile to get used to the system. For example, I didn't know how to go back one step to correct a mistake and so, I had to figure that out on my own. Nonetheless, the placement is eye-catching.
Questions included things like: how often do you visit the island, how much do you intend to spend, how ofte do you visit the island, what is your annual income, age, gender, what do you do at the market, do you intend visit other places like the Net Loft after the market, do you come to the island because of the...(prices, variety, convienence, etc), what is your occupation, etc etc etc. And they said it was a 5 minute survey. Simple multiple choice.
Priorities of the Day & Responses from Presentation Critique
After getting critiques & feedback from the research presentation I gave out last week (Oct 2), here are the things I need to consider:
I have been making notes in my sketchbook of the weekly tasks that I need to get done before the following class. It's just a to-do list. After talking with the instructor today, here's what I gotta to:
- developing a promotional campaign thing to entice the audience into providing more feedback to the library rather than simply improving the current feedback system the library has in place (because redoing their survey forms sounds like an InDesign layout job)
- if it is a system, don't get too bogged down with it. Remember the design of the product (whatever that will be)
- doing a post-it note thingy isn't so bad. Also, if aiming at 18-20 something audience, exploring applications such as Facebook, MySpace, etc is good because the audience frequent those areas a lot. Things like a banner ad on those sites.
I have been making notes in my sketchbook of the weekly tasks that I need to get done before the following class. It's just a to-do list. After talking with the instructor today, here's what I gotta to:
- talk to librarians of which audience group (senior pr 18-20s) that they need to hear from most...OR...decide which group would interest me most. Like which group I would like to learn most from, etc.
More Sketchy Ideas...for Seniors group
Thursday, October 2, 2008
sketches
examples of existing VPL surveys

Example of survey form they use at the library. English and Chinese translation. Also, they have suggested purchase forms where you can suggest an order of a specific title. Plenty of restrictions though.
They are also currently holding the Vision for 2015 thing. Basically, you write on a sticky note of what you want in a library in 2015. Lots of requests for coffee shops.
Week 4: Searching For A New Direction
Where does time go? Anyway...
Sept 18
Kensington branch @ 5:20pm:
Hopped over to Kensington after class to hopefully see Yukiko, but she wasn't in. Marilyn told me to come in by Tuesday when she should be in. Said I could send an email.
Sept 23
Kensington branch @ around 12pm:
Went over to Kensington branch. Yukiko was busy and in a hurry to check things over at the new Kensington location. So I was told by Marilyn to send an email. So I sent one later on:
After I sent my email out to Marilyn and before she replied back, I talked with Wendy, the manager of the branch. Remembering some lovely instructor advice, I brought my digital camera along to sound record the interview. Too bad it mysteriously stopped recording after the first 3 minutes. When I realized what happened, I promptly hit record but since the interview was coming to a close, I had only the last 18 seconds of it. I'd like to upload it but Wendy wouldn't want this recording to go public. So here's a paraphrased version:
Sept 24
Firehall branch @ 4:30pm:
Talked to Noni Mildenberger who works at the Info desk. Once again, I sound recorded. I made sure to upload the Wendy sound file onto my computer and then delete all the files in my digital camera so I can have space for the interview. But not 1 minute into the interview, my camera stopped recording because its memory card was full. What? I just erased everything on that card, didn't I? How could you be full already? The Wendy interview was 3 minutes long with pictures on the memory card and this Noni interview was even 1 minute long before the card says it's full? At least I'll learn to not trust digital cameras next time.
Anyway, I will upload the sound file in a minute.
Sept 18
Kensington branch @ 5:20pm:
Hopped over to Kensington after class to hopefully see Yukiko, but she wasn't in. Marilyn told me to come in by Tuesday when she should be in. Said I could send an email.
Sept 23
Kensington branch @ around 12pm:
Went over to Kensington branch. Yukiko was busy and in a hurry to check things over at the new Kensington location. So I was told by Marilyn to send an email. So I sent one later on:
Hello!Marilyn replied back to me a few hours later:
This is Cindy, whom I met with you today early afternoon. Two weeks ago, I spoke to Yukiko about audience feedback for the library. My goal is to conceptualize a communication tool/strategy for libraries to use when getting feedback from their patrons (not that it will be
implemented in real life).
Yukiko told me that I could look into the age 18 to early 20s group of people because that is the demograph that libraries in general hear the least feedback from. My question is, is there also another demograph that I can look into? A demograph that provides the second least amount of feedback OR a demograph that the library would also welcome feedback from, besides young adults. It doesn't have to be limited by age group, just any kind of people.
I am not collecting personal data from these demographs on behalf of the library. It is to inform me what kind of a project/solution that I can create based on the research answers I get.
Hi CindyBritannia branch @ around 1:30pm:
In answer to your question, i am sending you a link to the library's Working Together project which has tried to identify groups that may be underserved by the library. http://www.librariesincommunities.ca/ If you read the Toolkit, there are groups that the library feels it underserves. This group ranges from First Nations to Vietnamese to low-income to sex-trade workers. So for your project you would be able to choose yourself a group from this website to focus one since there are so many possibilities. I know that this leaves this pretty open to you but then allows you to choose one group.
I hope this helps you.
After I sent my email out to Marilyn and before she replied back, I talked with Wendy, the manager of the branch. Remembering some lovely instructor advice, I brought my digital camera along to sound record the interview. Too bad it mysteriously stopped recording after the first 3 minutes. When I realized what happened, I promptly hit record but since the interview was coming to a close, I had only the last 18 seconds of it. I'd like to upload it but Wendy wouldn't want this recording to go public. So here's a paraphrased version:
What demographic do you like to hear feedback from the most in general?
- Everyone in general. We have the 2015 survey and a online survey put up recently so you can get an idea of the questions asked. The public library caters to everyone. Of course, there are groups that don't walk into the library. We'd like to hear from them. We have Outreach services that does that. They look into fields untouched.
What are those fields?
-People like the disabled, aboriginals, etc. This [Britannia] community has a large first nations population which we would like to know more from so the library can be made more accessible to them or cater to their needs.
So aboriginal people is what the library would like to hear more from?
-Yes.
Sept 24
Firehall branch @ 4:30pm:
Talked to Noni Mildenberger who works at the Info desk. Once again, I sound recorded. I made sure to upload the Wendy sound file onto my computer and then delete all the files in my digital camera so I can have space for the interview. But not 1 minute into the interview, my camera stopped recording because its memory card was full. What? I just erased everything on that card, didn't I? How could you be full already? The Wendy interview was 3 minutes long with pictures on the memory card and this Noni interview was even 1 minute long before the card says it's full? At least I'll learn to not trust digital cameras next time.
Anyway, I will upload the sound file in a minute.
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