Design & Research Exploration Report

Chenchen Shen 4241010

I also interviewed a postman who delivers package, who drives a van and works with his colleague. Unlike those who deliver only mail, their work is not so heavy and has much communication with people, therefore I excluded them from my target group. After a few weeks contact with PostNL, I finally got the chance to interview 3 English-speaking mail carriers in Delft. I planned to do a session with at least two mail carriers, which PostNl had promised me, but it turned out that I could only interview one mail carrier in a single time. The main questions I asked in the interviews are: How long have you been a mail carrier? What made you choose this job? What do you do when working? Which part of the work do you like? Are there any special moment during your work? (What other things happened that make your work special/happy/interesting?) What do you hope/expect to happen during your work? Do you tell something/stories about your work at home? Etc. The three interviewees, a mailmom and, a student, and another man, all work in lively places. It proves that mail carriers with closer connection with people have more satisfaction with their job. However, it made me rethink about my original design goal, which is focused on alleviate mail carriers loneliness during work by improving their communication with people. I realized the fact that mail carriers in different areas do have different working experiences and degrees of loneliness, which means I should redefine the scope of my target group or the emphasis of design goal. I have to say its quite possible that PostNL scheduled their most satisfied employees for the interviews, because the interviewees all work in lively areas and the manager refused to offer more

0. Design goal and interaction vision:

First design goal: To enhance the sense of well-being and self-worth of mail carriers by improving their communication with people. Current design goal: Making it easier for people to show some attention to mail carriers, so that they will feel more appreciated during work-time. Interaction vision: like a warm wind, embracing the mail carriers with the feeling that they are cared and appreciated by people.

1. Design and research goal:

My research explorations are focused on two target groups: mail carriers and other people. (Here mail carriers refers to those whose only deliver mail rather than packages.) The goal is to know about mail carriers working experience, the interaction between mail carriers and receivers and receivers attitude towards them. My design goal is to generate initial ideas and to test the original interaction vision.

2. Design and research activities:

2.1. Research explorations: The research activities can be divided into two parts: 2.1.1 Research on mail carriers: First I worked with Bob, whos a part-time mailman in Zuitmeer, to get the first impression of mail carriers working situation. Bob told me almost everything he knows about his work and PostNL. I also helped him with the mail, which helped me get a better empathy, and made me believe that the work is lonely in general and that improving their connection with people in some way will enhance their happiness during work. Afterwards, I asked Bob to take photos of anything interesting when he is working, which gave me a better understanding of the job from a mailmans perspective. I made a story map according to Bobs mailman experience.

interviewees. Jane told me of a guy who resigned because of loneliness, and Wouter also told me that some mail carriers work in areas with few people. However, language is a big barrier for me to contact them. Apart from the interviews, I studied the PostNLs annual report and the graduation report of Lieke Tiemersma, 'Creating the perfect match between a mailmoms life and her job, which provides me with a lot of information and insights about the job. I extracted some quotes from the report and analyzed them, which helped me to revise my design goal and interaction vision. 2.1.2 Research on other people: First I designed an online questionnaire to get a rough idea of people s experience with, their impression (which reflects the happiness index of mail carriers) and attitude (which influences whether or in what degree people want to connect with mail carriers) towards mail carriers. Also I wanted to see the difference between mail carriers delivering mail and packages. Then I did some interviews with random people, and sent out some workbooks to my classmates to collet further information about peoples experience with mail and mail carriers, which gave me a better understanding of current interaction between mail carriers and other people and the reasons behind it.

especially the brainstorming with my buddy, which generated and evaluated lots of ideas. In the workshop in my studio, I did some role playing to test some interaction possibilities. Feedback from students was mainly concerns about the efficiency of mail carriers work and the feasibility. I have to admit, due to limited access to PostNL, I hadn t do much research on mail carriers before the workshop, so it was a little too early for me to think about interaction interventions. But I reconsidered the interaction vision and interventions after more research had been done.

3 Result and conclusion of research explorations:

3.1 Research on mail carriers: Background information: As there is less and less mail, PostNL is trying to replace postbodes with part-time mail carriers. The job is flexible but strict because mail carriers are only paid for hours that are calculated necessary for specific neighborhood. 1) Interview and work with Bob + Photo probe: Working environment: Saturday, quiet, very few people on the street.

Figure 1 People I interviewed

Figure 3 Bob's working place, somewhere in Zuitmere

Figure 2 Workbook

2.2. Design explorations: I did a lot of design explorations by drawing and sketching,

Hours of work make him feel like dreaming , and the accidental communication with people wakes him up. Pleasantness: freedom, so easy, earn money, going outside, good for health, meeting people, warmness from receivers Unpleasantness: Lonely, boring, tired, bad weather, annoying mailbox, hungry/thirsty, small accidents

Concerns: efficiency, time, how to make the job interesting Special moments: about receiving warmness, special experience with people behind the door, seeing receivers are happy, offering children rubber bands, etc. 2) Interview with other 3 mail carriers: Jane (mailmom): works near city center, normally doesn t see receivers except old people and people on the street, talks with them. She wants more understanding from receivers, mistake is not always ours. Pleasantness: short time, seeing enough people, flexible time Unpleasantness: the sorting of mail, complaint from receivers, heavy workload, bad weather Concerns: efficiency, schedule for children, social connection Special moments: about receiving warmness, protecting mail in extreme weather, see receivers are happy, offering children rubber bands, etc. Wouter (a part-time student mailman): works in the city center, likes his job because he works in a lively place, talking to the receivers, seeing different spaces and circumstances in a short while. He values the connection with surroundings very much: Therere lots of colleagues who listen to music in iPod or something when deliver the mail. But I don t like it because if I listen to music, I have less contact with the surroundings, with people around me. Although he seems content with his job, when I asked what the happy/special moments during his work were, he could not think of much. One thing he mentioned is that some tourists ask him the way, which makes him feel good. I found that like others mail carriers, he doesn t have much expectation for his job, and doesn t mind liking it or not. He is not proud of his work, and just does it for extra income. 3rd mailman: I came across him at the depot. He can only speak little English so we didn t have a long talk. He likes his job because he has a job and because of the people he sees every day.

3) Key insights of literature study: Mail carriers really care about the efficiency of work because of the strict norm and heavy load. That the work is more lonely than expected is one of the reasons for mail carriers resignment. By analyzing the pull factor and the motivations for housewives to start and stay the job, I found establishing new social contact is a factor that not well-offered. The job is not a very social job. Colleagues do not meet each other very often on the depot because of the flexible working hours. The attention and appreciation of clients on the streets is an often mentioned reason to stay. Stimulating appreciation of the clients, making mail carriers feel proud of their job could be a direction for future improvement. 3.2 Research on other people: According to the questionnaire and interviews, most people have little or even no communication with mail carriers. Many think mail carriers work is lonely, boring, tiring and busy, and they are always expressionless or slightly smiling. But some people think the job is interesting because they can go outside and see many people. Figure 4 shows some analyses of the research: From the interviews and workbook, I found people communicate with mail carriers whom they see some times or who deliver mail to them. Receivers happiness of receiving a special mail will always make mail carriers happy. Some people are more or less aware of mail carriers difficulties in bad weather and are thankful to them in heart, but the gratitude hasn t been expressed.

Figure 4 Analyses on the research on other people

3.3 Conclusion of research explorations: Main findings: Mail carriers have different working experiences because of the areas, working hours and personal causes, but connection with people during work will surely enhance their happiness and satisfaction with work. On the other hand, the efficiency of work is their common concern, which contradicts the communication with people. Mail carriers mainly communicate with the receivers and people they have seen some times, but hardly have other ways to attain connection with people. Most mail carriers often mentioned their hard times in bad weather, which indicates their desire for understanding and appreciation. They don t have much expectation for their job, and just get used to it, as long as there is no complaint from receivers. Most mail carriers are not proud of their job. The reason why most people have little communication with mail carriers is the difference in time and place when mail is delivered, and also they have no trigger for a contact. Many people are aware of the difficulty of their job, some have shown appreciation when interviewed or writing on the workbook, but most of their appreciation hasn t been brought out. From the above, I come up to the conclusion, which is the revised design goal of my project: Making it easier for people to show some attention to mail carriers, so that they will feel more appreciated during work-time. I made a collage for the concept of appreciation, and found hug is a commonly used way to show appreciation. But I want my interaction vision indicates the feeling of hug in a subtle way, it is: like a warm wind, embracing the mail carriers with the feeling that they are cared and
Figure 5 Collage for 'appreciation'

appreciated by people.

4 Result and conclusion of design explorations:

4.1 Result of design explorations: In the first phase of my design explorations, I hadn t revised my design goal, so the design explorations were focused on improving the communication between two target groups. First I wanted to do something on the door and envelope, let mail carriers or receivers take the initiative to stimulate communication. I tested the prototypes in the workshop by role playing, the interaction turned out interesting but not so natural. Later in the brainstorming by myself and with my buddy, I proposed other ideas, some of which might be for reference for the new design goal.

Figure 6 Some initial ideas

In the second phase of my design explorations, the revised design goal focuses on people showing attention and appreciation for mail carriers. I came up with two concept directions: one is to make it easier for people to show appreciation and care

to mail carriers in bad weather, when their hardest moment is. The other is to make it easier for people to notice mail carriers arrival and stimulate them to come out to receive mail. Because according to my research, if people notice mail carriers are coming, they are much more likely to come to them for the mail. Below are two ideas related to these two directions.

Idea1: Caring Mat. In bad weather, such as rainy, stormy, snowy, hot days, some images or words will appear on the mat to show care for mail carri ers. Different mats are s ensitive to different kind of weather. I designed this mat because mail carriers always take shelter from the rain in front of the door. And the mat is easily seen if the mail slot is on the door, because they have to come to the door to deliver the mail. Idea2: When the mail carri ers come to a street, they scan thei r identification card to a device by the street, then the music starts, so people know the mail carriers are coming, and are more likely to come out for the mail.

Developed version for idea 2: Music trolley. Add musical device to mail carriers vehicle, so that they can bring music everywhere and attract people attention. It s also inspired by the fact that many mail carriers listen to music during work-time. Why not bring the music outside? So that they won t lose contact with others because of the music. 4.2 Conclusion of design explorations: The success of idea 1 is bases on the assumption that some people are willing to buy this kind of mat, but this seems quite uncertain. The first concept direction has many other possibilities. The question is whether the intervention should be a public or a personal way. If the solution is kind of a public product or service, it s easier for people to accept. Whether the solution is public or personal, it s better to show personal attention. Idea 2 is applicable for some situations, like a place where some old people live or at the weekend when many people are at home. It increases the chance for face-to-face communication between mail carriers and people, also will enhance the efficiency of mail carriers work. However, I hope to explore and test more concept directions and ideas in the future.

Figure 7 Idea 1

Figure 8 Idea 2

Appendices

Figure 9 Photo-Probe of Bob's mailman life

Figure 10 Mailman's working experience

Figure 11 Working with Wouter in city center

Figure 12 Some notes of interviews for mail carriers

The questionnaire for the research on other people:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFBvbWlrOVh0b2Mwc2d zR0RPQUwyTmc6MQ Summary of responses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApCq8nCz41bldFBvbWlrOVh0b2M wc2dzR0RPQUwyTmc