OUGD102- What If? Self Evaluation

What problem did you identify?

Our problem was that Leeds College of Art students were not receiving information on relevant Art &; Design events in Leeds therefore were unaware of what was going on. We found this to be a problem as students should be making full use of these events to help them with their studies, especially in the research week.

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?

We compiled a questionnaire and handed it out to students in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year at the college to see whether they were aware of events going on in Leeds and whether they had heard of the local galleries and buildings where exhibitions took place.

2nd and 3rd years knew many of the places and had attended some of the events, where as first years knowledge of these places were poor.

What methods did you use to gather evidence and what forms did it take?

Primary - Our primary research took place in the form of two questionnaires...

Secondary - We found lots of information of events and exhibitions at the tourist information center's and on the 'Leeds Live it Love it' website.

Quantitative: The statistics from the questionnaires of people who knew about events going on in Leeds.Information collected from the Tourist Information and The Leeds city council website.

Qualitative: Questionnaires asking their opinion  on whether they would attend such events and which ones would most suit them depending on their interests.

What methods of research did you find useful and why?

The primary research i found to be the most useful as it showed us why it was a problem and allowed us to resolve this problem in the most useful way.

How did they inform your response to your problem?

The 2 questionnaires outlined that this was a problem and helped us to address how to solve the problem.

Although all the information students needed was already there to access the problem was that students weren't looking for it and if they did there was too much irrelevant information to sort through. It showed that we needed to keep the information clear and simple, easily accessible and the information needed to be passed straight to the student. The questionnaires proved that the most useful way of receiving information for students was via department notice boards at college, their student email and also Facebook.

What methods did you encounter as problematic?

Questionnaires.. as they can be very personal and you are relying in the person answering the questions honestly.

How did you overcome this?

Keep the questionnaires anonymous and word the questions in sense that you are not suggestive or affecting the answers.

What research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?

We could have collected further Primary Research by contacting the events on asking for statistics of visitors of what age groups etc. 

5 things i have learnt about the Design Process:

New ways of recording research
To research more before resolving a problem
Research can come from anything, anyone, anywhere.. it does not have to be a list of statistics it can be visual.
I tend to take charge of a group without even realising.
Research is time consuming!

5 things i would do different next time:

Explore more possibilities for the resolution.

Make sure that the solution we chose was the most appropriate for the problem i.e. was a printed flyer needed?
Take on a more equal role in the group
Be more confident to approach people for research information
Try to target different age ranges