What If . . . Self Evalutation.
What problem did you identify?
When I first started out looking at our general title ‘Urban Decay’ I focused on looking at crime rates for Leeds. I began by looking at associations with our genre and with further research discovered that vandalism and graffiti were a big problem in Leeds and across the country generally, this was the problem that I settled on.
For the second part we were looking at other problems associated with problem that we had originally came up with. For this we decided to look at what the older generation really think about graffiti, whether they like it or not and also whether graffiti walls/designated areas to graffiti actually work. These were the areas I focused on to research. From my research I got a generally opinion from the older generation that they don’t all think that graffiti is horrible but that it is out of control. I also found out that when it came to graffiti walls the general consensus was that they worked as long as the area that you do them in wants them and they are monitored so that people cant do random tagging.
What evidence did you find to support your decision?
When I began my research I was looking at statistics and crime rates across the country and what became prominent were the results and vandalism and graffiti, I then began to focus on my research looking into these more. I managed to find the worst affected places in Leeds and where exactly those areas were. I then went to take photographs of Little London, which was the worst affected area in Leeds. I wanted to establish primary research for it, we went as a group and all got our own photographs. I also looked up vandalism stories that happened in Leeds to see how bad they are and what people had felt about them/done about it. I also rang the Little London Action Centre to see what they thought about the vandalism/graffiti problem in their area and what they thought about our areas to do something about it. The response on a whole were good they really liked the idea and thought it would help them to get the kids involved in some proactive instead of just drawing all over the buildings in the area.
For the second part of the research I created a questionnaire to ask the older generation and I also started a forum to ask people what they thought about designated graffiti areas. The results I got from this were very successful I managed to get a good variety of responses which meant it was good to evaluate. As I said above the results to both sets of research were fairly positive and they also gave me answers on the best ways to combat graffiti as a problem.
What methods did you use to gather you evidence and what forms did it take?
I went through a variety of different ways to collect my research varying largely between primary and secondary. I looked at using photography to take pictures of the area and Leeds itself, looking specifically at vandalism and graffiti. I also made contact with the local community of Little London to see what they thought of the problem and I also trawled the internet for crime statistics and vandalism statistics, looking firstly across the country and then more specifically at Leeds.
For the second part I developed a questionnaire to ask the Older generation about their thoughts on graffiti, I got their responses and managed to work out a percentage of what they thought. I also joined a forum to and started a post ‘Designated graffiti walls- do they work or not?’ I got about 26 different people discussing the idea, I didn’t put an input into it because I wanted it to be purely uninfluenced people.
What forms did it take?
(primary, secondary, quantative, qualitative)
My research crossed over all the different specifics for research. My primary research was looking at the worst affected area in Leeds, taking photographs and talking to the people themselves. My secondary research was looking at statistics and information of the Internet. My quantative research came from my questionnaire and forum post where I got a variety of responses to my questions. This was also my qualitative because they stated opinions as well as giving my hard statistics and facts to work with.
What methods of research did you find useful and why?
I think that the best part of the research was the primary quantative research, it lets you get a personal response to the problem as well as hard statistics to work off which help you feel more informed about the subject. All the research was important because one piece research rolls onto another, but as I said I think that primary research is more effective and beneficial in the long run.
How did these inform your response to the problem?
By collecting a substantial amount of primary research helped me be more informed on peoples views and what they would/wouldn’t want to when it came to the graffiti workshop, as well as showing me what they thought about graffiti and vandalism as a problem The secondary research meant that I could find different things to devise questionnaires and specific areas to look at helping me be more informed.
What methods did you encounter as problematic?
The main problems with the research were establishing appropriate questions to ask people and getting hold of people to ask them. People were very unresponsive to questionnaires to I decided the best thing to do would be to ring older family member and older friends to find out what they thought.
How did you overcome this?
When it came to designing questionnaires I worked out that the best thing to do was to design a couple and see which ones worked best in getting responses to the questions and then developed them from there. And as I said before because people were unresponsive when you ask them in person I decided to ring around and ask people instead. It was easier this way and as they were people I knew they were very helpful.
What research would you have carried out that could have proved more useful?
I think if I had had more time I would have liked to have gone to individual houses and ask them what they thought about the vandalism problems etc. Except that may have proved problematic as people may not open their doors or be very helpful. I would also have liked to go to the other worst affected areas to get more primary research so I could be more informed about the problem and may have given me more ideas to tackle it, again thought time was and issue and I wanted to my research to be concise and work well.
List five things that have lean’s about the design process over the last two weeks?
· Primary research is more successful
· Statics help you be more informed and help you more from one area to another
· Research is vital to creating a working solution
· There is a vast amount of ways to collect research
· You have to learn to be focused when collecting your research and stay on point
List five things you would do different next time:
· I would like to look at the other affected areas
· I would do more questionnaires
· I would take more images of the other affected areas
· I would try and work with the community centres more to get the opinions and ideas on what would work successfully
· I would try to spend more time on the primary research instead of secondary.
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