The EXCHANGEs

Exchange, no.1:

The first Exchange we had was more of an interesting experience than anything else.
I feel like the experience was a little flustered, as many people were unsure about where they were going, location-wise, and others weren't sure about the group they were supposed to be in.

Still, when the Exchange was underway, I found it interesting to interact with the progress that other disciples had been making, and to be exposed to the different avenues they were undergoing in order to carry out a similar brief.

Unfortunately, speaking for myself (and a few others from VCD), the common consensus was that we didn't have a lot to offer, and present, at this early stage in the brief, as a lot more working and brainstorming was needed before anything would be produced.

In all, I found the experience to be enjoyable, as it offered exposure, and a social element, between disciplines and tied us all together under the design umbrella.

I left the first Exchange looking forward to the next.


Exchange, no.2:

By this Exchange I had more to show. Melinda and I felt like we were underway with a concept for our brief, and we had some visuals to show. 
Here, I really enjoyed the opportunity to share, and participate in the user journey of other teams' work.

I found, when I presented, that a lot of productive feedback was offered, with a lot of suggestions as to how we could further improve our concepts in the coming weeks.

I presented a few (early) billboard concepts, and explained the length and intention of our campaign:








The feedback was as follows:

1. What about window-washer types, who run up to cars as they are parked at intersections, and hand out flyers (or free things) to drivers as they idle.
2. What about offering a new way for drivers (and participants of the campaign) to interact with one another? Something that is related to the app and location devices.
3. Consider designing the challenges to require the participation of other drivers also - drivers who are in proximity should toot or flash their lights to signify that they are participating in the campaign.
4. What about a campaign banner, rather than billboards?

Generally they liked the concept.

Also, during this Exchange, we had the opportunity to sample some flavoured popcorn (a resolve to another individual's brief). It was great! (See below).

Merchandise

After considering the avenues our audience would interact with, we decided on a few types of media that we felt would best support our campaign.

With our branding on this merchandise, we felt that we would be recognisable to a wider audience, due to uniformity and a variety of methods.



This is the business card of our choice.


An air-freshener:


And bumper sticker:

Design Development

Here is a variety of development that was involved in our design establishment process. 

Originally our brand was named 'Not About That Stress', as a tribute to Meghan Trainor's song, 'All About That Bass'. We used this name for a humorous, and relatable factor. Yet later changed it to something more simple, and what we considered to be more appropriate.

Here are some screenshots of the design development (namely of the app), and how our branding progressed into the final design.

Symbol Design

Melinda is a wonderful artist, and provided hand-drawn art for our illustrative design approach.

Below are some examples for the '30 Day Challenge', and further are the symbols that were used in the main aspects of our campaign design.

Journey Map

Here is the original journey map we used to support our campaign.
Later we discovered that this didn't work entirely, and some changes were needed.





This is our second journey map, and the one we used in the final concept.

Well-Being Study Presentation

WHAT  

- Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand (HPF) 

- Is the umbrella organization for all those who identify health promotion as part of their work

- A non-profit organization

- Online Forum for information and education

WHO 
- The Forum is made up of over 100 organizations committed to improving the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders.  

WHEN 
- Since April 1997 to current

WHERE 
- Online throughout New Zealand

WHY

- Health Promotion aims to identify ways to build population health.

- To empower people and communities to take control of their health and wellbeing. 

HOW

-  This is done by acknowledging factors that influence our health. 

+ Where we live, our environment, genetics, education and relationships (All have a great influence on our health and wellbeing).

- Ranges from action at a community level to developing policies in work places

+ Training, Workshops, Events, Certificate, Other Training

- This workshop introduces health promotion and the issues affecting older people’s health

- And the reasons why we undertake health promotion with older people.

It will be of particular interest to those working as health promoters and those working in social services and organizations that support older people; 

- It will also be of interest to members of the community hat recognize their role in promoting wellness.

- Gain an understanding of what we mean by health promotion

- Identify the issues affecting older peoples health

- Gain knowledge and effective approaches to undertake health promotion with older people

Billboards and Inspiration

Through research, we discovered that billboards play a fundamental role in advertising, as when placed correctly, are seen by many people. It was decided that this would be a useful tool for our campaign. What follows is a snippet from our research, and finally a mood board of inspiring displays that promoted our attempts.

Billboards are everywhere. We probably see hundreds of billboard ads every single week, but remember just a handful. With outdoor advertising upping the stakes and becoming increasingly more competitive, plus digital advertising becoming the medium of choice, it’s important to know how to make your advertising count. But, it can still be an incredibly effective branding tool.

Ready to take the plunge, and do something truly creative?

Here are six strategies to ensure your billboard has the highest chance of being noticed, and more importantly, remembered.

1: Six Words or Less is Ideal.

2: Get Noticed, But Don’t Be a Huge Distraction.

3: This is Not the Place for Direct Response.

4: Be Smart, But Not Too Clever.

5: The More Billboards, The Better.

6: Don’t Say It, Show It.

These are some original (working) concepts for our billboard design. The branding later changed.








Here are the billboards we chose to use in our campaign. These teasers support the '30 Day Challenge', and uses an example of what some of these challenges my look like.

Design Choice

Design Choice

The colour scheme for our campaign design was carefully selected through a variety of research, with colours that reflected anti-stress, communication and trust (among a few).

Psychological Properties Of Colours BLUE. Intellectual. Positive: Intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness, reflection, calm. Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness. Blue is the colour of the mind and is essentially soothing; it affects us mentally, rather than the physical reaction we have to red. Strong blues will stimulate clear thought and lighter, soft blues will calm the mind and aid concentration. Consequently it is serene and mentally calming. It is the colour of clear communication. Blue objects do not appear to be as close to us as red ones. Time and again in research, blue is the world's favourite colour. However, it can be perceived as cold, unemotional and unfriendly. GREEN. Balance Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, universal love, rest, restoration, reassurance, environmental awareness, equilibrium, peace. Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness, enervation. Green strikes the eye in such a way as to require no adjustment whatever and is, therefore, restful. Being in the centre of the spectrum, it is the colour of balance - a more important concept than many people realise. When the world about us contains plenty of green, this indicates the presence of water, and little danger of famine, so we are reassured by green, on a primitive level. Negatively, it can indicate stagnation and, incorrectly used, will be perceived as being too bland. VIOLET. Spiritual Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality. Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority. The shortest wavelength is violet, often described as purple. It takes awareness to a higher level of thought, even into the realms of spiritual values. It is highly introvertive and encourages deep contemplation, or meditation. It has associations with royalty and usually communicates the finest possible quality. Being the last visible wavelength before the ultra-violet ray, it has associations with time and space and the cosmos. Excessive use of purple can bring about too much introspection and the wrong tone of it communicates something cheap and nasty, faster than any other colour. http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/psychological-properties-of-colours

App

Our app aims to facilitate drivers, during their commute, who are interested in undertaking a challenge, as part of our campaign, to decrease their driving-related stress.

The app can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes store, and on creating an account with ‘One Less Stress’ will give you access to your calculated stress levels. These stress levels are calculated according to your driving time and frequency (determined during the account creation process). Within the app, the user is introduced to a series of short challenges that will are designed around lowering their stress levels, over a period of 30 days. Each of the challenges on the app are designed to accommodate driving conditions; requiring little attention, with predominantly hands-free usability. 

Each challenge has a point value, with the more difficult challenges having a higher point value. The user’s accumulation of points, as a result of challenge completion, is kept on record as part of their account. There is an option for the user to translate these points (at no extra cost) into monetary value. The monetary value associated with these challenges are provided by associated businesses who act as sponsors for the campaign, who are effectively funding organizations in supporting those who are of lesser fortune, in being provided with their basic living needs. 

The challenges are designed to offer fun, and somewhat bizarre, methods to providing entertainment during your commute, all the while decreasing your stress levels.


This is where we sourced our dimensions for the app, and found inspiration for layout design. 




  





These are some original concepts for the content of our app.

Here are some screenshots of the working app.

Web

This is some of the original concepts when it came to designing our website:






Here are some original (working) concepts for our website design:























The following are screenshots of our final website, offering information on stress and opportunities for an individual to get involved with making a difference to their stress levels, by participating in our campaign.

Our website acts as a supporting role to our app, providing both advertising for our campaign while offering education and information on the driving-related stress topic.

Through the website, commuters can learn more about why the campaign was proposed and initiated, how they might get involved, and what they might benefit from getting involved. There is a link that allows a user to download the app from iTunes, but the app is necessary for completing our 30 Day Challenge.

New Concept

After the second Super Crit, we decided that the best step forward was not to continue with our concept of developing a Shared Spaces solution, but to look into something entirely different.

This, consequently, lead us to turn in circles for a short while, feeling road-blocked as to where to go with the concept next. Then... we discovered an article that outlines the specifics of how doing good essentially contradicts every bad side-effect that is related to driving stress. The concept developed from there, with the opening of involving more of society in the campaign, with the opportunity to influence more than just our original target market. 

The findings that follow are those that inspired the change in our brief direction, which consequently led to the 'Give' aspect, and trade off from our points system to monetary value.

7 Scientific Facts About the Benefit of Doing Good

According to research, the side-effects of doing good effectively contradict that bad that is associated with stress in driving.

1. Doing good decreases stress

According to a 2013 study examining the relationship between volunteering and hypertension, giving back can have a significant impact on blood pressure. Researchers found that adults over 50 who volunteered about four hours a week were 40 percent less likely than non-volunteers to have developed hypertension four years later.

2. Doing good increases life-expectancy

3. Doing good makes us feel better

4. Doing goof makes us happier at work

5. Doing good promotes mental health
6. Doing good leads to happiness

7. Doing good will motivate you to do good again


http://www.goodnet.org/articles/7-scientific-facts-about-benefit-doing-good

Presentation

Slide 1 - Hands

“Hands up if you’ve ever done a good deed for someone? Helped an old person, given a homeless person some change? Or even shouted someone a meal when they didn’t have enough money….

I imagine you felt good about yourself afterwards.. and so you should. Research shows that doing a good deed improves your emotional wellbeing, helps reduce stress, and even has benefits to your physical health.

Slide 2 - Arrows

You might be wondering what that has to do with anything. Well, according to research, commuting does the complete opposite. It increases your stress, lowers your life satisfaction and is detrimental to your physical wellbeing.

Slide 3 - clock

We live in a fast paced world, where everyone has to be doing multiple things at once, and have access to everything instantaneously. However, commuting restricts all of those things, as well as throwing in the unpredictable factor of traffic jams. This causes a lot of people an incredible amount of anxiety and stress when they just want to get to their destination on time.

What we have discovered however is that a lot of people enjoyed this alone time.

Slide 4 – Scales

So what can be done to help commuters lower their driving stress whilst maintaining their alone time?

Slide 5 – LOGO

We have devised a plan.

Our aim is to raise awareness and inform commuters of the effects of driving stress, through our campaign ‘One Less Stress’. This gives them alternative options and allows them to participate in stress relieving activities. 

Slide 6 - billboards

Our campaign begins with a select number of Billboards displayed in high traffic areas.  Which look like this.

Slide 7 - T-Shirts

We have also incorporated the helping hand of traffic light window-washers, who will be equipped with our t-shirts.  This brings a sense of uniformity and sophistication to their business, so they are seen in a more positive light. They will also leave our flyer under windscreens.

Slide 8 - Website

These mediums will lead commuters to check out our website, which informs them of the issue they face, and offers appropriate solutions. 

Slide 9 - App

One of the options is to sign up to a “30 day challenge”.  In doing this, the participant is required to answer a few select questions, regarding the type of commute they engage in, and the frequency of their commute. This places the participant, using established statistics, on a stress scale according to their current situation. 

Slide 10 - Trophy

The participant can actively work on reducing their stress levels through completing the tasks that are sent to them on a daily basis, associated with the app, that are intended to be completed within the day. These challenges are based on stress relieving activities which they can safely carry out during their commute. 

A progress report will be on tap, so the participant can stay informed as to whether their stress levels are decreasing as a result of their participation in the Challenge.

Slide 11- Temp.

At the end of the 30 Day Challenge it is intended that stress levels will have decreased.

Slide 12 – Hands

Following the 30 Day Challenge is where the giving aspect takes place.  While completing the daily challenges the participants are earning points which are later translated into monetary value. This is designed to be spent on helping those who are less fortunate.  

Examples of this include, “a meal for a homeless person”, “free bus fare”, “a hot drink” etc.  So not only are commuters taking part in stress releasing activities, they are also carrying out good deeds which, in turn, increases their emotional, physical and mental wellbeing AND give back to society.”

Here are some photos from our final presentation: