As outlined in my previous blog post, I have:
- Summarised and reflected on each piece of research (3 x staff interviews, 1 x group student interview, 1 x workshop, 1 x survey), writing key insights and ‘how might we’s’ based on them
- Analysed my interview data as an entire body of research using grounded theory and ‘coding’ and pulled out key ‘recommendations’ based on the emerging themes
- Categorised and refined my ‘how might we’s’ into 3 x core themes and re-written 3 final ‘how might we’s’
- Taken my recommendations as a starting point to ideate interventions related to each of the three final ‘how might we’s’
- Placed these ideas on a value/effort matrix
- Discussed these potential ideas for interventions with colleagues.
Of course, none of this work has been happening in isolation — throughout my ARP I have been discussing my ideas and progress with colleagues. There have also been other conversations happening alongside these which are unrelated to my research, but nonetheless inform it.
Several of my ideas are likely to be implemented in one way or another:
- We will certainly look to better promote studio opening times (indeed, not doing this is something of an oversight!)
- We are exploring sources of funding to restart our cross-year workshop programme
- Our technician is more actively promoting the shared playlist and pro-actively fostering conversations with students about how they want to use and/or personalise the space
But my specific intervention as part of my ARP is going to be…
Noodle socials!!
I and my course lead developed the concept for several reasons:
- Students have expressed a desire for more ‘vertical’ (cross-year) socialising
I think one thing I liked was that we saw the second years, even though I didn’t talk to them, but it’s like, oh, other people are in our course, and it’s not just our year
2. Students explicitly said the top thing that would make them come to an event is food
I think food helps [with socialising/community]. Because some people are like, well, I need to eat lunch, especially after class. Then they feel more inclined to stay on.
3. Many of our interviewees also recognised that food builds culture/community
And also I think crucially, is that kind of if you’re trying to create a kind of a social environment and culturally food is part of building social connection.
4. Some interviewees noted that much more important than any physical characteristic of the space is the community and the people within it. By building regular occasions where people attend, attendance will (hopefully) grow organically, as people get used to making it part of their routine
It’s not truly about the space, but I think like, if it’s Friday, and if we have some activity. I think people would like to come in like, oh yeah, Friday, we’re gonna do this or that, and then we’re gonna end up staying the place a little more.
5. We have become aware of a number of students facing food poverty. To counter this our course lead has also introduced ‘the nourish nook’, a small food-bank overseen by staff, but additionally we thought this would be a low-cost, low-effort way of giving any students who want it a free hot lunch once a week.
Previously, I had assumed that this kind of event would not be possible due to the limitations of the machinery in our space preventing dining for health and safety reasons, but we are going to explore entirely blocking off that side of the room so that it is clear to students that this is a special event and the machinery is not to be accessed, and we will also supervise all students throughout the event to ensure they remain within the right area of the space. We believe that this will satisfy health and safety regulations, while also allowing the students the freedom to consume a hot lunch in the space at a designated time.
For students who have expressed that they are not fans of food in the space, we will be ensuring that it is clearly communicated that this is a special event, not something which will be habitual, and there will be robust clean-up and deoderising processes undertaken after food has been consumed.
We will run our first noodle social on Tuesday December 3rd, and I will seek feedback at that event from students on what they think! (Likely verbally and using paper comment forms)