(Emma is) Pondering Pedagogy

I decided to run my student interviews as a single group interview rather than as four individual interviews. This was both for practical reasons (time and scheduling), but also because I was interested in how the students would bounce ideas off one another — overall I think it was actually really rewarding to run it as a group interview, and I’d certainly consider this methodology again in future.

Also, due to time constraints, I did specifically seek out students who I already have a strong and positive connection with. I fully recognise that in more rigorous research it would be better to proactively seek out precisely the students I am more concerned about — those who are less engaged with the studio space. That said, the group of students I spoke to, despite being keen, motivated and proactive, also do not regularly use our studio space. So they are a valid group with whom to discuss these issues.

We started out by discussing workspaces more generally. This group of students were in agreement that working from home will probably always be more practical and functional when it comes to solo working.

S1: I usually don’t stay in uni unless I have a group to work with. [At home], I’m working by myself. I have a desk at home, I have a second screen, which helps a lot. And then I like a candle on the side, and music. And then I work by myself. I like natural lighting as well.

S4: I work best the moment I wake up. So the moment I wake up I work, and that’s when I’m most productive alone. My mind is fresh. And like, I can feel my focus kind of decline over the day. I’d say I get three really, very, very focused hours, but I can generally work throughout the day, I’m just less able to focus. So for when I need to be very, very focused and like, I really need to use my brain power. I push it in the morning. I do it alone in my room. I kind of do it without anything. I literally just stare at my computer.

S4: I would say I like working alone because of how packed my schedule is, and it’s like being at home is the most convenient, and I can complete tasks the fastest.

S2: I like my room, but that’s also because it’s like mine. It’s a space I’m used to. It’s a space I can adjust totally towards my needs

S3: So like, when I need to focus, I will fully just lock myself in my room and stay there the whole day.

However, they are all in agreement that collaboration is important and enjoyable, and they do seek it out.

S2: when I’m working on new projects, the cafe is the easiest. Why? I like noise. Yeah. I do like people talking. I like when I’m discussing with others. I like, I think I like reassurance as well. So if I’m doing something, I’ll be like, Oh, do you think this good? And they’ll be like, yes. And I feel better. So I do like working in a slightly noisy space.

S4: It’s like, I go to class and I study with friends, more for the social aspect and also like, for like, what she said, if I need opinions, I need to work with people.

One student also recognised the value of body doubling as a practice, and seeks this out even in their home work space

[Why don’t you work more here?] S2: No one else does! Let’s say the people in this room [students she gets along with well] are there, yeah, I might be more inclined to stay because I appreciate each of their views. When I’m at home, I kind of just call my friends. So I work while on call with two friends or one friend. I’m a very big believer in body doubling, it really works for me

Later on in the interview, one student also observed that our studio is very over-crowded with furniture, and that making it easier to move around might better facilitate that kind of collaboration:

S2: I think if I’m going to work in that room [our studio], it’s probably because I want to talk to people, or I’m going to collaborate. I think if I’m going to lock in and focus on something, I would go home. If I stay here it’s because I’m, like, expecting to socialize or work with other people. So in that sense I think it would help to have more space to move around to do that.

Another student also noted that being overlooked or observed is a big deal for them (in a bad way), and I suspect they are not alone in this sentiment:

S3: So I can pretty much work throughout the day, and I think I can work anywhere […] but I have this weird thing where I really don’t like, when I feel like someone can look at what I’m doing. I think I’m really picky with that [being overlooked/observed]. So if I’m going to a cafe, or if I’m going out to work and I’m like sitting maybe facing the main path, I can’t work. It’s really bad. But yeah, if I’m at a cafe ever sitting in a corner, I can work perfectly fine, but I just really don’t like the feeling of someone like, looking over my shoulder, not even because, like, I’m scared of them seeing what I’m working on. It just makes me less productive. So if I work with a friend, I’m like, we have to sit opposite each other, yeah? Next to each other — sometimes it’s still okay, like, depending on the situation. But like, usually I prefer to be opposite them. I’m not scared of them actually seeing what’s on my screen. I’m just uncomfortable for some reason.

We then moved on to discussing how they experience sound in their work space. While, as noted, there are times where silence and focus is best, there are also times where some of the students I spoke to agreed that they find the chatter of human voices helpful to their work…

S1: When I work from the office, people are taking calls on the sides. It’s lively. You get, like, productive. You’re doing your thing. You talk to a colleague that that’s nice, too.

…with one student noting that sometimes when working solo they put on a podcast specifically to have that.

S4: Sometimes I need background noise, so I would turn on a podcast. [Do you prefer voices to music as a student?] Yeah, videos, music sometimes, but not really, mostly podcasts — I don’t know, it’s like a stimulation kind of thing.

However, when it comes to music, there were some strong feelings!

S2: Sometimes, if I’m doing a task that requires a lot of reading, then I’ll play Korean music because I can’t understand that, but I still have a noise, and I can read with a lot more focus. Whereas, when I’m designing, I prefer something really loud in English. So it’s like I can adjust to the situation, which makes me more productive

S3: I think I’m like, 100% the same, when I’m at home with music. When I was in high school and it was more like writing essays and reading, I played Chinese songs just because I feel like I paid less attention to the lyrics. But then now that most of the work we do is design, I’m playing, like, just really loud music on speaker, but if I’m outside, then I’ll wear headphones and I’ll make sure noise canceling is on, and I’ll just play whatever music as well.

[Asking the students whether they like it when someone else plays their music in the studio space] S1: I don’t like it. S3: No, same. S4: There’s an extent I would push to, but if it’s too different in my own tastes, I find it hard to… I don’t know. I mean, like, there’s a lot of genres. If someone starts playing hard rock, I’m out. But if you think about it, the Lo Fi beats to study to music is very similar to what cafes play. Cafes double up as a working space. So probably there’s a relation there. In terms of calmer music to help you focus, rather than rap which distracts you. Like, if someone played rap, I will leave.

As we discussed the senses, the conversation moved on to food. On the one hand, the students were in agreement that being able to eat in a work space is good…

S4: 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.

S3: if you walk in a cafe, you know, there’s people having, like, cakes, coffee, cakes and coffee, so like, if you’re gonna eat, you can eat anything that isn’t busy and too messy, and cleaning up after yourself.

However, pretty much all of the students have had bad experiences with people eating in the space!

S2: Like, sometimes, our classmates, they’ll have their drinks and all these stains, and they’ll leave their food. I just don’t like that. I’m like fine, eat, but then at least clean up after yourself.

S4: I think it’s just disrespect. We can say that it’s because they don’t relate the space as much, but they go to that class two times a week at least. Also, it’s like, treating your teacher as your maid. They can see [tutor] picking up after them.

It’s interesting that they have the sense that some students don’t relate to or respect the space, and I hope that by fostering more of a sense of community and ownership within the space this might change. The students also have clear ideas about what foods are and are not acceptable (that they at least agree on, though clearly not all students!)

S2: I don’t like when people are eating around me. I guess it depends on what they’re having. I had, some guy eating noodles and I walked up and left.

S3: I think I agree with that [about not liking too much food in studio space], where even in my room, if I’ve had a meal, and if I can smell it, I’ll be like ‘open the windows!’ So if it’s too excessive, you can’t be having a whole ass meal at our studio space here.

S1: During the [language support] classes on Wednesday. There was this girl, I don’t know who she was, but she had a huge plate, and I couldn’t hear [tutor] because she was chewing so loud. Oh, I was like, No. No. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. And then I left because I couldn’t bear it. So there’s a sort of yes to food, but there’s a line.

S2: Crisps should be banned! The noise!!

So actually, my previous thought that students want to be able to eat whatever they want in the studio space may not be accurate, and in fact some guidelines (and those guidelines being enforced) is probably a good thing.

Ultimately, as one student very succintly reflected, design is a collaborative process, and for this group at least, they are happy to put up with some physical discomfort in order to enjoy that — the main issues is getting the culture and community of the space thriving so that people actually spend time there.

S1: I just think that, yes, when you’re working on personal things, [being in your own room] works. But I think design is a very collaborative process, and I love that aspect of it, and I really wouldn’t mind being in that room. I wouldn’t mind sitting there and talking to people for a while, maybe for two hours. Maybe it’s not going to kill me to sit there and have a chat or sit there and work with other people [even if I am a bit physically uncomfortable for some reason]

S1: Yeah, I do believe in building the culture. Because, like, I think the people you’re talking to, they would adapt to work with each other in that room, it’s just that everyone in that classroom would not do the same.

And it turns out, that there has not been especially good communication to our students about the use of our spaces…

S1: Now for this year, we don’t know which days we can actually use the studio, because we don’t know when the other years of classes are in there. Because, yeah, last year it was blocked out on our calendar, like, I think marked as optional, but we don’t even have that this year.

S2: I think last year we actually stayed more. I think we stayed the studio quite a bit more because we had it on our calendar. Even though it was more just optional. We knew that we could be in there during that period of time.

S3: Actually, we don’t even know when we can go in. Like, I can’t remember which days it is where we get kicked out and which days we have that we can stay.

They also particularly value opportunities to socialise with the other year groups on the course…

S3: But also, 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

S1: Over the summer, I had second years [on instagram]. I was like, Oh, should I practice this? Should I practice that? And yeah, having their Instagrams, being able to text them, you know, that’s because I’ve been in the room with them. I’ve got like, three of them, all the time we talk, and I don’t see them, like, physically. It would be nice to interact with them in person.

S2: Basically, our schedules just don’t overlap. I think third years right now are in Mondays and Thursdays. So we have no overlap with basically the first years or the third years. So that’s why we never see anyone. But I think especially last year we had a party, that was really nice.

And were keen for opportunities to socialise with our neighbouring course, with whom we share a space:

S2: I just made a point that that’s also our classroom… That classroom is shared with [other course name], why can’t we have that as a collaborative space? [I tell them, In theory, that’s what it is. They could just go in there.] The issue is you have to put things in place that force that to happen. It’s hard to be the first where you just say, Oh, I just go in that room and sit alone and work. So if we were like, oh, Friday is our [other course name] and UX social hour working, you can hang out in the space.

Having a tutor present in the space was also viewed as valuable:

S2: I think having a tutor there makes a difference, like, [interviewee 3: other course lead] is always there [for that course’s students]. So yes, if you have a problem, like, Oh, can you have a look for me? So you you have someone that you can talk to and actually get, like, this informal feedback that’s actually very helpful. I mean, I have [interviewee 1: technician] but yeah, [interviewee 1] comes in a bit later.

They also expressed their enthusiasm for our (now sadly ended due to costs) Thursday workshop programme:

Like the Thursday workshops. Yeah, those were so good, but we did talk about them in the course committee that they might bring back. I hope they do.

I asked the students how they would feel about an idea which was discussed during some of my other research, of having designated themes or ways of working at particular times — as an example, Thursday afternoon is quiet time. Friday afternoon is snacks and hang time. Not so much activities, as more like — at this time the studio works in this way.

S4: I personally I like that because I’m a very structured timetable, every day, I book week, like, weeks in advance, kind of person, so like having in my mind that, okay, Thursday is quiet time. Friday is fun time. I can schedule if I ever want to go in, yeah. But the downside of that is, if people, for example [S1], she has to work in office from Thursday, so she can’t ever come in because she already has a pre book thing and she won’t get the experience.

The students agreed that any changes like this should ideally be timetabled in on CELCAT or Moodle…

S3: I think it’s good to put it on a calendar, CELCAT. I don’t know if it needs to be a class for it to be added on the calendar. But it would be good. Because I guess a lot of students they don’t really pay attention. Like, if it’s in the calendar, they might think they have to show up.

S2: I think even if on Moodle. You can make like I don’t know, like a separate calendar called like I don’t know, like after class social calendar, just something where, like people at first, they might not know if it’s mandatory, if it’s optional. So they might show up to the first not knowing if they find out, if they get there and they realize actually it’s optional, and they never go again, or they might come back if it’s good. We can trick people like that. You could also say optional. I think if there’s, like, a calendar, yeah, people are more inclined to go.

Overall, I really appreciated how thoughtful and insightful the students were, and found their ideas and opinions very valuable towards my research.

Key insight statements

The studio will never be as optimal for solo working as (most) students home spaces, and should be viewed primarily as a collaborative space

Students are excited to socialise and share their space with other year groups, and are even keen to foster an additional shared studio space with a neighbouring course

Students value more scheduled activities in the space, or even just themed times (e.g. quiet afternoon, snacks and social afternoon) so that they can specifically plan to attend knowing what it will be like, and that there will be others present

Key ‘How might we’s’

How might we build a studio culture that focusses on collaboration

How might we create more opportunities for the different year groups to mix

How might we, taking into account staffing and budgetary limitations, make the space feel like it has more ‘going on’

There was lots to think about and learn in this great interview with another course leader (whose course is a very similar size and has a similar amount of studio space to ours). My reason for interviewing this course leader is their long track record of fostering a flourishing studio space. What’s their secret?

One key theme we explored was the balance of trust and oversight in studio spaces.

I think ownership is a thing that we work on very early, sort of telling them, okay, this happens. This happens. You’ve got this in here, this in here, this in here. If you lose it, you’re not getting it back, right. I’m not here the whole time. So you need a policing process.

Ownership of the studio space also means that students feel safe, comfortable and confident in the studio.

One of the things I always say to people when they’re applicants — It’s the place students are happy to leave their bags when they go to lunch. They’re like, Okay, I don’t care. For my first year to third year. I’ll just leave my bags out. It’s a small enough course, so if somebody else, not in the course comes in. People are like, what you doing? Who are you?

Comfort isn’t just like how you’re sitting, right? It’s the comfort of feeling comfortable and that connects with feelings of safety, safety, and I’m not going to say privacy, but lack of oversight, or the right balance [between oversight/support and privacy]

We talked about how to give students that sense of ownership. It seems like there’s a balance between having clearly established conventions (so that students know what to expect of spaces), but also allowing students to be flexible and shape the spaces themselves…

I think we’ve got a system — a fluid space and a less fluid space, in the sense that we’ve gone for, this is the clean studio, the mothership [office], and that’s the dirty studio, yeah? And that’s the way you know what you’re doing in there. But then there is crossover. And you don’t go to somebody doing something that should be done in the other studio, unless you’re like, ‘Okay, can you put down your blow torch? Where did you get that from?’ But you then sort of say, okay, it’s kind of like a Venn diagram in a sense. These are the general areas, but these are the bits where they cross over

It’s worth noting that students don’t always appreciate how much they can do with spaces themselves (something my first interviewee also noted). I really liked the way this interviewee describes how he introduces students to the space on their first day:

With our first year, the very first lesson we did this year, I’m like, come in. All right, everybody, sit down. Then I’m like, Why are you sitting where you’re sitting? Because the tables were like this. I’m like, Is that how you’re going to live the rest of your life? Right? You’re going to come in and be dictated to by furniture. Are you happy there? Can you see where I am? What’s the dynamic to the room? What’s the hierarchy? Straight away, I’m standing up here looking down at you. You’re already like five year olds. That’s how you’ve been getting your education since you were five, and you’re now all 20, right. First thing was, okay, rearrange your furniture the way you’re happy with it. I’m going out to get a coffee. Put the tables the way you want it

Prior to the interview we’d also been having a chat about the idea of ‘desire lines’ (the theme of a current student project) which emerged again when talking about how studios could ideally get shaped by their occupants.

…desire lines is a really good example looking at it in a sense, because, you know, are you going to build paths that go from this block to that block and they’re going to walk across here, and you keep telling them not to walk across there, yeah? Or do you wait to see where they walk across it and then build the path?

And as they said later, encouraging students to use their own creativity to solve problems they find with the studios is hugely valuable:

I remember a couple of years ago having [unclear] trouble [with the studio space], and some people sort of say to me, well, actually, what do you normally do when you have a problem? It’s like we always say to students, okay, here’s a brief such and such. What do you do? And it’s like, okay, your creativity is your way out of this problem. And it’s almost like there’s a mindset in college that that only happens with briefs, actually, no, your creativity is your solution or your way out, your tool bag for everything.

We also reflected more on that earlier idea of ‘comfort’ — we’d already discussed the fact that comfort means more than just physical comfort, but one thing which I think is notable about the studio space for this course is that there’s a variety of different types of seating (sofas, office chairs and standard student chairs). I asked a bit more about this…

If you get couches and sofas? Where do you put them in a room? And everybody has a tendency to put them at the back. And I’m like, see how many students fall asleep when they come in. [If you put them at the front of the room] it also says, okay, the people that come on the couch, aren’t the ones that fall asleep, because they only ones that sit at the front, and then the people that sit the back are then in chairs, and they don’t fall asleep because, you know, there’s a dynamic of comfort — you’ve got a couch, and then people come in late, and if the people at the back are the ones on the couch, they’ll sleep

One thing which is very notable about this course’s studios is their atmosphere of organised chaos. (Lots of very clearly labelled drawers and cupboards, clear storage places for everything, but also always lots of half-completed projects, experiments and other detritus all over the place). By contrast, our course’s studio is, on the whole, kept very tidy. So is this (part of) the secret to their success?

I was about to say, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not a tidy freak […] for ages, we were the only place with computers in or any technical equipment that you could eat. I’m always like, Well, yeah, you can come in here and just tidy the shit up at home like you do at home. People eat at home in front of their computers and stuff. They manage not to kill themselves there.

And I think there’s a balance between, okay, the the tyranny of tidiness as well — it then makes difference in terms of what type of equipment you have. You know, there’s power tools and things like that — you do have to be careful. But they’re slightly less sensitive in terms of, okay, if you spilled something on a set square, yeah, it doesn’t blow up. A laser cutter on the other hand… You know, we had a laser cutter and we gave it to 3d. It was one of those things, okay, at what point do you start making it a workshop, or a lab?

…there are people here kept going, ‘oh yeah, that’s going to be great. You got all this equipment, you know, we can keep it surgically clean’. And we’re like, no, I don’t really think we are. You know, you’ve got to have these things, and it’s got to be spotless. I’m like, what part of workshop and spotless goes together

The trouble is, part of the reason this course manage to run their space in the ways they do is because they are very well established…

You know, once that snowball starts rolling, it’s harder for them to stop. They’re like, we shouldn’t do such and such and such and such is wrong. And I’m like, have you seen our NSS [extraordinarily good scores across the board], well, that’s [in part down to] the room, right? And nobody sort of says, Oh, this is a great NSS, how do we roll this out? They’re like, Oh, how do you bring everybody down to the same level? As opposed to, how do you try and get everybody up to the same level?

I particularly enjoyed hearing their thoughts on the notion of modularity (which many spaces in the college have adopted), as I’ve discussed it to a greater or lesser extent in most of my research activities so far.

Okay, you can see where, sort of, like the design block is, those big studios, these long rooms with dividers in Yes, everybody’s like, Oh, yeah, we won’t have a big room that we can have dividers, and then we can make it as such and such, and then we will to be a such and such. So they had this idea of these white cubes will be, could be anything at any point. And the reality is they ended up being nothing, in a sense

This idea that modular spaces can be anything but end up being nothing is very resonant. I’m intrigued by the idea of modularity, but it really does seem like students a) need to understand what is possible within a space, and b) feel empowered to change it, otherwise as described, spaces end up being ‘nothing’, and no one feels that vital sense of ownership.

Finally, students shaping spaces is all well and good, but how do you get them to be present in the first place to do that work? When it comes to building community, this interviewee very much believed in the power of mixing year groups…

The other thing is introducing the first year to the second and third year as soon as possible. It is kind of like a non formal mentoring system

[Gesturing at the students working in the studios as our interview takes place] Some of them are third year, some of them are second year. And there’s a couple of first year ones around so they’ve actually today, we’ve actually got all three years in and there is actually only one second year class being taught.

However, at the end of the interview I couldn’t escape the feeling that one key factor in the success of this course’s studio culture (which my interviewee would of course never have mentioned) is their own charisma as a course leader, and (as noted by my first interviewee and other anecdotal conversations) their near-constant presence in the space as a reliable support. Offering just the right amount (not too little, not too much) of oversight, support, and gentle humour from a consistent academic and/or technical staff member is also an ideal standard.

Insight statements from this interview

When students feel ownership of a space they are more likely to use it

Comfort means more than just physical comfort, it also encompasses safety, security, support and confidence

Shaping a space around students ‘desire lines’ can make for more successful, functional and well used studios

Key ‘How might we’s’ based on this interview alone

How might we foster a sense of ownership of our space in our students

How might we explore all different dimensions of comfort within our studio space

How might we understand students ‘desire lines’ and use them to shape our space

I ran the workshop on Tuesday November 5th and was really pleased with how it went and the conversations that ensued. Of my 23 first year students, I had around 16 in the room, and around 8 or 9 chose to participate. I would have liked more but this number worked really well in the end. I was very thorough in terms of ethics (consent forms, emphasising it was optional etc) and worry this put some of them off (as they maybe didn’t understand how chill it actually was going to be), that said, I am not sure how I could have handled it differently while still obeying the letter of the law ethics wise. Signed consent forms are available to view on request (please email me).

The outline for my workshop is available to read here.

We started off drawing our dream workspaces. This was every bit as fascinating as I’d hoped.

While students spent around 25 minutes on their drawings, I moved around the space, listening to and participating in their conversations about their dream workspaces. Already, a few clear ‘camps’ were emerging in terms of overall workplace style

Firstly, there were those who wanted their workspace to be as cosy as it possibly could be — lots of soft spaces to sit, warm/dim lighting, ‘cosy corners’. One student said ‘as much like a bedroom as possible’, though another student noted ‘but not too much or all I’d do is sleep!’

Secondly, there were those who valued collaboration and company, and whose dream workspace imagined facilities which took into account the needs of others as well as themselves (everything from just the illustrator’s partner, through to a whole studio full of people). I was kind of surprised by how many students went down this route, which just shows some of my own personal biases, I suppose!

Thirdly, there were those who wanted a solo workspace that was totally optimised to their own unique workflow — here there was an emphasis on equipment, storage, space, light, and bespoke functionality.

(You can read these brief notes here)

Once students had completed their drawings, I asked them to add post-it notes with captions explaining their preferences (making sure to pause and snap these at this moment). I emphasised to students that the more post-it notes they added the better, for what we were going to do next.

With our post-it notes added, we removed them from the drawings, and collaboratively sorted them into areas of interest (many thanks to colleague Patrick for documenting this section)

Sorting the post-its gave great insight into the diversity of themes which students cared about in their spaces…

These being:

• People (and pets!)
• Windows (closely connected with…)
• Lighting
• Space
• Seating (cosy)
• Seating (upright/functional)
• Flooring
• Storage
• Equipment
• Facilities
• Temperatures/humidity
• Art/personalisation

After we had grouped our themes, I introduced students to the notion of the ‘archetype’, which is UX is often used to create archtypal people, but I was curious about whether it could also create archetypal workspaces.

I highlighted the archetypes I had seen emerging, which were described in brief above. The students agreed with these as broad categories:

The bright, collaborative studio

The cosy, warm studio

The functional, bespoke, solitary studio

And after some discussion, though not that many of them had thought of this, they all loved the idea of ‘the green studio’ (heavy on plant life and natural light)

The natural/green studio

With these archetypes in mind, they gathered imagery online that reflected these spaces (I offered them the opportunity to use AI, and while some of them sourced AI images crafted by others, none of them used it themselves that I saw)

Gathering these images aimed to cultivate a shared understanding of types of space, and indeed, students didn’t just gather images for their own preferred studio type, they also gathered images across all of the archetypes. There was an interesting discussion about how the solo/bespoke studio so quickly strays into ‘man cave’ aesthetics, which I did think speaks to an interesting history of male dominance when it comes to being able to claim and design solo spaces.

For the final section of the workshop, I asked them to note down on post-its what aspects of studio life they consider to be flexible and adaptable – this is based on my research interviews which discussed the potential of a more flexible, changable space at different times and days. Only a few respondents had any ideas about this (arguably the hardest question of the workshop).

The majority of their responses focussed on their percieved need for more quiet/isolated study spaces:

It was interesting to me that they all focussed on physically changeable elements, because at the beginning of my research this was also where my mind first went. However I have subsequently become more inspired by the idea of time as a changeable element rather than physical objects (i.e. that the studio becomes different things at different times). I am excited to see what the students make of this idea, if it is an intervention I pursue!

Key insight statements

Students highly value comfort in their work spaces, but definitions of comfort are highly subjective, varied and individual.

It was possible to discover some broad archetypal models for ideal studios. Given that ‘the bespoke solitary’ studio is outside the realms of possibility in a collaborative space, and ‘the cosy studio’ also tended towards being solitary, ‘the bright collaborative studio’ and ‘the natural, green studio’ are particular sources for inspiration when shaping our studio environment, and we can also take inspiration from relevant aspects of the cosy and bespoke solitary studios.

Students tended to socially cluster based on their studio preferences, implying particular social connections between those who also share ideals about what a studio should be like

Key ‘How might we’s’

How might we enable students to adapt the studio space to meet some aspects of their own comfort needs

How might we take inspiration from the archetypal studios as defined in this workshop, combining the best elements of all of them to create an adaptable space

How might we support students to build their collective vision of what a studio should be, and empower them to adapt our space accordingly

Here I will outline my plans for the student workshop, in which my first year students are invited to collaborate in exploring ideas around working spaces and what makes a good studio.

I aim to utilise UX processes and ideas in this workshop, so that it also offers some pedagogical value for students. The images included within this blog are the slides which will I use during my workshop, to offer students guidance as the exercises proceed.

After signing a consent form (viewable here), and having my research explained again verbally, the workshop will begin.

The workshop begins with perhaps the most important part (or at least, the most interesting part, to me) — asking students to visualise their dream work space.

The students are initially asked just to draw their dream space without captioning it. (For one student with an accessibility requirement, they will also be offered the option of creating a mood board rather than drawing if they choose to do so).

I’ve been really excited by the potential of using drawing as a research methodology, and have done a variety of reading to help understand the potential of this approach.

Pauwels, L. (2019) Visual Elicitation in Interviews. SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036846496 — this text helped me understand the broad potential of using visual prompts within qualitative research (and asking myself, what if my participants play a hand in making those prompts?)

Hurdley, R. (2019) Drawing as a Research Method. SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036838861. — I enjoyed reading about the use of drawing as a method of collecting and representing data.

Perrone, R. (2015) ‘Integrating fantasy into the creative process’, in. Conference: The 3rd International Conference for Design Education Researchers, Chicago. Available at: https://link-springer-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-61353-1_19 — this reading discusses the validity and potential of ‘fantasy’ as part of the design process — by asking my students to create their ‘dream’ work space, they may stray into more fantastical visions!

The above two slides explain what I want them to do next, which is to ‘caption’ all aspects of their images to explain what they’ve included in their dream space.

I’ve added an additional slide to remind myself to pause at this stage and photograph the students drawings at this stage with the captions attached.

After this, we will undertake an exploratory exercise of removing the post-its from the drawings and grouping them by theme. This will help the group (and me!) get a broader understanding of what areas they consider important in their working spaces.

This is where I get a bit more experimental — I am going to introduce the students to the idea of archetypes. Many of them may already be familiar with the notion of archetypes — in a UX context, we talk about user archetypes, which is a methodology for understanding different audiences and their requirements. I am curious as to whether a framework for building archetypes can be applied to our gathered data on studio preferences to define some ‘archetypal’ studio types which our students desire.

After this, I’ve built a Figjam board, which I will ask students to populate with found (and made) images that best fit with their ideas about these archetypal studios. (This may or may not work depending on whether we’ve managed to agree some archetypes!)

While they continue to find cool imagery online to fit with the studio archetypes, I will reflect a little on the challenges of creating a studio space that meets with everyone’s needs and wants…

I added this final talking point off the back of my first two interviews, which both touched on the idea of a more flexible studio model where aspects of the studio could change on different days/times. I will ask the students to consider what aspects of the dream studio are fixed and which are flexible.

And finally, I will thank the students for their participation!

One of the things students most like about our studio and atelier (the part of the studio with equipment) is that it’s student run (our technician is a third year student on another course, and has had previous supporting technicians who are also students on this course). My interviewee also noted that students feel more free to experiment and try things out when the tutors who will be grading them are not in the room.

“Yeah, I know that the students like is that it’s like student run. That’s some positive feedback that I have received, that you know, it’s a pretty easygoing environment. Judgment free. They’re not as afraid to make any kind of mistakes — they might be a little bit more intimidated to try things out in front of a lecturer, just as far as self consciousness goes.”

The first term it’s always really slow to get started, in terms of students using the space, and this applies across all three year groups.

“Like the first term is always very slow to get started. And to be fair, it’s even even it’s the same for students in their second and third year. So even a second or third year student who would have been more engaged towards their second or third term after the summer, they kind of reset”

This interviewee believes that the hardest thing to establish is a culture and community in the working space. We both reflect that it will be interesting to find out how one of our neighbouring courses has managed it so successfully year after year.

That’s the thing that I believe is the hardest thing to kind of establish, that like, working culture and community of a space. The community of the course is the hardest thing to nurture and cultivate. That’s a great question for [other course leader who I am yet to interview]. You know, because if you look across across the hall [to that course’s space], you see these students in there. Every day until they get kicked out. There’s, there’s always someone there when I’m leaving, and most of the time it’s not even staffed.

I find myself wondering whether a studio NOT being staffed is actually appealing to the students, though there’s no denying our students enjoy our technician (my interviewee)’s presence.

Part of the challenge with our space is that because of the machinery in the space, it has been mandated that we have a staff member in the space at all times when students are using it. The machinery is an amazing thing to have, but do the requirements that come with it limit how our students enjoy and use the space?

The problem is that we’ve been kind of told that there has to be a technician in that room just based on the equipment that’s in there. That’s it. But if there was a way that we could allow the students to just use the room. Even when there’s no technician in there.

Our technician’s view is that a greater degree of trust in the students using the space would go a long way towards opening it up, from less of a staff presence, through to, for example, leaving some cheap speakers out (rather than locking them away) for the students to use

I mean, there’s such a slim likelihood, I think of anyone like doing anything malicious. I mean, obviously there’s there’s the potential, but I mean if you kind of account for the potential of every person who could be, no one would get anything done ever. You know, you kind of have to just trust people.

We reflected on the role of peer influence on students use of the space, and the way that popular students can influence others to use the space more:

Yeah, I mean also to give you an idea, I’d say that there’s like certain students who are kind of influential to their peers in a way. And they aren’t here this year ’cause, they’re doing DPS (placement year). Or they’re doing other things similar to DPS. So without those kind of influencers, maybe that is kind of preventing the encouragement of the students to come in

And also on how the space is not used or personalised to its full potential (for example through things like hanging work, playing music) etc.

There’s a lot that they could do that they don’t. Maybe it takes some kind of role model showing them that, oh, I can do this, you know. We just need people in there using the space.

The idea that ‘there a lot they could do that they don’t’ really resonated with me, and we talked more about the kinds of things the students could be doing in the space, along with, potentially, the reasons why they don’t (some of it coming down to shyness, some down to unwritten rules, and some down to not seeing anyone else doing the things). I mentioned that, when it comes to, for example, playing my own choice of music, if I was a student, I’d be worried about upsetting other people…

I’m in the camp of thinking that people kind of just need to own the space, even if it means that some people might be a little bit uncomfortable. Not not not that I want anyone to be uncomfortable. But I mean, people are always gonna be uncomfortable. No matter what you do, you know. So thinking not to do something because you’re worried about, like slightly offending someone. I mean, you know how to avoid outright doing something like rude or belligerent. But when it comes to just like ‘maybe they won’t like this type of music’, as long as it’s not overtly offensive, then people are just gonna get over it. But it kind of takes someone with a little bit more guts to to do that. To kind of encourage others that they can do the same. But that’s when you start to to get to know each other a little bit more personally and I guess to to kind of just foster this sense of community.

We talked a lot more about studio culture and the key ingredients that go into building this — I asked this interviewee about their experiences in professional settings, and we reflected that there’s a big difference because companies tend to recruit people based on company culture, and it’s challenging when such a diversity of students with different personalities, needs and wants from the space come together. We talked about the kinds of activities that can build that sort of culture and community, and my interviewee recalled some previous experiences on our course a few years ago:

Where we would have some kind of like more technical hands on workshop. And we would order food, go to Sainsbury’s, grab tons of snacks and just kind of like. Have like a easy going. Not not put a party, but it’s not too far off from one either.

They suggested that having scheduled studio sessions which offer an especially social space might be beneficial

Even just like if you said like Wednesdays, guys, we have snacks in the in the space Wednesday snacks. Bring your friend some other courses if you want to. Come hang out. You are encouraged to work on your projects though, so it’s not just doing anything you want.

When talking about what students get out of the space, we wondered whether there need to be benefits above and beyond simply providing a workspace. That said, my interviewee reflected that for them:

I find tremendous value, because I have such a cramped home space, and as I learn more about myself and my ADHD, I know that like having a a big clean space is like so helpful for my mind to work. Like a big clean space and I can just like spread out, write stuff down. Allow the chaos of my mind to kind of spill out without feeling cramped and cluttered. It’s so helpful.

It’s interesting that my interviewee notes that ‘as they have learned more about themselves and their ADHD’ — many of our students still don’t know what works for them workspace wise. I know that when I was an undergrad it took me until my third year to realise that I actually did work better in the studio than at home.

I asked my interviewee for a bit more detail about how students use the space, they reflected:

Most of the time, they have headphones on, kind of just in their own world doing their own thing. Quite often, if they are here, they are here to work. So they do want that. I think when they are here, they’re here to get what they can’t get from the library. The library for me personally, which I’m sure is shared a shared sentiment of them as well, is that it’s too loud, you know, and even even when you go to a quiet space, it’s like you don’t have a lot of space to work. There’s too many distracting things going on. People walking around you know. Despite being quiet, there’s still the the noises of just people living. And I think too many visual things going on. Now obviously it’s not like this is a completely blank space. It’s not. But I think there’s still a lot less going on in the space like this. But obviously that also kind of contradicts like the whole culture behind the space. I do think more people would benefit if there was more collaborative work going on, rather than the occasional person or two working in silence. We often have 3 or 4 students, but we have 100 students on the course — ideally you want 20 students in here all the time.

It’s a dilemma, because while the small number of students who do use the space often value it for the quiet it offers, making it busier would inherently remove this. On balance my interviewee fell in favour of cultivating a more buzzy studio culture, on the basis that this would overall benefit more of our students, and foster more of the collaboration that, in their view, is what university is all about.

At the end of the day, you’re not doing an online course. You know you’ve come to university where you’re in this shared space and you are encouraged to collaborate. And I think that is really what’s special about university — the opportunity to collaborate and to get to know different perspectives and to be able to kind of like bounce ideas off of other people. I mean, I think everything that I did through the past couple of years that I’m proud of, I wouldn’t have been able to do so without some sort of collaboration, without like at least sharing my ideas, refining them based on feedback that I’ve received from peers or tutors as well. But regardless, it’s it’s just due to different perspectives on the thing that I’m working on.

To finish, we revisited my interviewee’s earlier ideas about ‘making the space their own’. We reflected on the importance of students work being on display, the sillier, more half-done and more creative the better. With empty walls, no one feels able to take the first leap and hang something. A prevailing theme in this interview was the idea of ownership. This was undoubtedly influenced by the interviewee’s own opinions and experiences of student life, but they were also able to give some solid examples of evidence that the wider student body would benefit from this as well, particularly with reference to the studio belonging to another course which has more thriving culture and community.

Insight statements from this interview

Students don’t feel or take sufficient ownership of the space, which may result in them feeling less connected to the space, and less invested in using it

Students don’t understand the full potential of ways in which they can use or adapt the space and its amenities to enhance their own comfort, enjoyment and learning

Students don’t appreciate the value that collaborative work and discussion can bring, and how working in a studio setting can foster both enjoyable and informative conversations and discussions with their peers and staff

Key ‘How might we’s’ based on this interview alone

How might we foster a greater sense of ownership within the space

How might we make students aware of the potential of what they can do within the space

How might we help students understand the benefits of working in a collaborative way