As graduate students of Graphic Design at Georgia Southern University we
choose a design approach that is more towards socially oriented practical community based design challenges. Though we are trained as traditional graphic designers, we feel that our solution should not be driven just by our trained discipline. As an alternative, the approach is to identify the problem and address the problem with an appropriate solution, whether it is graphical, strategic, experiential, industrial or others.
We’ve been applying this approach for our class project, “Designing Solutions
for Childhood Obesity in Georgia.” According to the 2012 Georgia Data Summary,
66% of children ranging from ages 2-‐18 are obese. With these statistics in mind, we made a connection with a local school with an exceptional school nutrition program. Since awareness campaigns are passive approaches to problem solving, we examined the problem through design research methodologies. Our focus for this project remained in identifying a user for our solution, or target population, and the stakeholders, or anyone who will be affected by or involved with our final solution. We identified our target population as low socio-‐economic 3rd and 4th grade African – Americans. To understand our target population we met with the guidance counselors, school nutritionists, teachers, and other community resources to gather information this community and their physical, dietary, and educational habits. We used research methods for problem identification and currently developing prototypes for solutions that will allow the curriculum to adjust to their nutrition and physical education needs based on the problem. Our prototyping will engage different perspectives from disciplines like education, nutrition, and exercise science. The solution will benefit the user and will be implemented by the stakeholders.
8th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices
choose a design approach that is more towards socially oriented practical community based design challenges. Though we are trained as traditional graphic designers, we feel that our solution should not be driven just by our trained discipline. As an alternative, the approach is to identify the problem and address the problem with an appropriate solution, whether it is graphical, strategic, experiential, industrial or others.
We’ve been applying this approach for our class project, “Designing Solutions
for Childhood Obesity in Georgia.” According to the 2012 Georgia Data Summary,
66% of children ranging from ages 2-‐18 are obese. With these statistics in mind, we made a connection with a local school with an exceptional school nutrition program. Since awareness campaigns are passive approaches to problem solving, we examined the problem through design research methodologies. Our focus for this project remained in identifying a user for our solution, or target population, and the stakeholders, or anyone who will be affected by or involved with our final solution. We identified our target population as low socio-‐economic 3rd and 4th grade African – Americans. To understand our target population we met with the guidance counselors, school nutritionists, teachers, and other community resources to gather information this community and their physical, dietary, and educational habits. We used research methods for problem identification and currently developing prototypes for solutions that will allow the curriculum to adjust to their nutrition and physical education needs based on the problem. Our prototyping will engage different perspectives from disciplines like education, nutrition, and exercise science. The solution will benefit the user and will be implemented by the stakeholders.
8th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices
