FALMOUTH M.A. FINAL PROJECT BLOG

Week 17: Data Mining

This week I look to focus my project on a final design direction. I run a small survey to identify what and where renewable energy enthusiasts think should be communicated, and explore political opinions around national adoption of renewable energy. My new research presents me with a new communication direction: voter information. This direction is exciting from a visual communication perspective and meets with the criteria of designing for wellbeing – an approach I read about and embrace - by empowering people to become active, informed citizens.

PROJECT REVIEW

Figure 1: GraphicDesign&. 2017. Can Graphic Design Save Your Life?. [book cover]

Can graphic design save your life?

I discovered this project while looking for examples of design work that have motivated behavioural change at a societal level. The work started as an exhibition created by GraphicDesign& for the Wellcome Centre and has since been published as a book.

I looked closely at the project to find inspiration and guidance for my own work that is moving in a societal attitude direction. This also led me to seek literature on visual persuasion.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Visual persuasion

I discovered a book (Messaris, 1997) in the university library all about visual persuasion. My primary area as a psychologist is social psychology and social influence, so reading specifically about visual persuasion struck a chord with me.

There were some key take aways for me from this book in terms of the semiotics of visual persuasion:

Icons and Indices

Reading about the inconicity and indexicality of photographs was of particularl interest to me. Linked to previous reading around semiotics, the application of theory in marketing practice opened my eyes to a number of ways images can persuade peope. I wondered if I could apply any of these persuasive techniques in my own renewable energy endeavor.

Organising design for wellbeing projects

While looking for design work done for mental wellbeing, I discovered a paper by Mark Steen in 2016. The paper highlights the need for design projects to take a capabilities approach that enables and empowers people to take control of their own needs. Design can achieve this by including in the whole design process those affected by the issues. For my own project, this means ensuring renewable energy advocates are included in my design process.

WHAT DATA EXISTS THAT COULD INFORM VOTERS?

I decided to look at the specific data that exists that could be extracted to inform voters. Interestingly, the Isle of Man Government keep records of all official meetings and votes. Here was an objective measure of political behaviour!

CAN GRAPHIC DESIGN ENABLE ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP THROUGH MAKING HANSARD DATA MORE ACCESSIBLE?

Bringing this line of research back to my initial aims – and my efforts to design for well-being - I asked if graphic design could enable active citizenship behaviour? I arranged to meet with an MHK (Member of the House of Keys: the Manx equivalent to a UK Member of Parliament), to discuss my project ideas. Joney Faragher is the leader of the Manx Labour Party and was elected to office in September 2021.

I showed Joney a prototype I had built of a simple word count programme. The programme took the written records of an MHK’s speech during official meetings and parsed it to determine how many times they’d mentioned a particular subject. The idea was to match the representative’s words to their manifesto promises, and to give an overall indication of political activity through a total word count.

Joney thought the idea would be very well received by voters. This backed up what I had learned from general conversations with individuals about a system of this nature.

LIST OF FIGURES

GraphicDesign&. 2017. Can Graphic Design Save Your Life?. [book cover]. Available at: https://www.graphicdesignand.com/ [accessed 19th October 2022].

REFERENCES

STEEN, Mark. 2016. Organizing Design-for-Wellbeing Projects: Using the Capability Approach. Design Issues, 32(4), 4-15.

MESSARIS, Paul. 1997. Visual persuasion: the role of images in advertising. London: Thousand Oaks.