Archive for the ‘Assignment 4’ Category

• Assignment 4: Interviews, but not as we know them

  Date: 2012.03.21 | Category: Assignment 4, DJ22006 - The 21st Century Designer (11/12) | Response: 0

  Have you ever thought about what your personal space says about you? When you enter someones home, you will have first impressions and try to figure out what the owner of the home is like. You will probably have a snoop around, check out rooms and eye up any interesting pieces. You may not be fully aware of this but it is true, we like to put pieces together before we actually know someone. So is your personal living space decorated to reflect you?

  

  I wanted to investigate this further, so I started of by creating a mind map which helped me plan some questions that I can ask people and get there views on the topic. For this to work properly I wanted to interview people that I do not know because then their opinions will not be biased. Also I will be showing these people images of my room so they can test their snooping skills and try to decipher my personality. Before I go on I would just like to point out this incredible book called “Snoop” by Sam Gosling. This is where I am getting my inspiration from and will give you tips on snooping for future reference.

  I got started on the interviews by firstly asking my brother’s friend Fred. I had questions planned but also followed this up by unplanned questions which made the process feel more comfortable, just like a conversation. What I found out was interesting. Here is the key points I got from Fred about his bedroom:
  - Likes to think his bedroom is clean, modern just like his personality
  - Does not like his TV, wants a new one to go along with his modern theme
  - His favourite item is his replica LOTR Gandalf sword, Lord of the Rings is his favourite movie
  - His bed is his most used object
  - His walls are painted blue as thats his favourite colour and has white curtains with a blue pattern on them. Shows he likes blue and coordination, likes things to match
  - Thinks his room shows he has a lot of pride in himself as he is tidy and shows confidence as he is not afraid to show personal belongings
  When I showed Fred my bedroom I did not tell him it was mine so I let him snoop my photos and let him express his opinions openly. He says he thinks my room looks like a student’s room and I am into sport, music and technology. This is all correct and he based these opinions by noticing objects in my room. He also says if he enters someones home he would do a bit of snooping around but only if they where not in the room. Fred also confessed he does judge people on appearance so if he sees a messy house he believes the person is not organised and quite lazy. This interview proved insightful as it showed me that people can gather information about a person on the basis of their living space. I have been researching this topic online and I read on www.psychologytoday.com that people who decorate their rooms blue like to keep their rooms tidy and clean just like Fred. With this interview a success I now wanted to gather more opinions so I interviewed another two people.

  I was introduced to Sarah by a friend and this interview was a little less insightful due to the fact that her answers were more blunt. I had to work around this and keep the interview flowing by asking follow up questions and trying to turn it into a less formal conversation. Here is a brief list of her results:
  - Messy bedroom, does not believe it represents her.
  - Her posters are her favourite things in her room because she likes to be surrounded by her favourite things
  - She mostly uses her straighteners, apart from my bed obviously
  - Her room is red but her favourite colour is silver so does not really show her. However she did say “red means warm loving person so I guess it does reflect me”
  - Believes her messy room show confidence and but also her can’t be bothered attitude
  I then showed Sarah my room again not telling her it was my own. She said basically the same as Fred but she says I am quite lazy as some areas of my room was a bit messy. She backed this statement up by comparing her room to mine and she thinks she is lazy so thinks I am the same. Again this is true. Both Fred and Sarah got everything correct, Sarah even predicted I study a computing related course which I do, Digital Interaction Design. Sarah also says she has never knowingly snooped around someones house but does agree she may have judged others before getting to know them.

  My last interview was with a random person on the street called Eric. Since this interview was fairly unprepared and I tried to make the most of my information I received. I took notes rapidly and here is what I got:
  - Eric thinks he is a respectable person who takes a pride in his home
  - Does not like his carpet, needs a new one because he does not like the colour
  - Likes his new bed, its really comfy
  - Colours were decided by his wife
  - Believes his house show that he has a wife as its always tidy and clean
  Eric also says he would look at other peoples property by just glancing at them but not physically touching anything.
  I thought it was interesting when he says his house shows that he has a wife. Eric implies that his house would not be up to its high standards without her, so what does this tell us about males houses. Are males homes more untidy or lack their own personality? I think this claim depends on the male as for example, Fred takes pride in his home and takes interest in it. Maybe its an age thing since Fred was in his 20′s whereas Eric was in his 60′s. Perhaps decorating homes is becoming more involved in males hobbies now a days. I looked online about this and many websites came up about interior decorating for young men. Some of the images even looked like Fred’s bedroom. The images show very modern, colour coordinate rooms. Here is an image to show you what I mean:

  

  I got Fred and Sarah to draw mind maps to help them be more involved with the interviews. When I showed them images of my room they even tried to sketch out what the person who owned this room looked like. I found these techniques to be very helpful because it helped the interview to keep going, whereas without this it would have became stale pretty quickly. Here is one of the mind maps Sarah completed along with a little sketch of me:

  

  Overall I think our bedrooms tell us a lot about us as individuals. Our personal living space shows our personality, attitude, hobbies and even education/career. You can even tell what gender and age group a person belongs too by just looking at a couple of images of a persons room. I had a lecture on subcultures in society and again you can try a piece together what each person would belong to. Bedrooms are our most personal space so we fill it full of parts of us. We feel most comfortable with things we love surrounding us whether this is objects or photographs. Each bedroom is different and this only proves that bedrooms reflect us as no human is the same.