During this week, the focus was to understand the importance of culture probes and why it’s significant to the design process. I learned that the simplified way to think about the cultural probe is a week long ice breaker with the user group. The information you get out of the culture probes will help you problem solve within the user group. (And the readings tell us that it’s important to receive information like this so that it’s fragmented)  When this information was introduced to the class on Tuesday, it was very difficult to understand the task because the only examples given to us were maps or photos. Our group struggled to brainstorm ideas and only thought of two activities during the free hour of class. We conducted a Google Hangout after class and the day after to prepare for our studio day.
The activities that were brained stormed were constructing emotions, a mood sticker map, activities checklist, in priority triangle, and food craving chart. These activities are constructed to help us have a better understanding of our user group in a fun way. During the studio time on Thursday, we were able to finish everything (designing culture probes) and I gave the user group (The Vietnamese Friendship Association) the kits that very night. With that said, as a group, we need to continue to communicate with each other when task aren’t complete. These Google Hangouts help us become more organized and motivated to accomplish task.  The next steps for our group are to complete the affinity diagram and complete our culture probe poster.IMG_0105.JPG