What if... Self Evaluation

What problem did you identify?
Our group decided to tackle the problem of the increasing number of male muggings in Leeds and the fact that there seems to be no information already existent in the general public.

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?
We initially wanted to tackle crime in general until we discovered that muggings were the most committed type of crime. We then found that of the muggings that took place in Leeds in the past few months, 80% of these involved male targets.

What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take?
We knew that this issue affected the general public and therefore we thought it necessary to try and receive some feedback from them. The group decided to compose an initial questionnaire that was fairly vague, asking questions such as 'Have you been a victim of crime in Leeds?'. From this we transfered the statistics into excel to create pie charts and enforce the idea further that muggings were the most popular type of crime. We then went on to create a second questionnaire that informed us of the large number of male muggings and at what time of day the majority took place; night. The group also carried out some secondary research over the internet and through local newspapers. This helped inform our subject area.

What methods of research did you find useful and why?
I thought the setting up of a group on Facebook and the successful distribution of questionnaires was incredibly adept at gathering relevant and informative research. It helped expand the groups awareness of a growing problem and inform us of a way to tackle it. In the early stages of the project secondary research also proved useful to help us narrow down our ideas, for example we considered doing a campaign on sexual health but this was dismissed when we could find no information.

How did these inform your response to your problem?
They helped narrow down our target audience from the general Leeds public to male students aged 16-24 who feel confident when walking alone at night. Consequently this narrowed down our design ideas to something that would resonate with that specific target audience.

What methods did you encounter as problematic?
Males between the ages of 16-24 aren't the easiest group to get information out of and therefore we found it initially difficult to find a way of reaching them.

How did you overcome this?
With an invention as popular as Facebook it is now a lot easier to get your message across a wide audience.

What research could you have carried out that would have proved more useful?
We could have gone out onto the streets of Leeds with prepared questionnaires to gain a much wider viewpoint on the matter. This would have meant we could ask all different types of age groups a variety of questions and maybe even realise that our project was not suitable and infact we needed to change our approach. It would also have meant we would have gathered much non biased informative quantitive and qualitative data.

Five things I have learnt:

• Never go with the first idea that comes into your head. Expand on certain things and keep visually mind mapping until a you think of a better and more appropriate solution to the problem.


• Its important to carry out all different types of research in order to be well informed on your chosen subject area, this will therefore be communicated in your final resolution.


• If a problem arises with your original idea, try to resolve it as best you can, but if this is not possible don't be afraid to go back to brainstorming to think of an approach that will work.


• Communication and organisation within a group is key.


• When presenting your final resolution you need to be well prepared and confident in your convictions.

Five things I would do different next time:

• Not bypass the research aspect of a project completely. I need to be well informed on my subject before I can even begin to think of design ideas.


• Not use 'students' as a target audience. It's too easy.


• Ask other people for their opinions on my work, this will help my ideas develop and also help to discover if anything is missing or not being communicated successfully.


• Use both secondary and primary research along with quantitive and qualitative.


• Look further into different research techniques, for example composing questionnaires and setting up facebook groups. All the information gathered from these can only improve the quality of work produced.