Co-researching Your Future

Abstract

YLOS is a cooperation between different stakeholders active in the sector of Performing Arts (PA). Together with their intended target group, YLOS has the ambition to improve the working conditions in the PA sector and to increase sustainable employability of its workers. YLOS wants to provide answers and tools to their target group to make them informed and independent, by doing so together. To accomplish this, YLOS teams up with the target group during several working sessions. The participants in these sessions are the point of attention in order to find information on subjects that matter to this target group. YLOS works on the Micro level to trigger a personal and honest dialogue with your inner self. To conclude, the research done with the participants will be the basis creating a program for a main YLOS event which will take place at the start of 2018.

The initial goal of the project was to design a meaningful user experience for the visitors of the main YLOS event. After extensive external, internal and user analysis (including desk research, stakeholder mapping observing user and decision maker sessions, conducting several generative sessions) the desires and needs of the target group were identified, resulting in a new design goal: ‘Co- research and design with the target group of the Your Life on Stage main event a tool that enhances the event experience of the user by the means of guidance and control and creates a feeling of (re-) assurance.’ Together with the outcomes of the generative sessions, this served as input for setting up a ‘concept model map’,(figure below) which would help to start on the first idea sketches. These sketches were valued, combined and clustered resulting in three preliminary concepts. The three concepts did receive feedback from their intended users during a feedback and voting evaluation session. The outcomes of this session provided input for the modification and detailing of a definitive concept, resulting in a final design.

The final design is a guiding routing experience installation named Trinity. The walkthrough contains three different phases, where the visitor is guided towards a colored portal in the design with the means of questions on the floor in order to make this color to match with the personal interests and needs of the visitor. A same colored ice breaker card will be handed, which has to be used in the last phase, where the card can be put into a double wall light wall. The visitors will in this matter create a colored light wall together.