Work In Progress

 

So tomorrow is our very important presentation to run concepts by all the tutours.  pretty scary.  I have spent hours trying to condense my research into two sheets, still have three to go, it’s 20:30, and it all begins at 9:30am tomorrow morning.  Im off to get coffee and go home and play with lego.

I’m not going to post the final sheets yet, they’re not final, but there is a taster of the general layout below. (quick photos of my screen).  Its very very very very hard to condense a service into 5 sheets…although for the final presentation I’d like to make a small animation/comic strip thats narrated like a postman pat episode.  For the meantime, and the purpose of flat graphics I have come up with a very quick and effective way to create a cartoon strip.

All you need is:

Lego figures

Blu tack

Monitor

Pictures of scenery/setting ideal to what you want to communicate.

You will see below.  I think it’s really effective, obviously it isn’t exactly a pure picture, the camera picks up the lines on the screen, but it is very very fast and cheap way to communicate an idea.  See what you think below, there is some shots of me messing around at my desk.

 

 

Anyway, tremendous amount to do and I’m hungry. Lasagne time. Then 3 sheets to conquer.

HELP!

So, I am trying, to understand how the post office works, in terms of technology.

I have a concept, I know what services I want to include that are vital to a community

BUT

I don’t quite understand all the technology yet.  If anyone knows of someone who can answer my questions, please get in touch or pass on this blog.

I understand in basic terms an ISDN line, a highway speed box powered by BT (set up at locations) and basically I’m guessing a computer with the right software on it to run tasks..an easy to use interface for volunteers to run it, but to be honest I’m still pretty confused.

I guess my question is: If you were to put the Post Office in a box, what technology and equipment would be needed to run it?

Answers asap!

thanks x

Concepts Ahoy

So..I woke up today to check the blog and realise I didn’t publish the initial concepts…I’m giving myself today to really pull together a lot of the ideas I have come up with based on opportunities I have noticed.

Frantically coming up with ideas.  So beware, the work in my photos is very rough, it’s just a brainstorm of lots of ideas.

Originally, I was thinking of creating a physical space again, run by volunteers, with computers (provided by the PO) with a sort of rural post office network, that would allow most services to be delivered on the internet, with the more physical ones being transported to a bigger post office to take care of…we could merge services like shopping delivery, transport, local health visits in a space…but…its very idealist to think that elderly people would be taught by young people and I cannot rely on this as a strong concept to take forward;

I have also been thinking of introducing a rural post office account, merged with your bank account (the PO already have links with many major banks) plus in this current climate they actually have very low interest rates and being a trustworthy brand I think It would be a good move to set up post office bank accounts…this helps me in many different concepts, to stop the danger of transporting large amounts of money by volunteers, or unsupervised vans, perhaps self service post offices in rural locations that have no monitor.   I know, and frustratingly, cannot decide wether benefits are going to be paid onto the exsisting card account, and we are anticipating the answer very soon from the government, but, I believe the government should help to support this institution, and if they can let the post office hold onto the pensions, child support and also have the option to pay wages into it then I think the Post Office can survive and become financially viable once again.

So, thirdly, ontop of a rural card account, I am thinking of trailers, well bringing the post office to the people and not the people to the post office.  I had come up with buses, a community owned van, etc but that means transporting alot of people to one place at the same time, not really a great service…so bring the post office to the people!  I spotted an opportunity between villages and bigger towns in many of the places I visited…you will find along these roads many different paths of traffic, school buses, royal mail van, local bus service, commuters etc why not use these links to transport a portable post office that can easily be run by volunteers between the town post office and the small rural village.

Ok so it doesn’t make much sense yet, but it will.  I have included, like I mentioned before, some very very rough brainstorm sketches.  I hope by tomorrow evening I will have a lot of clarity on how this portable post office might work. 

Postville

So I have built ontop of a map some buildings, to show the difference and location of ammenities in the rural village that lost its post office, and the town next to it that has aammenties, like a shop, a place to withdraw cash, a post office.

The map is taken of an area called bowden, and the neighbouring town st bosswells.  Whilst I have made a few slight changes to the map (due to new legislation of only being able to download a piece at a time and not the whole thing) it is pretty much an example of a case study.

I have visited bowden and this is where most of my user profiles are based on in context of what they lost by the closure of their post office but I have used information from the probes I sent out to neighbouring towns to figure out user habits, what touch points they use, what parts of the service they use, how often they visit, how they visit etc to build an exact picture and figure out what the needs are of a new outreach service…or improved and financially viable physical hub.

I also visited st boswells post office and spoke to users there and the subpostmaster…again just by observing I could start to distinguish the user types, but ontop of this, the environment, the atmosphere and the others things previously mentioned in a post beow that the post office affords.

So.

It has set me to thinking, and I’d like to thank Katie Brickett who contacted me from commision for rural communities www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk and provided me with some great links on how to set up post offices/shop in rural communities etc, it has proved very helpful since I’m looking at creating a strategy or concept that could work in conjuction with the support already given by such websites.

I will be posting tomorrow evening some of my first initial ideas.  I have one major one, following the lines of an online rural post office service, delivered to hubs run by volunteers and utilising government money to set up say 5 computers, supported by the larger post offices in the bigger towns to carry out the post service, and bringing young and old together to teach computer skills…sound like a difficult task?  You should see my brainstorms!

How to…Lego Service

So…I have intentions to show how the current service and village operates with lego.  stop motion…perhaps too long but I may just use photographs to explain where things are and move people around.  After all, I can test my new concepts out here, it’s perfect for just playing around and seeing where people will move for the service, if people will interact etc.

 

Thought I’d post a wee video here of how lego stop motion animation works.  It’s great way of communicating ideas, BUT, very very time consuming and I don’t think I really have the time to execute this.  Anyway I have also posted another video of an AMAZING lego stop motion film.  Enjoy.

Initial Ideas

I’ve been thinking of how to steer my design in the right direction. I’m looking at setting myself out a list of criteria, a specification. 

My design must:

Provide all the services of the post office.  Maintain what the physical space affords. accessable. easy to use. create links in the community.

Anyway, I am going to finish a proper brainstorm on what the design should be and form a service statement.  For the meantime, here are a few simple nuggets/ideas I have been thinking of as the project has been unfolding.

The people who I’m working with

Often referred to customers of a service, I prefer to think of them as people.  User-centered design, putting people’s needs at the centre of the service and design.

 

First and foremost, it was essential to get out and find out who used rural post offices, including the people who run them; the subpostmaster, the postman/woman.  I identified the most vunerable users through visiting areas where post offices had closed down and met with people to find out what they had lost and how difficult it was now to access a post office, and also, other ammenities like an atm, groceries etc

  

The heart of the community

The service I design must host all of the Post Office services but include the things that the Post Office building affords.

These are a few things I found through observation and interviews:

 

 

Is it possible to include the above without a physical space?