Point of View

We moved into the process of analysing and synthesising the data we had collected, in order to arrive at our ‘Point of View’ statement (Brown, 2008).

Analysing the data:

The team uploaded all collated information to a shared Jam boards and carried out extensive discussions regarding our findings.

Synthesising Data:

The team considered the analysed data beginning to look at the situation in new ways.

Key findings:

1. Less that 10% of students interviewed outside of the food bank context identified that they experienced any food insecurity.
2. In terms of the 4 A’s (awareness, accessibility, affordability and availability), affordability is the primary driver of decision making around food purchasing for both those who self-identified as experiencing food insecurity and those who did not.
3. The majority of people accessing the food bank are those who are new to Cork and express that they have underestimated the cost of living in Cork City.

The data collection activities carried out at the observe phase led to a pivotal moment in our Design journey. The data collected did not verify our initial hypothesis. As a group, we acknowledged our ability to listen deeply and see clearly in relation to our user’s and stakeholder’s experiences and celebrated our efforts not to fall foul of confirmation bias at this stage.

(Shapiro, 2019)

A fork in the road:

Should we proceed with our original affiliation with the 4 A’s or follow the data? We chose to keep the users at the centre and changed trajectory towards food affordability.

We also carried out a journey mapping exercise based on our findings around the students at the food bank finding themselves in an unanticipated situation secondary to underestimating the costs of living in Cork. The journey map allowed us to begin to look downstream for our emerging persona and consider whether  we could design an intervention at an earlier stage in their journey.

The Journey Map

Our first framed challenge to our final Point of View statement

User Point of view

Final Persona(s):

Having undertaken this process of analysing, synthesising and converging, we arrived at our primary Persona Sonia. However, our process also uncovered a secondary persona ‘Cian’, the budgeting officer at UCC who we believed was another significant persona that we could design for in order to further support Sonia.

New Framed Challenge:

Primary persona – Sonja

Secondary Persona – Cian (budgeting officer)

Evolving Stakeholder Map at PoV stage, ( incorporating UCC Budgeting officer)