DESIGN NAME: Cultural Crosspoint
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Educational Newspaper
INSPIRATION: The project began with the designer's curiosity towards older Chinese immigrants. She introduced herself to a Manhattan-based senior center and received a mission, assisting in the English class, as an exchange for doing research and design work with members in the senior center. Her learnings further shaped the design challenge to "handling cultural differences" instead of "learning English". The long-term participation also provided the researcher with a holistic view of the social practices.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Cultural Crosspoint is a newspaper-based intervention intending to provide tools and strategies for older Chinese immigrants in New York City to cope with issues caused by cultural differences. The project was conducted during the designer's 3-month engagement in a Manhattan-based senior center. Along the process, the designer explored various possibilities of using graphic design as a bridge to engage older Chinese immigrants in the exploration and design process.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: The sections on the newspaper are designed to help older immigrants handle 5 different types of challenges they might have in their daily life: cultural difference, language barrier, intergenerational relationship, memory loss, and exploration. Readers of the newspaper can find sections and contents that best meet their needs.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in January 2019 in New York City and finished in May 2019.
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Social Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The newspaper concept design was created in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, printed on newsprint paper with ink.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: The design is 24" in width, 36" in length.
TAGS: Aging, Newspaper, Culture, Language, Education, Research
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: The designer conducted a series of design-led research activities with older Chinese immigrants to learn their motivations for learning English, which proved to be related to the problems caused by cultural differences. These learnings further shaped the design challenge to "handling cultural differences" instead of "learning English". The long-term participation also provided the researcher with a holistic view of the social practices of older Chinese immigrants.
The design intervention was informed by these two kinds of research. the designer delicately chose newspaper, the major media among older Chinese immigrants, to place interventions for tackling 5 cultural differences related problems. Given that individuals in this community vary hugely in terms of the demands of learning cultural differences, this medium allows them to pick interventions that fit their needs (or not to use at all). The placement also aims to let interventions go beyond the scope of the senior center, to influence the larger community.
CHALLENGE: The biggest challenge I encountered in the design project was trust-building. When I first started working with the older Chinese immigrants in the senior center, I was a stranger to this community. To let them know me and trust me, I hang out with them for 2 weeks, didn't conduct any design-related activities. The trust-building stage was extremely helpful for my project, as I was researching a somewhat sensitive topic. They were more open to sharing their experience with me after they perceived me as a part of the community.
ADDED DATE: 2022-02-03 06:27:28
TEAM MEMBERS (1) :
IMAGE CREDITS: Image #1-5: Tianyi Qi
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