Srinidhi Meenakshi VU
Humans, Who?
Speculative Publication Design Project for Children
Redesigning reality and contextualizing humanity's impact on Earth, one world-building exploration at a time
Introduction: At the crossroads of design, speculation, and science, my dissertation contemplates the profound anthropological impact on Earth's balance. Pollution, species loss, and climate change imperil our future. Could a human-less world be an answer?
Goals & Objectives: The goal of this project is to imply the potential of a world without humans while also encouraging the target audience to think imaginatively.
Timeline: Spanning over four months, the project unfolded in five distinct stages: Topic Proposal, Research Phase, Ideation & Strategy Phase, Design Phase, and Documentation Phase. Each phase was allocated around three weeks.
Mentor: Prof. Sambit Kumar Pradhan, my mentor, whose expertise, compassion, and visionary insight have greatly shaped my learning journey. His profound understanding and foresight have been instrumental in navigating the design process and uncovering potential.
Premise
Project Overview: Graduation Project
The student-initiated final project is completed in the four year design program's final semester and is, in part, a culmination of previous coursework and investigations.
Students are responsible for defining the area of investigation, conducting
the research that informs their investigation, organising the study and its
methods, and documenting the findings.
Topic Selection, Blue Sky Thinking
Topic brainstorming was a fun process where I brainstormed over 50 possible topics.
My primary objectives were:
1. What question do I want to answer with my research project?
2. What knowledge gap do I want to fill in the research/ design world?
Research
"Research is to see what everybody else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought."
- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi.
Research Methodology
The extensive scope of this project necessitated broad research across various fields. From the Earth's origins to contemporary human impact, my study spanned paleontology, anthropology, biology, geography, and more. During the Covid-19 period, conducted entirely digitally, research unfolded in two key phases.
In Phase one, Discovery research entailed framing problems, gathering evidence, and charting a preliminary direction.
Phase two, Explanatory research, built on discovery findings, filling gaps, and advancing the project through data analysis, bridging the transition from discovery to design.
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Empirical Evidence through Primary Research
Evidence gathering involved three primary research methods. The first utilized a questionnaire featuring four pertinent questions. The second comprised a personal email interview with Prof. Matt Cartmill, an esteemed American anthropologist and professor of anthropology from the Boston University's College of Arts and Sciences. The third involved interviews and observations of children under 10 years old, conducted in a later project phase. Access the survey through the provided link. This primary research reaffirmed the insights from my initial secondary discovery research.
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Imagination, World-building and Cognitive Development
After grasping the world's history through Discovery Research – its origins, key elements like evolution, extinctions, and human impact – the question arose: how could I leverage this data? This historical context evolved into worldbuilding discovery research. Exploring worldbuilding's roots, a recurring theme, led me to investigate imagination, creativity, its triggers, facets, tangible outcomes, and its audience. I delved into cognitive developmental stages and worldbuilding's role within human development.
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Ideation & Analysis
The ideation process encompasses generating, exploring, and refining creative ideas. It involves brainstorming diverse concepts, considering various perspectives, and then selecting promising ideas.
Upon understanding the project's scope, I pondered four key questions:
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What meaningful direction could I pursue?
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What is feasible within my time frame?
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Am I adequately skilled for each option?
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Is it likely to sell in the market?
Final Deliverable Brief
Subsequently, a comprehensive user exploration unfolded, involving user interviews, persona mapping, and journey mapping. Insights from this, combined with market segmentation, feature ideation, and competitor analysis, provided a foundation for structuring content and crafting the narrative. To access the user study, interviews, personas, and more, kindly reach out & request for it.
Content Writing Process
Visual Style
Typography
Printing & Publication
From hardbinding to paper selection and page size, printing involves a meticulous process. Binding choice affects durability, while paper type influences texture and print quality. Page size impacts readability and aesthetics. The synergy of these decisions ensures a printed piece that's both visually pleasing and functionally effective. For an in-depth understanding of the printing process or to examine the final book, simply click the button below and connect with me through your request.
Learnings & Challenges
Key Learnings:
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Design's versatility spans artistic and utilitarian realms, connecting subjects like science, ecology, and more through curiosity and imagination.
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Escaping a human-centric perspective while imagining is challenging.
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Originality and creativity reside within the mind and ego.
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Inhibition significantly constraints human potential.
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Worldbuilding serves as a functional creativity toolkit.
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Visual fidelity effectively communicates ideas.
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Translated consumer behavior often differs from predictions.
Challenges:
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Creative Confidence - "Creative confidence" represents the ability to approach life and work as play, viewing everything with childlike curiosity, acting without inner criticism; my initial unawareness of design as a field transformed into gained creative confidence, broadening my focus and unveiling unimagined possibilities with this project.
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Experimentation - Balancing experimentation, embracing errors, and recognizing patterns within time constraints while making decisive choices was definitely a challenge. My maximum effort in experimentation led me to acknowledge limits, resulting in calculated risks, yielding successes, and prompting reconsideration for certain choices.
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User testing - Essential for interactive child-focused content, proper user testing necessitates comprehensive analysis; due to time, limited testing occurred, heavily relying on intuitive product assessment.