Research and Design Task: Food Poverty in the UK

Task Overview

Task Overview

This assignment is a research and design task for which you must produce a 2-part report (part A and B below). The research and design domain for this assignment is food poverty in the UK.

Part A) Rich Picture of Secondary Research 

In this assignment, you will be required to conduct secondary research in order to develop understandings of a particular social issue or context. This can involve, for example, online research, reading academic articles, and reading books. The topic of the secondary research for this assignment is food poverty in the UK. This could include, for example, data on experiences of food poverty and effects on everyday life, organisations that provide services for people in food poverty, food poverty in the media, and adoption and use of ICT in relation to food poverty and organisations/services associated with this.

Using your secondary research, you must analyse your findings to produce a Rich Picture of the design context. A Rich Picture is a diagrammatic approach to explore and understand a phenomenon or design context. It uses graphs, cartoons, words, symbols, etc. It can include in its representation things like people, processes, structures, issues expressed by people, conflict, and climate[ Rich Picture: https://www.betterevaluation.org/en/evaluation-options/richpictures]. You must annotate your diagram by making reference to sources from your secondary research and a short explanation of the relevant findings from these. Your report should include a page of numbered annotations making citations to secondary research, and you should label the parts of your Rich Picture with the numbers of relevant annotations.

Part A of your report should contain the following:

A Rich Picture 

Numbered annotations with citations linking to your Rich Picture

Part B) Design Fiction 

Based on the Rich Picture you developed in Part 1 and the secondary research you have done, you must design a digital technology concept to bring about social change in relation to food poverty, and create a design fiction to represent and critically reflect on how it might be interacted with and experienced. This can take any written form of your choice. For example, a customer review, a radio advert, terms and conditions of use, etc. You must then discuss your rationale for the design fiction. Part B of your report should contain the following:

Your design fiction

A discussion of your rationale for the presented design fiction, making reference to your secondary research focused broadly on food poverty in the UK, and Rich Picture (max. 500 words)

A critical reflection on what your design fiction says about existing HCI literature relevant to social change. This might include topics like food, social justice, marginalised communities, or politics of participation.

This is an individual assignment and must be completed without collusion with others, in accordance with University regulations. 

The assessment criteria that will be applied to your work is as follows: 

Part A [total 30 marks]. Marks will be awarded for: 

1.Clarity and presentation of the Rich Picture

2.Reference to secondary data in Rich Picture

3.Quality of sources of secondary data

4.Depth, relevance, and accuracy of analysis (number of stakeholders represented, specificity of roles and relationships, justification of diagram parts with respect to secondary research) 

Part B  Marks will be awarded for: 

1.Relationship of design fiction to secondary research and Rich Picture

2.How well does the design fiction describe and bring to life a possible future e.g., description of context, relevance of the design fiction form, insight into interaction and experience?

3.How effective might the design fiction be in generating discussion and debate? How well does the design fiction critique a possible future? To what extent does the design fiction raise questions about a possible future?

4.Critical reflection on HCI research