Deconstructing a Process
On Sunday I spend nine hours at PNCA sitting in on a planning meeting for p:ear, a local nonprofit that works with homeless and transitional youth through arts, education and recreation programs. I was not there to learn about p:ear or to help them plan their future but to study their planning process as part of a strange little extra-curricular project that has spun out of my Design Studio II class. John Calvelli (the teacher of this class), Gabriella (another student), and I (me) all attended the meeting and throughout the process Gabriella and I weren’t exactly sure what it was we were supposed to be looking for. We’re working on coming up with ways that design can be used to help the process progress more easily and efficiently, but what exactly that meant was rather unclear.
We met again this afternoon to debrief from the long meeting and brainstorm ways that design-based improvements could be made to the process. We still aren’t exactly sure what we’re looking at doing, but some strong ideas are surfacing. Mostly supplemental materials (informational packets, workbooks, etc.) and physical organization of data around the room.