Ways people are connected to others.
Personal and work relationships can directly affect a person’s actions and decision-making. One person can be a mother, a sister, a grandmother, a co-worker, a boss, and/or a combination of any of these. These relationships can frame a person’s total identity. A person who is a parent often chooses to do things in their children’s best interests instead of their own. Relationships aren’t just between people—some relationships with their pets or plants can shape their priorities and provide a source of belonging and relatedness.
Examples of Relationships
- A brother
- A person’s “church family”
- Fellow soldiers in an army patrol
- A pet parakeet
- The neighbor who lives in the apartment above
- Co-workers
Researching Relationships
Researching relationships and the strengths of those relationships can reveal a person’s priorities and preferred behaviors. It reveals the roles a person has to play in their daily activities. Knowing these roles can suggest a person’s time limitations, where they must spend money, and other responsibilities.
Questions to Ask
- Who is this person “responsible” for?
- With whom does this person spend their free time?
- What decisions must this person make for other people in their lives?
Look For
- People spending time with children
- Calendar items scheduling events with others
- Friends having fun together
- People visiting others in hospitals
- Visits to graveyards/memorials/services
Design and Relationships
People’s relationships can be a constraint and a reason to design a product, service, or system. Sometimes, a design will not “work” if a person’s relationships make it undesirable or prevent its use. In other cases, designers may need to create something to repair, reinforce, or recognize important relationships.
Designing to Improve Relationships
Relationships Suffering in Online Primary School Classrooms
A fourth-grade teacher wants her students to feel a sense of belonging and community in the classroom. She believes this enhances learning. However, during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, she cannot meet with her students in person. What could be designed to help students develop relationships?
A fourth-grade public school teacher and her students.
The 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic.
Learners deserve a sense of belonging and community in the classroom.
Pass Kindness Around Game
Every week, a different student writes in a journal that gets passed to the next student. Some students write and others draw, but with each passing, the journal collects stories and images made by those in the class. Students feel related to one another when they see one another’s work in the journal.
The book’s operation facilitates connection though the act of passing it from one person to another to bring people together.
Designing Within Relationships Constraints
Support Group Meetings for Foster Parents
Foster parents often care for several children, which requires significant time and monetary resources. These people need emotional support from others to feel grounded. Still, their time is very limited and childcare is expensive.
Foster parents and the children in their care.
Foster Parents feel care for their children but also overworked and stressed.
Parents have limited available time during the week.
Support Group Scheduling
Scheduling support group meeting times must consider foster parents’ schedules and obligations. Meetings are scheduled on a rotation from month to month so caregivers do not have to miss the same time every meeting.
Parents are busy, but foster parents must often complete additional tasks including coordination with social workers and complicated tax documentation and filing.
Keywords
Sources
Social Science
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