watch out!

Please, strive to get beyond the

surface level observation:

unexplained tracks in grass or

snow are not in themselves inter

esting unless they’re there for an

interesting reason.

“Yup, someone walked here. But why?

And what are those other lines all about?”

watch out!

You might notice a behavior or

activity, but you must

show

a

physical trace

 of that activity

.

This means something that is

there when your behavior or

activity is not happening.

In fact, you should be able to

take a picture without any

people in it at all!

critical to your story!

4

. Ponder deeply about what is going on,

and start crafting a story...

Start your story by idenitifying the tip of the iceberg

you’ve found. You might even start with ‘You know

what’s weird?....”

A paragraph or two should do the trick,

but

you must include the four elements below

:

a description

of the trace

(

the ‘tip of the iceberg’ physical trace we can

see in the photograph)

the pattern of

human behavior

that is causing that trace to occur.

your insight into

what lies behind

(

or under!) the pattern

-

 Why is this sort of behavior happening?

 What are the incentives, disincentives,

-

structures, relationships, or feedback

loops involved?

-

 Does the behavior present a problem or

an opportunity?

a proposal for a thing

one could design as

an intervention

that affects the sort of activity you identified.

Be careful now:

 it has to be an idea for a physical, real

-

thing... but not simply a sign. Signs are things

that communicate; their physical presence

usually matters less than the message!

 it can support or deter the activity or be

-

havior you’ve identified, depending on your

viewpoint.

-

 go beyond the simple fix to the specific

problem at hand; your intervention should

address the sort of thing, not just that thing.

-

  the strongest interventions directly corre

spond to the driving force behind the human

behavior itself - use that insight you had

about the ‘why’!

“Why indeed is that weird?

I say, my good man, it’s elementary!”

Pittsburgh’s parking chairs are a great example of a tip of the iceberg with an associated set of human behaviors.

A HANDY CHECKLIST TO

KEEP YOU ORGANIZED

?

Do the exercise, with

photo, description, and

intervention.

?

Go to Canvas and submit

your project

?

After you’ve submitted,

read the “what it’s all about”

write-up.

5.

Put your project together into a Word file

Be sure to include a title, your photo(s), and your insightful

write-up with the four elements.

6.

Submit your project on Canvas!