Defining Access Barriers
We were tasked with designing a speculative, user centred idea to explore and tackle a specific demographic groups’ disconnect with nature.
Interview Insights
‘With new experiences, there’s often a push back and teenagers will say they don’t want to do it because it’s not cool. They don’t go against the grain of what their friends appreciate.’
‘Socio-economic status is an issue and deprivation is a barrier in accessing nature. For example surfing: Parents can’t afford a car to get to beach, pay for parking or the activity.’
'Education under the radar'
Ethics
I recognised that a key part of user centred design is ensuring the ideas meet the user’s needs and wants. We found significant secondary research surrounding access barriers faced by many adolescents however we lacked in suburban, specific insight and feedback on our initial ideas. I considered the ethics of seeking out people within our target user group, however decided that the project’s constants would not allow time for reaching out to community groups and obtaining parental consent forms required for the research to be deemed ethically sound.
In search of primary insight, I requested an interview with John Tutton, a local surf coach and mentor specialising in outdoor activities, who works with adolescents in our target user group. When considering the ethics of this research, the main considerations were ensuring the data was adequately protected and any under 18 year-olds mentioned within the interview would not be personally identifiable in our published research.