People like being told they are loved by customers… thats what i’ve learnt so far this afternoon. Although it is not play, and I am probably going away from the brief here, it does improve daily life. Appreciation does go along way, and I know this myself from the work that I do. When a client is friendly with you and Appreciation what you do, you feel a sence of pride, and want to help them more. (not that i’m hinting to all the companies which I have been working crazy for in the last 3 years…honestly, your all great!)

Furthermore to thinking about this, I rung up O2 this afternoon and as the guy which I spoke to me this morning was so friendly, spoke to his manager I asked whether he could have a bonus or promotion as he was so good. (My deed for the day!)

So another point to consider which improves daily life; Appreciation.

Lunch time. Ahhh finally a break. The first thing I wanted to do was to get out of here. It’s warm, the phone doesn’t stop ringing, and the florescent lights are driving me nuts… Now, I am lucky, I am practically in shrewsbury town center, so I can go out, get some air, and have a wonder about, but for those on business parks, they would be stuck.

Really the way I am feeling at the moment, I don’t want to think or do anything (could be down to a hardcore week of work, or because i’m a “student”). Therefore it needs to be something really simple yet entertaining to improve a persons daily life. I feel a product specification coming on after today…) .

After a little surveying, I have found out what others do for their lunch. And they generally did a similar thing to me. (I am normal!!) Some went home, some hit the shops for some shopping but 90% left the office at some point.

After some homemade butties, I am back in the office, posting all my blogs from this morning. I have noticed I have missed my one from when I got up,  so i will write up my notes after.

ok, so I am in an everyday office. For the purpose of an average working
day, I will not comment on any interface relating to my everyday job
(design). However, I comment on things such as the windows GUI..(I make the rules here…!)

So windows XP, pretty average in an office I would say. mineswipper is a lot
of fun to be honest, but it is dull looking. I speaking with a bunch of my
wonderful colleges, we all have a consensus, that after looking at the
screen for 5 hours, you do want to look at it at lunch time. So would an
on-screen piece of digital media really improve daily living? I will have to
check my brief on this, because this finding my stuff it all up. I might
have to be, if you are forced in front of your screen for the whole day
non-stop, how could your daily life be improved?…actually, this could
work…people who sit in front of a computer all day want to do something
physical just to do something different. Now, if it had to be on-screen
digital media, then I could use other input devices which use flash to
work…Do something like a virtual walk in the park. This could actually
work for those stuck in a business park/industrial estate all day.

…the cogs are moving people, the cogs are officially moving….

After a nearly missing the train, and an abusive call to O2 Wrexham due to not being able to receive calls for the past week (now listening to bight eyes to calm myself down a little before work), I am finally settled on the train. And there’s not really a lot going on…

A few people reading the paper, others dosing off to sleep, well the rest admire the Shropshire countryside, and well me, sitting here with my laptop. Age range is probably around 18 – 90 and obviously they are all on here for different purposes but it is their daily life. From ease dropping some have mentioned going to AGM’s others seem to just be train fanatics.

In terms of the signage around here, it is an old train and so there is not a lot of graphic design to look at (obviously when this one was made, Arriva never seen the marketing opertunity it has with a captured audience.) There is a lot of safety signs and also abstract systems for opening or closing the doors (see image below). But it is generally limited.

[will upload images later today as they are on my iphone][don't expect anything glamorous]

Now, one biggy (thanks to big brother I am down with the slang.) which I have forgot to mention is the tickets and receipts. Printed media.

Everyone has a ticket and a receipt on the train so this is one other common denominator Most people keep this to hand due to the fact the ticket inspector is hot on their heels. – Could be a potential. These are in my folder for those reading this online.

Ok so I keep forgetting to update this thing…I admit it okay?

Now with regard to my project – my research went horribly wrong… well saying that it didn’t.

Through my research and interviews, (see folders) I found that everyone is different. They do different jobs in different places, have different work ethics and hobbies, yet age did not have anything to do with it. As I see it, a generic solution just won’t do. How we see play is totally different from person to person.

For me play is learning and design. I love learning something new which challenges me, hence probably why I have taken the crazy impulse of flying – something totally out of my league and which I know absolutely nothing about. And my second aspect; design probably again because it never ends in what you can learn about it. It changes, it adapts, it never gets old.

I first took a cross center of my market, emailing, twittering, facebooking my questionnaire to absolutely everyone. Then after graphing up the data, I took a generic stereotypes of each sector and interviewed them, asking them personal and more in-depth questions about there daily lives. After reviewing everyone’s answers, I feel the next step is to live the ‘average’ persons life (if there is such a thing..) scribbling every single point of contact with media….so friday 11th September, keep an eye out for the first episode of “the simple life: wrexham.”

I will do work on this soon… Promise…

After begging, bribing and blackmailing, only a meer 6 people filled in the form. I abused every address book I had access too, spammed facebook and twitter (since I am now a social bean) and even texted (is that a word?) everyone I knew to fill it in!

For those who did fill it in, THANK YOU! For those who didn’t, you still have time to make a young girl happy…

PS. I will get round to skinning this – promise!

Please, please please fill in my fantastic form quiz thing for my research (I am avoiding the questionaire word because I never spell it correctly!).

It is located http://www.vkw91.co.uk/research.php

Unfortunatly the prize for first form filler has gone, but the prize for super form spammer is still up for grabs!