Research schedule:
The research would be carried in two different lines, one is about the anxiety and focuses on people, another one would put effort on parks, and to see the possible connections.
Field research -local park: Elephant park
I went to the nearest park to observing people's behaviours here, even this one is relatively small, still gathered some people, and brought the atmosphere of chill.
All in all, lots of activities are going on, but no one showing the stress. The change of my physical location also changed my state of mind, I could feel this is a time to have a laydown and take a deep breath.
Literature review
The affordance of the park:
City parks and open space improve our physical and psychological health.
Strengthen our communities, and make our cities and neighbourhoods more attractive places to live and work.
Numerous studies have shown the social, environmental, economic, and health benefits parks bring to a city and its people.
A Place for Physical Activity
You’ve probably heard about the many problems caused by a lack of physical activity. The sedentary lifestyle many Canadians live today is directly linked to obesity, which can cause a number of health problems including certain forms of cancer and heart disease.
Parks make a neighbourhood more enjoyable to walk through and provide space for popular sports, encouraging physical activities. They provide hiking trails and other amenities designed to get people active. Considering how few Canadians get enough exercise, this is incredibly important, especially for low-income families and others who can’t afford a gym membership or classes.
Mental Health Boost
It seems obvious that a place where people are able to make connections, meet new friends and participate in recreational activities is also good for the locals’ mental health. After all, physical health and strong relationships are important to maintaining mental well being.
Yet the mental health benefits of parks go beyond the obvious. Direct exposure to nature has its own benefits on mental health, reducing stress and increasing happiness. And these effects take place almost immediately. A study by Finnish researchers found that even ten minutes in a park or urban woodland area could tangibly reduce stress. Participants felt most restored after time spent in the urban woodland.
Field research -Hyde park
I went to the symbolic park in London, Hyde Park, It is the largest of four Royal Parks, So I went there, to see if there have anything, I could take for inspiration for my projects. Lots of people go there because they have free time, they want to relax during this time, so they could walk and play without stress.
Research methods: artefacts analysis& AEIOU
AEIOU：
A-activities:
park activities could be concluded as three subcategories, Single work or pair work or collective work. Single works may contain sketching, cycling and so on. Pair works may be chatting. Collective works are possibly a picnic, soccer or other competitive games.
E-environment:
Plants surround this park, and the senary would change with seasons. Also, there is a lake that has birds swimming in the water, in the quiet place you can only heart the sound of the wind, but when you move to a crowded part, the sounds of people taking are overwhelming.
I-interactions:
Interactions could be a divide in to interact with people or with objects. The one with people is overlapped with activities. Interaction with an object could be more diversity, like utilize the equipment in the park.
O-objects:
The big park will contain the restaurants, cafe shops, but for more universal parks, there would be a billboard in the entrance of the park, and trash bins to hold the litters, pavement or path for people walkthrough, and most common are different kinds of plants
U-users:
Most people go there to walk their baby and pets, and the age range is very big, it contains kids, teenagers, the young, the middle age and the ole. All in all, parks as a public place, do not have limitation for users. Also, parks are also a paradise for animals.
Artefacts analysis
Pavements
walking path for visitors to avoid walking upon the grassland, providing an approach from one place to another.
Ideation: maybe the pavements could use as a path to the different destinations of the design
Road guide
It provides the guidance of where is
the park facilities, which is critical for people to get lost or have a purpose. Visiters could recognise where they are better.
Ideation:
the design may have separate functions, so maybe can apply this as the information navigation, or replace the main menu,
Trash bins
We use it for recycling the rubbish, and clear icons about garbage classification with the one in the park used wood as a material.
Ideation：Trashbins could be used for recycling and bin some annoying notification. Associate with the feeling of abandon something, it may feel relieved, so rather than throw the useless information, maybe could also be used to throw some bad memory.
Billboard
provide information navigation around the park, including the late news, or announcements.
Ideation: for the new massage could be placed in the billboard, rather than push to your phone. so that the user could fetch the information as they want to, and read massage actively rather than passively.
Benches
for people to take a rest, or to communicate, which could be used
one person or multiple users.
Ideation:
provide a place in the digital world where users could feel at ease, or meeting people, two users could encounter each other in here.
The main finding in the park research:
the park is not just a paradise for human but also paradise.
The activities in the park will depend on what kind of park it is, and what facilities there provided.
Parks would differ significantly in scale and function.
a park is a physical place, so build up a park in the digital world, might be less powerful, but maybe could lead the users to the park.
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