LGBT Design Research | andres.design

BRIDGING THE

GENERATIONAL GAP

Brief: Identify a group of people that we consider are not given enough respect or credit for something in society, conduct exploratory and generative research based on it.

Learnings: Primary and Secondary Design Research (Participatory and Generative), Interviewing, Data Synthesising, Concept Generation.

Approach & Role:

1. Participatory Research (Team Project):

We talked and listened to LGBT adults who have experienced discrimination, and hardships related to their identity. These findings informed areas of opportunity for design.

2. Generative Research (Individual):

I collected input through participatory research, generated concepts, and ultimately generated a solution that I felt should be pursued.

Team Members: Andres Hurtado, Zhang Saber, Hongkun Zhang

Length: 6 weeks + 3 weeks.

Exploratory Research

Research Objective

The purpose of our research is to talk and listen to LGBT adults, age 50 and above, who somehow have experienced discrimination, and hardships highly present during their lifetime, such as homophobia, transphobia, denial of basic human rights. etc.

We will try to understand how their experiences led them to somehow contribute, in their own way, to the level of progress, and equality society has achieved so far.

Methods

SECONDARY RESEARCH

ONLINE SURVEY

INTERVIEWS

CULTURE PROBES

(Poem Reaction)

SYNTHESIS

Secondary Research

Recent estimates suggest that there are at least 1.5 million lesbian, gay and bisexual people 65 and older in the US, and this population will double by the year 2030.
Social Isolation makes lots of LGBT older people have to face lots of discrimination in their daily lives.
Many mainstream aging providers do not account for the unique realities and needs of LGBT older adults, leaving them at risk for isolation, neglection, and discrimination.

https://www.sageusa.org/issues/general.cfm

Online Survey

Interviews

PARTICIPANTS:

AGE 50+ LGBT SENIORS

We talked and listened to LGBT seniors who have experienced discrimination, and hardships related to their identity. Through this, we sought to understand life as an LGBT individual from their point of view to come up with potential opportunities to help them.

Takeaways

(from interviews)

Exploratory Method - Culture Probes

(poem reaction)

Purpose: To gain a deep and impressionistic view of life experience and the cultural background of LGBT seniors from their past.

During the culture probes session, we asked participants to read out loud The Mortician in San Francisco, by Randall Mann - a poem set during the AIDS crisis, about the death of Harvey Milk - to provocate the interviewees’ memory and emotions between that period. During the session, we encouraged interviewees to point out what memories the poem reminded them of.

Synthesis

After recollecting all our data from our secondary research, surveys, interviews, and reactions from the cultural probe, we synthezised all our of data to make it digestable, and at the end come up with inisghts that would lead to opportunities.

Insights

OPPORTUNITIES:

HOW MIGHT WE...

HMW close the gap between younger and older generations of LGBT people?
HMW change society’s perception of LGBT people for the good through education?
HMW might we bring accurate representation of LGBT individuals to the community itself and people outside of it?
HMW "redefine" the whole concept of LGBT?
HMW give LGBT adults/seniors better public welfare?
HMW bring acceptance of misunderstood groups within the LGBT community itself?

Summary

Seniors in the LGBT community have been through a lot of hurdles in order to achieve the level of progress we have today. The most important thing a person in the LGBT community can do to help is to be yourself.

Generative Research

Research Objective

After focusing on LGBT seniors, for the second part of the research, I decided to focus on young LGBT folks. I built on the opportunity area that I considered has the most potential. From that, I came up with potential solutions to the identified problem through collaborative activities with my participants.