CULTURAL PROBE v2

After careful assessment I still felt like there was merit to my original idea, but wanted to find a way of making it more perceptive. The retrieval of information about the customer’s relationship with Cup A Joe (as a third place) could be more directly approached. I spent a majority of my time figuring out how the probe could be redesigned to motivate action and coming to terms with the fact that while the photos were potentially not giving me the kind of semantic indicators I thought, they could still be used to gain insightful information in other ways.

When a customer walks into Cup A Joe the probe will be visible on the back wall of the smoking room seen through the connecting doorway. It can also can be seen in the window from the street. Since the shop is separated into two rooms, there would be table tents holding photos and prompting people to take action in other areas of the space.


The table tent prototype is purposefully DIY looking to blend in with Cup A Joe's existing collateral.

My aim is to investigate how/why/what is it about Cup A Joe that people self-identify with, so I am prompting them to reflect on their relationship within the space.

Knowing that the next step after taking the photo is a required drawn self portrait makes the participants more conscious of what they take a picture of (they’re thinking “Where in Cup A Joe do I see myself placed?”). This makes the backgrounds of the photos more purposeful than arbitrary. It is hard to make further assumptions about the photo’s assessment because I can’t control the final results. I feel like this cultural probe is setting up an opportunity for the customer to tell me about themselves in relation to the third place. The collection of photos as a whole would offer the most insight, after I’m able to look at the patterns and anomalies of what people are taking a picture of, how they use the photos bottom margin, their tone and verbiage. This kind of probe works well for Cup A Joe because of its relaxing lounge environment, and there is an eclectic customer base who self-identify with the coffee shop (ranging from smokers to non smokers and professors to angst ridden teens). Since the coffee shop uses it’s walls to display local art, this project might come off as an artistic installation.

This probe was designed to motivate participation by speaking to a person’s relational needs: competition, excellence, curiosity and affection. Seeing a collection of rare polaroids on a billboard with the cameras nearby would spark curiosity. Also, a collaborative work that is publicly displayed gives the regulars a chance to be a part of something bigger than themselves, fulfilling their desire to be a part of a community. It is easy to fully engage with the probe since all of the tools are intuitive and user friendly.

After thinking about this project for so long, it felt like getting the information from the participants was too complicated. Finding out what a person wasn't conscious of "saying" through their drawing left me without an accurate assessment of the data. There is definitely still some problem/solution issues to work out with the idea of an effective cultural probe.