12 weeks
(Sep 2019-Dec2019)
Research
Ideation
Prototyping
Testing
Pride is a care package that helps transgender people in their transition process through fashion. Through research, we found out that fashion is a powerful form of affirmation for many transgender people. However, conventional fashion does not cater to their body needs when they are going through the transition, and trans fashion is expensive. Pride has been created to address these issues and support the individual through their transition. The package is personalized and caters to the individual needs.
Research Methods
Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Literature Study, Photo ethnography
Design Methods
Crazy concepts, Behavioral Prototyping, Appearance Prototyping
My Role
For the design process, we followed PRInCiPleS framework which includes Analysis and Synthesis
Initial Analysis
Research
After we listed down our predispositions, we realised we lacked knowledge about the struggles of a person who is queer. We conducted research in predominantly two waves which helped us to gain different insights and hence guide our design process.
WAVE #1
Primary Research
Interviews
LGBTQ+ Community at IUB
Secondary Research
Literature Papers
Movies
Books
Articles
INSIGHTS
We realised that most fashion issues occurred while transitioning from one gender identity to another because their body is new and it is hard to understand their new body.
Most people who are queer show their gender identity and expression through clothing and their accessories. These products are usually very expensive if tagged ‘queer’.
Since most people who are queer are ostracized from their families, it becomes unaffordable to buy necessary clothing. They resort to extreme means like duct tape binders which could result in serious health issues.
WAVE #2
In this phase, we predominantly used the following research methods and hence gained insights from them
Photoethnography
Social Gathering and Conferences
Follow-up Interviews
INSIGHTS
Most people in the trans community prefer online shopping than going out to avoid unnecessary attention.
When someone transitions, it is not only that person, but also people around them.
One of our interviewees said, “I don’t want people to see me only as a ‘trans-woman’ and feel bad for me”-
They look for empathy more than sympathy.
Concept Sketches
We brainstormed ideas to solve problems a transgender person might face during and/or after transition. During this phase, we didn’t want to box ourselves in and thus tried to come up with creative and crazy ideas. We came up with many ideas but chose these five because of the values they bring
#1 Rating Cloud
Idea: To create social acceptance for transgender community.
Solution: Have a rating system hover over everyone, where in people with lower rating have a dark cloud over them.
#2 Step into my Shoes
Idea: Encouraging empathy within families of transgender people.
Solution: Shoes that would help families of transgender people experience lives of their loved ones. These shoes would literally put them in their lives and help families experience their joys and struggles to better understand how to help and support them.
#3 mirror mirror on the wall
Idea: To build confidence and assist in learning everyday routine.
Solution: A mirror that changes facial/body features on touch. Also, provides tutorials to help in learning everyday routines like makeup, hair styles etc. and build confidence with encouraging comments.
#4 Game to choose a different World!
Idea: To help transgender people be comfortable with their body and environment.
Solution: A game where the transgender personnel can create alternate realities, get comfortable with themselves.
#5 Personal Shopping Space
Idea: A majority of transgender people shop online during the initial phase of their transition, we believe this might arise out of fear judgement or not being ready.
Solution: To address this problem, shops can have multiple personal shopping spaces.
All our concepts were over the top and impractical, some more than others. To extract value from ideation, we tried to bring these concepts to reality and make them more feasible than they currently were.Out of each concept, we tried to extract the essence-
We wanted to incorporate support and empathy as prevalent in the second concept.
We wanted to incorporate confidence and knowledge as prevalent in the third concept.
We wanted to incorporate feeling of safety and freedom as prevalent in the fifth concept.
Proposed Design
Our proposed design consists of a care package which can be ordered through a website. It consists of accessories, makeup, clothing, articles and books.Through this care package, we wish to provide support and knowledge to people undergoing transition. The package also focuses on helping friends and family who wish to support the people they know are undergoing transition.
The website
The care package Contains
A Gift to a friend...
To try and test our package, we gifted it to our friend Abbey. She loved the package and was happy to receive it. The package contains the items mentioned above with the illustrations on the packaging indicating the gift item.
Reflection
Learned to work in a team
It's essential to learn how to work in a team and avoid conflicts. There can be times when there are arguments in the team. It is significant to listen to everyone's opinions, solve the argument, and contemplate over their ideas too.
Get Critiques and Work on Feedbacks
We came up with various ideas but were not sure which idea to choose and why. We realized critiques and feedback help us to understand the problem better and hence progress in the design process.
© Sukruti Shrivastava 2020