It's Not Always Sunshine
And Rainbows
Jake D. | Ingrid Zyl | Nidhi Hira
Paniz P. | Christine D.
A virtual probe kit designed to explore the social impact of COVID-19 on post-secondary education
After learning about various design research methods, we decided to apply this knowledge to our current social scenario by analyzing the grief and trauma response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our chosen demographic was students of post-secondary institutions in Vancouver B.C. Since hosting physical workshops was not an option, we decided to translate the probe kit method into a virtual space. With fillable a pdf to record responses, and activities designed to be completed individually or at home, we created a kit that may serve as a self-care routine or reflection practice for our participants.
We understood that this topic might trigger a heavy emotional response for some participants. Hence, we made sure to give ample context about the activities in the introduction and collected appropriate consent forms. This also defined the visual direction of our probe kit with the use of a muted colour pallet but playful Memphis-style graphics and repeated patterns.
Virtual Probe Kit:
The stories collected from participants that decided to share their responses were extremely insightful- a lot more than if this was a simple multiple-choice survey! The stories were analyzed to find common themes in the participant's experiences. My findings are compiled in the form of a research paper you can read here: