STARLY
A resilience education project for Chinese youth coping with the pressures of daily life.
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To teach without educating
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To learn through reflection
RCA project grade：Excellent
*Starly is not a typo, which means fortune and luck in Chinese ( 斯塔利 )
Duration
6 Months
2020. 12 - 2021. 06
Team
Xinyue Ruan
Seonhyo Kim
My Primary Role
Primary Research
Event Host
Video Editing
Rapid Prototyping
Tools
Illustrator,
Photoshop,
After Effects,
Miro, Zoom
Brief
How might we ...
Provide a roadmap for Chinese teenagers to enhance their resilience and support their self-growth?
Solution Overview
Our vision:
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Develop a roadmap for Chinese teenagers to adapt to life's challenges and strengthen their resilience.
Strategy:
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Firstly, to create a series of activities connecting teenagers to support tools and a range of materials promoting
self-reflection.
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Secondly, establish a community for them to encourage and motivate each other.
Service value proposition:
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Assist teens in developing resilience
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Raise awareness of resilience
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Build a supportive cohort
Design Process
We wanted to build a project that differed from others we had done and run it through a series of fundamental experiments and prototypes.
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Phase 1 was a classic discovery stage, in which we carried out in-depth research involving around 30 stakeholders.
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Phase 2 revolved around understanding the stakeholders' insights. We then explored possible ways in which the problems we had uncovered could be addressed through our project.
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Phase 3 & 4 were concerned with the process of building and learning. Here, we returned to the stakeholders - the young people and practitioners we had initially interviewed - to explore the opportunities we had identified and validate and develop our ideas.
Phase I
Discovering
To understand the current situation in society and people's needs
X 17 Teenagers
X 05 Parents
X 08 Practitioners
1.1 Background
What is Gaokao?
The Gaokao is a National College Entrance Examination.
We are taught that Gaokao is vital to success in Chinese society, but it has been criticised for relying on rote learning and failing to consider non-academic strengths. Most importantly, One mistake can have a dramatic effect on a student's life and future prospects. Students are consequently always under a huge amount of pressure.
However, for an education system with such a large population base, it may be the fairest way to select talent.
Stakeholder Relationship
One mistake in the Gaokao exam can have a knock-on effect on a student’s life.
Parents therefore provide adequate financial support and care in life, hoping that students can achieve better grades, but their communication methods are always problematic.
On the other side, Schools do their best to provide students with training courses to adapt to the college entrance examination, but many schools are score-driven
Let’s unpack what they told us ---->
We created an interactive board for students to engage with. After a few days, we collected and analysed data from the board, using the results to develop possible design solutions.
In order to understand the willingness of the students to engage with the programme and the substance of the programme.
Although students do not know the meaning of resilience, through interaction with them, we find that many of the problems they put forward are caused by a lack of resilience, which enables us to uncover their needs.
1.2 Pain points & Key Insights
We discover that ...
And We learn that….
As teenagers face massive pressure from study, we need to increase their awareness of Resilience, but children also have a wide range of preferences as to how they would like their curriculum to be delivered.
So, pretty early on in this process, we realised that there wasn't going to be a fix-all solution that fits all difficulties they suffer. And Education is a long process; teenagers won't change overnight, so we determined that constant guidance through experience is the way to inspire them.
For example, some problems, like anxiety, are common issues for the younger generation, and we need to teach them that anxiety is optional, rather than something that dominates their lives.
1.3 What does resilience mean to Chinese teenagers?
Phase II
Defining
Defining users and introducing the service system.
2.1 Persona : teenagers & parents
What have we learned from the research?
How Might We…
Provide a roadmap for Chinese teenagers to enhance their resilience and support their self-growth
2.2 How our service works?
Service System:
We provide resilience-building services to Chinese youth and schools with cohort building and tools applications.
Our Mission:
Create an opportunity for children to accept new ideas, frustration, and cognitions through experience, thereby promoting their self-growth.
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Reflective thinking: We use experiential teaching methods to deliver resilience training for children through camps and workshops. This is our core service.
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Application and Connection: helping to raise awareness of resilience.
2.3 Principles of Service Curriculum
We planned activities based on the 5 elements of the Localised resilience scale.
2.4 Expert Counselling
Get feedback and evaluate through expert consultation.
According to the expert's opinion, our activity is more inclined to internal support, which means the activity goal is to promote self-development. Counselling letter from experts --->
Phase III
Prototype & Test
Developing& Evolving
X 17 Teenagers
X 05 Parents
X 08 Practitioners
3.Four times prototype
There are 4 levels of our prototype. The process is gradually redefined and was ultimately implemented in reality.
Phase IV
Service Outcome
We delivered our service as a Resilience Camp in May 2021
Play to learn more about the camp service 👇
4.1 Digital Touchpoints
1. WeChat mini-app
The primary function is to enable course booking, payments, sign-up and so on.
It improves efficiency for users and for us, as the operators.
Booking
News
Feedback
Main Page
WeChat Mini APP
Scan the QR code to explore the APP
2. TikTok Platform
We have interacted with our students and teenagers to develop a more fun way to build connections.
This approach made them more willing to engage with us.
We were also able to attract further potential users by uploading videos together.
This platform can help us to promote courses and activities
3605+views & co-shooting videos：
4.2 Physical touchpoint
1. Toolkits- class booklet
The Toolkits will assist in the delivery of activities and can be adapted for different partners and themes.
2. Tote bag
It helps to quickly identify team members in outdoor activities and is also a souvenir of the activity, which is conducive to brand communication.
4.3 Feedback from our customers
After prototype with our potential customers with a one day came activity, they said that...
Xiaoyan,Student
“ I will definitely not be afraid if I encounter such a situation as today in the future. I will find another solution. Many ways out there!”
Qian, Parent
“ This is really a good activity，we have never done that before, but I think one activity might not enough.“
Yin, Yungu School
“ Regarding the resilience of teenagers, we are still reforming and exploring, so it is also a good time to discuss it together.”
Zhang, Parent
"My kid had a good time. We never thought about the importance of resilience, and we would like to pay more attention to it."
4.4 How can we have more impact?
Based on our previous conversations with students, parents and schools, they are more likely to establish contact through offline meetings and discussions. That's why we wanted to roll out our services offline first.
Project key Learning：
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Embracing the challenges, and adapting to the changing situation. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our first proposal to address the problems was no longer appropriate. We had to reframe our problem and recreate our service proposition, which frustrated us at first. However, as designers, we need to have the resilience to react to the ever-changing situation and find balance in the entire system rather than use quick fixes, trying to solve problems by only adjusting a specific proposal.
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Based on existing solutions, we found that Chinese society as a whole does not know enough about the inner growth of young people, and the general public found some terms difficult to understand. In the process of promoting it, try to gain the trust and support of parents by explaining the content of the project to them and It also helps to explain the choice and function of teachers on the project to parents. This is more energy-consuming but improves users' loyalty.