Hello, my name is Amid. I would like to show you how we designed a set of visual cards
with the Knowle West Media Centre and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The visual
cards illustrate a holistic mental health concept to support researchers and participants
in understanding and sharing mental health experiences. Let me show you a set of visual
cards. You can see - that the visual cards are composed of different parts: a description,
an illustration, and open-ended questions to foster mental health conversations. The
first pair of the visual cards intends to acknowledge cultural differences. It says:
Mental health is something we all have. People from all over the world think and talk about
their mental health in many ways. To understand people s mental health views, we can ask:
What thoughts come to mind when you hear the term mental health? Let s have a look at another
example! This pair covers coping strategies. The description explains: Being able to cope
with emotions can be helpful: for example, realizing that you had a stressful day and
deciding to go for a walk. To better understand how people cope with their emotion wellbeing,
we can ask: What do you do when you ve had a tough day? Interested in the design of inclusive
mental health technologies, we designed the following pair of cards. The description of
the technology-related card is: There are many different types of technology - such
as laptops, smartphones and tablets. Technology can affect our mental health. Potential questions
are: What are your favourite technologies? Are there any technologies that you avoid?
Next, I will talk about our design objectives and design reflections. Our objective was
to gain a detailed understanding of the mental health needs of local minority ethnic community
organisations and their members. Our intention was to support transparent and meaningful
research experiences based on a shared understanding of what mental health entails. The design
of the visual cards intends to support both researchers and participants in identifying
mental health and technology needs. We applied a human-centred approach and involved 11 participants
with diverse ethnic backgrounds, such as African and Asian. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we
used Microsoft Sway and Microsoft Forms to present the visual cards and conducted phone
interviews to receive feedback. Interview questions covered participants perceptions
of the visual cards and suggestions for improvement. For example, P2 explained that the text of
the visual cards could be easily translated based on her prior work experience as an interpreter.
Based on a holistic definition of mental health, we developed six themes. These themes informed
the design of the visual cards, including the illustrations and open-ended questions.
For example, we described the theme called environment in the following way: The world
around us may influence our emotions: our family, friends and work as well as food,
the weather, and illness. Next, I would like to share with you our design reflections.
Here, you can see how we transitioned towards a more realistic visual style since participants
faced challenges to recognise cultural diversity in our initial abstract illustrations. We
wanted to find a visual language that is respectful and non-judgmental. For example, we found
it helpful to look at photos of real people to become aware of our preconceptions. We
designed this series of illustrations to support reflections on coping practices. For example,
feedback suggested that the teacup and saucer can be perceived as strong references to the
British tea culture.The second iteration is refined showing a woman holding a mug in her
hands. The actor might have a hot drink, such as tea, coffee, chocolate, or milk. In the
third illustration, the lady is wearing a head covering. Feedback suggested that the
identity of the woman was unclear. Participants associated South Aschian and Slavic cultures
and lower social statuses with the illustration. We excluded this series of illustrations as
its ambiguity seemed to support stereotypical thinking. The design of the visual cards fostered
discussion about the role of our gender and ethnic background as designers. For example,
the transition away from a woman with straight hair documents our tendency to draw images
that might be interpreted as of white women. We designed a set of visual cards that aim
to support both researchers and participants in sharing and understanding mental health
experiences. We felt that the iterative design process of the visual cards helped us to gain
cultural awareness and cultural competence. We gradually gained confidence in depicting
diverse visual cultures through sharing design concepts and receiving feedback from people
from diverse ethnic backgrounds. However, it has become clear that our understanding
of diverse ethnic cultures was subjective and limited. Gaining cultural sensitivity
and competence is an ongoing and participatory learning process that needs to go beyond a
research project. We believe that participatory design approaches could be suitable to design
support systems for conducting culturally sensitive research and informing the design
of inclusive technologies in partnership with a local minority ethnic community organisation
and its members. Future work could identify the perceived benefits and limitations of
the visual cards in different mental health research settings. Potential use cases include
the design of mental health technologies and research methods, such as interview studies
and design workshops, where researchers and participants could draw on the visual cards
to support conversations about mental health views and experiences.