Julia Olson's Design Journey

Problem: Young women in their 20's are constantly battling a bombardment of external influences that degrade their self image, especially their body image, and while people notice these external influences as largely negative, there aren't many existing solutions for these young women to help or protect themselves from these influences.  Research Question: How can experiential design concepts help young women in their 20's use behavioral modification to improve their perception of their body image? Using your research conducted to this point, an evaluation of the validity and personal love you have for problem definition and research question . As a part of the identified group that my thesis, problem, and research question pertain to, there is no question of the validity of them to me, but I feel that I still need to further research the validity of them to other women in the demographic that I have identified. I can with certainty say that there are many exte...

This strain of research will be generative, however, I plan on using surveys and interviews to gather information about this topic.  Which celebrities are most influential to young women in their 20's right now? Questions I can ask for my surveys and interviews: Who is your favorite actress? Who is your favorite singer? Do you have a fashion icon? Who? When you think of a leader, who comes to mind? When I say the word powerful, who comes to mind? How do celebrities influence body image? I think that based off of the results from the surveys/interview I conduct about which celebrities are most influential to young women in their 20's, I can further research how those celebrities have influenced body image in general and then get more specific with my research as it becomes relevant. 

This strain of research will be exploratory, more open ended  What is social media? According to Merriam-Webster: forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media Examples of Social Media: Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, (Older)My Space Who views social media? People from all demographics view and use social media; however, according to Pew Research center,"… younger Americans (especially those ages 18 to 24) stand out for embracing a variety of platforms and using them frequently."  http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/ While not discriminating by gender, it is safe to say that a large portion of the young Americans that use a variety of social media platforms frequently is female.  ...

Based off of my improved research question:  How can experiential design concepts help young women in their 20's use behavioral modification to improve their perception of their body image? I decided to create a thought map to kickstart the next phase of my research process. Based off of the trends I saw, there are two main components in each trend that I will further research as they relate to body image in young women in their 20's. Two of the three trends have to do with outside influences, but according to research concerning self talk and thought process, internal views and perspectives hold more weight, even though internal views and perspectives can be heavily influenced by external sources. This is one the main reasons I want to further investigate how to empower young women to take advantage of their personal thought processes to help them help themselves.  Social Media and Body Image:   This strain of research will be exploratory, more open ende...