3. Identifying Extremes

Broadening my horizons to nudge bold and new ideas by learning from extreme perspectives

Note to Self

Stretch your thinking to identify specific people and situations to learn from. Extremes amplify the foundational needs and desires of the rest of us, in the middle of the bell-curve. In one way, solving for the extremes, is solving for everyone else.

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Typical User Demographics

• Age - 11-13-year-old children

• Education Level - Grade 6, 7 and 8 / Middle School

• Socio-Economic Background - From stable families, From middle to upper-middle-class families

• Typical Family Size - a nuclear family of 4 with an elder or younger sibling

• Nationality - Indian

Typical User Behaviour

• Familiarity with the Library Environment - Has studied at the school for a period of 3-5 years. Visits their school library as part of their weekly library period for an average of 42 times per year

• Attitude towards School Library and its book collection - Minimum engagement, only during weekly 35-minute library lessons, largely indifferent to what the library has to offer

• Browsing behavior- Spends an average of 5-7 minutes glancing through fiction books to borrow across several shelves; Accompanied by one other friend at least; Predominantly glances through books placed at eye-level; Browses shelves with books meant only for their reading level and rarely thinks about exploring other parts of the library.

• Reading Preferences - Values the relevance of the book in their times and how popular it is among their peer group; Values books on real-life experiences of their idols

• Renting behavior - Popular fiction series such as Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, Goosebumps, Secret Seven, etc. or avoids borrowing books altogether and reads magazines

• Discovering Titles/Authors - Introduced to new authors by peers; Through movies/tv shows based on books; Authors of lessons/poems in their English textbooks

Warming Up & Choosing Lenses

I did a small warm up exercise to train myself to think of extremes on a spectrum rather than in a linear manner. I soon realized that i was playing too safe and stretch my thinking even more.

The lenses I chose are as follows.

• Lens 1- Attitude towards the school library's collection of books

• Lens 2- Browsing and Choosing Books

• Lens 3- Discovering New Authors/Titles/Genres

Extremes Map by IDEO

Brainstorming Extremes

With each lens, I attempted to identify 5-8 potential extremes from whom I can learn from.

Brainstorming potential extreme people, behaviours and/or situations to learn more about reading habits and behaviours of middle-school children. In addition I also identified potential analogous contexts that I can get inspired from while observing the following specific behaviour.

Chosen Extremes & Analogous Inspiration

• A student determined to develop a habit of reading and is exploring the world of books to find his/her calling; never picks another book by the same author/of the same genre.

• A librarian when she singlehandedly needs to manage two classes and complete all procedures within 30 minutes (last lesson of the day)

Analogous Inspiration

• Professional Quizzers who need to keep themselves up-to-date about a vast number of fields (analogous inspiration - curious about how curiosity can be developed and sustained)

In the next phase of my research, I will interview and observe the aforementioned people with extreme behaviours.