Photos taken by Katelyn Watkins and Sam Chang.
Social Innovation / Interaction Design / Product Design / UX Design / Design Research / Cultural Design
Our goal for the trip was to research the values, culture, and important sites of the island. We learned important interviewing skills and were able to interview numerous locals in the area due to our connections from our professor. These valuable interpersonal skills allowed us to design something truly close to the heart of the island that they would be able to implement after we left.
The interviews gave us extensive insight on the lifestyle and values of Kefalonians. The people of Kefalonia value religion, family, and community above all. A generous and loving people, we learned about their importance of meal times with family and sharing love through food and community gatherings.
An important event that occurred in Kefalonian history was the 1954 earthquakes that shook the island and forced people to leave, separating many families and beginning the slow rebuild of the island's infrastructure. Many of the locals who remember the earthquake or have relatives that remember it are growing older, which left the question of how would they preserve the culture and history of the island from before the earthquake?
People interacting and drawing on the tablecloth during mealtime.
Our design for the tablecloth.
All of these values and ideas manifested into: The Kefalonian Community Table. How this idea came about was the discussion of simple ways that led people to discuss. What was an activity that brought people together to talk about the island's rich history? Our solution was mealtimes.
We proposed a monthly dinnertime hosted by locals, inviting tourists, visitors, and locals alike to tour a small significant place on the island. The dinner could be hosted anywhere, depending on the host's preference. The island is not wealthy by any means, but we designed the Community Table event with the idea of affordability and reusability.
In the image above, we used a tablecloth from a restaurant in Greece to stage what the interaction would look like. Our actual designs are depicted in the presentation.
A significant piece of our design is our tablecloth. As study abroad students, we often ate in local restaurants on the island to explore cuisine. Something that I noticed was that there would often be a paper tablecloth in many restaurants with the Kefalonian map on it, detailing beloved landmarks and regions on the island. With this in mind, we designed a modified version of the Kefalonian tablecloth map and marked it with questions and facts about the island.
Each table at our Community Table would have writing utensils and during dinner, locals and visitors would be able to discuss their favorite places on the island and memories they have had there. Thus, this simple activity encourages history to be shared over a meal. An additional activity that we designed were notecards with prompts that encouraged people to share their personal histories with each other. These notecards would be collected and displayed on a timeline with significant Kefalonian events on it, so that people could see how their personal stories tied in with the island's history. This interactive portion was designed to drive home the idea of preserving memories and culture on the island.
Notecards with sample prompts for visitors to write on.
By creating an event that occurred monthly, hosted by the community, both residents of the island, their families, and tourists alike would be able to come to a local community mealtime and enjoy food together. This solution is a sustainable practice that is universal and true to Kefalonian culture. Many locals enjoyed speaking about their childhoods over an afternoon snack. Warm and inviting, we wanted this dinnertime to exhibit Kefalonian hospitality while also sharing important bits of local culture to people who are unfamiliar to the island.
Our final proposal is documented here.