Hi, this is our first design log entry for the module by Alistair, Derek, Jake, James and Rachel. Only our second week into the course and we’ve already met the client in a workshop as well as set goals for the remainder of the project. By doing this, we’ve also come up with a few questions that we hope will be answered in the coming weeks!
GOALS
- To increase the amount of cyclists in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This is because cycling is seen as a renewable, cost-effective transportation method that does not consume energy and promotes a healthy, active lifestyle.
- Making cycle routes more known, accessible and easy to navigate. In particular, routes between the city centre and surrounding residential areas as well as potentially linking neighbouring local authorities to the scheme in the future e.g. County Durham and Northumberland.
- Producing a compact, interactive, integrated and easy to understand app that is accessible for a variety of users. Anyone should be able to use and operate our app regardless of their age, educational background or geographical area, for example.
- Another benefit of this app is that it provides Newcastle City Council with new data about cyclists and their main routes that they have never had before. For instance, where are they coming from? Who are they? What is their cultural and social background? How long will they be traveling? What is their purpose (e.g. are they a part of a club, student, or commuting)?
- It will enable city and transport planners to accommodate for high volume areas of cyclists and will enable them to understand and offer more cycle friendly facilities. These include bike lock/rack locations in Newcastle City Council and suggest where these installations can go. In doing so, it will also address problem areas that cyclists feel need solving.
- It will improve the routes to make them more cycle friendly e.g. smoother road surfaces, an increasing knowledge of cycle paths around the city and wider regions, wider and safer cycle pathways.
- To consider incentives that increase the amount of people that cycle and for longer. This needs to be done through interactive modes such as easy-to-read maps, user-shared routes and live traffic updates as well as business integration.
- Secondary data has already been collected by organisations such as Newcastle City Council as well as key user groups such as Sustrans. Our app will hopefully provide the means to further develop the relationships with planners, developers and cyclists to create a balanced city.
QUESTIONS
Who: Cyclists of all ages. From families, school children, students, commuters and the elderly.
• Will an app be accessible/appealing to all age groups?
• Our main concern is the elderly age bracket. How can we reach out and involve this audience to this social community?
• Would additional physical resources be more engaging for the elderly or those that do not have access to digital means?
What: An app that creates an online community of cyclists who engage with each other to improve their routes and environment.
• How do we successfully promote the app to create this community? (Engage with local social clubs? Online forums? Physical posters/leaflets? Conduct focus groups?)
• Will this be easy to maintain and will the idea catch on? (Do we need a points system? Prizes e.g. sustained cycling = rewards at local businesses, discounts with retail brands)
Where: To begin, in the Newcastle City Council region.
• Could this develop and expand to engage neighbouring authorities?
• If the idea gains significant interest, would it be credible to work nationwide? Worldwide? Would it be easier to engage by using countries such as Denmark and Holland as examples where cycling is more integrated into normal life? Can we learn from these places to gain more cycling activity data and improve our town planning capabilities?
• Locally, how valid will individual data inputs from users be? Can this be monitored?
Why: To promote a healthy lifestyle whilst also promoting sustainable transport.
• Does everyone have a bike? Or know how to ride one? Can we promote bike hire companies on the app?
• Will the app actually produce the desired effect?
Hi team, good start! You have set yourself some goals and questions. My observation is that you have really quite many goals. Perhaps reduce those to only a few. Perhaps your key goal from your project might be to increase cycling in Newcastle (combined with perhaps goal 2)… by making cycle routes more known, accessible and easy to navigate.
Note that the development of an app is not a goal but a potential outcome. Do you see why? It’s because an app may be a vehicle to get towards your goal, right? So I do encourage you to interact with the other users and be open and appreciative to their views, that may well differ.
As for the questions that you like to explore, they are great, perhaps again slightly too many. Knapp (2015, p. 57) suggest the following question “To reach your goal what needs to be true?” and so perhaps your question is rather more so “could improved sharing of cyclist’s experience, encourage increased update in cycling”.
As for the many other questions you listed, they are a great resource to ask questions to your user representatives. Please be careful to try to simply understand their practice… You should ask how they presently find out about cycle routes and what the challenges are in doing so. You may also want to ask them how they may presently provide feedback to the council on cycle routes? You should also ask them if and what apps they use if any? And if apps are not the right way to go, perhaps think of the kind of object Jen showed, perhaps some more time-limited, small scale campaign may produce much greater and detailed feedback?
Now onwards: Do have a look at your brief and look at the cycle statistics… How many cycling is there already in Newcastle today? Is there more in Newcastle then elsewhere in the UK? What different types of cycling demographics are there? Again, you’ll find a lot of resources in reports for example. Now, next step for you is to arrange yourself and prepare a set of interview questions for your participants.
Great start to your blog posts. You’ve included a wealth of information and that’s great to see so keep that up! The goals of the project seem to be quite a lot but reading through, you could almost split that information into two sections – goals and contextual information. Maybe, a lot of the information such as the justification as to why it is beneficial are less goals than context about the current situation and the app that the client has spoken about. If you separated this information a little more, you would have a more manageable amount of goals.
The wealth of information is great but it does feel quite a broad, open project at the moment. For example, the target audience of all cyclists may put a little too much pressure on the group for the time available! This isn’t a huge problem it just means you have space to narrow your focus as you go through the user interviews and start to think about ideas for the project. It’s always easier to narrow down than to start too focused! You have already thought about older citizens that may not be interested in an app – so you could focus on that?
I think it is great that you’ve included information about the app but don’t stay too focused on that. Obviously, it is a really important aspect to keep in mind as it is something current and important to the client, but stay open-minded and be open to other ideas too. When you speak to the users to find out their current practice, they might lead you in a new direction or they might be on board with the app idea – either way that’s okay as long as you’re open to it.
I really like that you have considered long-term goals of what could be possible and I think that’s always great to consider. Thinking about new ideas and the impact it could have longer term is a great way to encourage you to think outside of the box too.
Before the user interviews, it would be great to consider the group’s position about the app – are you set on this or do you want to be more open? That way you could prepare your interview schedule in the most suitable way. It would also be good to do a little background research to seek others’ perspectives – from statistics, cycling groups (if you can find any) and others?
Hope that’s helpful! Keep it up!
Jen