Digital Civics blog
During last week’s session it became clear that we had one main design concept in mind – a website with an interactive tool to address litter as a social problem. Originally we were going to design our interactive tool in an app, however it became clear that it could be too costly and therefore decided to do it via a website. The website also fits in well with the feedback that we got from the youth council as they said it would be a good idea to put the website link on the school home page, which in turn should generate a larger user group as more young people will be coming across our page on a daily basis and get to a large young audience as we are targeting schools.
The design of the interactive tool itself revolves around being able to go through the North Tyneside area with your mouse on the computer screen. From here young people will be able to gain more of a perspective of where litter ends up i.e. landfill, the ocean etc. There will also be a game that almost takes inspiration off Pokémon go where you can collect points from barcodes off bins and in turn get rewards when you pick up rubbish (this is an minimally developed idea and we are looking into the logistics of it more). We are also hoping to design a ‘North Tyneside of the future’ which will give an outlook on how the area will look if we continue to litter at such a rate, and on the other hand how it would look if we were to become cleaner- we hope that this could encourage behavioural change that will change their outlook on how to treat their local area. Below are a couple of links to show the sort of style we want our website to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur9MqboHfhw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v64KOxKVLVg
Although we have a relatively clear idea in mind, we are still yet to get much feedback off the client, and because of this we have been in contact to ask a range of question. Although we are still waiting on a reply we hope that once we get these answers we will be able to shape exactly the direction that our project is going. In addition to this we received feedback during our presentation that it would perhaps be in our interest to look at a wider range of environmental issues which prompted us to think of the possibility of a quiz on the same webpage that young people can fill out, this data can then be collected and returned to the schools – this can then get passed to the youth council who can use this information to benefit them when putting forward ideas to change the area and express young people’s point of view in a more professional manner.
Hello team, thanks for your entry. It seems you have some ideas forming in your mind; especially the idea of a ‘website’ through which your digital prototype may be served. Of course at this stage, a lot may yet to be unclear. I guess, perhaps the ‘website’ here can be seen more of a convenient and suitable channel to reach the young people and build a clear point of reference for where your digital prototype may sit.
For this week, we especially focused on the example search, and I can see that you have referenced some examples, such as the two links to a video showing a VR app experience of the neighbourhood and where litter ends up, as well as Pokémon Go. Thanks for this.
However, unfortunately I cannot quite understand what aspects relate to your design. You would need to explain in a bit more detail which aspects inspired you and why they were relevant. For example, some readers may not know about Pokemon Go, so it would be good to expand a bit further, and describe the system that stands behind it and the key user actions that are performed in this game, and how those relate to your goals (reducing littering, for example). In terms of the links to VR content, the same thing, for the final reflective log, you’d need to further unpick, how and why you found those examples and what aspects about them are inspirational/relevant to your designs. I suspect this would then lead to additional questions, such as (1) how would the VR experience be generated easily, (2) what can users do and what actions do you hope will users take that address littering (as one concern with environmental consequences).
I look forward to seeing some potential solution sketching for your prototype for the next post; and the story board explaining what young people will be able to achieve by using your prototype.
Hi team! Great to see the ideas developing here. Obviously we’re now further into the project and I know your ideas have evolved since then. My comments here are mainly in relation to the final reflective assignment. It would be good for that final assignment to frame the development of these ideas around the requirements you had identified and how they relate to the information you have already. In relation to the example search, I think you have made a start through this blog in showing your example search, this needs to be much clearer for the final assignment. You definitely need to engage more with the academic literature, of which there is plenty. There are the articles provided within the seminar as well as the suggested reading from the lectures. If you feel none of this suits your project, I would encourage you to do a wider search for relevant literature. Particularly in relation to the gamified aspects of your suggestions, there is a lot of literature that focuses on this type of product for young people both in and out of an educational setting. For your reflective log, I would expect to see this literature engaged with at least a little. There is also non-academic examples, which you have highlighted in this blog too. When completing this search and writing about it, it would also be necessary to show why the examples you have found are relevant and how they have influenced the decisions you have made about the prototype.
This blog is a good start but for the reflective log, definitely try to tighten up the example search.