During these 10 weeks working on our ‘design sprints’ we have learned to work on a project in a team while considering advice and demands from people that would use what we would produce. We learned the benefit and challenges that digital technologies would provide. We also learn the various ethics, statements, ideas that were involved when creating a digital technology.
The words ‘Digital civics’ started to be widely used during the last decades. Depending on your position you can view and define digital civics in different ways. However, it is a form of interaction that involves digital technology and civic groups. Most schools of thought would go towards a digital technology that would go for the benefit of the user. But there are many digital technologies that are designed for surveillance and data collection. To create a digital technology that would go for the benefit of the users there is an absolute necessity of involving potential users during the design of the project. The concept of digital civics is still something that is vague and depends on your ethics, point of view
Our project is a smartphone application that involves the participation of residents of Bensham for their benefit. It permits residents to be more involved in their community but also, it promotes interaction between people and share their knowledge. Furthermore, it permits residents to solve problems that the local government is not in the measure to solve. The project was achieved through deep thinking from the team but also through participation from people that would benefit from it. We have done with them a contextual interview and tested the prototype of the project which enabled us to adapt and verify our design project. So, our project offers services that tend towards the benefit of the public.
During our presentation of the project the feedback was positive. However, as our project is an application on smartphones, people who do not have smartphones are not able to use it which can create inequalities. This can be due to socio economic factors, but also culture, religion can have an influence towards digital technologies. To make it accessible to a maximum of people that is targeted, an internet website version can be created so that people who do not have a smartphone or internet at home can access the application by using, for example, a computer in public spaces such as in a library.
Hadrien