Category: Team 2 (18/19)

Week 10 – Team 2

This week we began our prototype testing process. We met with Clare Ross, from Gateshead Council at the Civic Centre to show her the PowerPoint presentation prototype of our app for Chase Park. As Clare is one of the stakeholders in our project, it was essential we gained feedback from her for the prototype to ensure we had fulfilled the project goals which were based around the stakeholders’ requests.

Overall Clare responded very positively to our prototype. She was especially impressed with the volunteer hours log section and explained how the volunteers currently use Whatsapp for this, but having this facility on the app would improve communication, make the volunteers feel that they were part of something and make volunteering more sociable. Clare also highlighted that having a public log for individuals’ hours, this could encourage volunteers to complete more hours as it may result in competitiveness. This would have a positive impact on the park and the log could be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund as proof of the volunteer hours completed. Clare also gave positive feedback regarding the location service and the ability to share photographs of the park within the app.

Clare only had two concerns about the app. Firstly, she suggested we label the options on the main menu rather than only using symbols; to avoid confusion or doubt of what the symbols meant. Clare also highlighted the obvious issue around safeguarding. Safeguarding is something we need to discuss further as a group and find the most effective way of using security measures within the app without taking the fun out of it.

Clare used the prototype as we intended and we asked her to think out loud as she did. This was useful as we gained feedback from her regarding every aspect of the app. Overall, this prototype test left us feeling positive about our progress but highlighted that we need to think further about the clarity of the visuals and explore the best measures we can introduce for high levels of security and safety.

Our next step will be to hopefully meet with Alan from the Friends of Chase Park to also test our prototype with him and gain feedback from another of our stakeholders.

Week 9, Team 2

Blog week 9-

This week we looked at user testing in order to provide a successful app. It is important that we get feed-back in order to improve the app for Chase Park users before we submit our final design. When planning what testing would entail, we think it would be useful to get Alan and Ken from Friends of Chase Park, Claire from Gateshead Council and a number of children from Front Street Primary School to trial our prototype which would be in the form of a power point. A way of carrying out the testing would be by conducting a 5- Act Interview. Firstly, a friendly welcome. Secondly, context questions- asking whether they use Chase Park, how often they go, if an app would be relevant to them etc… Thirdly, introduce the prototype, explain what it is. Fourthly, task – get them to carry out tasks on the app e.g. can you tell us an event or find and create your secret group. Fifth, quick debrief, get their feed-back about the app. When using the app and carrying out the tasks stated above we would get them to think out loud in order to understand the process through new eyes. When it comes to carrying out the user testing it will involve myself, Laura and James. Louis was heavily involved with creating and providing the prototype so as a group we feel it best that he isn’t involved in the interview/testing process. In order to make the app realistic for our testers we are going to be using power-point which will show the images of the app. Hyperlinks will be in place to allow movement between the app pages.

Week 8 – Chase Park

This week we looked at prototyping and made a start on creating our own interactive prototype. An interactive prototype is something which is ‘real’ for the user to look at and use. For example, they would be able to navigate around an app clicking on buttons which then moved to a different page etc. so that it feels the functions are real.

We have decided to use PowerPoint for our prototype of our app. PowerPoint is a simple tool for creating a prototype, but it is a tool which we are most familiar with and think it will be able to perform all the necessary functions that we need on our app. We will show our prototype by getting people to go through the prototype app on the PowerPoint by simply beginning the slide show and then the user can click on the buttons, such as a ‘main menu’ button or a ‘home button’ to go back to the main menu, these will be linked with a hyperlink which will make it interactive and give it a feeling of ‘realness’ because things will happen depending on which icon or button you select. We still need to complete a few more interfaces of different pages to the app before it is complete, but below are a few pictures of what our current prototype looks like.

 

Week 7- Team 2- Chase Park

After visiting the primary school we gained a bit more of an insight of what features we would like to include within our app. Sketching out ideas of what features the app would have and what they would entail, we decided to focus on one specific feature of our app that seemed to be a strong point when visiting the school. Secret dens were talked about a lot and we think this feature would make our app unique and feel we have a lot to work with. Sketching out further detail and features of this one specific topic, sketching the app as a walk through and how the children would use it.

Week 6, team 2

This week, as a group we went to Front Street Primary school to carry out a workshop with a year 5 class. The workshop was split into 4 tasks- Firstly, to get the students to draw the park from memory. Secondly, to label their favourite parts of the park and why- by using stickers and post-it notes. Thirdly, in their opinion what they feel could be improved within the park and finally, how do they tell people about the park. They were split into groups of 4 and were able to write and draw their ideas. As a group we found the whole experience useful as our brief is aimed at their age range. When it came to the positives about the park some areas were clear favourites e.g.- windmill, play area and workout space to name a few. Many of the children felt a negative aspect of the park was the way some teenagers use it (drinking, smoking and being loud) and the amount of rubbish, many felt if these issues were tackled it would improve the park. Another improvement the children suggested was that events at the park were more publicly known about, as some felt they would miss out due to the lack of advertising prior to the event. When we asked the children how they would tell people about the park, the majority said through posters or a website. For the website to work they said it would need to be kept up to date and should include future events as well as links that allowed people to find out more information about the park.

Within our seminar this week, as a group we feel creating an app would be most appropriate. The app would consist of a video showcasing Chase Park, with different options- for example a few of the children mentioned that they would like to know more about the history of the park. By using the app, the children could scan a QR code in a particular area e.g. the Windmill and the app would pop up with information about the history of the windmill, this isn’t just applicable to the windmill. Another example would be an event time table- with pop up reminders. Children could either access the app through their own mobile phones (with parent permission) or done in a class environment- so the teacher could let them know what was going on, making sure it would be age appropriate.

 

Team 2- Workshop at Front Street Primary School
Team 2- Workshop Front Street Primary School ( what could be improved)

Week 5 – Chase Park – workshop design & example search

This week during the seminar session we met Jen, our mentor, and had the opportunity to explain in detail the research, progress and initial ideas we had for our project. We explained to Jen how our project had developed from the initial brief, as that is the only information she had of our project until that point. We discussed with Jen our user research and told her our plans to run a workshop for the year 5 children of Front Street Primary School. Jen helped us to develop a clear, structured plan for the workshop. We also decided on our main aim for our project, to encourage pride and stewardship of young people in Chase Park. Jen also helped us to prepare questions ready for our interview planned for week 6 with Holly, the youth worker, from ‘Kick the Dust’. Aspects we plan to interview Holly on include, the context she works in, whether the people she works with are connected to Chase Park and what ideas she thinks are most likely to encourage engagement from younger people.

Week 5 was when the majority of our research into other projects in digital civics took place. One project we researched was Jen’s, ‘Participatory Media: Creating Spaces for Storytelling in Neighbourhood Planning’. This was useful as the project also used a park, Kingston Park. The project was to develop an app where citizens would have a platform to share their own stories. This project involved running workshops as a research method which we are also using as our own research. Another app we researched was an app created for breastfeeding mothers called ‘Feed Finder’. This app is location based, it provides. platform where breastfeeding mothers can rate and review places they have found to breastfeed for the information of other breastfeeding mothers. This app is loosely related to our project as it brings together experience of citizens themselves to create a reliable information service on an issue of importance to that community. Chase Park is an issue of importance to their local community, to have a location based app for Chase Park where users can share experiences, photos, videos, events etc in the park we believe would encourage others to visit.

Our next steps include: running the workshop at Front street Primary School, interviewing Holly from ‘Kick the Dust’ and drawing together all of our previous research to have a clear journey for our project development, ready for the midterm presentation at the end of week 6.

Week 4 – Chase Park

This week we progressed further on our workshop we are doing with the children at Front Street Primary School Whickham. We have drawn up an outline plan of the activities we will complete with the children at the school. The current plan needs some tweaking and we discussed how an additional activity of how they would show other people about the park which we have added to the original plan. Hopefully we will get some creative ideas on how they would use video/technology to help them to this.

So far our plan is:

(0 min) Introduce ourselves and why we are there.

(5 min): Starter:

Get the teachers to organise children into groups of around 4-6, depending on class size.

Each group of children are to draw the outline of chase park, giving them A3 sheets with colouring pens and pencils.

* Use photographs as visual stimuli

* Ask them – what can you remember about the park? What is there? Where do you like going in the park? What do you like to do there?

* Remind them – Doesn’t have to be a work of art or very accurate etc

(20 min) Activity 2: Groups to decide between themselves what places in the park are the best to them, giving them stickers such as golden stars to stick on their drawings.

* Use star stickers, emoji stickers (Sean can bring these)

* Can also layer the map with post it notes, pens and stickers (Sean can bring these)

(30 min) (Class discussion)

Going around each group and getting them to say one of the places they highlighted and why.

(35 min) Activity 3: Giving them another set of colours, get them to draw on where and what they would want in their park. What would make them use it more.

* Describe how you would make the park better for people to come and visit

* Bring your ideas to life!

Write down possible ideas for activities that could be done in the park too.

(1hr 0 min) (Class discussion)

What were the best ideas of each group when they thought about improving or adding something new to the park.

* Write on flipchart paper

(1 hr 05 min) Activity 4:

How would they show / tell other people about the park? How would you get the message out about the great things that are in the park? Work in groups to come up with some ideas.

* Posters?

* Technology?

* Videos?

* News reports?

(1 hr 25 min) Class discussion and feedback.

(1 hr 30 min) Finish.

It still requires a bit more attention to detail before we deliver the workshop at the school but the general activities and timings are in place. Unlike a normal school activity, we want the workshop to provide us with information from the children rather than the other way around. We hope that the children will really enjoy having the opportunity to share their ideas to us, however creative or crazy they might be.

We are also currently organising a convenient time to meet Holly from ‘Kick the Dust’ and preparing some questions for her. Jen suggested we look to ask similar questions to what we will ask the children but phrase them in a more suitable way.

We have done some example searches, one of which was BlockBuilders (https://blockbuilders.co.uk). BlockBuilders use Minecraft to engage with younger children in planning and designing places. One positive would be that whilst children are engaging in planning and design of their communities they feel as though they are just playing, and it is made to be fun. If it is fun they are more like to enjoy it and be engaged with the product for longer. This was a good example as it specifically focuses on young people. A criticism for BlockBuilders is that it is only accessible via a Workshop from Brighton with limited spaces, and therefore it is currently inaccessible for most young children.

We recognise we have not completed enough useful example searches and are still doing research on example searches to help us develop our own concept.

Week 3- Team 2- Chase Park

In this week’s seminar we have been deciding on what research methods would be best to use when thinking about our project on Chase Park. Using our current stakeholders we would like to do an interview with Alan on behalf of Friends of Chase Park to see what they want to get out of it, also an interview with Holly from Kick the Dust to get an understanding of how the secondary school students use the park and finally we want to do an activity with the children of Front Street Primary School to get their ideas on paper instead of making them sit through questions that they may be too shy to answer.

The activity with Front Street Primary School will be split up into smaller groups of around 4-6, with the activity lasting from an hour and a half to two hours. For a starter activity we want the children to draw the rough guidelines of the park, maybe noting down where they spend most of their time or what parts they miss out and forget about. After outlining the park, using stickers and colouring pens we want them to identify their favourite parts of the park. Having discussions after to engage the class and other ideas, writing these reasons why it’s their favourite area on post it notes. Then we want the children to use their imagination and scribble down ideas of how they want the park to improve or things they may want added, potentially incorporating activities they could do in the park as Friends of Chase Park seemed to be keen on the idea of having activities for the kids.

Week 2- Team 2- Chase Park

A diagram from talking to a couple of the stakeholders.

During seminar two we met with a few key stakeholders of Chase Park. Within this meeting, we got to know Clare Ross from Gateshead Council, as well as Alan Scott and Ken who are involved with Friends of Chase Park. During this session as a group, we found talking to Clare, Alan and Ken most helpful. Clare focuses on communities as well as being involved in Friends of Chase Park. Alan is one of the key founding members of Friends of Chase Park. Ken is also involved with Friends of Chase Park and is their chancellor.

During the session, we mapped out the stakeholders in order of their priority as well as discussing the main issue: creating pride and ownership in the park. Talking to Clare, Alan and Ken we came up with a list of stakeholders and prioritised them in order of influencing ability and how important they were when it came to achieving our team goal. The stakeholders with the highest priority were; Gateshead Council, Friends of Chase Park and Front Street Primary School. Those who classified as medium priority were, Local residents and Kick the Dust. Members of the bowling green were seen as low priority when it came to achieving our team goal.

At this stage in the project, our long-term goal is to provide an app or video prototype which will be aimed at young people to encourage them to use and respect Chase Park. In order to meet these goals as a group, we are going to look round Chase Park with Ken in order to give us a better idea of what we are dealing with. As a group, we will also be attending a Friends of Chase Park meeting in order to explain what our intentions are and if they have any advice or opinions on the matter. Clare and Ken are also preparing for us to go and talk to year 5 students within the local primary school. At this moment in time, it is unclear how we are going to interact with the children around the subject of Chase Park. As a group we are unlikely to interview the children as there is a large number of them. Instead, we are likely to split them into groups and get them to do an activity to produce information which will, in turn, help us to produce our prototype. By setting short term goals of going to see Chase Park, sitting in on a meeting of those involved in the Friends of Chase Park and meeting children from Front Street primary school, the hope is that we can make a prototype specific to the needs of our stakeholders.

Week 1 Blog – Team 2 – Chase Park

Hello,

This is the first of our blog’s for our project, ‘Engaging Young People with Video’, with our focus are being Chase Park. We are a team of four, Laura, Kathryn, Louis and James. We believe that the four individual skill sets we possess will allow us to work effectively as a team. We believe that, together, we can produce a successful project and also learn and develop new skills from each other along the journey. Between us, we believe we have strong presentation skills, creativity, great organisation and a useful understanding of the digital world.

We chose the Chase Park project as, the use of video in the planning world is something we all found innovative and wanted to learn more about. Furthermore, the project itself is something, as a younger generation, we feel we are informed on and potentially have an advantage when deciding what does and does not work.

The stakeholders in our project are widespread from Gateshead Council, to the Friends of Chase Park Group to Front Street Primary School. We are excited to meet the stakeholders as we feel they can give us a more informed idea of what is required of us and how we can meet expectations.

The main aims of our project include

– Making the park a more attractive place to visit, central to this we will explore the vandalism problem currently in the park
– Making the park accessible to all age groups, ensuring no group feels they are unwelcome there
– Using video to express our ideas and encourage the surrounding community to make the most of their available green space

The next step in our process is to meet the stakeholders. We are intrigued to find out more about the park itself, the community it serves and the priorities the community have for their park. We believe this next step will leave us in a better position to make our plan of action for the project.