Category: team We love bikes (17/18)

Week 10 Cycle stakeholder forum

Cycle stakeholder forum week 10

During these 10 past weeks we’ve been working on this design project. It’s been challenging in many ways, such as working in a group and finding the time to work on the project, because as it turned out it takes a lot of time discussing, sketching and compromising to get to where we’re at today. The stakeholder interviews were very important in the design process since that’s where we got to interact with them and get a clearer picture about how they would like the product to work and what their expectations were. It is important to take the time to do all these things, even though it’s hard sometimes, in order to develop the prototype. After having our final meetings with Heather and Mark this week to show them the prototype, we learned that even though we put all this time into the design there is still some factors in the design that is hard to understand/get around. This showed us how important it is to have regular meetings with the stakeholders during the design process in order to get the design as good and easy to understand as possible.

Digital civics for us is about discovering ways in which we can use technologies to promote individuals participation in services, such as our projects with the Newcastle Cycle Stakeholder Forum.During this process we’ve been attempting to find digital solutions to a complex problem but doing so in a way that does not over complicate the already existing problems in the forum.

If we had an extended timeframe in this project we would begin by having more in depth stakeholder meetings with a wider range of stakeholders in order to really pinpoint and discover other key issues in the cycle stakeholder forum. This would then allow uss to add more detail to our prototype and add new features to it so that its a much better example of how our website would work and how users would interact with it, which currently our prototype does not accurately represent many of our websites features. Parallel to this we would run more user interviews with our stakeholders to make sure our site is interesting, clear and easy to navigate. if we had more time we would also focus on developing the prototype to a higher standard, so that it operates in a much more realistic way, like allowing our users to place pins on the map and be able to play around with the website’s features in a more interactive way.

 

9) We Love Bikes : Preparation for the user tests

At the moment we are writing this blog post, we still working on our prototype which will be completed by the end of the week. As we said before, we have chosen the Marvelapp website as a platform to build our prototype.

Meanwhile, we sent invitations to two of our stakeholders, Heather and Mark, to do the prototype demonstrations with them. We’ve agreed that these testings will take place on two different days, one day with Mark and another day with Heather, as our availabilities are not always compatible, and also that our group will be split for each interview as we don’t need to be all there, too many people can also make it difficult to conduct user interviews as the end user may feel uncomfortable if there are too many of us there. We think that the user will feel much more confident in this way, and it’s important to build a relationship of trust between us and the stakeholder.

So on Monday 4th December, Jordy and Isaac will have a meeting with Mark, and on Tuesday 5th December, Ellen and Aymeric will do the same with Heather. We still need to fix the time for each interview, knowing that we only can after 5 p.m on monday and after 3 p.m on tuesday.

Mark’s interview will surely be held in his office, just as we did when we first spoke to him, but the location of Heather’s prototype demonstration is still unknown. We don’t want to do the same mistake as go into a coffee shop to ask her some questions, as we did the first time we met her, because there were too much people and to much noise. So we are thinking on asking her to go at the university instead.  

The user interviews should help us to understand how well our designs perform in practice, the accessibility to the end user, and to get some fresh point of view about our project. This is very important for the end goal of our project as it needs to be easily useable. We also hope to answer the question of how effective our prototype is at displaying the accountability of the council when working on cycling projects. We will ask at the end of the interviews if the interviewee has any overall issues with the design and how we could correct them.

At the end of this process the two separate groups will come back together and discuss the feedback from the meetings. Using this information we would then address the major issues, which would most likely be the issues raised by both of the interviewees and add or remove these features to the design and correct them.

8) We love Bikes Prototyping and its challenges

Lecture​ ​8​ ​about​ ​prototyping​ ​was​ ​quite​ ​helpful​ ​because​ ​we​ ​saw​ ​why​ ​we​ ​need​ ​to​ ​do​ ​a prototype​ ​of​ ​our​ ​project​ ​and​ ​what​ ​different​ ​ways​ ​we​ ​could​ ​do​ ​it. Indeed,​ ​this​ ​activity​ ​must​ ​be​ ​taken​ ​seriously​ ​as,​ ​first,​ ​it​ ​allows​ ​us​ ​to​ ​see​ ​if​ ​this​ ​project can​ ​easily​ ​work​ ​when​ ​we​ ​trying​ ​to​ ​put​ ​it​ ​in​ ​a​ ​prototype​ ​and​ ​therefore​ ​meets​ ​our desired​ ​objectives​ ​for​ ​our​ ​project.​ ​Secondly,​ ​it​ ​is​ ​an​ ​interactive​ ​way​ ​to​ ​show​ ​how​ ​far we​ ​are​ ​in​ ​our​ ​work​ ​to​ ​our​ ​stakeholders​ ​and​ ​let​ ​them​ ​have​ ​their​ ​own​ ​point​ ​of​ ​view​ ​on the​ ​suitability​ ​of​ ​it.​ ​This​ ​interaction​ ​also​ ​is​ ​a​ ​test​ ​of​ ​our​ ​overall​ ​design​ ​of​ ​our​ ​prototype to​ ​see​ ​how​ ​easy​ ​it​ ​is​ ​for​ ​our​ ​stakeholders​ ​to​ ​use.​ ​This​ ​use​ ​test​ ​is​ ​important​ ​as​ ​before releasing​ ​the​ ​final​ ​version​ ​we​ ​want​ ​to​ ​be​ ​sure​ ​that​ ​the​ ​design​ ​is​ ​easy​ ​to​ ​navigate​ ​and not​ ​confusing​ ​for​ ​the​ ​end​ ​user.

Then,​ ​this​ ​session​ ​put​ ​the​ ​light​ ​on​ ​the​ ​concept​ ​of​ ​the​ ​prototype’s​ ​fidelity​ ​and​ ​more precisely​ ​the​ ​difference​ ​between​ ​the​ ​low​ ​fidelity​ ​and​ ​the​ ​high​ ​fidelity.​ ​Our​ ​focus​ ​on the​ ​high​ ​fidelity​ ​application​ ​is​ ​the​ ​progress​ ​bar​ ​which​ ​will​ ​show​ ​the​ ​accountability​ ​of the​ ​forum/council/webpage​ ​and​ ​it​ ​will​ ​be​ ​easy​ ​for​ ​the​ ​user​ ​to​ ​see​ ​at​ ​what​ ​stage​ ​of​ ​the progress​ ​the​ ​issue​ ​is​ ​at.​ ​To​ ​make​ ​it​ ​easier​ ​for​ ​the​ ​user​ ​to​ ​understand​ ​the​ ​different parts​ ​of​ ​the​ ​progress​ ​there​ ​will​ ​be​ ​different​ ​pages​ ​explaining​ ​the​ ​steps​ ​and​ ​allowing users​ ​to​ ​comment​ ​on​ ​each​ ​separate​ ​step​ ​to​ ​increase​ ​levels​ ​of​ ​accountability. Information​ ​that​ ​the​ ​council/forum​ ​can​ ​add​ ​to​ ​the​ ​different​ ​steps​ ​of​ ​the​ ​process​ ​and the​ ​users​ ​will​ ​also​ ​be​ ​able​ ​to​ ​add​ ​and​ ​read​ ​comments​ ​regarding​ ​the​ ​issue​ ​and​ ​the process.

In​ ​our​ ​opinion​ ​the​ ​hardest​ ​part​ ​to​ ​overcome​ ​during​ ​the​ ​prototyping​ ​stage​ ​will​ ​be creating​ ​an​ ​interactive​ ​and​ ​interesting​ ​way​ ​to​ ​show​ ​off​ ​the​ ​different​ ​reported​ ​issues and​ ​their​ ​progress.​ ​The​ ​most​ ​challenging​ ​part​ ​of​ ​this​ ​is​ ​designing​ ​the​ ​prototype​ ​to display​ ​all​ ​this​ ​information​ ​and​ ​the​ ​accountability​ ​of​ ​the​ ​council​ ​whilst​ ​still​ ​being​ ​easy for​ ​the​ ​end​ ​user​ ​to​ ​understand.​ ​We​ ​are​ ​attempting​ ​to​ ​overcome​ ​this​ ​challenge​ ​by​ ​not overloading​ ​the​ ​user​ ​with​ ​information​ ​they​ ​would​ ​have​ ​to​ ​click​ ​on​ ​a​ ​pin​ ​to​ ​reveal​ ​its information​ ​to​ ​avoid​ ​the​ ​screen​ ​from​ ​appearing​ ​cluttered.​ ​We​ ​will​ ​also​ ​use​ ​a​ ​colour scheme​ ​on​ ​the​ ​pins​ ​to​ ​illustrate​ ​the​ ​different​ ​stages​ ​of​ ​each​ ​project​ ​in​ ​a​ ​simplistic approach,​ ​with​ ​green​ ​showing​ ​the​ ​project​ ​being​ ​completed,​ ​orange​ ​illustrates​ ​the project​ ​is​ ​in​ ​progress​ ​and​ ​red​ ​means​ ​the​ ​projected​ ​hasn’t​ ​yet​ ​been​ ​started.

7) We Love Bikes : Prototype activities and setting goals

With our last step of the storyboard, we wanted to show how easy it will be for everyone to give their opinion or to raise issues about cycling through the project we are working on. For the prototype demonstrations, we will try to achieve the same goal and make it as simple as possible to use the interactive map or to log in as a member of the forum in order to comment on each individual step of the process.

In order to test this prototype we are going to send invites to two of our stakeholders, Heather Evans and Mark Nelson. During the initial interview of Heather she seemed to be reluctant about bringing new technologies into the forum and didn’t want any changes, so this prototyping session could be a good way to try to change her mind with something easy to understand whilst also being respectful to her role in the forum.

Our stakeholders will be led through our platform and will be shown how we have structured in the minute of the forum and other interactive features. The Prototype will be a replica of our website that contains all the areas we plan to have on our final product. the user will be able to navigate these as they would a website. our first steps will be to design the first page where the idea behind our website is explained and also a section which contains the information on how to use the site to help the user navigate the site.

After that we arrive on the main page where the interactive map will be situated  in the center with all pins representing the issues marked, there will be a menu at its left and a “login section” in the top right corner, just like the picture below:

Through this main page we can access all the features so we will be able to clearly show  our stakeholders how to easily navigate the site including; creating a profile, how to access the notes and minutes of meetings and how to raise an issue on the map. the main section of our website will be the progress bar which show how the council is dealing with this problem and shows feedback from the users from the site, when the issue is resolved there will be a section where people can give their feedback on how the process went and an opportunity to add constructive criticism to the council

To build a convincing prototype, we are thinking about using the website Marvelapp. This tool is quite helpful for anyone who wants to create a “demo” of his project from pictures, draws or sketches. In this way, we can put together all we did as an interactive process and create a convincing prototype for our issues.

6) We Love Bikes: Prototype and StoryBoard

The prototype for our design will include multiple user friendly interactive features that all revolve around improving the accountability and the communication of information of the forum. All these features will be available on a website dedicated to the cycle stakeholders forum.

One of the main features of our website prototype will be an interactive map which shows the location of issues raised involving cycling infrastructure in Newcastle. In this format everyone including new members to the site and forum will be able to clearly see the key issues and problems facing cycling in Newcastle. Users will be able to view the key issues raised in the meetings and also on the website and view comments by other member of the public, members of the forum, engineers and council representatives. Each issue will also show a progress bar showing different colours that indicate whether or not these issues are being addressed by the council and at what stage these improvements are at, this will improve the accountability of the council and show that the issues raised are being used by the council. There will also be markers to show where improvements have been completed by the council from issues raised by the forum to show new members that the forum works and cycling infrastructure is being improved in Newcastle.

There will be an organised minutes section that is set out in chronological order that users can access to see what was brought up at each meeting. Users will also be able to access meeting dates and times. It will also have links to other relevant groups and pages that are relevant to cycling in Newcastle. Users will also be able to create profiles to be able to comment on different issues. They will be awarded points when they contribute to the page which acts as an incentive to do so, this means that individuals can be recognised for the time and effort they put into the forum.

To have a glimpse of our prototype, here is a storyboard that shows how our project could be helpful and how we can use it. The starting point is basically a cyclist facing a problem and who wants to raise it up to the city council.

5) We love bikes week 5 mid term presentation

After the midterm presentation it was made clear that we needed to rethink our design and function of the project. One key point that was brought to our attention was the fact we needed to find some way to improve the accountability of the council to the forum. After research we found a webpage called “Fix my street” that involves an interactive map where people can point out different places in the city that they find problematic, upload images of the issues they find on the spot and also leave a comment where they can describe the issue and also make suggestions for improvements. The council then address these problems and change the status of the issue to fixed so people can see that the council is accountable to these problems.

Another issue that needed to be addressed was that the notes and minutes don’t always get sent out to the forums email list and that the minutes on the internet were not easy to access and not organised clearly. During our research to remedy this  we found an organisational website called Trello that clearly organises information and shows which are the most important issues that need to be dealt with first, software like this would be ideal for the forum so that can rob can see which issues of cycling in newcastle need to be tackled first.

We started to think about how we could make a website that would address these issues raised above. We settled on a webpage due to our user research findings that showed this to be the most accessible format for the communication of information. The main feature of the website would be an interactive map of newcastle that would show all the areas that have been raised as an issue for cycling. Clicking on each individual point would show comments made by the forum and profile users on the site and also show a progress bar that fills when the comments have been addressed by the council and if these issues have been fixed to improve the accountability of the council to the forum which might encourage groups such as the newcastle cycling campaign to engage with the forum. There will also be a way for people to vote on which issue needs to be addressed. We’re choosing this as a feature so that the organization of the issues raised can be improved and rob and other council members can see which areas of newcastle’s cycling infrastructure needs to be improved first. When each issue is selected on the map it will redirect you to a page where there is more information on the issue and an area where you can view comments on the issue and write them yourself. A side note to the website will be a page that clearly and chronologically organises the minutes from the meetings so that people can access these whenever they want in a clear format. We decided to do this as this was one of they key problems that the stakeholders brought to our attention with the minutes from the forum.Users have the ability to create their own profiles on the webpage this will allow them to receive notifications and emails about the progress of projects this is in order to keep people interested in the projects taking place. Users involvement in the website is also rewarded for raising issues and voting on projects users will gain points which will gamify the website encouraging more user interaction. Once users have received enough points the can be redeemed for financial rewards.

4) Cycle stakeholder forum

After the first meeting with Rob Snowball, we established some specific goals that we reached after interviewing our stakeholders, Rob Snowball, Heather Evans, Rorie Parsons and Mark Nelson. Regarding or long term goals, they haven’t really changed, they are just more precise. We still want to get more involved in the forum, a feeling shared by most of the people we met but our main goal will be to focus on how to make this forum progress.

This idea is divided in two points :

  • First, we need to improve the visibility of the forum, especially on the website which is not very visible. But also help cycling to get a better recognition in the city.
  • Secondly,  to make access to the feedback easier for all the people who attend the forum and also easier to publish it, after Heather has taken the minutes.

Furthermore, we find it useful to improve interactions between the council and the forum.

 

Products/services/devices that serve as inspiration for our project

 

Mobile Phone: We chose this piece of technology as it can be accessed by a wide range of individuals due to the popularity of smartphones and the fact that individuals can access information anywhere anytime. In our project it is important that we have a system that can communicate information clearly and can be accessed by a wide demographic of individuals in the forum, we think a mobile phone could meet this criteria.

Computer: We chose this device as it is one of the most effective ways of communicating information between individuals however this device is more accessible by the older generation. This is important as a large portion of the cycle stakeholder forum are of the older generation that might have more access to computers than mobile phones.

Email: Email was recommended to us as a good transfer and display of information by Mark Nelson as a way to communicate the time of meetings and also to supply the meeting notes to a group of individuals. Email newsletters are also simple to setup and use.

Website: A website is an accessible way to present and relay information. They can also be interactive which is important for the cycle stakeholder forum as we need a system in which people can communicate their opinions on different cycle routes around Newcastle.

3) Cycle Stakeholder Forum Week 3

For our user research and before planning to meet different stakeholders, the first step is to use internet research to understand exactly who we are meeting with and their role.  That means attempt to get as much information as possible about the users, such as what are they doing in life, how old are they approximately and what they look like.

We involved Robert Snowball who works in the transport department at Newcastle city council and also Heather Evans who has been attending the cycling stakeholder forum meetings for an extended period of time and currently takes the minutes for the forums meetings. Meeting with Heather we hoped to gain further insight into who currently attended the meetings in terms of their demographic and gain a better understanding of its running.
We hoped to gain insights into how the workings of the forum and the interactions which took place within it, by understanding the functioning of the forum we would be more aware of the problems it faces such as lack of representation of all different kinds of cyclists and its problems in getting information regarding it out to the public.

The meeting with Robert Snowball was based around design research, we carried out several activities with him to try to have a better understanding of the project and its issues. This was done through the use of various materials like post it notes and diagrams on posters. The meeting with Heather Evans was totally different. We performed an interview with open questions, which allowed her to speak as much as she wanted about various specific topics and questions that we carefully prepared.

For the user interviews, we met and planned the questions we were going to ask Rob Snowball and Heather Evans,to get the most out of our meetings with them. This involved focusing our questions around the roles, which each of them undertook, so for example Rob’s interview questions revolved around his work at the council and the creation of the forum. Heather’s interview involved more around her own opinions and experiences of being involved in the process and some of the history of the forum to further our own understanding of the meetings and other individuals and groups that are involved.  We tried to leave the questions we chose open to their own interpretation rather than leading them to answers to understand their own opinions on the cycle stakeholder forum. For example asking their own opinions and experiences on the forum rather than asking if they have any negative opinions or experiences from the forum.

Furthermore, we just want to add that we have three interviews remaining with Mark, Andrew and Rorie.

 

2) CSF – Week 2

During seminar two we got to meet Rob Snowball from the City Council who informed us about their work with the Cycle Stakeholder Forum. The forum’s role is to bring the people interested in cycling together to exchange information and ideas on how to improve the current cycling conditions in Newcastle. At the moment the forum’s demographic consists mostly of the same people who’s been in the forum from the beginning; people who already cycle and they are mostly elderly people or women and men in their 50’s and older. There’s a lack of younger people in the forum which he’s hoping we could find a solution for; how can we get younger people and students involved in the forum?

It became clear that the main point of our project with the Cycle Stakeholder Forum is to find a solution on how to get more people involved in the subject. Right now are the city council only using their current email list of 200 people to get the discussed information about the forum out which means that the rest of the city’s people won’t get the information and therefore they probably don’t know about the forum’s existence and that they have a chance to get their voice heard about this subject.

During the discussion with Rob some questions about how the city council actually work with reaching out to different groups in the community came up and it became clear that they aren’t really working on doing that at this point at all which is questionable since it’s also clear that it’s the variety of community groups they want to reach out to. So one big question is how to get the council to go from “wishes” to actually take action in this subject.

Together with Rob we came up with some project goals; both short term and long term. The short term goals are to talk to more stakeholders so we’ll get a wider perspective on what they’re expecting from the project. The stakeholders we’ll talk to are currently in the forum with different roles; Heather who takes notes and minutes, Mark and Andrew who work in different communities in the city with for example questions about disability and also Rorie who’s working at Newcastle University and has been involved in the forum as well. We want to hear what they think could be improved, maybe they have their own solutions or ideas on the problems which could help us with our final result.
The long term goal is to find a solution to the problem which basically means to get more people involved in the forum and also inform the community about the benefits from cycling.

1) Cycle stakeholders forum

Our team consists of 4 members : Aymeric, Ellen, Isaac and Jordy. We are from different countries and have therefore different planning backgrounds which we think could be an advantage for us in this project since we can benefit from our differences and come up with a good solution to the project.

Digital civics is a way of coming up with a solution to a specific issue through understanding the needs and requirements of a set of users through working with them. Nowadays, people use technology in their everyday life and is the most common way to receive and distribute new information in an interactive way. This is also why digital civics has become so important over the last years and is an helpful tool to get people more engaged and more involved in important questions that involves them and the area they are living in. By talking to different stakeholders and other people through a contextual enquiry in the concerned area we would get a wider perspective on the issue which would probably make us come up with a better solution to the issue.

This project includes working with Newcastle cycling stakeholder forum in order to come up with some sort of solution of how to display and allow discussions of the ideas and the issues of the forum meetings. Our goals for the meeting with our client are to understand the functioning of the forum and gather a greater understanding of its members and their experience of cycling in the city, how it could be improved and the issues they face. During this client meeting, it is also important to comprehend our client’s favourable method of displaying the information. We also need to identify the users who are going to be involved in our project as we need to cater to their individual needs. For example some individuals may not have access or be familiar with new technologies.

A issue we could face while talking to the client is that we will only receive one person’s   perspective on the issues raised. If we were able to get the chance to talk to different people from different groups of the forum and various areas around the city we would get a wider perspective of the actual issue which would give us a better chance to come up with the best solution for every part of the project, therefore resulting in a greater overall uptake in the numbers of our selected civic grouping using our project.