Category: undefined team (19/20)

Digital Civics Entry Blog 3

User Research Methods

The team decided to conduct interviews and site visits for user research. We will be interviewing people who are representatives of the government, local residents and community organizer. These people are highly knowledgeable about their community needs, as they either live in the city or work directly with the community. Additionally, the team will conduct site visits in understanding the spatial connections and relationships with the residents. During the site visit, the interviewers will ask the residents to identify meeting points and vacant properties. This will help us figure out where the residents gathers and which areas could have the potential to be redeveloped for community needs.

Aside from the interviews and observations, we are doing literature reviews on digital platforms that could create co-production in the community. Falco and Kleinhans (2018) displays the different types of digital participatory platforms (DPP). DDP functions as a two-way form of communication, bridging the gap between the residents and government. In this article, it provides successful DPP that are exercised in other cities and countries. We will be conducting research on DPPs that foster collaboration and co-production of ideas within the community. Ultimately, we hope to find DPPs that would align with the three User Goals.

These examples include CitySpidey, Commonplace, Block By Block, Fix My Street, Co-Urbanize, and Bang the Table. These digital application examples research serve as references to how we could potentially develop a product for the community.

After these interviews and observations, personas and customer journey mapping would be explored. Grudin and Pruitt (2002) show that persona is an excellent technique to focus on the main audience and enhance awareness on the user experience. The personas could be created after these interviews and site visits. Marquez, Downey, & Clement (2015) demonstrate that customer journey mapping is essential for understanding the overall experience and paths taken by the users. This method is important in establishing a connection between the designers and users, so the designers could determine which pathways would fit best for the users. These two techniques will be further explored in our research, prior to developing a digital application for the community.

Interview Questions & Observations

References

Falco, E., & Kleinhans, R. (2018). Digital Participatory Platforms for Co-Production in Urban Development. International Journal of E-Planning Research, 7(3), 52–79. doi: 10.4018/ijepr.2018070105

Grudin , J., & Pruitt, J. (2002). Personas, Participatory Design and Product Development: An Infrastructure for Engagement. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9b03/ca765977dc9cf2dbcc25377e71aefa986164.pdf

Marquez, J. J., Downey, A., & Clement, R. (2015). Walking a Mile in the Users Shoes: Customer Journey Mapping as a Method to Understanding the User Experience. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 20(3-4), 135–150. doi: 10.1080/10875301.2015.1107000

Lois

Digi Civics 2020 Blog Entry 2

This week we met with Jayne Hopkins, our project partner from Best of Bensham, with which we discussed our project brief and gained a greater understanding of the area of Bensham and its community. 

We addressed the challenges and opportunities within Bensham as a starting point for our project focus, some of which included: 

Challenges: 

  • Lack of financial resource amongst large proportion of population. 
  • Inaccessibility to shops for residents who don’t have access to a car. 
  • Unclean streets (Littering/ Vacant lots). 
  • Best of Bensham is unclear of its unifying theme. 
  • Best of Bensham is set on an asset-based approach but there is a lack of understanding about what this is. 

Opportunities: 

  • Bensham is a very diverse area. 
  • The population possess many valuable skills (especially its affluent residents)/ knowledge. 
  • There is a large opportunity to achieve results with the locals within the next 12-18 months due to the current motivation surrounding the topic. 
  • There is a great interest in the creation of more outdoor spaces within Bensham, specifically focusing on garden areas for growing plants/ vegetables. 
  • The group ‘Best of Bensham’, is well-resourced regarding grant funding; can give 10 grants of up to £250 to smaller organisations (e.g. To churches running Christmas day dinners for those who don’t have family to share it with). 

After identifying the challenges and opportunities within Bensham we established a key issue for us to concentrate on, which was to help the residents of Bensham express their needs and aspirations for their community.  

We then discussed potential stakeholders in the project, which we identified consisted of a few main groups: 

  • Gateshead Council; Including Neighbourhood Management Services. 
  • Local Community Groups/ Voluntary Organisations. 
  • Business Owners and Private Landlords. 

Our stakeholders influenced the next steps in our project, which were to determine a number of activities which would help us in developing our research further. We decided to arrange some next steps regarding our project plan which were to organize a series of interviews/ meetings with known residents and community members who are involved in the community activity in their area, and one member of the council. These include people such as, Dave Andrew, Phil Donovan and Robert and Marilyn Rae. The aims of these meetings are to gain knowledge about residents’ opinions of Bensham, relating to the challenges and opportunities we have discussed and learn their thoughts on residents’ ability to express their opinions about the community, as well as the councils point of view regarding the matter. 

There was also some mention of conducting a workshop which the general public of Bensham could get involved with to share their opinions on the matter. This approach was considered to be potentially more effective than individually questioning members of the public on the streets yet would be a challenge to organize. 

We also decided it would be a good idea for some of us to conduct a site visit and  take photographs of the area so we could better understand the characteristics of the location, such as the amount of green/ outdoor space in the area, number of vacant lots and the levels of litter throughout the streets.  

Here are our mind maps regarding the challenges and opportunities identified within Bensham, our stakeholder and process map, and our initial suggestions for project actions. 

Digi Civics 2020 Blog Entry 1

Welcome to the first blog entry for TCP2031 Digital Civics. Today we had our first seminar where we all met each other and Sebastian – who will be our module leader this semester. Our team is made up of urban planning students and architecture and planning students. In our group we have me, Juliet from London, Jimmy from Germany, Hadrien from France, Lois from Canada, Mindaugas from Lithuania, Patrick from York and Angus from Alnwick, who unfortunately could not make the first seminar.

After introductions, we took a look at what our own strengths and weaknesses are and shared this with one another, from doing so we realised that overall we have a collective strength with visualisations and are individuals with an eye for detail and that we all have the ability to do research and analysis but we prefer to work with visuals and design work mostly.

During the seminar we discussed the project brief, covering what the overall aim of the project would be and talking about the area of Bensham in Gateshead; where our project is based. We looked at the area on Google Maps seeing its location to us at the University and also some of the statistical information such as deprivation levels, employment, and feeling of belonging. We had to set out some aims and objectives to what we want to achieve through the project this semester, our main objective is to produce an app or website that supports an issue that we will identify with our project partner so that we can help the locals of Bensham. This highlighted to us that the purpose of the module is to enable a connection between people and their community digitally. Lastly, we had to prepare some questions we would ask our project partner (when Jayne from Best of Bensham comes in) and to residents of Bensham.

Here is a list of some of the questions we have prepared to ask Jane next week so that we are informed on the needs and wants of Benham and the Best of Bensham group.

  1. What groups of people is Best of Bensham comprised of?
  2. What led to the formation of Best of Bensham?
  3. What are the key issues that Best of Bensham feel are present in the area?
  4. What is the typical method to event promotion by the group?
  5. What groups of people are most in need of help?
  6. What kinds of community involvement are already in place?
  7. Is there a main meeting place for locals to speak with those working for Best of Bensham?
  8. What groups of people live in Bensham?

Juliet