Peter McDonald and Duncan Young Interview Reflection week 3

We had an interview with Peter McDonald and got a lot of background information about Gosforth high street and the air quality concerns. The main thing Peter wanted to change is increasing the public awareness of air quality and community activity. The council and people who live there have already taken some actions to improve the air quality, a local council plan was implemented called The Air Quality Action Plan carried out in 2011, However, Peter believes it is not effective as nothing has really changed in the area. There are still 96 bus routes on the high street which is one of the main causes of air pollution and are still not controlled. Ten air quality monitors are situated along the high street and they gather useful data but the data is not easy to access and understand and is therefore largely ignored by the local community. Peter hopes that less people will drive their cars everywhere and walk their children to school if the data is made easily interruptible for the users. They have a Facebook account and people can leave their comments. It is good for them to know what the residents think about but there are not enough people passionate about their community air pollution levels, therefore peter believes a behavioral change needs to be implemented with the local community to increase user activity. Display boards are the best idea for them because it is easily accessible for everyone who passes along the street and easy to understand for children, adults and the old. To some degree, the goal is to make more people realize the importance of air quality activism.

Duncan Young Interview Reflection

1. What is your Role within Gosforth high street?

Duncan stated that as well as being a business owner he was also a resident on the high street and a member of the trader’s association

He also discussed the existence of the trader’s association but said it was limited by the fact that only the independent business got involved.

 2. What challenges do you feel Gosforth high street faces?

He said congestion was a huge problem on the high street especially at peak times. He wasn’t really sure on how to solve this personally but one idea he thought of was to divert the limited stop X bus routes via Cowgate instead of the high street. I personally felt this was a bit of nimbyism as the bus would just be blighting the residents of Cowgate instead. He also showed us the local council’s red route plan that local shops fought off despite it potentially reducing congestion on the high street as it would have stopped customers/delivery’s stopping on the high street.

 3. Do you know how most of customers currently travel to the Gosforth high st?

He stated that most of his own customers drove to Gosforth High St, he then showed us a survey from 2011 of high street users.

The majority of respondents arrived by car:

66% car

16% bus

6% cycle

29% foot

This was particularly useful as really demonstrated how local shops are dependent on the traffic.

4. How do local shops on the high street feel about the Air pollution?

He said that local shops are concerned but are stuck with the problem that they need the traffic as well. He also said the larger chain shops were not allowed to get involved due to head office therefore their feeling is not known.

5. Do the businesses have an existing plan concerning the high street in general?

They did not have a plan.

 6. Are you aware of the Urban observatory data available online at http://uoweb1.ncl.ac.uk/ that shows real time data from the 10 air pollution sensors on Gosforth high street?

He said he was aware there was some pollution sensors but was not aware there was 10 of them and that the data was available online. I found this interesting as you’d of thought somebody based on the high street would be aware of theses sensors.

7. Given the choice of a Smartphone App, Interactive Display on the high street, Emails, Website, Newspaper or any ideas of your own. Which would most likely engage you with air pollution is Gosforth High St.

He said something as simple a leaflet to inform his would work. He then said big token acts are very good but if the resident’s/shop owners don’t know what there about then there pointless. I took away from this statement that whatever we propose must be simple to engage people and be well-advertised so people know what it actually is.

 He then ended the interview by saying the problem for business is they need to save the high street without killing it.

interview schedule for air quality 2

Week 2

Interview Questions – Duncan

Introduction 

Thank you for your time Duncan, we are second-year students at Newcastle University who are currently looking at air pollution on Gosforth high street. We understand you are the managing director of Sanderson young estate agents which has a branch on Gosforth High St.

1. What is your Role within Gosforth high street?

-How do businesses and shops currently talk to each other? (Is there a traders association?)

– Do businesses and shops (or trader’s association) currently talk to any other groups in Gosforth e.g. Space ?

2. What challenges do you feel Gosforth high street faces?

-How do you personally think these issues should be solved?

3. Do you know how most of customers currently travel to the Gosforth high st?

-Do you feel that is reprehensive for most businesses on the high street?

4. How do local shops on the high street feel about the Air pollution?

-How would local shops feel about a reduction the car traffic to achieve lower air pollution?

5. Do the businesses have an existing plan concerning the high street in general?

–    If yes, does this plan mention air pollution?  

6. Are you aware of the Urban observatory data available online at http://uoweb1.ncl.ac.uk/ that shows real-time data from the 10 air pollution sensors on Gosforth high street?

–  If yes, do you ever look at these sensors ?

7. Given the choice of a Smartphone App, Interactive Display on the high street, Emails, Website, Newspaper or any ideas of your own. Which would most likely engage you with air pollution is Gosforth High St ?

 

Young People Engagement – Week 4

Following the interview with the user representatives and planners from North Tyneside Council, our project partner, we have been invited to go on a site visit in Murton, where the site concerned was.

When we reached the site, we were given some maps printed in different scales. These maps certainly helped us to have a broader view of Murton. Situated about 15 minutes away from the Quadrant, which was the North Tyneside Council’s offices, it was a small village consisted mainly of houses, with a few services to complement. Residents and visitors could only access the site through a winding yet narrow road. At the heart of the site were some moors and farmlands, which was fascinatingly refreshing, given that the site was in the central part of North Tyneside. Although, as we were told, some of the land there were privately owned, it  was well used by the public. It was morning when we went there, some joggers were seen, with a few others walking their dogs.

log4log3Please allow us to show off our photography skills for a minute… #nofilter

Obviously it would be a shame to have to build on such a lovely site with extensive public, green spaces, the planners reassured us that green spaces would take up 50% of the whole development area. However, the challenging bit was that the current residents chose to live there because of its proximity to the city centre as well as the amount of green space it currently offered, which were something that would be impossible to compensate if the project got the go-ahead. In fact, the residents were already voicing out their objection to the development by putting up “save our green belt” and “no build” signage at the site.

Despite the adverse comments made by the residents, the user representatives, who also went on this trip and were locals of North Tyneside, showed their understanding as to why the development was needed. They recognised the increasing number of people moving to North Tyneside, which caused some housing problem to the area and they agreed that  personal interests should have a lesser priority than the general public’s. Moreover, they had noticed the lack of leisure facilities in the area. Indeed, the major public facilities in the area were only hospitals and schools.

img_0500Area hatched with green Sharpies was the moor and farmland, whereas the orange dotted line in the middle was the proposed north-south link road, an extension of the current access road.

During the course, the user representatives showed their efforts to balance the benefits of different stakeholders and strong critical thinking. They were also keen on seeing new developments in the area and embracing changes. Some of the suggestions they made regarding the development were undoubtedly valuable and very much viable to the Council and developers. Back into our office in Newcastle, we are going to come up with some ideas to help these suggestions to get across very soon…

What were the team tasks per week again?

A core part of your progress on your design projects is to keep design log with regular reflective entries on your progress. Entries for your design log will also help you to fulfil one of the two major assessment components: a final version of the design log, an edited collection of all the design log entries you have been making. This article provides an overview of the prompts we set each week for you to use as basis of design log entries. But the design log is yours, so we strongly encourage you to write additional entries if and when needed. Ps: If you are unsure what makes a good design log entry, have a look here.

Note: the reflective prompts outlined for each week are due within one week after they were posted; for marking purposes, a submission within two weeks will count.

Schedule for 16/17

Please note that prompts may be updated slightly in response to our overall progress.

Week 1 (for ± 11th Oct)

  • TEAM INTRODUCTION: Briefly introduce your team, the members and what you think brings you together around this project.
  • DISCUSS YOUR BRIEF: describe your goals/expectations for the client meeting; what ‘digital civics’ might your project involve and what challenges do you see in relating to those civic groupings? (feel free to relate to the two pieces of reading for the first lecture)

Week 2 (due ± 18th Oct)

  • USER MAPPING: With the help of the client, prepare a map that depicts a process and indicate what activities your project stakeholders engage in (or not) as part of this. Notice tensions, conflicts (in resources or views).
  • Goals and aims: What are your aims and in response what questions to do you plan to cover?
  • User interview & research plan: Who do you involved in your user research and what activities might you do? What other documents / evidence might you consider? (based on clients’ advice)

Week 3 (due ± 25th Oct)

  • Briefly note what evidence and interviews you planned for
  • As you do your user interviews, write a blog post on high level insights from for your user interviews. You can subdivide this task amongst members in your team.
  • Documentation: Consider how you planned for documenting insights from your interviews? (e.g. a list of user stories?)

Week 4 (due ± 1st Nov)

  • Revisit your goals: Have they changed and how?
  • Report on activity: In your team, individually collate a list of products/services/devices that may serve as inspiration for your projects. Then can come from the literature or the Internet. Each member of the team should select two examples and say (1) why selected, (2) how it provides inspiration for the project. In the team, discuss the examples you came up with and note which features about interesting.
  • What examples have you discussed and why?
  • What of these examples has worked well and serves as inspiration for your project?

Week 5 (due 8th Nov)

  • Sketch out concept ideas: Individually develop a set of alternatives. Describe your set of alternative concept ideas and discuss the potential weaknesses and limitations of each. Finally settle on a final concept you’ll go on to prototype. Discuss why and how you choose it?

Week 6 (due 15th Nov)

  • Write a blog post: Develop a story board for your idea / concept (also covered in our seminar for this week) and document your progress by writing a blog post about it (about 300 words)
  • Helpful reading: Truong, K., Hayes, G., & Abowd, G. D. (2006). Storyboarding: An Empirical Determination of Best Practices and Effective Guidelines (pp. 1–10). Presented at the DIS.

Week 7 (due 22nd Nov)

For this week (until 22nd November), I encourage you to think and write an entry (200 — 400 words) about either of the following:

  • Reflect on the discussion with Joanna & Matthias and your story board designs, what key concerns did they mention in the deployment of their applications that might be relevant to your —> What problems do you need to address if you wanted to deploy your app with your project client? (approx. 300 words).
  • Review the resources for prototyping mentioned in the module guide (section “Resources bank for your design sprint”) and write a post about what kind of tools you want to use for designing the prototype app / service? Referring to your story board, describe what you are going to build. Bare in mind you’ll present your eventual prototype to user representatives in week 9/10 to gather feedback.

Week 8 (due 29th Nov)

  • Prototyping: What did you take away from this weeks lecture about prototyping? What aspect of your story board will you prototype and why? What materials, software, techniques do you plan to use to build your prototype? What level of fidelity do you aim to achieve with your prototype? Document your prototype designs to demonstrate how you successively refined your prototype to arrive at the final result.

Week 9 (due 6th Nov)

  • User test preparation: Discuss how you prepare for user tests in the next week. Where and how will you run your user interviews? What questions do you answer yourself and how do you plan to evaluate the user responses to your designs?

Week 10 (anytime during week 11)

  • User tests: Who were your participants and which audiences do they represent?How did they respond to the prototypes? What interesting statements did they make that help answer your project goals / questions? Did they use the prototype as intended by you? What did they note for further improvement? What would you do differently if you were to do the user test again?

Week 11 (due as part of the final design log, 13th Jan)

  • Next steps: Discuss where you think your project could go next? What are the next steps for your proposition? Based on the user tests what do you think needs to change in your proposition if you were to make it a successful product?

 

 

Young Planners Engagement – Week 3

After the first two weeks of setting our goals, meeting our client for the first time, working out the links between stakeholders and getting prepared for an interview, it was time to get the project really moving in a direction which we were all happy and comfortable with.

On the 19th October, the group went to meet 3 members of the Youth Council alongside their mentor. We had taken aboard comments and advice about the questions we were going to ask so we were confident with what we had prepared. We opened the meeting by asking if it was ok to audio record to make sure we had all the information we needed and didn’t miss anything if we wanted to go back and check details. Each member of the group introduced ourselves and we started off by talking to the members of the Youth Council about the plot of land in Murton and what they felt was needed in the future for the area to strive, looking at a map showing North Tyneside and the existing services. The user representatives were very aware on the matter of green space and keeping it protected as much as possible. They also commented on the existing road systems and how they thought some new roads connecting Murton to Monkseaton would be beneficial as the new houses that the developers are planning to build will need road links to help tie together the new built homes and services. Leisure centres and swimming pools were talked about briefly to give the community some recreational use as there are no existing establishments in close proximity. The other topic mentioned was ‘allotments’ and the high demand in North Tyneside for the spaces. As it was commented that the community members wanting an allotment would have to wait several years on the waiting list, so looking to include these would be a massive positive for the community.

The meeting progressed really well and it flowed naturally, we tried to work from our question structure and linked it making it more personal to the clients. The user representatives started telling us about their roles and how they got into it. It was really beneficial as we learnt how it was all voluntary and due to an interest in helping their community and the rewarding feeling they all got. Something we felt was an important issue, was that the Youth Council felt unheard and didn’t have a voice when involved with the developers. We asked about their communication and were informed about the lack of it and how they never engaged with the youth council. The interview then naturally developed through talking about communication to how the use of modern technology affects our lives and how they used it and what did they use it for. It was the turning point in the interview as we started talking about how reliant on phones and technology people are nowadays. It was a key comment about how each of the user representatives all agreed that young people would be more involved in planning and the process it goes through if it was communicated easily through technology and smartphones. It was the confirmation we needed to know that the clients were on the same page as us.

After discussing various ways to get young people more involved with the use of technology, a couple of ideas arose. For example, it was mentioned about QR codes and how it would be easier for someone to just scan in the code to read the information later in their own time rather than stand on a street in the cold trying to read a piece of paper, in which we all agreed it was a much more efficient way to deliver information. This followed on with discussions about the engagement levels and making a product that was quick and easy to use, that could be visually pleasing and straightforward to make choices and voice your opinions.

We were really happy with what we had learnt in the interview and just how aware these young planners were. It was very beneficial and each of us took a lot away from the meeting with multiple ideas about how we are going to move forward and start to think about possibilities of technological products to make the young people of North Tyneside more involved in the planning process.

 

Second log entry: User interview schedule – Cycling Group

To improve our understanding of what users of our product will want, we have arranged an interview on Wednesday 26th with Tim Parsons. We know little information about Tim apart from that he is a cyclist in the Newcastle area. Interviewing him will provide us with first hand data about cycling habits around Newcastle and what tools and devices will appeal to that community.

Please find below a brief interview schedule:

Introducing ourselves:

Thank you for arranging to meet up with us. We are second year students at Newcastle University and we are currently collaborating with Robert Snowball who is a senior transport planner at Newcastle City Council. Our aim is to make cycle routes around the city more accessible and well known, as well as attempting to increase the popularity of cycling with help from the council.

  1. What is your preferred method of travelling around the city on a day by day basis?

– Why is this your preferred method?

– Why do you not choose to travel by other means (e.g. car, walk, bus, cycle)

  1. Is the transport infrastructure in the city adequate for this method of travel?

– Do you think that other methods of travel are better provided for within the city?

– How do you think the council could improve existing travel infrastructure?

  1. How would you describe your position as a cyclist in Newcastle?

– Do you feel like your needs (either as a single cyclist or as part of a community) are met by the council?

  1. Can you describe the ways in which technology helps your everyday life?

– Is technology involved in your commute or travel?

– Do you use mobile technology to aid you this way?

  1. Do you frequently use any mobile apps? If so, why those specifically?

– Would you/have you used apps to improve your cycling mobility in particular?

  1. There are already apps that cyclists can use, could you detail any that you use, if at all?

– Why do you prefer these apps to other apps that you have mentioned? (e.g. are they simpler to understand? More accessible?)

  1. When looking at the design and functionality of a map, what would you say is most important to focus on?

– How do you use maps when cycling? (e.g. Planning ahead? Whilst on route?)

– What would you suggest to simplify reading maps and using apps for cyclists?

  1. In your opinion, what would encourage more engagement with cycling?

– Should there be more incentives for the cycling demographic?

– How about incentives from apps, the council and community groups?

  1. Should there be more improvements to current apps offered to cyclists? If so, could you suggest any?

– What stops people from using apps? Why is this?

  1. From the cyclists you know, would apps be their preferred choice of route planning and engagement?

– Why is this the case? Is this because the app itself is difficult to use? Are there issues with the way a cyclist can use a phone whilst out?

Blog 2 – Interview Schedule with Steve and Tony

Blog 2 – Interview Schedule

JEPP Interview with Steve Emsley and Tony Waterson

We’re meeting Steve Emsley and Tony Waterson today in Cafe 1901, West Jesmond. Attendance from the team: Entire group

  1. We know a little bit about yourself would you be able to expand more on what you do and the previous roles you have played?

a. How do you relate to renewable energy projects?

b. We did a little bit of research and know you were in Transition Initiative Newcastle before? Can you tell us the experience during that time?

  1.  Why would you invest in renewable energy?
  1. Have you ever engaged people with renewable energy before?

a,How you engaged people in Jesmond?

b. How would you engage people?

c. What worked well and what didn’t work so well?

  1. What is complicated to understand about renewable energy in your opinion and how could understanding of renewable energy be made easier?

a. Have you used any techniques in the past to do this?

b. What might raise awareness to renewable energy in Jesmond?

  1. What do you do with your energy data?

a.Have you shared your data before?

b. With your experience do you think it would be helpful?

c. What do you think of sharing your data?

d. Would you share your data digitally for other users to see what savings they could be making?

  1. Has anything changed since you installed solar panels yourselves?

a. Are there any negatives?

  1. What do you think about the people in Jesmond not using solar panels and do you know the reason behind them?

a, What will you do in order to change their mind?

b. Do you know how much energy in jesmond is produced from renewables; and how could this be found out?

    1. When do you reckon ‘peak oil’ reaches and what kind of changes will happen? (peak oil – time when oil production peaks and then falls, never rises back up again
    2. Do you think sending out messages of ‘peak oil’ incidence will change people’s mind on renewable energy?
    3. Have you ever used an energy dashboard before? What was it like?

a. What was your experience using one? Did you find it helpful?

b. If not, what can be improved on the energy dashboard you’ve used?

c. If one was available to you, would you use it to benefit for you?

11. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us if you haven’t before?

Interview template for Walker

Our interview based research we have focused on talking with local pro-community organisations leaders, as they know the realities of local community and troubles that organisations face.

 

(Welcome), we are 2nd Stage students at Newcastle University. We are currently working on a project named ‘Walker Creative Neighbourhood’. Our aim is to gather the Walker community together and encourage pro-community organisations
co-operation. We would like to develop a set of tools for the community that will help them to organise and support themselves. We assume that after short time after the project has been implemented the people, who are interested in actively participating in their community’s life will be content creators as well, most likely under supervision of moderators (who would also be part of the community). Initiative will help promoting events, education and volounteering opportunities. The project could also include promoting local businesses, entrepreneurship, and also potentially recruitment and freelance opportunities. This project is meant to help community in Walker, thus we would like to ask you a few questions to better understand the community itself.

 

 

  1. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
  2. Can you tell us what is the role of your organisation for the people in Walker?
  3. What is your role in the organisation? (unless covered in point 1.)
  4. Which kinds of people do commonly get involved in volunteering for your organisation?
  5. Can you tell us, as far as you are concerned, what is the profile of current volounteers in Walker?
  6. What is current ‘volounteering atmosphere’ in Walker (how people think and feel like about volounteering)?
  7. What challenges does your organisation face to reach out to local individuals, who could volunteer?
  8. How do you think is the best way to inspire people to develop themselves, participate in various activities and volounteer in Walker?
  9. What do you think is the best way to bring up connection between communities in Walker?
  10. How do you think is the best way to encourage cooperation between various organisations present in walker?
  11. What do you think would be the best way to promote/advertise volounteering and other activities?
  12. What could be the best way to reach people with our initiative in walker?
  • A)if digital, what about the people who don’t have access to computers/smartphones, what is the best way to reach to them?
  • B) if digital, how can we also engage people who lack IT skills, i.e. the elderly?
  1. Are there any education projects that you are aware of in Walker?
  • if yes, how do they benefit local communites, how they should be promoted?
  1. How do you think our initiative should be funded?
  2. What do you think the role of local buisnesses should be in this project?
  • how could we encourage them for social reinvestment?
  1. Alice drew our attention to the mapping of organisations and buisnesses in Walker. How do you imagine a map like that should look like, and what features for the users should it include?
  • A)Also, how users should be able to interact with it?
  • B)Should mapping be more stiff – limited to the Walker only, or more relaxed, allowing users to see map’ content beyond Walker, which could be helpful to them?
  1. What do you think the role of local authorities should be in the initiative (or perhaps they shouldn’t participate at all)?
  2. Do you have any other propositions or comments?

W1 – Design log for co-design self-build housing

1

Hello, this is our first design log entry for digital civics by Harley, Sardar and Ying. In the first workshop, we have met our project partner Julia and found out our main goal. We try to use the digital method to solve the client’s problem. Our main goal is to make the co-design self-built homes become more accessible to people. Improving the current weakness of co-design self-built homes, finding a way to promote their ideas (like workshop/website) and then widening public’s community participation.

Key questions for the sprint

  • What do you think of self-built homes?
  • What are the strengths and the weaknesses?
  • How can we involve the non-expert with the co-design of a self-built home?

Once we grasped our project brief as a group we decided our key stakeholders are members of the public who are planning on constructing a self-build home, our aim is to increase the non-experts involvement within the design process of their home and we will be doing this by using an array of digital methods; the main method will be a web application. This means our main users will be families, couples and anyone who is interested and enquiring about a self-build home. We will be researching and holding interviews with key stakeholders from the local council and authorities in promotion of self-build homes. As we have acknowledged there can’t be any direct help to the public from the council therefore we aim to increase the opportunity for the public to aid in co-designing their own self-build home.

When meeting other representatives in the future. We will look at their existing projects and see what their weakness is and how we can help to improve their projects. We will use the meetings as a guidance within our work, asking relevant questions to enable further research for our group. Once we have completed our scheduled meetings with council members and members of the local authority we will then begin to share ideas on what application we feel is best.

 

interview schedule for air quality group

Interview schedule

This morning, Ben and me are meeting with Peter who has lived in Gosforth a long time and works with people like RNIB (which is to support people with sight less). The meeting will be to discuss the SPACE group and what they have done. What can we learn from the interview about the digital methodS to solve problems. Below is a brief plan for the interview.

Introduction to us

Thank you for inviting us, we are students in newcastle university stage 2. We have a project which is the air quality activism in busy congestion high streets. Our goal is to make the data accessible to the public and increase community awareness and support for self-managed air quality control. We are therefore inviting Peter to our interview to know more about the area and some groups which relevant to the air quality.

Interview

  1. Can you briefly explain what is SPACE and RNIB?
    • What they have done in Gosforth with specific questions?
    • What role does Peter play in groups?
  2. What challenges do you feel Gosforth high street faces from different parts like environment, transport, business, local residents?
    • How do you personally think these issues should be solved?
  3. Do you feel the existing Air Quality Action Plan that from council in May 2011 has been effective?
    • If no, why has it not been effective?
  4. Have you ever used digital engagement methods?
    • If no, what is your opinion on using digital engagement methods?
    • If yes, what method was used and did it work? How many people were involved in using this method?
  5. As you works with people in RNBI, will the disabled community engage with any existing digital engagement methods?
    • If no, why they can not be engaged in or they are not willing to engaged in?
    • If yes, what challenges are facing the community in accessing different data including air quality?
    • How have the local community helped in anyway to allow easy access?
    • How would you believe what is the best or most effective method of engagement for the disabled community?
  6. What kind of people do you have in Space (occupation)? How do they be engaged within the group? How do they engage with other members of the community?
    • How does Space get feedback from the public?
    • Is there any difference for different age groups of people in the community?
  7. Are there any groups of the population SPACE does not currently engaged with?
    • Do you think people want to get involved with the issue of air quality in Gosforth if they are given the opportunity?
    • Are there issues Space are having to overcome to engage local people?
  8. Given the choice of a Smartphone App, Interactive Display on the high street, Emails, Website, Newspaper or any ideas of your own. Which would most likely engage you with air pollution in Gosforth High St and What is also the best for the disabled?

The end

Thank you.