| Week | Activities |
| Design stage: Background research and target setting | |
| 1: Introduction to ‘digital civics’ | Lecture: What does this module ‘do’? What is the ‘digital civic’ turn in urban planning?
Seminar: Get into groups, discuss your arrangements and your challenge, and work towards a set of preliminary project aims and prepare for client meeting. Team: Reviewed relevant material and prepare to discuss your brief with the client. Write a first reflection for your team’s design log. |
| 2: User-centred methods (in) digital civics | Lecture: What is user-centred design? What simple techniques exist to understand the ‘design space’ and user needs?
Seminar: Meet the client and discuss your project brief. Map stakeholders and discuss any specific process that may be redesigned. What criteria does the client apply to a ‘good’ design. Preparation of a set of questions to ask your informants. Team: Get in touch with your informants and gather requirements. Interview schedules and each interview should be documented in blog posts. |
| 3: Technologies in digital civics | Lecture: Which technologies are key to enable new forms of interaction in digital civics?
Seminar: Surgery session and project discussions. Team: Meet your digital civics peer for mentoring and advice and creative reflection. |
| Design stage: Remix, improve, sketch | |
| 4: Design thinking and methods — creativity in the design process | Lecture: We look at design practice and the need for narrowing down on requirements, we’ll look into options appraisal.
Seminar: Discuss and plan an instant poster of all the evidence collected so far. What concepts / options are you considering and why? Team: Individually search for relevant projects and how they are relevant to your challenge. Try outline what approach you will take. Reflect on your chosen option on the design log. Complete your presentation for the interim feedback session. |
| 5: All hands meeting | All hands: Present your interim thoughts and proposed concept; select a concept. Give in-class feedback to your fellow class mates.
Seminar: Following on from the presentations, we start set our sight on sketching parts of the potential digital service/app. Before doing so, this session exposes you to additional examples from relevant research projects. Team: Reflect on the additional examples provided in the seminar and, based on all your concept ideas, try settle on a final concept you like to develop further. |
| Design stage: Refining and story boarding | |
| 6: The perspective of civic groups
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Lecture: Citizen concerns: New forms of participation and question of ethics and trust; challenges for civic and other non-expert groups in deploying digital technologies.
Seminar: Discussion on the citizens’ concerns in digital services. Start prepare a draft story board for your project Team: 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) |
| 7: The local government perspective | Lecture (w Tony Durcan — Newcastle City Council): Organiser concerns — Civics in planning, government’s role in supporting civic groups.
Seminar: Discussion on public authority, organiser concerns. Complete the story boards for your project. What additional research do you need to do to start prototyping? Team: Refine your prototypes’ requirements based on users concerns voiced in user interviews. Arrange prototype demonstration sessions. |
| Design stage: Visualising and building prototypes | |
| 8: Approaches for prototyping | Lecture (w Delvin Vergese): Prototyping methods, e.g. paper prototyping (2D); cardboard prototyping (3D). This will be an interactive session.
Seminar: Discuss what type of prototype, artefact you plan to produce and to test on your informants. Team: Get prototyping with paper, software, or whatever you choose |
| 9: User testing | Lecture (w Delvin Vergese): How to organise a user test? In class sharing session on your prototypes, show and display, prepare for the user tests in the next couple of weeks.
Seminars: Discuss how you will test your prototype and concept proposition with user representatives, e.g. video / walkthroughs, talk out loud method, acting out // “body storming” Team: Finalising your prototypes |
| Design stage: Prototype demonstrations with users | |
| 10: Open sessions | Open session: Project surgery with Jen and Seb. Prototype test arrangements & feedback on your prototype designs. Come with any issues relating to testing and documentation you like to discuss.
Seminar: Open topic — come with any issues relating to testing and documentation you like to discuss. Team: Run two/three user test by discussing your prototype / concept with user representatives (same people you interviewed before). |
| 11: Module review and next steps | Review lecture: We’ll review the lecture and discuss challenges in relation to scaling your ideas including a review of the content of pitches.
Seminar: Preparing all resources necessary to collaborate on the presentations (taking place after the winter break) Team: Finish up any user tests remaining, wrap up your prototype and concept for the final presentation after the break. |
| Winter break | |
| 14: Outcome presentations | Final presentations (8th Jan): You present the outcome of your creative project to your client and class mates.
Seminar (10th Jan): Project surgery prior to submission of design log (which is due on 13rd Jan, noon). Team: Finish up your presentations, presentation dry runs, any last minute concerns. |