Case Study

“How to connect the various people involved in the Hoogstraat to communicate and collaborate.”

INTRODUCTION

Background

During the Minor Interface & User Experience Design, we worked on a project in which Urban Interaction Design was central. The project ran from the beginning of September 2018 until the end of January 2019. During the project, various interventions to promote participation were examined and tested.

The complexity of the problem lies in the lack of a specific client or target group. In the creative process we go through different phases such as discovery, ideation, prototyping, testing, and evaluation. We work with various stakeholders, from municipality to citizen.

Ownership as approach

If we do not connect with the people around us, we will never understand what challenges there are in our immediate environment. Therefore, especially involve others in participating and making choices. What problems are they facing? Which problems do we share? And how can we tackle these problems at a local level instead of waiting for someone else to solve it for us?

Together we have developed means that stimulates co-creation within the participative domain. In this case study you will find more about our team, background, the process and the development of SUMMIT, the end result.

THE TEAM

Quinten Ooms

The Polymath (in his natural habitat)

As a Schiedammer I know what the Hoogstraat means for the city. As a designer, I know how to connect with cool products.

Julong Dijkstal

Visual Design & Usability

As a designer I want to combine my interest in the development of technology and my ambition to help people.

Sem Geuze

Development & Prototyping

My focus is on prototyping. I want to look for an innovative product that meets the wishes and needs of the stakeholders.

Laura van Heulen

Product Design & Concepting

Personally, I am set up according to plan and I record all my ideas. I would like to share this with you to come to a solution together.

We are a group of fourth-year students who are currently studying at the Rotterdam University. Together we form an autonomous team called FRAME’s. We are working on the Hoogstraat of the future from SHOP, a flexible workplace and platform for entrepreneurs and the municipality. We use different perspectives and a hands-on approach to try to see the bigger picture better.

DEBRIEF

“How to connect the various people involved in the Hoogstraat to communicate and collaborate.”

To make the Hoogstraat in Schiedam future-proof, a transformation from a shopping street to a mixed environment is required (for example living, working, shopping and experiencing). This was not done simply and during the start of the project it became clear that we can not solve or change the current problem. We have decided to develop a means to improve participative city management of Hoogstraat Schiedam in the Netherlands. We did this through small-scale experiments, prototypes and interventions.

Other important questions:

How do you connect different people within a city?
How do you make a city future-proof?
How do you solve problems that you can not see?
How do you strengthen the involvement of people with different interests?
How do you ensure support between various stakeholders?
How can we visualize positive developments?

RESEARCH

For our research we used both desk and field research and perspective sharing was central. Because of many previous projects, proposals, surveys and plans, the starting point was to go through large amounts of information.

Reference: Participatory City Making

At the same time, we started to discover the participative domain. Here is an example of a model that has helped the team to think from different grids. Participatory design is not only a different way or style of design. It is focused on processes and procedures of design and humans that forces you to think at a higher level.

Because the project comprises various stakeholders and target groups, we have reduced the size by giving each team member one of the following target groups:

Institutions, investigated by Laura
Visitors, investigated by Sem
Entrepreneurs, investigated by Quinten
Residents, investigated by Julong

SYMPOSIUM

During Balanced - Unbalanced 2018 we were given the opportunity to facilitate a workshop. The workshop started with a presentation by Peter van Waart and Michael Anhalt about 'Valuing Smart Citizenship'. Then our project about the Hoogstraat, Schiedam was introduced. This was an important first move towards sharing perspective.

Click here or here to take a virtual walk with the prototype of Sem.

CONCEPTING

As a team, we noticed that concept development concerning social problems is limited by assumptions of the individual. Most possible solutions have been offered through LoFi and HiFi prototyping. Although the focus was mainly on mapping out insights and values by talking to the target groups.

LoFi prototyping

HiFi prototyping

PROTOTYPING

Images are clickable.

Clickable Hoogstraat

This prototype provides information about the buildings in the high street by clicking on the map.

Route

This prototype offers different routes for visitors to the Hoogstraat.

Stories Hoogstraat

This platform collects and shares (historical) stories about buildings in the Hoogstraat.

Tasks SUMMIT

SUMMIT is our final solution. This prototype processes tasks that can be implemented and ticked off.

INTERVENTIONS

As a team we believe that when developing concepts, actively involving people in our process is essential. That is why we have tried to use participatory co-creation in workshops to take as many perspectives into consideration as possible. This seemed a good way to approach 'gray spots' and 'the bigger picture'.

000. Sjabloon.pdf

Interventies voor in de case study

A few of our concepts

TESTING

From idea to?

Solution ➡️ Medium ➡️ Tool ➡️ Game ➡️ Functions ➡️ Testing

When the concept became more concrete, we started formulating possible requirements, preconditions and design criteria. We tested the elements below with the target group.

Encourage open discussion.
Switch between professional roles.
Learning to give and take with others.
Making proceedings transparent and divisible.

CODE OF CONDUCT

Guidelines for a desired situation.

Respect
Ownership
Transparency
Inspiring
Transformational
Participative
Contextual
Sustainable

Summit: Code of Conduct

SUMMIT

“The tool for collective ownership.”

SUMMIT is a means to create ownership and transfer ownership to others. People who are active in participating can now involve others in discovering shared interests by means of the game box with rules of the game.

SWOT-ANALYSIS

Strengths

It brings people together through perspective sharing and empathy so that they can come to a solution together.

Weaknesses

The digital environment currently has a very open design that encourages freedom. Although in practice there is a lack of examples, guidelines and therefore a hold for new users.

Opportunities

Transferability. For example help with defining goals through a tutorial with sample cases. Or an introduction guide for new users.

Threats

The word "game" is writhing with the very serious approach and approach of SUMMIT. This can lead to confusion while sincere commitment from involved is necessary for success.

SUMMIT_styleguide.pdf

VISUAL DESIGN

A brand identity has been developed for both team FRAME’s and SUMMIT. In addition, a styleguide can be seen that formed the guideline for the visual identity.