Wevive id strategy managing creative projects and teams by isaescobarll

URBAN ECOLOGY PROJECT

Allison Blitz

Isabel Escobar

Daniela Quintero

Allison Blitz

Isabel Escobar

Daniela Quintero

MS - Strategic Design and Management Managing Creative Project and Teams PGDM5120 -Falll 2015-

Our focus is to get to know people and their environment in order to understand them thoroughly so we can offer them the best possible solution to any small or big problem.

That’s our DNA. Anywhere at any anytime.

We are an integral team, made up of a project manager, a strategist and a visual communication designer. We strive to be creative, socially responsible and transparent by delivering innovative memorable proposals.

We approach situations from MULTIPLE perspectives and with an OPEN MIND, knowing that there are opportunities in every one of them Our passion for solving puzzles leads us to companies, people and organizations who want to do the same.

TABLE OF CONTENTS pg.

9 12

INTRODUCTION Summary of the Project

15 17 19 21 25

EMPATHIZE Research Stakeholders Fieldwork Journey Maps

DEFINE

IDEATE

47 49 51

PROTOTYPE Workshop 1 Workshop 2

55 58 60 71

TEST Intervention Touchpoints Proposal Conclusion

APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION ID Strategy examined The Equity Project

and bonuses tied to school achievement. “One of

Charter School (TEP) in the Washington Heights

the country’s most closely watched educational

neighborhood of upper Manhattan to investigate

experiments,” according to The New York Times.

missed opportunities in public school spaces to

60 Minutes on CBS also has profiled the school

promote learning with visual interventions. TEP

and its founder and principal Zeke Vanderhoek.

charter school is a 480-student middle school

TEP’s mission clearly stated on its website: “to

established in September 2009 in Washington

achieve educational equity for students from low-

Heights, a primarily Latino neighborhood in

income families by utilizing world-class teachers

northern Manhattan. TEP does not have a school

to maximize every student’s academic and

building, library or cafeteria, and currently shares

personal potential.”

the athletic field owned by George Washington

High School next door. A small campus of trailers is separated from the imposing red brick high school and public sidewalk on Audubon Avenue by transparent, chain link fencing. The front door is a fence gate in a tiny parking lot beside the high school. Classrooms, music and PE programs, administrative staff and a teacher lounge are all housed in 30 red industrial trailers. The school hallways are the outside walkways between the red trailers. Currently TEP’s physical campus does not convey that of an educational institution. Indeed, many people in the neighborhood do not realize that TEP is a school as they walk down Audubon Avenue.

A long-term solution to the physical

limitations is underway. Land has been purchased a few blocks away from the current address at 549 Audubon Avenue for a six-story new building and the architectural design is near completion. TEP hopes to start building in 2016. Construction will take about two years. The $38 million project includes an ongoing capital campaign to raise $12 million in private funds.

TEP invests heavily in well-trained,

A fundraising video for the capital

campaign showcases the clarity of design for the new building and underscores the physical limitations of its current home with cramped classrooms and hallways where it rains and snows. TEP already recognizes the value of visual interventions that reinforce mission; small road signs on the fencing mark two main thoroughfares as Achievement Avenue and Respect Road. Posters that reflect TEP values are scattered across the campus. But overall there is a chaotic visual feel at a school where educational and community values have been honed with rigor.

ID Strategy set three objectives:

to propose practical and affordable visual interventions for the current trailer campus, to create a more inviting learning space that reinforces the school’s mission and to expand a sense of ownership both within the school community and within the broader Washington Heights neighborhood TEP does a lot with a little in many areas. In that spirit, ID Strategy was inspired to deliver solutions that could make a big difference quickly and cheaply now.

committed teachers with a salary of $125,000 11

SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT

The challenge that we were up against was to solve a pressing urban issue in New York City. We approached this challenge using a methodical design thinking process in order to come up with a viable and affordable solution for TEP. The goal is to improve TEP’s overall atmosphere and create a sense of ownership within the community. The solution proposed by ID Strategy to create a sense of order within TEP’s campus is a fun and colorful wayfinding system for the campus. We integrated colors, aesthetics, better message board systems, and wayfinding in order to improve the overall organization and visual appeal of TEP’s campus. We have outlined our design process to coherently present this project. Empathize: In order to understand the problem at hand, we immersed ourselves in what is truly like to go to school there and be part of the TEP community. We talked to students, teachers, and staff members and received valuable insights that allowed us to reach a sensible solution. There is extensive research showing the positive effects of physical environments, colors, design and aesthetics on learning in academic papers, articles and influential books that support our findings. Define: After having immersed ourselves in the ecosystem, we framed our objectives. We narrowed our focus to look for affordable and practical visual interventions to make the campus more inviting and to increase the sense of ownership within

the school community and surrounding neighborhood. Complicated or expensive proposals would clearly have little chance of being implemented. Ideate: After having defined our challenge, we designed and participated in brainstorming sessions to come up with ideas of possible solutions by creating a wide range of visual possibilities. Prototype: For our project we created two prototyping workshops that allowed us to test whether or not our ideas were going in a viable direction. Feedback, comments and analysis during prototyping helped our solutions evolve. Test: The test phase of our project is a presentation of our graphic proposal to TEP. We designed this process with specific filters that also act as a series of smaller prototyping workshops. TEP’s feedback will evaluate design, effectiveness, affordability and practicality.

EMPATHIZE

RESEARCH

Our first step was to empathize with the stakeholders to understand their needs and pain points. In this initial stage, we immersed ourselves in academic research and case studies about how school spaces affect learning. For example, investigations show that there is a connection between feelings and learning, and color and feelings. Well-lit, wellordered and inviting aesthetics foster better learning. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education warned that the condition of the buildings hindered student achievement and teacher productivity and interfered in nearly half of the nation’s schools.1 “Color is one of the least studied aspects of the physical environment, but it nevertheless remains the topic of some of the most optimistic claims about morale and efficiency.”2 -

boring.3 Many studies conclude that the use of bright colors and rich materials can inspire and stimulate students. Color impacts performance, generates positive or negative perceptions and encourages particular behaviors, moods, and emotions, according to the 2012 study “Environmental Color Impact upon Human Behaviour.”4 Wayfinding – spatial problem solving – is greatly affected by the physical characteristics of an environment, according to numerous studies. At its simplest, wayfinding is knowing where you are, where you want to go, and the best route to get there. Signage and environmental graphics influence mood and behavior, increase student engagement, reinforce school spirit and pride, and create a culture of community - all while directing people to their destination.5

(Sundstrom, 1987). Colored environments have significant effects on students’ learning activity and overall well-being. Maxwell (2000) found when evaluating the effects of color in school facilities that students find color important and many children and teens described the walls in their school as uninviting and

1 Bradford W. Chaney, and Laurie Lewis. Public School Principals Report on Their School Facilities (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, 2007). 2 Eric D. Sundstrom, and Mary Graehl Sundstrom. Work Places: The Psychology of the Physical Environment in Offices and Factories (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). 3 Lorraine E. Maxwell, Designing Child Care Settings: A Child-Centered Approach (Cornell Cooperative Extension, 1998). 4 Nurlelawati Ab. Jalil, Rodzyah Mohd Yunus, and Normahdiah S. Said, ‘‘Environmental Colour Impact upon Human Behaviour: A Review’’ Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 35 (2012): 54-62, Accessed December 15, 2015, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.062. 5 Ulla Kjærvang, ‘‘Power of Aesthetics to Improve Student Leraning’’ DesignShare, November 21, 2006, Accessed December 15, 2015. http://www.designshare.com/index.php/ articles/aesthetics-and-learning/.

RESEARCH

Pathways and positive outdoor spaces that encourage ease of movement are a key feature that correlates to student achievement in the Tanner (2000) school design assessment scale.6 This was of particular interest regarding TEP since the spaces between trailers function simultaneously as non-traditional hallways and outdoor space.

physical characteristics of a learning environment have the potential to affect an individual’s mood, productivity, and learning experience, including The 2013 study, “A Holistic, Multi-level Analysis Identifying the Impact of Classroom Design on Pupils’ Learning” found a 25% impact of school building design on students’ learning rates.7

We collected a plethora of evidence indicating that the

Professor Peter Barrett, School of the Built Environment, University of Salford: “It has long been known that various aspects of the built environment impact on people in buildings, but this is the first time a holistic assessment has been made that successfully links the overall impact directly to learning rates in schools. The impact identified is in fact greater than we imagined and the Salford team is looking forward to building on these clear results.”8 HEAD (Holistic Evidence and Design) study: “Notably, 73% of the variation in pupil performance driven at the class level can be explained by the building environment factors measured in this study.”9 Jeffery A. Lackney, Ph.D., 12 Design Principles Based on Brain-based Learning Research: “Linking indoor and outdoor places – movement, engaging the motor cortex linked to the cerebral cortex, for oxygenation; Corridors and public places containing symbols of the school community’s larger purpose to provide coherency and meaning that increases motivation (warning: go beyond slogans); Variety of places – provide a variety of places of different shapes, color, light, nooks & crannies.”10

6 Kenneth Tanner, ‘‘Explaining Relationships Among Student Outcomes and the School’s Physical Environment.’’ Journal of Advanced Academics 19 (2008): 444-71. 7 Peter Barrett, Yufan Zhang, Joanne Moffat, and Khairy Kobbacy, ‘‘A Holistic, Multi-level Analysis Identifying the Impact of Classroom Design on Pupils’ Learning.’’ Building and Environment (2013): 678-89. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.09.016. 8 Barret, Zhang, Moffat, and Kobbacy, ‘‘A Holistic, Multi-level Analysis Identifying the Impact of Classroom Design on Pupils’ Learning.’’ 9 Barret, Zhang, Moffat, and Kobbacy, ‘‘A Holistic, Multi-level Analysis Identifying the Impact of Classroom Design on Pupils’ Learning.’’ 10 Jeffery A. Lackney, ‘‘12 Design Principles Based on Brain-based Learning Research.’’ Design Share, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.designshare.com/Research/ BrainBasedLearn98.htm.

STAKEHOLDERS

After identifying and researching the problem, ID Strategy set out to understand TEP through the students, teachers and broader school community. ID strategy believes people intuitively react to their environment and that in turn affects how they feel and perform and interact with each other.

important people for our project are the students, teachers and staff – those who spend the most time on TEP’s campus. To generate insights from our stakeholders, we conducted a series of individual workshops with TEP students. We not only wanted to talk to them, but also experience TEP through their eyes and feet.

By mapping out TEP’s ecosystem we were able to identify our key stakeholders. As visually identified in our ecosystem map, the most

Other stakeholders include the teachers, staff, and families, who we interviewed and communicated with throughout the process.

ECOSYSTEM

STAKEHOLDERS

TEP •

TEP Charter school

•

Established in 2009

•

Washington Heights District 6

•

Grades 5th to 8th

•

480 students

•

Trimester blocks

•

Experienced teachers

•

40 students per class

•

Teachers

•

Social workers

•

Psicologists

•

Speech language pathologists

•

Operations manager

•

Security guards

•

Hispanic, mostly Dominican Republic

ADMN/STAFF

STUDENTS (Asian (0%), Black (7%), Hispanic (92%), White (1%)) •

Age 9 to 15

•

Local from Washington Heights

•

Bilingual

•

Incoming student’s proficiency: 2.36

•

Parents

•

Siblings

•

Grandparents

•

Multiple jobs

•

Low income structure

FAMILIES

FIELDWORK

STUDENTS

In order to understand the relationship between the kids and their campus, how they interact with the open and common area spaces, we conducted field research, including two workshops with different groups of students at TEP. It was important for us to conduct these interviews and workshops in the actual space in order for us to immerse ourselves in their story as much as possible. During these workshops we discovered two very important things about the relationship the students have with their campus. â&#x20AC;˘

Even though the majority of the kids enjoy the time they spend at TEP, they still feel the school lacks a strong identity.

â&#x20AC;˘

All the students believe that their school is unique, which they value. They like being different.

FIELDWORK

TEACHERS AND STAFF

Two additional critical stakeholders at TEP include its teachers and staff. By interviewing and informally talking to teachers, administration, and TEPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head of operations, we learned that TEP offers comparatively high salaries to its teachers, a base of $125,000 with bonuses tied to school achievement. In return, teachers work long days, 7:30 a.m- 5:00 p.m. with fewer days off. The goal is to ensure students have consistently strong teachers year after year. By having fewer administrators and contractors, TEP is able to redirect more money to teacher salaries while operating within the standard payments for charter schools from the NYC Board of Education. Interviews: In order to have generative discussions with our different stakeholders, we drafted guidelines and key questions to use during the interviews.

Initial Questions: Social Workers/Teachers 1.

Tell me about yourself.

How would you introduce yourself at a party?

What are your community values?

How do you perceive the learning experience at TEP?

How do you think the unconventional spaces here may or may not affect the students?

When you first started working here, how did you perceive the spaces? How did you move around school?

How do the space constraints affect your daily routine?

What do you think is the most challenging aspect of working with these students?

Would you like to see more of TEPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s branding around school?

10. Tell me a little bit about your colleagues 11. Have you seen cases of bullying at TEP?

FIELDWORK

FAMILIES As suggested by TEP, we reached out to parents via email with questions in both English and Spanish, as the majority of TEP’s students come from Spanish-speaking households. It should also be noted that we use “parents” as an organizing term to refer to the primary caretakers of students; many TEP students are reared by relatives or siblings. From some of the responses, we found out that families seldom visit the school due to their busy schedules, and when they do they have a hard time finding their way around.

Questions sent to families: 1.

How was your experience when your first visited the school?

Could you easily find where you needed to go?

What is a typical day for you? (Describe your activities from waking up until you go to sleep.)

If you could, what about TEP’s campus would you change without altering the physical infrastructure?

What do you like the most about TEP?

How would you describe TEP?

How do you feel about TEP’s overall campus?

How does your community feel about TEP?

Questions in spanish sent to families: 1.

Cómo fue su primera visita a TEP? encontró fácilmente a donde tenía que ir?

Cómo es su día a día desde que se levanta hasta que se acuesta? Describa actividades específicas

Si pudiera, que le cambiaría al campus de TEP sin cambiar la infraestructura actual?

Qué es lo que más le gusta de TEP?

Cómo describiría TEP a alguien que no lo conoce?

Qué le parece el campus (espacio exterior) de TEP?

Que piensa la gente de su comunidad acerca de TEP?

FIELDWORK

TAKEAWAYS •

• •

Many people in the neighborhood do not realize that TEP is a school because the “campus” of small trailers is only separated from the public sidewalk by transparent, chain link fencing and tucked adjacent and behind the large, institutionalized campus of George Washington High School. TEP’s campus is uninviting and confusing to navigate. An improved physical space could foster a greater sense of ownership both within the school community and the surrounding Washington Heights neighborhood.

“People don’t know we are a school” -Pedro-

“I felt frustrated when I came to TEP for the first time - my kid had to walk me to the administration trailer.” - Parent-

“There could probably be something more systematized for posting announcements” “My first day as a fifth grader I had no idea where T26 was” -Junis-

“There is a lot of opportunity and potential to improve the outside environment to make TEP feel less like a jail and more like a school” -Lizzie-

-AJ-

JOURNEY MAPS

Creating â&#x20AC;&#x153;Journey Mapsâ&#x20AC;? allowed us to better understand who would be affected by design interventions at TEP. While the primary stakeholders are students, teachers and staff, there are other stakeholders who spend little or no time on campus. Impressions by neighborhood residents and students at the adjoining high school affect

their behaviors towards the school. Finally, TEP families have an important and endearing relationship to the school. ID Strategy believes that positive design interventions will nurture the sense of ownership within the school community as well as in the surrounding neighborhood.

SCHOOL

TEACHER

STUDENT

Time students, teachers, staff spend outside

JOURNEY MAPS

By visually tracing the footsteps of 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students we were able to understand how the open-tothe elements spaces between the trailers function as non-traditional hallways. From both the maps and interviews, a key insight was the important camaraderie within grades and the mentoring encouraged between older and younger students. Each year students graduate to new privileges in the next grade, a strategy TEP uses to foster responsibility and achievement. However there is little in the visual landscape that marks the grades as components that add up to a larger whole. In general, just mimicking an existing successful project is ill-advised. One size does not fit all. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend site specific context and needs without spending time on site to synthesize fieldwork findings with research. Developing an authentic level of empathy was particularly essential in a school where a very rainy day might mean the teachers move to different trailers rather than the students so the children are not drenched all day long. It also allowed us to develop a wide network and rapport in the initial stage. The sooner people get involved with an intervention, the sooner they take ownership of the project. Our design intervention facilitates collaborative exchanges in ideation and implementation to engage and empower students, family, teachers, and the surrounding community.

JOURNEY MAPS

STUDENTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PHYSICAL JOURNEY 5th grade student 6th grade student 7th grade student 8th grade student

DEFINE

Define: Identify a specific opportunity and clearly articulate the root causes of the problems that need to be addressed. Currently TEP’s physical campus does not express the sense of being a middle school because the classrooms are industrial trailers enveloped by a chain link fence adjoining a towering brick high school. Many people who walk by have no idea TEP exists, much less that the high-achieving school is hailed as one of the most innovative charter schools in the city.

Problems identified:

The exterior of the school is not perceived as a school. There is no physical evidence that TEP’s environment is an educational institution. TEP’s current physical environment - its uninviting identity- does not solicit students or the community to take ownership of the school.

Lack of organization and natural flow inside the school.

HOW TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS?

1. 2. 3.

Create a more inviting learning space for TEP students that reinforces the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission.

Expand a sense of ownership within the school community as well as within the surrounding neighborhood.

Propose practical and affordable interventions that could be implemented quickly.

PARAMETERS

TRAILERS MUST STAY RED

EASY TO IMPLEMENT

WEATHER PROOF

TEMPORARY

KID PROOF

SAFE

SCHOOL APPROPIATE

OUTDOOR

REPLICABLE

PARAMETERS

AFFORDABLE

COLORFUL

CONSISTENT

VISUALLY APPEALING

MEMORABLE

FRIENDLY

CONVENIENT

INVITING

CLEAR

IDEATE

After clearly defining our problem and giving it concise direction we came up with a solution: Wayfinding and Color to create a more inviting environment for TEP. We followed various visual paths that would help answer the questions mentioned in the define stage:

•

How can we create a more inviting environment at TEP?

•

How can we expand the sense of ownership of TEP’s stakeholders?

•

What is a solution that is economically viable as well as easily implemented?

To design a proper wayfinding system appropriate for the school we researched other successful visual solutions around the world for inspiration.

SOLUTION

WAYFINDING & COLOR TO CREATE A MORE INVITING ENVIRONMENT FOR TEP...

SOLUTION

By synthesizing all the information: research, fieldwork, interviews, branstorming and inspiration boards, we proposed three solutions:

1. 2. 3.

WAYFINDING / SIGNAGE

AESTHETIC EXTERNAL INTERVENTIONS • • • • •

Floor wayfinding Door numbers Doors Stairways Railways

ALTERNATIVE USE OF MESSAGE BOARDS

INSPIRATION

ITERATIONS

Our design exploration and ideation process consisted in testing several universal icons, color combinations, schemes, arrows and geometric figures. We selected colors based on our research and our restrictions. Our biggest visual restriction being the unchangeable red color of the trailers.

ITERATIONS

PROTOTYPE

WORKSHOP 1

We set out to test our assumptions by designing two different workshops that would allow us to come to the best solution possible. The first workshop was designed to test the assumptions of our wayfinding graphic concept to our colleagues in class. We set out to test if our solution was clear, appealing, easy to read and if the colors helped the communication. We designed five different wayfinding boards (figure 1), printed them out and gave our testers a survey to fill out (figure 1) . These were the key takeaways from this first workshop: • • • •

Color coding each grade is very effective Red will be hard to read because the trailers are red Make sure to use easy-to-identify universal icons Make the arrows stand out enough in order for users to easily find their way around.

WORKSHOP 1

FIGURE 1

WORKSHOP 2

The takeaways from our first workshop allowed us to move forward with our design and helped us define what would work best for the wayfinding system at the school. For our assumptions to be tested properly we needed to design a second prototype workshop that would spur new conversation with colleagues that were not as immersed in the process as we were. We needed an external point of view to define whether or not our solution was going in the right direction.

design they prefered. These allowed the workshop to be more interactive and forced testers to make an active choice. Key takeaways for the second workshop: •

• •

We prepared our second workshop to test the effectiveness of the integration of colors, wayfinding and message board system in the different parts of the school. See below (figure 2) the designs we printed out for the class to test. In each of the signs printed we included a space for our colleagues to choose which

• • •

Be mindful of the importance of welcoming stakeholders into the space: use both English and Spanish, use big and easy to read typography Entrance: be aware of light fluctuations Integrate TEP’s identity colors to the entrance. Increase the awareness of the school to outside stakeholders. The more visible the message boards, the more efficient they are. Use the map of the entire school at the entrance. It mentally situates the stakeholders in an environment that is organized.

WORKSHOP 2

FIGURE 2 A)

WORKSHOP 2

FIGURE 2

TEST

We took into account all the insights, comments and suggestions from our prototyping workshops to create a final proposal to present to TEP. The proposal considers the three different categories created in our ideation phase: • • •

Wayfinding signage Outside aesthetic interventions Alternative use of message boards

We created graphic mockups of the locations in the school where stakeholders have to make decisions on where to go or how to interact with the specific space in which they find themselves.

These are the points throughout campus that are meant for this intervention: • Entrance • Halls • Doors • Stairways • Railways • Floors In the following pages we present the visual mockups that were proposed to the school.

Wayfinding message boards:

INTERVENTION TOUCHPOINTS

Floor wayfinding

Message boards

Railways

Door numbers

Doors

Stairways

INTERVENTION TOUCHPOINTS

5 TH

GRA

HAL LW AY

MAP OF TEP

ATHLETIC FIELD

ADMINISTRATION ATION

GREE REEN N TOP

AY LW AL EH AD

TEACHERS

AD EH

A GR

LW AL

DE 8TH GRADE HALLWAY

8TH GRADE

L FIE E US HO

CE AN TR N E

G IN RK T A P LO

AESTHETIC EXTERNAL INTERVENTIONS MESSAGE BOARDS WAYFINDING SIGNAGE

PROPOSAL

CONCLUSION

If TEP elects to pursue the ID Strategy design, a cost estimate will need to be generated by TEP. ID Strategy will be available to answer questions from the TEP board, potential funders, or other stakeholders. Considering that TEP is already fundraising for a new building, this project (WEVIVE) could complement that effort. The intervention would offer relatively instant gratification to a potential funder and might consolidate and even expand the funder’s commitment to the greater goal of a new building. A more visually appealing campus for learning is simultaneously a more inviting environment for current and potential donors.

their families have trouble finding classrooms or even the main office and their neighbors have no idea there is such an innovative school behind the chain link fence. Our proposal to improve wayfinding and message boards and to color code by grade attempts to reinforce key parts of the mission that are not now apparent visually.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal in February 2015, Leo Hindery, a major donor and key leader in the capital campaign, described the current TEP campus as “pretty rough” and the educational philosophy and teaching as “lifealtering.” ID Strategy was inspired by TEP’s savvy allocation of resources – doing more with less – and clearly communicating its narrative to stakeholders. To enter TEP in fifth grade, a student quickly absorbs they are part of a grade that can count on older students to help lead them and that by eighth grade they will be those older student leaders. TEP’s philosophy systematically teaches and instills confidence that students are being prepared to find their way in high school, higher education and careers. We were struck by how clearly students can articulate the school’s sense of community and mission; yet, they and

APPENDIX