Sensory Citizens

Developing a framework to engage citizens in generating insightful data for government and social innovation use

Graduation Thesis by Jennifer Wong

Colophon: Master thesis MSc. Design for Interaction 29 August, 2014 Delft University of Technology Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering Landbergstraat 15 2628 CE Delft The Netherlands www.io.tudelft.nl In collaboration and commissioned by DCMR Milieudienst Rijnmond Parallelweg 1 3112 Schiedam The Netherlands www.dcmr.nl Graduation Committee: Chair. Dr. I. J. Mulder (Delft University of Technology) Mentor. Dr. J. C. Brezet (Delft University of Technology) Company Mentor. B. Wester (DCMR, Department of Air Quality) Company Mentor. G. Gellisson (DCMR, Department of Climate) Graduation Time: March 10, 2014 to August 29, 2014

Sensory Citizens Em po w e r i n g Cit ize n s t o Sh a r e T he i r I nsight s o n E n v ir o n m e n t a n d Air Qu alit y Developing a framework to engage citizens in generating insightful data for government and social innovation use

Acknowledgement

For this project, I would like to specifically thank Bart Wester, Gaston Gelisson, Ingrid Mulder, Han Brezen, Ingrid Walda, Ulrike Gehring, Rob Beelen, Dieter Schalk, Marlien van Gent, Simone de Jong, Mirthe Monningkof, Davide Gatti, Lydia The, Thijs Schipper, Koen Schellekens, Jelle van der Vegt, Ilse Blom, Bob Smit, Arnold Zondervan, and Jos Lassooij for their help in the research and development of the project.

Preface

This project was done in conjunction with DCMR Environmental Agency of the Rijnmond and Delft University of Technology. The project started as an exploration of how citizen participation can influence and change insights for policy advice. The exploration centered around the collection of GPS data from citizens in an open and honest way, in order to better understand personal exposure to pollutants. Because citizens constantly move through cities, areas, and regions throughout their day and/or lives, it is important to understand the impact this can have on our health and future policy.

The exploration starts with an investigation on the empowerment and engagement of citizens to take create awareness and take initiative in their own environmental quality. The following report gives an overview of the process of the research and design of this project.

The project reflect the views and research done by the graduation student and does not sole reflect the opinion of the DCMR.

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Table of Contents Preface 5 Executive Summary

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1 Introduction

17

1.1 Introduction

18

1.2 About DCMR

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1.2.1 Domain 1.2.2 Current Situation

1.2.3 What’s in the Future?

19 20 21

1.3 Project Scope & Goal

22

1.4 Research Structure

23

2 Research

27

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2.1 Citizen Participation: A Brief Introduction

2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4

Pollutants and their Causes Environment & Air Quality & Health Current Urban Initiatives Evaluated Environdment, Air Quality & the Rijnmond

2.3 Citizens Participation in Environment Quality

About Citizen Participation Citizen Participation in Urban Development Citizen Participation in Data & Information Generation

2.2 Environment and Air Quality in the Eu & NL

2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3

2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4

Current Citizen Involvement Existing Citizen Initiatives – Do they work?

Assumptions on Citizens’ Current Involvement How can citizens further contribute?

2,4 Existing Product Research

2.4.1 Goal

2.4.2 Method & Set Up

2.4.3 Results & Analysis 2.4.4 Conclusions

3 Definition

28 30 31

32 32 33 34 37

38 38 39 40 41

42 44 46 46 46

49

3.1 Project Break Down

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3.1.1 Stakeholder Map 3.1.2 Stakeholder System

50 50

53

3.2 Surveying Citizens

3.2.1 Goal

3.2.2 Method & Set Up

3.2.3 Results & Analysis 3.2.4 Conclusions

53 53 53 55

56

3.3 Definition Session with DCMR

3.3.1 Goal

3.3.2 Method & Set Up

3.3.3 Session & Results 3.3.4 Analysis 3.3.5 Conclusion

56 56 58 61 61

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3.4 Expert and Citizen Research

3.4.1

Methodology & Theory

3,5 Emissions & Health Correlation Experts

62

64

3.5.1 Goal

3.5.2 Method & Set Up

3.5.3 Interview with the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond

3.5.4 Interview with IRAS

3.5.5 Results & Conclusion

64 64 64 65 65

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3.6 Sessions with Citizens

3.6.1 3.6.2 3.6.3 3.6.4 3.6.5 3.6.6 3.6.7 3.6.8

Goal – Context Mapping Research Method & Set Up – Context Mapping Session Overview and Observations from the Context Mapping Session Analysis – Context Mapping Session Goal – Creative Brainstorm Session Method & Set Up – Creative Brainstorm Session Creative Brainstorm Session Analysis – Creative Brainstorm Session

70 70 70 76 78 78 80 84

3.7 Conclusion of Research

85

3.8 Evaluation of Research Methodologies

87

4 Project Definition

91

92

4.1 User Group Definition

4.2 Problem Definition & Research Questions

94

4.2.1 Research Questions

94

96

4.3 Design Brief

4.3.1 Design Brief

4.3..2 List of Requirements

96 96

5 Design

99

100

5.1 Design Goal & Vision

5.1.1 Design Goal 5.1.2 Interaction Vision

100 100

5.2 Current and Future Scenario

101

5.3 Designing for Children

102

5.4 System Feedback

103

5.4.1 5.4.2 5.4.3

Possible Weather Situations & Feedback Possible User Situations & Feedback Information to Provide

103 103 103

5.5 Idea Generation

104

5.6 Product / System Development Research

105

5.6.1 Technology Research 5.6.2 Motivation Research 5.6.3 Gamification Research 5.6.4 Existing Games

105 107 107 108

5.7 Concept Generation

109

5.7.1 Concepts

109

5.8 User Validation

115

5.9 Concept Elimination

116

5.10 Final Concept

118

5.10.1 Design Development

5.10.2 Interaction & System

118 118

6 Development

121

122

6.1 Co-Creation with Children

6.1.1 Scope and Goal – Refining Concept & Validation 6.1.2 Set Up

6.1.3 Overview and Observations of Co-Creation Session with Children

6.1.4 Results and Analysis 6.1.5 Conclusions

122 122 122 125 128

6.2 Design Introduction

129

6.3 Iteration Process

130

6.3.1

Method & Process

130

6.4 Iteration 1

6.4.1 6.4.2 6.4.3 6.4.4 6.4.5

131 Scope & Goal – Detailing Concept Design & Prototype Overview and Observations of the User Testing Session Results and Analysis Implementation of Identified Points of Concern

6.5 Iteration 2

6.5.1 6.5.2 6.5.3 6.5.4 6.5.5

138 Scope & Goal – Refining Details Design & Prototype Overview and Observation of the User Testing Session Results & Analysis Implementation of Identified Points of Concern

7 Evaluation

131 131 136 136 137 138 139 142 142 145

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7.1 Design, Prototype and User Test

148

7.1.1 Final User Test Design 7.1.2 Final Prototype

148 148

7.2 Evaluation User Test

152

7.3 User Testing Results

153

7.3.1 7.3.2

Evaluation Session with a Family Analysis of Data

7.4 Evaluation of User Tests and Prototypes

8 Final Design and conclusions

8.1 Final Design

153 154

156

159 162

8.1.1 Game Play 8.1.2 Tasks

8.1.3 Product & Technology 8.1.4 Parent’s Application 8.1.5 System

162 165 166 166 168

8.2 Recommendations

172

8.3 Future Strategy

174

8.3.1 Pilot 8.3.2 Implementation Plan

174 175

8.4 Process Evaluation

178

8.5 Discussion about the End Design

179

8.6 Conclusions

180

8.7 Personal Reflection

181

References 183

Research Structure

A copy of the research structure has been added to the right in order to help the reader understand the flow and design-research structure of the project.

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Research line of questioning Research Questions

Problems Design Questions

Assignment Motivate citizens to contribute GPS and insightful data in order to become active in community and policy making in the area of environment and air quality.

Refined Assignment

Decrease in government funding, leading to a decrease in government personnel / structure

Need for citizen participation by the government in order to aid in the development process

Need for new connect urban public spaces, creating a better atmosphere among citizens in the urban environment

Detailing

Initial Research and meeting with the company

What tools can be designed to help facilitate the information contributed by citizens and information from the DCMR

Current

What is the context of the situation?

What is citizen participation?

What is citizen participation in terms of urban development?

What information should be transferred?

What kind of urban development information are citizens gathering?

Existing Product Research

From citizens?

From the DCMR?

What is environment and air quality in relation to the citizens?

What is environment and air quality in relation to their health?

What is environment and air quality in relation to the Rijnmond?

What are some cities around the world doing right now that the Rijnmond can learn from?

What are some tech solutions that the Rijnmond can learn from?

What’s happening now in the Rijnmond?

What is the current involvement rate?

What are the current initiatives?

What are the assumptions we have?

Who needs to be involved?

Narrow & Refine Who are the stakeholders now?

What do the citizens really know / understand?

What do the citizens know and in terms of air quality, environment quality and its relation to their health?

What can the DCMR contribute?

What are their goals?

What information do they know now?

What information do they need to know?

What information can they tell citizens?

What do the experts know about gaining the interest of citizens?

What in formation do they have that citizens may be interested in?

What do they prescribe for citizens to do to stay healthier?

What experience do they have in working with citizens?

What are the citizens interested in?

What do citizens find the most important about environmental quality?

What can we design to help facilitate children learning and sharing knowledge about environment and air quality?

What would be active enough or too active for them?

What do they think they can do about environmental quality?

What is their perception on environmental quality and those interested in it?

What do they think are the barriers to helping them improve environmental quality?

Who is the most interesting group to target to improve environmental quality?

What do they think can happen in the city to encourage others to participate n bettering environmental quality?

What is a toolkit they would need to help them become more active?

What are some of the requirements in designing this tool?

What do we want to evoke from families and children?

What feelings and emotions do we want them to have?

What do families do now?

Narrow & Refine What is the current situation?

What is the future situation?

What is necessary to design for kids?

What is some necessary information that can be used to help inform parents and children?

What do they need to know about DCMR? What are some insightful and helpful hints to give citizens?

What are some ways in which we can create a communication channel between the citizens and the DCMR?

What do they need to know about environment and air quality?

What are some insightful and helpful hints to give citizens?

What are some technical ways?

What are some types of motivation?

What are some ways to help facilitate the communication?

What are some concepts that can possibly facilitate the communication?

What games do they have now?

How would they work? What would happen?

What are some of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

What do the users have to say about it?

What would be the strongest concept?

What are some of the criteria that the concepts should be judged on?

How can the design be further specified?

Desgin

What are children interested in doing most?

What motivates them to continue playing specific games?

How do kids currently perceive air quality?

How can we get kids to explore?

How are kids reacting to the game?

What are they excited about?

What do they like the most?

What do they not like?

How do they feel about completing the tasks?

Do they understand the concept?

How have the changes made a difference in the kids’ reactions?

What has changed in their reaction?

Are they excited?

Do they understand the concept?

What is the most interesting thing in the game?

What needs to be further investigated for future development?

Future What is there to develop for the product and technology?

How can be better incorporate learning into the gaming process?

What is there to develop for the children’s game?

What will the system look like?

What are the parts of the system?

Who is involved?

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Executive Summary In this report, a summary of the main research and design of an information and data communication between the DCMR and the citizens of the Rijnmond is explained. The research and design project took place over the course of five months and explores the past, current and future areas of participatory urban design.

The report illustrates the research and design process and different methodologies followed over the course of the project. The report will conclude on a final design with recommendations for further development and a future planning for the first Pilot test.

Loop

Define.

Research on the topics, industry developments, stakeholders, etc.

Design.

Design goal and interaction vision formulated to create ideas and concepts.

Develop.

After selecting a concept, define and refine the concept and deatils.

Iteration.

Iteration cycle allows your to develop the concept with user feedback.

Validate.

Validation allows the design to be evaluated against the set criteria and look for future recommendataions and actions.

The process used during this project includes four phases: Define, Design, Develop and Iterate, and Validate.

Define: During the Define phase, literature research and in context research with the stakeholders and users is conducted. The literature research illustrates previous cases and development in the field of environment, air quality, and citizen participation in urban development using both low- and high-technology. After gaining an understanding of the topic from the literature research, expert interviews are conducted in order to generate insights on working with the topic in relation to citizens and health.

Figure 0.1 - Four phases in design methodology

After the expert interviews, in context studies were done with citizens from the Rijnmond in order to understand the citizen perspective and their current interest and perception on environment and air quality. The citizen sessions conclude the research on the past and present situations among the stakeholders involved. A clear design goal and vision was created thorough analysis of the research conclusions from the literature

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research, expert research and citizen sessions.

After the expert interviews, in context studies were done with citizens from the Rijnmond in order to understand the citizen perspective and their current interest and knowledge on environment and air quality. The citizen sessions conclude the research on the past and present situations among the stakeholders involved. A clear design goal and vision was created thorough analysis of the information from the literature research, expert research and citizen sessions.

Design: The design goal begins with determining the target group. The analysis concluded that many citizens were uninterested in the environment and air quality because of two reasons: pollution is not readily visible, and they cannot create a great enough impact as citizens. Their thoughts were supported with the expert interviews that suggested as a whole, citizen actions would do little for the environment and air quality now, but will have a great impact on the future environment and air quality. Therefore, the user group chosen was citizens who had an investment in the future: young families with children. Children are not only the most impacted from poor air quality, but will also need to deal with the problem in the future. Parents are often willing to help their children learn and stay healthy as a natural instinct.

The next step was to formulate the design goal. After the citizen sessions, it was concluded that because of a lack of awareness and interest, environment and air quality issues were not ranked highly in terms of need among citizens. In addition, working with children allows for the reinforcement of good behavior starting at a young age in terms of keeping their environment clean and reducing their own carbon footprint. Therefore, the goal was focused more towards awareness and behavioral change.

The design brief became:

“Designing a communication tool that can motivate and empower young families to facilitate the learning and behavior concerning environment and air quality.”

This led to the design goal:

“To design a persuasive game that can empower and engage children learn, explore, act, and stimulate discussion with friends and family about environment and air quality. ” The interaction vision developed focuses on the creation of a feeling of familiarity between the child and the game, their friends or their family. The feeling should be natural, as if the ability to know and act on environmental and air quality was always there.

The development of the goal and vision led to idea generation and conceptualization of

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different design directions. The design directions focused on four different levels of involvement, communication and motivation. The final design that was selected was based on a list of requirements from the company, the citizens, and the feasibility of the project.

Develop and Iterate The concept was further explored and refined to create an initial design. User testing was then conducted with the use of a paper prototype of the design to further refine the concept. The concept and design was then reviewed and adjusted to begin a second round of user testing.

Following the second user test, the design was once again further detailed in order to create the final prototype for an evaluation test.

Validate The evaluation test was done with a family consisting of two children and one parent. Results of the final user test were further implemented into the final design. With the final design done, an evaluation of the project was conducted in order to supply proof of concept. The project is suggested for a further and more detailed pilot test with a working digital prototype due to the reaction and feedback from the users. Users found the game to be fun and enjoyable due to the different challenges and game playing styles involved. However, in order to ensure interest in play, a pilot test should be performed to test the acceptance of the game in a larger group, continuous play after the first week, and the different tasks and difficulty level of the game. A pilot plan is provided at the end of the report for the next steps in the refinement and development of the game.

In conclusion, the design of the game has thus far proven to engage and empower children to learn, explore and act on environment and air quality problems. This was illustrated during the sessions by the children’s eagerness to play the game, interest in the tasks and their ability to think of their own tasks related to environment and air quality. The awareness level was proven to increase through their development of the colonies in their planetary system. Additionally, parents were interested in helping their children paly the game because not only was it educative, but also encouraged children to play in more ways than via a digital means. The attitude of the both parents and children about this game was positive and encouraging.

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1 Introduction In this chapter, a brief description of the research and design topic is given along with a brief introduction to the DCMR and important terms to know. The chapter will conclude with a research and design framework used in this project.

1.1.

Introduction

Current urban developments, initiatives and policies are not satisfying the population they govern. Governments are unable to reach and work with all the different small neighborhoods and organizations in the area because of a lack of manpower, funding and interest. However, this problem has been recently targeted as a major issue to solve through the development of more citizen participation, community interest, and bottom-up initiatives.

According to the European Union’s Regional Policy’s publication, Cities of tomorrow: Challenges, visions, ways forward, the economic depression and downsizing of government institutions are leading to the necessary development of more citizens participation and bottom-up urban development initiatives and policy making. However, urban development and policy making are incredibly complex areas in terms of stakeholders, factors and potential effects. This complexity often results in slow development and progression.

Over the past few decades, citizen participation in policymaking and urban development has been of great interest to local, national and regional governments. Consequently governments need to integrate more relevant and dynamic citizen information in order to improve research insights and make better development and policy decisions. The citizen participatory model explored in this research will provide new insights and information generated by citizens, coming straight for the users and providing hidden insights that are usually not addressed. This type of insights and information can be derived from data ranging from their own sensory data (from smartphones or other devices), their observations, their emotions,

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their behavior, and even their opinions.

In the following research and design project, this framework will be developed around environment and air quality, two not widely discussed topics.

It is often disregarded and not often discussed among citizens; however, environment and air quality are two of the most influential factors in human development because society is consistently exposed to them everywhere they go. It’s a problem that the whole of society shares.

Therefore, a framework to allow for government and public entities to enable and empower citizens to become aware of problems and possible actions will be addressed. By doing so, the government and public entities can fuel more bottom-up initiatives from the citizens, working towards the development of a future urban environment.

1.2

About DCMR

The DCMR (Dienst Centraal Millieubeheer Rijnmond) is an environmental protection agency that works with local and regional authorities in the Rijnmond area.

They work together with the police, fire departments, labor inspectors, and public health centers to ensure that environmental concerns and regulations are being addressed throughout the area. Their main functions include: 1. Distributing permits 2. Monitoring compliance and environmental quality 3. Advising on environmental and safety policies 4. Taking action on nuances and incidents report by citizens

1.2.1 Domain As a result of their monitoring activities, the DCMR specializes in research and measurements over the environmental quality and pollution in the Rijnmond, particularly focusing on the fields of sound, air quality, and industry emissions.

Among other tasks, the DCMR’s tasks also include gathering raw sensor data from measuring stations and calculating models of average annual sound levels, air quality and industry emissions. Yearly reports of the measured pollutants, emissions and records of other environmental factors are published. Furthermore, along with the reports, calculated models are then used in consultation with policy makers on national, regional and city levels.

Figure 1.1 - Map of the Rijnmond Area

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In addition to helping research and consult on new policies to guarantee healthier living environments, the DCMR is also the main environmental emergency response unit for the Rijnmond. They house the main emergency response call center that facilitates the incoming emergency and complaint calls. After receiving information about potential problem areas, they organize and dispatch investigation units to identified locations after collecting enough information from citizens.

Depending on the level of possible danger the emergency poses, they will also contact the necessary officials to help resolve the problem.

The national environmental agency also helps to provide general numbers for the larger scale, such as highway traffic.

1.2.2 Current Situation

Even though the levels from Westvoorne are below average, the number of complaints is much higher. This difference may be explained through a number of reasons such as personal acceptance level, personality of individuals, age of individuals in the area, etcetera.

Currently, the DCMR works with raw data and creates calculated models, as mentioned above.

Stationary and mobile sensor units located around the Rijnmond supply the raw data sets used.

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When these general data sets are related to the number of complaints form citizens, a correlation cannot be found. For example, the noise and air quality of Pernis is much lower than that of Westvoorne. However, the number of complaints coming from Westvoorne is greater than the number of complaints coming from Pernis. Policy makers find it difficult to create new regulations on noise level or air quality based on these contradictory insights.

Figure 1.2 - Inside a DCMR Measuring Station

Due to this discourse between the measurements and the number of complaints, the governmental officials involved in the policy making find it difficult to make changes in policy. Policy makers often only refer to hard data and factual research when developing their policy plans. They are unable to generate grounded insights from the data to gain more insightful information, making it difficult for the DCMR to help either citizens or the policy makers.

This leads to the stagnant nature of the policy and the rising level of complaints from certain cities as the citizens feel that their worries and needs are not being taken care of.

1.2.3 What’s in the Future?

For DCMR, the involvement of citizens to generate better and grounded insights will help formulate better policies. In order to achieve the necessary aggregation of citizens’ generated

data, a framework to help the DCMR engage and activate citizens to provide enough data for policy makers to create change.

The DCMR believes that with even minimal information provided by citizens, such as GPS route information, they advise policy makers on improving the personal exposure levels of citizens in the Rijnmond. On the other hand, GPS route information is just the first step to help citizens understand how they can be active in improving environment quality. Theoretically, this initial interest can lead to further activism such as creating portable pollution measurement devices, activation in bottom-up urban initiatives, and possibly even more rich insights such as emotion and behavior.

Figure 1.3 - Out on the Maasvlakte

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1.3.

Project Scope & Goal

The scope of this project is to understand how to create a communication flow between the DCMR and the citizens in order to create a data and information exchange that can benefit both parties.

The DCMR Air Quality Department aims to gain a better understanding of personal exposure to air pollutants in order to create more accurate information to help inform policy makers. Their current exposure readings and calculations can only give a very rough and general estimation of the pollutant levels that citizens are exposed to daily. Policy is currently based on the pollution levels around your home, but often citizens are exposed to higher levels when they travel to work,

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or work in a more polluted area. Consequently, the department is looking for GPS route data from citizens in order to not only give them more exact information and feedback on the air quality they are breathing, but also to help better inform policy makers about citizens’ exposure levels more accurately.

A communication tool will be designed in order to facilitate the exchange of information between the DCMR and the citizens. The main research goal to define the project is to understand what information both the DCMR and the citizens need to make changes towards improving the livability in the Rijnmond.

Figure 1.4. - Citizens in Rotterdam

1.4.

Research Structure

The structure of this research will be based on the four-phase research and design process: Define, Design, Develop and Validate.

Define.

Design.

Develop.

Loop

Research & Analysis: - DCMR & the Rijnmond context - Current Situation - Environmental factors, market & industry - User & Stakeholder Research Result: - Problem Definition & Research Question - Design Brief - List of Requirements Co-Design & Co-Create: - Co-Design with users / stakeholders - Idea generation & elmination - Concept generation Result: - Personas & Scenarios - Interaction Vision - Concept variations

Development: - Co-Creation with users / stakeholders - Prototype - User Testing of concept with users - Refine through iteration Result: - Testable / Working prototype - Results for implementation & iteration

Iteration.

Validate.

User Test & Reiterate - User test concepts - User input implementation on concepts - Develop & Repeat

Final Iteration: - Final user test (in cities not originally tested) - Implementation into final prototype Result: - Final iteration / prototype & conclusions - Future Strategy - Further recommendataions

Figure 1.5 Research Structure

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Define The final research design question, design brief and list of requirements will be defined after an analysis of the situation, stakeholder and problems.

Define.

Research & Analysis: - DCMR & the Rijnmond context - Current Situation - Environmental factors, market & industry - User & Stakeholder Research Result: - Problem Definition & Research Question - Design Brief - List of Requirements

Figure 1.6 - Define Phase

Design A design goal and interaction vision is created based on the design brief and list of requirements. The ideas and concepts are generated based on the literature and industry research, brainstorm sessions with experts, and creative session with users. The elimination of the concepts at the end of this phase is then made based on some minor user testing, the design goal, the interaction vision and the list of requirements.

Design.

Co-Design & Co-Create: - Co-Design with users / stakeholders - Idea generation & elmination - Concept generation Result: - Personas & Scenarios - Interaction Vision - Concept variations

Figure 1.7 - Design Phase

Develop The prototype concept derived from the Design phase will be prototyped in parts and tested among users, leading to design changes based on the feedback. This process occurs in an interation loop, helping to refine and detail the design each round.

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Develop.

Development: - Co-Creation with users / stakeholders - Prototype - User Testing of concept with users - Refine through iteration Result: - Testable / Working prototype - Results for implementation & iteration

Loop

Iteration.

User Test & Reiterate - User test concepts - User input implementation on concepts - Develop & Repeat

Figure 1.8 - Develop and Iteration Loop

Validate The final design will be validated with users one final time. Additionally, a more detailed development of the system around the communication tool will be created in order to illustrate the launch, further development and maintenance of this project. An evaluation of the design and the future of the project will be included.

Validate.

Final Iteration: - Final user test (in cities not originally tested) - Implementation into final prototype Result: - Final iteration / prototype & conclusions - Future Strategy - Further recommendataions

Fig;ure 1.9 - Validate Phase

The report will conclude with the final design, further recommendations, and a plan to launch and further develop the communication tool.

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2 Research A thorough literature research was conducted over citizen participation, environment quality, air quality and the relation to the Rijnmond before defining the project’s design problem. This section aims to give a brief introduction over these topics to help build a framework understanding about the major points in this research and design project.

2.1.

Citizen Participation: A Brief Introduction 2.1.1 About Citizen Participation

Citizen participation is a relatively new field of study and research in which citizens take action and take responsibly on their own city. In this section, we will discuss the origins and use of citizen participation in urban development.

Citizen participation has been a pressing method over the years in terms of urban development.

It has been implemented a number of ways in different cities around the world. However, the

Ladder of Citizen Participation Citizen Control Delegated Power

Giving citizens the decision making power

Citizen Power

Partnership

Negotiations between the citizens and the power holders

Placation

Right to roles in the government, but still no power to make the decisions

Consultation Informing

Tokenism Hear and have a voice: can be heard by government, but still holds no say

Therapy Non Participation Manipulation 28

- Subsitution for real participation.

- Gives powerholders the ‘ability’ to educate and direct the public.

- Does not enable citizens to participate in planning or conduct programs.

Figure 2.1 - Ladder of Citizen Participation by Arnstein (1969)

type of citizen participation comes at varying degrees, stated by Arnstein (1969). The ‘Ladder of Citizen Participation’ shows that there are three distinct categories that cover citizen participation.

This includes citizen participation in its strongest form with Citizen Control and in its weakest form, Manipulation, where citizens are given only the feeling of participation by the government.

Arnstein’s view on participatory design was to give power back to the “have nots”, in order to allow them to help determine government strategy, taking the power back to the citizens.

The application of citizen participation in current day governmental processes, can enable citizens not only have the power, but also allows for the citizens with work with the government to create something socially innovative. Government organizations such as the DCMR and the Gemeente Rotterdam have been investigating into implementing models of citizen participation for urban development, citizen initiatives and social innovation.

In these instances with the city of Rotterdam, citizens are encouraged to willingly provide information and data to project leaders or policy makers to help them better understand the situation of the citizen. This acts as a type of research in which governmental or organizational project leaders can derive insights and make better policy decisions. Due to the fast changing dynamics within cities, citizen participation becomes an ongoing process that consistently allows for citizens to generate information.

and identify the problems and opportunities in their local neighborhood. By working together with citizens’ of similar interest, they can formulate and execute better Bottom-Up initiatives tailored to their needs.

Although their efforts do not rank highly on Arnstein’s ladder, this does not limit the potential for the citizens to take action and initiative in their own community. The ability to become an active citizen in their environment will be further discussed in the report.

Similarly, UCD, user centered design, is a design process that encourages the designers and researchers to work with users to help identify the context, the problem and the requirements of the solution. In this approach, designers and researchers will often refer to a series of different methods that will involve the research, interviews and sessions where they work with a select group of users. This way, they ensure a final design that will not only be tested by users, but also easily fit into their normal use routine and context.

Therefore, UCD design methods and practices are often used in cases for citizen participation and in encouragement for Bottom-Up initiatives.

Some of the UCD methods used in the investigation and creation of a participatory model over the course of this research include Context Mapping, Creative Brainstorming, and Co-creation.

Citizen participation allows for all citizens to take part in generating data for the project leaders or policy makers, but also aims to help citizens become more involved in their urban environment.

This is one of the lower forms of citizen participation known as ‘Informing’ according to Arnstein’s model.

However, by generating data, citizens can realize

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2.1.2 Citizen Participation in Urban Development Past research studies on citizen participation in urban development have had two different approaches: a low-tech citizen participation method and a high-tech citizen participation method (Gonzalez, Gilmer, Foley, Sweeney & Fry, 2008) (Gouveia, Fonseca, C창mara, & Ferreira, 2004). The low-tech solution refers to a more traditional method of urban development and design centered on the Top-Down approach where citizen participation is only involved in a small part of the decision making process. During the low-tech citizen participation method, citizens are usually asked to be involved in town meetings, filing complaint forms, or encouraged to form small community work groups on their own. Although this method provides a relatively low entry point and is easy for all citizens, it is inefficient. Citizens often do not have the time or interest to act because they often feel ignored or unheard by the government. Often, their actions do not result in a change or inquiry on the government level.

The second method of high-tech citizen participation has only been recently introduced within the past two decades due to easier access of online communication with the Internet and

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mobile devices. This method was intended to spur more Bottom-Up initiatives from the community through easy to access participation. However, it has been discovered that this provides too high of a threshold for many citizens because of the digital divide, concerning older citizens and digital applications. This method often requires more techsavvy and interested citizens who are able to more easily navigate technology. These initiatives often fail because of the inability to use and only appealing to a select group of users.

It can be inferred that citizen participation in urban development is relatively minimal. In order to take initiatives, citizens often must dedicate a lot of time and effort into making themselves heard. This is only the case with more serious problems that citizens face, limiting the group of citizens participating to clear passionate activists. Most citizens are only able to effect change on a small neighborhood level by creating local initiatives such as the Two Up and Two Down house by Jeanne van Heeswijk.

Van Heeswijk used completely low-tech solutions and was able to initiate the local neighborhood through a series of workshops and design sessions to generate interest. Although there has been growth in the initiative, was still a more Top-Down initiative from a designer.

Figure 2.2 - PRESSURENET App screen shots

Over the years, regional government entities have been investing in local movements and initiatives to help citizens create a voice and make change, such as the ’30-km/h – making streets livable’ citizen initiative in the EU. In 2009, the European Union signed a treaty to allow for funding and aid for any local European citizen initiative. However, this provides not only approval by the EU, but also requires the interest of citizens from a minimum of seven European countries. This provides a rather large threshold for citizens unable to easily use online communication to form community groups in other countries. The mobilization effort of the initiative is massive compared to most local initiatives.

These low-tech and high-tech means of citizen participation is still at the early stages of development for citizen participation. They are currently inefficient and unable to mobilize change or involvement of citizen in urban development.

2.1.3 Citizen Participation in Data & Information Generation In an effort to utilize and test new technology in the field of citizen participation, researchers have experimented with the implementation of GIS technology to help citizens gather and collect data. GIS (Geographic Information System) technology refers to a high tech, complex mapping and recording of geographic information into a universal pre-existing framework. By using GIS, researchers and designers can create universal databases of information gathered by citizens around the world. However, in order to create a universal network, all information stored into the system must adhere to the framework. This becomes the main point of concern when working with citizens in creating data for GIS mapping. The quality and format of the information provided from each citizen can vary drastically. Therefore,

in order to have a functioning universal system, the data input into the systems will need to be monitored and checked by professionals.

GIS technology is some of the most complex ways for researchers to aggregate large amounts of information around the world. This makes the technology difficult for most citizens to utilize.

However, this idea of crowdsourcing information has been increasingly gaining interest. A series of different mobile applications have been recently published aiming towards citizen-sourcing information. Apps have been used to aggregate data into GIS systems such as Pressurenet provide citizens with an easy to use interface to measure barometer pressure in order to generate more accurate data calculations.

Meanwhile, apps similar to colab.re and SeeClickFix ask for citizens to help identify local neighborhood problems to report to government officials. These simple applications are starting to bridge the gap between citizens and digital information generation and even with government officials. However, their adoption rate is minimal due to the necessary technology requirements and interest of the citizens.

Figure 2.3 SeeClickFix App screen shot

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2.2.

Environment and Air Quality in the EU & NL

Environment and air quality are growing concerns in the European Union due to the health concerns related to the poor environment and air quality around major European cities. Environment and air quality are composed of a series of different conditions such as sound, weather, pollution, green space, etc. Additionally, it is highly susceptible to change and easily affected by a number of different causes. Therefore, it is often hard for citizens to believe that they can greatly affect the future development of environment and air quality. This way of thinking has contributed to a slower adoption of environmental measures over the years.

This section gives a brief explanation of the causes and effects of poor environment and air quality on citizens.

2.2.1 Pollutants and their Causes There are a number of reasons and pollutants that have caused the poor environment and air quality

in the EU and the Netherlands. There pollutants can include trash, odors, extraneous sounds, and emissions.

Trash, odors, and extraneous sounds are usually the most noticeable and annoying pollutants to citizens. These pollutants often affect citizens’ senses including sight, smell and hearing, making these annoyances identifiable. Often it is due to citizens’ littering in the city, overflow of trash, swage problems, odor from industry, or large vehicles. Problems such as trash or odor are often dealt with among neighborhoods or they often fade into the background of the environment, as the citizens have no means of action. However, some of the most impactful pollutants that cannot usually be seen, smelled, heard, felt or tasted, are emissions from industry and motorized vehicles.

Emissions greatly affect the air quality of the area and are comprised of a number of different elements. The EU has identified 30 major types of pollutants that are registered as harmful

high pollution zone

Pollution levels

Background pollution

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Figure 2.4 - Sources of Background Pollution

pollution agents. These 30 pollutants are required to be consistently monitored and measured from automobiles, ships, planes and industry across the EU. However, for the purpose of this research, we will only deal with PM 10, PM 2.5, CO, NO, NO2, SO2, O3, and VOC. The main causes for the expulsion of these pollutants into the air are factories, construction, cargo ships, fuel burning and freight cars. Although automobiles only contribute a small amount of the overall pollution in the cities, they often provide the most concentrated levels of exposure to citizens. Because of their concentrated locations around major roadways, they generate peaks of concentration of pollutants in the area. Therefore, when citizens walk by these major roadways they are exposed to high concentrations of these pollutants.

2.2.2 Environment & Air Quality & Health Over the past several decades, researchers

have found an astonishing correlation between the environmental quality and human health.

Worldwide studies by major universities and WHO have proven that exposure to higher levels of emission pollutants and loud noises in our environment can lead to a decrease of an average of five years in life expectancy. The closer and more time a citizen spends surrounded by peak emissions levels such as around heavy traffic areas, the greater the risk of developing respiratory diseases.

Living, driving, biking and walking around the major roadways consistently expose citizens to high concentrations of pollutants. This exposure to peaks of pollutants is unintentional and often unnoticed by the citizens. However, this has proven to be harmful to citizen health, and especially that of children. Because citizens are unable to physically sense their exposure to pollutants, they do not often realize or care about the level of emissions they are exposed to daily. Only a small percentage of the population notices the health effects of pollutants.

high pollution zone background pollution

Pollution levels

Background pollution

Traffic

Highrises that trap the pollution between buildings

Figure 2.5 - Creating peak emission areas

Highway and motorway

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Additionally, all children that live or spend time near these peak pollution areas are negatively affected by the daily exposure. The pollution causes stunted growth and development of their lungs as they grow up. Children are the most susceptible to respiratory diseases due to their developing lungs while being expose to these harsh pollutants. They will carry these respiratory problems with them for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this also results in a select population of citizens highly affected by pollution to pay attention to the pollution levels around their homes or their child’s school. Without noticing the ailments that come with pollution, most citizens do not recognize the problem that surrounds them on a daily basis.

2.2.3 Current Evaluated

Urban

Initiatives

Due to the dangerously high levels of pollution in many major cities and regions around the world, many governments have implemented new ecological, sustainable and traffic policies to help reduce the amount of emissions. A few of the

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initiatives include eco-zoning, city center fees, car parking charges, and road space rationing

Eco-zoning Berlin is well known for their eco-zoning initiative in the greater Berlin area. As seen in Figure 2.6, the greater Berlin area is divided into a number of zones where a limited emission grade must be met before a car can enter. In order to drive into the city, each car owner will have to register their car and have it tested for emissions. The amount of emissions from the car will determine the zone it is allowed to drive.

Figure 2.6 - Berlin Eco-Zone

Figure 2.6 - Berlin Eco-Zone signs

With this initiative, the inner city of Berlin has been able to keep most high emission cars out, keeping the inner city air clean. However, this has not allowed for the city to keep the traffic around the outskirts of the city down causing higher emission levels at the outer edge of the city.

not reachable by public transport and mix traffic on the same lane, the traffic will remain high and continue to add to pollution levels. However, with the funds building up, London hopes to expand their public transport reach to help decongest traffic in the city.

. City Center Fees

Car Parking Charges

The city of London has a dangerously high pollution level in the city caused by a high amount of traffic coming in from the outskirts of the city. In order to reduce the amount of traffic flowing into the city, the city of London has enacted a fee charge of five pounds a day for all vehicles coming into the city. This initiative has been able to build up funds for the London Public Transport, slightly reduce the emission levels, but has not been able to reduce the amount of traffic in the city. Because of the large population living in areas that are

In order to encourage citizens to use more sustainable cars, the car meters in the city of Madrid require you to input your license plate in order to find the model and year of your car. This information will help determine the parking fees the citizen will have to pay. With an older car and large model, the citizen will pay more. However, Madrid has not yet fully utilized this system, but the pollution levels have not seen a decrease. This method makes it difficult for citizens to help reduce levels of pollution because the effects of the fee

Figure 2.7 - London covered in smog and pollution

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charge are not as noticeable until the moment the citizens’ pay. Even then, often citizens are willing to pay more if they feel the need to drive into the city.

Road Space Rationing This method has been widely tested with three different methods. One method is the allowance of only vehicles with odd number license plates into the city. A second method is to allow vehicles with odd number license plates for half a week and vehicles with even number license plates for the other half. The final method is to ration the number of license plates assigned to citizens around the city.

consequences, resulting in citizens buying multiple cars with different odd-even license plates. However, the final method allows for the government to control the number of allowed vehicles on the road, but severely limits the ability for citizens to obtain a vehicle.

Although these urban initiatives have proven to reduce the pollution in the city to some degree, these measures can only create an impact to a limited degree. In order to create a bigger impact, citizens need to change their habit in terms of transportation. Methods including fees and payments only force citizens to pay more, but often citizens would rather pay the fee and travel more comfortably.

The first and second methods often have

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Figure 2.8 - Madrid’s smart parking meter that can figure out how much pollution you create

2.2.4 Environdment, Air Quality & the Rijnmond In response to the increased health concerns of its citizens and the EU directive, the Netherlands created policies and initiatives with an aim towards lowering the emission levels to below the maximum amount set by the EU. Due to the Netherlands’ port industry and high level of goods transportation, they developed two major pollution concentration areas that often do not meet the requirements of the EU directive. In the late 1990s, the Amsterdam and Rotterdam regions were heavily polluted because of the high volumes of transport vehicles such as freight ships and trucks.

a high level of emissions in the Rijnmond. Due to the high emissions levels the health of citizens in the Rijnmond have been affected. Therefore, a proposed communication tool is necessary for the citizens of the Rijnmond to help them better understand the problem and take possible steps they can take towards a cleaner and healthier environment.

Of the two areas, the greater Rotterdam region, known as the Rijnmond, is the most affected. Due to the presence of the Europort and the petroleum refineries, waste burning facilities, steel industries and power plants; high levels of emissions are generated along the Maas River. Emissions from the Europort in addition to transportation emissions from the freight ships and cargo trucks created

Figure 2.9 - City signs that help enforce odd-even numbering days

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2.3.

Citizens Participation in Environment Quality

As mentioned before, environment and air quality are not often discussed topic because of the lack of physical presence and notice by the public.

Therefore, engaging with citizens on environment and air quality policies becomes difficult. In this section, the current involvement of citizens will be discussed.

Types of Citizens based on Interest Level for Enviornmental Quality Specialists

Citizens who hold a high interest and are well educated in the topic. These citizens are sometimes highly active in the cause.

Activists

Citizens who want change and care about the environment. They are often active in one or more groups and are quite knowledgeable.

Interested

These citizens are interested in the topic and feel that something should be done, but often not motivated enough to dedicate time.

Doesn’t Know

These citizen may be interested if given more detail.

Only know general basics about the topic but have not learned about the details.

Disinterested

These citizens know about the topic, but are disinterested.

They feel that there is nothing that they can do or that it is not a major problem.

2.3.1 Current Citizen Involvement Currently, citizen involvement in air quality is mostly limited to individuals physically affected by the pollution levels, sound levels, and smells. Often these problems are persistent for a neighborhood community. These are often the most involved citizens who are heavily interested in changes in government and policies. These activists often form or find citizen work groups and initiatives looking for a change in political policy. However, there are also citizens who individually find problems and report them to governmental entities. These citizens often feel alone and are unable to connect with others who share the same problems, as mentioned by a DCMR employee. Finally, there are citizens who are often unconcerned with the environment and air quality until the warning on air quality appears in the media. Often, this will cause some interest and concern among citizens for a short period of time.

The level of citizen involvement includes a wide range of activism among citizens. A large gap exists between those who are active in groups and those who are disinterested. In order to increase citizen involvement, an analysis will be done with citizens who are both heavily involved in groups, involved individually and those who are

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Figure 2.10 - Types of citizen involvement

disinterested.

2.3.2 Existing Citizen Initiatives – Do they work?

A number of different initiatives concerning environment and air quality exist in the Rijnmond area. Often these groups are comprised of citizens with a passion and better understanding of the environment and air quality of the area. Many of these organizations are formed and consisted of more highly educated mid-income workers. They are often involved in environment and air quality because of a passion for improving environment and air quality, affected by the pollution levels or because of family.

Most of these groups gather in order to devise plans on actions for creating change in

government policy or actions to help inform their fellow Rotterdam citizens. Their impact is generally low due to a number of factors such as too low participation for impact, lacking strategies, and lack of funds. Often they face the main problem in a lack of understanding, care and interest by the citizen population, making it difficult to gain traction in local communities and local politics, especially with limited resources.

Usually the most successful organizations are related to health causes such as respiratory diseases. Their goals involve improving air quality to help citizens with asthma or other respiratory problems. Frequently these problems affect children, which helps citizens better connect and feel empathy towards the problem. These health problems, especially those related to children,

Figure 2.11 - Demonstration by ‘Adem for Rotterdam’

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make environment and air quality importance tangible to citizens.

2.3.3 Assumptions on Citizens’ Current

Highly dislike negative information

Most people who care are older than 30 years of age

Involvement In order to formulate the user research addressed in the next chapter, an assumption map is made of the average mid-income Rotterdam citizen worker

Travels mainly by car out of Rotterdam, but doesn’t often leave the city

Many of the citizens live and work in different cities

Only a small portion of the public is interested in enviornmental quality Most interested citizens focus on healthy living including eating and exercise

Prefer either mobile or web applications and only the information when they want it

50/50 - population use of smartphones

Will not easily accept that data generation by the public can help the government take care of the problem

Initial Citizen Assumption Map

Most likely will have never thought about the problem before Doesn’t understand the effects the current environment problems have on our health

Feels like nothing can be done - so gives up early on resolving the issue

‘Since so many people bike’ Citizens think that there should not be any major health / pollution problems in the area

Only cares / complains when it gets really bad or when it is on the news

Uninterested in environment and air quality unless a major problem occurs

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Pollutants come from factories and automobiles

Pollution is a problem that the government and companies should take care of

Figure 2.12 - Initial assumption map

ranging in the age range of 30 - 40. The map is based on the interest, knowledge and actions of each citizen persona.

2.3.4 How contribute?

can

citizens

further

Currently citizens have little contribution in terms of environment and air quality improvement and in urban eco-policies. With an understanding, citizens can provide great change in environment quality and in urban eco-policies. Citizens first need to be better informed about their environment and its effects, and then they can further be empowered to take more action. By making environment and air quality information tangible to citizens, they will gain an awareness of the problem.

The future step will then involve active participation between citizens and with the government.

Citizens will gain a stronger drive towards changes in urban policies and provide better feedback and information to the government to help initiate policy changes. Currently, government systems are trying to avoid the discussion of environment and air quality with citizens because the problem has not yet risen on the social level, as mentioned by the specialist from the GGD. Municipalities often downplay or remove new government policy changes related to environment quality in public political agendas in order to appease citizens who are disinterested and do not understand the problem. Informed and knowledgeable citizens will be able to push the problem to be addressed in public political agendas and strive for change.

In order to better understand the possible further contribution of citizens, a progression line is shown in Figure 2.13 helps illustrate the steps to developing citizen contribution.

Uninterested and uninformed

Creating awareness among citizens to learn and know about the problems

Increasing interest through finding a personal realtion to the topic

Finding and indentifying problems that trigger interest and personal link to the citizens

Connecting with others in the same area who share topic interests

Creating and finding solutions together for problems in the area / raising awareness

Working together as a community towards developing solutions and implementation Becoming an active citizen Figure 2.13 - Types of citizen involvement

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2.4. Existing Product Research Over the past couple of decades, citizen participation through digital means has been increasing. Most notably, citizen contributions through phone applications are gaining traction in countries around the world. Projects such as the online applications: colab.re, a Brazilian mobile application and online site that allows for citizens to post problems or concerns they have for the city

Figure 2.14 - screen shots of colab.re (Brazil)

SeeClickFix, an American governmental app that allows citizens to help collectively manage the quality of their city

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Figure 2.15 - screen shorts of SeeClickFix

Nearhood by Born Local, a Finnish online site that allows for citizens to meet close by community members in order to share problems and new ideas for their living environment.

Figure 2.16 - screen shot of Born Local Website

There are also a number of citizens Bottom-Up initiatives and projects that involve changing their built environment, either by including more green spaces or reusing disused spaces. These initiatives are generally kept local and originate in lower class areas. Such instances like urban community gardens, community centers, urban community rebuilding/replanting initiatives, etc.

Figure 2.17 - Prinzessinnengarten in Berlin

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Some notable examples have been the Prinzessinnengarten in Berlin and the 2Up2Down establishment in Liverpool. However, these initiatives are a good reference of the action that communities can learn to take together, and can provide a point of inspiration for other interested and aspiring community members that participate in the earlier mentioned online community building websites/applications.

Figure 2.18 - 2Up2Down establishment (Liverpool)

Finally, in the past few years, there have been many product and application projects that focus on getting users to self measure the quality of their environment. These devices either work though a product that plugs directly into their phone, such as My Lapka, or an external product that is larger and communicates via Bluetooth or WiFi with smartphones, such as Alima for home air quality.

These products are becoming increasingly common, especially with the current trends of healthy living, self-monitoring and the quantified-self.

A full list and description of the existing apps and products can be found in Appendix A.

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Because of the multitude of different directions and functionalities of each project, a questionnaire was created in order to better understand what citizens found interesting, helpful, insightful and annoying about each product.

2.4.1 Goal The goal for this survey is to research the use and interest of a series of existing products and applications in the field of environment and air quality. The scale questions help identify the products based on aesthetical, functional and social aspects. The open answers in the

Figure 2.19 - My Lapka product use

Figure 2.20 - Alima product use

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questionnaire were able to help determine a short and basic list of requirements of the design and functionality of the future product.

The survey gauged the citizens’ opinions on 5 main topics: 1. Interest in use of service / product and / or reasons for disuse 2. Benefits of information provided by products / services 3. Useful benefits from certain products / services 4. Unwanted and / or unnecessary features 5. Improvements to design of products / service

2.4.2 Method & Set Up The survey focuses on 20 different products and applications that are currently on the market or in their prototyping stages. The questionnaire is centered around general insights on the product/ application, functionality, the social nature of the product/application and the aesthetics. These questions are formed based on questionnaires designed to specifically understand users’ perception of the product and/or application.

Each user reviewed one product and one application. In order to cover a wider audience range in The Netherlands, the questionnaire was split into a Dutch and English version each containing five products and five applications. Each reviewer was randomly assigned a product and application based on their month of birth in order to distribute the samples and to ensure unbiased reviews. The products were divided between the Dutch and English questionnaire by identifying their main functions and aesthetics.

The full questionnaire list and the division of product and applications can be seen in Appendix B.

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2.4.3 Results & Analysis A total of 28 respondents were recruited to answer the questionnaire. The full list of results can be found in Appendix C. The results of the questionnaire were compiled and analyzed for insights on the products and apps’ positive and negative points. The products and apps were modeled on a personal activism and innovation chart, a personal activism and required input chart, and a personal activism and feedback chart.

The main resulting insight from this questionnaire created an understanding of the personal activism in relation to innovation, amount of required input, and feedback necessary for more successful products.

2.4.4 Conclusions From these results, it is important to note that not many citizens are interested in paying for the product or apps unless they had a specific and special need for it. Often because citizens do not want to pay for a device or application that consistently reminds them of the poor air quality they are in. Being in better air quality and healthier environments is something that is a bonus and not necessarily important enough to pay for.

The feedback and information citizens often get from environment and air quality products does not provide enough impact to charge the citizens.

Users were interested in having simple and graphically easy to understand products and applications with a low threshold for use, meaning little to no consistent input form the user. Additionally, a social and communication aspect between the users and other users and government is necessary. The feedback is often appreciated and what citizens look for most in these product types, but only to a limited degree.

Additionally, before any behavioral changes,

citizens want to be able to compare the future pollution or air quality in the routes or places they will be. This helps them make better decisions

early on so that they can better plan their day and week.

Figure 2.21 - iSpex PM (fijnstof) measuring tool

Figure 2.22 - Sensair Block

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3 Definition Currently, the main problem at hand is the lack of information, knowledge and interest in environment and air quality. However, this is still a wide-ranging problem to face. Research sessions with different stakeholders will provide new insights to help narrow down the research and design problem.

3.1.

Project Break Down

3.1.1 Stakeholder Map A map of the different stakeholders involved in environment and air quality measures, initiatives and policies has been created. This map encompasses all interested parties, but only a select few will be further discussed in this research.

3.1.2 Stakeholder System By understanding the current problem, it can be deduced that the most important local stakeholders involved with environment and air quality area: citizens, the DCMR, expert researcher in environment quality and health, and the GGD. To better understand the communication and current flow of information among the stakeholders, the stakeholder system map in Figure 3.2 was created in order to help illustrate the complicated relationship between the stakeholders.

Although other government entities, such as the municipality, and industry are major stakeholders, it is important to focus on the information necessary for overall awareness before involving these parties that are usually involved in higher political debates.

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Stakeholders Other governmental departments and agencies

Factories / Industry Provinces

Transport Industry

Shipping Industry

City Municipality

Regional Government

Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences

Citizen Specialists

Activist Citizens GGD Rijnmond- Rotterdam

GGD Netherlands

Interested Citizens

Citizens ranging from somehwat interested to not interested at all

Figure 3.1 - Stakeholder Map

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Stakeholders Partnership

Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences

Partnership Citizen Specialists

Activist Citizens

Activites and sessions together

GGD Rijnmond- Rotterdam

GGD Netherlands

Interested Citizens

Citizens ranging from somehwat interested to not interested at all 52

Figure 3.2 - Stakeholder communication and partnerships

3.2.

Surveying Citizens

After the assumption map (section 2.3.3.), it was clear that a deeper exploration was needed in order to better apprehend the knowledge citizens have on environment and air quality. Therefore an in depth survey was created in order to gain better general insights into citizen perception of the environment and air quality.

3.2.1 Goal

3.2.3 Results & Analysis

The goal of this survey is to have a quantitative study with the general population of the Rijnmond in order to understand their perception of environment and air quality. This survey will identify the citizens’:

A total of 70 participants were recruited to answer the questionnaire. All of the results can be found in Appendix E. The results of the questionnaire were then compiled and analyzed for both general and more specific insights.

- Understanding of pollution and pollutants

One of the main insights from this research resulted from the initial contact with the potential respondents. Often citizens would refuse to participate due to their lack of opinion on the environment or air quality of the region. Many potential respondents understood that it was not healthy, but did not care to know why or about change.

- Perception of environmental quality of cities where they work and live - Main concerns with the environment and air quality

3.2.2 Method & Set Up A quick 10-15 minute questionnaire was created, addressing the understanding and perception of environment and air quality in the living and working cities of the citizens. To ensure that a wide variety of citizens are able to answer the survey, it was provided in both Dutch and English.

This survey was distributed both online and offline to citizens around the Rijnmond area. The online distribution went out to a few companies and schools in the Rijnmond region through local connections and networks. The main areas of distribution of offline surveys included Rotterdam cafés and company buildings around the industrial areas. The full survey, in Dutch and in English, can be found in Appendix D.

After an analysis of the survey data, the open answer questions in the survey provided insightful qualitative data into the citizens’ perception of the environment and air quality’s problems and causes.

The key quotes from the research are highlighted in Figure 3.3, illustrating the 6 main concepts that appeared the most often among the qualitative data.

The main themes that appeared as main concerns are featured in Figure 3.4.

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- Personal exposure to car emissions when biking through the city and from major roadways and construction - A lack of green space and greenery in the city - Odors and smog coming by wind from the industrial area “There is little progress in the improvement of the air quality.” (translated) - Male, 42 (Vlaardingen)

“Schone lucht, weinig auto’s, veel natuur” - Male, 25 (Rotterdam)

- Inability to improve air quality without damaging economy - A lack of understanding on the effects of health because it’s not clearly visible

“It is possible to get cleaner air but often it is stopped.

Autos can be more efficient when driving and lower emissions but has been on hold due to reasons such as the financial crisis. There are other things that have been better developed, but because of finance, they have not been executed. Pity.” (translated) - Female, 49 (Barendrecht)

“For my job, I am on a bike a lot. Therefore I bike along the long line of autos at traffic lights or in traffic jams and they stand still. The air is not pleasing for me.” (translated) - Female, 49 (Barendrecht)

“The biggest concern is the smog that comes from the industrial park in Pernis.

Furthermore, the number of cars also has an impact on the environment in Barendrecht.”

“The air quality, I think Rotterdam is a super nice and super beautiful city to live in, but I am not sure if I want to live here as the air quality is so poor here. You try to eat healthy and try to live a healthy life, but then it is a waste dur to the poor air quality. A bit of a waste!”

(translated) - Male, 19 (Barendrecht)

(translated) -Feamle, 24 (Rotterdam)

“The effect on your health is unnoticed...

I cannot imagine that I will not be exposed to that pollution.” (translated) - Male, 26 (Rotterdam)

“Sufficient greenery and trees.

Minimizing emissions of particulate matter and CO2.Relevant municipal and awareness among people what we’re up against and what we can /should do.” (translated) - Male, 29 (Brielle)

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- Lack of government initiative in creating better air quality

“Placing new and especially big windmills in the Botlek.” (translated) - Male, 29 (Brielle)

“The downtown area hardly has any greenery and the entire city is surrounded by busy highways where traffic jams often occur. There is also an airport near the city.” (translated) - Female, 23 (Rotterdam)

“I do have huge concerns. of course environment is very important but I see that in Rotterdam, especially, compared to other big European cities, a lot of biking is done. That being said, to me, long term thinking in the consent of the city planning and development is crucial.”

- Male, 36 (Rotterdam)

“My environment is minor compared to the importance of the economic reasons.” (translated) - Male, 41 (Rotterdam)

Figure 3.3 - Quotes from citizens on their environment from open answer questions in survey

Many of the citizens, respondents and nonrespondents, agree that although the environment is poor in quality, there is very little that can be done without harming the economic value of the industry along the Maas.

Personal exposure while biking

3.2.4 Conclusions Many citizens are disinterested in environment and air quality in the Rijnmond. However, there are a few who found interest in discussing the environment and air quality in their city. These interested citizens were able to discuss about environment and air quality in the region and in regards to themselves and possible initiatives for improving environmental quality that citizens can initiate.

Through this survey, it was proven that the inhabitants felt that because air quality was not sensible by humans, air quality and its health effects were not easily perceived or understood.

Without consistent reminder or physical proof, the issues did not seem present. In these instances, air quality did become a problem because there was a physical sense involved with the problem.

These results suggest that further detailed investigations need to be conducted on what citizens’ perceive as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ qualities of environment and air quality. By helping citizens identify the aspects of the environment, they can gain a better understanding of the parts that make up environment and air quality. This tangibility may help other disinterested citizens rethink the problems with environment and air quality within their cities. Additionally, knowing the aspects can help already interested citizens create better selfinitiatives for themselves and local communities to improve environment and air quality.

A lack of green space

Odors and smog in the wind from industry

Lack of government initiative

Inability to improve without damage to economy

Lack of understanding on health effects Figure 3.4 - Six main themes of citizens’ understanding of environment and air quality.

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3.3.

Definition Session with DCMR

By gaining a general insight of the current citizen’s understanding, it was important to match it with the interest and needs of the company. Therefore, a session with the DCMR was set up to help match the interests and needs of the company with the potential needs of the citizens. Once the two needs and interests are lined up, a communication tool can be designed to fit and provide the necessary information and benefits for each side.

3.33.1 Goal The goal for this research session is to better understand the information and data sets produced and needed by the DCMR and the problems they face when dealing with citizens.

Additionally, this session will help to explore the possibilities and potential opportunities for the future development of a relationship between the DCMR and the citizens of the Rijnmond.

3.3.2 Method & Set Up

parts: Understanding, Problems & Solutions, and Tools for Making. The session will be held for one-and-half to two hours with three members of the DCMR, each representing a different department in the Expertisecentrum: sound, air quality, and environment and innovation. Figure 3.6 helps illustrate the three parts of the session. A full explanation of the set up of the session can be found in Appendix F. To conclude the session, each employee representative will describe their ideal tool to help citizens and the DCMR communicate.

The set up for this session is divided into three

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Figure 3.5 - Image from DCMR session

Understanding What kind of data / information sets do you have access to now?

What problems do you need to solve? Ideas?

Solutions?

What data / infomraiton sets are missing to create these solutions?

To begin the session, an understanding on on the data collected, problems, new data to be collected and solutions is created.

During this activity, the participants will work together to draw up the information necessary to design the communication tool.

Insights and creating new solutions What kind of data / information sets do you have access to now?

user

What problems do you need to solve? Ideas?

Solutions?

solution

solution solution

solution

solution

What data / infomraiton sets are missing to create these solutions?

Mix & Match

After all the data, problems and ideas are posted onto the wall, a short brainstorming activity is done where the participants will create new ideas by mixing and matching different data sets. All the solutions are then placed again in the middle board.

How can we excite people?

solution

solution

solution

Concept

user

solution solution

Figure 3.6 - DCMR Session setup

To conclude the session, the final activity asks for the participants to create a communication tool solution and label all the data sets that would go into the system, and then the feedback that the user would get out of the system.

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3.3.3 Session & Results The beginning of the session started off with understanding what each department had to offer in terms of data and information. The representatives were able to think beyond the scope of quantitative data generation and push the boundaries to include richer and more informative data sets such as citizen behavior and emotions. Figure 3.7 illustrates the different data

sets that they currently have and data sets they believe can help provide them better insights to convince policy makers of change.

Following the identification of the data sets, the representatives were asked to focus on data that can be generated through citizen participation.

A lively discussion took place over the types of problems that they encountered in their work concerning the DCMR in relation to citizens.

Figure 3.7 - Results of existing data sets and problems to solve

Some of the main concerns that arose included:

- Citizens’ lack of understanding about what the DCMR does and works towards - Citizens’ Lack of knowledge about other citizen complaints and citizens feeling alone in their problems

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- Citizins’ Frustration with the DCMR over policies - Citizins’ Lack of understanding over what air quality and loud noise levels can mean for their health - Citizens Lack initiative in coming together to urge for political change with the municipality

Based on these problems, they were able to generate some quick ideas, solutions and missing data that can be generated by citizens in order to help them fulfill their goal to communicate with citizens. Figure 3.8 helps to illustrate the

Figure 3.8 - Necessary data sets

newly added data sets that would be helpful and interesting to the DCMR in relation to the problems they identified during the discussion.

The main solution that emerged was aimed towards informing citizens on the effects on their health in relation to environmental quality and the decision they make daily. The solution is meant to guide citizens towards making better decisions to avoid long-term exposure to bad environmental quality, and also to avoid exposure to any peaks of pollution.

Their central idea was to create an application bundle that can help citizens make better decisions

on their travel routes and methods, areas and locations to stay, and things to consider when buying and/or refurbishing a home. They were interested in linking these choices with health and fitness trackers such as the FitBit and the Jawbone Up. A potential final system design described in the session can be found in Figure 3.9. However, they understand the psychological constraints of negative information that normally plays a major role in the perception of environmental quality and decision-making. Therefore, they hope that by better informing the citizens of the components that make up good and bad environmental quality, citizens can start to make better decisions that can improve their own quality of living.

The employees also recognized that the DCMR needs better exposure to the public in terms of an understanding of what and how the DCMR can help citizens. Many citizens are uninformed about the operations at DCMR and that they are not the end policy makers, and that their complaints and problems can have an effect on the end policy if they are able to raise a voice together as a community towards the governmental bodies.

This is illustrated in Figure 3.10.

In terms of missing data, the representatives of the DCMR identified their need for information from citizens concerning their daily routines, behavioral patterns and possibly citizen environmental measurements. With this information the representatives hope to output useful information, suggestions and recommendations to citizens.

Citizens will then be better informed when making decisions, choosing between recommended options and how to avoid bad environment and specifically air quality when traveling.

The transcripts and original images of the session can be found in Appendix G.

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activity

When buying a house : environmental concerns

distanc to recreational / green areas

transport methods, time of days, routine and incidental

lifestyle health info: exercise BMI

data input Environmental data calculated and measured: air pollution and sound

asking for advice

Complaints / Community -> Activate communities

Finding new locations for children

age gender social / economic

Balcony Garden ways to block out sound

Potential options (schedule, handicap etc.)

House arangement refurbishing house

9:50 AM

App to inform citizens of healthy routes / decisions to make

insights

advice

Information to government

Information before buying a house

needed information

Especially for families How to get to work, home, and/or school Route information including mode of transport

Understanding of DCMR Complain to emergency response unit

data Measurement of different explosure levels

Ranking the health of different areas

Figure 3.9 - DCMR design of a citizen communication tool

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Why people are complaining

Info to help understand

Citizens

Regional Government Factories / Industry

City Municipality Transport Industry

GGD Rijnmond- Rotterdam

Shipping Industry

Policy Makers

Figure 3.10 - DCMR’s role between government and citizens

3.3.4 Analysis The information derived from the session with the DCMR helped clearly define the information and main intention for the development of this communication tool. During this session, one of the most interesting insights derived from the session was the unanimous goal of the employee representatives:

“To create more healthy and livable standards for the citizens of the Rijnmond.”

This was an important statement and refers to the need for the DCMR to be a governmental agency working for the citizens rather than for the policy makers. Their main concern for their work is that it can help provide policy makers with the right information from citizens to change policy, and to empower citizens to understand that collectively, they have the power to change policy. This suggests that information that the DCMR needs is minimal, and used only for the aim towards creating better environmental quality for the citizens.

3.3.5 Conclusion In conclusion, this session helped clarify the DCMR’s intentions with the communication tool.

With this consideration in mind, the design and research problem can be better focused around the needs and interests of the citizens. Therefore, it is important to speak with health experts and citizens in order to discover reasoning, incentives and actions for citizens to participate and learn about environment and air quality.

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3.4.

Expert and Citizen Research

Experts in the field of environmental quality in relation to health effects can help pass on new insights and more detailed information on: health effects from pollution, actions citizens can take to help reduce their exposure levels, and possibly reasoning for citizens to participate in initiatives for better environmental quality. Meanwhile, citizens are an essential part to the design and more information on their needs and interests needs to be further researched. The new insights with citizens can help inform the ending design and research problem.

3.4.1 Methodology & Theory Environment and health specialists from the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond (Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst Rotterdam-Rijnmond), IRAS (Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences at Utrecht University), and citizens were invited to discuss their views on environment and air quality initiatives in a series of two interviews and two sessions.

In order to better understand the complex relationship between: health, quality of living, individuals’ nuances, environmental quality, and possible actions or initiatives; in-depth interviews with employees in the GGD and IRAS were performed. These interviews centered on a discussion model with several leading questions.

In this way, the discussion was well directed by a series of questions, but was open enough to

Interviewee 62

allow for an evolution of the discussion. Often the discussion will grow towards what the experts believe is interesting and relevant for the project.

Therefore, allowing space for the discussion to develop in any way was necessary.

Then, in order to better understand the citizens, a series of two iterative sessions was performed with two different groups of citizens. The first session was done with six participants in a Context Mapping Session. Context mapping is a research method meant to help illicit the deeper latent knowledge that citizens have about their context for given situations. In this instance, the Context Mapping session was performed to better understand: 1. The perception of environment and air quality by citizens 2. The social aspects of the citizens’ networks.

Citizens

Figure 3.11 - Knowlledge transfer between expert interviews and citizen research

The Context Mapping session was followed up with a Creative Brainstorming session. This session took the information generated by the Context Mapping session and allowed for the citizens to brainstorm about ideas and ways in which they can help empower citizens with different activism levels. This insight can help determine the design direction in relation to information and communication from the DCMR to the citizens.

Finally the results of each session will be assimilated and analyzed in order to create the final problem statement, design brief, target user group, and list of requirements.

Context Mapping is a method commonly used in UCD that allows for the researcher/designer to gain in depth knowledge on the daily context, routines, and tacit knowledge of the user through a series of steps in a full process shown in Figure 3.13. The full study involves user participants in creating, sharing and understanding the actions, emotions and feelings they have while performing certain tasks or using certain objects. This type of research allows the researcher / designer to dive in depth into the life of the user. (Visser, Stappers, van der Lugt, & Sanders, 2005).

what people

techniques

say think

interviews

do use

observations

observable

generative techniques

tacit

knowledge

top of mind

know feel dream

explicit

latent

deep make & say

Figure 3.12 - Context Mapping Theory

Figure 3.13 - Context Mapping Process

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3.5.

Emissions & Health Correlation Experts

3.5.1 Goal The goal for these interviews is to better understand the following three points: 1. Type of information citizens should know about health effects from emissions and actions citizens can take to reduce high exposure emissions levels 2. Ways in which citizens take action against the poor environment and air quality can take 3. Data or information from citizens to provide insights for the DCMR and better insights to citizens about their health and the environment

3.5.2 Method & Set Up The questions formulated for these interviews are based on the three goal points mentioned above. A loose structure and guideline questions were created before the session and sent to the interviewees. Upon visiting the interviewees, a few initial questions were asked and the conversation continued depending on the responses, interest areas and expertise of the interviewee. A full list of the interview questions can be found in Appendix H. At the end of the interview session, the interviewees were asked to identify the most interesting part of the communication tool, the most interesting topic that can be added to the communication tool, and their insights on what is most valuable to the citizens.

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3.5.3 Interview with Rotterdam-Rijnmond

the

GGD

The interview with GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond was held with a Senior Medical Advisor specializing in medical advisory for environmental problems.

The transcript for the interview can be found in Appendix I. During the interview, the discussion focused on the understanding of what information citizens will need to know and the steps that citizens can take in order to aim for a healthier lifestyle. She stated that it was impossible to create dramatic changes in environment or air quality or in health, especially for those who have already reached past their 20s. However, it is important to stimulate people to make healthier life and environment decisions.

Although better and healthier environmental choices will not create immediate changes affecting the lungs, it does create change in other aspects such as exercise and movement. She suggested that positive messages were the best way to provide information to citizens and have them take action.

For the GGD, it is important that citizens focus on creating a healthy lifestyle for themselves and take action in terms of new local governmental policies. She believes that there is a great chance of change when citizens are encouraged to create not only data, but to start their own initiatives in pushing for governmental policy change. A change in awareness and behavior, is a good start in the process leading to citizen Bottom-Up initiatives in policy making.

3.5.4 Interview with IRAS The interview with IRAS was with two senior researchers focusing on the health effects of pollution and emissions. The transcript for the interview can be found in Appendix J. During the interview, the researchers were interested mostly in the communication method and the ways of involvement of citizens in the process.

Because they work in strictly scientific settings with controlled experiments, it was interesting to take a different approach in which citizens would take actions themselves in generating the data.

Although the type of data citizens can collect is not yet clear and will most likely be inaccurate, the act of measuring air quality and sound form your home can give citizens enough feedback to become more aware of their environmental quality.

Additionally, they find it important to motivate citizens towards lowering the general ‘background’ pollution level because the peak concentration of emissions around major roads is too difficult to tackle initially. By lowering ‘background’ levels of emissions, citizens can build new behaviors that can lead to lowered peak emissions around roads.

Figures 3.14 and 3.15 illustrates the concept of ‘background’ and peak emission zones.

With convincing general and personal information, recommendations and suggested actions given to citizens, an impact on the general background pollution level can be generated. According to the researchers, one main point to focus on is the reward aspect of the communication, and whether the information, recommendations and suggested actions be enough feedback to citizens.

3.5.5 Results & Conclusion One main piece of information derived from the interview sessions with the GGD and IRAS,

is that there is very little that citizens can do in order to create even just a bit of impact on their environment and health immediately. However, with the accumulation of several hundred citizens, and possibly thousands, there can be an impact over a span of time. The impact is not measureable or predictable because of the large variety of factors when calculating pollution levels. Although the background and overall emission and pollutants level can decrease in the city, providing for the opportunity of better environmental and air quality.

However, this also implies that citizens will need to see the results of their efforts in a different way.

Citizens will be unable to notice the difference in environment and air quality resulting in less interest in working towards a healthier environment.

Additionally, citizens should understand that the pollutants are not only outside of their homes, but inside as well. In some cases, the indoor air quality is worse than outdoor because of a large amount of trapped pollutant from indoor cooking and cleaning. Despite the amount of emissions and pollutants outside, fresh air and outdoor exercise is still an important part of a healthy lifestyle. By making corresponding healthier life decisions, citizens can increase the chance of better health, although this is also not calculable.

This insight refers towards the experts’ belief that the aim of healthier lifestyle or environment can be approached in different ways. By using fresh ventilation and cycling to work, citizens can stay healthier while still having their own impact on the environmental quality development.

Finally, the information given to citizens needs to be positive and persuasive in motivating citizens to become informed and take action. The information, recommendations and suggested actions need to be easily understood and require a low threshold for citizen engagement. Without proper motivation and ease of use, citizens will be less

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high noise zone

Noise high pollution zone

Pollution levels

Office Buildings

Highway

High-rise housing

The illustration is a representation of the research infomration. Data and lines are not to scale. (Before)

Figure 3.14- Peak emission zones around the city

high noise zone

Noise high pollution zone

Pollution levels

Office Buildings

Highway

High-rise housing

The illustration is a representation of the research infomration. Data and lines are not to scale. (After influence from citizens) Current trends are presented in the samller line and the predicted levels given citizen help is shown in the thicker line.

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Figure 3.15 - By lowering background emissions, an effect can also be seen on the peak emissions

Motoway

Residential Housing

Motoway

Residential Housing

Small side streets

Small side streets

Neighborhood park

Neighborhood park

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interested in spending their time on developing the environmental quality. Furthermore, by giving citizens the feeling of being active in the change of the environmental and air quality, their impact should also be represented in a more intrinsic and intuitive way.

The interview with the two expert organizations helped to find areas of focus for the project design and research problem. Through their years of working and researching citizens in the area, they understand that working with citizens related to environment and air quality requires an aspect to trigger high motivation in the citizens. Once of the most interesting insights into the citizens’ perception of the problem that Beelen referred to was:

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“They believe that environment and air quality are problems of the future and not of the present.�

- Researcher

Figure 3.16 - Figure out in the Maasvlakte

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3.6.

Sessions with Citizens

Citizens concerns, interests, and needs are the main research points in order to help define the design and research problem for this project.

An understanding of the citizen’s perspective is necessary in order to help the DCMR, GGD and IRAS empower the citizens to make better and healthier choices regarding travel, living and environmental quality.

3.6.1 Goal Research

–

Context

Mapping

The goal for the context mapping research includes two main points. Each of these points is assessed through the two different phases of the research.

The first goal is to understand the citizens’ interactions with their environment and social network, including acquaintances, friends, coworkers, and family. The insights will be gained through the use of a sensitization booklet to gain an understanding in how they currently think about their environment and what types of information they normally share.

The second goal is to generate a more in-depth understanding on how citizens can be triggered to share their emotions, insights, and thoughts about their environment with friends, co-workers, or family. This will be reached through the context mapping session.

3.6.2 Method & Set Up – Context Mapping Session This research set up is divided into two parts: presession work-packages and the main session.

The pre-session work-packages are given to

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participants five to seven days prior to the session, giving participants the chance to fill in the packages a week before. The pre-session work-package consists of 5 exercises: social circles; conversation topics, daily environment and activities, the good and the bad about environments, and Dear Neighbor.

The session followed with six participants from around Rotterdam, Schiedam and Vlaardingen.

The session began with a dinner before, an Ice Breaker exercise and three exercises following.

The set up for the exercises can be see in Figure 3.17 and the session is shown in Figure 3.18.

The full description of the pre-session workpackage and the session set up can be found in Appendix K.

3.6.3 Overview and Observations from the Context Mapping Session During the Context Mapping Session, the participants easily jumped into the topic without hesitation. Later it was found that many of the participants were somewhat active in the field of promoting environmental awareness. This made the initial exercise of problem identification relatively easy. Each participant had their opinion on the state of their living environment around them. When asked to identify the three main problem areas to improve for environment and air quality, they were quick in deciding: emissions, loud noise and lack of green spaces.

After identifying the three problem areas, the two groups were asked to brainstorm on

Citizen Workbook Buurman

Ioana

Jos

Mama

Arnold

Broer Davide

Papa

Lydia

Exercise 1: Social Circles Encourages the user to explore the different types of relationships that he/she has with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc.

Exercise 2: Conversation Topics After creating this understanding, the participants are asked to investigate 3 close relations and 3 distant relations. During their investigation, the users are asked to explore the different conversation topics they have with hese relations.

These relations help the researcher understand the different topics that are commonly shared between closest relations and the furthest relations.

wake up

outside - FRESH! travel to work Fiets & train

=( sports! not pleasant volleyball! sporten Sports Center going to bed.. ending the work day

freedom!! at DCMR nerveus

vreedzaam

working..

inside the house shower

inside the bar..

Sociaal not so nice, stuffyout in Delft

Bijeenkomst Lopende

in Schiedam Center

Goede aspecten

Slechte aspecten

rust open

Vervuiling

ook dat ik het heel

Ik weet niet zeker als…

erg waardeer als

wat je ervan vindt,

een omgeving…

maar ik denk dat

het geweldig zou

zijn

Als u te vertellen hebt. benieuwd naar wat heb ik hierbij een wat u denkt! Ik ben over de jaren heen Laat me weten buurman/buurvrouw dank voor een goede voor u! klein cadeautje Met vriendelijke

Next, participants are invited to look at their daily activies by plotting them on a time line.

After wards, they are further asked to think about the different locations in which these activites were performed.

Exercise 4: The Good & The Bad During this exercise, users are asked to identify different areas in the city that they prefer and then describe the best and the worst aspects of the area. By doing so, not only will they be investigating their own environment, but also provide insights into important aspects they subconciously consider while choosing locations.

Exerciser 5: Dear Neighbor

in het / Buurvrouw, de luchtkwaliteit de omgeving en Beste Buurman heen een onderzoek over blik op de omgeving om me een Ik help mee met Na het nemen van Rijnmondgebied. buurt is… besefte ik dat onze

En ik bedacht me

Exercise 3: Daily Environments & Activities

This final exercise encourages participants to talk to their neighbor about issues and aspects that they find important in their home environment. This mini-exercise helps identify their relation with their neighbors and their comfort or discomfort of brining up environment and air quality.

groet,

Figure 3.17 - Context Mapping sensitization booklet set up

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The session begins with an introduction to the topic and allows for the users to begin discussing in small groups about the major problems and issues they see in their environments.

They use their enviornment cards created in Exercise 4 of the daily workbook. To finalize this phase, the groups will come together to determine the top three environmental problems of the Rijnmond.

Identifying & Defining What bad aspects can you identify in your enviornment?

Steps to Solving Major problem #1

Major problem #2

partners actions

Major problem #3

After identifying the top 3 problms in the in the previous phase, the participants are asked to go through a series of questions to explore potential solutions, set backs, partners, obstables, and problems to resolve.

set backs

solutions

obstacles

problems

Designing your own toolkit

user

toolkit solution

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functions

Figure 3.18 - Context Mapping session with citizens set up

Finally, the participants will be led through a design exercise to design their own toolkit of parts and functions that they would need in order to combat the obstacles, set backs and problems identified in their solutions from the presious phase.

Group 1 - translated possible solutions for the problem areas. They were asked to find what information would be needed, what barriers would be encountered, and whom they would need to partner with.

The first problem of emissions was easily solved through the reduction of cars, traveling to and from work, and awareness of the public. The biggest barriers they would need to overcome include gaining governmental traction and wide spread campaigning of the problem. One of the participants mentioned that often the government wishes to stay out of public debates concerning automobile use because of public political reasons.

Withstanding this, many of the participants felt that this was a problem that they could start immediately working on by creating less emission.

However, when it came to tackling the problem of too much noise, the participants were less active. They felt more that this was a problem for the government to handle in terms of constructing isolation barriers. In this instance, the causes were identified as the aircrafts, the trains and the vehicular traffic in their region. This made it difficult for the use of more citizen initiatives, and therefore the citizen participants rather leave the problem to the government.

Finally, in terms of green spaces, the participants also felt less control over the issue and that this was something that the government needed to implement itself. Besides household actions that individuals can take, such a gardens and possibly green roofs, they believed that the government should take more action in creating parks, turn offices into green spaces, and plan more greenery in the city center. This was considered the most minor of the three problems, and they admitted that because of the lack of urgency of this problem, it was the least likely to be solved by citizen or government initiatives.

train noise

Storage sites (chemicals) emissions and chemicals

Chemical industry / factories emissions, danger, burn off

Traffic emissions, files

Rehabilitation center hygiene

Barges (emissions) soot

Rotterdam too few parks

House - dry indoor climate

City - no light (natural)

Group 2 - translated

Waste / Dirty

Noise

Busy (crowded?)

Particulate matter / emission gases

Not close to greenery / origin

More stone (concrete) / little green

Isolated places

Figure 3.19 - Citizens identified problems in the Rijnmond

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Figure 3.20 - Citizen solutions detailed based on questions list for problems they’ll encounter, partnerships, and reasoning.

When the participant groups were asked to create toolkits that would provide them the necessary information and access to start implementing the, many of these tools involved the use of phone tools, such as social media, cameras, and attachable measuring devices. The participants also included region wide communication methods, trying to push information to the general public through actions such as campaigns, logos, mascots and gamification.

As the session came to an end, a short review of the session revealed that the participants believed that the largest problem to overcome was awareness among the citizens and motivating the citizens towards action. Without awareness, there was almost no possibility of creating activism or change.

Detailed results and transcripts from the session can be found in Appendix L.

Group 1 + 2 - translated Emissions What are some solutions?

Consume less gas, move less Telecommuting (to work) Lessen motorized traffic Transition to non-fossil engines Engage with noise nuisance causers What information are you missing?

About new technology Information fusion Objective facts Tips for awareness / consciousness Who should be involved?

Businesses Car industry Experts UN / EU Green Peace What do you think you can do?

Use less transport Consume less Be more sustainable Make residents aware More biking, walking, public transport Consume differently Live closer to work What do you think you can’t do?

Change legislation Close industries Stop all cars Make it easy Who do you want involved?

Population Perpetrators Industry Government What barriers will you encounter?

Complexity problem of laziness Indulged / Spoiled

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Noise

Green

What are some solutions?

Earphones Traffic obstructions / noise barriers Better noise isolation Lessen motorized traffic Transition to non-fossil engines Engage with noise nuisance causers

What are some solutions?

More green trees and plants Old neighborhoods -> roof garden parks Create green zones Green squares Garden facades / green roofs Parks instead of offices

What information are you missing?

Data / measurements Disclosure / transparency Objective facts about disruptions What alternative is there?

What information are you missing?

What does construction cost?

Government planning / future planning Info. about incentives to increase green spaces

Who should be involved?

Governments Neighborhood committees Experts / researchers Government / politics Businesses Lobby groups What do you think you can do?

Make the population aware Lessen transportation Participant initiative / participation Speak about concerns Express problems / make them known What do you think you can’t do?

Isolate Other forces Close the city Who do you want involved?

Population Government Neighbors NS Neighbors Perpetrators What barriers will you encounter?

Live – Work distance Large problem Where / who to be Fear argument / tension

Who should be involved?

Government Businesses Schools / universities Building owners Government buildings What do you think you can do?

Clean parks Roof gardens Green on the streets Garden wall construction Citizen participation Construction of own green environment What do you think you can’t do?

Demolish Self demolish own property Removing pavement Who do you want involved?

Neighbors Municipality Area committees What barriers will you encounter?

The Law Future planning Regulations Ignorance Laziness Difficulty Lack of urgency

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3.6.4 Analysis – Context Mapping Session The most important result of the session was the three main problem themes that are important to citizens: emissions, loud sound and lack of green spaces; and the difficulties that these active citizens had when creating solutions. However, the interesting result was the expectations that the citizens had about the government in terms of actions. Often, the citizens claimed that work

really needed to start on the government level before expecting citizen initiative. This was true of all causes except for the problem of emissions. This showed that a lot of what the citizen believes is that the government needs to lead by example, and then only will the citizens follow because alone, they have power themselves.

Additionally, the citizens were easy to provide the perpetrators of the problem. Often in certain cases, the citizens were exceptionally proud of

Group 1 - translated App - younger target audience - accessible - attractive - immediately applicable i.e. Buienradar / BuitenBeter

Awareness Campaign - leaflets - TV spots

Social Media - up-to-date information - maintained - news

Physical reporting - contact points (i.e. at the AH) - not technical - for everyone

Gamification - incentive for participation / use

Mascot / Logo

Group 2 - translated

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Camera + GPS Mobile Phone - GSM to determine location coordinates, and camera to explain situation

Traffic and weather information - ANWB / Vodafone / KNMI as input information

Particulate matter and sound measuring device (As an app)

Time and personal info.

(GSM nr.) - anaymize information on system

Are you inside or outside?

- GPS data + time will be used to help determine location coordinates are inside / outside

Information about key issues should be responded to / communicated back to user - App should return information it gets back

Posts thought on parks, sound level, air quality via SMS

Facebook post and upload thoughts about environment (air / park)

Figure 3.21 - Toolkit of parts designed by citizens to help others become active in environment and air quality

no being a main cause of the problem, and often turned negatively towards those who were. This however, was not the most effective or efficient way to work together as citizens. The culture of citizens is still very individual, meaning that the benefits and rewards for their action still need to be on an individual basis, self-benefiting.

Along with the insights from the Context Mapping Session, a Creative Brainstorm Session can be designed focusing around the three problem themes and the activism level among citizens. By classifying groups of citizens who are highly active, moderately active or non-active, a specific target group can be determined for the final design.

Figure 3.22 - Citizens working together to create solutions during the session.

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3.6.5 Goal – Creative Brainstorm Session

they believe other citizens can be encouraged to participate.

For the Creative Brainstorming session, a new group of citizens is invited. This session will focus on the ideas and three themes created in the previous Context Mapping Session. Taking the themes of emissions, loud sound, and lack of green spaces, the new set of participants will work on identifying activists, the types of activists, and brainstorming on ways to encourage and spread activism on environmental quality.

3.6.6 Method & Set Up – Creative Brainstorm Session

The goal is to better understand the perception of activists among the citizens and why certain individuals are active or not active at all. It is also important to understand the communication citizens expect. A short brainstorm helps to wrap up the main concerns of the citizens and how

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For this session, four participants were asked for a two-hour session with a short questionnaire to be done before the session. The questionnaire helped prepare the citizen for the different topics to be discussed.

The session was divided into three parts that built on top of each other. The three parts are best illustrated in Figure 3.23.

The full description of the questionnaire and the set up of the session can be found in Appendix M.

Figure 3.23 - Citizens at the Creative Brainstorming session

Citizens v. Government mini-debate The session will start with a small role playing session between two groups.

One group will take on the role of the government and the other group will take on the role of the citizens. The two groups will discuss an environmental issue of their choosing at the beginning of the activity.

Activism Level Line

Non Active

Highly Active

Brainstorming Solutions

user

user

toolkit

toolkit

functions

Figure 3.24 - Creative Brainstorm session setup

The second activity will involve the identification of activists among their friends, family and co-workers. They will plot their friends, family and co-workers on a activism line ranging from not active at all to highly active. Through this, they will explore what it means to be active and what that implies for for engaging citizens who are not yet active.

The final activity involves the development of a tool specific for two identified target groups from the ‘activism’ line. The design will specifically target groups that they believe will have trouble being active and interested in the topic.

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Uninterested

Don’t know

Personally Active

Semi-Active Hip & Hype

Don’t know Don’t care

Active in Organizations

Highly Active

Figure 3.25 - Activist scale created by citizens during the session

3.6.7 Creative Brainstorm Session The session began with a debate over things that can be done by the government and the citizens in order to reduce emissions, noise levels and create green spaces. Although some ideas were posed, the participants were able to freely explore different areas of environmental quality improvement depending on their own experience and social network. The biggest topic of debate was the reduction of emissions and fuel consumption by the citizens, especially during traffic hours. This was a topic that was extensively discussed with small brainstorm sessions on ways that the government, businesses and citizens can create change.

Following this open debate, the participants were asked to create Activist Level maps of their social contacts. This resulted in the participants grouping their friends, family members, associations and other social groups on the chart. Through this activity they were able to justify their decisions by reasoning why certain groups of friends or sports clubs were seen as more active in the environment than others. Through their explanations and of the activism among their social network, they started to explore reasons for activism and the determined five levels of activism.

The lowest were the ‘low-social economic class’ who often know little to nothing about the topic

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Don’t know Don’t care

Citizens such as the asocial and lower economic class who have other things to worry about.

Uninterested

Citizens who understand that there is a problem but honestly don’t care.

Don’t Know

A wide group of citizens who don’t know about the details of the problem. They range from unkowning but interested to not interested at all.

Personally Active

Citizens who are active in small ways. Their active level is based on their own interest and takes little effort / is already a habit

Semi-Active

Citizens who try to do as much as they can. They take part when possible and not too much effort is needed.

Progressive Activist

Citizens who are part of initiaitives and organizations trying to engage and inform others while taking action on a bigger scale.

Highly Active

Citizens who run organizations, create movements, consistently encourage and engage with others to make a change.

Figure 3.26 - Description of the types of activism

Gauging activism can happen on a number of different scales, but often people refer to activism in different ways. You can be personally active, focusing on your activism level based on your life or to those around you. You can be socially active, where you are active in society where others know you’re active in a certain field. Or you can be politically active, in which case you are active about your field on a political scale.

These three types of activism are linked, but not necessarily at all times. Such as if you are somewhat politcally active due to your social activism activities. However, just because you are highly politically active, it doesn’t mean you are just as politically active to the same degree.

Personally Interested Active

Semi-Active Personally Active Interested Not Interested

Don’t know Uninterested

Don’t know Don’t care

Non Active

Socially Interested Active

and don’t really care. The target of the ‘low-social economic class’ was mentioned as more focused on providing food for their families than creating a smaller carbon footprint. Therefore, they often have no extra money to spend on nicer and more Not Interested fuel-efficient cars and are less likely to pay for more ecologically friendly products.

Secondly, there is the ‘uninterested’ group of citizens who know of the problem, but they are not interested in solving it. They are often preoccupied with their own tasks and do not pay as much attention to creating a better environmental quality. Typical citizens in this group include: students, young working professionals, and maybe older single working professionals.

Highly Progressive Active Activist

Semi-Active Interested

Don’t know

Uninterested Don’t know Don’t care

Highly Progressive Active Activist

Personally Active

Non Active

Politically Interested Active

Highly Active Progressive Activist

Third, there are the citizens who are ‘personally active’. These citizens make small changes to Interested their daily life because they are conscious of the Not Interested Semi-Active problem, but do not go out of their way to make big changes or convince others to change. They are often comfortable doing what they do in order Personally Don’t know Active to make a small impact and do not often think Uninterested Don’t know about impact in the sense of communities or even Don’t care Non Active with the government. They worry mostly about Figure 3.27 - Activism types plotted based on their own world and less of others’.

Personal, Social and Political activism types

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Next there is the ‘hip’ and ‘hype’ group of activists who try to do more but are mostly following trends rather than becoming invested in the issue. They do things that are trending at the moment opposed to knowing that their actions are leading to an impact for the betterment of the environmental quality.

However, they are active in convincing others to join their cause. This group has also been often looked upon negatively in some aspects because of their obsession with being ‘hip’ and riding the ‘hype’ each time, without really knowing enough about the topic.

Finally, there are the ‘progressive activists’ who volunteer for environmental causes, trying to convince others that these issues are important problems to tackle today. They can be seen at protests and rallies trying to make a bigger impact.

They work on both political and societal levels.

After identifying the different activist groups, each group held a brainstorm session to design a communication tool for once of the first activist groups. The participants suggested that citizens who are not interested are the least likely to be

Group 1 - design for the ’personally active’- translated App showing how much you’ve helped (numbers) with live and direct feedback on acitivities - i.e. iPad terminal like Eneco terminal > Game: who gets the most points for ‘good thing done for the environment’

Rewards savings card: after a certain amount of good environmental work = free biological product

Bike repair cafes -> Don’t like taking bike on long rides because you’re afraid the bike will break down while you’re out.

Free OV during traffic or free to bring bikes on the train -> Problem with public transport is that it takes too much time, always having to bike or walk to each station - limited destinations

Group 2 - design for the ‘don’t know don’t care’ - translated Enforcement / Fines to stimulate people to take more sustianable transport - avoids traffice, financial advantages, etc.

- make it financially attractice, a good way to stimulate the lower economic class is with financial advantages.

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Provide positive stimulation for children of the asocial and lower-economic class - Educate parents through kids

Behavioral Change (Cialdini) - they don’t need to know why if they do the right thing

Encourage good behavior with hypes - People will do it if they find it cool

Figure 3.28t - Brainstorm solutions for different activist type personas

convinced and those who were already heavy activists would benefit more from a tool that can help them reach other citizens. Additionally, the group felt that the ‘hip’ and ‘hype’ group were less likely to carry on environmental initiatives for extended periods of time and progressive activists already do. Therefore the two groups chosen were the ‘low-social economic class’ and the ‘personally active’ citizens.

to reach these groups. The group designing for the ‘low-social economic class’ focused on creating awareness through benefits and rewards for the ‘low-social economic class’ citizens. Meanwhile, the participant group designing for the ‘personally active’ citizens focused on empowering them to do more and help them facilitate their inspiration for other citizens to make their own small environmentally friendly changes.

The quick brainstorm session for each group revealed some initial thoughts on the best ways

The session concluded with a wrap up discussion the major points that should be focused on in

“... a little step to start in the right direction so you can stimulate them with something fun...”

- Erik

Figure 3.29 - Working together on brainstorming ideas for citizens

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order to create an impact among citizens. The conclusions included:

- Targeting children - Not creating a hype or ‘one off’ - Helping activists feel empowered - Communicating results clearly - Creating a greater awareness among citizens, businesses and governments.

The transcripts from the session, data and images can be found in Appendix N.

3.6.8 Analysis – Creative Brainstorm Session The results from the Creative Brainstorm Session helped sum up the concluding points from the user sessions.

The best way to create an impact among citizens, according to the participants, is to drive citizens through the use of rewards and clear communication of their impact. Citizens currently do not understand or see the impact that pollution has on their health, or how their behavioral changes will create future impact. Therefore, the future impact should be forecasted for citizens so that they can better understand the effects of their impact, making the information and impact tangible to the citizens. By showing the combined future impact of the world can be motivational for citizens who feel that their impact will not effect the environment because they are only a small fraction of the population. Forecasting can act as a motivation and driver for citizens to change their future.

Furthermore, there is no reason to target those who are uninterested in creating a change. The participants feel that there is a greater need and

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demand to help facilitate and aid those who are willing to make the steps towards environmental change. By encouraging them to create change among those who are uninterested, the effects can be greater, empowering these citizens to drive change in their local community. There is also a greater impact for the communication tool to start with those who are willing to change.

The introduction of something that can be slowly adopted into the citizens’ everyday life allows for the citizen to easily adopt it and increase their environmentally friendly habits. Citizens will be able to slowly and easily see how their impact levels have changed without extra effort. And because of the ease in transition, it makes it easier for citizens to discuss and introduce other citizens to the problems of environment and air quality. The higher the threshold to join a movement such as with ‘hypes’, effort to perform any task is relatively high and the impact is not proportional. This possibly turns away citizens who are often committed to doing more long-term environmentally beneficial actions.

Finally, many participants expressed an interest to help children understand better what environment and air quality can mean for their health.

Especially because theytake the most impact from environment and air quality problem, it is important for society to work towards helping their future.

Some of the participants felt that children were the easiest to adopt these newer habits and have a great influence on changing their routines for the future and their parents’ routines. This makes children a good starting point for a knowledge hub, helping spread information to other older citizens who are less concerned.

3.7.

Conclusion of Research

In order to best analyze the results of the research, a series of statement and analysis cards were made for each research method: interview, questionnaire, session and literature research.

These cards were then compiled and clustered in order to create major themes for the research direction. In Figure 3.29, the main themes shown and illustrated, and the full clustering can be seen in Appendix O. DCMR & Information – One main theme focuses around the DCMR and the information that they

can provide. The information not only refers to their services and goals, but also about the importance of improving environment and air quality in relation to health and lifestyle. This theme encompasses their role as an organization, their goals, social media, campaigns on environment and air quality, and reporting issues.

Recommendations & Actions – This theme refers to the main reasons for users to return and reuse the tool. The system needs to be able to give both general and personal recommendations and

Political

DCMR & Information

Citizens

Communication GPS

Recommuncations & Actions

insights

Contribution Emissions & Green Space

Figure 3.30 - Cluster themes and their relation to each other.

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actionable tasks for citizens. These tasks need to be easy enough to perform, but interesting enough to remember, investigate and understand why.

Emissions & Green Space – This theme represents the focus of the communication tool because of high interest and concern by the citizens. Emissions is a well known topic, especially in the Rijnmond area close to the industry and heavy traffic, and therefore provides a good starting point to inform citizens to take action. Meanwhile, green spaces are a major point of concern, especially in the city of Rotterdam, and can provide healthy benefits for citizen.

Communication – This is one of the most important themes because it refers to the way information is passed from the DCMR to the citizens. The way the information is represented and displayed must give meaning to citizens. Citizens need to better comprehend the type of impact they are

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creating and understand what ‘good’ and ‘bad’ environment and air quality means.

Contribution – In order to give citizens the understanding and feeling of more authority and need, they must be able to contribute to this product/system. This not only gives the DCMR a variety of quantitative and qualitative data, but will also help citizens to better connect and deepen their understanding of their own environmental quality and neighborhood community.

Political – Finally, the theme of politics is an important one for citizens because the government is heavily investing in ‘green and eco measures’. Most often, the citizens do not find the government reliable or trustworthy in terms of the ‘green measures’ and unwilling to cooperate. However, from the perspective of the GGD and the DCMR, they feel that it’s important for citizens to work together with the government in order to change policy.

Figure 3.31 - Context Mapping session - presentation

3.8.

Evaluation of Research Methodologies

Citizen Surveys

insights from the citizens.

The initial survey for citizens was a quantitative approach to the research problem. It allowed the researcher to survey a larger population than with qualitative studies. The benefits of the quantitative study are to help establish more concrete assumptions about the population and their interest and initial thoughts on the topic.

The development of the questions used in the survey was based on basic information concerning environment and air quality.

Through understanding of what information they have and the type of information they are searching for, the DCMR was able to pinpoint and justify the reasoning on why they need this information.

Their exploration of the existing enabled them to create a future vision on the information to provide to local citizens.

However, looking at the results, the most interesting insights from the survey questions were the open-ended responses, making the quantitative study similar to a shallow qualitative study. The quantitative scale questions leading up to the openended questions help prepare the participants to answer questions around the subject. Although this was not the intention, the outcome still proved to be useful. This style of questioning can be further used to help start shallow qualitative studies for an overall idea when researching on topics that are unfamiliar to the public.

DCMR Session The DCMR session was designed to help refine the assignment and understand the company’s interest in data collection. By understanding what they have now, what they need and why they need it, the design of the tool can help tailoring the data gathering for their needs. However, the session proved to be more useful due to their group development of the vision for the citizens.

The session was able to elicit the reasoning behind DCMR’s motivation to gather GPS data and

Expert Interviews The interviews conducted with the GGD and IRAS were meant to gain insights about interesting information that citizens would be interested in, or to help develop actions that citizens can perform in order to improve environmental quality.

Nonetheless, the information from the interviews suggested that very little could be done in order to improve environmental quality or help citizens in avoiding high exposure. The experts gave small tips, but because they were grounded in their research, they believed that there was very little that could help the citizens gain an understanding about environment and air quality without in depth knowledge, especially in relation to their health.

The interviews proved to be fruitful through learning about previous actions done by the organizations and reasons why they failed to help citizens understand or be interested in environment and air quality. Their failed attempts and their experience of citizens’ response to information regarding environment, air quality and health provided insights on different approaches previously tested.

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Citizen Session The first citizen session proved to support information that was already found through the surveys used at the beginning of the study. This confirmation led to a change in the development of the second citizen session to focus on a different goal, to determine a user group and possible first brainstorm ideas on creating awareness and action around environment and air quality.

The second session built on the assessments made from the first session, allowing the information from citizens to grow. By creating iterative sessions, similar to the iterative design process. Through each one of the iterations, the sessions can focus on more specific points of interest among citizens.

Through this method, it also allows for citizens to have indirect conversations with each other, where citizens of the following session can respond to information from the first session. Their reactions can bring an understanding of the differences between citizens. By having these inter-session communications, the ‘I agree’ factor is less present, but this also eliminates the possibility of a discussion between the two participants.

Building up the research per session is an interesting way to approach research with citizens, rather than typically holding two to three of the same sessions, especially on specific topics like environment and air quality. Through this method, researchers are also able to reach more in depth information without requiring too much time of each participant. Each method allows for the research to gather an abundance of information, but the use of either type will be dependent on the type of information the researcher wants to achieve.

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Figure 3.32 - Citizens discussing activism in session

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4 Project Definition

4.1.

User Group Definition

After the expert and citizen session, a specific user group was defined for the development of the communication tool. The user group chosen was the mid-income and educated family with children around the ages of 6 - 12, in primary school.

A small family target group is particularly interesting because of the various locations that the family needs to travel to for school, work, home, and/ or other activities By doing so, they will create a good sample range for the GPS information for

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the DCMR. Additionally, they are more likely to be interested in solving this problem of the future, environment and air quality, in order to provide for a better environment and future for their children.

Children are also the more impressionable group, as concluded in the Creative session, compared to their adult counter parts. In some instances, children can have a great effect on the behavior and actions of their parents because often parents are involved with their children’s learning and play.

Figure 4.1 - young family in Rotterdam

Family User Group Impact

Green Spaces

Children have a great learning impact on adults. Children can help spread infromation and interest to parents.

Nearby parks and play areas become more important so that children have the possibility to be outdoors.

Community Importance

The Future

Knowing your community becomes more important when children are present, making it a higher priority.

Children help bring other young families with children together.

Citizens with children have a great investment in the health of the city in the future.

Additionally, children can learn early on the importance of environment and air quality with the hope that they will be more active in bettering the environment later in life.

Rewards & Feedback The rewards and feedback will encourage and motivate the parents and children.

Children will get fun rewards in games and activities whild learning.

Parents will get rewarded by knowing the impact they have on the envrionment, their child’s future and information on further steps to take in creating a better future.

Effects on Health Children are the most susceptible to health issues caused by emission problems. Emissions can reduce the lung capacity for children permanently.

Figure 4.2 - User group explaination

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4.2. Problem Definition & Research Questions During the extensive research, several levels of problems have been identified. The main problem statement initially posed:

‘How to gain the interest and participation of citizens in the collection of GPS information to create better policies?’ stems from a larger question on

‘How to stimulate interest and motivate citizens into collecting data and taking action in the betterment of environmental quality in the Rijnmond?’

By answering the smaller sub research questions through questionnaires, literature research, interviews and stakeholder sessions, a final research question was developed.

4.2.1 Research Questions The main design research question that will be addressed in the following project is:

‘How can we engage and empower families to take interest in learning and improving environment quality through simple input and personalized output (feedback)?’

The sub questions to this research question include:

What are the interesting points of environmental quality for citizens? What information do they value? How would they want the information presented to them?

How can citizens contribute to the communication tool? What information can they provide in a fun and exciting, but low threshold way?

In what ways do citizens feel connected to the data? How would they want the information to be presented to them as feedback?

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Design Questions

Motivate citizens to contribute GPS and insightful data in order to become active in community and policy making.

What tools can be designed to help facilitate the information contributed by citizens and information from the DCMR About the topics: Citizen Participation Environmnet and Air Quality Health Effects

Problem: need for citizen participation due to cuts in government funding and high citizen demands

Refinement of assignment

Research Questions

Literature research on topics

Who should be involved?

About the Company & Expert Knowledge Context Development of the design brief, target group, design goal, and interaction vision.

Stakeholder Research Company session & Expert Interviews Iteractive citizen contextmapping sessions

Context of the target group (young families)

What do they need to know? How can we communicate the information to them?

What concepts can facilitate the knowledge transfer and communication?

Researching on the current situation Develop info to communicate based on interests, motivation, and key touchpoints.

How do the designs fair based on the list of requirements?

Refine the concept based on children’s perception.

How are the kids responding to the design? Do they like / understand the concept?

Co-Creation research session with children.

User testing session with children.

What need to be further tested to finish the design?

(two times) Design of a new pilot program to test the design of the game with children over a longer period of time.

Figure 4.3 - Research Structure (small version) : See larger version in the beginning.

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4.3.

Design Brief

There is a lack of understanding among citizens on the environment and air quality. Often citizens don’t believe that they can contribute to any impact on the environment because they are only one in a sea of thousands living in the city. Even if they could have an impact on their environment, they feel that it would not change the conditions of their health. Also, many see that environmental and air quality problems are problems to be resolved in the future by governments or technology.

In some instances they are correct, what citizens misunderstand is that although there is no direct or immediate impact on their environmental or air quality. There is a different type of impact that is less noticeable in the short term, but noticeable in the long term. The type of impact created is both beneficial for the environment and health of citizens, but is rather small and unnoticeable at first. The impact increases over time in a slow pace, but can mean a great deal of change to the environment and for citizens and children.

4.3.1 Design Brief The design brief is to design a communication tool that can motivate and empower young families to facilitate the learning and daily behavior concerning environment and air quality.

The design of the product and/or system should help communicate the need for these actions to create improvement through small changes that will cause positive impact later. It is important that the citizens’ feel like the product has seamlessly and slowly integrated into their daily routine. By doing so, they will create a great amount of future impact without spending extra effort or time.

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4.3.2 List of Requirements After the research, a list of requirements has been drafted after aggregating the data from the different stakeholder involved. The list of requirements includes both a hard and soft list.

The hard list refers to all the necessary technology and information that the product must include. The soft list refers to the emotion and communication method towards the user. The list of requirements is shown to the right.

Design Brief Designing a communication tool that can motivate and empower young families to facilitate the learning and travel and daily routine behavior concerning environment and air quality.

List of Requirements + Information about DCMR + GPS & data generated by citizens + Engage citizens about environment & air quality + Create both general and personalized feedback + Show impact to citizens (personal feedback) + Create information sharing community + Provide information, recommendataions, and possible actions (generaly & personal feedback) + Positive and encouraging + Citizen contribution (empowerment) + Community feeling

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5 Des ign Having narrowed down the research and design problem, the research and design will now focus on the development of a tool to provide information and feedback about environment and air quality for families. The next phase will aim at creating design solutions to solve the problem. This chapter will illustrate the process from idea generation to conceptualization with an evaluation of each concept. The outcome will be a finalized concept direction and the initial design of the application, tool and/or system.

5.1.

Design Goal & Vision

5.1.1 Design Goal

5.1.2 Interaction Vision

The design goal is to design a persuasive game that will engage with children to empower and enable them to learn, explore and take action in environment and air quality. This game tool will not only provide them with information but also encourage them to share the information by involving friends and family in the game play experience.

The vision for this design was to create a seamless communication tool that fits into the family atmosphere to help fuel discussion and learning over environment and air quality.

The game acts as an empowerment tool for the children to create a communication channel with friends and family to share knowledge and insights about the environment and air quality. By doing so, the social aspect of environment and air quality will become more important and more present in their daily lives.

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The type of interaction is similar to how current smartphones record and deliver users personal information when using health or exercise tracking apps. The game should allow for freedom of exploration for children so that they can investigate as little or as much as they would like in different categories. It should be noticeable and understood that information is being generated and sent to the DCMR, not hidden like how current applications work. An interpreted illustration of the vision can be seen in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1 - Interaction Vision

5.2.

Current and Future Scenario

In order to better understand the experience of a family, the current scenarios of the parents and children were created.

When they get to school, a row of cars is standing still in front, waiting for kids to get out and go to school.

In the morning, children ride their bikes to school along the major roadways.

And during the weekends and at night, he sits at home watching TV or playing video games by himself

At the end of the day, they’ll tell their mother about thier day at school, where they went with their friends, or cool cars they saw.

Figure 5.2 - Current scenario at home

A future scenario depicting the use of the communication tool during a normal daily routine in the family was created to help envision the future interaction of the product and system with the citizens.

All their friends will also be arriving by bike with very few cars queing up to drop off children.

Now in the morning, the children will pick routes withe the least amont of cars

Now, he goes out with his friends to play on weekend and spends more time socializing with his parents.

9:50 AM

At the end of the day, they can talk to their parents about how they progressed, their achievements, or how by switching to the bus, he gets even more points!

Figure 5.3 - Future home scenario

ADAM Kinderen Milieu Exploratie Spel Informatie over Milieu & Lucht Kwaliteit

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5.3.

Designing for Children

The approach to the designing for children is distinctive due to the different emotional responses, thought processes and perception levels. Therefore a model of the different types of play personalities children from Gielen is important to include in this design, shown in Figure 5.4.

Three main points of concern while designng for children that Gielen (2009) has pointed out are: aimlessness, empathy, and play value. Children do not often put learning as their number one objective while playing a game. However, that does not mean that the game itself is aimless, but the experience of aimless can benefit the learning case. The open possibilities of explorationa dn freedom give children the enjoyability of being able to do anything within the play world. Empathy towards the child’s play style will also benefit in exciting and engaging children while playing..

The four types of children play personalities are plotted on a chart with an axis of activeness and imagination. The personalities include: the achiever, highly active but realistic; the actor, highly active and highly imaginative; the thinker, highly receptive and realistic; and the dreamer, highly imaginative and receptive. These different personalities change the way children respond and play games, and are only extreme examples of the behavior of children. Although they are different, the use of the personas can help improve the game play to better suite children.

Finally play style is an important factor concerning enjoyability and reoccurant play among children. The modeled way in which children are encouraged to play needs to be natural in order to ensure interest from children.

Children’s Play Styles Active

Achiever

Actor Imaginative

Realistic

Thinker

Dreamer

Receptive

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Figure 5.4 - Children’s play styles

5.4.

System Feedback

While generating ideas for the design, it is important to know and understand some of the types of information that could be potentially used as feedback for citizens through the communication tool. Situations concerning weather, users location and actions, and general information to provide were developed.

5.4.1 Possible Weather Situations & Feedback Knowing the reaction of air quality depending on different weather scenarios can help generate helpful feedback to inform users of the better or worse days to walk or bike outside for extended periods of time. The chart in Appendix P gives an overview of the different weather conditions, the effects on the environment and air quality, and the possible suggestions to feedback to citizens. One example is: Possible Effector (Weather): Rain Effect on Environment: Lower number of pollutants in the air

in Appendix Q. There situation dependencies include anything from location, such as away from home, or mode of transport. For example: Situation Dependency: Inside the car General Suggestion: It’s best to drive with your car windows down to allow for fresh air to enter the car. Internal car circulation is poor in quality.

However, when approaching a truck or tunnel, it is best to close your window before getting too close.

5.4.3 Information to Provide Additionally, a list of general information about the DCMR, Environment & Air quality, Health Effects, Actions, and Impacts was generated to provide information to the citizens about the current situation. This information needs to be presented at the right moment and in a positive way that will be researched during the concept phase. The full list of general information to provide citizens with can be found in Appendix R.

Suggestion: After the rain, it would be a good time to go outside for a fresh stroll through the city. The air will be fresh and the air quality will be much higher.

5.4.2 Possible Feedback

User

Situations

&

It is important to note that although weather is a large effector for environment and air quality, the citizen’s situation can also play a large role in feedback that they are given. A general list of situations and the suggestions has been assembled

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5.5.

Idea Generation

The results from the industry, company, expert, and user research were used to draw out initial design ideas. Ideas were included from the DCMR and Creative Session with citizens. The ideas were

separated into three sections: information input (dark blue), ways of feedback (teal), and possible actions by citizens (green). The ideas can be seen in Appendix S. These ideas were further clustered into categories that can be seen in Figure 5.5.

Problem Reporting

iBeacon Technology

Public Exhibition

Public Awards

General / Personal Output

Sponsorship Awards

(Mobile / Web)

Citizen Photos

Augmented Reality - See the Pollution

Contribution Timeline

Plant measureing stations

Behavioral Change - walking - Windows - etc.

Projection of the Future:

When to Exercise

1yr, 3 yr, 10 yr,

Activity Rewards

Pollution Map

Suggestions

Online Game Rewards

Porecasts: Weather and Air Quality

Activity Suggestions

Connect Community Groups

Microfunding New Community Ideas

Plants to clean / filter air

Discussion Rooms Community Trade (trade economy)

Neighborhood Community Forums

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Community Gardens

Carpooling

Figure 5.5 - Idea clusters

GPS data to DCMR

Emission Scores (calc. by DCMR)

These ideas paired with the list of requirements became the basis in the creation of four different concept directions. In the process of creating concepts, specific information such as possible general feedback based on scenarios, input and weather needs to be created in order to better understand what information could be given back to the users.

Additionally, a technology review was done in order to validate the possibilities of certain design concepts.

5.6.

Product / System Development Research

state of technology and gaming that is currently on the market. It is important to research on potential GPS devices to understand the potential of the technology and what is currently capable, especially in terms of size and functionalities.

5.6.1 Technology Research GPS Free Moving Devices One of the most important requirements was the generation of the GPS data by the citizens.

Therefore, when working with children, and

Figure 5.6 Tinitell technology and size

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potentially parents without smartphones, a small and portable GPS device is necessary to help track the citizens’ GPS locations. These devices need to be minimalistic, durable, and long lasting.

Over the past few years, companies in the United States and Sweden have been investigating the use of small GPS tracking devices. Products such as the Tinitell are all examples of the current development of small and durable GPS devices commonly used for children. These devices pictured in Figure 5.6 helps to illustrate the scale at which this technology is currently being used.

The current technology allows for GPS tracking accuracy up to a few meters in distance. The batteries necessary can last for at least several months of consistent use and are relatively small and easily replaceable. However, with induction and USB charging, it can be possible to not

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replace batteries for up to two to three years. In many of these devices additional sensors such as an accelerometer and gyroscope are included to help detect direction and speed of movement.

These devices can supply continuous feedback to applications on for example parents’ mobile phones through the GPS signals being transmitted.

Digital Geo Caches & iBeacons Another point to consider is how information can be best transferred from the DCMR to the citizens. Unfortunately in the city of Rotterdam, real time feedback of data, actions and suggestions is not currently possible because it would require consistent connection of the user to WiFi of 3G to push and pull information, causing a drain on battery life of mobile devices. Another possibility is to create digital Geo Caches or install iBeacons in specific areas where it would be most helpful

Figure 5.7 - How iBeacon works in stores

for citizens to receive information, such as at traffic lights or certain street corners. Digital Geo Caches are activated when the phone detects a certain set of data and information from the user.

However, the iBecaon sends continuous signals and citizen’s smartphones or GPS devices will immediately be able to recognize the signal and respond accordingly, as shown in Figure 5.7.

5.6.2 Motivation Research Another key point of the design is to create is motivation, not only for children but for their parents as well. In Fogg’s Behavioral model to create change in behavior, two requirements need to be achieved in order to affect potential action.

The task must be easy enough to perform and the amount of motivation from the user needs to be high enough to perform the task. Only when they cross the threshold line triggers such as prompts or requests for action will work as shown in Figure 5.8.

This theory implies that the design for this project must have a low threshold that allows children

motivation

motivation

Gamification is a widely applied theory to help motivate and reward users to learn and occasionally participate in social activities through a digital of physical medium. One of the main points behind persuasive game design is the development of a game world centered on the user, allowing for them to learn information through

high

triggers succeed here

1 facilitator

signal only needs to signal the user to perform the task

needs to trigger the user’s motivation to perform the task

low ability

easy

3

helps the user perform the function necessary

activation threshold

triggers fail here

hard

5.6.3 Gamification Research

Trigger types

Fogg’s Behavior Model high

low

from 5 - 12 to take part, and keep the motivation of both parents and children. The interesting part of the design is in the motivation for both parents and children. For parents it is a way to create a better future for their child and encourage them to learn while playing, the parents’ learning is a secondary result. Meanwhile, the game aspect will motivate children while learning also appears secondary. According to Fogg, there are three core motivators: sensation, such as pleasure and pain; anticipation, such as hope and fear; and social cohesion, such as acceptance and rejection.

By affecting these feelings among the parents and the children through the feedback from the tool, the motivation can be maintained.

hard

Figure 5.8 - Fogg’s behavioral model

ability

2 spark easy

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facing their real world problems on an online and safe environment (Visch, Vegt, Anderiesen, van der Kooij, 2013). Although the game world and the physical world are interconnected, the separation allows for users to differentiate reality from the game world.

Through the gamification element, the user can face real world problems in different ways and learn how to solve it in the game world, a safe environment to try and experiment. This way the citizen is free to make the decisions he or she believes is correct or is curious about without any consequences. The game world allows for exploration and investigation, making it an ideal area to explore when introducing children to environment and air quality. The game world can help make the real world problems more tangible and understandable to both children and adults.

5.6.4 Existing Games

little or too much information at one time. While playing the games to gain a better understanding, the level of information is raw and sometimes difficult to follow due to the information overload.

Additionally, some games were too difficult to play because of the amount of knowledge you needed in order to start the game play.

With this in mind, and some basic testing with a couple of students, some basic assumptions were made about the design of the game and elements that would have proven too difficult for children.

The amount of text needs to be kept minimal and the game play should be easy enough to understand and progress. While progressing, the levels can become more difficult but the threshold of work and time needed to play the game needs to be kept minimal.

A list of the games and the research set up can be found in Appendix T.

A number of environmental and air quality games have been implemented over the past few decades. However, they often provide too

Persuasive Game Design Model User

Young Families

Real World Experience

Environment and Air Quality

Gamification Design

Transfer Design

Game World Experience

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Applied to the Topic

Physical and digital exploration with social means Storytelling and Tasks

Figure 5.9 - Gamification theory model and its application

Awareness and knowledge of the problem and change towards more ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’ daily practices

5.7.

Concept Generation

After the ideation phase and the follow-up research, four separate concepts were developed for this design of this communication tool. These concepts ranged and varied in the amount of involvement by parents and children, but were all centered on gamification and the inclusion of motivation, feedback and activity.

5.7.1 Concepts

Figure 5.10 - Sketches

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IMPACT! ‘IMPACT!’ This concept focuses on the type of future impact that children and parents can make on the environment. Children can make their way around the board each day when they take the bike or act sustainably. Every few steps there are most specific tasks to do, such as helping a neighbor plant a garden. For each activity they do, parents will be able to use their mobile phones to upload any and all accomplishments online and the ‘IMPACT!’ the child has on the future world will be shown on an online future projection map, which will also be displayed publically. This way everyone in the city can understand how many children and citizens around are trying to create an impact for their future environment. This concept is aimed for optimizing the feedback that can be given to the citizens based on the small tasks that they do. It also makes the impact more tangible for the parents and children, as a motivator to continue.

IMPACT!

Changing the Future

Monthly Gameboard

ONLINE: future impact maps where an online world of the future is presented, then as children do ‘good’ environmental ctivities, the world changes.

GPS

GPS

Each monthly gameboard comes with 6-8 tasks a month for kids to complete. The kids will be able to race each other to finish the gameboard to recieve a przie for finishing at the end. The kids can move forward by doing healthier and more environmentally friendly actions each day.By taking greener routes to school, kids can move forward, but by taking the major streets, kids will have to go backwards.This will be tracked by the GPS tracker / phone that each kid has. Once they reach a task, they will have to complete the task before moving on.

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Each month, one to two family activities will be planned where the children will lead their parents through the task of the day, centered around the impact that they contributed.

Their impact will be illustrated on an online site and public exhibition. It helps the children reflect on what they’ve done and how their impact has changed the future. Also it helps the community feel that there is a large force of individuals working towards a better environment, so they are not alone.

...calculating impact...

Public Exhibition

Figure 5.11 - Concept 1: Impact

GEOcaching GEO caching is a concept that requires more involvement from parents. Parents can either create their own treasure hunt by hiding GEOcaches in their neighborhood or near the children’s school, or parents can upload a pre-existing GEOgache hunt. With the GEOcaches in place, the children will need to go out and explore new and alternative healthier routes, guided by their GPS devices, in order to find the caches.

Each cache will be a clue to finding the treasure at the end. At the end of each round (usually in a month or two), the parents will plan a final family activity day where the child will take their clue and look for the treasure in a park or inside the city. This concept provides parents’ with the control and slowly gives hints to both parents and children on the healthier and safer routes around the city. Additionally, the concept helps to facilitate a family activity each month.

GEOcaching

Digital Treasure Hunt GPS

Information on healthy routes for children

Mei

GPS

17

When they are close to a cache, their GPS device gives feedback.

Parents will plan a family activity where they will get together to discuss environment and air quality with a fun activity for the children.

In this concept, parents instigate the learning process with their children by hiding Geo-caches around the city along the kid’s routes. When on the computer, they recieve tips on where to hide the Geo-cache’s to ensure the healthiest routes for their children.

At the end of the month, the parents will plan a final family activity day where they will need to take kids into the city for an activity where both parents and children can learn about their impact form the month and find their ‘treasure’.

When kids go to school or other activities, they have the chance to pick up the Geo-caches.

Children will be able to use their GPS location device to find the hidden ‘caches’ which will reveal a hint to the treasure hunt at the end.

Children will be alerted by the GPS device that a cache is close through vibration and light feedback. This concpet lets the parents and children instantly know what changes they can make in their daily routine.

Parents will get notifications while children will be informed via caches and their GPS device.

GPS

Tips

Figure 5.12 - Concept 2: GEOcaching

GPS

Hints & Information

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Word of Mouth The ‘Word of Mouth’ is a concept centered on children getting together in groups to spread the word. The concept gives the children the power to spread the word and help fellow citizens of the city to recognize things that can help create a better and healthier environment. Children groups will be given a list of tasks each season of the year and be asked to finish them to earn a reward or certificate. As children race to finish the task lists, they get to compete against their classmates who are also participating. The children will have to convince neighbors to help create a small community park, take their bicycle more often to work, or help them build an air quality sensor to learn about how it works. As they continue to work with their neighbors and their parents, they are spreading around information about environment and air quality while doing something active and social. The citizens are able to use the mobile app to log in the children’s activity and keep track of the activities they have done in the past. On the citizens’ mobile apps, they can also view their impact on the environment while doing fun learning activities with local children.

Word of Mouth

Environment Ambassador parents GPS

Task lis

t

GPS

Community gardens teacher GPS

neighbor

GPS GPS

uploads measurements

Start cycling to school In this concept, the kids are representatives and the ambassadors for their future and aim to spread the word among the parents, neighbors, etc. Each month, the children are given task lists and work with a group of friends to help take charge.

Any change they create will be shown on an online platform. By convincing more adults, they earn more points and raise awareness among the public. By doing so, they can see their impact score going up compared to their friends.

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Each group will also get quarterly task lists for each season. In the task list, they will be given challenges to complete that month, including things like building community gardens with neighbors and building a DIY environment and air quality measuring device.

This concept helps kids feel empowered to make change and lets them and parents reflect on their impact and things that they can do differently for their environment.

Build a CO monitor with your parents

Your impact score is...

you rank as

#20!

300

your group ranks

#8!

take a look at the world you created!

Figure 5.13 - Concept 3: Word of Mouth

Real World Gaming The ‘Real World Gaming’ is a gamification concept aimed to help change behavior. The game gives children the opportunity to earn points, tasks, and rewards offline during their walk or bike ride to school.

It also asks them to help convince their parents to taking more healthy and greener ways of travel, not only for the environment, but also to help them gain points, tasks and rewards. The small GPS devices the children have will be active as they go about their daily routine, and alert the user only when they are close to a task, such as a task located in a greener area. The device will slowly convince children to take greener and healthier routes to school in order to gain more points and badges. In the evening, children can use their points or play out their tasks online. Some tasks are individual, some are social with other children, and some will include their parents. The online game will consist of children building and taking care of their own planet, similar to the video game ‘Little Big Planet’. This online world will help teach them about the different factors and effects of different pollutants in the world. Parents will be able to monitor their child’s status and give them their collected points online or on their mobile application.

Real World Gaming Action to Knowledge

3

GPS

+20 2

GPS

1 GPS

3

GPS

Depending on the type of transportation, the user can collect points and boosts for an online game for the children by carrying their GPS device.

+20

+10 +0

During the day, when users pass by certain areas taht are extra healthy, they can pick up stars and be notified by the GPS device / phone. However, when they pass by potentially worse air quality areas, they will be notified to change arounes, but doing so they will pick up extra points!

Each star the user picks up is a new task that can help them gain points on their online game.

Parents can collect tasks and points for their children.

Later that night...

Parents and kids learn more about environment and air quality by doing the tasks alone or together. By doing these tasks, the kids gain points and bonuses online.

Family Task

Parents and kids can reflect together on the routes they have taken and by doing activities together once or twice a week. Together the family will learn more about environment and air quality.

Kids can use their points to build up and chagne their planet. By not helping the environment through simple things like biking or walking, the plants will be effected as well.

Games like: Little Big Planet

Figure 5.14 - Concept 4: Real World Gaming

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5.7.2

SWOT Analysis

In order to help evaluate the concepts, a SWOT analysis was made for each concept to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analyses were compared to each other in order to find the strongest concept

threats

opportunities

weaknesses

strengths

IMPACT!

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GEOcaching

Word of Mouth

Real World Gaming

- Impact forecast - Impact is made public - Build community awareness - See the future of the city with different levels of impact - Encourage others to join to increase impact

- Children to explore the city and environment - Children puzzle together information about the environment - Monthly / bi-monthly family activity

- Kids spread the word about environment and air quality - Children help drive the cause with personal messages - Community awareness - Competition among student groups - Peer motivation

- GPS tracking and data logging - Game for children - Minimal effort of adults - Children motivate adults to make better decisions - Immediate feedback

- Children driven, need high motivation - Needs a competitive element for tasks - Does not involve parents - Lack of use of GPS devices

- Parent focused - Requires parents to set up - Does not optimize getting GPS information - Not optimum means of communication - Children’s attention for only short period of time

- Little focus on GPS - Parents not as involved - Community and parental rewards - High maintenance by organization - Usually children only talk to other parents or relatives

- Children can lose interest - Children and parents find a way to cheat the game system - Fading interest in the topic - Too difficult for some, and too easy for others - Highly seasonal in use

- Work with schools and other partner organizations - Becomes a school activity - Help children feel and become more responsible

- Community wide hunts done by parent groups - Work with summer camp organizations - Stimulates discussion among parents and children - Stimulates children to learn from peers

- Working with children and society - Whole picture together on environment, air quality, noise and the eco-system - Takes initiative and has responsibility

- Bridge online and offline relationships - Help parents track children’s movement - Stimulate many different tasks - Flexible platform

- Time consuming for children and parents - Children’s short attention span - Unattractive compared to other activities

- Time consuming - Lack of attention from children - Other tasks and jobs that get in the way - Short lived activity

- Lack of interest / motivation in students - Uninterested neighbors - High threshold level for children

- Lack of parental involvement - Cannot keep children’s attention - Too time consuming for children

Figure 5.15 - SWOT analyses of each concept in a comparison chart

5.8.

User Validation

In order to better understand the implications of each of the concepts, a set of informal interviews were done with parents to discuss the four different concepts. When discussing with three different parents, they believed that the four concept were interesting, especially for their children. They felt that especially during the spring and summer seasons, it would provide to be more useful because of the greater amount of time children spend outside.

Additionally, the parents were mainly concerned with the amount of involvement they would need for the game. Because their time is often stretched with little extra time left over at the end of the day, they did not prefer the concepts that left the parents in charge, such as ‘GEOcaching’. Often they do not monitor their children while playing so the game would have to be able to be self-sufficient and capture the motivation of the children.

They were also interested in the health and healthy environment causes behind the game. They know their children are often outside but do not know about the harmful health effects that are side effects of pollution. Especially concerning the peak emission concentration areas around major roadways. The parents appreciated the idea of children learning while being able to play games outside and inside.

However, they question the motivation of their children to continuously ‘play’ the game. They were unsure about the interest of their children, and therefore a validation session with the children will have to be designed.

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5.9.

Concept Elimination

In order to determine the final concept to progress, a chart of the requirements of each stakeholder group was made. Each concept was evaluated based on these requirements. The requirements included: Provides information about the DCMR, Environment and Air Quality, Health Effects, Tracks the GPS data of children Tracks the GPS data of the parents Engaging citizens about environment and air quality Empowering citizen to take action Motivating children and parents Simple and easy to use for children Simple and easy to use for parents Social aspect – creates a community feeling Social aspect – children can share, compete or work with peers Receive good general feedback Receive personal feedback Show the impact to citizens Requires children’s attention (0 – Yes, 2 – Minimal) Requires parents’ attention (0 – Yes, 2 – Minimal) Helps with Health DCMR’s Interest The scoring for each category was based on a scale of 0 - 2, 0 meant that it was not present while 2 meant that it was clearly present.

Based on the evaluation chart, the concept that fulfills the most of the requirements is the ‘Real World Gaming’ concept. The other two concepts that follow closely behind are ‘Impact!’ and ‘Word of Mouth’, but they lack the technology to provide enough information to the DCMR and are believed to be unable to pose sustained interest among citizens over a long period of time.

Finally, the ‘GEOcaching’ concept was ruled out by the results of the interviews with parents because of the high for from parents.

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IMPACT!

GEOcaching

Word of Mouth

Real World Gaming

Provides information about the DCMR, Environment and Air Quality, Health Effects,

2

1

2

2

Tracks the GPS data of children

1

2

1

2

Tracks the GPS data of the parents

0

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Engaging citizens about environment and air quality

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Empowering citizen to take action

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Motivating children and parents

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Simple and easy to use for children

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Simple and easy to use for parents

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Social aspect – creates a community feeling

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Social aspect – children can share, compete or work with peers

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Receive good general feedback

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Receive personal feedback

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Show the impact to citizens

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Requires children’s attention (0 – Yes, 2 – Minimal)

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Helps with Health

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DCMR’s Interest

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Total

20

18

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30

Figure 5.16 - Concept elimination chart. Each area is scored from 0 (not present) to 2 (clearly present)

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5.10. Final Concept The concept that has the most potential is ‘Real World Gaming’ due to its flexibility and ability to meet the requirements. The concept has proven to be the most appealing to the company’s demands of GPS route information; the parents’ demands of easy management and low requirements; and can provide enough information and options to give advice and be future developed to interact more with citizens.

However, the major points to consider with this plan when moving on are the technical requirements for on location notifications and feedback and the reaction and interest of the children. Technical testing will be performed in parallel as the concept develops. A creative session will be held with approximately 6 children around the age of 10 – 12 to further develop the concept and test it’s viability.

5.10.1 Design Development The design of this concept will develop in a series of three steps. The first step will involve a small cocreation session with some children around the ages of 10 – 12. This session will help identify the interest of the children and give them a framework of the concept to design within. This step will help refine the design concept and lead to a first production of the design including product and platform for the children.

Co-Creation Session

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initial design

User Testing

first iteraction

A second smaller session will be held with parents in which they will help create a daily map of their child and their own day. This information will then help inform areas of interest for the feedback or recommendations of this communication tool.

Additionally, parents will be given a similar framework to that of children in order to design their own experience with the communication tool.

After the initial design prototype, two more rounds will follow where the concept will be further detailed and refined. This will result in the final design of the communication tool of the DCMR and the citizens. A full illustration of the process can be seen in Figure 5.17

5.10.2 Interaction & System An initial idea of a communication and interaction system is established in Figure 5.18. Further development of this communication system will be developed along with the development of the design, interaction and technology of the concept.

The communication system diagrams are also provided for the other concepts in Appendix U.

User Testing

second iteraction

Figure 5.17 - Design development process

Final Evaulation Test

Final Design

Instant information update on green routes / new tasks.

- Collects points and GPS information.

parents 9:50 AM

9:50 AM

Check up on kid’s progress & learn of ways to stimulate kids work.

Tailor learning to help kids grow.

daily routine Online planet development

impact

Kids play the online game and learn new information, solutions and behaviors to help the environment.

children GPS

GPS

daily routine

+

Instant updates, gain points for online game, and collect tasks to play socially

+

information

Gives kids information on new things to do in order to earn points.

Kids get to create and explore their world online.

- Lets kids complete tasks along or with friends and family to add to the learning experience.

Points to build worlds and tasks are collected while children and parents travel with the GPS device.

Figure 5.18 - Initial interaction and communication system between game, children and parents

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6 Development An iterative design development of the concept is illustrated in this chapter, focusing on the engagement and motivation of children and their knowledge sharing. The design is initially defined through a co-creation session with children to better understand how children view and approach game play. Once the concept is refined, the design will be detailed during the first iteration cycle and further refined during the second iteration cycle.

6.1.

Co-Creation with Children

As part of the UCD approach, co-creation is a commonly used tool among designers to design with the users to create something of significant importance and value. This method is able to provide insights from the participants as potential users, such as indications on their personal or group needs and interests. Therefore, the cocreation method will be used in the initial concept refinement stage of the design process.

6.1.1 Scope and Goal – Refining Concept & Validation The concept must be further refined in order to create a detailed design. Due to the selected user group with a focus on the tool mainly interacting with children, a co-creation session focusing on the children’s’ daily activities, favorite activities and favorite games was designed. The children will then use the most interesting elements from these activities and games to design their own ideal game.

The goal of the session is to gain insights from the children on elements that keep their interest, and to identify aspects that can keep the children’s attention.

6.1.2 Set Up The session will take place in four parts with six children, three from group 6 (10-years old) and three from group 7 (11-years old).

The first part will help familiarize the children with the session and topic, as well as provide information on their daily activities on weekdays and weekends. This will also require children

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to identify their favorite daily and infrequent activities. With this insight, the children will move to describe their favorite games and the reasons why. Each child will identify one or two key aspects they find the most interesting and carry it over to the final assignment.

In the final activity, the children will start to work together in two teams of three and take their favorite elements to design and create one game.

This game will not be constricted to the notion of environment and air quality in order to allow for freedom in thinking, and allows them to explore a variety of different options.

Finally, the session will conclude with an introduction to the concept and a small discussion on what the children find interesting and what they understand about environment and air quality.

The full details of the session can be found in Appendix V.

6.1.3 Overview and Observations of Co-Creation Session with Children During the session, children were able to work through the activities easily and it was observed that the children differed greatly from each other.

Despite their different personalities and lifestyles, the children found a number of topics that were of common interest. The children were hand selected by the teachers based on their ability to discuss and think through problems, which results in a skewed sample of children.

However, during the session, their ability to think through and discuss problems helped provide good insights in the beginning of the session when

Daily Life sports time spent school with parents T.V.

art out playing class with friends gaming

Wake up

Going to bed

To begin the session, the children are asked to plot out their daily life on both a weekday and weekend. This is to help gain an overview on the types of activities that children participate in and amount of time they spend on other activities.

Favorite Game Components

game

game

game

game

The session moves towards exploring the gaming aspect that children often encounter. This is where children will discuss their favorite games and deconstruct the elements that make it interesting to play the game.

Designing your own game

user

new game

user

new game

game elements Figure 6.1 - Co-Creation session set up

After identifying the exciting game elements, the children are asked to take the elements and design a game of their choosing with these different elements.

They will be guided through the design by two facilitators.

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discussing their daily activities and favorite games.

However, while the children were designing a game in small groups, often there would be one leader and two others who followed. Under direction and in discussion with the session facilitator, the children were able to direct their game to include their most interesting activity and preferred game elements.

The final discussion among the children and the facilitator provided more insight into the current understanding on environment and air quality among children. However, during this discussion, the hierarchy of the children from the game making activity carried over. The children who were identified as the leaders were the most vocal.

Weekday family

social

friends

outside inside

Wake up

Breakfast

Go to School

Playtime Outside

Lunch

Figure 6.2 - Average of kid’s timeline for a weekday.

Weekday social

family

friends

outside inside

Wake up

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Breakfast

T.V.

Playtime Outside

Lunch

Figure 6.3 - Average of kid’s timeline for a weekend

Leave School

6.1.4 Results and Analysis Phase 1 The timelines were one of the most interesting results derived from the session. A summary of the timeslines can be seen in Figures 6.2 and 6.3.

Not only did it provide insight into the daily life of children, but also brought interesting insights into

the daily interactions the children had with their parents and peers. Outside of school, the children often only socialized with siblings or one or two close friends and did not often see or speak with their parents. The children’s social interactions need to be taken into account when designing the necessary level of interaction during the game play.

family

Play outside After school activity: Play game - Music - Dance - Sports

friends

Dinner

TV

Ready for bed

Going to bed

TV

Ready for bed

Going to bed

family

Ploy outside Play game

Gaming

Dinner

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Another interesting point to note from their activity lines is that children often have a lot to do after school during the weekdays and usually have free time during the weekends. During weekends, most of the children have most of their time free, and often they fill their time with activities such as watching television, playing a console games, spending time with friends or playing games on their iPad. Key moments during their daily routines can be identified to show when the children can be involved in a small social activity or perform small tasks.

Phase 2 When discussing their favorite activities and games, some of the children identified outdoor activities as their favorite because they get to be outdoors, social and it usually involves high levels of movement. They value their time they get to spend outdoors, with their parents and their friends, indicating that tasks can involve children being highly active and social in parks. However, the children also noted that often their parents had little time to spend with them or would only

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play on occasion with a friend. Although the time is valued, it is often limited already due to other engagements that their parents or friends have.

Other popular activities among the children were console and iPad games. Most of the children were interested in racing games or melee gaming, suggesting that children were highly competitive.

Their competitive nature was also observed while watching the children debate about the different games, styles and levels they played. They were incredibly knowledgeable about the different aspects of each game version, and were highly active in discussing the differences between the games. From their discussion, it can be suggested that games involving iconic characters, competitiveness and actively animated aspects stand out in the children’s imagination of the game play. These are the first things that they recalled when discussing the different game types.

Phase 3 As the children were building the game during their third activity, it was clear that there was a

Figure 6.4 - Game designed by children during session.

leadership hierarchy as mentioned previously.

However, the hierarchy led to only one or two opinions to be heard during the design process, resulting in the remaining children to fall silent about their opinions. In order to allow for more equal opportunity among children, it is important to give them independence and creative freedom within guided bounds to explore their world. The children focused on what they know because of the broad topic, so their ability to explore was limited to their own working knowledge of the situations.

Discussion In the final discussion about the concept, the children had a hard time understanding how the different aspects of the game would work.

Because the children did not have smart phones themselves, and often used the iPad of their parents, they did not understand how the GPS tracking would work in order for them to collect points. Due to this notable barrier in their understanding, the discussion of the game play did not progress. The children were often stuck on understanding how things would be measured and how the technology would work, showing their inquisitive nature in new technology or new ways of technology use. Their interest can help to show the attraction of this game, and the need for the technology to work flawlessly to keep the children’s attention.

“Emissions are like small atomic bombs�

Figure 6.5 - Game designed by children during session.

Finally, the discussion came to their understanding and

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interest in environment and air quality. All of the children referred to environmental quality as nature and surroundings with a high number of trees. A couple of the children understood about emissions and pollutants from automobiles on a basic level.

The few children understood that emissions were “bad” and that they were unhealthy, but did not understand why or what the effects could be. Their reasoning suggested that they were told what was good and bad and often do not understand why.

The full results and transcripts can be found in Appendix W.

6.1.5 Conclusions After the co-creation session with the children six key requirements must be taken into considering while working on the design and detailing of this concept. These points include:

1. Include smaller tasks and reminders for children to perform during the week because often they will only play the online version on the weekends or on free days off.

“Environment is trees, animals and other things outside.”

128

“I know emissions are bad. You shouldn’t stand behind a car” 2. Limit the amount of highly intense social tasks for children. Include only tasks that are of interest and require little effort to socially arrange times to work together.

3. Create a relatable character that children will need to connect to. Give the character ability to become like superheroes and highly interactive.

4. Give a good balance of collaboration, competition and individual freedom for exploration and game play.

5. Make sure that there are clear guidelines for what children can and cannot do, and that it does not restrict the children from learning and exploring about the possibilities of environment and air quality.

6. Make sure technology is consistent and easy to understand to help capture the child’s attention.

6.2.

Design Introduction

Base on the research an initial design vision has been created in the form of a storyline.

The game focuses on a space exploration of children to discover and develop new planets in the planet system known as ‘ADAM’. This planetary system holds some key elements to helping Earth fight against the rise of deadly toxins in the air.

Therefore the children represent space explorers who will need to navigate to these planets and explore worlds in order to achieve the necessary elements to save Earth.

While on the planets, they will receive missions to help develop the planet for inhabitation by fellow citizens from Earth who will help the child find these elements.

The development of the colonies on these planets will represent urban developments but be free to allow children to explore the different types of relations that exist in the urban city. For example, by placing a factory next to the living area, the citizens may get sick and therefore the factory will

have to limit the product in order to reduce the amount of pollutants in the air. Children will slowly learn how to balance the different elements in urban development on an easy scale.

The children will receive a communication device, which is the GPS tracker, to help monitor their traveling behavior. The device will be presented as the ‘Astrocom’ which allows children to download physical missions (tasks) such as going to a park to ‘find’ a map which is located by GPS coordinates and purely digital. The device will enable the children to not only track their progress, but also acts as a guide when they need to perform the more physical missions.

As the child plays on, the story line will begin to develop, their urban developments will become more robust and their missions will increase their knowledge of environment and air quality problems, causes and solutions.

Mood boards for the feel of the game are included in Appendix X.

Figure 6.6 - Mini mood board for the game design

129

6.3.

Iteration Process

In order to further develop and refine the details of the game, two small iteration cycles will be held in order to reach a finalized design for the concept.

The interaction cycle will help detail and refine the details of the aesthetics, interactions, product design, game play and overall system design.

6.3.1 Method & Process Each usability test will include three main parts in the sessions. Overall, each session will also test the children’s understanding of the game.

The three different tasks will include playing out and testing the game’s beginning and story line.

The storyline development will help test the interest and involvement of the children in the game and the characters. Additionally, during this part of the game play, the children will be introduced to the GPS device that will help them in the physical game play.

and development of the planet will be tested. This development process is an important part of the story line and will allow for the children to more freely explore different spatial developments that will affect their citizens.

Finally, the tasks will be tested among the children for both understanding and interest. Because of the wide variety of tasks that will be offered in the game, the variety of tasks needs to be tested during the sessions. However, due to the limited timefor each session, the tasks will not be piloted for testing to prove their effectiveness.

Following the introductory story line, the building

Introdcution Testing Focus: - user understanding - storyline - initial impression - interest in game - involvement

130

Tasks / Missions Testing

Game play Testing Focus: - understanding game play - interest of children - progression of storyline

Focus: - understanding of tasks / missions - interest in playing - barriers to play - ability level to play - interest in social activities - parental involvement

Figure 6.7 - Iteration Process

Final Discussion Focus: - understanding and interest in the game - overall experience and thoughts on game - purpose behind the game - social factor of the game

Define & Refinement

6.4. Iteration 1 In the first iteration, the game concept will be further detailed in order to be tested by the children in terms of interest in game play and tasks.

6.4.1 Scope & Goal – Detailing Concept During this user test, the main goal is to assess the interest and understanding of the game play and story line. The children will be shown the detailed design and example of the game play in paper prototype form in order to facilitate the discussion.

Additionally, the session will be concluded with a small creative exercise with the children.

The children will be asked to create their own armband and/or wristwatch that can aid them for the physical gaming. The design of this product will

be further developed in the next iteration in order to contain elements that will aid children in playing the game.

Children will be asked to ‘play’ along with the game, where they will discuss, address and develop the physical aspects of the game including social interaction and the physical accessory. The session will take place at a BSO (summer day care), with children from the ages of 7 – 10.

6.4.2 Design & Prototype The game will be represented by a paper prototype including the different aspects of the online game. The following images illustrate the materials used in the user test.

Kies je personage: Als eerste stap, kies een cadet die jou zal vergezellen tijdens jouw reis. Wie neem jij mee op jouw reis?

Figure 6.8 - Introduction sequence - choose your character

131

Je bent onderweg!

Je bent onderweg naar de nieuwe wereld. Navigeer richting de planeet om het te bereiken. Vergeet niet om de asteroĂŻden te ontwijken!

E X P L O R E R

A D A M

Beginnen! --->

Figure 6.9 - End of introduction sequence

A D A M E X P L O R E R

Missie 1: Gefliciteerd! Je hebt geholpen met het identificeren van de eerste planeet in het ADAM stelsel. Jouw eerste missie zal zijn om te helpen met het oprichten van een kolonie van 200 burgers in twee verschillende steden. Om dit te doen, zorg ervoor dat er genoeg onderdak en banen zijn voor iedereen.

132

Doel: 200 burgers Âą130 huizen 1 Fabriek 1 Park

Figure 6.10 - Landing screen, beginning of game world

Figure 6.11 - Character Design

Figure 6.12 - Game world planet map

133

UNIT 8294

OUTPUT

OFF

Pressure

ON UNIT 2284

Figure 6.13 - Sample game play ‘Factory Stench’

Tasks Taak missie:

Speciaal missie:

Er is niet genoeg eten in jouw stad. De lokale boerderijen zijn niet in

Om een autofabriek te bouwen,

staat genoeg eten te produceren. Om je burgers te voeden, moeten er

moet je verstand hebben van

vijf boerderijen gebouwd worden. Dit kan door een klein zaadje te

de werking van een auto. Door

planten met een familielid of buurman/buurvrouw.

deze puzzel op te lossen met je ouders, zal je in staat zijn

Doel:

auto’s en grote snelwegen te

Laat een paar planten groeien, zodat de kwaliteit van de lucht

bouwen, om je steden te

verbeterd en je je burgers kan voeden. Maak een foto van de

verbinden.

uiteindelijke plat en upload deze foto voor 50 punten!

Doel: Voeg de delen van de auto

Zie anderen -->>

134

Figure 6.14 - Task screen

fabriek bij elkaar, deze zijn aangegeven met aanwijzingen.

UNIT 9304

UNIT 3058 349903o4 HDLKJE

UNIT 3957

Tasks

Figure 6.15 - Task image upload

135

6.4.3 Overview and Observations of the User Testing Session

progress, making the physical tasks harder for them to understand.

During the session, the children were excited and interested in participating in the user test. The idea of a new game was exciting to the children. The initial explanation of the game was difficult for the children to grasp and understand. However, once the characters were introduced and the game play started, the immediate story line was easy to understand.

An important part to note about this session is that the environment was distracting and hard for children to concentrate. A high level of activities was distracting them because their group mates were in another room performing a different activity. Therefore only the first two children in the session were done one-on-one and the final two children participated together.

Once the paper prototype game started, the children were very interested in the play aspect of the game. The children happily played along.

Once the introduction to the tasks started, the children were once again more withdrawn and quiet, trying to understand how the game would be played.

6.4.4 Results and Analysis

The children only had a vague understanding on how the offline tasks would work. They were unable to fully understand how the online game would be able to detect or monitor their offline

As a result of observing the children’s behavior and their responses during the session, a number of new insights on the current design of the prototype were derived. From the children’s misunderstanding about the physical aspect of the game play, the introduction on the game play in the physical world is linked to their digital game play needs to be addressed. Additionally, the physical prototype did not help children understand how the game interaction between

“My mom would like it cause then I wouldn’t be indoors and sitting in front of a computer all day.”

136

Figure 6.16 - Girl playing through the game

the physical and digital world would work.

The child’s excitement in the world and the characters showed their interest and connection to the aesthetics of the game. Although some elements were not easily understood in the paper prototype version, the children were still eager to ‘play’ out the scenario of the game. The style was easy and common enough for the children to understand the movements their characters could make.

However, during the explanations and tasks, the children had a hard time understanding the meaning of each section due to the wording and phrasing used. The children had a hard time connecting what they had to do with the descriptions that they were reading, especially because the tasks could be either physical or digital. The clarity and reinforcement with illustrations is necessary to help children understand their role in the game and what they will need to do.

session can be found in Appendix Z.

6.4.5 Implementation Points of Concern

of

Identified

Three main changes were identified for the prototype after the user session with the children.

They include:

1. An illustrated and video introduction to the physical accessory and how it will link to the child’s online game play.

2. A design for the parents phone in order to help children and parents understand how the parents will be linked to the child’s game play.

3. An illustration or video should be incorporated to each task in order for the children to understand the tasks they will need to preform.

Examples of the results from the design of their accessory along with some transcripts from the

Figure 6.17 - Boys playing the game together

137

6.5.

Iteration 2

The second iteration will help refine the details developed from the first prototype. In order to create a more in game experience and feeling, this prototype will be shown on a digital medium with a full story line. The paper prototype of the game play will remain along with a digital representation of the ‘Astrocom’, the child’s GPS wristwatch and the parent’s Application.

6.5.1 Scope & Goal – Refining Details The main goal for the second iteration is to help verify the design details added after the last session, refine the rougher details and to reassess

Hallo daar ontdekkingsreiziger!

the interest and understanding of the children.

During this session, interaction with the parents and the parents understanding and interest will also be assessed.

A group of four children, two boys age 12, one boy age 9, and one girl age 8 along with one parent will test the game play and discuss the game’s strong and weak points including the social interaction, digital and physical aspects, and finally the use of the physical accessory. The session will take place at one of the participant’s home.

Met de Astrocom kun je met je

Missies

thuis basis communiceren en kun je zien hoeveel je al ontdekt hebt.

Samen met een aantal mede ontdekkingsreizigers ga je

Hoe meer gebieden je ontdekt, hoe

proberen om onze aarde te redden! Het doel van deze reis is

meer punten je verdient.

om 5 verborgen elementen te vinden in het ADAM planeten-stelsel. Om deze elementen te vinden zul je vele

Door te lopen of fietsen naar

koloniën moeten gaan ontwikkelen! Ben je klaar voor de reis?

school, of andere door andere activiteiten te doen kun je punten verdienen en nieuwe missies vrijspelen.

Met de punten kun je koloniën oprichten en met de missies kun je speciale voorwerpen vrijspelen die je kunt gebruiken in je koloniën.

+

Beginnen! --->

Daar gaan we!

De missies zijn zowel fysiek als digitaal. De fysieke missies moet je in het echt doen, zoals lopen of

Je bent nu onderweg naar het ADAM stelsel! Probeer bij de

fietsen naar school. Tijdens de

eerste planeet te komen, maar pas op: ontwijk de astroiden

fysieke missies zal je cadet je

die op je afkomen!

helpen met behulp van je Astrocom.

Beginnen! --->

De digitale missies moet je in het spel doen.

Hoe verder je komt, hoe moeilijk de missies worden!

Planet terraprime

50

Blanka level: 5 planeten: 1

E X P L O R E R

A D A M

kolonien: 2

Beginnen! --->

138

Figure 6.18 - New introduction sequence

50

6.5.2 Design & Prototype Necessary changes were made to the previous prototype in order to create a more child friendly story line design. This includes changing the introduction to the game, the heads-up menu display, and the display of the tasks. Additionally, the design of the product has been added along

with the design of the mobile application for parents. The following images illustrate the new materials edited and added to the user test.

The full design shown in the second iteration along with the product sketches and initial ideas can be seen in Appendix AA.

Planet terraprime

50

Blanka level: 5 planeten: 1 kolonien: 2

Figure 6.19 - New Headups for Menu

9:50 AM

9:50 AM

9:50 AM

Points

500 40 points from traveling by car

ADAM

180 points from traveling by car Kinderen Milieu Exploratie Spel Informatie over Milieu & Lucht Kwaliteit

280 points from traveling by car

connecting...

9:50 AM

Missies

3

Plant a herb in the garden.

A day out hiking in a open green park.

Spend a day at the Aquiarium

Figure 6.20 - First iteration parents application

9:50 AM

Informatie Milieu, Lucht Kwaliteit en Kindern Milieu, Lucht Kwaliteit en Gezondheid Hoeveel invloed maken we?

Daglijkse update

139

Planet terraprime Parken

Gebouwen

School

50

theater Fabriek

bouwen Supermarkt

Winkel

Supermarkt

BUS

TRAIN

Winkel

Figure 6.21 - Building development screen

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Speciaal missie: Om een autofabriek te bouwen, moet je verstand hebben van de werking van een auto. Door deze puzzel op te lossen met je ouders, zal je in staat zijn auto’s en grote snelwegen te bouwen, om je steden te verbinden.

Doel: Voeg de delen van de auto fabriek bij elkaar, deze zijn aangegeven met aanwijzingen.

Beginnen -->>

+

140

Figure 6.22 - New Special Task

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Missie: Sommige van jou inwoners klagen over de stank die van de fabriek komt. Mensen worden ziek op straat, er is iets aan de hand. Jouw taak is om door de fabriek te gaan om de oorzaak te vinden en het probleem op te lossen.

Doel: Vind de oorzaak van de stank en stop het.

+

Beginnen -->>

50

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Missie: De wereld waarop je bent beland is een stuk groter dan je je had voorgesteld. Een landkaart van de andere kant van het continent is verstopt in een boom in het park. Vindt deze kaart om verder te spelen.

Doel: Ga met een vriend naar het park en ga samen op zoek naar de landkaart.

+

+

50

Beginnen -->>

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Missie: In het nabijgelegen stelsel heeft je vriendin Michelle dezelfde planeet gecreĂŤerd. Om jullie planeten aan elkaar te linken, moeten jullie samenwerken om de apparaten te laten synchroniseren.

Doel: Ontdek de coĂśrdinatoren van Michelles planeet door het maken van deze puzzel.

Beginnen -->>

+

Figure 6.23 - Three new tasks

141

6.5.3 Overview and Observation of the User Testing Session During the session, the children were enthusiastic and attentive to the storyline of the game. This user test provided them information on the physical and digital game play as part of the story line.

The introduction went smoothly with little to no questions about the interaction or the design of the game thus far.

When moving on to the game play, the children kept a high excitement level as they played through to the city development. Especially when answering questions on how they traveled to school and how their parents traveled to work, the children were able to self regulate the group. They were able to work creatively within the bounds of the game and the bounds that were set up by the children. They were able to reason out loud well in order to communicate with the other children and to compare their reasoning skills.

While the children were playing, the parent was enthusiastically encouraging their choices and questioning their motives. They worked together

to make decisions for each child’s city. During this moment, the parent was further questioned about the game play, intentions of the game, and their mobile application.

Finally, during the group discussion of the tasks, the youngest children were excited and engaged with discussing and further developing the tasks, while the older children started to lose interest.

The tasks discussed both included physical, digital, and social tasks that the children would be able to complete with their family or friends.

6.5.4 Results & Analysis As a result from observing the children, listening to their discussion and holding discussions with the children and parent, it was clear that the main concept of the game was appealing for all users, but the final game play after development would determine the attractiveness for continuation by the children.

During the introductory storyline of the game play, the children were enthusiastic about the game and brought it to life with a number of sound effects

“Can you come back when you’re done? I want to play it!”

142

Figure 6.24 - User testing session

and characterizations for the space characters.

The concept was easy enough to understand, but there was quite a lot of explanation before the children were able to play the game. Despite the long wait, the children were able to understand the concept and move further in the game play process.

At the beginning of the prototyped game play, the children were eager to start and were not as interested in the mission or the storyline.

Their high level of interest in the game play could suggest that the children were not fully attentive in the beginning introduction. The children may be more absorbed in starting the game play over the explanation. Their level of interest suggests that game play elements can be added to the introduction in order to help them better understand the storyline.

Additionally, the children suggested that the wrist watch as an external extra element that didn’t yet seem necessary. The children were still unable to understand or picture the use of the

product during the physical game play without the real prototype. Even though the children were interested in the use of the watch, they were unable to picture the scenario.

During the game play of the tasks and the city development process, the children and parents both expressed an interest in the tasks in order to gain points. The parent was most interested in the combination and addition of physical and

“I want a lot of points if you want me to go walking around outside looking for a map... (unless) if my little sister wants to go, then I’ll go with her.”

Figure 6.25 - User testing session (kids developing their planet)

413

“It should have sound effects and characters should have specialties.”

Figure 6.26 - Child explaining what his character will be doing in the game.

social tasks with the children. She believed that encouraging the kids to work on something physical or to do something physical is the major benefit of the game. They believe the children should be encouraged to not only play on digital means.

However, she suggested that it would be great to include tasks that would be more personalized to the family situation or the interests of the family.

Her suggestion came from reading the tasks shown on the mobile app. She suggested that it was nice for the game to encourage the family to spend the day at an aquarium or park together, but she would rather pick different locations.

Meanwhile, the children were curious about the types of tasks and the points and items they would be able to collect. However, when discussing the tasks, the youngest children were interested in the game play, but the older children felt that it was out of their age range. The older children suggested that they needed harder challenges, tasks that would involve more thought processing or motivation and encouragement. They looked at the tasks as a type of investment, and the amount

144

“I like that you can get the kids to go outside and be active. It would be better if I could customize it to our interests.” of points or items they received needed to be worth the effort.

The discussion of the tasks that were available showed that more in depth research and study in the children’s interest at school would help yield more interesting topics for the tasks. The children were only partially interested in the different types of tasks shown during the session. Some of the suggested tasks included chores that they can do for their parents at home, not something out in a park or with their parents. Their suggestions imply that children may often be conflicted with having

Figure 6.27 - Parent explaining her thoughts about the game and phone app.

to do household chores without rewards, and these game points can act as rewards for their work. Through customization of the tasks to include tasks and small changes to tasks that children do daily, they can learn of small ways to improve their environmental quality with a low threshold for action.

Overall, the general observation showed a genuine interest in the game. Towards the end of the discussion, the children were curious about the launch, price and availability of the game. Their interest suggested that the game has peaked their curiosity, and they believe the game play would be interesting. This suggests that further testing during the game development will provide more insight in the viability of the game for the future.

Transcriptions of parts of the session are given in detail in Appendix BB.

6.5.5 Implementation Points of Concern

of

Identified

of the final concept after reviewing the results and analysis from the children and parent. They include:

1. Game elements should be incorporated into the introductory process in order for children to better understand the game play and to increase their attention in the storyline. This includes an introductory use of the watch.

2. Customizability and the ability for parents to work with the needs and interests of different children need to be taken into consideration. The personalization of the tasks in the game play is important to helping the children and parents maintain interest.

3. The tasks need to be made for different levels of difficulty for the children of different ages due to the differences of cognitive ability among the target age group.

Three main changes were identified for the design

145

7 Evaluation A final iteration of the concept’s design has been made according to previous iteration testing. In order to test the interest and motivation for the game play and learning among children, a final user test will be conducted in regards to all the different identified problems and possible solutions. The following chapter will introduce the design for the final test and the final user test.

7.1.

Design, Prototype and User Test

The final design the user test and prototype are aimed to gaining final thoughts and remarks about the game, game play, interaction and quality that the concept provides for both children and parents. Finalization of the design will be made according to this user test.

7.1.2 Final Prototype

7.1.1 Final User Test Design

The design changes implemented in the prototype included a change to the initial story line, including a more active role for the children as they begin the game. The children will perform a small task to become acquainted to working with the GPS device.

The concept design includes a number of elements including the final game prototype, the application for the parents as well as the GPS tracking product for the kids. The final design will incorporate the new design adjustments determined during the second user test.

The elements designed will be converted into a digital and physical prototype for the user testing session. However, during the game play, all elements of the children’s game will be kept in a digital medium, either on the PC or as a downloadable app for the iPad.

product & application introduction story board

social connection

initial game play final user test design parts

colony development

tasks & missions

148

Figure 7.1 - Parts to test

The final prototype will follow the previous prototype and present parts in both digital and physical prototyping. The introduction will be digital while the game play will be done physically in order to facilitate group discussion.

The tasks were also altered to test the different levels of difficulty in game play among children.

Three tasks were used to help identify the different ways to increase or decrease difficulty levels.

Figure 7.4 shows a change to the task ‘Factory Stench’ task where the difficulty level changes with the addition of tasks. Figure 7.5 shows a change to the ‘Map Hunt’ task where the difficulty is changed through different locations and area ranges. Figure 7.6 shows a change to the ‘Auto Factory’ task where the difficulty is changed though increasing levels of difficulty in game play, topic and knowledge.

These three different styles of increasing difficulty will be tested with children for their reaction and interest levels in the different tasks.

Finally, the application given to the parents was redesigned based on some feedback on the information provided by the parent during the last session, as well as some remarks from colleagues.

Om ervoor te zorgen dat de Astrocom werkt,

Mini - missie

laten we een kleine test te doen!

Je missie is om een klein uitstapje net buiten je huis te doen.

Selecteer de belasting missie pictogram op je scherm. Dit zal de missie te laden in je Astrocom waar u kunt bijhouden van je vooruitgang. Te kijken de missie kun je de volgende en vorig toets in de rechterbovenhoek kant. Om de missie te selecteren, ken je naar benden drukken in het midden van het Astrocom. U kunt zelfs uitschakelen van de audio door op de knop rechtsonder.

Ga voor een uitstapje, en het Astrocom zal reageren op je missie.

Uploaden

Figure 7.2 - New mini-mission in introduction sequence

Goed zo!

+

Nu dat je de missie voltooid is, zal

10

je je eerste 10 punten!

Met de punten kun je koloniĂŤn oprichten en met de missies kun je speciale voorwerpen vrijspelen die

Fabriek

je kunt gebruiken in je koloniĂŤn.

Hoe verder je komt, hoe moeilijk de missies worden!

OK, ben je er klaar voor?

School

Volgende! --->

Figure 7.3 - New explaination of points and development in introduction sequence

419

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Moeilijkheidsgraad Makkelijk

Medium

Moeilijk

In this game, you will

After reaching the

You can earn extra

have to work through pollution, you will have points by participating a series of small

the choice to

in a series of side

obstables in order to

determine the cause

activities along with

reach the pollution.

of this stench

the investigation of

through some

the facotry workers.

investigation work.

110 punten

50 punten

180 puntenjk

Meer informatie -->>

Figure 7.4 - Level types for the mission: Factory Stench

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Moeilijkheidsgraad Makkelijk

Medium

Moeilijk

Carefully build up the

After putting

Two cars are building

pieces of the car in

together th epices of built, one electric and

the puzzle. Learn

the car, the parents

one petrol. Make sure

about the pieces and

and child will work

the right pieces fit

how they run in order together to identify to put them in the

safety measures

right order.

necessary to own a

with the right car.

car.

1 auto fabrieken

2 auto fabrieken

2 elektrisch auto fabrieken

150

Meer informatie -->>

Figure 7.5 - Level types for the mission: Auto Factory

Planet terraprime

50

Missies

Moeilijkheidsgraad Moeilijk

Makkelijk

Medium

Find a land map on

Two maps are hidden Two maps are hidden

your way home from

at opposite ends of

at a large park close

school.

the park, finding one

to the city center,

will lead you to the

Venture there to

other.

uncover two maps and a hidden treasure.

300 puntenjk

200 punten

100 punten

Meer informatie -->>

Figure 7.6tt - Level types for the mission: Map Hunt

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Summary

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Menu

Summary

1

Let op! Met behulp van grote wegen wordt u blootgesteld aan hoge niveaus van uitstoot!

Het is veel beter om kleine weggetjes nemen.

Meldingen Punten

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20 Missies 2

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Missies

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Missies

Missie Databank

Punten Totaal

Punten Vandaag

Details 40 points vandaag: 0 160 points vandaag: 20

Noodgevallen

Belangrijk om te weten!

Kennisgevingen

Milieu, Luchtkwaliteit en Kinderen

Toestand van vandaag

Tips voor uw kinderen en die spel

Alarm Instelling

New!

Informatie over Milieu & Lucht Kwaliteit

1

Over deze app en de DCMR

Missies

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9:50 AM

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Gaan voor een dag naar de dierentuin

Speciaal Missie

Familie wandeltocht

Voltooide missies

Plant een kleine kruidentuin met die kinderen

Missie maken

Identificeer drie belangrijke emissiefactoren in uw buurt

180 points vandaag: 30

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Gaan voor een dag naar de dierentuin Ga een dagje naar de dierentuin met uw kinderen te leren over hoe dieren in hun omgeving wonen. Een foto van uw kind favoite dier uploaden naar de taak te voltooien!

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Familie wandeltocht

Figure 7.7 - new Parents App

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7.2.

Evaluation User Test

The final user test will include a family of three including two boys, aged 11 and 13, and a mother.

The test will be conducted at the DCMR, where the users will be prepped on the topic of the game.

The goal of the user test is to test a family’s social and physical/digital interactions with the game play. The social interactions include the discussion of the topic between children and parents as well as the children’s discussion among their peers.

The physical/digital interactions include their user of both the digital game as well as the physical aspects such as physical tasks and the use of the GPS accessory.

The test will be set up in three parts: introduction (digital), game play (physical) and the tasks (discussion). The first part will be the introduction of the game read out loud with digital images showing the beginning of the game. The interactive introductory parts will be played out at the session with the kids and their paper watches.

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The game play will introduce the different styles of game play and urban development to the children. This section is done physically in order to accommodate for further discussion about the children’s thoughts as they play the game.

However, because it allows for more creative freedom, this should be taken into consideration.

Finally, the last stage is a discussion about the four different example tasks. The children and parent are encouraged to engage in a discussion about what they like and dislike about each task.

The discussion is meant to give them more time to think about the aspects involved in the task to determine which tasks are the most interesting and plausible in their daily time schedule. During the discussion phase, the children and parent are also encouraged to brainstorm on similar task activities that should be included.

Figure 7.8. - Final user test session

7.3.

User Testing Results

The user testing session with the family showed an interest in the game play and activities but still brought unclear results about the introduction and understanding of the concept.

7.3.1 Evaluation Session with a Family During the Introduction, the users sat patiently waiting for instructions and following the story line. Limited interaction restricted their amount of discussion during the first phase.

During the discussion of the game play the children were excited, but the parent remained still. Unlike the previous group, the parent was not an active participator in the session. The parent acted as an observer, only responding to specific input from the child.

Finally, during the discussion phase, the users were introduced to the tasks that they would be given during the mission. The children were responsive to the tasks and showed significant interest in two

specific tasks: ‘Plant a Seed’ and ‘Auto Factory’.

The younger child preferred the ‘Plant a Seed’ task because it was something familiar that he had done before. He states that his previous experience was enjoyable and therefore he expects his next experience to be enjoyable as well. The older child preferred the ‘Auto Factory’ because the task involved more thinking and knowledge. He felt that it was a challenge that he would like to accomplish and learn from.

Additionally, they felt that the different levels were a well distinguished, especially since both children chose different levels within each task. The children felt that with different levels, they would be able to play according to their own abilities and even show off when they can play a higher difficulty than their friends. The more difficult levels would be able to lead them to more discussions among their family and their friends in order to solve the problem.

The parent, however, was not as interested and

Figure 7.9 - Final user test session

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Figure 7.10 - Evaluation test: going over parents’ application

enthusiastic about the tasks. She saw the tasks as something the kids would do on their own or possibly with some help from their father. This was also a more biased experience because the father works in the industry of environmental policy.

Therefore, she felt that he was much more suited for the job of helping the children with this game.

In this sense, she was not overly interested in the application or the game, but she stated that she liked the concept of the game.

Towards the end of the session, the children started to identify their own environmental concerns and design tasks in order to solve the problem.

7.3.2 Analysis of Data Due to the children’s lack of outward expression of enthusiasm and understanding during the introduction of the game, little can be drawn from this part of the session. The children were attentive and did not ask for further clarification, suggesting that they understood and there was not active stimulus in the design that would excite them or engage them.

However, during the game play and tasks, the

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children were excited and active in engaging with the facilitator about the game. Their main concerns were about the playability and the difficulty level of the game. Their discussion suggested that in order to create interest for children, the game has to be challenging but achievable. The children felt that the game was too easy and predictable at this level; however, this was mainly due to the paper prototype play model they used.

During the description and discussion of the tasks, the children were mainly interested in learning how to find the difficulty level that would suit their understanding about the game. Meanwhile, they showed a preference for certain tasks depending on their interests and knowledge level thus far.

For example, the older child was interested in the difficult tasks when it concerned a level of learning or thinking, but chose only ‘medium’ difficulty when the task concerned game play. However, the younger child would chose ‘medium’ or even ‘easy’ game play because of his fear that the game would prove to be too difficult for him. The younger child was more interested in the ‘playing’ and ‘doing’ of the task rather than the ‘thinking’ and ‘learning’ that the older child preferred. The

“I have an idea for a task! You know after a big storm, all the trash bins blow over and the plastic is littered around the streets.

You should have a task to help clean up the plastic before the animals go near it and eat it and become sick.” children’s preferences suggest that during the age range from six to 12, their interest changes drastically from the fun ‘play’ aspect to a more in depth ‘thinking’ and ‘reasoning’. Therefore, the game levels will need to take this into consideration when designing the different levels of game play.

Likewise, during the discussion of the game play and tasks, the parent suggested that this game was interesting and suitable for younger children while older teens would most likely not be interested. She suggests that when older teens are often approached with ‘educational’ activities and games, they are disinterested because of the strong link to school and education. However, the disinterest in educational games may also apply to the game for younger children occasionally, so it was best to stay further away from this being a more educational game. In response to this, the children said that the game was a good way to introduce these topics to children because they did not feel that it was a highly educational game. The children felt that the game’s aim was to be more active rather than learning about the environment.

The most interesting insight from this user test was also the interest for the children to design and create their own task from the problems they noticed. The child’s interest creating tasks implies that children are aware of the problems that surround them. However, it can be concluded that children are not often faced with the possibility to solve the environmental problems around them, but the game can provide the children a method to implement their solutions. Furthermore, the child’s interest in solutions suggest that some children may have an interest in finding problems to solve and working on tasks to help their environment.

From the results and analysis from the final session, the information provided the necessary changes to the design as the final concept of the research and design project. The changes include:

1. More detailing in the design aesthetics of the game play. By creating more background imagery or smaller details, the game becomes more attractive to older children and provides more engagement and excitement in the visuals.

2. Changes to the design difficulty levels so that children can move between the different difficulty levels when it becomes too difficult or too easy. Because the children are often afraid to pick the wrong level of difficulty, a recommendation based on experience can help children decide what is best for them in more difficult cases.

3. The design of the Development section of the game needs to incorporate more variety and possibility of flexible design.

Often the buildings need one or two more ‘blocks’ to join them so that space would not be wasted in between.

4. The application should give parents easy access to the three main uses: tip of the day, points collected, and missions. Parents need to be able to easily access the information from their application to lower the threshold of use.

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7.5.

Evaluation of User Tests and Prototypes

The final prototype combined both digital and physical prototyping, supporting the necessary use of the prototype to test the interaction qualities and the interest and motivation of parents and children in the game play.

First Iteration During the first iteration, the design of the testing was a good test on the interest of the game, but provided little information on the game play, interaction qualities and experience. The lack of social contact in the design of the session did not provide the children an environment and feeling of safety for free expression and open discussion.

Furthermore, the concept elaboration proved to be unclear for children, leading to misunderstanding.

Finally, the social distraction of the BSO did not allow for the children to focus on their main task.

Due to these diversions, the user test was only successful in yielding the interest level of children.

Through observation and inferences, problematic areas in the story line and game play were identified and then further elaborated for the second iteration.

Second Iteration The second iteration of the user test was improved due to the change in the research structure in order to avoid similar problems encountered during the first iteration user test. The aforementioned problems were avoided by creating a group session in a distraction free environment with an authoritative figure present. By including the parents, the children were more attentive and small discussions and banter happened between

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the children and the parents. Because of their already informal and comfortable relationship, the session ran smoothly and provided insights on the interactions between the mother and children around the game play. This provided interesting insights that allowed the creation of the final user test design and prototype.

Final User Test The final user test allowed the verification of the synthesized the design and game play feedback information derived from the first two user tests.

The new information created a more robust game and prototype that would be able to help refine the details in the design through testing for interest, game play, and social interaction. Although, the beginning of the test did not run as smoothly due to the use of a different setting and a smaller group of users, the final discussion points on game play and tasks were well articulated and insightful.

Reflection on User Testing Working with children for testing and co-creation can be difficult. Children can be unpredictable with their responses, habits and reactions.

However, by using the right triggers such as objects, comfortable locations, and a close group of familiar peers and family, children can be more easily calmed and adjusted to working with the facilitator. Their comfort will determine the amount of participation in the session and the activity levels in the discussions. The more comfortable and

‘at home’ a child feels, the more likely they are to bring insightful information.

In order for the session to be successful, the objects used during the session need to have aesthetic characteristics that the children can identify with.

This was seen in the different between the cocreation session and the three user test sessions.

By creating a likable character and easy to understand pieces, the children are able to more easily understand the need and the place for each of the pieces. While during the co-creation session, the children were not used to having creative freedom in a variety of designs, creating some confusion while they were working.

However, the two most important factors is the location and the people involved in the session.

The location needs to be familiar enough for the children to feel comfortable in. A dramatic difference was noticed between the co-creation session, and the first two user tests compared to the final user test. The co-creation and first user test were performed in an area where the children visit often and can freely play, making it easier for them to become acquainted with the space to feel more comfortable. The second user session took place in the home of one of the participants.

The environment was their own, their familiarity and ease with the location benefited the session.

The final user test, however, was located in an office building where the children had no prior connection or experience in. Making the space a foreign location for the children, causing them to be slightly more uncomfortable.

of a familiar network of children will contribute to their involvement in the session. Furthermore, it is important to have an authoritative figure around such as a parent of ‘teacher’ figure. Without this figure in the room or in the group, the children often easily lose focus on the task at hand because of a lack of reinforcement. This was clearly visible during the first iteration user test in which the children were not as attentive to the facilitator, whom they viewed as a stranger. The familiarity of their surroundings, including the people, creates and important ambiance for the children, making them more motivated and uninhibited by fear or feelings of discomfort.

Due to the different personality and play styles that children have, it is best to compose the group of children based on personality. Moreover, it is essential to compose the session to help engage and motivate the children, especially when the children are noticed to have different motivational triggers. It is ideal to first meet the children to understand a bit about their characteristic and personalities before the session. Unfortunately, the amount of preparation time for each of the user tests was limited and therefore, meeting the children was only possible on that date.

Consequently, the sessions would be able to run smoothly given the ability to tailor the session to the needs and interest of the children.

The other participants and the session facilitator are also important factors in making the atmosphere of the session comfortable for children.

The social aspect of having peers around the children while they work is important because this is often how they work and learn in classroom, and sometimes home, settings. Therefore the creation

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Wrapping up the project, a final design is proposed along with the recommendations and set up for a pilot project.

The c link th physi

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Planet terraprime

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ADAM Kinderen Milieu Exploratie Spel Informatie over Milieu & Lucht Kwaliteit

Children

Game System Parents

Children

+ Missions

+ Points

Planet terraprime

The points allow children to explore, develop and build their own planetary system.

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Missions are either carried out in the digital or physical game worlds.

Children

+ Missions Most social Missions encourage the children, parents and peers to do activities in the physical realm.

Children also work with Parents and Peers on Missions to learn and act on environment and air quality

Peers

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Children

Parents Figure 8.1 -Story Board

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While playing, the children are encouraged to engage parents a involve them in the game. The ga will aim to facilitate the information exchane between children and parents.

Planet terraprime

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Children

children are given an ‘Astrocom’ to heir online game world to their ical world.

Planet terraprime

While going to school, children will collect points and missions for their online game.

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Blanka level: 5 planeten: 1 kolonien: 2

Planet terraprime

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Blanka level: 5 planeten: 1 kolonien: 2

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School

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Children During the missions, children will perform tasks that help them learn and take action on environmental issues.

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and ame n

Planet terraprime

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As parents go to work, the also help the child gain Points and Missions.

Informatie over Milieu & Lucht Kwaliteit

The application on the parents phone acts similar to the ‘Astrocom’

+ Points + Missions

Parents

Work

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8.1.

Final Design

The final design of the concept is broken down into four different segments: the game play, the tasks (learning), the product (technology) and the parent’s application. Theses four segments combine together to create a working game system that functions both in the physical world through the product and social interactions, as well as in the digital world through the game play and in response to previous interactions of the user.

8.1.1 Game Play The game play uses a combination of different elements from pre-existing game play typologies in order to establish a pre-existing understanding of the game with the children and to ensure playability. An over arching story line helps drive the main mission and overall game. Meanwhile, a secondary story line urges children to develop colonies and cities in their new online environment.

These developments are the main goal of the game in order to help children learn about the factors and effects of environment and air quality.

Finally, the tertiary layer of the game play includes the tasks. These tasks provide the major learning points in the game play. The tasks are more direct in teaching children about specific factors and effects in the environment and air quality.

This layered style of game play allows for children to focus on the main goal: ‘Saving Earth through exploration’ while learning through underlying story line.

the main story line of the game. The introduction introduces the characters, the use of the physical world in the game play, and the overall goal of the game, through a brief interactive story. During this moment, the children will also be introduced in the involvement of their parents in the design process. By introducing the possibility of involving their parents in the game, the children can better understand the ability to discuss their game play in a family setting.

Characters The design of the characters was based on the different play types of children , mentioned in Section 6.3. In order to fit the typologies of the achiever, actor, thinker and dreamer, five characters were initially chosen to represent these types. These characters were chosen as animals in order to limit the idea of gender differentiation and age range, but would still bring an emotional appeal to children. The use of human-like characters was ruled out due to the possibility of age restriction if the character looked too young or too old.

The badger, the fox, the tiger, and the monkey were initially chosen to represent the thinker, the dreamer, the achiever and the actor, respectively.

These animals were chosen based on a brainstorm session with a group of students who were asked to identify animals related to each of the

Game Introduction The introduction sets up

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Figure 8.2 -Character Design

Planet terraprime Land

Gebouwen

Openbare Structuren

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Speciale Items

Maak parken door het samenstellen van gras en water gebieden samen en bouwen in een aantal openbare

Cement

Gras

Water

meubels.

BUS

TRAIN

bouwen

Planet terraprime Land

Gebouwen

Openbare Structuren

Speciale Items

Landbouw Commerciele Living

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Educatieve Kunst en Cultuur

theater

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Filmhuis

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wetenschapsmuseum

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Tekening Studio

Ijsbaaan

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Space museum

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muziekstudio

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aardse geschiedenis

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BUS

TRAIN

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Figure 8.3 -New conoly development screens

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Figure 8.4 - Introduction sequence storyboard

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typologies. However, an additional dragon was added in order to create a stronger emotional bond with more extreme imaginative children who were more connected with fantasy.

8.1.2 Tasks

‘Factory Stench’ – Introducing and teaching children reasons for causes of odor from factories through and online individual exploration ‘Find the Map’ – Involving peers and others in a Planet terraprime

Four example tasks were generated in order to create an understanding of the tasks that would be developed for the game play. These four tasks included:

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Missie: Er is niet genoeg eten in jouw stad. De lokale boerderijen zijn niet in staat genoeg eten te produceren. Om je burgers te voeden, moeten er vijf boerderijen gebouwd worden. Dit kan door een klein zaadje te planten met een familielid of buurman/buurvrouw.

‘Plant a Seed’ – Involving the inclusion of a family member or neighbor in a real-life activity

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De wereld waarop je bent beland is een stuk groter dan je je had

Om een autofabriek te bouwen, moet je verstand hebben van de

voorgesteld. Een landkaart van de andere kant van het continent

werking van een auto. Door deze puzzel op te lossen met je

is verstopt in een boom in het park. Vindt deze kaart om verder

ouders, zal je in staat zijn auto’s en grote snelwegen te bouwen,

te spelen.

om je steden te verbinden.

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Figure 8.5 - Images of Tasks

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scavenger hunt in more environmentally friendly areas through the creation of a story world around them.

Most of the tasks are given different difficulty levels to allow for the children to play and learn at their ideal level. This is done per task in order to allow children to further explore topics and interests in a more in depth manner. The different types of difficulty include: 1. tasks that will require more learning and/or prior knowledge 2. tasks that will require more effort 3. tasks that they can build upon after finishing the basics.

In order to help children navigate the different difficulty levels, a proposed skill points or achievement award system may be used in order to create ease in finding the correct task difficulty level.

Some example tasks are: Physical: - Use of public transport, biking, walking, or new routes - Grown own home garden, help neighbor with gardening - Paper, plastic and glass recycling project, collect for a recycling project - Create something from recycled material - Turn off unused lights and water sources around the house - Open and close windows to air out the home Digital: - What are emissions?

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-What is creating emissions? (Industry cars, building, etc.)

- Effects of emissions on environment and health.

- How can plants help the environment?

- How does biking help the environment?

- Why should be use greener routes?

With this open environmental learning platform, parents, teachers and potentially other children can create their own tasks based on their interest, concerns or community problems, putting their learning into action. The tasks created by the children or parents will help both parties gain points to encourage the creation of interesting tasks that can be community specific. The tasks, once checked by the parent, will be uploaded into a community database where the tasks are stored.

8.1.3 Product & Technology The product is currently designed as a wristwatch for children with the capability to link their physical activities with their online game play.

The accessory acts as a watch unless activated in order to help children complete their ‘tasks’, and takes on the characteristic of their online ‘cadet’ companion.

The necessary functionalities of the technology were determined through the development of the interaction between the children, the accessory Figure 8.6 - Early product model.

and the game. The functionalities required helped to determine the different components that would need to be implemented in the design of the product. Therefore, a list of functions, components and suggested pieces is listed in Figure 8.5.

More information on the specifications for the product can be found in Appendix DD.

8.1.4 Parent’s Application The application for parents is both available on the web and on the phone. Further testing and research will be required to determine if an alternative GPS measuring device will need to be made available for other family members.

First Iteration of Possible Technology to Implement: GPS: NV08C-CSM v.3.x., MOD, GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, M2M Bluetooth: BT740 Series module, BTV 2.1, Enhanced Class 1, NT ANT Accelerometer: ADXL 326, 3AX, 16G, 16LFCSP Gyroscope: ITG-3200, Tri-Axis, +/- 2000 deg/s, 24 QFN Vibration: Precision Microdrives 310-101 (coin) Audio: Sanco EMB-3008A Screen: EPD or OLED GMS: Taoglas, Flexible, FXP 29.07.0070A Figure 8.7 - Technology implementation list

The design of the application has been simplified in order to accommodate for the ease of use and navigation to the most common functionalities.

Hence, the main screen will allow a ‘oneclick’ access to the three major functions. In this scenario the parents will connect the children’s account initially. The three major functions of the parents’ application include: access to point and distribution to children’s games, access to the ‘notifications panel’, and access to the collected ‘tasks’. These three functions give parents all necessary information to help the children succeed in learning about the environment and to continue and explore the game.

In the ‘menu’ section, all functionalities will still be available for parents who wish to become more involved in the game play and helping their children explore.

8.1.5 System As seen in the illustration below, the game system involves a number of elements including the children, peers, parents, product, locations and ways to access the game. Consequently, the game play can exist with the inclusion of a number of elements in different combinations. A number of the most prominent game play scenarios is illustrated and can be found in Appendix EE. In order to create a dynamic and changing system, input needs to be generated based on the information input into the system. Therefore the conditions previously mentioned in Section 5.4 and their appendices, will be used to create changes in the game system based on the predicted environment and air quality of the day. Because the air quality is dynamic, the game and system needs to adjust as a dynamic system in order to encourage and motivate for the ‘recommended’ and ‘suggested’ behavior. Things like points, tasks

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Ga een dagje naar de dierentuin met uw kinderen te leren over hoe dieren in hun omgeving wonen. Een foto van uw kind favoite dier uploaden naar de taak te voltooien!

Plant een kleine kruidentuin met die kinderen Identificeer drie belangrijke emissiefactoren in uw buurt

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Figure 8.8 - Final design of Parentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s app

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Gaan voor een dag naar Gaan voor een dag naar dede dierentuin dierentuin Ga een9:50 dagje AM naar de dierentuin met uw kinderen te leren hoevoor Ga naar hetover park dieren in hun omgeving wonen. Een 50 een dag foto van uw kind favoite dier uploaden naar de taak te voltooien!

Plant Gaan een voorkleine een dag kruidentuin naar met de dierentuin die kinderen 9:50 AM 9:50 AM

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LetVooltoid op! Met Missie behulp van grote wegen wordt u blootgesteld Leerpunten: aan hoge niveaus van uitstoot!

- Kleine planten Het is veel beter om kleine Gaan voor een dag naar rust thuis weggetjes nemen.

Plant een kleine kruidentuin Compleet! met die kinderen

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and daily tips need to be adjusted in the dynamic system to reflect the real world in the game world.

Point System The points system was designed to initially begin with introducing the use of the GPS system and to allow the system to establish a behavior model of the user. Then, after the child moves up levels, the system will ask more of the child, to change transportation methods and then to switch to healthier routes. By doing so, the change in transportation and behavior will be captured and it provides an easy transition for the users.

The point system will also be adjusted according to the outdoor conditions, as mentioned previously.

However, this will only apply to higher-level players. While doing this, the children will learn more about the different environmental and air quality influencers.

Point System Example: Points for travel: Stage 1: Initially the children start with gaining points daily for tracking their travel habits along with their parents.

This way the system can recognize the different types of activities and routes that the user takes in order to generate recommended new routes.

Scenario 5: Children Individual Play 9:50 AM

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Figure 8.11 - Final sample of game play style design

with use of the GPS tracking, but will only gain extra points for the use of new green and healthy routes that they or their parents take while traveling.

Stage 2: In the second stage, the chidlren and parents get daily points for consistent use of tracking their travl, but will also gain extra points based on the mode of transportation that they take.

Spending Points The children can use their points to develop their planet. The points for development will increase as the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s colony becomes more advanced and developed. The child will initially have to buy pieces of land to build their the buildings on.

If the system detects a change in habit, the child will gain extra points as a bonus and an achievement and consistently gain the new set of poitns for the new transportaiton mode.

Stage 3: The children will still get their daily poitn allowance

GGD Game Developers

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Figure 8.10- Game play system

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Phases

User Actions

Children

Introduction / Beginning Receive game and the product through the school / online.

Persuasion from child or own interest to download the application

Persuasion from child or own interest to download the application

Parents

Physical Game Play & Information Travel and collect points and missions with the ‘Astrocom’.

Travel and collect points and missions with the ‘Astrocom’.

Development

Information and recommendations on how to travel smarter.

Information and recommendations on how to travel smarter.

Changes in the travel pattern to become more sustainable.

Collect points by traveling to school, activities, etc.

Game play for extra points and to explore the planetary system.

Use points to develop their planets’ colonies for inhabitants.

Development based on criteria: Green space v. Built space Amount of industry space Living distance from pollution zones Jobs and housing available

Exploration and continuation of the storyline.

Explore other planets and see the colonies of your friends.

Collect points by traveling to work, stores, etc. & give points to children.

Changes in the travel pattern to become more sustainable.

Peers who also play the game can develop their own planets.

Peers

Line of Interaction

Information feed given to children through the game.

Daily notifications / updates on best routes and other suggestions on healthier living.

Emergency notification and alert system with recommendations.

Creation of the kid’s game world.

Building Missions are given based on the storyline.

Information based on criteria is logged.

Recommendataions are generated to develop the colonies.

Front Contact

Game

Introduction to storyline and physical and digital game play.

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Application and product connect to link the parent’s account to the game.

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Information feed given to parents through the app.

Daily notifications / updates on best routes and other suggestions on healthier living.

Emergency notification and alert system with recommendations.

Give points to children via phone.

Front Processing

Line of Visability

Database

Signal and connection of the device to the computer.

Pre-generated information stored in a database.

Emergency notifications and information.

Generated data based on a list of pre-determined factors.

Rotterdam database and emergency line information.

Transfer of points to specific children.

Internal Processing

Cloud Processing

Line of Internal Interaction

Server

Specialist

Factors include: Weather forecast - percipitation, temp., etc.

Current traffic - based on timing and monitors Location of citizens (living, school, and work) Citizens’ environment and surroundings

Specialists include: Educational and Teaching Environment, air quality and Health Weather and traffic organizations Emergency response units

Collected GPS data is anonymized and uploaded to the DCMR server.

Specific information generated by specialists for a unique occasion.

Specific Missions are generated based on development information

Missions sets are generated by specialists for use.

Play on and develop new worlds..

Work on social tasks to link your game to friend’s game.

Tasks Play out collected tasks - from traveling, parents, etc.

Overview / Social Interactions Types of tasks (online and physical): Individual play Social with peers Social with parents Related to development

New missions can be found by the children through the physical / digital game play.

Individual tasks.

Return to any of these key moments highlighted by the blue bounding box.

Chidlren create their own tasks. (physical only)

Kids can pick up the task and play it.

Kids can check on the progress of their game.

Parents develop tasks for the children and the family based on interest or other teaching points.

Tasks played with parents in order to learn / act on environmental quality.

Social tasks played with peers in order to promote communication and social action.

Tasks are either played online or done real life.

Skills points are added to the child’s game profile.

Kids can go to parents for help on the game play.

Look at the kid’s impact on the environment, now and in the future.

Kids can compare their status and game world developments.

Peers do their task in real life.

Tasks are either played online or done real life.

Return to any of these key moments highlighted by the blue bounding box.

Information on friends’ progress can also be found online.

Task is created in the game world and uploaded online.

Tasks are either played online or done in real life.

Information on the completion of the tasks are uploaded online.

Information on the completion of the tasks are uploaded online.

Information on the completion of the tasks are uploaded online.

Information is stored in the server and updates the game.

Information is stored in the server and updates the game.

Information is stored in the server and updates the game.

Information is filtered for insights and useful content on environmental quality.

New missions are pulled from the database for children depending on Mission completed.

Collected GPS data is anonymized and uploaded to the DCMR server.

Tasks are checked by parents and then apporved to be put online.

Tasks are checked by parents and then apporved to be put online.

Tasks are then uploaded to the online database.

Tasks are then uploaded to the online database.

Database of all players and the game status.

Process information to show to parents on children’s progress.

Tasks are uploaded into the community server for other kids to play.

Tasks are uploaded to the child’s world so that they can pick it up and play.

Information is accumulated to generate status level.

Cummulated information on the kid’s progress.

Show updates on their progress, the points collected, and the tasks completed.

8.2.

Recommendations

The final outcome of the user test was overall positive and a push for a more in depth and longer test of the children’s interest in the game play and physical-digital interactions. However, some finer details in the design will need to be polished.

Development of Children’s Game Play The game play has been well received, but often the children found it too easy to play. Although the ease is due to the use of a paper prototype, the game mechanics and physics will need to be further included into the game play design.

The game mechanics and physics help convey the overall play style of the game, giving the experience of the game play more emotional experiential depth for the children.

Additionally, the inclusion of sounds, voices and background music will need to be further researched and designed in order to create the overall atmosphere of the game play. The design of the game can dramatically change with the inclusion of the mechanics, physics, music and final aesthetical details. The new improved designs will

have to be further tested with children.

Children’s Tasks The tasks given as examples to the children during the prototyping stage were well received, but often faced questions of difficulty and understanding what the actual game play would include. Because the tasks have not been further elaborated in the design process, the concepts became hard to grasp for the children and parents.

By finishing the design of the example tasks in their different difficulty levels, further testing will help to demonstrate the children’s ability to understand the game play and their interest in playing through the different types of tasks.

By introducing the option of skills and badges based on their activity in the tasks, the children can also gage their ability to perform a certain task. This allows for children to have a reference point for deciding tasks so that they do not end up with tasks that are too easy or too difficult. This is important because the decision of doing a task should not be a complicated process that may hinder the child’s performance of the task.

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Figure 8.112 - Final sample of game play style design - Factory Stench

Another point to consider is the development of a structure to help create the tasks for children. After some discussion with learning specialists from TinQwise, it was important to note that children from ages 5-12 have different learning styles including: reading first, doing first, or exploring first. This means that the game should be open enough to allow children all the options. Therefore, information should not only be provided in the form of doing the task, but also in the form of easy to understand text or video.

Product – Astrocom The product was not fully tested in this design research project. The Astrocom is currently a prototype with design interactive use between children and the game. The technology specifications are created, but needs to be further developed in order to synchronize and work with the online game as well as physical use by children.

Further testing will be necessary for future development of this product in order to understand the actual usability and understanding when a prototype is given to children to use.

Parents’ Application

necessary in an easy to use way for the parents.

However, the parents suggested that they were not as tech-savvy, and preferred not to work on computers or smart phones. Therefore, it is proposed that the parent’s app becomes simplified in order to help parents easily find the information they need. Other options should be hidden but easily found for parents who are more involved and interested in the game.

Detailing the Graphics The aesthetics of the game were well made for the age range, but not yet completed in the eyes of the children. The children are interested in more detailed designs including more detailed backgrounds and even suggested hidden images in behind the foreground game play. The aesthetics of the children’s game seems to work especially well for the younger children, but may be see as too childish for the older children.

In future development, the game aesthetics should remain similar but include more detailing illustrations and drawings. These details are more attractive to the older children by going beyond the basics and providing some visual aesthetics that provide more complex thought processes.

The application provides all the information

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8.3.

Future Strategy

For the future development of this game, a Pilot and Implementation plan has been developed in order to continue. The plan includes the necessary next steps, potential partners, and further research areas.

7.3.1 Pilot

The aim for the pilot is to start development of the game to include the basic mechanics and game play for children and families to test. This test will help yield information about the interest of the children and parents over a longer period of time.

It will also help determine the weak and strong points of the gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design for further refinement.

The pilot plan has been designed according to the development of the project over the next year.

The setup and structure of the pilot project is shown in Figure 8.9. The pilot project will consist of four

Design & Development Phase 1 Secured Finanace

Finances Milestone

Production of accessori

Product Development Final design - ready for testing

Application Development

Game Play and task testing

Game Development Final design of introduction and storyline Listing & Contact of possible schools

Recruitment

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Figure 8.13 - Pilot test planning and scheduling

major areas, including: game play development, application develop, product development and recruitment / marketing. Each area of development will be done through a partnership with a specialist in their field.

In order to develop the game, each development team must simultaneously work on their area of development. However, in order to avoid a diverging development group, a main design development group will partake in each groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main development activity. This main design development group will also be charged with finding necessary funding and any additional resources needed for the pilot of this design.

7.3.2 Implementation Plan The implementation of the Pilot plan has been planned to span the time frame of one year with an initial recruitment process of half a year. Given the funding is achieved, the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first half a year will be to assemble all necessary companies and agencies that will be involved in the development of this game.

After the recruitment of all initially necessary parties, the development process should take about a year before the first pilot test can be launched. The launching of the pilot test would be best either at the beginning of the school year (August - September) or mid-way through the school year (February â&#x20AC;&#x201C; March).

Eco-System Testing

Begin Pilot Test

Phase 2

ies for trial test

Phase 3

Funding for 100 x production

First stage individual testing

PIlot testing launch & continuous testing / review

Full eco-system test (1 session followed by 1 week)

Secured 1-3 schools

Prep work with schools

Pilot Test Launch

Secured +/- 100 students

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Finances

Finances should be handled prior to the development phases to ensure enough funding for each phase.

Product Development Product development is an important part in ensuring that the GPS tracking works in conjunction with the game and the phone application.

Application Development Application development should focus on the usability of the app by parents and the creation of an online web version.

Game Development Game development involves the necessary development of 3 areas: storyline, tasks, and game play mechanics/physics.

Recruitment Recruitment and marketing work towards the acceptance and interest of the first group of participants for the Pilot test.

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Design & Development

Eco-System Testing

Phase 1

Phase 2

- Initial funding for product development

- Finalize funding for production in order to begin pilot test

- Technology Implementataion Hardware & Software - Design Development - User Testing x 3

- Link product & technology to the game and application - In field testing

- Software Development & Implementataion Website & Phone App - Design Development - User Testing x 3

- Test the app link with the product and the online game - Usability of the application in the storyline - In field Testing

STORY LINE - Developing the full storyline - Develop and design the game world & game play TASKS - Work with partners to develop learning tasks for children GAME PLAY MECHANICS - Develop the initial concepts of game play with the mechanics - User testing of the game play style, development style, overall interaciton between the different levels of game play

STORY LINE - Test the link and understanding of the full storyline in context of the game play TASKS - Test different levels of difficulty on a variety of tasks during different conditions over a session test and week test GAME PLAY MECHANICS - Test the game play with chidlren through small versions of game play in a session test and week test

- Find a list of primary schools interested in the game / digital learning for kids

- Secure 1-3 schools in the Rijnmond area (should not all be in Rotterdam) - Planning of the pilot test

Figure 8.14 - Pilot plan and partnerships

Begin Pilot Test

Partnerships

Phase 3 - Funding over, future funding options for further development - Development of business plan

- Conjunction of Coperations - EU / National / Institute Funding Options - Private investor funding (?)

- Sustainable and economical production methods of 100 pieces - Distribution and continual track of use and maintenance

- Product development in cooperation with TU Delft - Work with TU Delft students - Designing for Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Play course (Mathieu Gielen)

- Distribution of the app and account codes to parents - Ensuring a smooth function of the background system - Answering questions, fixing bugs

- Web development companies interested in designing kids social media games and systems i.e. Changer - web and mobile apps

STORY LINE - Understanding and interest of storyline checks throughout the pilot test TASKS - Test and ask feedback for tasks given to children during the pilot test - Test learning curve as children play on GAME PLAY MECHANICS - Test interest and continual interest in the game play throughout the pilot test

TASKS - E-learning and kids education specialists i.e. TinQwise E-learning solutions for kids (ESFK) Teachers unions Radboud University Mijnmegen GAME PLAY MECHANICS - Game development comapny i.e. Grendel Games Dutch Game Garden IJsfontein

- Introduction & conclusion of the pilot test - Continual checking with schools during the test - Finding next level marketing and communication techniques

Schools and BSO programs: - Regenboogschool (basisschool) - Plukbol Kinder opvang (BSO) UX Kids - speciailists in usability test and session with kids

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8.4.

Process Evaluation

The overall process of this research and design project followed an extended design cycle. Being closely related to the typical design cycle, the interesting points of the cycle to evaluate is the citizen research and co-creation and user test sessions with the children.

The changes to the methods provided interesting and more depth insights and results to the project. Through the adaptations of the process and methods, the research was tailored to the needs of the project. The adjustments to the process and methods were made in order to help the researcher to gain a better understanding of the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scope. By exploring the necessary and sometimes unnecessary aspects of the project, the final design concept was stronger due to the support from the background information.

The overall research, however, was not necessarily optimized for efficiency.

Research was conducted in order to collect as much information possible, creating an overwhelming amount of information, and using a lot of time and resources.

Given more time during the initial planning phase and more directed research, the research phase could have been significantly limited, giving more time for the design phase of this project. In the future, the time, research and resource management will need to be reviewed before starting the research project.

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Figure 8.15 - Final Design: In game map

8.5.

Discussion about the End Design

The final design of this project was an essential part in exhibiting the ability for citizens to recognize and create solutions for community problems. After conceiving the idea of working with children from a citizen session, the design was developed towards motivating and engaging children citizens to become aware and take action on environmental and air quality issues.

The final design of a persuasive physical and digital game helped capture the curiosity and interest of children who were unaware of these possibilities. During the user tests, the children were able to easily link their understanding of the physical environment with the one they were creating in the online game. Not only that, but children were able to even go as far as to suggest problems and possible solutions that they have noticed in their immediate environment.

Moreover, in a Dutch blog post by Martijn van der Steen on the Dutch website, Public Mission, van der Steen suggests that a game could be created in order for citizens and children to become more aware and interested in environmental quality. The article and writer were not related to the project, making the link between the blog post and the research and design of this game more interesting.

The design has thus far been able to prove the interest in the citizen group as well as its ability to help elicit insights among citizens. However, further development will be necessary in order to put the game into the market. A long journey still awaits the research, design and development of this game.

Figure 8.16 - Final Design: Introduction sequence shot

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8.6.

Conclusions

The research has shown that participation in urban development and future policymaking is a possibility for the future, given a long trajectory. Currently, citizens are unaware and uninterested of the urban problems around them. However, through recognition and awareness building, citizens, even children, become more aware of their actions and the environment around themselves.

This is the first step in the development of citizen participation in urban development and policy making. Over the next few decades, through new projects and initiatives, the awareness level of citizens can begin to rise, making the urban environment more than just the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;outside of the houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, but rather into a living and thriving urban environment full of citizens. Once citizens can reach a level of awareness, including reasons for interest and improvement, they will take a bigger role in the progression of their urban city.

At the moment awareness levels reach the threshold for action, citizens initiatives will have a place to thrive. However, until this moment, citizen initiatives will be considerably smaller in scale. Therefore, a future sustainable, social and participatory city can be envisioned. By working on small instances for awareness among groups of citizens, progress will be made towards the future city.

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Figure 8.17 - Final Design: Introduction sequence, characters in space

8.7.

Personal Reflection

Over the past six months, this graduation project has allowed me the freedom and ability to explore a number of different research and design methods. The project gave me a great opportunity to work with a number of experts, students, citizens and children in the design and development of this project.

By working in the Dutch market as a non-Dutch speaking student, I have learned to better organize and develop research sessions and questions for different cultures and in different languages. The design, facilitation, and analysis of the resulting data have helped me learn to improve my language skills as well as observational readings from tones and body language. Not to mention, the project has given me the opportunity to work on my management skills while trying to coordinate participants and facilitators of each study.

The initial sessions proved to be the most difficult part of my research for this project because of the overload of information given through the multiple user session and different expert interviews. During the first two months, the project was not progressing due to the amount of negative opinions of many citizens and interviewees. Many of the citizens and experts seemed to think that it was close to impossible to create a tool to create more awareness and interest among the public on concerns over environment and air quality. This type of thinking was dragging me down and pulled me a bit behind on my research and studies, especially while working alone. The possibility of creating something useful and possible seemed a bit distant.

However, after working along with a few fellow students in a creative session, I was able to find an important key piece of insight leading me towards designing for children. The enthusiasm of other citizens and the children helped me gain more enthusiasm and enjoyment in creating the design.

The project helped me learn to cope with both the high and the low moments involved in research and design projects. Additionally, I learned to be more active in decision making during the design process. Often I wait for the decisions to come after being concretely proven though the research, but often, there is no concrete proof and often it causes me to have less time to work on the design.

Time management is an important skill that I will need to work on as I grow as a design researcher.

Although the design process has been tough and challenging, the end result of excited and engaged users brought me to realize that the design could have a future.

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References Arnstein, Sherry R (1969). “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216-224.

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