Project report | Design for Social Interaction in Neigbourhoods
June 18th, 2015 M.Acquoij | s080302 M1.2 DSM12 | Out of control Department of Industrial Design Eindhoven University of Technology Coaches: RenĂŠ de Torbal & Vera Winthagen
| Foreword Dear reader, This project report elaborates and illustrates my design process of my M1.2 semester at the faculty of Industrial Design. My background in Architecture led me to the interest in this project, in which I focused on facilitating houses in such a way the living experience could be positively effected. Next to this I was very much attracted by the many stakeholders that were concerned with this project. This allowed me to have many different conversations about the focus context, which suits my way of working. On forehand I would like to apologize for any spelling/ grammar mistakes that are caused by my dyslexia. Kinds Regards, Marieke 2
| Abstract In this report you can read about the design process of STIEUW. STIEUW is the end result and a design suggestion for the project Design for Social Interaction in Neighbourhoods that is facilitated by the Technical University of Eindhoven. This is a sub project of Learning On The Move (LOTM) which is set up by the municipality of Eindhoven. Other stakeholders in LOTM are Summa College, Fontys and TU/e. Collectively they collaborate on improving the Healthcare and Wellbeing in the neighbourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek through co-design.
STIEUW gives real-time information about the lifestyle of people living in a certain street, which is based on the research of Smartagent called Leefstijlen. This information is connected to the Woonbedrijf website on which the new tenant can apply for an available house. This tenant has to create a personal profile to do this. Now STIEUW can direct this new tenant to apply for a house in a certain type of street that matches best with their personal profile. Thus Stieuw combines physical neighbourhood research based on the research of Smartagent, with a digital representation of the ‘Buurt als Jas’. Thereby residents are matched, based on their similar lifestyle.
The key stakeholder with and for whom STIEUW was designed, was the housing cooperation of Eindhoven, Woonbedrijf. Their vision played a big role in the design concept and process described in this report. Their vision is based on the research of de ‘Buurt als Jas’, which concludes that when the same sort of people live in the same street their living experience is positively influenced. This fits the goal of the project LOTM, where the social part of wellbeing can be used to increase how well and comfortable people feel in their living environment.
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Even though STIEUW can help to match people based their lifestyles, it is just a small concept of many to fully fulfill the aim of increasing the wellbeing of neightbourhoods. Due to the complexity of neighbourhoods where many stakeholders are involved, you need more concepts to keep with the developments and changes.
Source: google.com
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Index | Abstract 02 Chapter 0 | Final concept 06
0.1.1 STIEUW 08 Chapter 1 | Context 10 EXPLORATION
Chapter 2 | Neighbourhood introduction 14 2.1.1 Physical catalyzers 16 2.2.1 Digital vs. Physical 18 2.2.1 Slimmer leven challenge 20
Chapter 3 | Neighbhourhood mapping 22 3.1.1 Workshop 24 3.1.2 Fact research 26 3.1.3 Framework & map 28 3.2.1 Exploration day 30 3.2.1 Mapping 31
IDEATION Chapter 4 | Stakeholder focus 34 4.1.1 Interview tool 36
Index Chapter 5 | Literature research 40
Chapter 10 | References 40 Chapter 11 | Acknoledgement 48
| Appendices 56
CONCEPTUALISATION
5.1.1 De buurt als jas 42
5.1.2 Leefstijlen Eindhoven 44
PROTOTYPING
Chapter 6 | Design suggestions 48
6.1.1 Research tool 50 6.2.1 Woonbedrijf webstie 52 6.3.1 How to identify 54
7.1.1 Digital vs. Physical 58 7.2.1 Building & testing 60
8.1.2 User testing 60
Chapter 7 | Final prototype 56
ANALYZING Chapter 8 | Feedback on design 64 8.1.1 Pre-user testing 58
Chapter 9 | Conclusions & discussion 70
8.1.1 Discussion 58 8.1.2 Conclusions 60 8.1.2 Future 60
Appendix A | Concept video STIEUW USB Appendix B | Process video USB Appendix C |Python code USB Appendix D | Interface USB
Chapter 0 | Final concept To improve the living experience of three neighbourhoods in Eindhoven, STIEUW was designed with and for the local housing cooperation Woonbedrijf. This product is based on the research of “de Buurt als Jas” 1 and “Leefstijlen Eindhoven” 2 which will be elaborately described later in this document. This research shows that when the same sort of people live in the same street it has positive effect on the living experience. Based on this conclusion STIEUW was developed.
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“The social context calls for a critical evaluation of this vision, and to develop alternative viewpoints”. - de Buurt als Jas
Chapter 0.1 | STIEUW Next to this the website includes a section where a new tenant can create a personal profile. This personal profile is also based on the four lifestyles described in the “Leefstijlen” research.
STIEUW exists out of an offline and online prototype that are connected. The offline part is placed in the streets of a neigbourhood of interest. This can be a street were Woonbedrijf has houses available for rent. It is used as research tool to determine the type of people that are living in this street based on their lifestyles.
Now that is know which and what kind of house is available and what kind of person is searching for a house a match can be made.
The offline part exists of a voting board with five statements on top (see figure 1) to provides up to date street information about the living experience of residents. These five statements are derived from the “Leefstijlen” research that will be elaborated later in this report. The assumption of these five statements is that when people vote ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ on each of these statements, the voting board can calculate which type of people have been voting and therefore measure which kind of people live in that particular street.
The available houses that are shown on a the map differ in size icon(see figure 2 again). The biggest house shows the best match with the new tenant and the smallest the smallest match. Nevertheless the new tenant can still apply for every available house but is only being persuade in a direction so that in the future the same sort of people can live in the same street.
The online part is a product that can be used wherever the user has connection to the internet. It exists out of a dynamic database and the website of Woonbedrijf. Both of these products are connected to the voting board as described earlier. Since the votes can tell which kind of people live in a certain street, this information can be coupled with an available rent house. This will be visualized on the Woonbedrijf website in the form of a housing description but also in the size of the icon of the available house. These available houses icons are visualized on a map (see figure 2).
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Figure 1
Source: google.com
Figure 2
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Chapter 1 | Context In this report the design process of me, Marieke Acquoij my M1.2 project, Design for Social Interaction in Neigbourhoods, is elaborated. This project is part of the project Learning On The Move (LOTM) that is setup by the municipality of Eindhoven. With three educational institutions this LOTM project was organized. Summa College, Fonthys and Tu/e students needed to collaboration to fulfil the task of designing an eco-learning system that can help to improve the healthcare and wellbeing in the neighbourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek. In the individual part of this process I focused on the social side of wellbeing. For this a close collaboration with the housing cooperation, Woonbedrijf was set up. The end result of this process is called STIEUW. 14
Exploration
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Chapter 2 | Neighbourhood introduction In this chapter the first iteration of the neigbourhood exploration is explained. The main goal of this exploration was to get more connected with the focus areas Eckart and Vaartbroek.
“We perceive the world in terms of what we can do with it, and by physically interacting with it we access and express meaning�. - C. Hummels & A. Trotto
Both neighbourhoods are located in the North of Eindhoven and are on the list of special focus according to Rob Woltingen of the municipality of Eindhoven (interviewed on 3rd of April 2015) 2. Since these neighbourhoods have a lot in common and are located in a triangle with anothere neighbourhood Luijtelaer, most of the residents call the neighbourhood: Eckart-Vaartbroek.
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Source: woonbedrijfinbeeld.nl
Supportive
Chapter 2.1 | Catalyzers 2.1.1 Physical catalyzers As described in the introduction this project was focused on two neighborhoods in the north of Eindhoven named Eckart and Vaartbroek. To gain insight in this area an exploration was set up. During this exploration interviews were held among the residents of the neighbourhoods. This was done with support of catalyzers (see figure 3).
The results provided a better feeling and understanding which people live in those neighborhoods and the topics that play a role in their daily live.
Catalyzers are physical tools that allow bodily activities. It turns out that Engagement Catalyzers are a powerful instrument for weaving neighbourhoods and strengthening the social connection between citizens according to Hummels et al. 2015 4.
This provided the basic topics that could be used in a later stage of the project. Topics such as conflicts between cultures, lack of hospitality facilities, neighbour contact were topics with a high level of interest.
The catalyzers were used to enrich the interviews. The different type of catalyzers were designed in such a way they provided different purposes: Ice breaker Support tool Emotional scale
This first series of interviews focused on both neighborhoods, while the second series that is described later on, merely focused on the neighborhood Vaartbroek.
Random residents of the selected neighbourhoods were asked to participate. Sometimes the catalyzers were explained, while other catalyzers were used ad hoc without any introduction.
Emotional scale
Ice breaker
Ice breaker
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Figure 3 Source: google.com Picture made by S. Aarends
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2.2.1 Digital vs. Physical After exploring the neighbourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek with the physical catalyzers, there was an opportunity to discover the differences between those physical tools with digital ones. To discover this, another exploration was set up, but this time in the focus area Vaartbroek only. In this exploration resident were being approached with physical tools first and later with digital ones.
The insights in sustainability was rather small. People did not seem to be much aware of their behavior and the feedback that was provided in a growing tree (see figure 5). They were more focused on filling in the questions. One main conclusion from this exploration was that digital tools can be used to reach a large general group better, than a specific group from whom in depth qualitative data needs to be collected. The tool can reach a large anonymous group of people and it can be used in every environment (public and private) if wanted.
The aim of this exploration was to see what the value of digital is compared to physical catalyzers. To create more focus and less abstractness the digital tools were designed with the topic: sustainability in Vaartbroek.
Next to this, complex data can easily be analyzed and mapped into clear information.
The exploration started with a physical tool as quick exploration for the future layers of the digital tool. This saved time and effort and still research could be done. From the start of this exploration the tool was focused on the opinion of the residents and their personal input. The aim was to gain insight in the context of sustainability in Vaartbroek but also how they would like to see Vaartbroek in the future.
Nevertheless this exploration was set up with the focus on sustainability, this tool did not give much insight information about that. For this more time and effort was needed to improve the tool.
The final digital tool that was designed used gamification 5, with the elements described above. By connecting the game with an online database (see figure 4) it was possible to track how many people visited the website on which the game was presented. Based on these statistics it can be said that more people were reached with the digital tool than the physical tool that was being used for this exploration. Since it is a digital tool people could interact with it in their private environment, rather than only in the public environment. 22
Source: google.com
Figure 4
Figure 5
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2.3.1 Slimmer leven challenge The concept behind this application came from the unknown citizens in many neighbourhoods. We assumed that there is not enough transparency in activities in many neighbourhoods. People do not know what is going on or which activities are taking place where and on which time.
During the first stage of this design project, I participated in the Slimmer Leven challenge. The Slimmer leven challenge is an one day competition in which groups get the opportunity to design for care and wellbeing. Since this competition had overlap with the project Design For Social Interaction in Neigbourhoods I participated this one day challenge. The overlap of the project and this one day challenge was that the three education institutions were involved. In both projects, students of Summa College, Fontys and TU/e had to cooperate to deliver a concept.
The concept that was created allow to create a more transparent neighbourhoods according to activities. I figured out that this transparency might not only count for activities but also for the people in the neighbourhoods itself or their opinions.
Together with four Summa college students, two Fontys students and two TU/e students we kicked of the slimmer leven challenge. We aimed to finish with a concept for social interaction in neighbourhoods. For this we created the concept of an application which allowed residents to upload activities in their neighbourhood. This could be done by individuals, groups but also by local companies and shops.
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Source: Source: google.com Slimmerlevenchallange.nl
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Chapter 3 | Neighbourhood mapping In this chapter the explorations will be mapped and organised in such a way that the collected information makes sense and creates a overview of the focus areas.
“I see a surrounding as a product. A product with an even larger context�. - M. Acquoij
By putting stakeholders in place and visualize their roles, it can create a clear story of what is happening in Eckart-Vaartbroek. Next to this also the urban set up is visualized to create a better understand what type of place the neighbourhoods are.
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Source: Eindhoven in Beeld /general overview of Eindhoven
Chapter 3.1 | Stakeholder analyses 3.1.1 Workshop Since the workshop provided only small insights in which stakeholders are active in the neighbourhood, it was necessary to do a more general search of facts to create a better and more fundamental understanding of who is active where and what they do. Here for facts had to be searched about the stakeholders. This was done in online databases such as CBS, local newspapers and police information websites
Now that we have observed the neighbourhood multiple times and got acquainted with the residents,we started on further analysis and frameworking. We kicked of with analyzing the stakeholders. A workshop about stakeholder framing was given by Vera Winthagen. In this workshop she taught us to analyze what the goal is of the stakeholders and what they already achieve in this field. In this way we could have more grip on all those active stakeholders that are operating in the neighhbourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek.
Next to this fact researches about different topic such as the amount of population, percentage of difference races, age differences etc., we ended up having small qualitative interviews with local stakeholders such as de BIEB, BuroCement but we also had found more qualitative data on the websites of organizations as Vadercommitee and WijEindhoven.
All of the stakeholders were captured and discussed in a brainstorm sessions. For these stakeholders we had to think about their pains (what is their goal) and their gains (what did they already achieve). To order the stakeholders, it became more clear which stakeholders are active in the focus areas but it became also more clear what the stakeholders are actually doing here.
Nevertheless we were searching for more fact base information we ended up with some qualitative information which also gave us more understanding of the different active groups in Eckart-Vaartbroek
Now that a general overview was created, more depth had to be applied to gain a even better understanding what every party is doing.
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Source: google.com
Pictures made by S. Aarends
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3.1.3 Framework & map From the workshop and fact research a framework and map was created (see figure 6 & 7). This to visualize the information in such a way that the total context is better to understand for me and the rest that was working on this project. Now it was easier to understand what is happening where and therefor more obvious where design opportunities could be introduced. The framework exist out of the pains and gains that I just discussed in last chapter. For each stakeholder these pains and gains were put in place. Now a clear overview was created of all the stakeholders and their activities. To create a better understanding of the size of the stakeholders and in which location they operate a heat map was designed with a different colour for every stakeholder and size of circle to show how big they are and the placement shows if they are local stakeholders or not. These visualizations allowed to understand the focus area much better and to see where design opportunities appear.
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Figure 6
Figure 7
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Chapter 3.2 | Neighbourhood analyses 3.2.1 Exploration day
3.2.2 Mapping
The exploration day in Eckart-Vaartbroek, was the first collaboration assignment with the three educational institutions Summa college, Fonthys and Tu/e. During this day the main goal was to explore the neighbourhood from different perspectives.
To create also an overview of the specific neighbourhood elements, a neighbourhood map was created of the different collected information gathered throughout all of the neighbourhood explorations (see figure 8).
Three groups of mixed students were sent into the neigbhourhood with a list of questions. The questions were focused on the context and especially on the first impression the context provided according to the perspective of the three different type of students.
Landmarks, facilities and infrastructure were mapped into the geographical map of both neigbhourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek. Next to this also the information collected from the fact research was implemented into this map. The composition of residents and weather facts were visualized.
To gain insight in the different perspectives and student their opinion, the questions were asked three times. Ones towards each specific student.
This map was used to explain what kind of neighbourhoods Eckart en Vaartbroek are and to see again where design opportunities are possible.
Next to another iteration in the neigbhourhood this collaboration showed the small differences in perspective. I figured out that the opinion of the other students were mostly based on the image of the neigbhourbood whereas I mostly tried to aks myself if this image was based on the throught or that it was just something that kept on coming up throughout the years.
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Source: google.com
Figure 8
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Ideation
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Picture made by S. Aarends
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Chapter 4 | Stakeholder focus To create a more focused position for the design process I chose to focus on one stakeholder.
“Find a nice place to live�. - Woonbedrijf
By approaching Woonbedrijf as a focus stakeholder the design process got a more narrowed down direction instead of looking at all of the active stakeholders in the neighbourhoods Eckart-Vaartbroek. Woonbedrijf was open for collaboration, where Anita van Hezik was the contact person and coordinator of the focus areas. In the later stage of the process Storm Moghal also joined the collaboration.
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Source: Eindhovens dagblad website
Chapter 4.1 | Interviews The framework and maps created a clear overview of what already had been done and where still opportunities of development are. During this phase it became clear that in both neighbourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek many social organizations are active. Most of those organizations allow people to gather in community houses or organize public activities.
This interview tool had the form of Eindhoven and contained five steps. In those steps I asked Anita to tell who Woonbedrijf is, with whom they are working, where their focus context is located, which kind of people live there, how they would like to see these kind of people change in the future and with who they have to cooperate for this.
Nevertheless those activities bring some active people together, they do not reach most of the residents.
After using this tool in my interview with Anita van Hezik of Woonbedrijf our conversation became more clear because of the visualizations (see figure 9). Although the interview was very much setup in a clear structure the conversation lead to other things too. One of the important directions to mention is that the project context shifted from only Eckart-Vaartbroek to another neighbourhood called ‘t Hool. From now on I focused on neighbourhoods of Eindhoven in general instead of the two neighbbourhoods Eckart and Vaartbroek.
Since in Eckart-Vaartbroek a lot of social organization were already very active I tried to search for an organization that was not social oriented at first but more practical and not table to neglect out of the neigbourhood’s system. Next to this, this stakeholder should be suitable for a position to improve the neighbourhood wellbeing according to the project description 6.
Next to this Anita told me about the vision of Woonbedrijf. This vision played from that time on a big role in the concept of the end result STIEUW.
A direct focus stakeholder in this project was Woonbedrijf. Since their first aim is to facilitate housing in a big part of Eckart-Vaartbroek, they are not only focused on social activities. Next to this they have a big say in changing things in the neighbourhood since they facilitate around 66 % of the houses there 7. Since they had big potential in creating something for improving wellbeing in my opinion, I wanted to have an interview with them to see who they are, what they do and where they want to go. For this interview with Anita van Hezik, I designed an interview tool to visualize the conversation and hopefully trigger insights or new topics.
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Source: google.com
Figure 9
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Conceptualizing
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Chapter 5| Literature research Woonbedrijf told about their new vision which is based on the literature of “de Buurt als Jas”. In this document the authors describe a research about urbanizations and resident perspectives in the cities Den Haag, Amsterdam and Tilburg.
“I see potential element in the vision of de buurt als jas, but we are still searching for something sustainable”. - A. van Hezik
Next to this research the document of Leefstijlen Eindhoven made by Smartagent is closely discussed.
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Source: www.debuurtalsjas.nl
Chapter 5.1 | De Buurt als Jas
Chapter 5.2| Leefstijlen Eindhoven
5.1.1 New vision
5.2.1 Personal living experience
During the interview with Anita van Hezik of Woonbedrijf she mentioned the new vision of Woonbedrijf that is derived from the research “de Buurt als jas”. In this research they discovered that dynamic neighbourhoods bring positive effect on the living experience of the residents. They also say that when the same sort of people live in the same street the living experience is positive effected. When they say the same people they identify them with: socioeconomic, demographic and cultural status.
In this research Smartagent has tried to divide Eindhoven in four type of people based on their lifestyles. Now residents are not approached by their economic status or cultural background but by their personal living habits or needs. In my opinion these lifestyles can come closer to what people like and who they are as a person. When this can be combined with the vision that is described in “de Buurt als jas” I am more certain of creating a better environment in neighbourhoods.
Nevertheless I somehow agree with their findings I am doubting about the criteria of the identities. In this research they still talk about economic status and not about how someone perceives an environment or what their lifestyle contains. Too improve this element of identification on personal interest, I combined the research of “Leefstijlen Eindhoven” with “de Buurt als jas”.
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Source: www.platform31.nl
Source: google.com
Source: www.samr.nl
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Prototyping
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Chapter 6 | Design suggestion In this chapter the search for a prototype is described. Together with mockups and co-design sessions I have tried to come up with new inspiration for the final prototype STIEUW. To include the residents and my client Woonbedrijf, it became more clear that the design had to be straightforward and not too complex to understand but still able to complete the task of the project description.
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Picture by K.Mulder
Chapter 6.1 | Research tool
Chapter 6.2 | Interface website
6.1.1 Leefstijlen Eindhoven as inspiration
6.2.1 Woonbedrijf website
Since the ”Leefstijlen” research was very inspirational to place identities into a structure, I was curious how they came up with this information. The research is based on the “Brand strategy research” 8, which is used to design packaging for products for example since they formulated four different lifestyle on which they can respond. To create my own database of lifestyles in Eindhoven I setup a pilot test of this research with my own implementation.
Although the pilot test could be suitable for many cities in the Netherlands, this project was still focused on the Neighbourhoods of Eindhoven. The neighbourhoods ‘t Hool, Eckart and Vaartbroek were used as user test areas. In which design suggestions could be tested. To create a tool for Eindhoven in particular a suggestions for a new website of Woonbedrijf was made. In this interface the elements of BSR and the research of “de buurt als jas” were implemented.
This pilot test was set up to see how many people would apply in a small amount of time. Since it was said that the research of Smartagent was based on 1 of 8 households in the Netherlands. The aim of this test was also to see which kind of people live in which part of the city of Eindhoven.
The website contained personal guidance while applying for new houses. Also the interface was tried to set up in such a way that the new tenant felt personally approached, for example by creating a personal profile and being welcomed on the website. Strategies from the book “ontwerpen voor gedrags verandering” 9 were taken into account while creating this interface.
For this people could only fill in a questionnaire that contained one question : what kind of person are you. The participant could choose out of four types. Next to this they were asked to fill in their postal code to see if the people could be clustered on street level. Within three days, twenty-two people participated. Even though the amount of participants was surprisingly large the living area of the participants was too small to create conclusions for one specific area. Most of the participant were located in the center of Eindhoven and even some in Helmond and Waalre (see figure 7). From this can be suggested that most of the participant were fellow students that saw the post of facebook where the questionnaire link was posted and not the people of the facebook website of Eckart, Vaartbroek and ‘t Hool. From this it can be concluded that it has potential for all residents of Eindhoven and even other cities in the Netherlands. 50
Source: google.com
Figure 7
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Chapter 6.3 | Co-design session 6.3.1 How to identify lifestyles To see how people identify themselves a co-design session was set up. Several active people in Eckart and Vaartbroek received 4 puzzle pieces. We asked them to spread out three of the pieces to other people that they know and leave one of the puzzle pieces for themselves. Each of the puzzle pieces contained a picture with a certain illustration: Food, Sport, Globe and DIY.
From this it became clear the participant used the illustrations as a symbol instead of a literal translation. The symbols were more focused on the person’s attitude rather than on the real practical skills this person has.
A few days after distributing the invitations the co-design session took place. Although 24 participants could be invited be spreading out the puzzle pieces, only 3 active people joined the session.
It was also obvious that the participants were attracted by the qualities of each other when they liked it and felt more connected with it.
From a discussion about the session it could be concluded that the invitation was clear, however this should have been followed up by more verbal invitations and checks. This could have increased the amount of participants for the session. Nevertheless the co-design session had enough participants for each round. For my design process the first round was only of great importance. In this round each of the participants had to describe why they had chosen the puzzle piece for themselves and why they had given their puzzle piece to others.
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Source: google.com Pictures by K. Mulders
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Chapter 7 | Final prototype After all these insights that I have gained from the neighbourhoods and stakeholders the final concept STIEUW was design. In this chapter I will describe how this prototype was developed.
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“This product is just one of many that can improve wellbeing in neighbourhoods�. - M. Acquoij
Chapter 7.1 | Physical vs. Digital
Chapter 7.2 | Building & Testing
7.1.1 Voting board
7.2.1 Material
Feedback on the concepts in the exploration phase indicated, that next to a digital product it was also worth looking at a physical product. Not only since it suited my vision 10 more but also to approach residents in a more obvious way, than online using digital media.
Now that the idea of a voting board and online interface were decided, both needed to be connected. For this I needed to use coding, an raspberry cirquit and construction out of wood and Perspex.
A voting board was created where people could individually vote, although their vote were anonymous others could see how many people already voted on some statements. This should create connection without seeing each other.
The offline voting board has been made from laser cut MDF wood and Perspex to create tidy lines and clear text to read. The board standard and the board itself exsists out of some more robust wood, since this needed to hold all other material and some construction strength, to hold the power of interaction.
These values of anonymous connection came forth out of a discussion with the Summa college students who mentioned that some people rather be anonymous than having direct contact with their neighbours. Also the value of showing a opinion was trying to come back in this voting board. Now that people have the opportunity to vote, they can feel more in control of what is happening in their neighbourhood.
7.2.2 Electronics To connect the board to the online database ten RFID readers are integrated and connected to a Raspberry Pi. These readers can scan the tags that are integrated in the wooden cards. Since all of the cards can be registered on street level it is possible to know which street had been voting what. As demonstration the prototype was setup using one RFID reader, Raspberry Pi and a Python script to log the data in a MySQL database.
Now that there was a design of an interface and a physical voting board, both needed to be connected.
7.2.3 Interface
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Voting card
RFID tag
Source: google.com
The interface that had been designed for STIEUW was made in PHP coding which is integrated with the MySQL database to visualize the votes on the website interface. Nevertheless the prototype itself worked, more attractive visuals (appendix D) were made in illustrator to show how the future product could look like. 57
Analyzing
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Chapter 8| Feedback on design To see what the residents thought about the products a usertest was set up with 15 participants in total. First a pre-user test was help in my owh living environment and later in the user test area ‘t Hool.
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Chapter 8.1 | User testing
8.1.2 User-testing
8.1.1 Pre-user testing
To see how the people in the test neighbourhoods would interact with the offline board, I placed it in the community house in ‘t Hool. Here I discussed the prototype experience with 6 residents. Since this gather place attracks not only active residents I chose this place to test my prototype. I approached them verbally but also gave them the invitation letter (Appendix E) with the five wooden cards they needed for voting in the voting board.
To see how users would interact with STIEW, it had to be tested. First this was done through a pre-test in my own apartment building. In this context I had control over the object that had to be placed in the public entrance of the building. Next to this is was easier to ask flat residents to interact with the product. Most of them were familiar with me, which made it easier to have more user tests.
Also here most of the residents had some difficulties on understanding or interpreted the statements. It was also not clear for most of them to finish all the five wooden cards and where to leave them when they did not want to use them.
Most of the discussions were about the statements on the board. Most of the users did not find the statements clear enough or to open for own interpretation. Next to this they told me that the board was of positive appearance but that it needed do become more hufter-prove, if it really has to become a standalone object.
Most of the residents were attracted by the looks of the product and were also interested in what others had voted. The connection towards an online product was not clear to any of them and we discussed if this was necessary to know to make the interaction more attractive.
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Picture by M.acquoij
Source: google.com
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Chapter 9 | Conclusions & discussion By designing the product service STIEUW, the design process was of great importance. Many insights of the process are represented in this final object. Although I see high potential in the use of this product, it has also many remarks which will be discussed in this chapter.
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Source: Slimmer leven challange facebookpage
Chapter 9.1 |Future of STIEUW 9.1.1 Conclusion STIEUW its name was created by the Dutch words nieuw and bestaand, which mean new and existing. Since the product focused on new tenants and existing residents. Next to this the Dutch word stuwen has got the definition of improving something, which for STIEUW is design, improving part of the wellbeing in neighbourhoods. Nevertheless STIEUW is only a little piece of improvement for the wellbeing in a neighbourhood in my opinion. I have seen throughout my design process that in a social context as in this project it is not possible to improve the wellbeing in a neighbourhood with only one design. For this many designs are needed. The context is constantly changing and developing. Therefor the process of new designs and concepts is continues. In a context as this many small changes needs to improve the bigger context.
After testing the offline voting board many remarks were made concerning the five statements that were presented. Most of the users were confused by what to choose and others were confused about what they actually thought about those statements. Some even let out cards since they did not have any opinion about a certain statement. This was mostly the case at the statement of their opinion about the government. Because of this observation and discussion the five statements need to improve. Now the statements were derived from the “Leefstijlen” research and transformed in a personally made interpretation. Most likely it should have been much more clear if I had used the backside information of this “Leefstijlen” research to improve the statements. For this the information in the paper “Brand Strategy Research” could be much more helpful. Sadly enough I found this paper too late to implement this knowledge into my prototype.
9.1.2 Discussion Apart from the bigger context STIEUW has some remarks where improve can be made. Although the interface seemed to attract the ones that gave feedback during the final presentation of this product, it has not been fully tested among new tenants. By testing this interface it could be improved much more so that it is more suitable for new tenants. This can be done by setting up a small assignment where new tenants have to create their own profile on the website for example.
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Next to this an improvement can be made by making the whole system measurable. Therefor the Brand strategy could be helpful to. Since when the whole STIEUW system can become smarter, the matches of available houses and new tenant can be improved.
Source: Woonbedrijf.com Source: google.com
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Chapter 10 | References 1. Musterd, Sako, et al. De buurt als jas: dynamische huishoudens in de veranderlijke stad. Amsterdam University Press, 2015. 2. Smartagen. Leefstijlen Eindhoven, Amsterdam, 2014. 3. Woltingen, R. municipality of Eindhoven, interview. 3rd of April 2015 4. Hummels, Caroline, and Ambra Trotto. “Civic forges: weaving neighbourhoods.” (2014). 5. Deterding, Sebastian, et al. “From game design elements to gamefulness: defining gamification.” Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments. ACM, 2011. 6 . Hu, Jun, Vera Winthagen, and Philémonne Jaasma. “Design for Social interaction in Neighbourhoods.” 7. http://www.ikzoekeenwoningineindhoven.nl/ 8. Wolters, Matthijs, et al. “HBDI vs. BSR: Een kritische vergelijking van twee segmentatiemodellen.” Human Systems Management 2 (2007): 329-331. 9. Hermens, S, Renes, R.J. “Ontwerpen voor gedagsverandering.” 2014 10. http://www.macquoij.com/vision-identity
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| Acknowledgement
With special thanks to:
Anita van Hezik & Storm Moghal | Woonbedrijf Vera Winthagen & Philemonne Jaasma & RenĂŠ de Torbal| Tu/e Rob Woltinge & Henri Koolen | Gemeente Eindhoven Majied, Margot, Theo & Albert | Active residents Eckart-Vaartbroek & ‘t Hool