COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOPS & PERSONA ANALYSES

Community Engagement Workshops

To promote participatory design, students were required to facilitate a workshop to engage a group of either preschool children or older adults, in order to understand their needs and perspectives more realistically. This was conducted at the Queenstown Regional Library.

Students were challenged to prepare content (including verbal presentations, diagrams, models, visual aids etc.) in a manner that is easily understandable by people who have little prior knowledge of design and to facilitate the session as a meaningful dialogue with the participants. The intent of this engagement is neither to impose their ideas upon the attendees, nor to accept the attendees’ ideas wholesale. The pedagogical focus is to interpret the inner needs / social issues through the conversation, and finally to provide spatial solutions to mitigate these problems.

Persona Analysis

At the beginning of the semester, students worked in groups of 5 to do persona analyses of the site. Each group took on a particular lens through which to assess the user-friendliness of the site. The specific personas are:

• youths and working adults

• families with young children

• elderly with mobility impairment

• elderly without mobility impairment

These are shown in the following pages

PERSONA ANALYSIS: youth & working adults

YOUTH & WORKING ADULTS

Youths and working adults, aged 15 to 59 years old, make up about half of Queenstown’s population. These youths and working adults include those living in, working in, or visiting Queenstown. We analysed their general day-to-day activities to get a better grasp of how and where they spend their time in the neighbourhood.

We recognise that multi-generational recreational spaces play a crucial role in promoting social inclusion and maintaining youths’ relations with members of other age groups. To develop social spaces in Queenstown would be beneficial for the mental and physical health of youths.

With the analysis in place, we then understand and better provide for the youths and working adults. Furthermore, with the identification of underutilised spaces, we can then propose new activities or spaces that aids in intergenerational bonding to fully utilised such spaces and better cater to not only the residents living nearby but also introducing visitors to Singapore’s first satelite town - Queenstown.

PERSONA ANALYSIS: youth & working adults

PERSONA ANALYSIS: youth & working adults

PERSONA ANALYSIS: families with young children

Families With Young Children

Queenstown, the oldest satellite town in Singapore begun its development in the 1950s, introducing the first educational institute, polyclinic, library and sports complex in the estate. The estate mirrors the greying of their original occupants. The next generation of residents who grew up in Queenstown were heading towards newer estates due to the lack of development.

Queenstown has been selected for the Selective Enbloc Redevel- opment Scheme (SERS) where high-density precincts are inserted in the neighbourhood to make the town more desirable for new residents.

The persona that we are studying are young families with children aged 0 to 6 years old. We further define young children to be those who are immoblie, such as infants, toddlers and children who still depend on their parents for support.

Children require 5 needs in the neighbourhood of Queenstown and they are mainly: play spaces, green spaces, communal spaces, enrichment and childcare centre. These are all essential in the early stages of childhood in order for them to become more knowledgeable, social and active in society as they grow older and be independent citizens.

PERSONA ANALYSIS: families with young children

PERSONA ANALYSIS: families with young children

PERSONA ANALYSIS: elderly with mobility impairment