Designing for innovation the
Platform
REAL CONTEXTS. REAL PEOPLE. Throughout a semester in the Visual Communications program, a group of classmates and myself were asked exactly what a “context” was, and focused on particular situations in which they could be applied. Each of us, 5 in total, explored different contextual areas and decided on one to move forward with for a semester long project. After narrowing down our options, we decided on a community co-working hub in Indianapolis called The Platform. This establishment is a one-of a-kind hub for people and organizations working to revitalize neighborhoods locally. Many tenants with like-minded goals choose platform to nest down, as it provides many resources that are otherwise hard to find all in one place. The Platform prides itself on its multi-functional space: Community events, meetings, design charrettes just to name a
few. Additionally, it hosts the Indianapolis Winter Farmer’s Market during the colder months, providing a roof for hard working entrepreneurial farmers. However, through rigorous and sequential participatory research, my team and I have found a few fundamental problems that inhibit The Platform from abiding to it’s own vision, subsequently affecting it’s overall cumulative success.
OUR APPROACH. Three phase model
01.
Analysis
02.
Synthesis
03.
Evaluation
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This three phase model was a philosophy that my team members and I adopted and served as a major catalyst in order to perform our participatory based research.
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PHASE 01. How might we better utilize the space within Platform?
// ANALYSIS
METHODS
IN THIS PHASE
In our three phase model, phase 1 allowed us to break down the Platform into its component parts and allowed us to Indiscriminately look at the internal and external variables that surrounded the space. This resulted in a more rich understanding of what the Platform stood for.
Observation Study
Specific learning outcomes in this phase represent a higher Intellectual comprehension level. As a team, we were able to s successfully pinpoint types of people that surrounded and interacted with the space, and understood behaviors driving them. Because the Platform is constantly interacting with people, it was extremely paramount that we fully grasped this vital relationship between the two. Furthermore, we explored and understood the connections between other similar hubs in the area. This prompted and highlighted key deficiencies that the platform was facing. After sorting through the numerous amounts of qualitative and quantitative data, we were able to form key insights that would lead us into our next phase, Synthesis
Analysis
Stakeholder Mapping Interviews & Surveys Complementer & Competitor Analysis
Insight Sorting
3
Week
1
DISCOVERING THE SCENE “How might we understand more about the Platform by looking at the elements within its context?�
OBSERVATIONAL STUDY
the Platform
Tenants
Communities
P.O.E.M.S METHOD
The study of people, objects, environment, messages and services in relation to a chosen context.
(fig.1)
KEY INSIGHTS After completing this observational study, we concluded that the people within the Platform consisted of tenants. These tenants range in background, but want to achieve a common goal, which is making Indianapolis a better place to live for communities in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Communities play a vital role within the platform as they are the driving force behind many of the tenants projects.
collaboration could occur with other tenants. This seemed very useful, especially if it needed to be private and intimate. In all, the Platform appeared to be very connected with the community and supports many local initiatives and strives to be environmentally friendly. (fig.1)
We observed that the Platform is host to a very simplistic style and is also environmentally friendly with many re-purposed beams and reclaimed fabric used inside the space. The main floor, and some of the upper consisted of work rooms where
Analysis
4
Week
2
MAKING CONNECTIONS
HOUSING
“How might we find connections and possible research participants through the network of platform?”
STAKEHOLDER MAPPING
MEDICAL
Understanding the Platform at a deeper level by making connections between tenants and the different stakeholders involved within the context.
KEY INSIGHTS The Platform serves as a major catalyst in funding and maintaining multiple projects at one time, and many factors are in play. Understanding even the most trivial of things can be difficult to wrap your head around if you don’t know where to start. Knowing that the platform was diverse internally, we concluded that mapping out the different programs and people involved in this space would be extremely helpful. After sorting through and organizing data, it became clear that there are three major categories where tenants are focusing their efforts.(fig. 2)
Analysis
FOOD (fig.2)
After understanding more about the platform and the people there, we were able to make initial contacts for future participatory research.
5
Week
3
UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE
Interest in local produce
More events
Common themes found amongst participants and tenants
Lack of public knowledge
“How might we better understand the people within and around Platform?”
INTERVIEWS & SURVEYS We obtained ethnographic research from current tenants by interviewing as well as surveying. Understanding people that surround the Platform during the day allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of specific motivations
KEY INSIGHTS Performing internal interviews and external surveys allowed us to see the bigger picture of what was happening in and around the platform, from many perspectives. The external surveys allowed us to understand why people gathered outside of the Platform. Firstly, our audience mainly consisted of city workers of Indianapolis and those waiting around for the City County building. Many of these people were there for a short amount of time, as many were on their lunch breaks.
Analysis
Another interesting fact says that only a shocking 12% out of 100 interviewed, actually knew what the Platform was. This was extremely odd considering the Platform is directly linked to the City market. Several more questions were asked to help us further understand the motivations and behaviors of the surrounding users. Surveying gave us a well rounded sampling of data and produced meaningful interactions between us and our participants. The interviews on the other hand were much more intimate, and allowed for more organic and deeper conversation with the tenants inside Platform. These questions were focused around things like “What do you do at the Platform?”,and things like “What would you like to change about the Platform to make it a more engaging space?” These questions produced valuable responses and allowed us to compare the perspectives of the tenants inside to visitors outside. However, one of the core benefits of this research technique was the ability to further strengthen and establish connections with tenants as we would be working with them for many more weeks to come.
6
Week
4
EXPLORING THE INDUSTRY
COLLABORATIVE
“How might we better understand how Platform’s complementers and competitors utilize their space?”
COMPLEMENTER & COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
MULTI-FUNCTIONAL
Visiting the surrounding Indianapolis co-working hubs enabled us to compare how Platform stacks up against other similar successful operations. (fig.4)
KEY INSIGHTS After we had a better understanding about the types of people that the Platform was involved with, we decided to make a trip around to the other local Indianapolis co-working hubs. The purpose of our complementer and competitor analysis was to determine strengths and weaknesses of other similar hubs. After we understood this, we could produce strategies that would provide us with a distinct advantage against others in the same market.
Analysis
COMFORTABLE
The three places that we decided to visit were the CoZ, The Bureau and the Speakeasy. After understanding and looking at these co-working hubs with a microscope, we understood what made them so successful.(fig.4)
7
Week
5
MAKING A STATEMENT “How might we form a challenge statement to move forward with in the synthesis phases?”
INSIGHT SORTING We sorted through critical insights and found clusters of common themes and potential problem areas within this organization. Creating a challenge statement allows us to stay on track, and avoids ineffective idea generation.
How might we create a more engaging first floor that is more inspiring, inviting and promotes communication within platform? (fig.5)
KEY INSIGHTS The methods prior to insight sorting have guided us up to this point in our design phase. Patterns and relationships were made more clear and further structured our existing knowledge of problematic areas within Platform. We needed a statement to move forward with that gave us a clear direction in the synthesis phase. We first needed to understand why the first floor wasn’t engaging. Platform is very empty inside and did not utilize its space effectively which led to lack of inspiration. There is barely any
Analysis
furniture, seating, artwork and lighting which gave the perception that it is not inviting. Additionally, it did not have any signage promoting current tenants or projects, so it did not convey communication even at the most superficial level. After analyzing our data and facilitating conversation amongst each other, we were able to come up with a relevant problem statement…(fig.5)
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PHASE 02. How might we create a more engaging first floor that is more inspiring, inviting and promotes communication within platform?
// SYNTHESIS
METHODS
IN THIS PHASE
The synthesis phase is about understanding and making sense of data from the analysis phase. In order to do this, we must first look at the challenges and opportunities and further re-define in more detail what these are.
Persona Role-Playing
In this phase, we used a variety of design approaches that focused on the idea of starting broad and subsequently narrowing down into more clear concise method, much like that of diverging and converging. This ensures that all opportunities and potential design outcomes are explored.
Metaphor Prompting
Co -Designing
Synthesis
Design Brief
9
Week
6
External Design ideas
DISCOVERING OPPORTUNITIES “How might we use focus groups to generate a plethora of ideas for Platforms first floor?”
PERSONA ROLE PLAYING Each participant engages in this method as a specific stakeholder at Platform and generates solutions and ideas according to specific goals and constraints in relation to each persona.
Music Events
Ads
Social Media Signage
Internal Design Ideas Animals
KEY INSIGHTS This method allowed us to present important information about the space to a focus group that in turn would generate solutions to make the space more engaging. Core questions were asked like “How would you make this space more inviting...?” or “How could you make this space more communicative?” and “How would you make this space more inspiring?” This produced a wide variety of solutions, and generated a
Synthesis
Interior Space Color
pe
Food
Art (fig.6)
potential solutions very rapidly (fig.6). We made sure to let them know that no idea was stupid. This helped make this focus group a great success.
10
Week
7
EXPANDING OPPURTUNITIES
PERSONA ROLE PLAYING Diverge
“How might we use specific prompts for specific users to generate meaningful solutions for Platform’s first floor?”
METAPHOR PROMPTING Each participant used a metaphor prompting guideline to generate more in-depth solutions for the Platform’s first floor.
KEY INSIGHTS During the metaphor prompting phase we expanded and delved deeper into the internal and external ideas by referencing metaphors and analogies to produce more in depth results. This particular method produced great results, because instead of having larger focus groups, all focus sessions were one on one. This gave the participant more time to generate ideas without feeling pressured or rushed, like some of the other sessions conducted previously.(fig.7)
Synthesis
Converge
METAPHOR PROMPTING (fig.7)
For example, CNN was chosen as analogy/metaphor for communication. We asked our participants to dig deep and really point out what made CNN so successful at communicating. This prompted our participants to re frame conventional thinking and take the essence of CNN and apply that over to the Platform.
11
Week
8
CREATING AN IDEAL SPACE “How might we use a combination of images to prompt our focus group to create ideal co-working spaces?”
CO DESIGNING Each participant engaged with multiple sets of photos that contained images of furniture, colors, artwork, plants, lighting, patterns, themes and storage. At the end, mood boards and layouts were created representing their “ideal” co-working space.
KEY INSIGHTS This particular method produced ideal co-working spaces from the perspective of potential start-up professionals. This allowed us to see what THEY wanted opposed to only seeing a one sided goal from the Platform’s perspective. After selecting sets of curated images of different pieces that could fit into the Platform, we allowed our users to create their own co-working spaces that were inspiring, inviting and collaborative.
Synthesis
12
Week
9
DEFINING OPPORTUNITIES
“How might we use share key observations and insights to Platform’s main stakeholder?”
DESIGN BRIEF This design brief was created with the specific intention to convey information regarding the methods that were performed in the weeks prior. Findings and recommendations were presented to Tedd Grain(deputy manager), the Platform’s main stakeholder responsible for making things happen.
(fig.9)
Book used for our meeting with Tedd Grain, the Deputy Director of the Platform.
KEY INSIGHTS This book was extremely helpful in showing Tedd all the work we’ve been doing for the past 9 weeks. The ability to show him our process, and our findings made us professional.(fig.9) We were able to set a few future meeting to discuss implementation further in detail. Not only was this design brief helpful
Synthesis
for Tedd, it was also helpful for our group because it allowed use to synthesize everything that we had done up until this point in our research.
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PHASE 03. How might we create a more collaborative space for tenants, and display Platform news and current projects?
// EVALUATION In the evaluation phase, prototypes were created and then tested against control groups for efficacy and relevancy.
METHODS
IN THIS PHASE
All the previous methods in the analysis and synthesis phase have led up to the competencies needed to create successful prototypes.
Ergonomic Analysis
A vital part in making the evaluation phase a success is choosing the correct control groups for testing. Without proper testing of prototypes, one may accidentally follow the wrong path.
Evaluative Research
Evaluation
14
Week
10
RE STRUCTURING THE FIRST FLOOR “How might we protoype and test first floor blueprints that are collaborative, inspiring and inviting?�
ERGONOMIC ANALYSIS Ergonomic analysis in this instance was primarily used to gain input from professionals in the interior design world. We visited several stores which specialized in appliances, storage and multifuntional room pieces. After, we created a few blueprint models that were then tested by a control group of interior design students at IUPUI.
CONVERSATION Talked to employees at furniture stores. Gained insight and ideas.
BASELINE BLUEPRINT Working blueprint used as an icebreaker for focus groups. Both provide adequate space for co-working.
REVISED BLUEPRINT Blueprints after recommendations were made with interior design students. Make floor plan more easy to navigate.
RECOMMENDED BLUEPRINT Recommended blueprint is an equal combination of both focus group outcomes.
(fig.10)
KEY INSIGHTS
My group and I designed floor plans based on our research and knowledge. These served as a baseline when we had a focus group that consisted of interior design students at IUPUI. We asked them to either leave them as they are, or prompted them to move things around if they thought it needed to be changed.
The first floor was extremely underutilized and was host to nothing except several plastic tables and chairs. Research pointed to a complete overhaul of the first floor.
This proved to be very successful, and after two focus group sessions, we combined the two outcomes and came up with the best floor plan for the Platform.(fig.10)
Evaluation
15
Week
11
PROTOTYPE CREATION Prototypes were generated that were inspiring, inviting and promoted communication.
PROVIDING A VOICE
BASELINE PROTOTYPES Baseline prototypes give the user a sense of what the prototype does, and how it functions.
“How might we prototype and test informative installations for visitors & tenants within platform?�
EVALUATIVE RESEARCH Evaluative research allowed us to prototype potential artifacts that would convey important information to visitors when entering or loitering on the first floor. We tested these prototypes with Platform tenants and were able to refine them down into meaningful solutions.
KEY INSIGHTS Research and observations have pointed towards the conception, creation and implementation of artifacts that would be a voice for tenants inside Platform. This would allow them to express current projects that are being worked on. The Platform has a very weak voice when it comes to displaying work to the general public and visitors of the space.
Evaluation
FEEDBACK Recommendations were made, and a new prototype was designed based on the feedback.
(fig.11)
Prototypes of signage and displays were tested by a control group consisting of tenants inside the space. The first tested prototype was a mobile triangular message board that would display information on all sides. This would allow users to spin it around to interact with it. The second prototype was an interactive wall which users could use the surface as a touchscreen. It displays the same information that is on the triangular mobile but in digital form. Both prototypes got successful feedback discussing the pros and cons of each. A new and final rendition was created by combining feedback from the focus groups.(fig.11)
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FINAL OUTCOMES First floor blueprint & Interactive tenant kiosk
Evaluation
17
First Floor Blueprint The final blueprint is a recommendation for the Platform to utilize their first floor space to its maximum potential. This was discovered and tested by many research hours. Currently, the space feels like a study hall, the addition of big modern tables in the center and near the windows will make the space more engaging. Having the tables spread out in the middle of the
room also allows for easy navigation. Round tables located on the North side of the room allow small groups to gather for a more intimate setting. This room re-design allows the space to become more engaging by ensuring that it is now more inviting, inspiring, and effectively uses the space in a dynamic way making it stand out amongst its competitors in the surrounding area.
circular tables
iintimate set-up//collaberative//white boars separate space
N
KITCHEN
w
ELECTRICAL ROOM
e
STORAGE
s
MAIN MARKET CONNECTION
Chairs white boards
BOARD ROOM
with wheels // Mobile
LARGE TABLE CENTER PIECEs
breaks apart for easy storage and rearranging
table & booth
WIndow
STORAGE
WIndow
STAIRS
structural columns
Evaluation
18
Interactive Tenant Kiosk The interactive tenant kiosk is multi-functional display piece that is meant to be mobile. As with the blueprint, the relevancy of this piece is based on research and testing. Outsiders looking in barely know what Platform is, let alone what Platform does. The kiosk will showcase current projects that are happening around Indianapolis that the Platform is connected to. Because
Evaluation
there is no signage upon entering, brochure pamphlets will be provided on the kiosk for those that inquire. This mobile kiosk allows the space to interact with visitors more organically and promotes communication, which is otherwise non-existent.
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