Methods

Introduction

In each and every method we have implemented, we wanted the whole community to be involved. We have used several methods: the classical interviews, an organization of a participatory meeting and the implementation of graphical methods. We will present them chronologically as one method led us to another in our research process. For all the methods we have implemented or we plan to implement, we have tried to answer these questions: Why is this particularly relevant? / What results do we want from it? How will people react to it? Which results did we get from?

We start with the initial method of trying to find the area of interest.

Activity mapping

This method was our first activity which aimed at understanding the CBD area through the initial thoughts of users. We placed a map of the CBD area on a post in a busy street close to the Immaculate Conception Church. We asked people walking by to put post-it notes on the map for the places they liked and disliked the most in the area and tell us reasons for their choices.

Challenges One challenges with this exercise was their ability to read maps. Even though we used a map with limited information and highlights of landmarks in red. We still had to point out the landmarks to explain the geographical area we were studying. We think that pointing out landmarks affected their perception on choosing areas related to those landmarks. People tended to mention spaces close to the location of our exercise.

Outcome The market and the church got the most post-it notes during this exercise. Interestingly people had divided opinions about the market. Many people told us that they frequently used the market but that they had issues with it.

Semi- structured Interviews

This method aimed at empathizing the community of the market. We used this method at different stages of the process. We interviewed several people and stakeholders in the CBD before moving on to the market area. We started with broad informal interviews with everyone in the market area. We shifted to the sellers on the later stage in the vegetable market and moved on to the customer/users of the space. We also interviewed the municipality as they are a major stakeholder in the market. When we shifted to the old market as an area of interest we repeated the same process.

Challenges There were no major challenges interviewing the customer and the sellers. We managed to have one interview with the government. However, due to the tension between the municipality and the sellers, we were told not to go back for further discussions.

Outcome We got the general understanding of how the market and people work in the area, what their experiences and issues were with the area.

Videography

This method was aimed at understanding the spaces in the market at different times of the day. We stood with video cameras at fixed points in the market at different times of the day.

Challenge Covering the whole day is too time consuming.

Outcome Spatial understanding and shifts at different times of the day.

What did you buy?

This method aimed analyzing the use of the market and user patterns. As we focused on the main municipal market, we positioned ourselves outside the main entrance with a board. We simply asked people what they bought and marked it on the board. Some people where interested to hear what we were doing and it turned into stories about the market experience.

Challenges Our position outside the entrance played a major role on people wanting to talk with us. As we positioned ourselves in the center holding the board less people was interested in talking with us. As we changed position and showed only a part of the board people became curious of what we were doing and wanted to talk with us.

Outcome An interesting finding from this exercise was that many people did not buy anything at all and they simply used the market as a thoroughfare. We also understood more of what items was bought most frequently and at what time of day.

Trajectory mapping

This method was aimed at understanding the spaces of the market. We followed the routes of people walking inside the main municipal market and marked it on the map.

Challenges As people spent limited time in the market, we could not get them to mark it on the map and so we had to follow the routes.

Outcome This gave us an overview of which spaces where mostly used and which were not used at all. It was a good addition to our observation of how much these spaces were used. It led us in a direction of neglected spaces.

Express your experience

We shifted our focus to old market and this was another attempt at empathizing the community in the old market. We carried a white board and stood in the old market area. We wanted people to share anything that came to their mind. We wanted this to be a free exercise where people could share whatever opinion they had about the market.

Challenges People were in general skeptical about writing or drawing on this board. A lot of people could not read or write. However, even if we proposed that we could write their opinions for them they were still skeptical about sharing any opinion. We got a few verbal responses but this number is low compared to the number of people we asked. We thought at this point in time that people were scared to share their opinions because of political tension.

Outcomes The information gained was limited and less efficient compared to other methods. What we did get from this exercise was a useful stakeholder, a member of the fish market association. He observed us for a while without introducing his position. He later took interest in what we were doing and it led to an interesting conversation.

Story telling

This method was also aimed at understanding the community and the history of spaces in the market. We asked people about their personal history and how that relates the spaces in the market. This gave us a different perspective being more informal in the way the conversation evolved.

Challenge We could not talk to a lot of people as not many people spoke English or Hindi.

Outcomes Stories was a way of gaining trust which again make people more open and freer to discuss their experiences of the space.

Focus group

This method aimed at defining the ideas. As we got to know the members of the association of the fish market, we arranged smaller meetings with them.

Challenges Although we expected everyone to come to the meetings but only a few people showed up in different meetings.

Outcomes We understood more of the social structure of the market which led to our problem statement.

Event proposal

This method was prototyping and testing our interventions in the market. We wanted a discussion amongst the sellers and showing the market a way forward to be inclusive and interactive with each other. The way forward was to convince the main stakeholders of the association and making them take control and responsibility of the discussion. We made flyers for the event so that the association could approve it. One of the members took responsibility to get the space cleared and arrange chairs for the event. We proposed the plaza for the discussion but they shifted the location to the chapel thus showing interest in the event. Some other members wanted to take legal precaution before doing the event and so they went on to take permissions from the municipality. We wanted to paste some pictures around the market and serve people free tea.

Challenges The major challenge was convincing the major stakeholders from the association. They wanted legal validation for the event as they did not want any problems in the future with the municipality. They went on to ask the municipality and we could not get permissions to do the discussion ☹

Outcomes Although this event failed to happen, we thought of different methods to trigger a discussion amongst the sellers and the association.

Which space do you value?

This method was another attempt of testing our ideas. In this game we made drawings we felt represented the market and showed it to people. We asked which image they personally felt most attached to or simply liked the most. We recorded their replies by counting them. We had an empty square on the sheet left open so that they could add something.

Challenge There was a language barrier while introducing the game. We simply learnt a sentence in Hindi to ask the question. We do observe that many people become uncertain when being asked to express their opinions on the spot but people replied more compared to other methods. We do notice that when they see previous suggestion people tend to make suggestions related to the previous. Doing this exercise again with a blank paper would be useful to get more answers.

Outcome We triggered some discussions and they started thinking about the space.

Star-game

This method was aimed at understanding more about the social structure. We bought a pack of stars stickers inventing a game where people would give stars their friends. We were curious if people would want to do this and if it would spread some joy. It is like an appreciation game where you are giving away a symbolic gesture of appreciation to someone. We wanted to observe these interactions and learn about the social connections among the shop keepers.

Challenge We had to restart the game a few times as the game observed some social groupism.

Outcomes It turned out people really enjoyed the game. We saw relationships between people we did not predict beforehand.

Photomorphism

In this method we went back to the community to show them proposals through imagery for what could be done to improve their space. We went to stakeholders of the association since we had an ongoing discussion with them about the topic.

Challenges We have a vision to engage everyone in discussions and we do not know if our proposals will be taken into consideration by other members of the market.

Outcomes The imagery led to discussions with the stakeholders we spoke to. They came up with suggestions and improvements regarding the topic.