Joel Fredericks

Augmenting public participation: enhancing planning outcomes through the use of social media and web 2.0

Abstract Social media and web 2.0 tools offer opportunities to devise novel participation strategies that can engage previously difficult to reach, as well as new, segments of society in urban planning. This paper examines participatory planning in the four local government areas of Brisbane City Council, Gold Coast City Council, Redland City Council and Toowoomba Regional Council, all situated in South East Queensland, Australia. The paper discusses how social media and web 2.0 tools can deliver a more engaging planning experience to citizens and investigates local governments current use and receptiveness to social media tools for plan-making and community engagement. The studys research informed the development of criteria to assess the level of participation reached through the current use of social media and web 2.0 in the four local government areas. This resulted in an adaptation of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Toolbox to integrate these new tools, which is being presented to encourage further discussion and evaluation by planning professionals.

Vote as you go: blending interfaces for community engagement into the urban space

This paper presents a series of studies on situated interfaces for community engagement. Firstly, we identify five recurring design challenges as well as four common strategies used to overcome them. We then assess the effectiveness of these strategies through field studies with public polling interfaces. We developed two very different polling interfaces in the form of (1) a web application running on an iPad mounted on a stand, allowing one vote at a time, and (2) a playful full-body interaction application for a large urban screen allowing concurrent participation. We deployed both interfaces in an urban precinct with high pedestrian traffic and equipped with a large urban screen. Analysing discoverability and learnability of each scenario, we derive insights regarding effective ways of blending community engagement interfaces into the built environment, while attracting the attention of passers-by and communicating the results of civic participation.

Middle-out design: collaborative community engagement in urban HCI

This paper presents a collaborative approach for designing, implementing and deploying situated urban HCI interventions. It draws on field studies that use HCI technologies for collecting feedback from citizens. Based on an analysis of these field studies and a discussion of top-down and bottom-up initiatives currently used in community engagement we propose that both decision makers and local communities should be involved in the city making process. We relate our approach, which we refer to as middle-out design, to other co-design and participatory design movements in HCI and conclude on a discussion on how our work can contribute to the discourse around urban HCI particularly for the purpose of community engagement to inform change.

Digital Pop-Up: Investigating Bespoke Community Engagement in Public Spaces

This paper presents findings from a series of iterative field studies on the use of interactive, situated digital technologies deployed within a pop-up style format used for the purpose of community engagement. Based on observations, participant interviews, and a focus group with representatives from the local government authority, the contribution of this research is twofold. First, we propose five elements to guide the design of digital pop-up interventions for community engagement. Second, we demonstrate the effectiveness of combining digital interfaces and a physical pop-up within a civic space equipped with a large urban screen to engage wider cross-sections of the public. From that, we derive insights about the utilisation of this approach in attracting the attention of people who do not generally attend traditional community engagement events, and provide a more seamless consultation process by enabling citizens to submit their responses on the spot.

Not just pretty lights: using digital technologies to inform city making

The 21st century city is faced with a myriad of social, political and environmental complexities. The increasing global urbanisation puts pressure on the various spheres of government as well as on citizens to continuously redefine and manage public assets and spaces - often built for social contexts that no longer exist. While top-down approaches have arguably failed to engage and motivate communities in meaningful ways, bottom-up initiatives have also proved difficult in promoting lasting impact on official policies. The democratisation of digital technologies provides new opportunities for citizens to organise themselves around local issues. These complexities galvanise communities around a civic debate about the present and future identity of the places they live in. Yet, it is still fairly challenging to balance community expectations, on one hand, with transparency regarding the complex decision-making processes inherent to public administration, on the other. In this paper, we present common approaches to placemaking. We then discuss new forms of digital placemaking and illustrate their application through four interventions we ran to investigate digital technology adoption for community engagement initiatives. Based on those scenarios, we investigate: (1) the shifting role of digital technologies as tools employed by individual groups to create placemaking initiatives, and (2) media interventions that inform and bring decision makers at the top, and citizens at the bottom together into more collaborative and focused city making efforts.

Situated interfaces for engaging citizens on the go

Insights Live screening and playfulness of the interactive space can be effective strategies for attracting the attention of passers-by and turn them into active participants. While urban screen interfaces increase participation by encouraging group interaction, privately-oriented tangible user interfaces give people a longer time to reflect upon their answers.

Towards Adaptive Height-Aware Public Interactive Displays

Public interactive displays (PIDs) are becoming more pervasive in urban environments as a means to engage passers-by and to provide interactive features such as wayfinding. However, one of the problems with current PIDs is that they are typically designed around an average specification, potentially excluding a large range of users that for instance might not be able to reach interactive elements. To address this challenge, we propose a number of design concepts for adjusting PIDs to users of different heights. We present a preliminary evaluation of our concepts through a cognitive walk-through study with 10 design experts using a custom-developed experience prototype featuring four height-aware modes. Based on qualitative feedback and observations we discuss design suggestions for future work.

Design Patterns for Integrating Digitally Augmented Pop-ups with Community Engagement

This article explores the opportunities of translating existing community engagement techniques into digitally augmented pop-up interventions, for on-the-spot feedback around infrastructure within the built environment. Pop-up interventions allow for more inclusive forms of community engagement through the combination of digital and physical media. The paper draws on Alexander et al.s idea of pattern languages to put forward a set of design patterns for integrating digitally augmented pop-ups into community engagement activities. The patterns are based on a review and analysis of existing community engagement techniques, digital technologies used in urban environments, data from our own field studies and a focus group with engagement professionals. The aim of the patterns is to: 1 capture collective wisdom; 2 reuse and extend ideas; and 3 converge on designs that work for communities.

Designing Participation for the Digital Fringe

Digital participation is emerging as a key issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and others as government policy increasingly seeks to include people in decision-making about all aspects of their lives. Yet, that tends to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting segments of society lacking access to resources, digital technology or telecommunications infrastructure. Likewise, people from diverse and marginalised backgrounds, or who are socially excluded, such as people living with disability, the elderly, disadvantaged youth and women, people identifying as LGBTI, refugees and migrants, Indigenous people and others, are particularly vulnerable to digital under-participation, thereby compounding disadvantage. This workshop proposes to identify practical, innovative, and sensitive design solutions to support digital participation for disadvantaged communities in urban and regional environments; foster digital skills within and across communities; investigate the role of proxies in digital inclusion; and discuss design strategies for sustaining digital inclusion in the long run.

Digital outreach: designing technologies for diversity, participation and social inclusion

Digital participation is fast becoming a core issue for researchers, designers, educators, industry and the government. Yet, academic research, industry practices and government policies still tend to focus predominantly on mainstream communities of highly urbanized settlements, often neglecting smaller cities, regional areas, suburbia and disadvantaged segments of society lacking digital literacy. Likewise, people from diverse and marginalised backgrounds, or who are socially excluded, such as people living with disability, the elderly, disadvantaged youth and women, people identifying as LGBTI, refugees and migrants, Indigenous people and others, are particularly vulnerable to digital under-participation. This workshop proposes to shift the discourse back into the discussion of: (a) design practices relevant to those communities; (b) identify shared challenges and opportunities; (c) uncover strategies for co-design with a wider range of demographics; and (d) devise a roadmap for a more inclusive research agenda around communities and technologies.