Bloomington Entertainment & Arts District (BEAD)
Team
Laura Brunetti, Jason de Ruña, James Pierce, Brandon Stephens
Individual Contribution
Cultural Probes,
User Interviews,
Qualitative Analysis,
Concepts
Process
Cultural Probes
To explore the design space and to capture people's experiences we used cultural probes. Eight cultural probe packs were distributed to a set of participants, representing the demographics of the city. The amount of quantitative data available and the qualitative data from our cultural probes painted a rich picture of residents attitudes towards downtown.
Design
Insights
After sorting through the maps, photocards, and photographs, different views and insights between the demographic groups emerged. These insights were synthesized by our group and revealed opportunities for design. Our concepts were organized into four themes related to the downtown experience: travel, navigation, engagement, and extension.
Concepts
From our insights, our team brainstormed and came up with a large amount of concepts that were further grouped. We then filtered our concepts to a select few. Some concept systems highlighted are:
Based on your location, a user can get real time updates and recommendations of events and destinations delivered to a mobile device. With this service you can also let friends and family know where you are, find people with common interests around you, and rate your experiences.
Provides city dwellers access to popular destinations, travel information, and recommendations from locals and previous visitors. The information may be powered by a web mapping service application, Google Maps, in combination with an urban city guide such as Yelp.
Providing a difference in color between a walkway and adjacent surfaces serves as a guide to people to cultural and functional areas such as courtyards and plazas. A color contrast, along sidewalks and walkways should be used consistently to delineate routes throughout the entire city.