Sept. 2022 – Dec. 2022
Miro, Zoom, Google Workspace, Cards for Humanity
Jun Hou Kok, Anamika Menon, and myself
Conducted field research, facilitated diary studies, developed co-design workshop
The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) is responsible for building and improving public infrastructure and civic facilities across New York City. The DDC wanted to understand how they can better communicate with New Yorkers about construction.
Our team of ethnographers interviewed New Yorkers about their thoughts and feelings towards construction, conducted diary studies with commuters and residents, and completed a co-design workshop on accessibility in construction sites.
Through this study, we gained insight into how people's day-to-day lives are impacted by construction, and as well as the challenges and opportunities for bridging communication gaps between the DDC and New Yorkers.
Duration: Sept. 2022 – Dec. 2022
Tools: Miro, Zoom, Google Suite, Cards for Humanity
Team: Jun Kok, Anamika Menon, and myself
My Role: Observed and interviewed New Yorkers, recruited for and conducted diary studies, and
After meeting with our client, we devised the following questions to guide our research:
How do people navigate around and interact with construction sites?
How does the construction environment influence people's behaviors and emotions?
What are New Yorkers' primary needs when interacting with construction sites?
With our research questions in mind, we decided on the following ethnographic methods to pinpoint New Yorkers' needs when it comes to communication about construction:
Observational Fieldwork
Diary Studies
Co-Design Workshop
Our team observed a construction site on Greenwich St, and interviewed residents, business owners, commuters, and visitors about their thoughts on:
We learned that New Yorkers want to access information about construction through platforms that they already use, such as through websites, flyers, or social media. This information should be available in multiple languages to allow more people to understand the content.
In addition, we learned that New Yorkers specifically want to know what the construction would look like once completed, the duration, the purpose, affected areas, and when construction is going on.
"I think there is a reason for [the construction]...I’d like to learn more about why, what’s happening, and what the future is like." - Tribeca Resident
We recruited individuals who commute past or live by construction sites to gain a better understanding of how New Yorkers are affected by construction in their day-to-day lives.
Our participants completed diary studies where they described their interactions with construction, detailed any standout moments, used a sticker to represent their feelings, and map out their journey over five days. At the end of the study, participants were asked to summarize their experience and to describe one thing they would want to be improved.
We utilized an affinity map to analyze our data by jotting down and grouping observations, thoughts, and feelings from our diary studies.
Our participants faced many challenges navigating construction sites, such as the lack of space to accommodate everyone during rush hour in the subway, or having to take dangerous paths to avoid construction. Participants reacted negatively towards the inadequate signage and planning for these routes, as they weren't effective enough in redirecting traffic smoothly or making people feel safe.
We learned that commuters feel indifferent towards construction, since they wouldn’t be impacted once they walked past. However, we noticed that residents are impacted a lot more and usually want more information about construction. They want to know long they could expect to deal with negative effects of construction such as noise and disruptions to their daily routines.
Since a lot of our diary study participants had trouble navigating through construction sites, we wanted to provide the opportunity to think about how we could make construction sites more accessible for everyone. We decided to use Idean's Cards for Humanity as the basis for our co-design workshop.
We assigned workshop participants journey maps from our diary studies, and asked them to deal a pair of Cards for Humanity. Then, workshop participants were asked to consider the persona's needs and challenges for navigating that journey and to explore possible solutions for getting them safely to their destination.
Designing with accessibility standards in mind, providing up-to-date information about construction, and facilitating open communications will improve New Yorkers' experiences with construction sites.
The absence of effective signage systems and accessible paths can make people feel unsafe and frustrated.
Acknowledging that people have unique needs and challenges is an important step towards accounting for accessibility and inclusion in physical and digital spaces. It's important to follow standards such as the 7 Principles of Universal Design to ensure that information about construction and the sites themselves are accessible to as many people as possible.
The lack of progress and updates on construction sites can cause people to feel annoyed and lose faith in construction projects.
New Yorkers want information that is concise, up-to-date, comes from a trusted source, and can be accessed on a platform that they already use or check often. Allowing New Yorkers to easily access information about construction sites would build their trust in city endeavors.
People would appreciate additional resources that will help them feel like their voices and concerns are heard.
New Yorkers should have the opportunity to use a digital tool to raise concerns regarding their interactions with construction, provide suggestions, and request additional assistance.
We delivered our presentation to our client, and they expressed lots of interest in what we had found, particularly from our diary studies. They were very excited that we were able to get real data from New Yorkers about their experiences with construction, and were looking forward to diving into our data.
I really enjoyed being able to go out into the field and conduct research on New Yorkers in their natural environment. It was very enlightening to see how people reacted to construction, whether as a hindrance or an accepted part of everyday life. Reviewing the diary studies was also a fantastic experience, as I got to step in the shoes of multiple New Yorkers and observe how their daily routines were affected by construction.
If I were to redo this project, I would definitely want to invite the client to participate in our co-design workshop so that we could work together to brainstorm how to create accessible physical and digital spaces for New Yorkers.
