The Bronzeville Stories Project.
The Bronzeville Stories Project is a continuing student practicum to amplify community stories and cultural experiences in the Bronzeville neighborhood in order to create an interactive digital service to help residents and visitors tour the Bronzeville neighborhood.
The summer phase of the project involved pop-up community design studios at various Bronzeville locations, prototype testing with community members and interviews with Bronzeville neighbors around themes of history, food culture, and dreams for the future of the neighborhood. This research and asset mapping phase tested collective design methods for research, ideation and prototyping design concepts.
The fall phase of the project involved a virtual community design and research studio with a Bronzeville high school through a series of digital workshops, interviews with ComEd community advisors, analysis and synthesis of data into design principles for a neighborhood walking tour application, and development of preliminary UX concepts for handoff to the software development team.
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TLDR.
Project Role
Community Engagement Lead
Design Researcher
Project Advisors
Summer Phase Project Team
Julian Walker
Jiani Sapathy
Shuyi Liu
Jessica Nelson
Levi Goldberg
Fall Phase
Project Team
Jiani Sapathy
Jessica Nelson
Design questions
1.What are the most valuable expressions of community in Bronzeville?
2. What dreams do Bronzeville residents have for the future of the neighborhood?
3. What design principles should guide the creation of a Bronzeville Walking Tour app?
Tools
Interview guides
Verbal conversation prompts
Physical conversation prompts
Virtual work shops (via Miro and Zoom)
Physical prototyping methods
Process
Summer research
1) 3 month collective design project including community ideation and community prototyping.
2) Interviewed Bronzeville residents and hosted six pop-up community studios at various locations within the Bronzeville neighborhood
3) Analyzed notes and synthesized community ideas into open ended prototypes for community input.
Summer outcomes
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First draft of How-to Guide for Collective Design methods
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Community Co-design studios with community partners
Fall outcomes
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Design principles based on research insights
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Preliminary UX concepts for software development team
Summer phase.
Pop-up community design studios.
Collective design methods for research, community engagement, collective ideation and prototyping.
Interviewed Bronzeville residents and hosted six pop-up community studios at various locations within the Bronzeville neighborhood.
We conducted four virtual interviews and six pop-ups where we interacted with approximately
55 residents.
Developed insights based on co-design pop-ups and interviews.
Learn: Residents know the general history of Bronzeville but are excited to find out about "hidden gems".
Connect: Residents want to connect with the uniquely Black experience of the neighborhood
Share: Residents want to pass down history, but have no audience
Synthesized community ideas into open ended prototypes for community input.
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Fall phase
Interviews.
Conducted interviews with CoF partners from the following organizations:
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Gallery Guichard
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Chicago Public Schools
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Southside Community Art Center
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51st Street Business Association
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Bronzeville Community Development Partnership/Urban Innovation Center
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Mid South Business Association Resource Center (MSBARC)
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Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention
Virtual community design studios.
We conducted a design studio with students at De La Salle High School to prototype the app design and initiate a partnership for community ownership. We conducted five virtual workshops where students learned about the design process and used it to design versions of the
app experience.
As part of the virtual workshop, students reached out to Bronzeville community residents within their circle to learn their stories. Four student interviews were conducted with community residents. The same team of students is continuing virtual sessions with the app development team.
Analysis of data and preliminary UX concepts.
Analyzed research and synthesized into design principles and preliminary UX concepts for app development team
Process
Fall research
1) Designed virtual community design studio for general Bronzeville residents
2) Virtual community design and research studio with De La Salle High school (Series of 5 virtual workshops)
3) Interviewed ComEd Community Partners
4) Analyzed notes and synthesized research into design principles and preliminary UX concepts for app development team.
Reflections + next steps.
This project is still in progress, after the design team's handoff to the software development team in December 2020.
The app development began in January 2021.