Project Waller Creek: Research
The seven of us in the Capstone for Integrated Design course began the research phase as soon as we received our design problem for the semester. To recap the previous article on the background of the project, our problem statement was: How might we engage Waller Creek to enhance the UT student experience?
To begin our primary research, we first built a stakeholder map of specific and non-specific individuals that we knew we wanted to interview. These people included subject-matter experts, students, and faculty. We then began strategically scheduling these interviews. Between the seven of us, we specialized in different interviewing roles and created a number of unique research tools. We began by focusing on subject-matter expert interviews, and then expanded our research to the general student body.
Subject-Matter Expert Interviews
For our six subject-matter expert interviews, we scheduled 90-minute timeframes with each expert and prepared a set of specialized questions for each interview. We typically had one team member conducting the interviews and two team members taking notes, taking photos, and managing the audio recording.
Our first interview was with UT’s Director of Sustainability, Jim Walker. Walker defined UT’s section of Waller Creek from 30th Street to 15th Street. The extent of Waller Creek runs from Airport Boulevard to Lady Bird Lake. Furthermore, Walker illuminated the fact that Waller Creek used to serve as a natural edge of the UT campus, but as the UT campus expands eastward, Waller Creek now becomes more of the center of campus. Additionally, he informed us of what he determined as unsafe levels of E. coli in Waller Creek, which were unsafe for human contact. He suspects that at some point north of UT along Waller Creek, the sewage pipes might be leaking and this is likely what is causing the unsafe levels of E. coli. Walker also planted the idea of “memory of place” in relation to UT. He noted how the UT Tower, the South Mall, and the Turtle Pond are commonly the landmarks that are remembered by students and alumni. He made the seven of us wonder if Waller Creek stands a chance at being added to that list. Finally, he alluded to a potential area for discovery in the connections between mental health and the natural spaces surrounding the Waller Creek.
Our second interview was with Kevin Anderson, who serves as the Coordinator for the Center for Environmental Research at Austin Water. He had done extensive research on Waller Creek and was familiar with now-deceased Joseph Jones, the author of Life on Waller Creek. We attended one of his Lunchtime Lectures on bodies of water and caught up with him afterward for an interview. He held a conflicting opinion to Walker’s on the E. coli levels of Waller Creek and told us that he thought the levels were safe for human contact. He also told us that all built solutions to confront the various issues of Waller Creek are temporary. He reminded us that the creek has existed long before us, and will continue to exist long after we are gone.
We then interviewed Allan Shearer, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Co-Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at UT. Shearer was an encyclopedia of Waller Creek knowledge. He helped guide us through our conflict of wanting students to increase interaction with the creek without actually touching it. He also noted the increasing evidence linking mental and physical wellness to outdoor spaces.
Next, we met with Stuart Reichler, Associate Professor of Practice in UT’s College of Natural Sciences. He took us on a tour of the creek from Dean Keeton Street to 21st Street. He first spoke to us about the biodiversity of the creek. He pointed out the non-native Cypress trees that were planted by professors many decades ago and now serve as stability for the banks of Waller Creek and help combat erosion. Reichler also showed us the weir system that was built to help foster the growth of the Cypress trees. He spoke to the biodiversity of Waller Creek and even pointed out a grey heron to us as it was wading through the water. He expressed how all solutions that humans implement to the creek are temporary, and also the fact that water is a central resource of life, but humans often do not treat it as such.
We then met John Rigdon, Director of Planning and Design for the Waller Creek Conservancy. The Waller Creek Conservancy operates south of UT’s section of Waller Creek, from 15th Street to Lady Bird Lake. Rigdon stressed the notion that the area around that is more crucial for opportunity than the creek itself. He explained the many strategies the Waller Creek Conservancy employs in order to increase human engagement around the creek. The Conservancy has extensive programming in the venues they have curated around the creek, and have a five-part plan that will distinguish different areas of the creek. He also discussed how people will often divert their daily commute to have a more pleasant experience. He added that the area around Waller Creek tends to be 5–10 degrees cooler than the average air temperature and the sounds from the street are muffled due to the foliage and water. He was the third expert to cite the links between natural areas and mental health.
Our final subject-matter expert that we interviewed was with Marie Lorenz, Brooklyn-based artist and UT Lecturer. She is currently writing a thesis on “greenbelts” versus “graybelts,” which is essentially comparing “sacred” natural spaces, such as national parks, to urban nature, which are often overlooked and neglected. She considered Waller Creek to be urban nature, but nonetheless a positive source of rejuvenation. She gave us ideas about starting playful rumors about the creek in order to draw more attention to the source of nature. She discussed the mental health benefits of exposure to nature and the convenience of urban nature to solve this present mental health crisis, especially in a university setting.
Now that we had gathered a diverse, expert opinion of Waller Creek, we moved on to crafting other research tools in order to gather the opinions of the student body.
Student and Faculty Interviews
In order to collect a vast, yet accurate student perspective on Waller Creek, we used several different methods of research. We began with an electronic survey that we sent to students and alumni. We received over 100 responses from the survey, and the quantitative data that the survey yielded guided our next steps.
We then began to brainstorm more interactive ways to collect large amounts of data, but this time, we wanted more qualitative data. We came up with the idea of a giant interactive response board with prompts that students could answer. The prompts ranged from “where do you go to have a laugh” to “what do you expect from a university regarding mental health.” We received over 500 responses to the interactive board and many responses related to mental health and a lack of resources on the university’s campus.
Wanting to go more in-depth with students, we developed an intercept interview guide. Each team member set out to intercept students and faculty along Waller Creek to complete the 5-minute intercept questionnaire. The questions pertained to general attitude and awareness levels of students and faculty regarding the creek. With 28 intercepts conducted, we synthesized the responses into a grid of archetypes, as seen below.
We then wanted to go even further with individual students and faculty, so we created a research guide for contextual interviews along the creek or on other parts of campus. This research guide that we created included a question guide, as well as a journey map of the given student’s typical weekday and a 2x2 grid that guided the student to plot popular green spaces in Austin, such as the Greenbelt, Shoal Creek, and Zilker Park on axes of convenience and relaxation.
We interviewed a student in both liberal arts and engineering who grew up spending ample time along Waller Creek because her father is an Anthropology professor at UT. She lamented the fact that she feels students do not appreciate the creek for its unique beauty. She also pointed out several spots where it reinforces her hunch that the university does not care about Waller Creek. She specifically pointed out areas where cement was poured on the banks for erosion control, but it was cracked and unappealing. She also pointed out the unmaintained appearance of the landscape around the creek.
We went on another creek walk with a fourth-year engineering student. She admitted to not spending much time outside, but told us about her aspirations to someday find a comfortable space to spend more time in nature. She complained of the many uncontrollable factors relating to natural spaces, such as wind, temperature, and animals and inspects.
Three themes that emerged from all of these conversations were: the benefits of urban nature, the stressors of college, and the unfulfilled student needs at the University of Texas.
With all of the rich information we compiled, we then moved on to the sensemaking phase, where we found patterns in the large amount of data we collected. Read about the sensemaking phase in the next article.
