Dare to Respect; ActivCity
It all started in a university classroom. And the rest is history…
WHO Amalia St Andromache Efstathiou eddy Michailidis and Eleni Georgiou.
WHEN October 2018
WHERE “Social Issues, Social Innovation and Corporate Responsibility” course at Panteion University ,with Betty Tsakarestou
And now that you have this piece of information, let’s go to the BASICS.
In 2015 United Nations decided to take action against global issues and created a community to find solutions in these problems that cover a great range of topics, such as education, inequality, food waste, climate change etc.
Many great goals that UN hope to achieve until 2030 have been proposed and our team chose goal №10: Reduced Inequalities. In the beginning of our project we thought that goal №14: Life bellow water would be something that we would be able to help more, but facing some difficulties to make our ideas happen we came down to the conclusion of helping people that are in need when it comes to inequality.
We believe that reducing inequalities in our world and for every aspect of our lives is such an important matter. Starting from our little community in Greece we observed how people with disabilities and viewing problems are not treated in a proper way and we decided that it is time for a change. Visually impaired people and people with moving disabilities have to make an extra effort in order to move around our city and this is happening mainly for two reasons. First of all because suitable structures are not available everywhere and secondly- but most importantly- because other citizens do not respect their special needs. An example that confirms these facts is the recent burst of a father of a disable person for the way the another young man didn’t respect the needs of his son.
Realizing how big of a problem it is, our team thought that we can work this problem out and find some ways to raise awareness for the people that need it the most. But we won’t stop there. We think that the best way to deal with a problem is by putting the ones that create or make it grow in the shoes of the ones in need in order to learn to respect them in a much more efficient way. (Read more at https://medium.com/@amaliast/activcity-9cdaafe6de53?fbclid=IwAR1pgPHmOdf4eYBiFhpEcWGmDgN27IInHhWNyhX08aBADteiJx2L-B3N2tY )
After many brainstorming sessions, we finally reached a consensus. We would like to work on the matter of social inequalities, and more specifically on people with some form of disability. Initially we had decided to dedicate our organization to wheelchair users, the blind and the deaf. As our work evolved, we actually changed some things regarding this original idea.
So, we had to find a way to begin somehow. As a guide, we used OPEN IDEO’s Challenges for a Human Centered Design ,( https://challenges.openideo.com/content/resources?_ga=1.139859574.477800528.1458803170&fbclid=IwAR1PGdCh9hWMUB_hx6riySSXJFSB4ha7oIU6F3CgheIe3_vwD0F9wI80d9w )
So following those steps offered by OpenIDEO we started. Our organization took months to fully develop, but let’s present this process like days of the week.
MONDAY
We started ideation, but we could not possibly develop something without gathering insights first. So we asked random people in the streets, as well as friends and other university students to tell us some issues regarding our choice that needed to be solved.
TUESDAY
It’s brainstorming time ! Many ideas were brought to the table. But it was one that we all agreed on. In one sentence, “We want to create some simple installations all over the city of Athens that would raise awareness about people with movement disabilities, the blind and the deaf, regarding their moving around in the city.” [And a little throwback to this beginning phase https://medium.com/@eleni4698/the-city-of-respect-6fb637794ed2 ]
WEDNESDAY
The step before the creation of a user experience map was, of course, coming in touch with people who face those problems every day. We interviewed 2 wheelchair users , a friend of a blind person and a relative of a blind one. Their insight was incredible, as we realised things we would have never thought, as well as things we,unfortunately, saw every day. We saw the city a little bit through their eyes. The most common problems that came up were;
- Parking on ramps, or even the total absence of them.
- The application of the prohibition of dogs, in the case of guide dogs.
- The usual existence of only verbal announcements in public transportation.
THURSDAY
After we had decided on what we were going to work on, we had to visualize it. We created a user experience map to make the user’s steps clear;
FRIDAY
We began creating our prototype. We decided to start by creating a QR Barcode that would be placed in ramps, and that when scanned, would lead the user to our website. That would prevent people from parking on those ramps, because they would also park on an installation. The barcode would not give much information, in order for our users to be intrigued by it and visit our scan it to learn what it was about.
That would lead them to our website. The original version included those options, plus a section we decided not to include , that was about the deaf.
SATURDAY
It was time for a test drive. In order to get proper feedback, we tested it not only with passersby in actual spots, but we also showed it to the people we had originally interviewed. Their most important feedback was:
- Most of them told us that our idea was very interesting, and that it had an impact on the way they saw this part of the society.
- Two of our interviewees advised us to work with less social groups because it was confusing.
So we decided to work only on wheelchair users and the blind, and also include a section where people could share their own ideas.
SUNDAY
Our website and our barcodes were ready! We made some changes as we used the feedback we received. The barcodes remained the same, and would be placed on metro stations, bus stations, and on ramps. (Read more at https://medium.com/@eleni4698/activcity-in-activation-8b7686777c96 )
In Greece, this a crucial issue as we see everyday that people don’t really respect and understand the needs of this social group. Many times we have noticed that people overlook the priority seats for disabled people in public transportation or park in front of wheelchair ramps. Actions like these incommode people with movement disabilities and make them feel insecure moving in their own city. Our goal as a team is to familiarize and sensitize society towards disabled people in order for them to move equally in the city. (Read more at; https://medium.com/@andromachyef/activcity-our-sdg-vision-9af9af285a6 )
STARTING ON MONDAY…
So what will be our next steps ? We are planning to create more installations, in more places, and of course move on to more cities. We are planning to create posters with interesting wuotes. We are also planning to create social media accounts, especially Instagram, where people can mention us while uploading photos that have to do with our city and cases when people show disrespect towards our co-citizens. Social Media will help us raise awareness in a much more public way. Finally , we are going to work more on our website, in order for it to work properly.
Last but not least, we owe a big part of our work to the Design Thinking Process. It made us realise that in order to create something realistic, that could be applied in the real world, TESTING is everything. Every piece of feedback one gets is helpful in order to evolve, become better, and become relatable to more and more people.
So the question is ….
