People-centred innovation: The Bristol Approach to Citizen Sensing
An exciting project in Bristol shows how involving people in technology strategy can build community, improve housing and enhance quality of life
The world is getting smarter. It’s cheaper and easier than ever to use sensors, cloud computing and big data to build a rich and detailed picture of how our cities and towns live, move and breathe. Harness this information in the right way, and we can fix problems and drive behaviour change at scale.
But how can you make sure that the tech doesn’t get in the way of the human?
It’s a real problem. A 2015 report from UK innovation charity NESTA found that “smart city” solutions often fail to address the issues that people really care about. Technologists and futurists can easily slip into focusing more on the shiny new gadget than on the behaviour, values and desires of real-life, awkward, unpredictable human beings.
The “Bristol Approach to Citizen Sensing” aims to fix this. It puts people and communities at the heart of innovation, in order to make sure that new technologies address the needs and priorities of those who will use them.
Smart citizens make smart cities
The Bristol Approach was developed by Ideas for Change, Knowle West Media Centre and Bristol City Council to enable people to work together to map problems, decide priorities and construct solutions using sensor technology and citizen-generated data.
“Citizen Sensing” is all about empowering people to build, use or even act as sensors, identifying and gathering the data that will help them use technology for social good. So rather than creating an off-the-peg solution to a predetermined problem, the Bristol Approach involves asking people what they care most about. During a pilot in Bristol in 2016, Knowle West Media Centre did this by running a series of events and jargon-free workshops, and working with artists to have face-to-face conversations with local people in locations across the city.
The number one problem that emerged? Damp housing.
It’s a mundane issue that is unlikely to get Silicon Valley pulses racing, but it’s also an issue that poses real health risks to families, with low-income households particularly at risk. If local people take it seriously, it deserves an innovative response.
Co-designing solutions
With the problem clear in everyone’s sights, the next stage was inviting the community to roll their sleeves up and get stuck into participatory design workshops, maker sessions and “hack days” in order to find a solution that everyone could get behind.
From this emerged a novel solution: damp-sensing frogs.
These fun, plastic “Frogboxes” contained a temperature and humidity sensor connected to a basic computer, which collects and saves data every five minutes. Residents who volunteered to invite the frogs into their homes for a trial period were also given “lily pad” diaries to help them keep track of everyday activities such as showering or cooking. Combined with the sensor data, these personal records helped people to better understand and interpret the data collected and potentially take steps to manage damp conditions.
Subsequent workshops saw local families tinker with and adapt the Frogboxes using electronics, further increasing engagement with the Damp Busters project.
At the same time, a volunteer team of community Damp-Busters was trained in diagnosing and tackling damp, complementing the data-driven insights with on-the-ground action.
Experiences and learning from the Damp Busters pilot have enabled KWMC to apply the Bristol Approach in other projects, such as an air quality programme as part of the REPLICATE Project in Bristol.
Doing innovation differently
What can the purpose-driven business and civic leaders who are building the homes and cities of the future learn from the Bristol Approach?
If nothing else, it should inspire a sense of what is possible when an innovation strategy unlocks the full knowledge, values and skills of the wider community it intends to serve.
To do this requires leaders to “let go” and open up to true collaboration. That’s not always easy, but the prize is huge: replicating this approach at scale has the potential to bring about game-changing products and initiatives. And such initiatives do much more than solve the immediate problem at hand: by enrolling people in the process, they build common ground, trust and deeper partnerships that enhance overall social sustainability.
“The success of The Bristol Approach is that it asks, ‘what kind of tech do people need to reach their goals?’, rather than seeing the creation of new technologies as the main goal in itself,” says KWMC’s Rachel Clarke.
It’s a lesson all mission-led organisations should take to heart.
To learn more about the Bristol Approach, visit its website here. For help in developing an innovation strategy that connects technology to real customer needs, get in touch with the Future Housing Lab on 01225 780000 or email steve@thehouse.co.uk.
[Disclaimer: we are sharing the Bristol Approach’s story here for inspiration and to spread exciting ideas throughout the sector. No endorsement of The House or Future Housing Lab by the Bristol Approach is implied.]
