11/06 — Research Insights and Synthesis

After our field trip to the Strip, we decided to create an Instagram account to record our journey over the course of this project and share some of the discoveries we made about this city. So, before reading on, be sure to follow us!

We reconvened at studio following our trip to the Strip to share the thoughts, observations and insights we gathered.

Research Insights

1. Strong identification with local businesses and the city in general

People have strong loyalties to local businesses, local sports teams, and Pittsburgh in general. Can we use these loyalties to inform our design direction and make this extremely place-based?

2. Boards as a conversation starter

The maps and boards became a way for us to spark conversation with strangers–and also for strangers to connect amongst themselves.

3. People come in from off the map to buy and sell in the Strip District

Map showing hotspots of where people lived (green), worked (red) and played (blue)

The Strip District was a sort of melting pot of old and new, locals and tourists; it brought together people of different walks of life from near and far. How could we create something like this in other parts of Pittsburgh?

4. Strip District is a ritualistic thing on Saturdays

People come in every weekend and they know it’s a big thing. It becomes somewhat of a ritual for both vendors and people who come to buy. People also come once in a while because they know that the Strip District will be busy every weekend.

5. Hidden Gems

If “locals” come in from off the map, where are they going? What makes those places so special? (again, strong identification with particular businesses)

Research Synthesis

We wrote down all our observations and categorized them to help us identify some opportunities. Following this, we came up with some “How might we…” questions. In response to these questions, here are some high-level ideas we came up with:

• Connect strangers
• Help people share knowledge among and between communities
• Collective ritual: people can expect something to be happening every weekend
• Use something tangible that doesn’t rely on technology
• Toolkit
• Physical manifestation of social media
• Connect generations
• A way to archive knowledge

These were the areas that interested us the most and the ones we wanted to explore further.