Stockwell Skatepark
Take an active role in a system and use the term 'architecture' as a vehicle to confront a rang of contexts, schemes and scales of activity
Timeline
Apr 2019
(4 weeks)
Teams
Sophie Liu (Researcher), Lei Xu (User testing), Chiaki Sakai (Graphic designer), Dooyung Kang (Model Making)
Role
Research, User Testing, Model Making
Problem
How can we ensure that the two separate communities, skateboarder and the audience have the most abundant interaction in the skatepark.
One thing that is especially caught our attention in the Stockwell Skatepark is the two differed communities inside and outside the skatepark. We decided to being exploring how to invite residence to the skatepark, which can benefit both the skaters and the audience.
Final Outcome
Interventions for Skaters & Audience
There are three interventions in total, they are skating blocks, skater benches and ramp with viewing window. The intervention are for both skaters and audience, they can both interact with the objects when they are in the skatepark, so the residence can also be part of the community.
Key Insights
There are different objects in the skatepark that belongs to different communities (different skaters and audience), however, some of the objects in the skatepark will be interacted by both of the communities. It gives to the opportunity to use those objects as a starting points to create the design.
The Impact
Bridged the two communities closer together, local residence would able to enjoy the skaters inside the park whiout feeling an outsiders.
Research Methods
Onsite Visit
The skatepark was empty at our initial visit due to the weather conditions, so instead of looking the types of people who would use the park and the themes around that), we focused on looking at what was left behind from when it is in use.
One of the things that caught our attention is the board full of rules with graffiti over it, in a way symbolically portraying the disagreement between the skaters and local community.
Onsite research
Interview
Interview between the local community and the skaters give us a more in-depth knowledge of the two communities. They both felt misunderstood by the other communities. Especially when the skaters had gained a negative reputation as a consequence of their disrespectful attitude and apathy to the area.
Model Making
Materials: cardboards, Chicken wires, newspapers
This is a 1:25 model of the skatepark, by building the model, we can get a better understanding of the park, as it is a summation and presentation of researched information. We found that there isn’t enough spaces for audience to sit if they want to chill at the skatepark.
Process of making the model
Refining the topic
5 WHYS
Using 5 Whys as a way to delve deeper into the problem
Empathy Map
After interviewing with local residence and skaters, we conducted an empathy map to pinpoint their feelings, at the beginning, we thought we would not like to have any crossover points, however, some residents would like to chill in the park and enjoy the skaters' performance.
Empathy map and data visualisation
Journey Map
By looking at the journey map, we can see there isn’t much interaction between the local residence and the skaters, the only interaction is when the residence walk pass the skatepark, sometime they will stop for a while and watch their performance, sometime they just carry on with their work. So, how can we increase the interaction of the two separate groups and bring them together?
Journey Map
Persona
Based on the previous research and interview, we created two personas, one as the resident and the second as a skater, this will help us to have a clear picture of who we are designing for.
Personas for local resident and skaters
Ideation
Mapping their Belongings
By looking at what’s inside the skatepark and the personal belongings, we can identify the objects they will share during the time they are in the park.
Mapping out their belongings
Sketching
We often found broken pieces or objects in the skatepark. So we want to use that as an entry point. Based on the previous mapping, we found three objects that we can develop. They are blocks, benches and ramps. For each of them, we have incorporated both skaters and residents feelings when designing.
Sketching the ideas out
User testing
Interventions
The interventions are designed using plywood. They are placed in the skatepark to observe the interaction between skaters and residents.
User journey and mapping BCTs to the interactions
Testing in the Skatepark
After testing them in the skatepark, there are some improvements need to be made, such as the stability and safety issue, and local residents mentioned they liked the idea of the ramp, as it is a different angle of viewing.
User testing in the skatepark
Feedback and Reflection
We have emerged ourselves into the skater community to understand better. Skaters and local residents enjoyed the new interventions and they mentioned is a new interactions between the two communities. This is a very short projects, to further work on this, more user testing and iterations need to be done, the interventions are just the starting point of this.
Pictures taken in the skatepark
