Getgo Glasgow
Sustain our Nation (SoN) was a competition for young designers to address the issues of ageing population, health, finance, crime, energy and climate change, through creating social enterprises using design thinking.
At the Glasgow School of Art three social enterprise concepts were developed in cocreation with the Wyndford estate in Glasgow (which classed as the 18th most deprived area in Scotland according to the BBC), applying a fuzzy front end approach driven through workshops and engagement tools. Rather than directly addressing an issue and the Sustain Our Nation brief, Getgo Glasgow, a group of twelve students MEDes and MDes Innovation, developed engagement tools and methods to identify real needs by discovering a community to work with and winning their trust and enthusiasm for the project.
The concept Green Gorillaz won the National Final and secured 20.000 pounds for the Wyndford estate. The social enterprise connects residents by helping them to create interest groups across generations using online and offline platforms. The social enterprise is now being realised supported by GSA design students, Wyndford’s stakeholders and community champions, the so called 'chiefs', who were already identified in the cocreation process. See how they are getting on at Getgo Glasgow website.
“Designers will no longer only design for people, they will learn to design with people. Codesigning will require new forms of communication to support the collective creativity that arises between designers and everyday people.”
My role
I was involved across the whole breath of the process: from stakeholder interviews, designing engagement tools, talking to the kids, facilitating one of the codesign workshop group, presenting at the regional final in Newcastle, writing the business plan to video storyboarding and editing.
The stages I enjoyed most were designing the codesign workshops and refining the concept with means of sketching, presentation slides and video storyboarding. For the workshops I liked planning of tasks and producing work materials.
I also documented every step of the process wrote blog posts and filming during the launch event and interviews.
Research & Concept
The ListenUp aims to support the Wyndford community to enhance their feeling of community spirit and ownership. It aims to increase community involvement in decision making through community engagement and facilitating community and stakeholder interaction. Through this better relationships are fostered and development projects are more targeted and effective.
As a group we designed many engagement and conversation tools. The two most successful were: the dream board - great conversation starter and good to approach people on the street with as doesn't look like a clip board. The board was also large enough for people to hide behind if they did not want to be photographed. Secondly, the tea and biscuits table gained attention on a cold autumn day encouraging people to stop by for a bru and a chat. However we learnt most and gained trust through helping them with their football pitch - a sign of reciprocity.
“How did you find all this out in three weeks? The council still don’t get it!”
Codesign Workshops
The workshops were great for sharing the research findings and building credibility and trust. The brainstorm games were fun and the presentations highlighted natural leaders whilst ensuring that the design teams actually designed something that members of the community perceived as useful.
Reflection & Press
The project was a great success and many lessons were learnt. Not only was it an incredible experience to win the trust of a community or to win the price money to make community events happen, but it also highlights issues with non sustainable business models and involving new sets of students in co-production - I would be curious to feel the impact it has made.
"How interactive research techniques allow designers to gain insight into areas of social need"
Photo taken at the Regional Final in Newcastle, January 2010 with representatives of the community: Frank and Franny, future chiefs of the social enterprise.
The Team
A joined project by the Master of European Design and Master of Innovation Course at the Glasgow School of Art 2009-2010 in codesign with the Wyndford Estate, Maryhill, North Glasgow: Rose Matilda Hutton | Eeva Campbell | Holly Brenan | Fee Schmidt-Soltau | Joe Slavick | Basako Okay | Laura Franzini | Amy Marsh | Angela Fernandez Orviz | Sara Pateraki | Heji Jeong | Sarah Drummond
