Icebreakers

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When was the last time you spoke to the person living across the street?

Made eye contact with someone while waiting for the streetcar? Or chatted with a familiar face in the elevator?

How we define and interact with our neighbours alters the way we experience our city. In our increasingly wired landscape, face-to-face communication still plays a vital role in bringing people together and making communities more inclusive. In collaboration with the Ontario College Of Art & Design and Luminato, OpenCity Projects’ 2009 creative lab explored communication in today's urban environments.


Opportunity

Identify communication gaps among Torontonians and create experiences to bring them together.

Analysis

OpenCity Projects equipped students with a range of research tools that help them immerse themselves in urban settings and understand stakeholder perspectives:

  • Audits of urban spaces and places
  • One-on-one interviews with key stakeholders, including residents, small business owners and students who will use the design solution
  • Personas representing fictional portraits of interviewees
  • Map of stakeholders' experiences to help pinpoint opportunity areas

Ideation

Based on research insights and key opportunities identified, students developed a range of creative ideas to solve the communication problem.

Implementation

Through an iterative process, students brought design ideas to life using prototypes to test the desired experience. Design solutions took the form of objects, spaces, signage or rituals, and serve as interfaces to connect people and enhance our community.