Design & Prototyping with Dublin City Council BETA
Service Design | Dublin City BETA
During 2023, we worked with Dublin City Council BETA to help research and prototype a simple online matching service for their ongoing ‘Downpour Planters’ project.
This new initiative is an exploration into how Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) might enhance Dublin’s public realm, while increasing the city’s resilience against large rainfall events which are occurring with increasing frequency.
From discovery through to design and prototyping these are some of the things we got up to…
Discovery Workshop
Our discovery workshop was a collaborative session, with key project stakeholders to identify and scrutinise existing assumptions about to the project. We established priority areas for our user research, while the workshop also helped align the wider group.
Outreach & Screening Survey
A survey was published on social media, to engage the public, learn a little, and identify potential respondents for our further research work. The survey included test questions which might appear in a future “expression of interest” for obtaining Downpour Planters.
These questions helped us to select individuals for further research engagement, for example – because their home was particularly suitable for a planter box. The survey also captured other useful qualitative and quantitative data.
Prototype Development
Prototyping began with the creation of journey maps, outlining the user journey through the matching service. Understanding this journey helped us to design a first version of the website architecture for the service, prioritising the information needed to inform visitors about the service and to begin the journey towards obtaining a planter.
The prototype matching service website included information responding to the learnings from prior research, as well as a prototype form for signup. This prototype was iterated several times based on new information before being used for testing.
Interviews & Testing
Testing took place in the form of one-on-one conversations with participants recruited from the survey. The conversations aimed to gather more in-depth qualitative feedback, and to conduct usability tests of the online website prototype. This approach allowed for a nuanced understanding of participant perspectives, experiences, and opinions towards the project.
Going Forward
All research findings were compiled and handed back to the Beta team, and the project is in ongoing development. For more information and updates, keep an eye on the DCC Beta Projects website.