DIGITAL & STRATEGIC
UX DESIGN PRACTICE
UX FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Unlocking the potential of Citizen Wi-Fi to create thriving communities
How digital infrastructure and services can improve a citizen’s experience of their town centre
Adur & Worthing Council wanted to establish a model for ‘Design Labs’ which would undertake discovery, community engagement and prototyping to look at how free public Wi-Fi provided by the council can unearth social, environmental and economic value for the local community. Digital Studio was commissioned to shape and run the first of a series of Design Labs, the Citizen Wi-Fi Design Lab.
Date
Location
Citizen Wi-Fi Design Lab resulted in a broad range of actionable concepts of the Citizen Wi-Fi services, and applications that aimed to strengthen the local community, to create a foundation for flourishing the local economy, and to improve urban realm through sensing or new forms of space utilisation.
The Council was able to re-frame their thinking and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of public digital services such as Wi-Fi on place making for local communities.
“This report is a cultural signifier of how we want to approach the place-making.”
“Project outcomes offered much beyond the core solution. Proposed concepts and approach made us consider the influence of the Wi-Fi over the public realm, which wasn’t in our thinking originally.”
PAUL BREWER,
DIRECTOR FOR DIGITAL & RESOURCES,
ADUR & WORTHING COUNCILS
Using an exploratory and evidenced based approach, Digital Studio ensured that all design propositions developed throughout the Citizen Wi-fi Design Lab had a strong emphasis on driving the social, economic and environmental value, and were anchored to the needs of the community members and their environment.
The Citizen Wi-Fi Design Lab span over 2 months and consisted of a research phase, synthesis and concept development (design) phases that resulted in actionable concepts for services that probe how the digital divide can be bridged, local communities strengthened, the public realm activated and meaningful data collected to make Adur & Worthing a more sustainable and livable place.
Citizen Wi-Fi Design Lab has generated over 50 concepts for potential services that can be enabled by the new fibre infrastructure, with selected 20 reviewed by the Arup technical experts to ensure their technical feasibility.
The Citizen Wi-Fi Design Lab was delivered as part of the Adur & Worthing Councils Gigabit Project which sets to connect more than 80 council-owned sites to the free high-speed Wi-Fi powered by the dark fibre infrastructure. Designed to support the Gigabit programme and specifically the procurement of the Citizen Wi-Fi service, Citizen Wi-Fi Design Lab outcomes informed technical, user and design requirements of the future service.
Key UX Steps:
- Citizen-centred product and service development
- User research interviews
- Stakeholder workshops
- Co-design sessions
- Future state brainstorming sessions
