A Clean & Vibrant City Designing Public Spaces to Revitalize Urban

Life and Infrastructures

Anne Chen Alex Holder Angela Kote

PHASE I: Select topic.

Source inspirations. Define approach.

Select topic. Choosing a systemic issue we’re interested in solving by designing for behavioral change.

Urban Infrastructure of Interest

The Garbage Can

The Systemic Issue

• New Yorkers missing / ignoring cans.

• Results in accumulation of trash on streets.

• The spin-off of bad habits – litter begets litter...

An ugly blemish on our urban landscape…

Source inspirations.

Brainstorming early solutions by collecting existing ones to spark ideas.

• ‘beautify’ cans’ surrounding area? o Aesthetically pleasing (i.e. plant flowers) so people will be

reluctant to ‘dirty’ area by littering.

• redesign entire can? o “Trash monsters” - drawing on people’s natural curiosities to incentivize them to ‘get their trash in the can’.

• decorate cans? o With visually appealing posters / flyers which educate people about NYC’s litter problem.

• remove/cover cans completely? o ‘Shock’ people to change their behavior by cans’ sudden disappearance.

Early Solution Ideas

Inspirational Finds

Our army of “trash monsters.”

Possible Mappings What we should base our design decisions on.

Geographical

Source: http://janeswalk.net/assets/uploads_docs/Walkability_Full_Report.pdf

Human/Cultural How do people engage with their surroundings as

well as the objects (trash cans) within it?

Define approach. Honing in on our project’s specifics by blueprinting what will need to be done to achieve its goals.

Project Dimensions

• neighborhood o Measured by: Demographics, geographical terrain.

• litter disposal patterns

o Measured by: Frequency that people “hit/miss” cans.

• litter accumulation o Measured by: ‘Before & after’ tallies of trash which missed the can (i.e. 2 pm observation start time’s litter amount vs. 7 pm observation end time’s amount).

• time frame

o Measured by: When, how long, how often we observed area.

Methodologies • surveys/interviews

o With doormen, postal workers, stoop sitters , etc. - people who know the area . • observational research

o Witness our ‘population’ and behaviors to classify ‘norms’. • time frame

o Longitudinal - in the sense that we are documenting accumulation of waste / disposal patterns over ‘a period of time’.

o Do accumulation / patterns change within the hours of a day? within the days of a week?

o Do accumulation / patterns change after we intervene?

Data Collection & Communication

• video cameras • city reports

o NYPD: Surveillance footage? Trends in litter violations in their district?

o Garbage pickup schedules.

• infographics o For inter-group reflection and effective presentation to future audience.

PHASE I: Key Takeaways

Community Engagement: New Yorkers

Multi-Discipline Approach: Researchers / Designers Working with the Existing System: Government / City Councils

This project will require community participation, especially during the initial testing phase when our “trash monsters” are first introduced to the streets we’ve determined to have the heaviest pedestrian footfall.

We acknowledge that some of our maps will be geographically-based, but just as important are those which capture the dynamics between a street's living and nonliving 'actors' (trash cans, streets, New Yorkers, etc.) We therefore open the floor for an ongoing dialogue between designers and experts from other disciplines (i.e. psychology).

Our project stems also from the idea that we can utilize both existing materials (i.e. old trash cans) and existing tendencies (of the human psychology, i.e. their natural inclination to be curious).

PHASE II: Establish logistics. Collect raw data. Analyze findings.

Establish logistics.

Setting a calendar for the semester, a work breakdown structure, an inventory of necessary

resources, modes of communication, etc.

Tentative Semester Plan

Essential to project management: Getting organized and planning for the future. Creating a detailed schedule (i.e. deadlines for weekly deliverables); assigning

individual responsibilities; listing materials we’d need, etc. – before doing anything else.

A Project “Guidebook”

In case we got overwhelmed: Having a reference we could always turn to. As NYC’s waste issue is a

systemic problem with numerous causes and stakeholders involved, it was important to remember to keep focused on our specific strategy on how to

address it.

OUR FINAL DESIGN SPACE

OUR PROJECT PROPOSAL

Staying in Constant Touch

How we ensured collaboration: Meeting physically and virtually. As student schedules always differ, one of the biggest challenges we face when working in teams is making sure everyone contributes and that we can

combine our individual work together well in the end. Throughout the semester, we’d regularly share what we’d each covered over Google Drive – this was pivotal to our project’s success.

Collect data. Taking on the role of ethnographer – observing

and interviewing people, documenting everything via photos, videos, and field notes.

Observations: Photos

Snaps of trash cans from around the city show just how

real the problem is.

Observations: Raw Data

Logging individual observations during different times of the day, days of the week, city cross sections, etc. Then using bar charts to flesh out patterns

and correlations.

Surveys

Questionnaires were handed out to pedestrians, asking them to rank bin design elements by level of importance in order for us to discern which features most strongly

impact waste disposal behaviors.

Analyze findings. Curating the information amassed to separate the useful from the impertinent. What insights can we

actually take action upon and harness in our solution’s design?

What Could Be Influencing Their Behavior?

How people perceive and interact with trash cans – what we defined their four main considerations to be based on observations, interviews, and survey results.

A MAKE-SHIFT LID TO FIT OVER CITY BIN.

CONCEPT & NOTES

• Made from malleable recycled plastic materials. Painted green to suit color of existing bin.

• Will take proper sourcing and tactical skill to create.

ELEMENTS & GOALS

• Side slot to force conscious disposal. • Litter-containing cover to prevent spill-over. • Enclosure to limit unwanted contact with old

trash.

PLANTS TO ATTRACT ATTENTION + ADD AESTHETIC VALUE.

CONCEPT & NOTES

• Three potted baby fir trees placed near the can with signage that motivates proper waste disposal..

• Will require sourcing / maintenance - increasing costs.

• Possible confiscation by city or theft by pedestrian.

ELEMENTS & GOALS

• Signage to at least engage pedestrian (i.e. pausing to read it).

• Adding some green brings environmentalism to pedestrian’s mind.

A LARGE, VIBRANT RECYCLING BIN.

CONCEPT & NOTES

• Placed near or combined in one “system” with trash bin.

• Risk of trash being mixed with recyclables. • Will require different pickup process and duties.

ELEMENTS & GOALS

• Signage and recognizable color to signify separate purpose.

• Shared size, lid, design, etc. with trash bin.

Translating insights into strategy…

Bin Design Elements

Based on data analysis, how we defined the three most important changes our design

should include.

PHASE III: Prototype solution. Apply & critique. Present our work.

Prototype solution.

Making sure we thought things through before bringing our concept to life.

A Digital Mock-Up

Visualizing the outcome we’re going for first – especially important in planning out what materials we’d need to purchase in order to effectively allocate our limited

budget among the team.

Apply & critique. Introducing our design to the world and

seeing what happens.

Excuse the Roughness

Our results reveal our obvious constraints.

There were three main reasons behind our design’s raw appearance: (1) We did not want our

strategy to require the city to spend a lot of money (i.e. producing entirely new cans); (2) we could

not remove existing cans to modify ourselves (hence, any change had to be able to be done quickly, on the spot, and easily removed); and

(3) our limited budget.

The three design elements – (1) the bin’s opening; (2) its surrounding area; and (3) a recycling option – were thus presented in what’s

probably their roughest form.

Whether they were too busy on the phone, in a rush to get somewhere, or in the midst of conversation…

Unfortunately, most people barely seemed to notice any change at all (or simply didn’t care!)

The

Reactions

But our design at least got some people’s attention…

Left: A mother and her curious son seem more fascinated by our Christmas tree; Top: An old woman pauses briefly to look at our modified can, but does not

otherwise interact with it.

And we even did achieve some

…But would they have stopped and behaved the way we’d hoped if we hadn’t introduced our

changes?

SUCCESS!

This made us all

wonder…

Present our work. Communicating not just our results, but our process

and reflections to the class.

37

Explaining the Project

Summarizing Conclusions

…So what do all of our findings mean?

Overarching Goal: Get people to make the right choice.

Throw trash in bin, not on street.

Pick trash vs. recycling bin appropriately.

First step is to GET THEIR ATTENTION. Some CHANGE to the bin.

But it can’t just be any change – it needs to be…

SUSTAINABLE

MOTIVATING

Cost-effective, mass produced. Capable of being implemented and maintained throughout NYC.

Results in “right choice” all the time. Enough for busy pedestrians to stop, think, decide, act.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

THE KEY PROJECT TAKEAWAY

MAKE IT ALL ABOUT GIVING

A RECYCLING OPTION.