A process informed by research. This module is about creating a process that is informed by research. By research, we mean a way of investigating something in real life, usually through interactions with people. This module also has a practical component, setting up a working process in terms of where and how you're going to store the documents that you create. This is an important step in a co-design process because investigating something in its context will ground and substantiate your work in real life needs. To contextualize this in the course structure, this module refers to an ongoing component of any co-design process research. This is something that will be present in your process from beginning until the end and will support you in creating all the outputs throughout this course. By the end of this module you will have created a research plan to document your research questions and needs and you will also have setup your working process. Now let's get to it. A process informed by research is a way of investigating a topic through observation and interactions with people. The aim is to observe, understand, and collect information about what you are researching in its natural setting. A research repository is a place to hold your research needs. That is the knowledge you want to have to inform your work. These needs usually start broad and can then be broken down into more specific questions that give you a clear scope to act upon. By making these questions specific, you'll start to identify what research activities you will need to conduct to generate the knowledge that you need. From these activities, knowledge will be produced that will inform your process and be translated into actions. In a nutshell, your research repository is a living document that will hold all your research needs, questions, activities, and knowledge. As in previous modules, we're using the trip's project as a case study. I'll be showing you several examples of how research has been present throughout the project. The first example is a sketch that shows how research needs, activities, and knowledge work together in the end to end journey through a specific task. The research need is at the bottom of this diagram and grounds the whole task. The need is for a process that generates knowledge specific to each city and creates an agenda for the group. The agenda is the specific output that we want to generate. This would articulate who the group is, what their priorities are, and what their vision is for the project. These outputs served as the starting points for the research questions. What defines us as a group and how do we want to communicate this? What are priorities for accessible public transport in Brussels? What are we trying to achieve in the duration of the project? More specific questions were created to define a scope for the research. The research activities are listed in the first two columns, one to one session and group activities to discuss and create the agenda. Underneath, we signal the backstage work that needs to be coordinated between the task organizers of two separate work packages to support the groups in this task. In the next column we see a couple of methods. One about how to organize and run workshops for the groups and another method specific for task organizers again, signaling that coordination is fundamental for the task at hand. Finally, the research knowledge is turned into actionable outputs and identity and vision statement that says who each of the groups are, what their vision is, and what their priorities are in the project. This is the beginning of each group's agenda. The second example is a really quick sketch coming from an important project meeting where we discussed what constitutes a success in the project. From this conversation came a research need to demonstrate the impact a project has on the lives of the seven groups. The research question was then, what are the indicators we wish to establish in trips? More specifically, we wanted to understand what constitutes success for each of the different groups in a sense, establishing indicators there are situated and specific to each city. On a more systemic scale, we also wanted to find out how to make explicit the interoperability of our work with other projects and contribution to broader agendas, such as reducing CO_2 emissions by getting people out of cars into public transport. Still from that same project meeting came another quick sketch that articulates more specific research questions. How to formalize and measure the impact of the project from the experience of those involved. How to demonstrate the ways this has changed the groups' lives. How to combine technical, economical, political, and social dimensions into this. The third example are a series of images that demonstrate how knowledge was co-created through making. The first image you see on the screen was taken by the team in Calgary that went out to do research and document their current experiences with public transport in their city. These photos together communicate the project from the realities of those involved. They are a vehicle for their voices. They articulate what is important to these groups and their ideas for ways to improve an accessible public transport. They also articulate the problems and shortcomings that they currently experience in public transport. They signal at the complexity behind these problems, often made up of disconnected services that are experienced in the gap between public space and public transport. But they also articulate hopes and desires. In this image of a group of people exploring a forest in Sweden, I read that accessible public transport can open up for adventure. Through these images, we emphasize that going on this journey is also about meeting and connecting with other people. Finally, these images show that things can improve and that these groups have an idea and a plan for how to do it together. I've shown you a few examples of what we mean by research and different ways of articulating this kind of knowledge. Now, we move to the exercise part of this module, which is to start your research repository. Unlike the other modules, where you create a specific output that act as a piece of the whole, that is the case study that you'll have in the end. In this module, you will start an ongoing activity that will run throughout the entire co-design process. This is because in order to create these outputs, you will need to conduct research to address the research needs and questions that you identify in each one of them. To start your research repository, you will need to, first, create a folder that will hold all the documents you create. If you're working as a group, consider creating this online so that you can all have access to this folder. But be mindful of putting people's personal details online. I usually use initials instead of full names and avoid any information that might identify people. In this folder, you can also create a document that will act as a directory so that you can keep track of all the documents that are created. We have learned that things can become messy very quickly. The second step is to list the needs and the questions that you have. Go from broad to specific so that your scope for action becomes clearer. The third step would be to group these questions and needs by theme. Next you would start prioritizing them according to what would support you in moving forward. What information would you need right now to make progress? The final step is to identify the activities that might address the needs and questions you have. As always, I will take you through a filled-in examples so that you know what to aim for. First, here is a screenshot of the directory of one of the groups. It shows the main folder that contains subfolders split by type of activity. We had workshops, we had finalized outputs, photos, designed images, and presentations. These categories emerged as we went along and we revisited them often. We also felt the need to list the main documents that show how the group's proposition was created iteratively, starting with a text description all the way to a prototype. One particular document that I would like to highlight here is the access needs protocol. The purpose of this document is to communicate the practical setup that your group will need in order to participate in a face-to-face or an online session. This document is inspired by Sandra lounges, access rider exercise. As always, we will make all of these documents available to you in the course materials. After you have created a folder and a document, you can start by listing the needs and questions you have. As an example, I have added questions around who needs to be involved, grouped under two categories and prioritized. The first category is about the groups whose involvements we are prioritizing in this project. At the early stages of a project, this constitutes an urgent need to be able to identify them and to get them on board. The final step would be to identify the activities that might address the needs and questions you have. A starting point might be desk research, where you would for example, search for specific keywords online to see what comes up. In this case, I was working on the need to identify the priority groups to be involved in the projects. As an example, I did a search for accessible public transport rights, this led me to the Disability Justice Project that is about asserting the right to independent living. A search for independent living EU led me to ENIL, who are one of our current partners in the projects. Both of these would certainly be appropriate starting points to go about recruiting the relevant groups that we want to involve in the project. As the needs and questions change, you will broaden your range of activities to conduct. You might want to interview specific people to gain insight about their experience or knowledge about something. At times, you might choose to conduct observation studies which entail going out into the field with a camera and a notebook. Workshops are also another very common research activity that are very fruitful as a site for people to do things together. Now the task is on you to start your research repository and use it throughout this course to document your needs, questions, activities, and the knowledge that comes from all of this. To conclude, this module was about the importance of research in a co-design process. Research is what will allow you to investigate the topic at hand in its context and use that knowledge to ground and substantiate your work in real life. Your research repository will grow as you conduct research and translate this knowledge into action in your process. Thank you.
