Blog Post 3 - Wayfinding

As the focus of the class begins to become more specific about what interventions to create in the courthouse, I have found an interest in wayfinding. Even before you enter the courthouse, there are changes that can be made to the system that will help people better understand the process of Housing Court. 

Class Report: 03/26/2018

The class continued to work in their groups for the design interventions that will be installed on March 27^th from 2:30 to 4:30. Some groups remained in the classroom while others went to work in the studios and woodshop.

Designing for Privacy

My group’s design intervention addresses separation and privacy in the courthouse. Landlords, tenants, lawyers and other visitors spend many hours anxiously waiting for their case to be called. They sit in waiting rooms, on benches and in the hallways alongside other visitors, and sometimes alongside their opposing party. This may add tension and awkwardness to an already stressful day.

Designing For Privacy (Mykaela Scarpace)

My group’s design intervention addresses separation and privacy in the courthouse. Landlords, tenants, lawyers and other visitors spend many hours anxiously waiting for their case to be called. They sit in waiting rooms, on benches and in the hallways alongside other visitors, and sometimes alongside their opposing party. This may add tension and awkwardness to an already stressful day.

Vulnerable Mindset bp|3

This blog post is in response to Brody Walsh’s very valid point made in class that the mindsets of the people visiting the courthouse need to be taken into account from a design perspective. The people here may be in a very vulnerable state, therefore any design installations / tests done need to be sturdy and durable. We must take this into account when designing. For our group, we are dealing with separation and privacy dividers and there was an idea for these to be movable and have a curtain drawn when someone wants privacy. If someone moves these dividers and they break, they are now in a much worse mindset and much more flustered just by the nature of the courthouse atmosphere. We came up with a design that had a nice simple aesthetic, however the structure was not sound, therefore, it was no longer an option.

This is the aspect of design that I really enjoy. Architecture is about much more than simply creating something that is aesthetically pleasing. The understanding and respect of the people using the architecture is key. Every good architectural project begins with site analysis / the study of the population / residents.

A short passage from the book with the subtitle Respect in Practice states that “Some forms of research—particularly those involving less face-to-face contact—carry a greater burden to anticipate a participant’s vulnerabilities. These cases require additional thought and care regarding participants’ emotional investment in the study” (pg 27). This sentence is key to the deigning that we are testing in the courthouse and explains that architecture has a lot to do with the thought and care that goes into the people, because at the end of the day, the architecture is all about the people; otherwise, why would it be created?

Blog Post #3: Universal Ethics

In class this week we spoke about the IDEO Little Book of Design Research Ethics as we also compared and contrasted the ethical duties of an architect and lawyer. These responsibilities range from their relationship to their client, their relationship to the outside world, and dealing with situations individually. The book focuses a lot on respect as a responsibility and what that means for empathy. 

Class Report: 3-19-2018

Today in class we divided into our four previously chosen groups in order to further our ideas regarding our interventions. We will be implementing our ideas on Wednesday, March 28, so we need to begin finalizing designs and  prototyping in order to ensure success. 

Each group has a unique focus including: 

• The separation of tenants and landlords in order to avoid awkward and tense moments
• Way-finding with regard to inside of the courthouse as well as a re-working of the notice to quit in order to minimize stress 
• Time keeping as another means of minimizing stress
• Separation of the separation of the two Lawyer-For-A-Day tables to also minimize tension and tenant/landlord overlap in the courthouse

All of the groups were working on sketches and diagrams in order to solidify ideas and design moves. The Lawyer-For-A-Day group went to the wood shop to begin prototyping some walls they plan on installing. 

The courthouse is an interesting site to work with because of the vulnerable state that people are in while they're there.  This thought process served as a segway into a conversation about The IDEO Little Book of Design Research Ethics. We discussed the similarities between the ethics of an architect and those of a lawyer. Both included being honest and morally aligned while doing what is best for your client, all while following the laws of your profession. Some degree of confidentiality is involved in both as a respect for clients as well. 

Big Take Away: The relationship in many ways between clients and lawyers is similar to that of clients and architects which makes the case for these interventions much stronger. The state that someone in a courthouse is in plays a massive role in these relationships and how they change based on situation and location. This interdisciplinary crossover makes more and more sense the further in we get. 

Where to?

The issues we identified with the existing court process follow a similar vein. Our class identified a multitude of ostensibly unrelated problems that actually fall under the single larger problem of navigation. People do not understand how to make their way through court. From the beginning of an eviction through the end of the hearing, there is a lack of the transparency and clarity necessary for understanding housing court. The legibility of the notice to quit falls under this category and so does the signage within the physical court space. 

Courthouse Intervention | Blog Post 3

In the process of designing and implementing a courthouse intervention, one thing has stuck out to me: being considerate and respectful.

With every design and studio project assigned in school, the parameters never have the ability to actually affect those using it, because the projects have never been physically implemented or tested.

Having evaluated the existing conditions, uncovered the problems, and proposed preliminary solutions, the project rapidly progresses with our design thinking at the forefront. But is this really the best way to continue?

Where? When? and How? Intervention

What is the goal of the design intervention?

The goal of the design intervention is to help the user find their way around the courthouse easier. The intervention will be a resource for all visitors to discover where they need to go, where that location is within the building, and how to get from their current location to their destination. Our intervention will provide clocks in the central atrium space, where you can find the time from every floor.

What problem[s] does this design intervention address?

This design intervention addresses two major problems of the courthouse: the lack of clocks and the difficulty of finding where rooms are located and how to get there. Being so time-oriented, the courthouse severely lacks clocks and access to timing throughout the building. With so many different floors and program spaces throughout the building, the courthouse lacks a way for the visitor to find out how to get from point a to point b without getting lost or having to ask a security guard. This intervention addresses the issue of wayfinding and will provide the user with easy to read and interpret directions.

What is the design intervention?

The design intervention can be broken down into to parts: clocks and paper handouts. The clocks will be projections hanging off the railing along the atrium. The projects will be within the large atrium space, allowing visibility from every floor. The paper handouts will provide an easy to understand graphic of the courthouse, allowing the user to understand where each room is and how to access them. On the back of the handout, we will provide access to the available resources, frequently asked questions, the eviction and court process, as well as a QR code and link to further resources. This will make the individual’s courthouse experience easier, as well as making them aware of the already available resources.

How will this design intervention be evaluated for success/failure?

The success or failure of this project will be measured by polling staff and visitors of the court alike, in understanding how helpful the interventions work. The two interventions will be evaluated differently for their successes and failures. The clock projections will be be evaluated based on polling of people in the courthouse, from lawyers of the day, to regular staff, to the general public. It will also be evaluated based on how well the projections can be seen in the atrium space, and the installation of the clocks, whether they can be easily installed without any destruction to the existing conditions.

The evaluation for the paper handouts are based on how well people can move through the space. They will also be determined by information collected from staff who have previously experienced people asking for directions, such as the security. It can also be evaluated based on feedback from people who have used the handout. If the handouts are printed and provided inside of the courthouse, they can be evaluated based on the amount or lack thereof, of handouts available.

How will you collect data on how this design intervention actually worked/didn't work in the field?

The data can be collected from polling and understanding the user experience. Data regarding the projections would be collected based on polling, otherwise there is no true to way to understand how successful the clocks are in the space. The handouts can be evaluated by polls as well as data collected about how many people showed up on time for their hearings vs. those that are not able to make their way there on time. Due to these being based on user experience, the data collected would have to be coming from said user.

Wayfinding Design Intervention

Gizelle Hourani, Katya Stassen, Brian Sandford

PROBLEM:

People do not understand how to interact with the court process or courthouse. They do not know how to make their way through the system—where to go, where to get help, etc.

Blog Post #3_Lawyer for a Day Table - Revamp

Mackenzie, Ben, Tyler, Craig

The goal of the design intervention is to offer assistance to those who need it with a degree of privacy while solving spacial issues that improve overall functionality of the courthouse. 

The problems that we are addressing are the spacial tie-up that the lawyer for a day tables create through their close proximity to one another and lack of space to talk to the people that need assistance for their hearing. It is also addressing the lack of privacy that one might desire when discussing personal information.

Our intervention is a modular partition that could be erected near the lawyer for a day tables that are set up outside the courtrooms. They are to be a manageable size that allows for easy handling through the courthouse and can be set-up in different locations depending on what court has a busy day. They will be able to create a sense of space that allows someone to speak with the lawyer for a day in a more private area than the space presently used outside the courtrooms.

We will evaluate whether it is a success or failure based on the following design criteria; portability, ease of assembly, cost, improved sense of privacy for the users and the volunteers that are helping. 

We will collect data throughout the modules' assembly process and to determine whether they are following the criteria of portability and ease of assembly. Methods of testing the module, before it gets placed within the courthouse, could be done through means of setting the module up in the architecture studio and seeing if it creates a sense of privacy, separation, and if the size is conducive to the users. 

Courthouse Intervention: Separation & Privacy

What is the goal of the design intervention? 

The goal of our design intervention is to provide separation and privacy in the common areas of the courthouse. The intervention will create a sense of separation and privacy for lawyers, tenants and landlords in order to make for more comfortable waiting spaces. There is also a need for the people to be brought together in order to achieve the same goal. This intervention is a way to have separation and privacy, then after there is opportunities for these people to work together. We are focusing on two areas: the waiting room in the clerk’s office and the benches in the hallway.

Class Report: 3-12-2018

1.0 Proposal Presentations

After the architecture students returned from their spring breaks with proposal ideas of situations they deemed important and could use a design solution with the intention to ease the housing court. Ideas that were presented varied throughout scales, issues, and who they would be affecting directly. Issues that had come up while we presented in our separate groups, the issue focused on ranged from the security issue at the entrance less used, to the way-finding throughout the courthouse, all the way to extra information that could be included with the "Notice to Quit" form used to initiate the summary process. Even though every person within each group came up with many different interventions, each with the possibility of easing the housing court issues through any given eviction day, there were topics that began to align with each group members ideas and began a collaborative brain-storming session between every group. 

Each of the 4 groups was to then focus on one of the issues that we had all hinted at in one of the proposals that we had brought to class on this day. The groups focuses were as follows; way-finding, time-keeping, lawyer for a day area, and the mediation waiting room. After each group picked the focus that they wanted for the their intervention that was to be tested out within the courthouse, the class shared their ideas on the what the other groups were looking into. 

Way-finding Group (Brian, Katya, Gizelle)

Proposals ranged from informing the people that receive the "Notice to Quit" where to get to the courthouse, to iPads that could be located at the info desk sitting at the top of the stairs within the atrium. The interactive dockets that are placed throughout the courthouse could be updated in order to actually describe to people where to find the courtroom their hearing is located. A few questions that were asked to this group is how they were to present these way-finding interventions. Are the signs going to be heavy on the symbols and graphics so more people could look at and understand the maps that would be placed around the courthouse. 

Time-Keeping (Sachia, Sarah, Omar)

This group is targeting how people within the courthouse can know and view the time while they are in the courthouse due to lack of any sort of time telling device visible to the public as they enter the building. 

Lawyer for a Day Area (Mackenzie, Craig, Ben, Tyler)

The ideas that were discussed through this group began with thoughts on spreading the two lawyer for a day tables apart in order to give the landlords and tenants some more space as they are to discuss their case to get help. This lead to creating some sort of intervention that could create a private separation incase the case dealt with a more private issue. With the ability to separate the landlord and the tenant, the tenants could get help away from the landlord, possibly giving them a bit more confidence and ease the pressure of being in court. 

Mediation Waiting Room (Micaila, Brody, Tori)

This group is looking into the mediation queueing room where the landlord and tenant sit in the exact same room, possibly right next to the other as they wait for their case to be mediated. Some sort of separation can help ease the tension of the two, possibly leading to less stressful mediations throughout the day. 

Throughout all the ideas that were presented in the class, we are to design and test out whether these interventions are something that work or don't work. We will need to identify what it is that we are looking to solve and identify what is that could define this project as successful or not. Looking into different sets of data both qualitative and quantitative could help the groups decide what makes their intervention successful. 

Blog Post 2 - Begin Again

The class has gotten the opportunity to visit the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse on two occasions: once on eviction day and once during a regular weekday. To be able to experience the courthouse for the first time on eviction day was informative and overwhelming.