
CITY ART
Connecting the 'City of Sydney' Council to its public art community
the brief
Help City of Sydney understand its community's views about the public art initiative,
‘City Art’, so it can prioritise investments and maximise community experiences.
role
duration
methods
UX Designer
2 Weeks
Secondary Research
Contextual Enquiry
User Interviews
Surveys
Affinity Mapping
Competitive Analysis
Comparative Analysis
Heuristic Evaluations
Archetypes
Ideation
Scenarios
Journey Mapping
Feature Prioritisation
Service Blueprint
our process
-
understand ‘engagement’
-
create opportunities for engagement
-
identify ways to measure engagement

step 1: discover
ooooooooooooooooo
what
questions, questions, questions...
who is the
community?
The City of Sydney considers its community as both its residents, with an estimated population of 240,229, but importantly also all of its visitors - around 615,000 on any given day.
how do we measure engagement?
qualitative feedback
quantitive feedback
how does engagement vary?
explicit engagement
organic engagement
what does engagement look like?
posts
shares
likes
hashtags
comments
recommendations
geo locations
surveys
emojics
polls
public forums
reviews
interviews
questionnaires
insight: people are giving feedback all the time
what
getting out amongst the art
watching the people
contextual enquiry
We visited a number of City Art’s installations around Sydney, to quietly observe how the community was currently interacting with the artworks.
talking to the people
interviews
These observations then led to questions about what we were seeing.
We did a series of on-site interviews with the community, across different times and various days.
understanding the people
surveys
To best understand when the community is most likely to offer feedback, we conducted a survey with 170 members of the City of Sydney community.
insight: the community loves public art and wants to know more about it
what
joining the dots
what are they saying?
feedback synthesisation & affinity mapping
"I like how art makes our city more colourful"
"I use this as a meeting spot"
"I walk past it every day on my commute"
"I like how art makes our city more colourful"
"I wish I knew more about the artist"
"I like art but it frustrates me when I don't know what it's about"
"I get inspired by what others are doing on Facebook"
"I look things up on Instagram
before I go"
"I first saw this playing Pokemon Go"
"I can't think of any other public art that I've seen"
"It would be great to know how to find more artworks"
"I didn't know this was public art"
obstacles
environment
feelings
influences
influences
what are they doing?
archetypes
who
retirees, freelance workers
friends
city workers
tourists, sightseers
families
students, enthusiasts
motivation
fill time
connect
goal
see
memories
learn
why
time rich
seeking social connections
time poor
looking for new adventures
sentimental
curious
what
finding fun and enriching ways to spend their time
prioritising time to stay in contact with friends
achieving goal with the minimum amount of effort
exploring new places and opportunities
seeking unique participatory experiences
looking to expand knowledge
what information is available to them?
heuristic evaluation




no dedicated account - redirects to enquirers personal account
no dedicated account - redirects to enquirers personal account
app
no dedicated app - redirects to independant 'Sydney Culture Walk' app



website
it takes 5 'clicks' to reach 'City Art' page from 'City of Sydney' home page
it takes up to 10 working days to receive a response to an email enquiry
phone
no advice available on listed number about City Art
plaque
no uniform 'City Art' plaques at artworks
no account
and how does this compare to other world class cities?
competitive analysis
We researched the touchpoints of other world class cities...
New York
San Francisco
London
Melbourne
It was noted that all four cities had a strong presence across websites, social media, apps and in situ way-finding initiatives.
They were in turn using these channels to engage extensively with their community.
insights:
there is currently no clear ways to engage with City Art.
the community is confused, frustrated and disengaged.
the best way to gain meaningful feedback is to start with the quantitative options, to first understand what people are actually engaging with.
step 2: design
ooooooooooooooooo
what
bringing it all together
possible solutions
feature prioritisation
Based on all of our research, we were able to now visualise which identified engagement tools would best meet both the community and City of Sydney's needs...

so what does this all mean?
hypothesis
if
we align 'The City of Sydney' + 'City Art' brands
and then use this alignment across all existing/available touchpoints
then
we will be able to gather engagement metrics and in turn, valuable feedback
because
our research has shown that the community is interested in public art and both comfortable and willing to engage via these touchpoints
a day in the life of...
retrospective journey map
To demonstrate this, the archetype ‘Connect’ was chosen as the most motivated to use digital channels

but wait, imagine if...
service blueprint
Visualising what it would look like if there were steps in place to connect a community member’s curiosity with public art information, creating enduring links to both the council but also the wider community.
Outlining the infrastructure, communication and digital components required for engagement and meaningful feedback to occur between City Art and its community.
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then it could look like this...
prospective journey map

step 3: deliver
ooooooooooooooooo
what
the solution
it all starts here...
first steps
Once the The City of Sydney + City Art brands are clearly aligned, then City Art can engage with its community more effectively .
This engagement needs to start with the more organic engagement tools, so as to first understand what people are actually engaging with.
The easiest way to achieve this is to utilise those quantitative channels that are not only already available to City of Sydney, but also readily used and valued by its community.
here's how we do it?
-
Align City Art + City of Sydney branding
-
Make City Art website link easily accessible from the City of Sydney website
-
Create City Art social media accounts: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, linked back to the City Art website (and removing defunct Google+ link)
-
Create geotag links and relevant hashtags to all City Art artworks across all social media accounts
-
Use a social listening tools to gather metrics e.g Hootsuite, Sprout or Keyhole
-
Schedule 3 months review, to discuss initial quantitative engagement metrics
-
Use these initial quantitative engagement metrics to tailor other qualitative engagement options, to gain more specific feedback.
and here's how it would look...


Demonstrating all the engagement that can happen from the inclusion of just one hashtag on Instagram, linking to other Instagram users, geotags, the City Art website and the broader City of Sydney community.

and then what?
ooooooooooooooooo
what
future opportunities for City Art
City Art website redesign
City Art app design
Installation of uniform plaques and wayfinding tools across all artworks, featuring aligned branding and information links i.e website, QR codes and beacons that link to the City Art app’s map
reflections:
ooooooooooooooooo
what
what I learnt about...
the client
The City of Sydney’s operating structure is both broad and deep. The biggest challenge in regards to this client was devising a solution that was not only effective, but realistically achievable within the limitations presented by this infrastructure.
the community
The community is extremely diverse and their interactions with the City of Sydney are quite varied. The biggest challenge we faced here was that, whist they felt strong ties to and would really value clear channels for communication, they don’t have the time or inclination to chase it down if it’s not made readily available to them.
me
I really enjoyed the ethnographic nature of this study, as I felt it aligned well with my UX strengths for empathy, analysis, critical thinking, ideation and problem solving.